Coup De Grace by Lani Lynn Vale
Dedication
To my mom. Thank you for reading my sex scenes and not gagging. Love you.
Acknowledgements
Dearest FuriousFotog, you are a blessing. Thank you so much for taking these photos for me. They’re unbelievably beautiful.
Andrew England-when I first started writing, you were the first person that I really took notice of…I always said that one day I would have you on the cover of one of my books, and here you are, lucky number 18. <3
Dearest readers,
I know you’ve been waiting a long time for Michael’s book, and I hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I loved writing his story.
As you know, this is the last in this series, but don’t fret. You’ll see more of them in future books such as Kilgore Fire Department and a future spinoff series of all the ‘Free Kids.’
<3 Thank you so much for reading this book, and all of my earlier work. Just know that it is you right now that made this possible for me.
Lani
Chapter 1
I licked it. So it’s mine.
-Fact of life
Michael
“You’ll need to make sure you get to the house by six if you want to make it on time for dinner,” my father said tiredly. “You know how your mother gets when you don’t show up on time.”
I winced.
I did know how my mother got.
Irrational is what she got.
It’s as if she hadn’t been married to a doctor for the last thirty years.
I can’t name one single time that my father got to any event on time, whether it be a birthday, vacation, sporting event, graduation, or hell, even a fucking birth.
Not one time had I seen her lose it over my father being late, but her baby boy was late and suddenly the whole world stopped.
“I’ll try to be on time,” I told him. “But I’m not promising anything. I have to work until five thirty; it takes nearly thirty minutes to get to your house from the station. And that’s if I leave on time. I told her to make sure she held the party later, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“Joslin wanted six,” my father told me hesitantly, opening the door to his office. “And that’s when Dean could be there.”
I squeezed my hands tightly into fists, trying my hardest to not punch a hole in the wall with my fist.
I had no earthly idea why my mother continued to invite my ex-wife.
Dean was at least my fuckin’ brother, and I could understand why he’d have to be there.
It was as if my mom didn’t care that Joslin was no longer married to me. Usually the family chooses the child over the child’s ex.
We were together for a little over a year and a half when I found out she’d cheated.
Granted, the reason she’d cheated had been my fault, or so she’d said, but that still didn’t give her the right to do that to me.
We’d taken vows. And I’d at least meant them.
Refraining from saying, ‘Fuck Joslin,’ I walked to the side doors of the hospital and to the ambulance bay with my father.
“I see,” I settled on.
My father’s face looked pensive, as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to say it.
“Michael, I need to tell you something…” my father started.
I would’ve stayed to listen, but the mic at my shoulder started squawking.
“The nearest unit is needed at 5543 Pleasant Circle. Possible double homicide,” the dispatcher ordered.
Sighing, I turned and offered my hand to my pop.
“Gotta go, dad. I’ll try my hardest to get there on time, but I’m not promising anything,” I told him.
He nodded, looking for the world like he was upset that he hadn’t said what he had to say, and shook my hand before saying, “Be safe.”
My father, like my mother, hadn’t liked that I’d chosen to go into law enforcement.