Max took his breakfast in his dad's office at home. There wasn't much he'd been able to fill James in on that they hadn't texted about through the end of Undercover Grandma, and the first few minutes of The Snacker. But still, they had things to discuss that didn't need to be said in front of the women or Oscar...

Nor did he particularly want Oz knowing that he was currently staring down at pics of some of the punk's former "family" members on his dad's tablet. His job for the evening.

"...Yer mum says Elle's quite taken with yer friend."

"Mm," Max hummed while he chewed a piece of crisp turkey bacon.

"You trust him."

That statement was a messy one. Max's gaze flitted up from the screen to meet his dad's stern, calculating stare.

"With her, yeah... I do."

"Not with business..."

Max sighed. He knew Oz wanted into the fold. Knew the little punk would jump right in, headlong, and get hard off the thrill and danger, but Max still wasn't sure if he was ready to let him.

"Oscar...is kind of a mess rushing somewhere to happen," Max said.

His dad snorted. "His familiarity with these langers and their roles might make this one easier..."

Max set down his fork, and wiped his lips with his napkin. "I don't need easy."

Petie parked the SUV near the end of one of the commercial docks in Commerce City. Most of the dock workers were already gone for the day, and the only security to speak of was a single patrol car sitting two docks down from them, but still well within sight. The setting sun looked like a blazing red ball floating in the choppy waves on the horizon of the bay. Rory was already there with a junker—an old Pontiac Bonneville. Ugly little thing; looked like it was dragged out of some hoarder's backyard or some lot where it had sat abandoned for a few decades.

Max got out and put his sunglasses on as he strolled up to Rory. "That thing even run?" he asked, despite the obvious sound of the engine idling.

"'Course it do," Rory said with a grin, pushing off from where he'd been leaning against the side of the rust bucket. "Enough for our purposes, anyway," he added, brandishing a brick he'd been holding down by his side. "Did you find our guy?"

"Oh, yeah." Max nodded, squinting into the breeze as he heard Petie and Duncan get out of the SUV and begin to unload his cargo. "He had a friend with him though, so you might give them a hand."

Rory sighed, and the brick traded hands to Max, then Rory went over to help Duncan and Petie pull one biker out of the back of the SUV, and then another. One of them was still out cold, but the second one seemed to be coming to, not that it really mattered. They still both had to be carried, since they'd been hog tied in such a way that they couldn't extend their legs to walk even if they had the sense to try to.

"W-what the fuck is going on?" Bill stammered, trying to somehow throw his weight enough to stop them from getting him to the Pontiac. Due to his weight and weak core, he looked more like a helpless, wiggling caterpillar than a two hundred pound neck-beard. "I didn't do anything to you fuckers! Hey! HEY!"

Bill nearly cracked his head on the frame of the door as they unceremoniously sort of tossed him into the passenger seat of the Pontiac.

Max opened the driver's door of the Pontiac and stepped aside to watch as they stuffed the Devil's Rejects' warlord—an asshole named Jack—into the seat. Once the chore was finished, Max smacked Jack's face a little until he began to wake up.

"Hi." Max smiled when the man finally peeled his eyes open. "Me again. So, about what you said earlier... How the Royals, and me, and my family, could all go to hell, and that you'd bash our fucking skulls in yourself—you remember that, right? Just before your little-" Max clicked his tongue, and made a mock motion with the brick like he was going to hit himself. "Knock to the head? Well...I like to think I've gotta thick skin, but I still took exception to that."

Where they were and the position they were in, really seemed to be sinking in now, because a look of sheer panic drained the bikers' sweaty faces. Max could see it running down in thin streams down Jack's flushed neck.

"You can't fucking do this!" Jack snapped. "I'll fucking-"

Max slammed the biker's head against the steering wheel, glancing over his shoulder at the patrol car in the distance when Jack let out an agonized wail... Neither of the cops in the car got out or turned on their lights.

"Oh shit," Bill wheezed, eyes bulging. "Shit! Help!!"

The warlord groaned, as blood wept from his busted lip. He spat, spraying red onto the wheel, disturbing the layer of dust on the dash.

"No one tells me what I can or can't do," Max said, his voice low and frighteningly calm. "But I can tell you both what's about to happen here... You two are going to be an example to the rest of your little gang of what happens when you pick fights with the wrong men."

"We didn't do shit to you!" Bill argued. "We've never even-"

Max raised a finger to his own lips with his free hand, motioning for Bill to stop, which seemed to enrage the biker into a temporary, if not confused, silence. Max continued, "When I drop this brick on that accelerator, this cage is gonna go right off the end of this dock."

"No..." Jack shook his head. "No. No! Nooo!!"

"Within a few minutes it'll fill with water, and you two will drown...less than a yard away from shore."

"Fuck you, Gallagher!! Fuck you! Prissy little cock-sucking faggot! Fuck you! Fight me like a fucking man, you sorry piece of shit!"

Max stared Jack dead in the eyes for a moment. Spittle dripped down the biker's bloody lip. It took everything in Max not to waste his energy just beating Jack with his bare hands until there was nothing recognizable left of him... The homophobic slurs hit a nerve. That was the most insulting thing Jack could conjure in his mind...accusing Max of being gay... 

His da hated 'faggots'... Queer people... And that was one thing Max supposed his idol and these pathetic wastes of oxygen had in common... A senseless, deep-seeded hatred for anything they deemed 'different'... Unnatural... Against their warped idea of god, and righteousness, and whatever other bullshit...

"Enjoy," Max said humorlessly as he dropped the brick on the gas pedal, then reached over Jack's lap and shifted the car out of neutral, slamming the driver side door closed as the car took off.

He checked his watch, nearly missing seeing the car soar off the end of the dock.

Well...maybe soar was a little more graceful of a description than the Pontiac deserved, but he did at least both see and hear the splash...

He couldn't really hear their screams anymore over the wind and the waves from this distance, but he stayed a few seconds longer just to drink in another moment of that beautiful red sunset and clear his thoughts.

A smirk tugged at his lips when Max climbed back into their SUV, and Rory must have noticed as he joined him.

"What?" Rory asked, pulling out a smoke and patting his pockets for his lighter.

Max snorted, then looked over at him. "Just imagining the Rejects' faces when they find that car..."

Oscar paced through the empty dark kitchen, the light from the fridge assassinating his night vision the moment he opened the stainless-steel doors. He winced through it long enough to nab a beer, and then it was back to darkness as he tried to make his way to the stairs by memory, and without murdering his shins on anything.

By the time he reached the midway point up the stairs, things had started to come back into view, but instead of returning to his room, he turned and headed down to the west hall, passing Elise's room and going right for Max's.

It was empty. No surprise there. Max had missed dinner, and that was usually a good indicator of whether he was coming home that night.

Oscar sighed. He should be tired. He hadn't said anything, but he'd been sleeping terribly ever since he'd started staying there. He couldn't understand why. The house was big, and clean, and calm, and quiet... Yeah...too quiet.

Where were the sirens? Where were the trains? The constant hum of traffic, and life, and shitty AC window units? As bizarre as it was, the tranquility didn't comfort Oscar.

It made him restless.

The light breeze that came in through the balcony door Max had left open, carried a laugh with it. Since Max's room was positioned at a right angle from his younger sister's, her balcony was easily seen from his. Elise's curtains were open, and so was her balcony door, which wasn't a surprise, given how nice of a night it was.

Oscar could see that she was on her bed, zoomying, or facetiming, or whatever it was called, with someone on the sleek, thin tablet she had.

"Noooo. Ew. Ew, no..." She laughed again, glancing in the direction of the balcony, but given how all of the lights were off in Max's room, she probably couldn't see Oscar.

"Davenport? ...He's not... I dunno, he doesn't give off those vibes..." Elise gasped, pouting. "...Oz isn't creepy, he's my type... He is!" More laughter, then she huffed blushing and giving the screen a leery look before rolling her eyes. "Maybe I like 'too many tattoos'..." she added defiantly.

Oscar cracked a small smile as he listened. It might have just been his imagination, but he felt like Elise was being sincere when she said that she liked him. He liked her too. Not in the same way that he liked Max, but ever since Max had told him not to think about his sister that way, that's exactly what he'd been doing.

He didn't know why, but that's just how he'd always been. If someone said, 'don't pick a fight with that guy,' that's who Oscar picked a fight with. If people told him to stay out of that side of town, that's exactly the side town he'd be in, and if someone told him that something was a bad idea, then that was just as good as daring him to do it.

There was something about doing what he wasn't supposed to do that felt so right, so natural, so him. It was like he was just born to be on the wrong side of the law. As if whatever divine figure that sculpted the fucking universe designed him specifically to break every rule placed before him. Even his desire to please Max couldn't stop him from his propensity for deliberate acts of disobedience.

He was compelled by his entire being to act on his first instinct, which was to let himself into Elise's room, and join the conversation. After all, as her 'boyfriend' he had that right. He had already left Max's empty room and made it to her door when his phone rang.

For a moment Oscar expected to see Max's number scrawling across his screen, as if he'd sensed Oscar's intention to misbehave and had equal compulsion to prevent it, but instead, he saw a number that wasn't in his contacts...

"Oscar," he answered, unsure of who he was talking to.

"Uh, Hello? Is this Mr. Bradley?" the meek voice asked.

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"Oh! Um, I'm calling on behalf of the Metro Parking Service... Um, our records show that you have a space rented with us on the first level-"

"Yeah, yeah," Oscar cut in, hoping to speed this along.

"—eel, um... There's been an, um—uh incident..."

"What the fuck do you mean?" His mind instantly jumped to the Devil's Reject's, the Cartel, fucking Pasta Boy, any one of them could have tracked where he was keeping his bike.

"Well...it appears that there was a break in, and-"

"Was my bike stolen?" It wasn't unlike the Devil's Rejects to 'repossess' anything they saw as their property after a member resigned.

"Um... No."

"What the fuck do you mean, NO? Then why the fuck are you calling me?"

"Well, the fire-"

"Fire!?" Oscar's heart felt like it dropped into his stomach. There was no world in which all of this was sounding good for his bike.

"Um, we'll need you to stop by tomorrow to sign some forms for the insurance claims-"

"Insurance claims!? What the fuck happened?—Wait! No. Never mind. Stay there, because I'm heading over right fucking now!" he said and ended the call. He was already to the garage, and grabbing a set of keys to fastest car they had sitting in there when the body guards met him.

"Get in! We're going for a ride!" Oscar demanded, but was instead body-blocked by Duncan.

"Sorry man, we can't let you go without one of the Gallaghers, witch-ya."

"What the fuck?" the punk shouted. "Why not?"

"Rules, is rules," Petie agreed, to Oscar's dismay.

"He is going with a Gallagher," Elise chimed, tying her hair into a ponytail as she rushed across the garage floor. She wasn't dressed to go out, but this sounded like an emergency, from what she'd overheard. "Let's go," she encouraged, slipping past Oscar and Duncan, and opening the door for herself before Duncan even had the chance to.

"There! See?" Oscar said with a defiant smirk, which quickly faded as Duncan plucked the keys out of his hand and headed to the driver's side while Oscar slunk into the passenger's seat.

When they got to the parking garage, Oscar didn't like what he saw. Blue and red flashing lights guarded the entrance to the multi-level parking unit. Firemen and officers were loitering around, the fire had clearly been put out some time ago, and now was when the other teams had taken over to determine the cause of the fire.

At first, law enforcement was adamant about keeping Oscar and everyone else out of the area while they worked. It wasn't until he flagged down one of the employees and waited for thirty minutes that a detective who seemed to know Max's family came over.

"Sorry, it's been a wild night," the detective said as she held up the yellow tap for Elise and Oscar. "We're pretty sure the fire was an act of arson," she explained over her shoulder as they walked. "Unfortunately, the source of which was right here..." She stood aside, and there was the charred remnants of Oscar's bobber...like a deformed, hellish skeleton of its former self.

Elise audibly gasped, before being able to cover her mouth, but Oscar couldn't even draw in a breath.

He'd never considered himself a sentimental or emotional guy, but this broke him somewhere deep, and he instantly crumpled to his knees.

"FUCK!" he shouted as he pressed his palms to his forehead and tried to process that this—this was all that was left of his best friend...

Sure, it wasn't a person, or a pet, but it had been with him for so long. It was his freedom. His independence. His personality in physical form; as much a part of him as his tattoos, and now...it was gone...forever.

"Do you know anyone who might have had a motive?" The detective was clearly trying to be as gentle as possible, but her words hadn't been able to reach through his grief.

"...Oscar?" Elise tried, tentatively touching his shoulder.

"Fuck, maaan..." he sobbed between hiccups as he struggled back to his feet and began to pace. "Fuck!"

Elise turned back to the investigator, speaking quietly. "Can I have you get a hold of my brother or father instead? He can't answer questions right now..."

"Of course, Miss Gallagher, I understand."

Now, his anguish was starting to sour into bitter anger. Yeah, he left the gang, but this was a low blow. An unfair blow.

A dirty, twisted, knife in the back.

"Oz?" Elise caught his arm, her big brown eyes were brimming with tears. Now that he had stilled for the moment, she cupped his face, delicately forcing him to look at her. She could see it. The pain, the venom...and that seemed to both hurt and frighten her. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, pulling him into a tight hug. "...I'm sorry."

"Take a minute," the detective said, "But then we'll unfortunately have to have you clear the area. I'll be over there if you need anything else this evening."

Elise nodded, glancing at, and acknowledging the detective for Oscar.

He wanted to hit something. He wanted to hit something hard...until it was as broken and unrecognizable as his bike. But the only thing in front of him was Elise, and striking her wasn't even a thought that crossed his mind. So, all he could do was squeeze her tightly while he waited for the hurt to settle enough for him to think.

TT ~  TT  RIP, Oscar's bike 🪦💐

What'd ya'll think of this chapter? Have you ever felt really emotional about losing something you really cared about (that wasn't a person or pet), but was still very special to you?

I'm selling my car soon. It was my dad's when I was still in high school, and has been the only car I've ever had. It's been with me through so much, and I know it's gonna be really tough to let it go, but unfortunately, it's time.
(づ_ど)

Shout out to Sylvialol43 ! Thanks so much for your support!!