Dani held his eyes, hoping he could see her promise and that he believed her. “I won’t leave you,” she repeated, her signs forceful. “Do you understand me, Michael?”

For a long moment, he just stared at her with hopeless fear. Then he nodded once. “What about Joshua?”

Diesel tapped Michael’s shoulder, waiting until the boy slowly lifted his gaze. “I’ll watch over him,” Diesel told him. “If that’s okay with you.”

“It’ll be okay,” Joshua promised, but he hadn’t stopped crying. Still in Diesel’s arms, the child held out a hand to his brother. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered.

Visibly trembling now, Michael took Joshua’s hand and held it against his cheek. He turned to the social worker. “You won’t let him go home?”

“No,” she promised. “Dr. Dani is his emergency foster parent, too.”

Michael swallowed hard. The teenager was trying to be brave and it was breaking Dani’s heart to watch. He let his brother’s hand go. “Our mother will clean up her act,” he signed, as the interpreter voiced for him in a low murmur. “She’ll say all the right things. She’ll make you think she’s not on drugs anymore. But when you go away, she’ll go back to her old ways.” He blinked back tears. “Don’t let her take him. Please.”

Maddie glanced at Kendra Cullen from the corner of her eye. Kendra gave the social worker a slight nod. Drawing a deep breath, Maddie said, “Officer Cullen arrested your mother for possession of heroin. She was obviously impaired when we arrived. She’ll be tested for drugs.”

Michael seemed to digest this. “So Joshua is safe for now.”

Maddie nodded. “Yes.”

“But I’m not,” Michael signed, dropping his eyes to the floor.

No one was able to refute that, and the room was silent for a long moment. Dani gripped Michael’s good shoulder gently. She hadn’t finished examining him, but she’d do so before he was taken into custody. On that she wasn’t budging.

She waited until Michael looked up at her. “We’re going to get you a lawyer.”

Michael swallowed again. “I don’t have money to pay a lawyer.”

“You let us worry about that, okay?” Dani looked up at Diesel. “Do you have the name of a good lawyer?”

“I do. I’ll call him right now.” Diesel lifted Michael’s chin. “Not one word, okay?”

Michael nodded shakily and said nothing.

“Use my office,” Dani told Diesel. “Joshua, can you stay with Coach for a little while?”

Diesel took a sniffling Joshua into the office to make the call, and Dani turned to Adam and Deacon. “Are you sure the body you found was that of Michael’s stepfather?”