Silas Boone looked down at the seven crumpled dollars spread across the table.<\/p>\n
Then back at the little boy standing in front of him.<\/p>\n
The biker didn\u2019t touch the money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your name, kid?\u201d Silas asked quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWesley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silas nodded once.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd who\u2019s hurting your mom, Wesley?\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy swallowed hard.<\/p>\n
Before he could answer, the woman near the back booth hurried forward, panic rising in her voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWesley, no\u2014\u201d she whispered. \u201cCome here right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The child didn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n
He kept his eyes on Silas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he\u2019s coming back tonight,\u201d Wesley said softly. \u201cMom says we\u2019ll be okay\u2026 but she hides in the bathroom when he calls.\u201d<\/p>\n
The diner grew painfully quiet.<\/p>\n
Every biker at the booth straightened slightly.<\/p>\n
The woman reached them now, tears filling her exhausted eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said quickly. \u201cPlease don\u2019t listen to him. We\u2019ll leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silas finally picked up the seven dollars.<\/p>\n
He studied the wrinkled bills for a long moment before carefully folding them once and slipping them into his vest pocket.<\/p>\n
The movement confused her.<\/p>\n
Then Silas stood.<\/p>\n
Slowly.<\/p>\n
The chair scraped against the diner floor loud enough to silence even the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou paid for help,\u201d he said calmly to Wesley.<\/p>\n
Something dangerous settled behind his tired eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now you have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman\u2019s face lost color.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t understand,\u201d she whispered shakily. \u201cHe\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the bikers beside Silas let out a humorless laugh.<\/p>\n
Lady,\u201d he muttered, glancing toward the motorcycles outside, \u201cso are we.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few truckers nearby quietly looked toward the windows.<\/p>\n
Because across the street\u2014<\/p>\n
A black pickup truck had just pulled into the parking lot.<\/p>\n
And the man climbing out already looked angry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Silas Boone looked down at the seven crumpled dollars spread across the table. Then back at the little boy standing in front of him. The biker didn\u2019t touch the money. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name, kid?\u201d Silas asked quietly. \u201cWesley.\u201d Silas nodded once. \u201cAnd who\u2019s hurting your mom, Wesley?\u201d The boy swallowed hard. Before he could answer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","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\/3328","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=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}