Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Read online

  “She’s going to jail! Nothing to see!”

  That pissed her off even more.

  As Riley walked her out like that, her long legs flapping in the breeze, he kept his hand on her ass so she didn’t fall, she cursed his name and promised to rip him to shreds.

  In the car, he dropped her into his front seat and buckled her in.

  “I am going to own your job, your house, and your balls when we are done,” she hissed as he closed the door.

  As soon as he got in, he took her face into his hands. “Listen to me for one goddamned second. If you’d stop arguing, and just focus on what I’m saying, you might live to see tomorrow!”

  She stopped.

  “Oh my god! You’re a serial killer, aren’t you?” she said, trying to get away.

  “Delilah! Shut up! I’m not a serial killer! I’m trying to save your vicious, cop-hating ass! Now stop and listen!”

  She did.

  “I was at work, and I heard the police commissioner putting a hit out on you. Thomas Christ is coming to your house to murder and rape you. You’re coming with me, and you can have my fucking job. I can’t let that happen to you.”

  She stared at him.

  “What?”

  “They’re going to try and slow the Crofts down! Something about a document.”

  That was all she had to hear. Delilah thought about the file Greyson had given her.

  She knew he wasn’t kidding. That file was not something Greyson would spread around. It had the potential to blow up and take the LVPD down.

  “Riley, are you serious?”

  He set her face free. “I’m not abducting you. I need to get you someplace safe before Christ gets you. I’m trying to save your freaking life.”

  Now she felt bad that she hit him.

  He started his engine. “The shit is about to hit the fan, and you’re on the list. Let’s hope your secretary doesn’t call the damn police.”

  She turned. “Let me out, and I’ll call him.”

  “Not if you’re going to try and spear me with those claws of yours. They’re wicked.”

  “Riley, I’m sorry. I won’t hit you. Just let me free.”

  He unlocked the handcuffs, and handed her his phone. Hers was still in her office.

  Delilah called her office.

  “Peter, I’m okay,” she said, as he frantically shouted into the phone. “I’m taking today off. Reschedule my appointments.”

  She listened. “No, he’s not a crazy. I know him. Yes, I’m in a relationship with him. The detective gets a little lonely during the day and likes weird sex games.”

  He stared at her.

  “Really?” he said. “I save you and I get to be some perverted woman abductor?”

  She tried no to laugh. “Yeah, it was some sick fantasy game of his. I’m safe. Just reschedule.”

  Delilah hung up. “Okay, that’s done.”

  “You told him I was a serial sex fiend!”

  “Well, in my defense, I didn’t really have a choice, now did I? Had you called me, and calmly told me over the phone, I would have walked out of there. You carried me over your shoulder, Tarzan. Don’t blame Jane.”

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “YOU?” she asked. “Really? You just toted a well-known attorney who devours cops out of her office—during the day—and over your shoulder. You have more issues than people thinking you’re habitually horny.”

  He was horrified.

  “Let’s just get you somewhere safe. I need to figure out what the hell to do next. I just listened to my bosses talk about raping and killing you. I’m at a loss.”

  So was she, but not for the same reason. It didn’t shock her that crooked cops wanted her dead. What shocked her was that this man, who didn’t owe her anything, was willing to save her.

  He was her hero.

  “Riley?”

  “What?” he asked, before pulling away from the curb.

  Delilah took a chance. She pulled him toward her with his tie and kissed him silly.

  When he was set free, his eyes were big. He now knew where the habitually horny part came into play.

  “Thank you. I owe you big time!”

  He didn’t care about the debt.

  It was the right thing to do.

  “Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

  “Where?” she asked.

  There was only one place he could think that would keep the cops at bay.

  “Terrace Glen.”

  Delilah was good with that. When she picked up his handcuffs and dangled them from her finger, she saw him blush.

  Yeah, she’d be safe.

  As long as Riley was near.

  She had a hero, and for once, Delilah was good with that.

  They weren’t alone.

  As he pulled away, it was too late. There was a car behind him.

  They’d been seen.

  His partner had suspected something, and he’d been proven right. There definitely was something going on with his new partner.

  And he’d found out his big secret.

  “Well, well,” Lester said, pulling out. “Someone wasn’t sick at all. Looks like the gig is up. Riley has a girlfriend.”

  Someone was screwed.

  Big time.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  In the vehicle, Greyson said nothing. It was odd. Normally, the man was talkative.

  “What?” Dimitri asked.

  “What what?” he replied.

  “I can hear the hamster running in the wheel. Just say it, okay? I know I shouldn’t have grabbed her like that. She just pisses me off and makes me insane.”

  “I wasn’t thinking that,” he said, as the man drove.

  “What were you thinking?”

  “When you’re going to have sex with her because there is a shitload of sexual tension there, and it’s going to cause a boatload of issues while we work this case.”

  He glanced over.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Croft laughed.

  “Dimitri, you had her lipstick all over your mouth. So, unless you’ve decided to try out women’s things, or you fell face first onto her mouth, you can’t bullshit me here.”

  “Fine. I want to have sex with her.”

  “But?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Oh, okay, well, I’m clearly too stupid to get the dynamics of a relationship between men and women. I mean, I am the married one.”

  Dimitri thought back to the previous night when he needed them. He made one call, and two people came to his rescue. If they would be there for him then, why not now?

  “I have a conundrum.”

  “We call it a hard on for the girl, son.”

  He laughed.

  Greyson wasn’t saying anything he didn’t already know. Dimitri was edgy, stirred up, and off his game.

  Why?

  Marissa Pierce was an enigma, and not a good one.

  “She makes me want to be angry and horny at once, okay? As I’m yelling at her, I want to throw her on the couch and…”

  “So do it.”

  “What?”

  “It’s sex. What’s the hang up? You can buy it from a madam, but you can’t just dive in with a normal girl?” he asked. “This is far easier.”

  He doubted that. This screamed of entanglement, and he didn’t know if that was the route he wanted to take. Yes, Marissa was gorgeous, and he was obsessed with her legs, but sex…it wasn’t always just sex. That was why he used hookers. He didn’t have to be anyone but some nameless man buying a night of pleasure.

  “You’re over thinking it.”

  He didn’t know.

  “I feel off.”

  “Like you’re having a heart attack off?”

  “I’ll have you know, despite the eggs and bacon Emma made me, my cholesterol is excellent. I take a vitamin.”

  “Pussy. Real men don’t take vitamins. I’m ashamed of you.”


  “You take vitamins.”

  “I’m FORCED to take them, or the kitten won’t let me pet her. I like when she purrs. I have no choice. You, on the other hand, have a choice.”

  He snorted.

  “I don’t know if I can do intimacy.”

  “You have sex twice a week. Saturday and Wednesday. You can do intimacy.”

  “You’re tracking my sex life? Isn’t that weird?”

  “You don’t exactly hide it. You leave stressed, and you come back calm. I’m a man. I get it. You’re either out getting laid, or you’re out jerking off—and that you don’t have to leave the house to do.”

  “I don’t…”

  Greyson stopped him. “Don’t. I already have a wife who smells like your cologne, and those pictures in my head.”

  “We cuddled.”

  “Dimitri.”

  “I spooned her.”

  He pointed at him. “I will stop being your friend.”

  That made him laugh even more.

  “It’s different, and it freaks me out,” Dimitri admitted. “Like with an escort, it’s sex, and I’m done. This has the possibilities of entanglement. Our lives are a mess right now. Do I want that kind of thing looming over me?”

  “Entanglement is a good thing.”

  He wasn’t so sure.

  “Emma made me insane when I first met her. She was defiant, she made me shout—a lot—and she pissed me off to the point I think I chugged wine right from the bottle during our first fight.”

  He snorted. “Who’s the pussy now?”

  Oh, he knew who was the boss.

  “Seriously. What’s the worst that can happen? You can lose some of that sexual frustration. You’re a mess. Have sex, and don’t worry if you get attached.”

  He had a point.

  It wasn’t like he wanted to marry her. He was just obsessed with her legs.

  And breasts.

  And those kisses…

  “Can I say something?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “You’re a bigger man than I am.”

  Greyson laughed. “I’m aware. I outweigh you, and I pray to God you’re not comparing our junk. That’s awkward.”

  He laughed even more.

  He needed this.

  Dimitri loved this man because he cheered him up. He made him feel human. Emma too. That was missing from his life.

  “I mean that I don’t think I could let my wife sleep in another man’s bed. I’d be sick over it.”

  “Then you’re not with the right woman. I know my wife. She’d never hurt me. She may bust my ass, or kiss you and Chris, but she also kisses two gay men, a man in a wheelchair, and she creatively tells the chef to kiss certain parts of her. When you love someone, you’d never hurt them. Always remember that.”

  He thought about it.

  “I was in a bad place last night. Letting her near me was dangerous. Why did you do it?”

  Greyson touched his arm. “I trust you with my life. Why wouldn’t I trust you with hers? I know you’d never hurt Emma. She loves you so much. You and Chris, you’re both pieces of her brother. She’s told me about him.”

  “What was he like?”

  “Their parents died together. It was just them for a while. They’d celebrate everything together. The day he died, it was a blow to her. You resemble him. She was the redhead, but he wasn’t. She has green eyes, but his were closer to yours. You’re about his size. I think she sees him in you, and she wants that piece that’s missing. She couldn’t save Gage, but she can save you.”

  “Tonight is going to hurt her.”

  “Yes, it is. She’s going to need you and Chris. She’s going to ache from this for a long time.”

  He’d let Emma lean on him anytime.

  “I get what she sees in me, but what’s with the Captain? He’s…insane.”

  Greyson laughed. “He’s funny like Gage used to be. He’d pull insane pranks, and they’d laugh for hours. He also hovered over her. He’s the one that told her to dump Christ, and his gut had to know.”

  “Or he saw something he shouldn’t have,” he offered. “That might be why he took him out.”

  “Yeah, I know. Tonight, if she crumbles, it won’t only be me that has to put her back together. I’m her husband, but she’s going to need her family.”

  He got it.

  “She slept beside me last night and hovered over me. She watched me while I slept. I assume that’s what a mother would do. I can’t ever repay her for that.”

  “Family doesn’t keep score, Dimitri. You know that. She would watch over you or Chris. That’s her protecting Gage. In a way, she’s paying penance, just like you.”

  Dimitri glanced over.

  “Son, I was a soldier, too, and I know what I did. I know what you’re living, feeling, and experiencing.”

  “The nightmares.”

  “I once had to kill a whole family,” Greyson said. He didn’t talk to anyone about this, but he felt Dimitri needed it. “I was sitting up in my sniper’s nest, and I waited for three days. I was tired, I was so hungry, but I had to do it. This man was evil, but his kids…”

  Dimitri got it.

  “I took the bastard out first. Then his wife. Then, as I took out the daughter, the son, who had to be five, came out. I had to watch him lose it as his family bled out on that floor. Then, as if he knew, he looked right up at me.”

  “And?” Dimitri asked.

  “I took the shot. I wiped out that whole family because the government told me I had to do it. I had nightmares until about… right before Emma. She soothed the demons.”

  Dimitri got it.

  He wasn’t alone.

  “I’m ashamed of what I’ve done.”

  “Me, too, and that’s why we’re living this now. That’s why we’re fighting for a girl who is missing, and if we have a sex trafficking ring, we’ll get it for the FBI.”

  He had to believe that.

  As they pulled through the gates, Chris and Emma were already there.

  “This is why we do it,” he said, as Emma smiled brightly. “We do it for family,” Greyson said, heading toward his wife.

  She went into his arms, and kissed him.

  Dimitri hopped out.

  As soon as Emma finished kissing her husband, she was moving toward him. She went into his body, and hugged him.

  “I’m glad we’re all safe, and home.”

  Greyson said nothing.

  But Dimitri did.

  “Yeah, it’s good to be home.”

  And that was the truth.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  Delilah’s Home

  He couldn’t believe she talked him into swinging by her place. Riley must be one hell of a moron for falling for her big green eyes and that kiss.

  He’d fought.

  She’d insisted.

  He argued.

  At the stoplight, she kissed him.

  He agreed.

  Riley was a fool.

  As they pulled up, he checked her place out because he couldn’t help himself. Delilah was a mystery to him, and he desperately wanted to solve it.

  And her home?

  It was NOTHING like he expected. She was the top earning shark in Vegas, and she lived in a normal place outside the hustle and bustle of the strip.

  What was with that?

  “What?” Delilah asked, as he sat there silently.

  “You are one continual surprise after another. Here, I pictured you in some mountain like castle with a bell tower, some trolls, and gargoyles.”

  She laughed. “Seriously? In Vegas? Maybe California where all the cuckoo’s live.”

  “Hey! I grew up there,” he said. “Avocados are your friends.”

  “I like meat.”

  He stared blankly at her.

  “Jesus. You’re one of those vegetarians, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “As a matter of…”

  “Stop. You’re ruining my fantasy,” she
said, tapping her head. “I thought man saves the girl, and then we have a steak.”

  “I like salad.”

  She laughed as they got out. “Said no sane heterosexual man ever—especially to a woman.”

  He didn’t laugh and Delilah hoped she didn’t offend him. She tended to be the kind of person who spoke first and then dealt with the ramifications after.

  It was part of her lawyer persona.

  “Are you okay, Riley? You look freaked.”

  He glanced over at her. “Something isn’t right, but I don’t know what, so you need to be fast,” he said, walking with her up to the door. “I feel off.”

  “You’re a cop. You always feel off.”

  He smiled at her. “It’s part of the job.”

  She totally got that.

  “I do have one question, since we’re discussing things that don’t line up and make sense.”

  “What?”

  “Why don’t you tell me why this house doesn’t match your viper persona, Ice Queen?”

  She looked at her house.

  She loved it.

  “If you’re asking why I don’t live in a massive monstrosity like the Crofts, that’s simple. I don’t keep all of the money I make fighting the corruption in Vegas.”

  That surprised him.

  “Are you using it to buy off minions?”

  Delilah unlocked the door and let them both in as she tried to figure out what exactly she was going to tell him. She didn’t trust cops, but this one…

  Yeah, he tied her up inside.

  Once inside the Tudor-style home, he looked around. It matched better than the outside. It was all white and pristine.

  Now this was her.

  Orderly.

  Neat.

  Lawyer.

  “Well?” he asked, not letting her off the hook. If he was going to risk his life and career, he deserved to know everything about her.

  “It’s a long story,” she said.

  “We have some time,” he offered.

  Delilah shrugged.

  “My brother was a soldier and when he came back from fighting the war, he had PTSD. When he committed suicide, I began fighting for soldiers like him. I give away almost all of my earnings. I keep enough to buy shoes, steak, and pay for my home.”