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.