The entire biker bar froze.<\/p>\n
Marcus Holloway stared at the little girl like the air had been ripped from his lungs.<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Nobody moved.<\/p>\n
Rain hammered the windows harder while old country music crackled weakly from the jukebox before dying into static.<\/p>\n
Marcus stepped closer slowly.<\/p>\n
Too slowly.<\/p>\n
Like approaching a ghost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d he asked quietly.<\/p>\n
The little girl tightened her grip on the soaked straps of her backpack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad,\u201d she whispered again. \u201cDaniel Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several bikers exchanged stunned looks instantly.<\/p>\n
One muttered under his breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s impossible\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Daniel Carter had died six years earlier.<\/p>\n
Everybody in the room knew it.<\/p>\n
Or thought they did.<\/p>\n
Marcus\u2019s scarred hand curled tightly against the table beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho brought you here?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
The girl shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walked into a biker bar alone in the middle of the night?\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded once.<\/p>\n
Then slowly reached into her jacket pocket.<\/p>\n
Every biker in the room stiffened instinctively.<\/p>\n
But the little girl only pulled out an old silver lighter.<\/p>\n
Scratched.<\/p>\n
Burned around the edges.<\/p>\n
The raven emblem engraved on the metal matched Marcus\u2019s tattoo exactly.<\/p>\n
His face changed immediately.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
Memory.<\/p>\n
Pain.<\/p>\n
Marcus took the lighter carefully from her tiny hand like it might explode if held too hard.<\/p>\n
The engraving on the back made his breathing stop cold.<\/p>\n
If anything happens to me\u2026 find Grim.<\/em><\/p>\n Daniel\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n Marcus lowered himself heavily into the chair behind him.<\/p>\n For the first time in years, fear showed openly in his eyes.<\/p>\n The girl swallowed hard before speaking again.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told my mom you\u2019d protect me if he never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n Silence crushed the room.<\/p>\n Then\u2014<\/p>\n The bar\u2019s front windows exploded inward.<\/p>\n Glass erupted across the floor as headlights flooded the smoke-filled room from outside.<\/p>\n Black SUVs.<\/p>\n Engines roaring.<\/p>\n And every biker in the bar reached for a weapon at the exact same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The entire biker bar froze. Marcus Holloway stared at the little girl like the air had been ripped from his lungs. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Rain hammered the windows harder while old country music crackled weakly from the jukebox before dying into static. Marcus stepped closer slowly. Too slowly. Like approaching a ghost. \u201cWhat did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3266","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\/3266","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=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}