[@Gurren1]

"Well, Joe was here all morning, so he can corroborate my story" Brick began. He took a deep breath "Start from the beginning right?'

[i]This is it, no backin' down now'[/i]

"Can you guys keep a secret? Ok, here it is- there is no Forge. It's me. It's always been me. I created Forge as a sort of boogeyman, a new urban legend to build up the business. Get people talkin' about us, and when people started showin' up here to capitalize on the relative success, I felt a responsibility to form a reputation of 'this Forge guy is not to be fucked with' to ensure their safety. Now as to this morning, Hardy came here to collect this" 

He produced the Tenderizer from beneath the counter and laid it in front of them before continuing.

"I'm usually pretty good about knowing my customers, I get a sense of their intentions from my talks with him, Hardy was the first guy I've met since I came to the Outer Banks that I wasn't 100% on. Should've walked away, I know that now, but at the time, I couldn't really refuse him without good reason, and I couldn't think up a suitable lie. He brought it here about 2 days ago, wanted it done up to be, and I'm quoting him here "fucking indestructible", so I did the work, as promised, and when it came time to pay me, Hardy decided to be a piece of shit about it. I explained to him what I had done and why the price was what it was. Now, I could try and bullshit you boys into believing that he got violent, drew a gun on me, and I acted in self defense, but I'm not doing that, I'm telling it like it is. He insulted me, insulted my work and then I hit him, cracked his jaw, right at the hinge. Now, you feel the metal capping on top of that bat, it's solid, and it's edges are fairly sharp. You can see the blood on the floor, he wasn't gonna live, so I finished him off. Joe here dragged off the body, took the caps off him, and tossed him in the river for the sharks. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. Got a few complaints about him from the people camped up here, said that he'd threatened a few of em, he'd bash in a fella's head then take his woman for himself, that sort of thing. And you didn't see him, but I'm, convinced he was a Raider, he dressed like one, definitely smelled like one. Maybe a bit smarter than the average river rat, but he had the attitude. That's about all I know, so any other questions?"