Bear waited.
"I thought maybe Mom was right."
"About what?"
"That he didn't care."
Bear shook his head.
"He cared."
"You can't know that."
Bear looked directly at her.
"I drove with him to Phoenix because somebody told him they'd seen you there."
Emily stared.
"We slept in a truck for four nights."
Bear continued.
"He spent almost every dollar he had on private investigators."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"He kept your room exactly the same until he died."
Emily looked away.
"Stop."
"He carried your school picture in his wallet."
"Stop."
"He never stopped looking."
"STOP!"
Her scream echoed beneath the overpass.
Bear fell silent.
Emily was crying openly now.
"You don't get to show up out of nowhere and tell me my whole life was a lie!"
"I know."
"No, you don't!"
"You're right."
"You ripped my blanket off!"
Bear looked at the blanket lying on the ground.
The absurdity of the entire situation struck him.
"Yeah."
Emily wiped her face.
"You're an asshole."
Rabbit coughed to hide a laugh.
Bear nodded.
"Probably."
Emily almost smiled despite herself.
Almost.
Bear handed her the clean thermal blanket.
This time she accepted it.
Then he gave back Howard's jacket.
She immediately held it against her chest.
Bear looked at her.
"Come with us."
Her expression hardened again.
"No."
"Not like that."
"Then what?"
"Clubhouse is twenty minutes away."
"No."
"Heat. Food. Shower."
"No."
"Nobody's asking you for anything."
"I've heard that before."
Bear understood.
He sat down again.
"Okay."
"What?"
"I said okay."
"You're leaving?"
"No."
Emily frowned.
Bear wrapped his arms around his knees.
"If you're staying here, I'm staying here."
"That's ridiculous."
"Probably."
"You'll freeze."
"I've got better clothes."
"Go away."
"No."
"Why?"
Bear looked at Howard's jacket.
"Because I couldn't bring your father his daughter."
He looked at her.
"But I'm not leaving his daughter under a bridge."
Emily stared at him.
For a long time, neither spoke.
Then she whispered:
"I don't know you."
Bear nodded.
"Then get to know me."
Emily did not trust Bear.
She did not trust Rabbit.
She did not trust the other bikers.
She barely trusted herself.
But at 3:11 in the morning, the temperature reached twenty-two degrees.
The heater ran out of fuel.
And Emily finally agreed to enter Rabbit's pickup truck.
"Only for tonight," she said.
Bear nodded.
"Only tonight."
"And nobody touches my stuff."
"Nobody touches your stuff."
"And I keep the jacket."
Bear looked offended.
"Of course you keep the jacket."
Emily climbed into the truck.
The Road Saints clubhouse was nothing like she expected.
It occupied a converted warehouse behind Dawson Motorcycle Repair.
There was a bar, but it was closed.
A pool table stood near one wall.
Old photographs covered another.
Several couches surrounded a fireplace.
Bear switched on the lights.
Emily stopped.
A photograph hung near the entrance.
Howard.
She knew him instantly.
Older than she remembered.
Gray beginning in his beard.
But unmistakably her father.
He stood beside Bear and six other bikers.
His arm was around Bear's shoulder.
Emily walked toward the photograph.
"When?"
Bear looked.
"About twelve years ago."
"After I left?"
"Yeah."
Emily touched the frame.
Howard was smiling.
She had forgotten his smile.
That hurt more than she expected.
Bear disappeared into the kitchen.
He returned with soup.
Emily stared at it.
"Homemade?"
"Canned."
"Good."
"Why good?"
"I'd trust canned food from you before homemade."
Rabbit laughed.
Bear pointed toward him.
"You're enjoying this too much."
Emily ate.
Then another bowl.
Then half a sandwich.
Nobody commented on how quickly.
That mattered.
People often watched homeless people eat as if hunger were entertainment.
The Road Saints didn't.
Bear showed her a small room upstairs.
"Used to be storage."
There was a bed.
Clean sheets.
A lamp.
A lock on the inside of the door.
Emily noticed the lock.
Bear noticed her noticing.
"You control the door."
She looked at him.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Already told you."
"Because of Dad?"
"Partly."
"What's the other part?"
Bear shrugged.
"It's cold."
"That's it?"
"Should there be more?"
Emily had no answer.
She slept for fourteen hours.
When she woke, sunlight filled the room.
For several seconds, she panicked.
New place.
Unknown sounds.
She sat upright.
Howard's jacket was beside her.
Her backpack remained exactly where she'd placed it.
Nobody had taken anything.
She went downstairs.
Bear was sitting at a table with coffee.
"Morning."
"What time?"
"Four."
"Morning?"
"Afternoon."
Emily stared.
"You let me sleep all day?"