Riley stepped closer, running her hand along the cold metal of the fuel tank. "And the sixty-five mechanics?"
"Rebuilt it from the ground up," Stone growled. "Replaced every single part. New carb, new pistons, new transmission. Doesn't matter. The moment it hits third gear, the engine screams like a dying animal and locks up. Most of the guys here think it's cursed. The President says if it ain't fixed by the end of the month, we're crushing it into a cube."
Riley knelt beside the engine block. She didn't believe in curses. She believed in physics, pressure, and metal.
"I need a clear workspace," she said, her eyes tracing the fuel lines. "And I work alone. Nobody touches the bike until I say so."
Stone grunted. "You've got three days. The fridge in the corner is full of food. Don't blow up my shop."
For the next forty-eight hours, Riley barely slept. She ate cold cut sandwiches with oil-stained fingers and drank black coffee. She didn't just disassemble the engine; she mapped it. She laid every bolt, every gasket, and every piston out on a clean white tarp.
By the end of the second night, she found the anomaly. It wasn't in the moving parts. It was in the stationary ones.
It was 3:00 AM on Saturday when she called for Stone.
When the Sergeant-at-Arms walked into the garage, he wasn't alone. The word had spread through the compound that the homeless girl was tearing the Widowmaker down to its molecular level. Behind Stone walked the President of the Iron Legion, an older man with a gray beard and cold eyes, followed by nearly fifty patched members of the club. They filled the garage, forming a silent, intimidating wall of leather and denim.
"Time's up, kid," the President said. "Did you fix it, or are we crushing it?"
Riley stood wiping her hands on a grease rag. She wasn't intimidated. She was in her element.
"Sixty-five mechanics failed because they were trying to fix a broken machine," Riley said, her voice carrying clearly in the quiet garage. "But the machine isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it was designed to do."