Page 6 of Her Defiant Warrior

She winced, then nodded. “Okay, show me.”

He grasped her hand and ushered her over to the corner where Renzo was holding Angel.

“She’s just a little girl. Almost a baby, Mom.” Jase heard his voice break. He crouched down beside Renzo. He couldn’t help himself. He needed to look into her eyes. Make sure that she knew he hadn’t left her.

When he held out his finger, she grasped it.

Renzo continued humming.

Jase was so busy looking at Angel’s face he was startled when his mom brushed back a lock of the child’s hair off her forehead. Angel pulled away from her. She grabbed at Jase with her other hand, too.

Fuck. Had that evil teacher hurt her?

He looked up at his mom, who was now kneeling on the other side of Renzo. “How bad off is she?” his mom asked.

“I saw a little boy and then a littler girl hurting her before I could stop them. The girl called her a piece of shit and spit on her,” Jase quietly told his mother. “They said something about her dad being a bad cop who was in jail and her mom was a…wasn’t a good mom.” He didn’t know how to say what they’d said.

Renzo dragged back a bit of the girl’s blanket so that his mom could see the little girl’s bruised side.

Jase gently stroked a finger over the baby’s swelling wrist. “Mom, he was swinging her around.”

Sharon closed her eyes for a moment. “Sweet mother of God.”

“We can’t leave her here, Mom,” Renzo said.

“How is he?” Malik asked as he bent over Jase’s shoulder.

“She,” Jase corrected.

“How is she?” Malik asked again.

“You should hold her,” Renzo said to Jase.

He nodded. The little girl was holding onto him with both of her hands. The two boys awkwardly transferred her, and she gave a little chirp of pain.

“You’re hurting her,” Malik cried out.

“They’re helping her, Honey,” Sharon assured her younger son. Once again, Jase heard his mother’s voice tremble.

“Can you do something?” Malik asked.

“You’re not going to leave her here, are you?” Renzo asked.

“She won’t leave her,” Jase assured his brother. “We’re adopting her.”

Sharon Drakos looked at her oldest son. Jase saw tears in her eyes and his gut clenched.

She won’t say no, will she?

A tear dripped down his mother’s face, as she smiled the biggest smile he’d ever seen before. “Renzo? Malik? Are you adopting her too?”

“Yes!” they both said at the same time.

Two more tears fell down her cheek.

“I have never. Not ever. Loved you boys more. Of course, we’re adopting her.”

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