The old man behind the counter didn't move. He didn't flinch. He didn't blink. He just set down the coffee mug he was wiping and looked at the deputy. He looked at him the way a mountain looks at a rainstorm—unbothered, enduring, and vastly older than the fleeting noise before it.

William Stone Walker leaned forward, his massive, scarred hands resting flat against the polished oak of the bar.

"I've buried better men than you," Stone said quietly.

The words didn't echo, but they filled the room, sucking the oxygen straight out of the air. The two junior officers shifted uncomfortably, their hands twitching near their belts. But Harrington just smirked.

Then, Harrington laughed. His two officers, taking the cue, forced out rough laughs of their own.

It was their first mistake.

"Listen to me, old man," Harrington sneered, leaning over the bar and tapping a finger against the wood. "I don't care what you used to be, or who you think you are. You're a criminal playing bartender. I'll be watching this place. One wrong move, one noise complaint, one health code violation, and I'll board these doors up myself."

Stone picked up another mug. "Coffee's a dollar-fifty, Deputy. If you aren't buying, the door's right behind you."

Harrington's jaw tightened. He held Stone's gaze for a long moment, trying to find a fracture in the old man's stone-cold composure. He found nothing. With a sharp scoff, Harrington turned on his heel and marched out, the door slamming shut behind his deputies.

Stone calmly poured himself a cup of black coffee, hit the button on the jukebox to play a little Smokey Robinson, and went back to work.

Over the next two weeks, Harrington made good on his threat. Mil Haven's newest deputy treated the Last Ride Tavern like enemy territory. Patrol cars idled in the gravel parking lot, their headlights glaring through the tavern's front windows. Officers pulled over regulars—like Dutch the mechanic—for broken taillights that weren't broken, or for doing thirty-one in a thirty zone.

The message was clear: Stay away from the Last Ride.