Chapter 3 - He Came Back When the Café Was Full
Ryan returned Saturday afternoon.
The café was packed.
That mattered.
Families.
Truckers.
Tourists.
Several bikers from Mary’s memorial ride had already arrived, though most were still twenty miles west at the fuel stop.
William stood behind the register.
Clare carried a tray toward booth six.
Ryan entered alone.
He smiled at William.
“Still serving breakfast?”
William did not smile.
“Leave.”
Ryan looked impressed.
“That's hospitality?”
“You were told not to come back.”
“No, your waitress told me she wasn't interested in talking.”
Clare stopped.
William stepped around the counter.
“Don't involve her.”
Ryan looked directly at Clare.
Then something shifted in his expression.
Almost satisfaction.
“I think she's already involved.”
He moved toward her.
Clare backed away.
“Ryan.”
William’s voice changed.
Ryan grabbed Clare’s hair.
Hard.
Pain snapped through her scalp.
She dropped the tray.
Ryan slapped it sideways.
Plates shattered across the checkerboard floor.
Several customers stood.
William crossed the distance in three strides.
“Get your hands off her.”
Ryan turned just in time to take William’s fist across the jaw.
He stumbled backward and crashed into a red booth.
The entire café erupted.
Someone screamed.
Someone called 911.
Clare moved behind William.
Ryan wiped blood from his lip.
“You have no idea who you're messing with.”
William stood between him and Clare.
Quiet.
Controlled.
Then the first motorcycle engine roared outside.
Another answered.
Then twenty.
Then what sounded like thunder rolling down the highway.
Headlights appeared across the windows.
Motorcycles filled the parking lot.
Thirty.
Forty.
More.
Mary’s memorial ride had arrived early.
Within seconds, men and women in black leather surrounded the café.
Ryan looked through the windows.
His face lost color.
He sank onto one knee beside the booth, partly from William’s punch and partly, Clare thought, from suddenly understanding the numbers.
William stared down at him.
Ryan looked afraid.
But only for a second.
Then Clare saw something she would remember later.
Ryan’s eyes shifted past William.
Toward the dark pickup parked across the highway.
May you like
And despite the blood on his mouth—
he smiled.
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