in and it’s a nice house. All the walls are painted a light brownish color, there are family photos hanging all over, and as far as I can tell the floors are all hardwood.
I see her father in the living room. He's a big guy, tall, muscular, with short dark blonde hair. Her mom is short like her, with light blonde hair, she’s very pretty. Both look to be in their late forties. Then her mother says, "I'll be right back." A few minutes later she comes back with a girl that looks exactly like Zoey. There doesn't look to be an age difference. She has the same color of hair, minus the pink, and eyes so I assume this is the sister.
Her father comes over to us and looks at his daughter, then looks at me and asks, "What the hell happened to my daughter?" Her sister is just staring at Zoey with narrowed eyes. I lift my hands as I start to tell him it wasn’t me but Zoey speaks up first.
" Daddy, Please. I will explain everything, you’ve got to calm down though. " She's doing some kind of movements with her hands while she is talking, and she does the introductions. " Mom, Daddy, Ever, this is Hanger. He saved my life. Hanger this is my twin sister Ever, my mom Sophia, and my dad Grant Porter." She looks at me with a smile on her face and I smile back. I shake everyone's hands.
"It's nice to meet you guys." We go into the living room and sit down. Where Zoey tells them everything that she remembers, I fill in the parts from when she was out of it. She's still doing the funny movements with her hands. When we are done I see her mom and sister are crying.
Her dad jumps up. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!"
"I can assure you, Sir. That in time it will be takin' care of." He comes over to me and pats me on the back, he has unshed tears in his eyes.
"Thank you, Hanger. For saving my little girl."
"You don't have to thank me."
"Let's have a talk for a minute." We walk into the dining room, and we sit at the table. "So what's your plan? Jacey called us and told us she hadn't been to work so we all started calling Andrew. He's been telling all of us that she has been sick and couldn't talk. He wouldn't let Jacey go check on her. I should have known something was wrong. I'm her father for fucks sake." His eyes fill up with tears again.
"Figures he would do that after what happened, he didn't want you to know. I'm glad you didn't find her though. She looked awful. I've seen a lot of bad shit and that was the worst." He gives me a small nod. "So the plan, I have some of my guys looking into him. Once they have what they need, they will be watching him. I'll figure out what to do with him later, whenever the time is right. I want to make sure he can't get to Zoey though."
"How do you plan on going about that?"
"I want her to stay with me for a while. I know she will be safe that way. I can protect her."
"I can see from your vest there that you are the President of a motorcycle club. You think I want my daughter to stay at a club with a bunch of bikers after everything she has been through?"
"With all due respect, Sir. I know what people think of us, and well it might all be true, but I can guarantee one thing. She will be safe and protected. No one will mess with her because of who I am and I will kill anyone who tries to hurt her. All my brothers are almost as pissed off as I am about what happened to her. He won’t be able to get to her there."
"I don't want him to get to her either. So this might be the best option."
"I will keep you informed on anything we find out, Sir."
"Quit with the, Sir, shit. Call me Grant." He's smiling.
With a smile on my face I say "Okay."
"Do you have feelings for my daughter?" Did he just ask me that? I can't do anything but stare at him. "I see the way you look at her."
"I don't know how to answer that question."
"It's okay. You don't have to right now, but I want you to know that she deserves so much more than that shithead ever gave her. She needs somebody to love her the right way,
Larry Niven, Nancy Kress, Mercedes Lackey, Ken Liu, Brad R. Torgersen, C. L. Moore, Tina Gower