I watched him and I thought about how close I’d come to swinging on these men.
How many times in my life had I crossed the street to avoid a group that looked like them? How many times had I locked my car doors at a red light when bikers pulled up beside me?
I’d judged them my whole life. And when it mattered, when my own daughter was abandoned and alone, they were the ones who stood guard.
Not the people in nice cars who drove past. Not the respectable folks pumping gas who looked at a lone kid and decided she was somebody else’s problem.
These men. The ones society teaches you to fear.
The police came. Two officers, calm and decent about it. They took my statement. They took the note. They photographed it as evidence.
One of the officers knew Walt by name.
“You guys did good,” he told them. “Real good. Most people would’ve called it in and driven off. You stayed.”
“She asked me to,” Walt said simply, nodding at Lily. “Said I had a kind face under all the scary.”
Lily giggled.
