Chapter 8 - Someone Inside the Riders Had Been Feeding Him Information
Only six people knew the exact route.
William.
Earl.
Three road captains.
And Peter Lawson.
Peter had ridden with William since the old days.
He was sixty-four now.
Church every Sunday.
Grandchildren.
A pacemaker.
The kind of man nobody looked at twice.
He admitted giving Ryan the route.
Not because he hated William.
Because Ryan paid him.
$5,000.
Peter needed dental work his insurance would not cover.
“I didn't think he'd hurt anybody.”
Clare almost laughed.
That sentence seemed to belong to every disaster.
Peter told Ryan when the group would arrive.
Where they would fuel.
When William would likely be at the café.
Ryan asked one unusual question:
“If something happened to one of the girls working there, how many riders would William call?”
Peter answered:
“He wouldn't have to call anybody.”
Ryan smiled.
Mary’s ride would bring everyone automatically.
That meant the motorcycles were never an accident.
Clare remembered Ryan’s face as they filled the parking lot.
Fear.
Then the glance toward the camera.
Then the smile.
William understood too.
“He wanted the picture.”
Seventy motorcycles surrounding a bleeding man.
A former club president standing over him.
Perfect.
But Clare still did not understand why Ryan himself would risk being beaten.
Until Peter admitted something else.
Ryan had asked repeatedly whether William still carried a gun.
“He wanted you armed.”
William’s expression changed.
Clare whispered:
“He wasn't trying to scare you.”
“No.”
“What was he trying to make you do?”
May you like
William did not answer.
Because they were finally close enough to the truth that he was afraid of saying it aloud.
