Quadruplets Make Six

by Nicole Elliot

  And I gawked when I saw my parents behind the wheel.

  Ava rushed to my parents, hugging them tightly as they got out of the car. We all embraced as the steaks rested on the grill, with Jasper running into his cabin to get more food. My parents were introduced to Ava’s and tensions slowly dissipated. My anxiety and my protective stance turned into one that was welcoming and warm, and I was shocked as to how my father and her father got along.

  Despite all the bullshit those two had gone through with their companies, it was shocking how much they had in common. They talked about their golfing trips and their experiences traveling abroad. They both had a love for Barcelona and classic literature. The two of them talked like they were old friends, sipping from beer bottles while Jasper cooked up more steaks. I held Ava close to my side, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

  “Did you ever think you would see this?” I asked.

  “What? My father getting along with yours? Not a fucking chance,” Ava said.

  “How do you feel about all of this?”

  Ava turned her gaze up to mine as she stood to her toes, her lips hovering in front of mine.

  “It feels like home,” she said.

  I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her deeply as Jasper continued to cook food behind us. Leo was bonding with her brothers, cracking lewd jokes and bragging about his sexual escapades. Our parents were laughing over memories and talking about future ventures for their companies, and I was holding my world in my arms.

  The mother of my child and my unborn daughter.

  Nothing could get better than this.

  “I love you, Ava,” I said into her lips.

  “I love you, too, Travis.”

  Cuff Me

  A MFMM Romance

  By Nicole Elliot

  Chapter One: Rose

  I wondered what it would be like if I had more friends. I think I would just be a lot more annoyed.

  Morning was peaceful; it was my favorite part of my day, going out walking my dog, Parker. He was a beautiful black Lab that pretty much walked me.

  “C’mon buddy, let’s go!” I sounded way too excited to just be walking my dog. But like I said, it was the highlight of my day.

  I worked very odd hours as an ER nurse, so I never got out much. I also worked the night shift and grave yard shift. I saw all the crazy stuff, and the weird too. It was true that the ER had its own seasons of the weirdest things one could see. I had been a nurse officially for five years and nothing was ever the same. Except my home life, which included frozen dinners and Parker. I had come home around five and took a power nap before getting some cleaning done, as I did every Tuesday.

  I was wiping my bathroom mirror down when I almost didn’t even recognize myself. My green eyes were dull, but they had been since my senior year of college. I had permanent under-eye creases that I always managed to hide with the right foundation, but with everything off, I saw how much worse they were getting. Still, I was pretty, I guessed. I was not an overly confident person, but when pretty much every man that came into the ER hit on me—the young, the old, the hot and the not so hot—you start to think these things.

  I rarely got to exercise, but running around the hospital all night was a workout, so I always had heavy hips but a slender body. I just tried to be as healthy as I could, and get my seven hours of sleep every night, or day technically, since that was how my schedule was.

  I tied my dark and unruly curly hair up in a bun and finished cleaning.

  It was around nine when I latched on his green leash and took the back stairway out of my apartment complex. I always stopped at little local coffee shop for a chai tea, too. There was an outdoor window, which worked for me since I had Parker.

  “Hey, Rose.”

  Yeah, the cashier knew my name. There was nothing wrong with having a routine and sticking to it.

  “Hey Sam, the usual.” Sam was a sweet college student, and she always had a smile waiting for me.

  “Coming right up!”

  She had papers tucked under the register, and there was no one behind me so I asked her about it. “Are you studying?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she huffed, “I have a biology exam tomorrow.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Yikes, I hated science. Good luck,” I said with a sad smile.

  “Aren’t you a nurse?” She giggled.

  “Yeah. But I like the practical part of my job. I never liked the exams it took to get here. What do you want to do?” I asked. There were still no customers coming in line.

  “Pediatrics. I just took my MCAT, so who knows how that went.” She laughed nervously.

  “Oh, well I’m sure you did great. If you need any shadowing or volunteer work, I have good contacts in the hospital.”

  “Really? Thank you, that would be great.”

  I stepped to the side to wait for my drink. Parker was very well behaved; he sat on his hind legs and barely blinked. My dad helped me train him…my throat closed at the memory and I pushed it aside.

  My chai tea was ready, so I set off with one last wave to Sam, and headed for my usual trail. All part of the routine, I thought.

  Chapter Two: Rose

  I was at my favorite part of the trail. Where the road ended and curved off into a slight bend into the back side of a park. It was always quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. The trees bent over a certain part of the path like a canopy, and the leaves were changing with the fall season. Usually, nothing in New York was that pretty. But, I lucked out with where I chose to live, and it was a twenty-minute walk or a ten-minute run from that neighborhood park. This time I decided to walk, and was only in jeans and a tee shirt.

  Parker suddenly went crazy as we passed the dip in the path that led towards under the bridge, and he pulled me along as he barked like a bat out of hell.

  “Easy, boy!” I nearly tripped as my Converses hit a little rock trying to keep up with him.

  I tightened the lease and curled it around my hand quickly and followed him. He barked and barked, then suddenly stopped. I turned down the path and peered at what he could have possibly gone this crazy for.

  I nearly screamed.

  I don’t know how long I stood there. A minute, maybe only twenty seconds, but it was long enough for me to see everything and remember it against my will. I had a photographic memory. It came in handy when I had twenty seconds to memorize an entire chart or a list of symptoms. Or times like this when I was obviously interrupting a heinous crime.

  The man in a sharp navy-blue hoodie was huge; I would be scared if he was simply walking down the street. He was even dressed like he planned to commit a crime, with his hood up and his pants dark. He could almost blend in with the wall. I barely noticed the other guy. Just the screaming, all words that I couldn’t even pick out no matter how hard I may try to.

  The heated argument and the angry flash of shiny metal was burned into my brain even as I turned the corner and ran and ran until I felt I was far enough away. Parker was well trained enough for me to let him go, and I quickly got my phone from my cross-body purse and called 911 immediately.

  Maybe it was a slight disagreement between friends. Or a drug deal gone wrong. I would never know the truth, I just knew a man in a navy hoodie was waving gun at a smaller man, and that was exactly what I told the police. I thought briefly that I should mind my own business before he came after me for interrupting him, or stopping me from calling the police if he suspected me to. But it was literally in my blood and how I was trained—to help people. To do something, anything, if I was needed to.

  Whatever I had seen, that other man obviously needed help.

  “What is your exact location, ma’am?”

  The voice was calm and monotone, like she did that kind of thing every hour. I tried to give her the best location I could, but it wasn’t exact. When the call ended, I think I breathed for the first time since Parker set off in that direction.

  Parker wasn’t just any normal dog. And I don’t say
that because I was some enthusiastic dog owner, I say that because he really wasn’t. He was trained for the worst of all places, the battlefield. Alongside my father. Only one of them made it back.

  “Good job, boy. Let’s hope we didn’t get ourselves into worse trouble, eh?”

  I rub behind his ears, his favorite spot that makes his tail wag and his nose scrunch. I smiled, even though my nerves were shot, and my heart wouldn’t stop palpitating. He was a comfort animal just as much as he was a service dog. He buried his muzzle into my neck and got a few licks on my face before I started laughing.

  I was told I didn’t have to wait for the officers to come to the scene. Hearing a gunshot made me hightail it out of there fast, and I had no idea what happened before I left.

  By the time I got home, I was glad I did.

  Chapter Three: Alex

  “You’ve done good, Jordan.”

  “Thank you, sir.” I stared back at my commanding officer and tried to fight a smug smile.

  I worked hard for this. The badge in my hand was the physical proof of all my hard work over the past few years. I started at the very bottom of the precinct, and now I was a detective. It was surreal. But it was damn well earned.

  “Unfortunately, you’ll be jumping right in. We just got word of a homicide while you were in the ceremony.” Harold walked around his desk, and opened a nearly empty file. It must have all happened fast.

  John Harold was a hard ass, one of the few Lieutenants in this precinct. But the 78th was known for our high ranks and decorated officers. I wondered why he had left the ceremony early. We were both in our ceremonial blues, and if I was going out in the field, I would have to change.

  “Really?” I take the folder. All it had was the 911 report and transcript, along with the location.

  “Yep. CSI is already out there, officers are taking statements.” He gave me a look under his hard brows that said, ‘what are you still doing here?’

  I nodded and took my leave.

  Some of the other officers on the floor congratulated me as I made my way to the locker room to change. A few of the women had come up with a new reason to have drinks with me after work. I responded with empty promises and my best smile.

  Women had a thing for us cops, and especially detectives. I didn’t even mean it in a cocky way, but I was a good-looking guy and had the body to match. I’d been with almost every female in other precincts, it would be foolish to fool around in my own precinct.

  I got to my locker and grabbed a pair of slacks and blue dress shirt. It was weird to be dressing in anything other than my normal uniform, but it felt good, too. All the studying for the exam, making sure I was squeaky clean as an officer. Even as a fucking traffic cop. I had instinct and I had heart, it was how I made it that far.

  I hadn’t been assigned a partner, so I got in the signature detective town car and headed to the scene. I was a half mile out when I saw all the regulars. The coroner, crime scene investigation trucks, even a few news trucks. I got why they were there though; it was a nice part of the park with seemingly no past events. They had a story lined up.

  I found a tight spot next to a cruiser and stepped out, headed to the crime scene.

  I started making a list in my head before writing it down. He was an older male, but not past forty, judging by his hands and face alone. He died in shock, because his eyes were still open. He looked the business type, because he was wearing slacks, a dress shirt, and a trench coat. I could already tell something off happened here.

  “Cause of death is obvious.” Amy Hale was the ME, she was a bit older than me, but still damn sexy. I would know, since we had a few run ins with each other before she settled down with a hot shot lawyer; the damned DA himself.

  “Oh really?” I smirked, looking down at the close-range gunshot wound to his chest.

  “But he does have marks around his neck, so the perp could have shot him as a throw-off. I’ll know for sure when I get him in my lab.” Amy leaned down and pointed out the grip marks on his neck. I nodded in understanding.

  She came out to a few crime scenes, but always dressed in her black scrubs to do it, with protective boots so nothing got contaminated. She had her long blond hair tied up, and I gave her a once over when she wasn’t looking, but she just didn’t do it for me anymore. Pretty much no one did at that point.

  “Okay. Anything else?” I took all my notes down in my pad and walked around the body.

  Before she answered me, I noticed Nate and Max blocking a flurry of even more reporters trying to get photos of the body.

  “Put up a guard here.” I instructed one of the CSIs. He nodded and ran off. I shrugged my shoulders back, liking the new authority I seemed to have.

  I called Nate and Max over, to see if they had anything else to say. The three of us had been best friends since day one at the academy. We just got along, and had each other’s backs, always.

  “Hunter,” Amy greeted Max formally. “Logan.” And then Nate.

  “Are we getting the body out of here soon? These guys are chomping at the bit,” Max said. He adjusted his radio and gave instruction for them to hold a barricade.

  “Yeah. Just waiting on CSI,” Amy answered, not looking at him. She was focused on the body.

  The more I looked, the more similarities started to jump out at me. The fact that he was in a semi-secluded location for one, was like two other crimes in the last four weeks. His attire too, business like.

  “This look familiar to you guys?” I turned to Max and Nate.

  “Yeah. But you don’t.” Max chided. I frowned as he nudged Nate and laughed. They did their jobs well, but still found time to joke.

  It was my first official day as Detective Jordan, so I should have prepared myself for their shit.

  “Save it.” I sighed.

  They stopped laughing slowly and took long looks at the body. As they walked around, they were safe to not contaminate anything the CSI was working on.

  “It looks a lot like the ones from four weeks ago. That guy in the alley and the one in the abandoned garage. Especially the gun shot and strangulation marks,” Nate said.

  He was the one that always noticed the big correlations. Max was good with the details, and worked most of his cases on missing children, so that was why he was good with patterns. When we were all in blues, we closed the most cases. Come time for the test, they opted out, even though they were just as qualified as me.

  “The gun shot is the COD, but the others were from strangulation, your guy is changing his deal.” Amy said.

  The four of us exchanged looks.

  “Then we have our work cut out for us.”

  Chapter Four: Alex

  I talked at length with the responding officer. Apparently, it was called in by a passerby. After all my years on the field, it was very rare for someone to witness a crime and call it in. Usually, witnesses had to be tracked down and begged for information or to testify if need be, but this time I had the person’s address and phone number. I didn’t want to scare them off by showing up at their house though; it would be better to just have them come into the station.

  “What do you guys think?” I went back to Nate and Max, who were still keeping reporters back from the body. Even more had showed up in the past thirty minutes. I could already tell this would be one hell of a media circus.

  “I want to say serial. Because of the pattern. We have specialists on it already.” Max had his hands in all the important people’s pockets. I was sure he got them on the phone fast.

  “Sounds good. I’m heading back to start the paperwork,” I responded.

  “And you wondered why I didn’t take the exam.” Nate shook his head and scoffed. I rolled my eyes, dreading the paperwork and the fact that he was right.

  It was hell getting past all the trucks and people crowded around the crime scene. I started thinking about his family. Did he have a wife or kids? Would anyone notice or care that he died? That was the hardest part of the job. I
dentifying the family and such, and having to talk to them if need be. I knew once he got to his autopsy, we would have his prints and be able to ID him.

  I wasn’t even back at the precinct before I knew this case would be hell. And it was my first one as detective. Great.

  I got to my desk and was already called in by Harold.

  “What have we got?” He stood up, coming around his desk. He looked like he had already gone through the day, and it wasn’t even noon yet.

  “A shit storm, sir.” I sat down and leaned forward on my knees.

  Harold and I had grown comfortable over the years. He gave me my first shot way back when, and I guessed he had kind of been a surrogate role model to me. I want to be where he was one day.

  “I guessed it. What do we know so far?” he said with annoyance lacing his voice. I was just as annoyed, but to be honest, he wouldn’t have to do nearly as much work as I would.

  “Next to nothing. He had no ID on him. Working class. We won’t know the exact cause of death until the ME does the autopsy, but so far it looks like the third murder like this.”

  “So, it is a murder.”

  “Yeah. For sure. Definitely not an accident or anything.” I added.

  “You start the paperwork?” He almost sneered with the way his smile creeped in.

  I shook my head and laughed without humor. He knew exactly what I was in for. I imagined it only gets worse the higher up you get, though.

  “About to. Oh, we do have a witness,” I said as I stood up to leave.

  “Really?” His brows rose up as he looked shocked. I was surprised by it too. “That fast?”

  “Actually, they were the 911 caller. I’m bringing them in shortly.” I answered.

  “Good. Maybe this will catch us a break, hopefully they saw more than someone in a navy hoodie.” He scoffed. I nodded in agreement and took my leaving.

  Once I finished the damned paperwork and had a slight lunch, I called the witness in. I was surprised it was a woman, and was intrigued from the get-go with how sexy her voice sounded. I immediately dismissed that thought; there was no way I was lucky enough to catch that kind of break.