Thunder shook the Nevada diner as the front door slammed against the wall.<\/p>\n
Cold rain and wind rushed inside.<\/p>\n
A tall man stepped through the doorway scanning the diner aggressively.<\/p>\n
The little girl instantly grabbed the biker\u2019s arm tighter.<\/p>\n
Fear trembled through her tiny voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker\u2019s eyes narrowed beneath the flickering neon lights.<\/p>\n
He looked down at the soaked child beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your name, sweetheart?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLucy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man near the entrance spotted her immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several customers quickly looked away, pretending not to notice the tension filling the diner.<\/p>\n
The waitress froze behind the counter.<\/p>\n
Because something about the man\u2019s smile felt wrong.<\/p>\n
Lucy pressed closer against the biker\u2019s leather vest.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease,\u201d she whispered desperately. \u201cJust for one minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker slowly leaned back in the booth, studying the frightened child carefully.<\/p>\n
Then he wrapped one heavy arm protectively around her shoulders.<\/p>\n
Right as the man approached the table.<\/p>\n
The stranger forced a tight smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry about this. My daughter likes to wander.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker\u2019s voice came out calm.
\nCold.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t seem happy to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s smile twitched slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s family business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wrong answer.<\/p>\n
The biker slowly looked up now.<\/p>\n
And for the first time\u2014<\/p>\n
the entire diner understood how dangerous he truly looked.<\/p>\n
Tattooed hands.
\nScarred jaw.
\nEyes that had seen violence before.<\/p>\n
Lucy quietly buried her face against his side.<\/p>\n
The biker noticed bruises hidden beneath the sleeve of her yellow raincoat.<\/p>\n
His expression darkened instantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hurt her?\u201d<\/p>\n
The man laughed nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho the hell are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker glanced down at Lucy trembling beside him.<\/p>\n
Then back toward the man.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thunder exploded outside.<\/p>\n
The biker slowly stood to his full height beside the booth.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I\u2019m her dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence crushed the diner.<\/p>\n
The stranger took a step backward automatically.<\/p>\n
Because suddenly\u2014<\/p>\n
the massive biker didn\u2019t look like a random traveler anymore.<\/p>\n
He looked like protection.<\/p>\n
The man pointed angrily.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re getting involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker cracked his neck once.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then his voice turned deadly calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you picked the wrong kid to chase into my diner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The storm raged outside while every customer watched without breathing.<\/p>\n
Then the biker reached into his pocket slowly.<\/p>\n
The man tensed\u2014<\/p>\n
expecting a weapon.<\/p>\n
Instead\u2014<\/p>\n
the biker pulled out a faded old photograph.<\/p>\n
A little girl smiling beside a motorcycle.<\/p>\n
About Lucy\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
Pain flickered across his face for one brief second.<\/p>\n
Because years ago\u2014<\/p>\n
he lost a daughter he couldn\u2019t protect.<\/p>\n
And standing inside that lonely diner\u2014<\/p>\n
he silently decided he would not fail another one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thunder shook the Nevada diner as the front door slammed against the wall. Cold rain and wind rushed inside. A tall man stepped through the doorway scanning the diner aggressively. The little girl instantly grabbed the biker\u2019s arm tighter. Fear trembled through her tiny voice. \u201cThat\u2019s him.\u201d The biker\u2019s eyes narrowed beneath the flickering neon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3139","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\/3139","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=3139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}