Bikers, Chains and Bad Boys

Chapter 8

The bike Andy put me on had been tampered with. After my initial examination, I found a pinhole in the break line and a leak in the fuel line. The leak wouldn't have ended up an issue though, because someone put some kind of powder in the gas tank, and it turned to sludge. The bike would have been ruined if someone had tried to start it. So, I replaced the brake line and I was currently replacing the gas tank and fuel system when the side door slammed open behind me.

"Fuck!" I pulled my hand out gingerly, having jumped at the slamming of the door and slicing my arm on something out of view. I stood and turned angrily to swear at whoever decided to scare the living shit out of me. "What the fuck, dude?" Jeb stepped in through the door, a three-foot wide industrial fan in his arms. "Oh, shit." I stepped over to help him set it down.

"Harley," Andy shouted. "You're bleeding all over my floor!" I looked at him confused, then down to my arm that was dripping a puddle onto the floor. My eyes followed a trail of drops from me to the door, and back to the bike. Oops.

"Oh." My eyes widened and I lifted my arm up and walked over to the sink on the other side of the shop.

"Somebody clean that up. I don't need a customer comin' in here thinking we killed somebody or somethin'."

"Jesus, honey." I looked up to see Mickey walking toward me. I continued rinsing the blood off my arm, revealing a decent sized puncture on the top of my forearm and a couple small cuts a few inches long running down my arm. How the hell had I done that? The skin around the puncture was already bruising. I grimaced, shutting the water off and grabbing a few shop towels quickly to attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I'm gonna get you some bandages, babe." Mickey said, turning and heading to Andy's office. I turned around and leaned against the sink, keeping pressure on my now throbbing arm. Jeb looked at me in concern.

"Thanks for scaring the shit out of me." I half-assed glared at him and he apologized. I waved it away though. It wasn't his fault.

He looked at the bike I was working on, his eyebrows pulling together. He looked at me oddly. "Do you know who's bike this is?" I shook my head at him, telling him Andy told me it was someone important. He hummed a response and turned, making his way to Andy's office as Mickey came back, arms full of medical supplies. I grabbed a seat on the stool next to me as she pulled things out of boxes.

"How bad is it?" Andy said coming up behind Mickey.

"Nothing a little band-aid won't fix." I replied before pulling the shop towel away.

"Fuck." His eyes widened a bit. "A little band-aid my ass. You might need stitches." I rolled my eyes.

"I'll be fine." Mickey shoved a thin wooden splint toward my face. I reared my head back away from it, but quickly grabbed it and shoved it between my teeth as she held my arm over the sink and poured alcohol all over it. I gasped hard, gritting my teeth against the wood. I heard a crack, but I was too busy focusing on my rolling stomach.

"Damn." Andy said. "I've seen men fall to their knees at that much pain." I blew a breath in response, pulling the snapped wood out of my mouth and spitting the splinters into the sink. Mickey made quick work of wrapping and taping it up. I waved away the pain pills she offered me. I hated pills and refused to take them.

"Thank you." I told her before making my way back over to the bike. She looked at the bike, furrowed her brows and looked at Andy.

"How's it going with the bike?" He said, ignoring her. I sighed, squatting back down to continue what I was doing.

"Did whoever this belongs to try to start it before they realized something was wrong?" He shook his head at me, eyebrows drawing together. "Good, because they'd need an entirely new bike probably." They both looked at me confused. "Someone fucked with the brake line and the fuel line was starting to leak. But, the biggest problem was someone put some sort of powder or something in the tank." I pointed to the old tank and fuel system on the bench nearby. "It's sludge. Looks like your customer has some enemies." Andy muttered a few curses as he turned and stormed into his office, slamming the door behind him. Mickey looked at the office in concern. "I'm going to do another full sweep as soon as I'm done with this to make sure nothing else has been tampered with. Probably change the spark plugs and such, just in case." She nodded to me and thanked me as she walked toward the office. She didn't need to thank me; I was just doing my job.