Page 144 of Cuffed (Everyday Heroes 1)
“Her parents are one hundred feet away.”
“And they like to hit their little girl,” he says.
“They are threatening kidnapping charges. Really, Grant? Is it worth it? Is your career worth it?”
“Yes.” The answer is instant and unwavering.
Nate’s shoulders fall as he pinches the bridge of his nose before saying something I can’t hear to the other officer and taking a few steps away. Grant takes a step toward Nate and then thinks better of stepping away from the car. “The only way I’m leaving her is if you arrest me.”
Minutes pass as Grant stands guard. He looks into the back of his cruiser and makes funny hand signals. The entire time, his face is a mask of calm, when I know he’s feeling anything but.
The onlookers around me buzz about the standoff between officers. Opinions flow freely. Bets are wagered. Comments about how the little girl always looks so sad.
But it’s Grant I stare at. It’s Grant I want to look my way. It’s Grant I want to know I think he’s in the right.
Memories of when the police took me away for my evaluation ghost through my mind. The hard chairs. The white walls. The scary guns on belts I couldn’t stop staring at. The perfectly sharpened crayons I made my drawing with. The constant fear that my mom was going to leave me there. Alone. The promise that she wouldn’t.
Is Keely feeling any of this fear right now or is she just confused?
“I’m sorry, Grant, but I have to.” Nate’s voice startles me from the unexpected memory that has me shivering and pulling my arms around myself. He steps toward Grant, his hands going to his cuffs on his belt.
“Don’t do it, Nate.” Grant shakes his head.
“You’ve given me no choice. It’s orders from the chief.”
Grant stares at his partner as he reluctantly turns him around and pulls his hands behind his back. The first cuff clicks, and its then that Grant looks up.
It’s as if he knows I’m there because he looks right at me. Our eyes lock, and I can see the fight in his gaze. The defiance. His want to be a hero for this little girl, and God, how I want him to save her. I want to wade through the ocean of emotion swelling between us and tell him he’s standing for the right cause.
The cuff goes on his other wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he mouths to me, and I don’t know if he’s apologizing for back then or for right now, but it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have to apologize for anything.
Nate turns Grant so his back is to me and removes Grant’s gun from its holster.
“Her blood will be on your hands,” Grant says, causing Nate to falter; his statement making what his fellow officer has to do that much harder.
Nate pulls Grant’s keys from his pocket and unlocks the cruiser, allowing the female officer to open the car door. The whole scene is hard to watch, but it’s the look on Grant’s face as he turns that breaks my heart.
Compassion. Grief. Anger. Disbelief. All four flash across his expression when Keely climbs out of the car. She’s in a pink nightgown with a unicorn on the front of it. Her hair is a tangled mess, and she looks around shell-shocked at all of the strangers staring at her. Despite her hand being in the officer’s, her eyes are big and terrified as they search for a familiar face.
I can sense her fear. Her confusion. Her uncertainty. And somehow, I remember the feeling of being lost in a maze of people when all I wanted was to be home curled in a ball on my bed.
Her terrified sob cuts through the air as she sees Grant and runs toward him, her arms wrapping around his thigh like he’s her lifeline.
“Grant,” I cry his name out, my heart shattering in a million pieces as she clings to him. And for a split second, he meets my eyes, and the look we exchange claws its way into my damaged soul and warns it that he’s going to help heal it. The connection is quick and ends when he kneels down and says something in her ear.
Reassuring her.
Telling her it’s all going to be okay when it isn’t going to be.
Her life will forever be changed.
I remember the promise of a trip to Disneyland to try to dissipate the upheaval in my life. Every little kid loves Disney. I don’t blame my mom for the fib, but I remember thinking back then how I didn’t care where we went as long as she didn’t leave me. And so long as my dad didn’t come with us.
I’m jostled by the person behind me and it snaps me from the memory just in time to watch Nate grab Grant’s elbow to help him stand. The female officer has the tough task of picking up a petrified five year old and walking her into a house that seems to be filled with fear instead of comfort.
Grant watches, too, defeat owning every part of him.
