Read Hyenas for Free Online Page A

Donny, all of you over here and on your bellies. Make like fucking run-over snakes.”
    They did what they were told. They lay on the floor on their bellies by the wall, lifted their heads up to see what was going on.
    Leonard looked at them, said, “All you dick cheeses, all you move is your heads, savvy? Donny, you sit on the couch. You get a bird’s eye view.”
    “Why we doing this?” Smoke Stack said.
    “Because we can,” I said. “And because you think you’re tough as an old saddle.”
    “You’re too old for me,” Smoke Stack said to me.
    “Yeah, well, I’ll try not to hurt you too bad.”
    “I think tough guy is starting to waffle, Hap,” Leonard said. “I think he’s looking for a hole to run into.” 
    Smoke Stack said to me, “We get started, it goes bad for you, your man will step in with the guns.”
    “He’s got the guns to keep your friends in line. It goes bad for me, I’ll take my beating, and then we’ll leave.”
    “Shit,” Donny said. “Think you can beat Smoke Stack, you’re crazy. I seen him whip two guys once, and one of them with a board.”
    I felt a little nervous right then, because that old adage about how bullies are always cowards isn’t true. Sometimes they’re bullies simply because they can do what they say they can do, and they enjoy doing it.
    Leonard said, “Yeah, but it ain’t how many guys he whipped, it’s the guys. Hap, he wasn’t one of those guys.”
    “He whips Smoke Stack, hell, I’ll go with you,” Donny said. “That’s how much faith I got in him.”
    Smoke Stack looked at the kid and nodded.
    “All right,” I said. “I don’t whip him. You stay, and we’ll go, and we’re out of your life. You rob banks, you fuck goats, you do what you like. We’re done.”
    “You’ll be saying stuff to folks you shouldn’t, like we’re going to rob a bank,” Smoke Stack said. “We wouldn’t want people believing something like that. You ain’t got no proof of nothing that way.”
    “We’ll make it simple for you,” Leonard said. “You whip Hap, we’ll leave, and then, so you don’t cry at night, you can always come and try to kill us before we let the cat out of the bag. We’ll give you a whole two days. You got our word, and that’s better than yours, I’m sure.”
    “I whip him,” Smoke Stack said, nodding at me, “then I’m coming for you. That’s gonna be a treat.”
    “You don’t even know me,” Leonard said, then smiled at him. “And you don’t want to. But if Hap slips on a banana peel, then I’ll put the gun away, and me and you can dance all over this place.”
    “Hey, Smoke Stack,” I said. “You gonna talk us to death, or you gonna show me what you got.”
    There was a clearing between the people on the floor and the couch where Donny sat. Leonard was by the open door, pointing the guns. Smoke Stack moved forward, and as he did he crouched a little and put his fists up. He smiled at me, came closer.
    He hooked a big right. I could have seen it coming with a bag over my head. I stepped into him at an angle and the punch went around me. I popped a jab in Smoke Stack’s eye, hooked him to the throat. He had his chin down, so the hook was a so-so shot. Still, he didn’t like it. He stepped back with a sputter, coughed a little, and came at me windmilling. I leaned way right when he was right on me, put out my foot and caught his ankle as he rushed. It catapulted him forward and into the wall and caused him to knock a hole in the sheet rock with his head, then to roll on top of his gang members.
    When he got himself straight and turned, I kicked Smoke Stack in the balls so hard people in China had heart pains. I stepped in quick and gave him a left hand three stooge poke in the eyes, hit him with a right cross that came from hell without a bus ticket and that smacked against the ridge of his jaw. He twisted and went down and started to get up, but didn’t.
    “You waitin’ on reinforcements, Smoke Stack?” I