Coup De Grâce (Code 11-KPD SWAT 7)

He smiled. “I’ll do that. But I have a meeting that’s supposed to start in about fifteen minutes. I’ll have to take a raincheck.”

I tossed a laugh over my shoulder and then disappeared into the crowd onto the dance floor.

Shaking my ‘bon bon’ to some Ricky Martin, completely forgetting about the man and his ‘meeting’ by the time the fourth song, Pitbull this time, rolled around.***Forty five minutes later, I came off the dance floor with one thing in mind.

A bathroom.

Quick.

I barreled through the door to my destination, and came to a sudden halt when I was faced with the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.

And she was pregnant to boot.

Flowing blonde hair that came down to her ass. A black skirt pulled up to just underneath her belly, a sky blue tank top, and gold gladiator sandals rounded out the outfit.

She looked hip and trendy, something I never managed to do.

My curves were too generous to look nice in what she was wearing.

“Hello,” I said, skirting around behind her to go into the stall behind her.

“Hi!” She answered back immediately.

I did my business, but heard her leave before I made it back out of the stall.

Washing my hands and fixing some fly-aways from the bobby pins holding my hair out of my face, I smoothed my hands down my jeans and made my way out to the mouth of the hallway.

I tried to decide whether or not to grab a drink from the bar again before going out to the dance floor once again when I saw them.

And my heart stalled in my chest, coming to a slow, pounding stop before it started beating again at a rapid staccato.

Because there, in front of me, was Michael.

He had his arm around the blonde woman from the bathroom, laughing with her.

Dane was across from them on a bench by himself, watching the two interact with crude eyes.

He said something to them, and made his way to the bar.

Where he ordered a water, and turned to smile at me.

I didn’t smile back.

Instead, I walked to him, dread in my every step, and took the glass from him.

I’d never in my life wanted a drink as bad as I did right then.

But, alas, I was pregnant.

And that was a no-no.

Fuckers.

“What’s wrong?” Dane asked as he took in the set of my shoulders, the way my eyes were flat without any emotion.

“How do you know them?” I asked pointing at Michael and the mystery lady.

“Colleague,” he answered.

Wonderful. Dane was another cop.

With a sigh, I walked to the dance floor, knowing Michael would see me as I walked past his table.

Then I found the first person I saw, remembering that he’d wanted me to dance with him throughout the time I’d been there, and grabbed him.

Startled at first, the man smiled when he saw who it was.

Then started to grind into my backside.

And dammit, I hated it.

I wanted to want it so bad that I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings.

I totally missed the man that was staring at me as if I’d just stolen his heart straight from his chest.

Missed the way Dane caught it all, and the way understanding lit his eyes.

I also missed the way the woman watched me, knowing I was the one for Michael.

When the man’s hands moved up to cup my hips, I slapped his hand away.

Michael missed that, though, because he turned to talk to the woman, and hurriedly she moved out of the booth allowing him to head straight to me.***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?”