THE AMBUSH AT DESERT ROADHOUSE
Chapter I: The Running Girl in Yellow
The midday desert heat shimmered over Highway 10 outside the Desert Roadhouse, an isolated outpost surrounded by endless sand, cracked asphalt, and distant red rock mesas. Idling in double formation across the wide parking lot were twenty gleaming, heavy cruisers belonging to the Iron Kings MC.
Sitting atop his custom silver cruiser at the head of the formation was Dutch, the club’s chapter president. Wearing a heavy leather vest stitched with the Iron Kings crown rocker, his salt-and-pepper beard blowing slightly in the arid breeze, Dutch raised his left hand to signal the convoy to roll out.
Before a single throttle could twist, frantic footsteps slapped across the burning asphalt.
"Stop! Don't leave yet!"
Sprinting out from the wooden porch of the roadhouse was seven-year-old Lily, dressed in a simple floral yellow summer dress, her brown hair flying wildly as she waved both arms in desperate panic.