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  Mei-Li thought it was likely true that Kristin’s mother would be angry—she was always angry. But the fact was, it was better for the little girl to deal with her mother’s shouting than the kind of abuse her supposedly ex-boyfriend was bringing into the house.

  “Are you thirsty?” she asked, pushing her shake towards the girl. “This is chocolate.”

  “Thanks.” Kristin sniffled and took a sip of the melting shake. “Mmm, good.”

  “I know, chocolate is the best, isn’t it?” Mei-Li shared a conspiratorial grin with her. “It’s my favorite.”

  “Mine too.” Kristin grinned and took another sip.

  “So how long has Randy been coming around?” Mei-Li tried to keep her voice casual. There was a court order stating that the man couldn’t be near Kristin or her little sister. For the last couple of months it had seemed like her mother was complying with it. But now…

  “I don’t know.” Kristin shrugged. “A while?”

  Mei-Li sighed, reminding herself that a first grader wasn’t exactly the best judge of time.

  “You said he was there last night, though?”

  “Uh-huh. Him and Mama were fighting.”

  I just bet they were. That seemed to be the basic pattern in their relationship—they would scream and fight and then Kristin’s mom would deny Randy sex and then he would take his anger out on Kristin and her sister. It sounded to Mei-Li like the whole messy, abusive cycle was beginning all over again and the two little girls were going to be caught in the middle.

  But how long had it been going on? She made a mental note to talk to the girl’s teacher and see how long she’d been listless and quiet. Chances are the timing coincided with Randy’s reappearance in her life.

  “These are really yummy. Can I have some more?” Kristin looked at her hopefully.

  “Have all you want.” Mei-Li tried to smile. She watched the little girl reach for another French fry and saw the shiny circle of an old burn scar on the inside of Kristin’s thin forearm. Randy had done that with his cigarette because she and her little sister were being “too fucking loud” having a tea party while he was trying to watch the ball game in the next room. He had done some time for it but a technicality had gotten him out of jail early and now he was slinking around where he didn’t belong. Not that scum like him belonged anywhere but at the bottom of the ocean in Mei-Li’s opinion.

  Just the sight of the scar made her jaw clench. It wasn’t the only mark Kristin and her little sister had courtesy of Randy Dungston. There were other old scars and at one time sexual abuse had been suspected, though it had never been proven. Just the thought of him coming around Kristin and her sister again, making their lives hell, made Mei-Le so angry she couldn’t see straight.

  And she wasn’t just furious at Randy who was an abusive asshole—but also at Kristin’s mom. Mei-Li didn’t have kids of her own but she knew if she did she would love them with all her heart. It was a mother’s responsibility to protect her little ones from harm. How could any woman have a relationship with a man who could hurt her children? How could she turn a blind eye to the abuse and pain he inflicted on her girls? How could she pick him over her own daughters?

  Mei-Li didn’t have the answers for any of that but she did have an idea of what to do. The only problem was, it was going to require extra vigilance on her part and with her massive caseload, she was already stretched thin. Still, she would do whatever it took to make certain Kristin and her sister were safe from harm.

  A bell buzzed somewhere outside and Kristin swallowed her mouthful of fries and looked up.

  “Oh, lunch is over! Now we get to do PE.”

  “You like PE?” Mei-Li asked, smiling.

  “I love it!” A little of the old enthusiasm was shining in Kristin’s big eyes. “And today we get to play with the parachute! I love parachute day. Can I go back now?”

  “Sure. Are you finished?” Mei-Li nodded at the mostly empty carton of fries and the shake.

  “Uh-huh.” Kristin scooped the last two fries into her mouth and slurped up the rest of the chocolate milkshake. “Can I go?”

  “I’ll go with you.” Mei-Li stood and held out a hand. “Come on, I need to talk to your teacher.”

  Kristin’s eyes grew suddenly wide as she took the offered hand. “Are you gonna ask her about Randy? He never comes to school.”

  No, he wouldn’t dare. He just shows up slinking around the house at night and scaring two innocent little girls to death, the bastard!

  Somehow Mei-Li kept her smile in place. “I don’t want you to worry about that, Kristin. I’m going to take care of it.”

  “Okay.” But the little girl sounded doubtful.

  “Come on.” Mei-Li tugged gently on her hand. “Parachute day, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah!” Kristin’s smile reasserted itself and she tugged back, leading them to the door. “Hurry—I don’t want to lose my spot!”

  “Okay, we’ll hurry.” They rushed, giggling out of the office and through the hallways to Kristin’s classroom. But though she entered into the spirit of fun with the little girl, Mei-Li couldn’t help being worried. Was Randy Dungston having a relationship with Kristin’s mother again? She knew if she called and asked the woman would only deny it, and the call would just put her on her guard. No, the only way to be certain was to make an unannounced visit some evening and night visits were never fun. Still, it had to be done and she knew she could count on Claudia for backup. They could also call in a squad car if necessary—the police were there to help if need be.

  Mentally, Mei-Li changed her idea of getting home around eight, pushing it back a couple of hours to ten or later. If she was going to do a stake out of Angry Mom’s house, it was going to add some time to her work day.

  Well, maybe I’ll be out all night and I won’t get to bed at all, she told herself. At least that would keep me from going to sleep and dreaming…dreaming about him.

  Avoiding the frightening dream was the one bright spot in the whole awful situation. But Mei-Li knew she couldn’t keep this up forever—if she didn’t get a decent night’s sleep soon, she was going to drop.

  That’s a problem for another time, she told herself firmly. For now, I just have to keep going. Have to be in court in forty-five minutes. And after that, I have got to get to that paperwork…

  * * * * *

  Six frowned as he watched her exit the door of the low, sprawling building which seemed to have something to do with educating young. It was strange to see so many little ones running here and there. He only ever encountered youngsters of any species when he visited the medical barges. On Z4 all the organic inhabitants were grown to adulthood before they were released from their medically induced comas and extracted from the incubation tubes. Here on Earth, it appeared that they were made in a more…unrefined fashion and allowed to grow to adulthood with no chemical manipulation or enhancements at all.

  Almost as odd as the children was the proliferation of females. Because the females of Z4 had all died off soon after the Collective took over, he wasn’t used to seeing them. They seemed so different from males—shorter, more slender, more vulnerable.

  But none that he had seen was as tiny as Mei-Li. She could almost have been mistaken for a young one herself until you looked at her face and saw the wisdom and life experience in her big, dark eyes. Also, she was dressed as the other adult females were with a piece of cloth that wrapped around her waist and thighs and left her legs bare and strange, stilt-like shoes attached to her feet. Six wondered about those—were they just to make her taller? For a while he thought they might be some kind of enhancement but he didn’t see any electronic components so he decided they must just be strange footwear.

  Speaking of enhancements, that was another thing he found strange about this planet—seeing everyone, everywhere completely unenhanced. The inhabitants looked oddly bare to him. Not a single one of them had so much as a mechanical hand or an ocular scope. How did they manage without the added inp