The cold rain continued pouring across the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Water dripped from chrome handlebars and leather jackets as forty silent bikers stood outside the small blue house without moving.<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Nobody even looked at the police officer anymore.<\/p>\n
The entire street felt wrong.<\/p>\n
Heavy.<\/p>\n
Like everyone was waiting for something terrible to happen.<\/p>\n
The officer adjusted his flashlight nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean you\u2019re here for Mark?\u201d<\/p>\n
The tall gray-bearded biker stared toward the house.<\/p>\n
Then he answered softly:<\/p>\n
\u201cMark was our brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thunder rolled across the dark sky.<\/p>\n
Inside nearby homes, frightened neighbors kept watching through curtains and half-locked doors.<\/p>\n
Because this didn\u2019t look like mourning.<\/p>\n
It looked like revenge.<\/p>\n
The officer glanced at the patches stitched onto the bikers\u2019 soaked leather vests.<\/p>\n
Different names.<\/p>\n
Different states.<\/p>\n
Some from hundreds of miles away.<\/p>\n
Which meant one thing\u2014<\/p>\n
they had all traveled through the storm to be here tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark Dawson,\u201d the officer said slowly. \u201cThe mechanic who died last week?\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker\u2019s eyes hardened instantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t die.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that supposed to mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the biker could answer, the front door of the blue house creaked open.<\/p>\n
A little girl stood there clutching a stuffed rabbit tightly against her chest.<\/p>\n
She looked exhausted.<\/p>\n
Like she hadn\u2019t slept since the funeral.<\/p>\n
The moment the bikers saw her\u2026<\/p>\n
every single one of them lowered their heads respectfully.<\/p>\n
Even the gray-bearded biker removed his gloves.<\/p>\n
The officer noticed immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is she?\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker looked at the little girl gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark\u2019s daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rain pounded harder against the pavement.<\/p>\n
The child looked at the massive group of bikers nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daddy said you\u2019d come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several riders looked away emotionally.<\/p>\n
The officer\u2019s confusion deepened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly was Mark involved in?\u201d<\/p>\n
The old biker slowly stepped closer to the porch.<\/p>\n
Then he answered with quiet anger in his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark protected kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer waited.<\/p>\n
The biker continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids with nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sudden chill ran through the street.<\/p>\n
Because now the officer recognized the patches.<\/p>\n
Not a gang.<\/p>\n
A biker protection club.<\/p>\n
One known for escorting abused children to court hearings and guarding families fleeing violent homes.<\/p>\n
The officer looked stunned.<\/p>\n
And then he remembered the case file.<\/p>\n
Mark Dawson hadn\u2019t simply crashed his motorcycle.<\/p>\n
His brakes had failed.<\/p>\n
Completely.<\/p>\n
The little girl\u2019s voice trembled from the porch.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom says Daddy made bad people angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gray-bearded biker looked toward the dark street behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father made monsters angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lightning flashed overhead.<\/p>\n
At that exact moment\u2014<\/p>\n
more motorcycle headlights appeared at the far end of the road.<\/p>\n
Dozens of them.<\/p>\n
The sound thundered closer through the rain.<\/p>\n
The officer\u2019s eyes widened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many riders are coming?\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker\u2019s expression darkened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motorcycles slowly rolled into the neighborhood one after another until the street was completely packed with riders.<\/p>\n
A hundred.<\/p>\n
Maybe more.<\/p>\n
Then suddenly\u2014<\/p>\n
every biker turned toward the same direction at once.<\/p>\n
Three black SUVs had just entered the street.<\/p>\n
The engines stopped.<\/p>\n
The doors opened.<\/p>\n
Men in dark coats stepped into the rain.<\/p>\n
And the moment the gray-bearded biker saw the symbol on one man\u2019s collar\u2026<\/p>\n
his face went pale.<\/p>\n
The officer noticed immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know who they are?\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker stared coldly into the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice dropped lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the reason Mark is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cold rain continued pouring across the neighborhood. Water dripped from chrome handlebars and leather jackets as forty silent bikers stood outside the small blue house without moving. Nobody spoke. Nobody even looked at the police officer anymore. The entire street felt wrong. Heavy. Like everyone was waiting for something terrible to happen. The officer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}