Coup De Grâce (Code 11-KPD SWAT 7)

Then I shivered.

Nikki wouldn’t be carrying my child.

No matter how much the idea of it turned me on.

“This is him. I got him a pad of paper to write everything down. I also had them fax the copies of all the members who work for The Women’s Center,” Elliott said, shaking his hand that had a thick pile of papers in it.

When I made to wait outside, Elliott jerked his head. “You too. He asked for you.”

My brows rose. “Me?”

He nodded. “Yeah, apparently he knows you.”

“How would he know I’m working on this case at all?” I asked.

He stopped and turned. “He was the best friend of Darren Cox.”

My mind shut down.

Mother fucker.

That guy. The murdered father in the crime scene that started this case for me.

“Holy shit,” I breathed.

Elliott nodded. “Yeah, needless to say he’s not doing too good.”***An hour later, with more information than Agent Palmer had in months over multiple cases, we walked out of Wolfgang Amsel’s hospital room.

We still didn’t have a name.

We did, however, have a hair color.

Black.

Which seemed to be the man’s trend.

Amsel had explained that he’d just gotten off work and was in the kitchen eating the breakfast his wife had just cooked for him when someone had knocked at the door.

She’d gone to answer it, and he’d looked up when she started backing up.

He’d said that he heard ‘Turn around or I’ll shoot her!’

His service weapon had been at the island, half a room away from him, so he’d turned.

And was promptly shot in the back of the head.

He looked over in time to see his wife gunned down moments later by a man with black hair.

Then he was gone.

And he was left to watch as his wife fought for her life.

My phone rang when we made it to the waiting room, and I smiled when I saw it was Nikki.

A little bit of happy in a big bowl of oh fuck.

“Hello?” I answered the phone.

“Hey,” she said worriedly. “We’re outside the ER entrance and there’re a bunch of people outside the doors. What’s going on?”

I cleared my throat.

“There was another murder,” I said softly. “Give me a few minutes to come down and I’ll escort you inside.”

I’d known she’d be here.

She couldn’t help herself.

She’d been by to see Nathan Cox multiple times since he’d been there.

And with what I’d told her last night about Madden and his two kids, I knew she’d be here as soon as she could.

I’d planted the hint to call Shiloh and Georgia, though.

Madden didn’t deserve that lot in life.

He deserved to live a happy, easy life.

Something he couldn’t do anymore.

Not with two kids.

Two kids he was adamant he was not leaving.

And he was most definitely not giving up.

In the eyes of the law, a child is solely your child, no matter what the age.

Although it got a little hairy when you couldn’t take care of your children.

Something Madden couldn’t do by himself.

The best way to make this happen was to place all three within a home that was willing to take them on.

And that was where Nikki, Shiloh, and Georgia came in.

“I gotta go let my girl in,” I told the two men in front of me. “She’s stuck outside the ER with a shit ton of cops and reporters.”

They both nodded.

“That’s fine. We’re leaving anyway. We’ll walk down with you,” Elliott said.

Nodding, I hit the down button, and the elevator doors swung open.

“Do you think what you got today will help?” I asked the two as the doors closed and we started to descend.

Elliott shrugged, but Palmer nodded. “I think so, yes.”

I felt a relieved breath pour through me.

“That’s good,” I told them. “Really good.”

And it was.

Cops didn’t deserve to have even more people against them.

They deserved unity and support from the public, and with all the cop related shootings going on lately, it wasn’t looking good for us.

“You know my number,” I said when the doors opened.

The two of them nodded and exited the ER with me.

Once outside, they went left, and I went straight to where I could see Nikki and the two women at her sides.

“Hey,” I said, pointing towards the gap in the saw horses the police had erected.

They all nodded and started pushing through the last of the crowd until they arrived at the gap.

When Estevez would’ve stopped them, I put my hand on his back.

“They’re with me,” I informed him.

He winked. “Gotcha.”

Both girls came around the barrier and I pulled Nikki against my side with my arm around her shoulders. “I need a hug that’ll turn into sex,” she whispered against the skin of my neck. I squeezed her shoulders tightly, pulling her even deeper into me. Then, like a boss, I said, “I could give that to you…if you want.”Chapter 12Hello, my name is Nikki Pena, and I’m a liar. I’m also going to hell.

-A liar’s secret thoughts

Nikki

“Hello?” Michael answered his phone with a large bite of hamburger taking up the majority of his mouth.

Michael grinned, and I could see chunks of food in his mouth, causing me to turn away in disgust.

My stomach roiled, and I looked down at the barely eaten plate of nachos I’d ordered for lunch- one hundred percent sure that if I tried to eat them I’d be barfing in no time.

It’d been four weeks since all the business with Madden and his children had gone down, and a little over four weeks since little Nathan Cox had been admitted to the hospital for a gunshot wound to his head.

All four were doing fine, and Madden was with his children at a temporary foster home until we could figure out a more permanent situation.

Nathan, however, wasn’t home.

Although he was doing much better, he still wasn’t where he needed to be to be allowed release from the hospital.

Then there was the murderer out there killing cops and their pregnant wives.

That was the worst.

That part was so scary because I worried for my friends and family, since all of them were cops.

Nausea started to slither up the back of my throat, and I hastily grabbed my cup of tea before taking several sips in a vain attempt to keep it down.