Coup De Grâce by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

little boy who made a grab for his mic.
    The boy looked scared shitless the closer we got to Miller’s cruiser, and by the time I opened the door to the cruiser he looked like he was about ready to bail out. Straight through the glass window.
    “Alright son,” I said, dropping down to my knees beside him. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    He looked sort of green, but it was then that I noticed that his heart was in his eyes as he looked at the children.
    “They’re mine,” he croaked.
    I blinked. “They’re yours?”
    He nodded.
    “Yeah,” he rasped.
    “How old are you?” I asked.
    He swallowed. “Fourteen. Fifteen in two months.”
    My heart started to race.
    “They’re yours,” I stated for clarification.
    He nodded again.
    “Yeah,” he confirmed.
    I looked up at Miller, then back at the boy.
    “What’s your name?” I asked softly.
    He looked down at his hands.
    “Madden,” he said quietly.
    “Madden, you’re not even old enough to be on your own yet. How do you have two kids? And why are you on your own? Where’s the baby’s mother?” I continued.
    He bit his lip, and looked up at me with eyes that were shining with tears.
    “I stole them from her. She wasn’t taking care of them,” he cried. “Not like they needed to be taken care of.”
    I refrained from saying that he wasn’t doing too good of a job either, and nodded my head. “Who’s the mother?”
    “She’s…she’s my stepmother. And I stole them away from her while her and my father were high. They were…doing stuff that I didn’t like. And she was smoking around the baby. I didn’t like that. I had to get them out. I had to. They would’ve died. She would’ve killed them,” he insisted pleadingly. “She already smoke and drank throughout her pregnancies. She didn’t even go to the hospital to have them!”
    I looked down at the baby in my arms, saw the frailness to her, and started to get mad.
    Not at him, no .
    But at the situation.
    “When did you take them?” I asked softly.
    He bit his lip. “Last night.”
    Jesus, so this was how they were from her , not him .
    “Alright, Madden. How about you come take a ride on the medic with your kids. From there we’ll figure this out, okay?”
    He nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.
    “Thank you,” he croaked, voice cracking like all adolescent boys do at that age.
    Jesus, this was one sick, fucked up situation.
    Fucked Up. With a capital F and U.
     

Chapter 10
    My brother has the best sister ever.
    -Coffee Cup
    Nikki
    “Go get your newspaper!” I said hurriedly the moment I pounded through Nico’s back door.
    Nico glared at me , still holding the door open. Georgia, being Georgia, did what I asked and ran to the front walk to get the newspaper.
    “Why didn’t you just get the newspaper on the way in?” Nico asked.
    His hair was a freakin’ mess.
    “The twins keep you up all night?” I asked cheekily.
    He glared.
    “Maybe you should take them for a night. Give me a little break,” he muttered.
    I blinked. “I’ve offered no less than thirty times since they were born. I’d love to watch them. You’d only have to convince yourself to let them go.”
    My brother was attached to his family.       
    No matter the bitchin’ he did, he refused to let the twins, or Georgia, out of his sight.
    A few years ago, before he’d reconnected with Georgia, he’d gotten into a spot of trouble with a mafia boss.
    So much trouble that to save Georgia, he’d faked his death with the help of the CIA and the Texas Rangers. While he was ‘dead,’ he’d continued to search for the man responsible for putting his life and Georgia’s in jeopardy, finally finding him around the time the twins were born.
    Georgia, though, as well as the rest of our family, hadn’t been able to get over the fact that he’d ‘died.’
    We still had nightmares.
    Georgia and I spoke about that quite a bit.
    Nico wasn’t without his own nightmares, either.
    Although we