Duty to Defend

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

  “Sounds good,” Luvleen said. “Then take over for Daci so she can go on her break.”

  Serena nodded and whisked Chase away.

  “Have you met our other new worker?” Luvleen nodded toward Daci, who had her charges arranged in infant seats in a semicircle on the floor around her and was singing a silly song with actions. “She’s amazing, isn’t she? What a find! We badly need at least one more attendant in this area. Do you know of anyone?”

  Jax was only half listening after the word amazing. Watching Daci interact with the little ones was fascinating. How could she keep the rapt attention of five less-than-one-year-olds? Yet they all gazed up at her, some of them kicking and chortling, as she sang her ditty in a soft, throaty voice.

  “Do you?” Luvleen repeated.

  “What? Oh.” Jax blinked down at her. “No, sorry, I don’t. And, yes, I met Daci yesterday when I dropped in to see Annie—and Chase, but he was out ill.”

  “That’s right. Naomi told me you stopped by while I was performing one-on-one therapy.”

  “How is Chase coming along? Do you think he’ll be able to bond with his mother?”

  “Too soon to say, though I can testify that Serena is doing her best to make that happen. Time will tell if her commitment will last. FAS babies are difficult for even well-adjusted adults to handle. The only edge she’s got going for her is mother love, and I never underestimate the power of that.”

  Jax smiled and nodded, still riveted by Daci’s interaction with the children. “I guess that’s it for me here, then. Thanks. I have a couple other clients to see in the toddler rooms.”

  On reluctant feet, he left the area without talking to his partner. Jax spent a half hour chatting with other caregivers and getting down on the floor to play with his little clients. As far as he was concerned, this was the best part of the job.

  A soft laugh behind him drew his attention. He looked over his shoulder to find Daci gazing down at him in the act of building a block tower with a toddler.

  “I like what I see,” she said. “No one can say you don’t spend quality time with your clients.”

  He grinned. “I like what I see, too.” His face heated as her mouth slackened into an O. “I mean, I liked watching you interact with the kids.”

  Her eyes lit in an expression that could only be called mischievous. “So, you don’t like what you see now, just what you saw then? A girl could get a complex.”

  “Sure, go ahead and give me the old razzamatazz for a slip of the tongue.”

  She laughed and his skin tingled. If he didn’t know better, he’d think they might be flirting. Good thing he knew better. Right?

  She dropped down cross-legged between him and the tot. “I’ve got a few minutes left of my break.”

  Together, the three of them finished the tower. Then Daci and he laughed and clapped as the little guy gleefully demolished it. A yawn overtook Jax in the midst of the clapping, and he covered his mouth.

  “Sleepy, Williams? We have an open crib.”

  He smirked. “Kind offer, but my best blankie is at home.”

  Daci checked her watch. “Oops, I’m overdue back at my station.”

  “And I’m due in court soon. Talk to you later.”

  “For sure.” She waved and hustled off.

  As Jax headed back to his car parked a short way up the street, he stifled another yawn. Some major caffeine mojo might be in order. If his brain continued in its current mushy condition, he could drop the ball on his pint-size client during trial. Not acceptable.

  Jax reach for the Malibu’s door handle, but a shrill alarm arrested him. He whirled toward the day care. The alarm continued to blare, and the glass doors of the facility erupted open. Workers and their charges poured out. Fire alarm? He sniffed the air and studied the building. No smoke. But lack of smoke noticeable from this vantage point didn’t mean there was no fire.

  He raced toward the center to offer assistance. Some of the little ones milling around on the lawn were crying and trembling, but at least they were safe. Anyone still inside might not be. Bucking the outflow, Jax plunged into the building, gaze searching frantically for Daci, Serena and little Chase. For that matter, he hadn’t seen Luvleen emerge, either. The rush of exiting bodies was slowing to a trickle, but there was still no sign of them. If Liggett Naylor or some faceless threat to Daci had arranged a distraction in order to get to them, this was perfect.

  Sniffing for telltale smoke but still not detecting any, Jax trotted for the infant section. Heart hammering against his ribs, he burst into that area to find it empty. Unless they were in one of the changing or crib rooms. Calling their names, he began throwing open doors but discovered no occupants. Where could they have gone? Had he missed them in the melee outside?

  Racking his brain, he took a side door and found himself in a hallway across from a few offices at the rear of the building. The shrill screech of the alarm beat against his ears, but, even louder and higher, a female shriek raked his nerve endings. The noise came from beyond the metal door at the end of the hallway. Of course! Workers would be trained to get the children out the nearest exit. At this end of the building, that exit would be in the back.

  Jax raced up the short hallway and burst through a door labeled Emergency Exit Only. His feet ground to a halt in the gravel of the employee parking lot.

  Several small children huddled together in Luvleen’s embrace. Another worker cradled a pair of infants. A third held a baby while speaking rapidly into a cell phone.

  A few feet beyond them, near an idling car, Serena shrieked as she pounded at the beefy back of a man who clutched a wailing Chase. The infant dangled from one of the man’s arms, while he used the other to try and dislodge Daci’s two-handed grip on his shirt that prevented him from ducking into the open driver’s door of the vehicle. Even as Jax plunged into motion, the man drew back his fist for a roundhouse punch headed straight into Daci’s face.

  Four

  Daci ducked beneath the sweeping blow, the air current from the flying fist ruffling her hair. Off balance, the man staggered even as Daci snatched Chase from the abductor’s loosened grip. She darted away as a freight train in the form of a lean, charging figure slammed the culprit to the ground.

  The fire alarm abruptly ceased, but not the bedlam outside. The abductor on the ground bellowed curses as Jax fastened his arms behind his back with a zip tie pulled from his suit jacket pocket. The man definitely came prepared for anything. Still screaming, Serena rushed in, grabbed a howling Chase, and hugged him to her heaving chest, while the other small children squealed and wailed in chorus.

  Since Jax had the perp under control, Daci turned and wrapped her arms around Serena and her baby. “Hush, now. Hush, hush. It’s all over.”

  The young woman’s cries subsided into ragged breathing. “Why would...some stranger...try to steal Chase? Unless...no, he wouldn’t!”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Daci looked Serena in the face.

  The woman’s gaze went stony, and her chin jutted as she clamped her jaw shut. Daci tamped down her disappointment. Apparently, it was still too soon to presume she had Serena’s confidence.

  “Never mind.” Daci patted her arm. “Focus on comforting Chase.”

  The young woman nodded and began cooing and rocking her son, who was letting out hoarse squawks and alternately doubling up and stiffening straight out.

  With Serena completely engaged with her son, Daci turned away to find Jax still on the ground with his knee pinning the would-be abductor’s back. The man lay still and silent now as Jax leaned close to his ear, speaking in tones too quiet for Daci to make out words. Was he questioning the attacker? This was probably their only shot at interrogating the guy before the PD got their hands on him. The Marshals Service would likely send in an interrogator of their own when they got him to lockup, but it wouldn’t be either Jax or
her because they still had to protect their undercover status, unless or until they knew for certain it was blown.

  The bellow of sirens closed in on their location. Police and firefighters converged on the scene. The police took the perp into custody, and firefighters soon declared the day care building safe. Day care staff, including Daci, concentrated on returning the children to their normal environment and activities while being pulled aside, one by one, for brief interviews by the investigators. Naomi disappeared into her office to call parents, who were required to be notified of the emergency, though the fire had been a false alarm.

  The question on the top of Daci’s mind was who had activated the alarm. The would-be abductor couldn’t have done it because he didn’t have access to the interior of the day care. The only way into the building, since the emergency-exit doors were locked for ingress but open to egress, was through the front door. Security there was rigid under the watchful eyes of Naomi Minch and Emma Tyse, the no-nonsense clerical assistant who rarely budged from behind the front desk. No, the perp had been waiting out back to snatch his prey, which meant someone on the inside had pulled the alarm switch at a time when that person knew Chase would be in an area of the building that would necessitate evacuating him out the rear door.

  Daci’s gaze traveled the play area. Was it petite Hayley, who supervised a group of three children at the sand table? Or maybe Jose, the wide-as-he-was-tall toddler teacher currently fitting aprons onto four tiny pupils about to start finger painting? What about other workers who weren’t directly in her line of sight? Luvleen? Never! Daci’s faith in her ability to judge character would be forever shattered. Could it be Cecil or Wendy or Marina or Takisha or others she hadn’t met yet? She didn’t know any of them well enough to have an opinion about who might be enticed to betray an infant. Her blood boiled at the thought.

  A tall figure entered the room and stopped beside her. “I envy children’s ability to so quickly leave the ugly behind and enjoy themselves again.” He nodded around the room at all the happy activity and laughter.

  “Me, too.” Was her tone as wistful as she felt? “I think I must have been born with a hyperactive responsibility gene because I don’t remember ever being this carefree.”

  Jax frowned but let the comment slide, and Daci was grateful. What had possessed her to blurt out such a personally revealing remark?

  “I hate to say it,” he murmured, “but one of the staff here had to have been in on this abduction attempt.”

  “Agreed.” She kept her voice low, also. The walls might not have ears, but the people bustling around had two each. “All workers have their backgrounds checked before coming on board, but we need to dig deeper on each of them. Maybe someone has a new personal association or problem that has left them open to coercion. Did the perp tell you anything?”

  “Nothing except grumbling about finding an easier way to pay a debt. I said, ‘Depends on who you owe.’ He answered, ‘You don’t mess with this guy. You do what he says.’ The remark points to Naylor, don’t you think?”

  “Strong indication. Which means he could still be in the area if the perp’s assignment was to bring him his son.”

  “Or he could be in Timbuktu, having arranged remotely for the grab and delivery. Hopefully, we’ll know more later today, after the PD and the Marshals Service get done grilling our would-be baby-snatcher. In the meantime, I hate to leave, but I have to be in court in less than an hour.”

  “No time to change your pants, then, I guess.”

  “Huh?”

  Daci dropped her gaze to the slit of skin peeking between the rent in Jax’s suit pants over the left knee.

  He followed her look and let out a groan. “This morning it was TP on a shaving cut. This afternoon it’s a rip in my pants. Same judge, too. He’s going to think I’ve lost my mind.”

  “Not if you explain you were going above and beyond to save an infant.”

  “You were the one who grabbed Chase. Nice bob and weave, by the way.”

  Daci’s insides warmed, and a smile crept onto her lips. “Thanks. We can call it a team effort.”

  “I like that.” Their gazes locked and held as Jax’s grin mirrored hers.

  Her heart rate swept into overdrive, and she hastily tore her gaze away.

  Clearing his throat, Jax looked away, also. “Connect with you downtown later.” He lifted a hand in farewell.

  Daci’s gaze followed his retreating back as he left the building. That confident stride and the straight set of his shoulders indicated a man of determination. His actions had proved courage, and his choice of career—as well as how he carried it out—displayed compassion and integrity. So many admirable qualities made him too attractive for her peace of mind.

  The gravitational pull between them was intense. His body language said he felt the same way and fought it like she did. She knew why she resisted. The timing couldn’t be worse for romance when she was trying to get her career underway. And how unprofessional would it be to allow attraction to muddy her thoughts about a colleague when they were on a case together? Was professionalism his reasoning, also? Maybe in part, but she sensed something much deeper and very painful throwing up a wall between them. Maybe it was time she took his invitation and looked into his background.

  But right now she needed to check on Serena and Chase. She found the younger woman in the dim and quiet nap area, sitting beside her son’s crib and watching the little boy sleep.

  At Daci’s approach, the younger woman turned a face of misery toward her. “His foster parents are coming to get him. I won’t even be able to hold him if he wakes up and cries again.”

  Daci laid a hand on Serena’s slumped shoulder and squeezed. It was getting easier to feel genuine sympathy for Serena, but then, it had been easy to feel sympathetic toward her mother or father when they were in their rare sober moments and lamenting the consequences of their lifestyle. But momentary remorse never led to true repentance or substantial change, and the cycle of substance abuse and child neglect soon began all over again.

  At one point, Grandma Katie had tried to have Daci and her siblings removed to her custody, but that hadn’t happened until her parents were dead and there was no one else, with the exception of Uncle Conrad. Thankfully, Uncle Con’s DUI record eliminated him from the court’s consideration. But as long as Daci’s parents were alive, her father’s old Boston money and prestige of name had spoken too loudly for the courts to hear anything else—not from a working-class, first-generation Swiss immigrant like her grandmother, who still spoke English with a pronounced accent.

  Part of Daci’s parents’ psychosis as addicts was delusional pride in their parenting. They liked to tell everyone they looked after their children personally. What that meant in reality was that they neglected their children while refusing to hire proper caregivers. They made an exception when the twins were born and hired a day nanny to help out for a year and a half or so, but even then, four-year-old Daci changed more diapers and fed more bottles than both of their parents combined—often in the middle of the night when the adults in the house were passed out and the babies were crying. Over the years, as more children came along, various cooks and housekeepers went beyond their assigned duties and helped with physical cares.

  But Grandma Katie with her warm letters and frequent visits and taking Daci and her siblings to church—when their mother and father allowed the outing—had provided the totality of the adult, familial affection Daci received when she was very small. Later, after Grandma had unsuccessfully sued for custody and was barred from the house, only the letters remained to comfort and sustain Daci through some very rough times.

  In Serena’s case, the young woman had neither money nor name going for her, but the courts were considering returning her irreversibly damaged son to her dubious motherly care—and Jax was deeply involved with that system. Another compelling reason to resist her
attraction to the man. A relationship with him could drive her insane with aggravation every time he lamented when poor judgments were rendered for tiny clients. Because sometimes, as she well knew, the system simply didn’t work.

  Daci pulled her hand from Serena’s shoulder. “I gather you didn’t know the man who tried to take your son. You called him a ‘stranger.’ Do you think Chase was targeted or was the guy after any random child?”

  Serena rose and motioned for Daci to follow her to the corner of the room away from the crib. Pulse quickening, Daci complied.

  The younger woman leaned close to Daci’s ear. “You saved Chase out there, so I guess I owe it to you to be on the level.” Serena’s gaze darted around like she thought someone could be skulking in the shadows. “It’s gotta be tied to my ex-boyfriend. You know? He’s a menace. I’ll bet he sent one of his crooked buddies to get Chase.”

  “Chase’s father wants custody? Has he tried through the court system?” Daci all but held her breath to see what insights her innocent-sounding fishing questions might draw out.

  “The court system!” Serena snorted. “Yeah, the law wants him real bad. Back behind bars where he belongs! I figured him and me were quits. I never guessed he’d care a snap about any kid he had, much less one with me, one that wasn’t...like...all right. You know?”

  “Does he know Chase has FAS?”

  “I doubt it.” The younger woman shook her head. “I didn’t even know he knew he had a son! But the bad dude’s got resources, let me tell you.”

  “Has he tried to contact you?” Daci prayed the extreme urgency in her heart hadn’t bled through into her tone. She didn’t need to spook Serena now.

  The younger woman’s gaze dropped away, and she wriggled in that nervous mannerism of hers. “Not directly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Serena jerked her head up, her gaze hard and fierce. “I just have this feeling like I’m being watched all the time, but now that someone has come after Chase, I’m sure he’s out there waiting like a big, nasty spider in one of his hidey-holes.”