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“This is a work of art,” Creature said, the big club brother looming over them as they knelt beside the frame. “And you’re right. Not a rat bike. Whoever decided to call it that didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.”

“It’s what I assumed of it too, the first time I glanced at it, though honestly, I was so busy fuming over the shit Teddy had pulled that I didn’t even take the time to fully appreciate it,” Mark admitted.

“Did he tell you where he got it from?” Creature asked.

“He claims that he, his brother, and their old man made it,” Kong said as Mark nodded in agreement.

“I’ll bet he got the parts for this at the same place as he’s been getting the parts for the shop,” Creature said.

“So would I,” Mark said, “and I’d really love to know where the hell it is so we can get Sinn in there with the team he’s put together.”

When Mark smacked a hand to his face and let out a low growl, Kong could tell the Prez’s mood had shifted.

“That little fucker,” Mark snarled. “I should beat his ass.”

Kong bristled at that, a fierce wave of possessiveness washing over him so fast he growled before he realized the sound had escaped him. “If anyone is going to beat him, it’ll be me.”

Cool as an ice cube on a winter day, Mark cocked an eyebrow at him and waited to see if Kong was finished with his little outburst.

“I was referring to Teddy,” Mark said when Kong didn’t add anything more to his previous statement.

“Teddy?” Kong said, feeling the molten anger that had roiled up inside of him begin to cool a little.

“A few days before Teddy showed up at the bar with Scout, Saint saw a text on his phone saying that he needed to bite the bullet and do what he knew he needed to do. The message, along with others I saw on his phone, came from someone named Junkyard Whore. How much do you want to bet that he was talking to Scout?”

Kong blew out a long breath and grimaced. “So, they lied about where they met?”

“Not necessarily,” Mark said, humming as he stroked his pointed beard.

“No, I don’t think so. Whatever else has been going on with Teddy, he’d never put the club at risk by bringing a complete stranger here without vetting them first. I think they met where they said they did and probably spent a few days hanging out while Teddy got to know him.

Along the way, I think Scout told him about the salvage yard and far more about this bike and what he knows about bike building than he’s owned up to yet. ”

“Okay, I’m missing something here,” Kong said, still in the dark about most of what had gone on with Teddy and why Mark and Kat had disowned him. “Why don’t you roll this back a little and explain why Scout wouldn’t tell us about the salvage yard if he’s already told Teddy?”

“Yeah, I guess I’d better,” Mark admitted, scooting back so Creature had room to study the bike while Kong moved around the machine to stand beside him.

“Holy shit, this is one old-ass gremlin bell,” Creature said as he leaned to get a closer look. “Or should I say, two gremlin bells fused into one seriously badass piece of history. Both halves have got to be older than he is, and one is definitely older than the other.”

“Why do something like that?” Kong asked.

“My guess is that the pieces come from the dad and the brother,” Creature said. “I’ve seen it done before. It’s a rare tradition. Pope would know more about it. He’s the one who had the only other bell like this I’ve ever seen.”

“And what did he say about it?”

“That it’s a way of passing the luck from one family member to another,” Creature explained. “You know each bell is supposed to be gifted.”

“Yeah, it’s bad luck to buy your own,” Mark said. “Every biker with a bell shares that tradition, at least, every one I’ve ever met.”

“Exactly,” Creature said. “So those bells would have protected the original riders, and when Scout decided to join them on the road, they forged half of their bells into a bell for him.”

“And then what, they take a chance of riding without?” Kong asked. “Why not just get him his own bell?”

“Because that’s not the tradition,” Creature explained. “It’s a family thing. I’ll bet another family member gifted a whole bell that the dad and brother cut in half and fused to the remaining halves of theirs.”

“So you always carry a piece of family with you wherever you go,” Kong surmised.

Creature nodded. “Exactly.”

“That’s a hell of an awesome twist on the legend of the bell,” Mark said. “Wish I’d known about it when my boys started riding.”

“I’d have loved to have half of my old man’s bell,” Kong admitted.

“I bet Wreck would too,” Mark said, a hint of pain creeping into his voice.

Losing a club brother was always hard, but Kong knew Mark took that shit personally.

As president, he took the job of looking after the men and women who followed him as seriously as he watched over his own kids.

Despite the loss not having taken place on his watch, his old man had been leading things then, and Kong knew he was the one who’d instilled that sense of responsibility in Mark long before handing over the reins of leadership to him.

“I’m still confused about how any of this has anything to do with Teddy,” Kong admitted.

“He might not have picked up enough about bike building and the innerworkings of a machine to make a good mechanic, but he appreciates the beauty of a bike,” Mark said.

“One thing neither Kat nor I ever had to worry about was him keeping our machines looking like they’d just rolled off a showroom floor.

I used to tease him about trying to polish the chrome off my bike, but I was always proud of his attention to detail and the care he showed both machines.

I remember this one time, he'd been polishing Kat’s bike before a ride when he noticed some yellowish dribbles on one of Kat’s pipes.

At first, he thought someone had pissed on it, but it looked thicker than piss, like oil or something, just not right, so he looked closer and found a small puncture in her brake line.

He saved our girl's life that day. He stopped everything he was doing, even busted into the Chapel meeting to get me, and I’m glad he did. That shit was deliberate.”

Mark’s Zippo snapped open, and he bent his head to light his cigarette, clearly agitated at the memory. Kong would have been livid too if someone had tried to kill the woman he loved, not to mention the mother of his children.

“My point in bringing it up was that Teddy would have recognized the craftsmanship that went into the bike,” Mark said.

“When Saint saw the messages, he thought they had something to do with Sinn being missing and point-blank asked Teddy what they were referring to. Teddy told us that it was regarding a scrapyard he’d been meaning to check out, something he’d been putting off because he knew that we would have sent Sinn along with him and Cody. ”

“And I take it he and Sinn have issues.”

“Too many to get into,” Mark said. “I’d bet a steak dinner with all the trimmings that Teddy made up some bullshit reason why Scout should withhold the information from us.

He was so bitter about Sinn being included on their trip to look at frames.

I think he wanted to finish the job I’d given him, but on his terms, ones that he could shove in my face once he’d gotten the job done without the ‘pest’ supervising him.

And the little shit did, too, in a roundabout way.

He didn’t just bring Scout because the kid needed a job.

I mean, I could see Teddy helping a homeless kid that way, yeah, as long as he took a liking to them.

But he knew what I’d do when I saw that bike, the little shit.

He knew I’d give Scout a chance to get the parts we hadn’t been able to acquire. ”

Creature shook his head. “Having Sinn in the shop is good for business, and if Scout is just as good with a machine, then he needs to be at the shop too, not cleaning the fuckin’ toilets.”

“Amen, brutha,” Mark said, before he turned and looked Kong dead in the eyes. “Which means I’ve a mission for you.”

“Name it,” Kong said.

“I need you to get the truth from Scout,” Mark said.

“I wanna know how much he knows about bike building, I wanna know where that scrapyard is, I want to know how he’s connected to it and the Hounds, and because I’m pissed off and curious as fuck right now, I wanna know all of what happened in the gas station the other day, because somehow, all of this is connected. ”

“Why not just beat Teddy’s ass until he tells you?” Creature asked.

“Because he’d enjoy it too much, and I’d wind up wringing his neck and fucking him through the wall just to ease the aggravation he’s caused ever since he got it in his head to go to war with Sinn!” Mark snapped. “So, can you get me what I need or not?”

“I’ll get it.”