“Shit, brother,” Dutch said quietly. “That’s fucked up.”
“It’s all right.”
“It isn’t. Seriously, how are you that wound up when you’re livin’ the goodness with Archie? Is this kid under your skin that much?” Dutch asked.
Jagger had a feeling that wasn’t about Mal.
Jag kept his eyes on the kids as they made their quick way down the sidewalk when he answered, “You know it happens. It always happens no matter what’s going on in my life.”
“You gotta get on top of that,” Dutch advised.
“Right,” Jagger muttered, then louder, “We don’t roll, we’ll lose them.”
He felt Dutch’s focus shift away. “Two bikes are loud. We need to give them some more—”
Dutch stopped talking when they watched Aaron Harris advance fast on Mal and shove him so hard, Mal went down to his hands and knees.
Seeing that, without a word between the riders, two bikes roared to life when Aaron didn’t hesitate to draw back a foot to kick.
Jag and Dutch rolled out, and when they got close, like they had a mind meld, they both rolled up.
Dutch, straight up on the sidewalk, cutting off the Harrises’ retreat, Jagger, beyond the action, cutting off an advance.
The second Harris brother, Allan, who’d been hanging back while Aaron whaled on Mal, tried to make a break for it, but was caught short by Dutch grabbing the back of his neck and pulling him around, giving him a shove to keep him pinned between the bikes.
Aaron not only saw there was no retreat, school had just let out. There were kids everywhere.
He’d waited until they were off school property, and probably out of sightline of staff, to instigate his attack.
But now he had an audience.
And he was so intent to retain his street cred, for him, retreat wasn’t an option.
With Jag and Dutch in the mix, he was too young to completely hide his fear, though.
Jagger parked his bike, switched off the ignition and dismounted.
Dutch had already touched one of the kids, Jagger didn’t think it wise to go there.
What he should do, he had no clue.
He had to go with his gut.
“What’d I tell you, if I found out you were fuckin’ with my boy?” he demanded irately, eyes locked to Aaron, but he jerked his head down to Mal who was pulling himself up from the sidewalk.
Aaron had gotten a kick in and then some. Jag saw it before they rolled in.
“You can’t—” Aaron started.
Although Jagger didn’t advance, he leaned toward Aaron, and they were not close, but the way Jagger did it, Aaron still shut his trap and leaned away.
“You don’t know what I can do, motherfucker,” he threatened. “And I can guaran-damn-tee you, you just bought trouble. Now fuck off.” When neither twin moved, he roared, “Now!”
Allan bolted.
Aaron had to save face, so he glared at Jagger a beat before he turned and jogged in the direction his brother took.
Jag watched him go, caught Dutch’s eye, saw his brother’s jaw was tight, knew he was pissed (and that would be very pissed), but he wasn’t half as pissed as Jagger.
Jag then looked down at Mal.
“You okay?”
“Good, yeah, okay,” Mal muttered.
“Bud, that piece of shit kicked you.”
“I’m alright.”
“You wanna ride to the shop with me on my bike?”
Mal shook his head and he did it quick, glancing around under his brow at the kids who were hanging for the show.
Jagger felt that. At Mal’s age, he probably wouldn’t climb on the back of some guy’s bike either. And he not only grew up with bikers, he knew one day he’d be one.
It was then Jagger looked around, and he saw Martin, Colby and Dex, three of Archie’s kids standing close.
What he wanted to do was ask why the fuck Mal was coming out of that school by himself when the Harris twins might think twice if he had a crew with him.
But they still had an audience, what with two bikers rolling up like that, their bikes still on the sidewalk.
So he’d get into that later.
“Walk your bud to the store, yeah?” he asked them. “Make sure he’s good. Can you do that for me?”
“Sure!” Martin said readily and with some exuberance.
Right.
Maybe it wasn’t that he was Archie’s and they thought Archie was cool.
Maybe they just thought Jag was cool.
Colby and Dex only nodded, though Colby came forward, tagged the arm of Mal’s hoodie and said, “C’mon, Mal. Let’s get to S.I.L.”
They started to stroll off, but Mal stopped, looked back and up, mumbled a “Thanks” Jagger almost couldn’t hear, then they moved away.
Jagger watched them go and felt Dutch come up to his side.
“Okay, man, that’s an issue. There’s bullying and then there’s shoving a kid to the ground and kicking him.”
“The mom has to know,” Jag said, not taking his eyes from the retreating boys.
“The mom has to know,” Dutch agreed.
Jag was not liking this.
He explained why to Dutch. “I’ll never get to him if I rat to his mom.”
“Maybe not,” Dutch replied.
Jagger turned to him.
“Okay, probably not,” Dutch allowed.
“They can do him damage, and it’s smart not to hit him in the face, Dutch.”
Dutch’s jaw got tight again.
“You don’t just know that kind of shit. You learn that kind of shit. They’re fuckin’ twelve,” Jagger carried on.
“This is not about them, Jag. It’s about your kid. Mal. You gotta tell Archie. His mom has to know. The school has to know. But first, you need to call Archie. Someone has to look him over. At the very least, he’s got scrapes from takin’ that fall. The kid was wearing sneaks, not steel-toed boots, but a kick can break bones no matter what you got on your foot. He needs to be checked out.”
“By a doc or his mom, it isn’t cool Archie does it.”
“Exactly.”
“Fuck,” Jag muttered.
“This sucks, but it’s better than where you were half an hour ago, not knowing what was up with him. He might not like how you handle it, Jagger. But the bottom line is, you’ve found out it’s something that needs to get handled, and now it’ll be handled.”
Jag nodded.
Then he got out his phone.
Before he made the call, he asked his brother, “You wanna check out Archie’s shop?”
Dutch didn’t reply verbally.
But with the way he smiled, he didn’t have to.
They moved to their bikes with Jagger calling Archie.
She didn’t pick up, which didn’t bother him. She wasn’t prone to lounging on her couch all day waiting for a call from Jagger. And on his bike, he’d probably be to the shop faster than Mal.
They backed their bikes off the sidewalk and rode side by side to the store, parking in the rear.
Since Jagger was showing more often to see to Mal, Archie’d had a key cut for him. This meant, instead of having to walk around the building, they went to the back door.
And once they were in it, Jagger had his answer as to why Archie didn’t pick up his call.