Chapter 13: The Stranger at Table Four
The stranger took his mug of black coffee, ignored the empty bar stools, and walked straight over to table four, sitting down directly across from Ethan without waiting for an invitation.
Ethan stared at him, keeping his expression neutral. "Can I help you?"
"You look a lot like your old man," the stranger said quietly, taking a slow sip of the scalding coffee. "Though Benjamin was always a bit broader around the shoulders."
Ethan’s muscles instantly tensed. He sat up straight, his eyes locking onto the stranger's weathered face. "Who are you? How do you know my father?"
"Names don't matter much these days," the man replied, keeping his voice level. "People around here call me Caleb. Twenty years ago, people called me a ghost."
Across the room, the heavy door opened again, and the sharp rumble of a motorcycle engine cut through the street noise. Jack Carter stepped inside, his eyes immediately sweeping the room. The moment Jack spotted Caleb sitting across from Ethan, the relaxed air vanished entirely from his body. Jack's hand dropped instinctively to his side, his face hardening into absolute stone.
"Caleb," Jack said, his voice dropping an octave, carrying a dangerous, razor-sharp edge that made Mike freeze behind the bar.
Caleb didn't flinch. He merely turned his head, offering Jack a tight, humorless smile. "Relax, Wolf. If I wanted to hurt the kid, I wouldn't have walked through the front door in broad daylight."
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Jack crossed the room in three long strides, grabbing the back of the adjacent chair and pulling it out, slamming it down as he sat directly beside Ethan. His dark eyes drilled into Caleb. "You disappeared the night of the bridge collapse. Every federal agency, every investigator, every tracker in the state turned up empty. You left your gear, your bike, and your life behind. Why the hell are you showing up now?"
Caleb set his coffee mug down, the ceramic clinking softly against the scarred wood. "Because twenty years ago, I wasn't running from the law, Jack. I was running from the men who put your car in that river."
