Justice Is Always Ready (A Graham Family Story, 1) (19 page)

“
Okay, just thought I
would check.”

“
I have to get going.”
Kassidy pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Have a good day.” Purse in
hand and Libby at her side, she hastened to the door. A slight bit
of fancy footwork and she had Libby outside while keeping Duke in.
“Oh, Justice?”

“
Yeah,
beautiful?”

“
If you need a place for
Duke, he can stay here.”

She blew him a kiss and darted to her
car, already close to being late for the meeting. The timing was
close for her but she made it with three minutes to spare. With a
smile for the room, she sank into her chair and put her pad and
pencil out before her.

Most of her morning passed with her in
one meeting or another. There was one reading class that she had
then it was back to another meeting. Libby in tow, she left the
library and headed to the museum, where she dropped some more
things off for her mother, got brought up to date on her from Lucy,
and then headed out to take care of her own errands. The clock read
after five when she finally finished unloading all her groceries,
dog food, and dry cleaning from her car and put everything
away.

Taped to the door of her refrigerator
was a note. Peeling it off she opened it and read the handwritten
words.

Kassidy;

Thank you so much for
everything. If I need to take you up on the Duke issue, I’ll call
before I bring him by.

Hope you have a wonderful
day.

Talk to you
soon.

~J

Not too much later, she and Libby were
back in her car heading to her parents for dinner. They’d invited
her over Sunday but since she’d originally had plans to be with
Justice, they’d made it for tonight instead. She pulled into the
drive and found her smile in place. Libby bounced beside her as
they made their way to the front door and walked in. The powerful
aromas of her mom’s cooking made everything suddenly seem all right
in the world.

* * * *

Justice shut the door to his Vette and
headed to the front door. He stole a glance over his shoulder to
where Duke sat in the front seat, watching him. He licked his lips
and wiped his palms down the thighs of his jeans. It had been a
long time since he’d been so nervous.

Lifting his hand he pressed the
doorbell and waited. Carly O’Neil answered the door, her eyes much
more kind than they’d been last night, although there did seem to
be a bit of strain in her expression.

“
Good morning,
Lieutenant.”

“
Justice, please. Good
morning to you, Ms. O’Neil.”

“
I have a feeling we’re
going to be seeing a lot of you, so we may as well be calling me
Carly if I’m going to be calling you Justice.”

He felt better immediately. From the
interior he could hear the crying wails of a child. And he knew.
“Torrie?”

“
Yes. Come on in.” They
entered a large living room. “Please keep in mind she’s been
through a terrifying ordeal and may want—”

“
Jus-is!”

The cry pierced through the room,
drowning out everything else. He jerked his gaze to the right and
saw Torrie running to him as fast as she could. A blanket clutched
in one hand, her eyes red and puffy, clear evidence she’d been
crying. A lot.

He dropped to one knee and gathered
her close, his eyes drifting shut when her slender arms gripped his
neck with a strength he never realized she had.

“
Hi, Torrie.” The small
body in his arms shook and he placed a hand on her back saying, “I
have someone with me who I know is looking forward to seeing
you.”

“
Duke?” The question came
out in a whisper.

“
Yes. He’s right outside
in my car.” With a questioning look to Carly, merely out of
courtesy for he knew he’d be taking her out there anyway, he
continued, “We can go see him right now.”

“
Now,” she affirmed,
tucking her head under his chin and settling against him with a
sigh.

The second they stepped out on the
porch, Duke began barking and whining in the car.

“
Don’t let him hurt her,”
Carly said from behind him.

Without bothering to respond, he put
down a squirming Torrie and hurried to the door to open it. Duke
bounded out and immediately Torrie threw her arms around him and
began chatting with him in a language only they
understood.

He kept an eye on the small girl in
the front yard. Carly stepped up beside him but he never took his
gaze from Torrie. “What do I have to do to put my name in the
running to adopt her if there is no family who comes for
her?”

Carly sighed heavily and he looked
down at her. “Justice, are you sure this is something you want to
do?”

Words Kassidy asked him. “Is there
something about me that makes you think I don’t have what it takes
to be a father to Torrie?”

She shoved a hand through her red
hair. “That’s not it. It’s not an easy process and it’s hard on her
as well.”

“
What could be harder on a
kid than being thrown in foster care?”

“
Look, why don’t you take
some time to think about. A lot. You’re a single man with a career
in the Coast Guard. Are you
sure
you want to tie yourself down with a child? What
happens when a woman shows up in your life and doesn’t want a kid
not her own? Did you ever think what that would do to Torrie,
especially if she had the impression she would be your daughter?”
Carly met his stare. “You asked me what can be harder, well,
Justice,
that
can
be harder on a kid than being put into foster care. I know you
don’t like how I handled things last night, nor possibly my
approach to the dog issue, but I’ve been doing this since I
graduated college. My
first
responsibility is to the child, not to your
ego.”

Her green eyes shot fire with her
determined statements and his respect for her grew. Nodding, he sat
down on the step and braced his forearms on his quads. Silence
remained between them for a few moments and she sank down beside
him, lacing her fingers.

“
You know, she was hiding
beneath the steering wheel when we got to the boat.” Carly gasped
but remained silent. “Her mom, already dead, lay in a pool of her
own blood and Duke sat before her, protecting her. When I got her
out of there her big eyes stared at me, and the amount of pain and
fear in them killed me. Torrie thought her mom was sleeping. She
held on to me like I was a lifeline,
her
lifeline. She trusted me. I
don’t ever want her to lose that.”

He rolled his shoulders and smiled at
Torrie when she looked at him. “So yes, I am a single man. I have a
career, but I want that little girl in my life. No amount of time
will change my mind on that fact. I just need to know what steps I
have to take.”

“
All right, Lieutenant
Justice Graham, all right. I’ll get you the information you need,
but you have to know we have to search for and reach out to her
family. So, keep in mind there may not be an option for you to do
this.”

Those words churned in his gut. “I
know. But if there isn’t anyone else for her, she needs to know
that I want her. Even if there is, then she’ll know I will always
be there for her.”

“
She has to stay here, but
I’m sure she’ll love a visit from you.” Carly shifted. “You know
being in your job… it may not be the best.”

“
I know. I’ve been serving
my country since I was eighteen, I’d hoped to retire from it, but
if it’s needed I can resign my commission early.”

“
And a wife?”

“
Seems to me getting
married just to be allowed Torrie in my life is foolish judgment.
It wouldn’t create for a happy home life.” Even as he spoke those
words, he thought of Kassidy and knew that would work. Kassidy as
his wife could never be wrong.

“
You have someone in mind
though. I could see it in your face.”

He shrugged negligently and refused to
comment. His personal life was that, his.

“
How do you think she’ll
feel about you doing this?”

“
She knows. I told her
everything last night.”

Carly got to her feet. “I have other
children to see to inside, are you staying for a while?”

“
Yeah, I think I
will.”

“
Okay.”

Carly smiled when some older children
came out front and ran for Duke. The dog never changed his happy
attitude but Justice could see him always keeping an eye on his
little charge, Torrie.

He spent the entire day with Torrie
and the rest of the kids at the foster home. After dinner and her
bath, he carried her to the crib she had been designated to sleep
in and lowered her into it.

“
No, Jus-is,” she said
reaching for him. “Stay with you.”

“
Sorry, baby, you have to
stay here. I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”

Big tears welled up and poured down
her cheeks. Her bottom lip poked out and she sniffed heavily. “I
want Duke and Jus-is.”

“
We’ll be back tomorrow.”
He lowered his head to hers and said, “I need you to be brave until
I come back, okay?” Handing the blanket to her, he stroked his
knuckles down the side of her face where he struggled to stay
strong and maintain his resolve. “You go to sleep and I’ll be here
tomorrow.”

She stared at his face and the tears
continued to stream down her brown skin. Yet she nodded. “Morrow,”
she whispered as if trying to convince herself of that.

“
Yes,
tomorrow.”

Torrie lay down and slipped her thumb
in her mouth. He covered her with a blanket and brushed a kiss
along her cheek. One of the hardest things he had ever done in his
life was walking away and leaving her in that building.

In his car, Duke lay in the backseat,
his head down, moping. “I know, big guy. We’ll see her
tomorrow.”

With a mind of its own, his car headed
toward Kassidy’s. When he pulled into the yard and shut off the
car, her front door opened and she stepped out onto the porch. She
waited for him, leaning up against the large post.

“
Hi,” he said as she knelt
down to pet Duke.

“
Hi. I figured you might
be back by. There’s food inside for him if he’s not eaten yet.”
Kassidy opened the door and they walked in together. “How is she
doing?”

“
I didn’t want to leave
her there.”

Without another word, Kassidy wrapped
her arms around him and offered all the comfort she could. He had
no words to express how her actions made him feel or what they
meant to him.

Chapter
Thirteen

Kassidy dropped to her
knees and covered her mouth with her hands.
It can’t be. This has to be a lie.

It had been a few idyllic months.
Justice was still on track to get Torrie into his life, as no other
relatives could be found. Her mother’s murder was still an open
case, but he didn’t care. Justice was determined to have her in his
life. There had been a few tense days when his sister had called
saying she was being deployed into a warzone. But otherwise things
had been going so well. Duke had settled in fine, and he and Libby
got along swimmingly.

And now this. Another wave of nausea
hit her with the force of a typhoon. The beeping of the phone
alerted her to the fact the phone was still off the hook. With
blind movements she put it back on the base and pushed unsteadily
to her feet. She grabbed her purse and coat before leaving her
office. It was hard to function.

“
Kassidy, I need you
to

” Her boss
Diane stopped talking and grabbed her arm. “Are you okay,
honey?”

“
I have to go to the
hospital. There’s been an accident.”

“
Okay. Go. Let me know if
you need
anything.
”

She nodded and stumbled out the back
to her car. Her movements were automatic as she started her car and
drove to Quiet Harbor Memorial. Hands shaking she locked her
vehicle and continued on into the heated interior. The loud noises
and hustle and bustle all seemed to be in slow motion for her, the
sounds muted.

At the desk she waited to be noticed.
An older gentleman finally stood before her.

“
Can I help you?” he
asked.

“
Philyra Barrow was
brought in. She’s my mother.”

His nearly bald head dipped and his
fingers danced across a keyboard. When he met her gaze again she
could easily read the empathy in his expression. “I’ll take you.”
He hollered over his shoulder as he was stepping out and then was
beside her. “This way.”

They walked down a hallway past some
curtained areas to a door with the shades drawn. “In here,” he
said.

She stuck her hand out and pushed down
the silver handle and swung the door in. The first thing she
noticed was there was no sound in the room. The next, her father
lay there with his head on the bed, holding her mom’s
hand.