When this small girl in pajamas with Disney princesses on them stood in the doorway and cried, all the leather-clad bikers in the smoky room stopped talking. She gazed at thirty big bikers like they were her final chance. It appeared like the jukebox was playing over a Johnny Cash song. The pool cues stopped moving.
She walked right up to Snake, the 6’1″ head of Iron Wolves MC. His face was disfigured and his arms were like tree trunks. She pulled on his leather vest and whispered the words that would get everyone in the motorcycle club to move and tell the town’s biggest secret.
“The bad man locked Mom in the basement, and she won’t wake up,” she said. “He said he’d hurt my little brother if I told anyone.” Mom said, nonetheless, that bikers kept people safe.
The police don’t keep people safe. Not the people that live next door. There isn’t a single “respectable” person in town. The little girl’s mother had told her to search for the motorcyclists if she ever really needed help.
Snake got down on one knee to her level, and his huge body made her look even smaller. Everyone in the bar was holding their breath.
“What’s your name, Princess?” He spoke in a beautiful, sweet voice that was quieter than any we had ever heard.
He said, “Emma,” and then he added something that had all the bikers in the room reach for their phones: “The bad guy is a cop.” That’s why Mom encouraged us to just look for people on bikes.
The air was full of energy. A police officer was there. Yes, of course. It made everything apparent. A cop could make a mother and her kids disappear, and the whole system would back him up, making the bikers look like the bad people.
But Snake grabbed Emma right away, as if she were nothing, whereas that scary-looking man clutched her like she was worth something. He stared around the room with eyes that looked like stones. “Brothers,” he said in a whisper, breaking the silence. “Let’s go.” Hawk, you are in charge of talking to people. Find out where you are. Patch, please get this girl some chocolate milk and jot down her address. Razor and Diesel will cause a commotion on the north side of town in 10 minutes. It will be messy but loud. Get ready, everyone else. We are going to help her family as well as find her mother. We’re going to bring this family home.
There was no fight. No doubt about it. There was simply the sound of chairs scraping, keys jangling, and men marching with purpose. Patch, a huge biker who was unexpectedly good at calming youngsters, sat with Emma and showed her where her house was on a map on her phone. Frank Miller, the officer, owned it. He was known for being very angry and for making a good public image for himself.
The plan was very clear. As Razor and Diesel’s Harleys roared through the city, which would have definitely gotten the police’s attention, four motorcycles, including Snake’s, drove through the alleys with their engines off, one block from Miller’s house. They moved through the dark like ghosts.
Snake and two other individuals found the back window that Emma said she crawled through. It was strange how immaculate the inside of the house was. They followed the sound of a weak and fearful baby sobbing to an upstairs bedroom, where a toddler was resting in his crib. He was OK. The third motorcyclist picked him up, put a blanket over him, and took him outside into the dark.
Then, the basement. Snake climbed down the stairs by himself, and his flashlight lighted up the dark, moist region. He noticed her on the floor of the cement. Sarah, Emma’s mother, was still alive, but she was unconscious and had been hurt. Snake felt a rush of cold wrath flood over him, but he forced it down and concentrated on what he had to accomplish. He lifted her up just like he had picked up his daughter and took her outdoors into the cool night air.
Hawk, the club’s IT genius, had already put the last piece in place. He found Miller’s cell phone number and called him, pretending to be a low-level informant with a voice changer. “Hey, Miller.” I can hear things. A woman just walked into the Iron Wolves’ main office. It looks like she’s been talking.
Hawk anticipated that Miller would sound afraid and angry. “That youngster… She has been told. I’ll go back and finish what I started after this traffic stop. Her with her mother.
They taped the whole conversation.
When Miller realized that the diversion was a phony and rushed home, no one was there. The birds had left because the cage door was open. Their reign of terror was over. The local police didn’t get it; instead, it went straight to the state police and a news station in the county next door. There would be no way to hide.
A veteran army medic was looking after Sarah at the clubhouse. Emma and her small brother Leo slept in a quiet room in the back. A circle of leather-clad soldiers surrounding them, making sure that no one could even touch them.
Weeks later, the town was still in shock. Officer Miller was in federal custody, and his arrest showed that the local police were more corrupt than anyone had assumed. People thought the Iron Wolves were heroes, but they didn’t like it.
One night, Sarah.
She was on the clubhouse’s porch with Snake, watching Emma chase fireflies in the garden. She was feeling better; her bruises were going away and she was becoming excited again.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” she muttered softly, glancing at her daughter, who was laughing. “My grandma used to say that a lot of different kinds of people can keep you safe, like a single mother with a troubled past or a police officer with a lot of medals.” Some of them have emblems, and some of them wear leather. I sent Emma to look for you since I knew you wouldn’t see me. You would only see my kids.
Snake observed a big motorcycle named Grizzly stop in the middle of his ride to let Emma catch a firefly that had landed on his boot.
In the same deep, rumbling voice he used the night they met, he said, “We’re not heroes, ma’am.” “We’re just the scary monsters that other monsters are afraid of.” He nodded at Emma, and a strange, small smile came to his lips. “And that little girl of yours… she went into the dark and found the right monsters to fight for her.” “She’s the brave one.”
The family was heartbroken when they found their guardians in the fading light, with the calming sound of motorcycles and the fragrance of fuel and pine. Not only had they been saved, but they had been saved. They had been welcomed into a group that would protect them for the rest of their lives.
