He was the assistant chief as well as the SWAT team leader; so, as the more superior officer, I wanted to make sure I was where he wanted me, seeing as I’d just shot a man.
“We always miss all the fun!” James, with his sniper rifle in tow, whined.
“Sorry I couldn’t provide that for you,” I said with semi-amusement.
“He fucked up. His usual MO is to make the cop empty his pockets and get rid of the sidearm. Had he done that with you, he might still be alive,” Luke muttered, arms crossed across his chest as he glared at the dead man at his feet. “Fuckin’ paperwork. Did you get anything out of him?”
I nodded.
“It was because of his wife. She was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop,” I explained what I knew.
“Fuckin’ A,” Miller growled.
“You found me faster than I thought you would,” I admitted to Luke.
“Put a BOLO out on his car. Stan drives a shiny Maserati. It’s hard to miss something like that driving down the road. Officer Lyons saw it the moment he pulled into the RV park to turn around. Was parked off to the side, as if he was broken down,” Miller explained. “Luke called you to tell you we had the warrant, you didn’t answer. He started to head this way because he said you didn’t look right, and then passed the same RV park where the car was found. Put two and two together. Made twelve. End of story.”
I shook my head.
Amazing.
“Two and two make four, not twelve, dumbass,” Foster tittered from the front door.
Neither had breached the front door since they knew it was a crime scene, and I was talking through the screen door.
The entire team was occupying my patio furniture.
James was kicked back in the lounger. Miller and Foster on the couch. Bennett, Nico, and Downy were on the final three chairs with the umbrella over their heads, eyes closed.
And I had an irrational desire to tell them how much I loved them.
Would that be weird?
To have their support, and to know they were all there for me when I needed them was exactly what I needed in that moment.
All my self-doubts were gone.
And it its place was relief and thankfulness.
Relief that I had lived to breathe another day.
And thankfulness that I’d have good friends and a good woman around to do it with.
***
Later that night
Nikki walked into her bedroom, glanced at me, and went straight to the bathroom.
She was mad at me.
Hell, I was mad at me.
I’d left her thinking I’d be right back, and she hadn’t known where I’d gone. I hadn’t said goodbye. I didn’t even wave.
She also hadn’t known that my life had been in danger.
She only found out two hours later when I’d arrived back at the station and had promptly been whisked into questioning to answer a shit ton of questions.
I’d been put on administrative leave, pending an investigation, but I knew nothing would amount to that seeing as I had Luke to back me up one hundred percent of the way.
Nikki had been told by her brother what had transpired, and let’s just say that she hadn’t been happy. Not even a little bit.
When I’d gotten out of questioning, I’d found that Nikki had been taken home by Georgia.
By the time I arrived home, it was four hours later and pushing ten o’clock.
She hadn’t been asleep, though.
Far from it.
She’d been sitting on the couch watching the news. Which happened to have me as the breaking story.
“Michael?” Nikki asked, removing her shirt from her body.
My eyes took in the bounty before them.
Nikki had always been beautiful.
But right now, with the moon at her back streaming through the blinds, and her hair a curly mass falling down her back and draping over her shoulders, I’d never thought she was more beautiful.
She had the beginnings of a belly, and the pink belly button piercing had a star attached to it, resting on the soft swell...a belly button ring I’d never seen before now.
“Yeah baby?” I asked, swallowing tightly.
The next thing to go was the black bra.