Guardian of Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

Shirley, their problems are much bigger than you can imagine. Best we just get the kids into a home, where they can move on.”
    Her jaw dropped.
    “Come on, how soon will you be ready?” Dallas motioned toward the kids’ bedrooms. “Let’s get their things and go, so that the DEA can do their work.”
    Kira looked around each child’s room. There wasn’t much that they would be allowed to take, yet somehow they’d filled a few bags. “Anything else you need?”
    “I want my bear!” Betsy demanded.
    Dallas knelt down next to the girl. “I have a brand-new stuffed animal I’d like to give you, Betsy. I know it’s not the same but—”
    “I want mybear.”
    Kira offered Betsy a hug, while Cody hit them all over the head with the cold, hard facts. “They had to take it, Betsy. Mickey stuffed it with drugs, remember? The police have to take it now.” His voice was filled with bitterness.
    “Mama…” Betsy whimpered.
    It never failed to amaze Kira that children clung to the familiar even when it wasn’t worth holding on to. Getting the kids’ essentials together drained her, for it brought back too many memories of her own childhood misery.
    “We need to leave now,” she said softly. “I’m going to find a nice home for you to stay at until I’ve had a chance to talk with your aunt.”
    “No, I want Mommy,” Betsy whined, running down the hallway.
    Dallas caught her and lifted her into his arms. “Come on, Betsy, let’s find that new toy I have for you.” He carried her to the patrol car while Cody lagged defiantly behind.
    What little rapport Kira had managed to build with the girl diminished just as quickly once Betsy figured out she was being taken away from her mother. She wanted nothing to do with Kira now.
    Cody caught up with Officer Brooks immediately when Betsy screamed for her mother.
    “I’ll take care of her, she’s my sister.” Cody puffed his scrawny chest out and reached for Betsy. Officer Brooks relinquished the little girl without a word.
    That surprised her, but why, Kira wasn’t sure. She studied him a moment before turning to watch the boy’s response to his sister’s fear.
    “It’s going to be okay, Bets,” Cody said in a soothing voice. “I promise, I’ll take care of you.” He paused only long enough for Dallas to open the back door of Officer Williams’s patrol car. Williams had taken Dallas’s cruiser to the impound lot for the investigator to run prints and record the damage. They didn’t want the kids to see the destruction Mickey had done. They’d already been through enough.
    As Cody waited for his sister to climb into the car, he turned to Officer Brooks. “Thanks, man,” he said quietly.
    Kira couldn’t believe what she thought she heard. She shot a quick glance at Dallas just in time to see him deliberately wipe a smile from his face. “Just doing my job.”
    Kira carried the children’s belongings, feeling slightly left out. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had thanked her for removing them from a dangerous home setting. She waited for Dallas to close the door before she said anything. “What was thatabout?”
    “It’s our job. You can’t let feelings get in the way.”
    She stood there, stunned, while Dallas took the grocery bags holding the kids’ few belongings, and put them into the trunk. She knew he was right, but it didn’t stop the pain. She was the one who’d been terrorized, she’d found Betsy, then she’d convinced Dallas that they needed to be removed from the home. Yet he received the thanks, the hugs and the glory.
    How dare he claim they couldn’t let themselves get emotionally involved? “How, exactly, do you turn off the emotions, Officer Brooks?”
    “I thought we agreed that you’d call me Dallas. I’m doing my job. There’s no room for emotions.”
    She didn’t believe him for a minute. “Job well done, then. If you wouldn’t mind taking us to the police station so I can get my car, I’d