I pulled out my phone, activated it, hit the buttons, and made the call.

I put it to my ear.

“Yo, little girl, how’s tricks in the Promised Land?” Dad’s gravelly, slightly sleepy (no doubt I woke him, he usually didn’t get up before ten), two-pack-a-day voice came at me.

“Daddy,” I whispered.

His tone was alert when he instantly responded, “Where are you? I’ll be on my bike in five minutes. Do I need the boys?”

Tears gathered in my eyes and I sucked in breath to control them.

“It’s gone,” I told him.

“What?” he asked sharply.

“The pain.”

He was silent.

I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I slid an arm around my belly, holding myself close, holding the fullness tight to me. “I’m whole, Daddy,” I whispered.

“What’s his name?” Dad asked gruffly.

I closed my eyes and another tear fell.

Dad so totally got it.

“Abel.”

“Kickass name,” Dad muttered.

I smiled and opened my eyes. “He’s got a Sportster.”

“I already like him.”

I felt a giggle slide up my throat but swallowed it down.

“There’s more,” I told him.

“Fuck. The asshole’s married, I’m gonna rip his dick off.”

“He’s not married.”

Well, at least all indications pointed to that fact. That said, I knew absolutely nothing about Abel except he was a heretofore fictional creature walking the earth.

I decided not to share that with Dad just yet.

But I did share, “I…I actually kind of do think I need you to call the boys and come out.”

His gruff was back to sharp when he asked, “Why?”

“Abel kind of saved my life last night.”

“What the fuck?” he bit out, and I could actually feel his movement through his words, either getting out of his recliner, where he’d fallen asleep watching something badass on TV (or porn), or rolling out of bed, leaving one of his bitches in it if he’d had company.

It was usually option two. As much as Dad was antisocial (this didn’t include “the boys”), he liked to get himself some enough that he’d put up with a woman, at least long enough for her to take care of his needs and make him breakfast before he got her ass out of his house.

At this point, I heard the door scraping open behind me and I looked that way.

Abel caught my eyes, and half a second later he was bending over me, his face an inch away.