Guardian of Justice (8 page)

Her parents stepped into the room, and Dallas felt like an awkward teenager on a first date. Kira quickly introduced him to her mom, Grace, before her dad rushed them out the door, claiming they’d be late for the play if they didn’t hurry.

While Kira set the salad in the refrigerator and Dallas finished buttering the bread, an awkward silence stretched between them. He wrapped the bread in the foil that it was on, and Kira set it in the warm oven. She turned around, her gaze roaming from his chest to his face.

“You sure you don’t mind eating here?”

He couldn’t stop analyzing her, and apparently she was doing a bit of analysis on herself.

He nodded. “I’m sure. So what have you been doing all week?” Pom Pom yipped as they pulled the steak out of the refrigerator, and guarded Kira at the grill.

Kira smiled at the pup, consoling her with a doggy treat. Again, Dallas felt an odd rhythm in his chest. “Not much, until today,” she told him. “Dad drove Mom and me to my office, where I tried to get some work done.”

“And?”

“Every time the phone rang, Mom jumped a mile and asked a hundred questions. It wasn’t worth it. I brought my paperwork home.” Kira opened a cabinet and pulled out plates, handing them to him. “Would you set them on the table over there?” She nodded toward a sizable table across the kitchen, and Dallas breathed a sigh of relief.

“Were you afraid we were going to eat in the dining room with the candles and flowers?” Kira laughed softly and he realized his sigh must not have been mental.

“What, are you a detective now, or a mind reader?”

Kira laughed again. “I’d say it’s in my blood, but I guess that’s pretty obviously not it, right? I guess I just have too many brothers to not recognize panic when I see it.”

He’d only met her a week ago. But he couldn’t seem to get her out of his head. She was going to capture his heart if he wasn’t careful.

ELEVEN

Kira had waited patiently while they ate dinner, and still she knew little more than she had when Dallas arrived. She glanced across the large round table, wondering if she should have sat farther away, but that seemed so cold. Then again, sitting next to Dallas may have made him uncomfortable. Maybe that’s why he’d been so quiet.

He’s quiet because he’s not interested.“More tea?” Kira offered. She didn’t want to seem pushy, but she did want to correct him on one major point. He was hurting, and she wanted nothing more than to help him through it.

“Sure,” he said as he held out his glass.

She struggled to keep her mind on pouring and not on his muscular forearms. Or his blue eyes, which were the color of the Caribbean, and a definite distraction. His military buzz cut was typical of most street cops, but slightly overgrown.

She took a nibble of bread and felt the silence stretch dangerously thin. “This isn’t getting us very far, is it? And here I thought being in a quiet house would make it easier.”

“I’m sorry,” Dallas said, pushing his empty plate away. “I’m not sure where to start.” He looked Kira in the eyes and she felt his pain as well as her own.

“Maybe some dessert would help. We happen to have a choice tonight—chocolate cake or cheesecake.”

“A tough choice. How about I think about it while we do dishes,” he said as he stood. “I’ll wash, and since you know where the dishes belong, you can put things away.”

She really didn’t want to bother with dishes right now, but she also realized how much better an interview with clients went when they were busy and had a distraction. “Okay,” she said, filling the sink with soap and water, while Dallas added the dishes. She glanced at the dishwasher, resisting the temptation to roll her eyes. Doing the few dishes that they had dirtied wasn’t going to buy him much time. “So, I believe you promised to tell me about an experience of yours?”

He shook the bubbles from his hands and leaned back against the counter. “You’ve got to realize I haven’t talked to anyone about this before,” he said. “Well, no one that I wasn’t required to talk to. None of my friends knew. My fiancée didn’t want to hear it, and when she finally did, she couldn’t deal with it. A couple months later she broke our engagement.”

Kira wasn’t sure how to respond. “From what I’ve read about post-traumatic stress disorder, that’s fairly common.”

“Yeah, it is. She gave me a choice, my career or her. Some days I still wonder if this is really what God wanted me to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Return to law enforcement. I took a few years off after my incident, tried other jobs. Before I decided to apply for another police position, God and I had some lengthy discussions. I had some serious doubts, and a few stipulations.” He glanced over to Kira. “Lately, it seems the rules of our agreement have changed.”

She studied him for a minute. “You…negotiated…with God?”

Dallas gave a small chuckle. “Sounds pretty ridiculous when you say it that way, doesn’t it?”

Kira shrugged. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I’ve just never thought of those frequent prayers I have as ‘negotiations.’ I always sort of felt like whatever God wanted, I needed to do.”

Dallas smiled. “Well, that explains why I ended up back in law-enforcement then, doesn’t it?”

“Not necessarily. I’m no expert.”

“It’s been a lot more difficult to keep in touch lately. With God, I mean.” He paused. “It was so much easier when I worked normal hours. When I went through treatment, I felt so close. I attended church on a fairly regular basis, and, well, when you’re working low-stress jobs, life’s just a little easier to swallow. But I wasn’t happy, and my fiancée insisted I wasn’t the same person anymore.”

Kira looked away, not wanting to point out to Dallas that it may have been a blessing in disguise. He certainly wouldn’t have been here if God hadn’t meant for him to return to police work. “As you said, after a crisis, you’re never going to be the same person. Why don’t we sit down in the family room.” Maybe Dallas was simply here tonight to satisfy his supervisor. Maybe he had no personal interest in her at all. “Do you mind if I ask about your incident?”

“That is why I’m here, isn’t it?” he said with a grimace. He paused in the doorway as Kira let the dog outside. “I was a police officer for four years in Phoenix, so there were plenty of opportunities for disaster. What finally did me in was a year and a half working as a school resource officer, or SRO, as we call them here. I had a great time. It was rewarding to feel like I made a difference, which was sometimes the discouraging part of being a patrolman in a big city.”

Kira edged past Dallas and pointed toward the cozy family room. “I can understand that. It is a huge city.”

“Yes, it is. At the school, the kids and I built a rapport, and even in the evenings, they called if they were in a situation they couldn’t handle. It was good to feel needed, almost like being more of a big brother than a security officer.”

Kira smiled. “Cody seemed to connect with you immediately the other night, but you didn’t seem too thrilled.”

Dallas shrugged. “Yeah. And I don’t think Cody was that thrilled with me, either. If a dog had bitten Mickey and gotten rid of him, Cody would have thanked the dog, too.”

She laughed, and elbowed Dallas playfully. Though she knew he was being modest, Kira had seen that Cody was drawn to Dallas, despite his denial.

Dallas took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Let’s go sit in an easy chair,” Kira suggest. She sat on the sofa and tucked her feet under her other leg.

“There was this young man that I’d gone out of the way for, on many occasions.” Dallas said, turning serious again. He sat next to Kira and continued talking. “He was a troubled kid, and I felt for him. Parents were split, both too busy with their successful careers to keep an eye on the boy. He had become a truancy problem, but he promised me he’d work harder. He would come into my office and do his homework. He was improving his grades, but he had a long way to go.”

Dallas’s voice cracked, and Kira felt her heart squeeze tighter. She wanted to make his pain go away, just as he did hers. Her mind ran wild with possibilities of what could have happened next. Dallas didn’t speak for the longest time. Kira finally offered to get him more iced tea.

He shook his head. “I’m okay.” He took a deep breath. “Something snapped. The kid had a string of incidents. I talked with him every day, trying to figure out what was going on. Then one day his girlfriend broke up with him, and Alek got into a fight with a classmate he thought was to blame for the breakup.” Dallas leaned his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.

“The principal gave him a five-day suspension to cool down. After lunch four days later, his teacher called the principal’s office, reporting that Alek was back in class, being very disruptive and acting strange. I got a page to report to the classroom, but by the time I got there, the teacher had sent him to the office. The kids in the class were upset, and rumors were rampant. Someone claimed he had a bomb in his backpack.”

Kira covered her mouth, fearing what had happened next.

“When I met up with him in the main lobby, he had a gun and was demanding to see the principal.”

Dallas slipped into a trancelike state, reciting the events as if he’d gone through them a million times. He probably had, Kira thought.

“I was at the opposite end of the main building and caught up with Alek as he reached the office. The bell rang, and a friend of his came out of class and saw Al-Alek with a semiautomatic pistol. Even his best friend couldn’t talk him down.”

Kira held her breath. Her heart raced.

“He shot several times, and one bullet ricocheted and hit the friend in the knee. That made Alek mad, and he turned on me, as if he blamed me for that shot. He fired once at me, then turned to shoot the principal as he walked out of the office.

Kira gasped, and she instinctively rubbed his shoulders.

“Alek fired again.” Dallas’s voice caught. “He missed. I didn’t.”

Kira felt hiss muscles twitch with each word. “Oh, Dallas,” she cried softly. She offered her hand, and he quietly took hold of it. “Wh-who?” she stammered. “Who was shot, and how bad was he hurt?”

“Alek,” Dallas whispered, with a shake of his head. “He didn’t make it through the night.”

Kira sat in stunned silence. Instinctively, she cocooned his hand in both of hers. How could she have ever let her experience with Mickey become so over-blown? She waited for Dallas to continue the story, but he didn’t. “What about his friend? And the principal? Are they okay?”

“The friend had an athletic scholarship, before the shooting. After the injury he just wasn’t the same. He took a break, but he did go to college and is going to earn his degree. The principal wasn’t injured.”

Kira shook her head. “I feel ridiculous for overreacting to the incident with Mickey. I’m so sorry, Dallas.”

He looked her in the eye, sadness replaced with peace. He had pulled out of the past and was back in the room with her again. “You weren’t overreacting, Kira. You still aren’t. Mickey is a serious threat to your safety. Don’t ever ignore your gut instincts.”

“I’m not, but I can’t just check out of living and my responsibility, either.”

“Fear is sometimes a protective mechanism. Both of us reacted more to the realization of what could have happened. While taking a young boy’s life was horrible, what haunts me is that it could have been worse. He’d been in trouble several times. We cut him a little slack, and I worked with him, probably more than I should have…” His voice faded away.

She let out a heavy sigh. “Don’t doubt your good intentions, Dallas. You tried to help. There’s no way it could have been too much. God knows that.”

He shrugged. “I kept trying to make up for something he’d missed along the way.” Dallas’s grip tightened on Kira’s hand. “Maybe it wasn’t too much for him, but it was for me.” He clenched his jaw and twisted his mouth. “You’re probably thinking of what Mickey may have done to hurt these kids. Maybe you’re angry that someone didn’t stop him earlier, knowing that the DEA was watching him.”

Kira shook her head. “Not only that, I found out my brother’s team has been watching Mickey for weeks. They hoped he would lead them to his supplier.” She let out a soft growl. “Kent claims Mickey had a residence that he was using as a decoy. This one was a total surprise.”

“I’d like to believe him,” Dallas stated.

“I’m beginning to think it’s more comforting to believe him than the truth.” She shook her head. She couldn’t help that she was an idealist living among pessimistic realists. She knew from experience that cops saw more reality than most individuals. Kira just couldn’t let go of the hope that she could somehow make things better. “By the way, I moved Betsy and Cody, so Mickey won’t be able to find them.”

“You moved them? Already?”

She nodded. “Today, with my parent’s help. I don’t know what evidence Mickey thinks they have, but if he found me, he would have found them. We’ve never had anything like this happen before. They’re out of the country for now, and it’s undocumented. Only my supervisor knows where they really are, besides me.”

Dallas smiled, a puzzling expression on his face.

“What’s that odd look for?” she asked, pulling her hand from his. She felt her heart beat faster when Dallas leaned close and touched his lips to her cheek.

“You’re amazing,” he said. “You just keep surprising me.” He pulled her into his arms. For a long time, they held each other as if they’d known one another for years.

His shirt smelled like it had just come out of the laundry. The clean smell mingled with a slightly spicy aroma that was both soothing and invigorating. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Dallas. It does help to know that the feelings won’t paralyze me forever.”

“You have to make that choice,” he said quietly. “It only has as much control as you give it.”

Kira paused a moment, then let go of Dallas, easing away. “I have all of Cody and Betsy’s records here. I’ve looked and looked, but I don’t see anything that would be of interest to a drug dealer. Would you help me search through them and see if we can figure out what he’s hunting for?”

“Sure, I’ll clean off the table while you get the file,” he said, standing. “Is it okay that you brought it home?”

“All’s fair in love and war, and besides, I did it for Cody and Betsy’s safety.”

Dallas paused, glancing at her speculatively. “Kira…” He walked toward the kitchen and turned to her.

She cut him off before he could finish. “It’s temporary, and my supervisor knows everything involved in my decision. She gave her stamp of approval on my idea. In the children’s file at the office, the paperwork looks perfectly normal, except the house listed doesn’t exist. Nor does the street it’s on. I’ve totally removed the home they were in from the mock file. I don’t want to endanger a good family.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow. “How many rules have you broken?”

“I stopped counting. Cody and Betsy have been through enough in their short lives,” she said defensively, trying to ignore how strong and yet sympathetic Dallas was despite his attempts to sound tough. “I’m all they have now.”

“You’re—”