Текст книги "Coup De Grace"

Автор книги: Lani Lynn Vale

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

***

Michael

“This has to look real,” Dane said to Lisette and me.

I rolled my eyes.

“We’ve already gone over this a million times, Dane,” I growled.

“You aren’t even touching her. In fact, you haven’t touched her all night. How convincing is that?” Dane laughed.

I ignored him, scooting closer to Lisette and putting my arm over her shoulder. “Better?”

Dane studied the two of us. “Yeah, I guess.”

I felt like I was betraying Nikki.

Even sitting here, just like this, wasn’t good.

I knew it.

I should call and explain.

But I was a coward.

“What time do you want us to meet up at the doctor’s office tomorrow?” Lisette asked Dane.

Dane shrugged. “What time’s your appointment?”

I ignored them, pulling my phone out of my pocket once again, disgruntled when I still had no reply texts or returned calls from Nikki.

I laughed when Elliott said I texted like a girl, and watched when he got up to leave.

“You don’t really want to do this,” Lisette observed.

I shrugged. “It needs to be done. I just wish I didn’t have to lie to my girlfriend about it. She’d be devastated if she ever…”

I watched as the woman I’d been dreaming about walked past me without a glance in my direction.

Eyes down at the floor and a look of devastation on her face, I knew she’d seen me.

Hell, how could she not?

We were in the middle of the dance floor under the fucking lights for Christ’s sake.

“Fuuuuck,” I groaned, turning my head to watch Nikki as she walked up to some punk of a kid, grabbed his arm, and started grinding her ass against him.

I was stunned still, for long moments, and only came unstuck when the punk’s hand went to Nikki’s hips.

She slapped his hands away, but he didn’t take the hint, grinding his dick into her ass and holding on when I knew she didn’t want him to.

“Move quickly please,” I urged Lisette.

She’d seen the altercation, had followed my eyes to the dance floor and Nikki, and chose to move.

Smart girl.

I walked purposefully up to Nikki and her new friend, and roughly yanked him away from her.

“Go find your own woman,” I hissed at the boy.

The boy’s eyes narrowed, and I yanked my badge from my belt and held it in front of his face.

“Now do you really want to try it?” I asked him honestly.

I didn’t think he would, but I’d give him the option. I was itching for a fight.

He shook his head frantically. “No.”

Didn’t think so.

I nodded my head. “Good boy.”

When he stayed where he was, waiting for my next direction, I cocked my head towards the exit and said, “Why don’t you go ahead and go?”

He went.

And I was left with Little Miss Trouble Maker.

“Really, Nikki?” I asked, amusement clear in my voice.

She narrowed her eyes.

“Go fuck yourself, pendejo,” she snarled.

There was my little Spanish hellcat. The one that only came out when she was well and truly pissed.

I raised a brow at her, and then took in her attire.

I liked the way her spiky heels brought her up to me.

I liked the way she stared me in the eyes, all fire and innocence with a hint of prissiness.

“Take it outside, buddy,” Elliott said from my back.

I looped my fingers around Nikki’s wrist, noting that she’d gotten more delicate since I’d last seen her, and made a mental note to speak with her about that as well.

First on the agenda, though, was setting her straight.

I’d gone long enough keeping her in the dark.

It was time to bring her into the light.

Let her know what all she was about to get into.

Because I’d just given my notice, so to speak.

I wouldn’t be the FBI’s guinea pig.

I would be my own man and I’d have my woman at my side.

“Let go of me,” Nikki yanked her arm out of my grip before we’d made it outside.

I stopped, then pushed her into the handicap bathroom, slamming the door closed before she could protest.

“Michael! Let me out!” She shrieked.

I moved forward, until my body was pinning hers to the door, and she started to squirm viciously.

Her shirt rode up, and I looked down, feeling the new hardness of her abdomen.

Before it’d been soft and yielding. Now it was hard and round, causing me to lose my train of thought.

I moved my hand down until it rested on the side of her belly, my hand cupping the small life inside her tummy.

“You’ve gotten big,” I murmured softly.

She froze.

Then smacked me upside the head.

“You don’t tell the woman you knocked up that she’s gotten big!” She snarled.

I chuckled, then dropped down to my knees in front of her.

I moved my hands up, catching the hem of her shirt, and pushed it over her belly as I slid my hands up to her ribs.

My eyes feasted on the sight before me.

Her gently swollen belly popped out over the top of her pants.

A black hair tie looped around the hole of the jeans, and then over the button, holding them closed.

Her belly button was a little less concave, and I assumed, by the end of her pregnancy, it’d be an outie instead of an innie.

I leaned forward, pressing my lips against the soft skin of her belly, and said, “I’ve been a fool.”

Her hands found my hair, and I looked up to see tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Nikki,” I told her. “I’ve only been thinking of you, though. This guy…whomever he is…he’s good. He’s gotten fifteen couples to date, and out of his thirty five kills, only two have made it. We have one witness, and he hasn’t been able to give us a fuckin’ thing to go on beside the build and color of the man’s hair. He never went to any of the appointments, so we’re all hanging on by a fricking thread.”

“Why haven’t you come to see me?” She asked, devastation clear in her voice.

I shook my head.

“At first,” I said. “It was because I was trying to get my head on straight. Then I started seeing a therapist that the department recommended. Then another murder happened, and well, I’ve been a fucking coward. I should’ve come to you. I actually have every night since I left you in bed that night two months ago…I just don’t come inside.”

She glared.

“Who’s the woman?” She snapped.

“An FBI agent. She’s going to help us catch this man. She’s been posing as a new patient who moved here because her husband was transferred to another police department…but I’m not sure that’s going to work too well now since I was supposed to be that police officer,” I told her honestly.

She glared.

“And what does being a fake husband make you have to do?” She asked, clearly not happy with my answer.

I shrugged. “Go to doctor’s appointments. Be seen with her in public. Stay in the same place at night.”

Her eyebrows rose to her hairline.

“And what about my appointments?” She asked.

I saw where she was going with it, and I knew she wouldn’t like my answer.

“I can’t go to them.”

And I couldn’t.

Not if this was to be authentic and believable.

“What about the birth of our child…will you be able to come then?” She asked calmly.

“If he’s caught,” I said carefully.

She dropped her hand from my face and stood there, looking up at the ceiling.

Her tears had never abated, and I felt about six inches high.

“Please get off me,” she said. “Please.”

“We can have each other at night,” I told her. “I love you.”

Those words seemed to make her snap.

She pushed me away from her with enough force that I fell backwards, my ass planting on the ground solidly.

And I was also far enough away that she almost had the door open.

Almost.

“This doesn’t change anything,” she growled, yanking on the door.

I slammed my hand down to stop her progress.

“It has to look real!” I yelled at her.

“You want to have real, use me! I’m real! You put this baby inside of me, maybe you should use me since I’m actually yours!” She yelled, waving her hands in the air in true Pena Tantrum fashion.

My eyes narrowed, then I moved forward until I could only make out the whites of her eyes.

“I can’t use you. Because you’re mine, and I don’t ever want you on that man’s radar,” I hissed, crowding her into the dirty, grunge covered wall once again.

She pushed at my shoulders, but I didn’t budge.

“Get off me!” She screamed, drawing the attention of the entire bar I was sure.

I pulled back and let her escape, and immediately saw Dane.

Dane had taken my place on the Lisette’s arm. He looked at me in concern, but he didn’t intervene.

Nobody did, in fact.

I followed Nikki out of the bar.

Then followed her to her car.

Then followed her straight to her apartment.

When I got to her front door, I tried the handle, and was surprised to feel it unlocked.

So she wasn’t too mad at me, otherwise she would’ve locked the door.

Right?

Wrong.

When I pushed the door open to her apartment, I was startled by what I saw.

She was on her knees in the middle of the living room.

She was facing away from me, her chest up tight to the coffee table as she looked at something with such focus that I wasn’t sure what to think.

“Nikki?” I called, walking up behind her slowly.

She looked over her shoulder at me, and I read the determination there.

The understanding.

The resignation.

“Come look at this, Michael,” she said softly.

As I made my way up to her side, I looked down, and my knees went weak at what I saw.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked softly, dropping down to my knees beside her.

My knees sank down into the plush carpet.

The pretty purple carpet that Nikki just ‘had to have’ when we were at Lowe’s one weekend looking for paint thinner.

And I thought to myself, ‘this’ll look good in the baby’s room.’

“You need to choose, Michael. The killer and your duties, or me. Because I can’t do this anymore. I can’t put my life on hold, wondering how long it’ll be before you come back. Wonder if you’ll make it to the birth of our little girl. Wondering if this killer will take you from us. I just can’t Michael. So choose. Them, or us.”

I closed my eyes, and made the easiest decision of my life.

“I gotta go.”

Chapter 17

Run like Dean just saw you crash the Impala.

-T-shirt

Nikki

My emotions were swirling around me like a black funnel cloud of doom.

I’d given him my ultimatum, and he’d chosen.

It hadn’t been what I thought he’d choose, but he’d chosen, nonetheless.

I walked up to the elevator from the parking garage, and depressed the button that would take me down to the ground level, allowing me to the cross the breezeway to my destination.

Another doctor’s appointment.

This would be my four month checkup, and the gender reveal.

Even though I’d technically had that two weeks ago when I’d gone to Georgia who’d insisted on doing an ultrasound.

See, it turned out, that we saw each other quite a bit, working in the same hospital.

I’d started my job on the labor and delivery floor a little over a month ago, and I’d had a freakin’ blast doing it.

So far, I’d delivered twelve babies.

All of them happy and healthy.

The elevator dinged when the doors open, but I was in my own little world thinking about my job, which meant I didn’t see the man standing in the elevator until he spoke.

“Going down?” An amused male voice asked.

I looked up, and my heart started to race.

“Michael,” I breathed, tears starting to form in my eyes.

He smiled, and held out his hand.

“Come on, or we’ll be late,” he said laughingly.

I blinked, but took his hand and made my way into the elevator.

“How’d you know where I would be?” I asked softly.

My eyes stayed firmly planted on the floor, though.

Because I didn’t want to believe he was here, and look up to see that I’d imagined it all.

That would be cruel, but life was a bitch like that.

“Your best friend,” he said.

I could hear the smile in his voice, and if Georgia had been in the room with me right then, I’d have punched her for not telling me.

We rode the elevator in silence.

Me not saying anything because I just didn’t know what to say.

Him not saying anything because I was sure he was waiting for me to flip out on him.

Something I wouldn’t do at my place of business.

When the elevator doors opened, I made my way out with Michael directly at my back.

I could feel his warmth from the top of my shoulders to the backs of my thighs.

“Nikki, wait,” he said softly.

The pain in his voice had me turning sharply, looking at him in worry.

“What?” I asked.

He closed his eyes, and I realized just how tired he looked.

“I told them I couldn’t do it. And I’m sorry. I knew if I stayed there with you last night, I’d put it off, and I needed to get it done,” he answered.

“Michael, I wouldn’t say what you did didn’t hurt, but I understand. I gave you the night to think it over, and I meant it. I knew you’d make the right decision,” I told him.

He nodded, his eyes shifting from my eyes to my lips where I was currently worrying the bottom one with my teeth.

“I love you,” he said again.

My heart melted at those words.

The same ones that had come out of his mouth last night.

The ones I hadn’t returned because I couldn’t.

Today, though, knowing he would be staying with us. Giving us a chance.

I said it back to him.

Meaning it with all my heart.

“I love you more,” I said simply.

His rumbled laugh warmed my insides when he pulled me into his arms.

“I’m gonna fuck up,” he promised.

I snorted.

“You and me both, big boy,” I shot back.

“I don’t know anything about kids.” He informed me.

I looked up into his eyes and said, “Really? You’re pulling that card?”

I turned on my heel and started walking inside, very aware of the man at my back.

“Yeah, that card. I don’t, though. I really don’t,” he said.

I rolled my eyes.

“Michael, you make it your mission in life to save kids. Trust me, you know how to handle kids even if you think you don’t,” I told him gently.

Michael smiled.

“Whatever. So tell me about your doctor. I feel like I’ve missed a lot,” he changed the subject.

I smiled. “Dr. Mead is my doctor, but we’ll be seeing the PA, Joanie Dooley, today. I have to see them all just in case my doctor is out of town or at a birth or something when I go into labor.”

Michael nodded, but his eyes had clouded like he did when he was concentrating on something.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head, and when the elevators dinged, signaling we’d arrived at the floor I needed for the doctor’s office, he froze.

I’d already walked out and turned the corner before I realized he wasn’t following me.

“Michael?” I called, turning around and looking for him.

I found him still inside the elevator, his hands on the doors to hold the door’s open.

“What doctor’s office do you use?” He hissed.

I reeled back at the vehemence in his tone.

Blinking, I said, “Women’s Center. Why?”

Michael yanked me to him, then further pulled me to the stairwell.

“What, Michael? What is it?” I asked in alarm.

He didn’t stop until we were three floors up, and I was breathing hard from exertion.

He yanked the door open to the sixth floor, and pulled me right along with him.

Once he saw that the coast was clear, he visibly relaxed.

He let me go almost immediately, then pulled out his phone and placed a call.

“Yeah, my woman’s been going to the Women’s Center for months now!” He hissed quietly into the phone, looking around him as he inspected the empty hallway. “Why didn’t one of you fucking catch that?”

I blinked in surprise.

“Yes, she’s fine. And no, you told me you had the place under surveillance. You should’ve known!” He half yelled.

I refrained from saying, ‘You should’ve known.’

Instead, I kept my mouth shut and pulled out my phone, taking a seat at a small chair that was next to a potted plant.

I immediately saw that I’d be late if he didn’t hurry up, but I figured whatever it was was important if he had reacted the way he had at realizing I was going to a certain center.

Then realization dawned.

He’d only care about where I was going if the place was dangerous.

And there’d only been one case he’d been working on lately that would’ve made sense to warrant this reaction from him.

And I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was.

And I was nauseous again.

Mother fucker!

A cold sweat started to pepper my skin, and I visibly started to shiver as I jumped to conclusions.

Michael continued his seething conversation with the person on the other end of the line, and I started to let my mind wander.

Had I let some killer get close to my baby?

What would happen to us now?

Would the baby and I be in danger?

Could I switch doctors?

I’d have to drive out of town to go.

The Women’s Center dominated the entire Ark-La-Tex. There was only one company in the area that worked with my insurance, and I had a feeling I’d be finding out what panic felt like very soon.

Then sorrow started to fill me.

Had all those women come here, given their trust to one of the doctors or nurses, then had their faith ripped away when they’d shot those poor women and their husbands?

“This is it. We do this today, and tomorrow she finds another doctor. Do you hear me? I’m being one hundred percent serious. If anything happens to her, there’s not one thing on this goddamn earth that’ll save you from me. And no, I don’t fucking care that I’m threatening an FBI agent,” Michael growled.

Then slammed his phone shut.

When he turned to me, his eyes immediately went soft.

“I’m so sorry, Nik. Had I known, I would’ve never let you come. I swear on my life I’ll protect you,” he promised, dropping down to his knees beside me and wrapping his arms around my midsection.

I moved my head, resting it on the top of his.

“What’s in the past is in the past. Let’s look forward from now on. You, me, and this baby,” I told him.

He squeezed me a little tighter, and I felt the now familiar flutter in my belly signaling our unborn child’s movement.

“I love you,” he said, looking up at me with his heart in his eyes.

I leaned down and smashed my lips against his.

Our tongues dueled as he thrust his tongue into my mouth. His tongue slid along mine as his hands moved up my back, burrowing under the loose shirt I’d stolen from him.

The one I wore to every doctor appointment because I liked to think that he was there with me.

“You’re wearing my shirt,” he said against my mouth.

I leaned my forehead down to his.

“Yeah,” I said simply.

“It’s a little big on you,” he surmised.

I laughed.

“Yeah, you could say that,” I agreed.

It was big.

Really big.

I’d tied it into a knot at my waist, at least making it somewhat flattering.

I didn’t really care what I looked like, though.

It was all for sentimentality.

And by the look in Michael’s eyes, he knew why I wore it, too.

“You ready to get this shit over with?” He asked quietly.

I nodded.

“Michael,” I hesitated. “There are some good doctors in this office. I’ve seen a doctor and a nurse practitioner so far, and my regular doctor, well he’s a sweetheart. His name is Doctor Mead. Him and his wife are the creators of this practice. Even Memphis works here.”

His eyes widened.

“Does Downy know Memphis works here?” I asked carefully. “The place that y’all are investigating?”

He shook his head. “Nobody knows. But he’ll know within ten minutes of me leaving the office. And I’m taking Memphis with me until they’ve discussed it.”

I snorted.

“Yeah right,” I laughed. “She won’t go with you.”

“We’ll see about that,” he muttered, tugging me along to the elevator.

Thank God.

I didn’t think I could do those stairs again.

Even if I was only going down them.

***

“Michael!” Memphis said, clapping excitedly. “You’re here!”

Michael grinned at Memphis, his face lighting up with pleasure.

“Yeah, I’m here,” he nodded.

“Well, how’d the appointment go?” Memphis asked, patting the table.

I handed Michael my purse, and he tossed it onto the chair. Something I could’ve done.

“I had a coke in there,” I muttered darkly.

He winked. “You shouldn’t be drinking coke. That’s what the doctor just said.”

“Michael, you’re not my doctor. Dr. Mead is. He hasn’t said a word about my caffeine intake,” I growled.

He was insufferable!

He’d been going on and on, contradicting the nurse practitioner about damn near every piece of advice she’d given in the hour and a half we’d been here.

Not one single thing had happened, thank God.

But Michael must’ve been trying to provoke the woman.

Whatever his reason, he’d done it.

I could see the usually sweet tempered woman losing her cool before my eyes, so I’d put a stop to the questions and smiled apologetically at her before I’d left.

“Well, I am a doctor. There’s no reason you can’t listen to my directions,” he said sarcastically.

I shrugged and hopped up onto the table, leaning back and exposing my belly.

“Michael, today we’re doing a scan to make sure the baby is growing alright. Come stand right here,” she said, indicating a spot near my head. “You’ll be able to see this screen or that one.”

She pointed at the large flat screen on the wall, and Michael took them both in before he looked down at me.

“Does he know what you’re having?” Memphis asked happily, squirting a generous amount of lube on my belly before she started to run the wand over my belly.

I looked at the screen where the black and white grainy picture filled it.

“Yeah, he knows,” I informed her. “He still wants a boy.”

Memphis laughed.

“Weellllll, it’s most definitely a girl!” Memphis said, gesturing to a point on the screen. “Hamburger means girl. And she wants you to see that she is.”

Michael became transfixed with the screen as Memphis went along taking measurements, and showing us different parts of the baby’s anatomy.

Then they showed the face, and I looked up to Michael to see his face avidly focused on the screen.

His eyes scrutinizing her every feature.

“She’s perfect,” he mumbled, knowing I was looking at him.

He looked down, and I could tell he was on the verge of something big.

Some huge emotion had a hold of him, and I had a feeling it was joy.

“Well, let’s turn it to 3D,” Memphis said excitedly. “I can’t wait until mine’s big enough to see like this…oh shit!”

Memphis eyes were wide. “Don’t tell Downy! I haven’t told him yet!”

Michael laughed.

“He already knows. He’s told everyone he can that you’re expecting again, darlin’,” Michael teased.

Memphis’ eyes narrowed. “You’re kidding.”

Michael shook his head. “No, we’ve known for weeks.”

She turned back to the screen, clicked a few buttons, and then replaced the wand to my belly. “Oh, I’ll be getting him back. He’s such a shit!”

Michael snorted, and I burst out laughing, making the screen flip with my belly’s movement.

When I finally settled down, she ran the wand over my belly once more.

The orange screen was captivating as we saw our child in more detail.

“It looks like an alien,” I surmised. “Like a weird alien.”

Michael’s mouth met mine, and I couldn’t help the butterflies that filled my insides at his unexpected touch.

I was happy that he was happy.

And right now, that was all that mattered.

Thirty minutes later, we were out the door, with Memphis in tow.

“I can’t believe you’re making me come,” Memphis said in awe. “I didn’t think anybody but Downy was that stubborn.”

Michael, who was driving, pulled into the police station’s parking lot and parked in the back of the lot near the rear exit.

“Believe it. This is beyond your capacity. And I have a feeling I’m about to be ripped a new asshole for not sharing this information before,” he muttered grumpily.

Now that the excitement at seeing our baby had worn off, Michael was in protect mode.

His sole focus was on the two of us, and what was about to come.

He’d practically taken Memphis by force, and when Downy met us at the back door; I knew Dr. Mead had called him.

Just like he’d said he would.

Although Memphis had assured him that everything was alright, Dr. Mead still wanted to follow up just in case.

Which was another reason I knew he was a good guy.

I slid out of the seat, bending my knees to help with the impact as I dropped out of Michael’s massive truck, and landed on the balls of my feet.

That wouldn’t work for much longer.

I could just see myself now falling on my ass when I had another twenty pounds of baby added to my frame.

“What the fuck’s going on?” Downy asked, holding out his arm for Memphis.

Memphis walked into his arms, burrowing her face into his neck and hugging him tightly.

Michael had given her the bare minimum of what’d been going on to get her to leave with him, and she was obviously freaked way the hell out about the prospect of her employer being involved in something so vicious.

“Inside. To home base,” Michael ordered.

Downy’s brows rose, but nonetheless turned and followed Michael and I to what I later learned was the SWAT team’s shared offices.

The first person I saw was my brother with his legs propped up on the long table in the middle of the room.

I walked up behind him and hugged him hard around the neck.

“I love you,” I said to him.

He raised his arm up and circled it around my back as best he could do from his current position.

“Love you,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

I gestured to Michael.

“They’re killing our women.”