“No,” I said. “I’ll take them.”
Everyone looked at me. I looked at Madison. “If it’s okay with you, sweetheart, I’d like to drive you and your siblings to your grandma’s house. On my bike, I can get us there in five hours. But in Jake’s truck, we can all go together, and you can rest.”
Jake answered. “Because we’re dads and granddads. Because we’ve seen too many kids slip through the cracks. Because nobody helped us when we needed it, and we’re not going to do that to someone else.”
“Because you’re brave as hell, kid,” Marcus added. “And brave kids deserve protection.”
Madison started crying again. But this time, they weren’t scared tears. They were relief. “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”
We loaded the kids into Jake’s extended cab truck. Tyler and Mason climbed into the backseat. Madison sat in the middle with Lily on her lap. I rode my bike alongside them. Bill and Marcus followed behind us. Four other brothers stayed to deal with the abandoned car and run interference in case anyone came looking.
We rode through the night like a convoy protecting precious cargo. Because that’s exactly what we were doing.
We reached Madison’s grandmother’s house just as the sun was coming up. It was a small place on the outskirts of Memphis—white with blue shutters and a porch swing. The moment we pulled into the driveway, the front door flew open.
An elderly woman—seventy if she was a day—ran out in her bathrobe. “MADISON! BABIES!”
Madison practically fell out of the truck. “Grandma!”
“You’re safe now,” she kept saying. “You’re safe. Grandma’s got you. You’re safe.”Continue reading…
