Page 102 of Secondhand Smoke

They approached one another, circled, massive hands curled into fists.

Sam knew who would win before the first punch was thrown.

Colin was big.

Mercy was bigger.

But it wasn’t just that. It was the unchecked emotion in Mercy, something animal that simmered beneath his skin. Intangible. Deadly.

“Whoop his ass, Swamp Thing!” Candyman shouted through cupped hands, laughing.

“Hey!” Colin shouted back, scowling. Candy was his VP; no doubt he expected some semblance of chapter loyalty.

Mercy let Colin make the first move. A quick lunge, a jab, a dodge.

Mercy waited, smile dark, patient in a creepy way.

And then he moved, and Sam wanted to close her eyes, the assault was so brutal and so absent of brotherly affection.

Finally, Walsh stepped in with one of his sharp whistles. “Alright, boys, alright. We don’t want anyone leaving this party in a box.”

Mercy went back to Ava, and she caught his sweaty face in her hands, pulled him down and kissed his forehead, face shining with a love that defied all logic. Colin collapsed onto a bench and Jinx attended to the big split in his eyebrow.

Mercy was the clear victor, and not just in a fight sense.

Maybe it’ll be over now, Sam thought.

But then someone said, “Boss let’s see you get in there.”

“Yeah,” someone else said, “I wanna see the legend at work.”

The legend being…?

Ghost. They were talking about Ghost.

Aidan tensed beside her.

The president shrugged off his cut and, in his t-shirt, stepped to the center of the makeshift circle. He aimed a finger at Aidan. “Come down here, son, and let’s see if you remember what you’ve been taught.”

“No,” Sam whispered. But it was too late.

~*~

Aidan ground his teeth together as he came to stand in front of his dad. Ghost grinned at him, a fast, dark smile without a trace of humor.

“You rusty?”

“You old?” Aidan shot back.

Ghost’s smile deepened.

This had nothing to do with practice or friendly competition. This was the father still pissed at the son’s lack of responsibility and wanting to disgrace him, publicly, as a lesson in dominance. It was something Aidan didn’t want to fall for. But he’d had two shots of Jack and his blood was roaring. He’d helped to raid a house tonight, and he knew a captive was strapped to a chair in the bike shop, awaiting Mercy’s interrogation.

He knew his life was shit, and he was sick of it.

He ripped off cut and shirt, and turned, tossed them to Sam. Her beautiful face was tense with worry, but she caught his clothes and balled them up against her stomach.Be careful, she mouthed.

Right.

---