"All right."
Jack blinked.
"All right?"
"I said all right, Stone."
"Don't make me say it twice."
Wolf turned toward the others.
"That kid walked 11 hours in the dark through the desert to ask a Hells Angel if anybody wanted a daughter."
"That's not a story about a kid, Stone."
"That's a story about every grown man who let her walk past."
"I'm not going to be another one."
"Not today."
"Not any day."
He looked at the others.
"Anybody got a problem with that?"
Nobody said a word.
"Anybody?"
Little Ray cleared his throat.
"Prez..."
"We don't know nothing about kids."
"Then we learn, Ray."
"Yeah."
"Yeah, okay, Prez."
Wolf turned back to Jack.
"Stone, listen to me."
"The club has your back."
"Every brother here has your back."
"But you listen to me real close now."
"You are not going to do one single thing that puts this club in a federal courtroom."
"You understand me?"
"I understand."
"That means no kidnapping."
"That means no running."
"That means no hiding her."
"You call a lawyer today."
"You call the best family lawyer in Phoenix."
"And you pay her whatever she asks."
"And you do this the right way."
"Or you don't do it at all."
"Are we clear?"
"We're clear."
"Say it, Stone."
"We're clear, Wolf."
"Good."
"Now get back inside."
"That kid is counting to 120."
"And I can see her lips moving from here."
Jack turned around.
And sure enough, through the window, Emma was staring at the door.
Her lips were moving.
Counting.
Her little hand was gripping the edge of the table hard enough to turn her knuckles white.
Jack walked back inside.
The bell jingled.
Emma's head snapped up.
Her lips stopped moving.
"118."
She looked at him seriously.
"Cut it close."
"I counted slow."
"Smart."
He slid back into the booth.
He slid back into the booth.
Darlene got up and gave him a look that said she had a hundred questions and she wasn’t going to ask any of them.
Then she went back behind the counter and poured coffee for a trucker who had been watching the whole thing over his newspaper and pretending he wasn’t.
Emma looked at Jack.
“Are we going now?”
“We’re going to go soon, honey. I need to make a phone call first.”
“Okay.”
“Emma.”
“Yeah?”
“I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“The place with the fence.”
“The group home.”
“Did anybody there hurt you?”
She didn’t answer right away.
Jack felt his hand tighten on the edge of the table.
He forced it to relax.
“Emma, you can tell me.”
“Nobody is going to be mad at you.”
“Nobody is going to send you back because of what you say.”
“I’m asking you because I need to know so I can help you.”
“Did anybody there hurt you?”
She looked down at her hands.
“Emma.”
“A boy.”
“A boy?”
“A big boy. He was 13.”
“He…”
She stopped.
Her whole body went still.
“He would come into the little kids’ room at night and he would…”
She stopped again.
Jack didn’t move.
He didn’t rush her.
He let her find the words.