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

  Thank God.

  Dimitri let him in by accessing the security on his phone. When the large iron gates opened, the man’s ride rolled through and headed right toward them.

  He wasn’t alone.

  As he hopped out of his vehicle, so did Delilah.

  No one saw that coming.

  “What’s wrong?” Greyson asked, taking in the scene.

  “We have a huge problem!”

  Yeah, well, that seemed to be what they faced every day of the week. When didn’t they?

  Vegas was one big mess after another, and they were barely staying afloat in the sea of shit.

  “What’s going on?” Dimitri asked.

  Riley told them what he heard while he was at the office, and then he told them what he’d done to get her out.

  “They are going to hurt her. I needed a safe place to stash her until we figure out something to do.”

  “Until tomorrow,” she said, “when I have to be the courthouse to do my job.”

  He didn’t look amused.

  “I can’t hide forever,” she stated, holding his hand in hers. She gave it a reassuring squeeze.

  “Delilah,” he stated.

  “I have court. What are they going to do to me in the middle of a court room?” she asked. “I have a huge case. I have to be there, or my client is going to jail.”

  Riley let out a pent-up sigh. This was frustrating the hell out of him.

  Greyson through about it.

  “Natasha,” he said, focusing on the woman.

  “Yes?”

  “Can you get dressed up, and sit in the courtroom with Delilah all day? When she’s done with court, bring her here. Is that okay, Dimitri?”

  He didn’t mind. “She’s available.”

  Natasha smiled. “I’ll be blonde. You’ll see me, but no one else will,” she offered.

  Delilah was pretty sure they were taking this way too seriously. The courthouse was secure.

  She’d be fine.

  “I think all of this might be…”

  Greyson stopped her. “It’s not. We have a storm coming. We’re about to dive into a case where there’s sex trafficking. It’s going to get ugly.”

  “She can stay at my place,” Riley offered.

  He had a hickey on his neck, and Delilah wasn’t trying to peel his skin from his body, so Greyson was pretty sure he knew what that meant.

  “You can stay here in the pool house. Chris and Nat are coming back inside for a couple nights, until we have this under control,” he stated. “You’ll have more freedom.”

  Riley didn’t understand.

  “So you can jump me again,” she teased. “He was trying to be low key and not embarrass you.”

  Riley blushed.

  “Uh?”

  Greyson pointed at his neck.

  “Shit.”

  “Tomorrow, she’ll go back to work, and you’ll head back to the job. You weren’t seen, were you?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow,” he offered.

  Riley prayed they didn’t.

  If they did…

  “I want to GPS tag our attorney,” stated Dimitri. “We should get the detective too. Remember when Steele was taken?”

  It had been Greyson’s watch that had saved him. That little tracker had made all the difference in the world.

  “Good idea.”

  “I’ll come to the pool house and hook you up later,” he offered. “I’ll knock first.”

  Again, Riley blushed three more shades of red.

  “Thanks,” Delilah offered.

  Emma came outside, and she looked a little better. She’d composed herself and was back to her normal self.

  Great.

  And they were going to stir her up all over again.

  “Are we having a party?” she asked as she noticed the attorney. “Hey, Riley,” Emma said, turning his head. “You have a shark bite. You went swimming in Lake Delilah.”

  He stared at them.

  “Am I wearing a sign?” he asked.

  Greyson laughed.

  Emma gave Delilah a high five. “Nice one.”

  Their attorney grinned.

  “You always were my favorite,” Delilah said to Emma. “Now I know why.”

  Emma knew Delilah didn’t play favorites. She genuinely liked all of the Crofts, and not because of their money. She was a good person.

  “Well, we have lots of food, so head in and have some dinner,” she offered.

  Curtis kissed Emma. “Mom, we’re beat. I’m going to order a pizza, and we’re crashing early. Raincheck on the meal. How about tomorrow?”

  She was surprised that Curtis was passing up immediate food. That wasn’t like him.

  “Okay, that’s fine. See you tomorrow,” she said, as they headed away.

  Dante kissed her and so did Steele.

  “We have wedding shit to handle, so we’re going to opt out for tonight. We’ll check-in later when we get back from the strip.”

  “You know, you could have told me before I cooked,” she said, laughing as they walked away.

  “I have patrol,” Nat said, hugging her. “Can you put something aside for me? I’ll eat later.”

  “Sure, I can, but…”

  It was too late.

  She disappeared too.

  “Wow. Now we’re down to six.”

  Delilah, ever the perceptive one, knew the three men before her were tense. “I was thinking wine and swimming pool. Are you in, Detective?”

  “I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

  She grinned. “Oh, really? That’s too bad. Unfortunately for you, I did.”

  He stared at her.

  Riley had a feeling she was trying to get him away from the people, and he let her lead the way.

  “That doesn’t seem fair. You could have warned me,” he offered.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  They headed inside to grab some wine, and then to the pool. Terrace Glen was one of her favorite places, and the pool was why.

  When they were gone, Emma looked over at the three men.

  “What are they doing here?”

  Greyson let her in on what had happened, and she looked absolutely horrified.

  “Oh, shit! That’s bad. Thomas Christ definitely would rape a woman, that sick bastard.”

  Chris, Greyson, and Dimitri knew it was time.

  “We need to talk,” Greyson said. Taking her hand in his as they led her to the front patio. Once there, they sat her down.

  “Uh, is this an intervention?” she asked, immediately sensing the shit was about to go down.

  Dimitri was looking at her with concern.

  Chris looked worried, and Greyson…

  He was hesitating.

  That was not normal.

  “I know I’m not going to like this. What happened? Who died? Are we in trouble?” she asked. “Has something bad happened?”

  A million things were going through her mind, and none of them were good.

  To say she was freaked out would be an understatement.

  Greyson knew he was up.

  “I have to tell you something. I wasn’t going to, and we were going to handle it, but we needed to do this right. Since it involves you, you have every right to know what we’re dealing with. I don’t want to lie to my wife.”

  Oh, holy shit!

  This was going to be bad.

  She began feeling sick to her stomach, and her palms began to sweat. Nothing rattled Greyson, and he looked out of sorts.

  They all did.

  Emma tugged off the hat Curtis had brought her and began nervously playing with the brim.

  “What? Just do it. I can handle it.”

  “It’s about your brother.”

  She marginally relaxed.

  Gage was dead. What could they possibly tell her that would be upsetting? There was nothing worse than what had already happened.

  “What, Greyson?”

>   He pulled the photocopies of the absconded file out of his back pocket and handed them to her. The whole time, he held his breath.

  She didn’t understand what he was giving her.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Then she read them.

  All three men watched her face. It went from confused, to really confused, to freaked out, and then to angry.

  “What the fuck?” she asked. “How did you get this?” she asked.

  “I had Curtis and Kat dig into Thomas Christ’s life back East. I needed to know what we were up against. I didn’t expect this, but someone had the original file. The commissioner tried to hide it. We found it. These are copies. Delilah has the originals locked in a safe with our other legal papers.”

  She stood.

  She wanted to be sick.

  There were a million things going through her mind. Each one was turbulent, and made her want to puke.

  “Emma?” Greyson asked, putting his hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

  Was she okay?

  How could she be?

  They’d just found proof that Thomas Christ had hired the druggie not to rob Gage but to actually kill him. A man she’d dated and had sex with had murdered her brother.

  How was she supposed to ever be okay with that?

  Emma wanted to be ill.

  “When I dug into this, I wasn’t expecting it,” Greyson admitted.

  “Kiddo, are you okay?” Chris asked.

  No, she was the opposite of okay.

  When she was finally able to speak, she glanced up at him. Here was her husband, and he was supposed to protect her.

  Instead, she’d been blindsided by all three men.

  “Why did you have to dig?” she asked. “Why did you tell me?” Emma said, backing away from him.

  “Emma.”

  He didn’t get it.

  How could he?

  “I would have rather you not have told me. I didn’t need this, Greyson. I’ve suffered enough. I’ve had to live with his death for years. I could have lived without knowing this.”

  Dimitri saw this coming.

  He’d like to say he was surprised, but he wouldn’t have wanted to know either. Some things are best left unsaid. He knew Emma had to feel responsible.

  That Thomas Christ did this, because she told him to pound sand, was crushing.

  Here was his fear.

  Dimitri wished they would have listened to him, and then maybe, Emma wouldn’t be hurting like this.

  Chris, on the other hand, was shocked. Emma had been a cop, and she was accustomed to there always being more to a story than what met the eye.

  “Honey,” he said, trying to soothe her. She didn’t look well at all, and she was pregnant. Chris didn’t want her making herself sick.

  She ignored him.

  Greyson was up. He always forced her to be honest with him because lies only hurt a marriage.

  He’d had no choice but to follow his own rules.

  “Emma, I had to be honest. Lying isn’t how we do our marriage. You know I don’t want to hurt you, but I couldn’t bury this and still have you respect me.”

  He reached for her.

  She pulled her arm away as if his touch burned her skin.

  “Then you don’t know me at all, Greyson. If you did, you wouldn’t have told me any of this. You should have known better. All these years, I’ve been fighting this!” she said, shaking the papers. “I was left behind by all of them, and this is the one thing that will break me every time.”

  He was aware.

  He’d only been trying to be a good husband. Since coming to Vegas, he’d been anything but.

  He’d forced her back.

  She’d lost her badge.

  Emma was looked down upon as pariah.

  Croft knew he’d fucked this up.

  Immediately, she began her retreat. “I need to be alone. I want to be alone,” she said, putting space between them.

  “Emma. Honey.”

  “NO!”

  With that, she was gone. Emma headed back toward the house to escape the three men.

  Chris followed. “I’ll take the first watch,” he said, hoping he could help her. “Grey, I’m sorry. I told you to tell her. I was wrong. I’ll own it.”

  He knew it wasn’t his fault. “This isn’t on you, Chris. I’m the one who couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. I’m the one who had Curtis dig around and find it. I suspected because I saw the police record on Gage’s death. It didn’t fit. Someone had to let that guy into Gage’s apartment. There was no way some strung out crack head planned his death.”

  Dimitri saw it too.

  Still, this was bad.

  Chris headed across the driveway and into the house. When he was gone, the two men knew they needed to figure this out.

  “What do you want me to do?” Dimitri offered.

  What choice did he have? Greyson had hurt his wife, and now he had to do the right thing and make it better. He had to help her heal.

  That meant only one thing.

  There was only one option left.

  “I want you to watch her, Dimitri. I need to head out to handle some business.”

  Oh, he knew exactly what kind of business he was talking about, and that made him nervous.

  Really nervous.

  Dimitri had no choice. He stopped him. “Greyson, I’ll do it. Let me handle it. This is not something you should be focusing on right now. Go heal your wife. Let me handle Christ.”

  Croft couldn’t do that. He’d done this, and it was on him. Greyson wouldn’t blame his wife if she hated him. He’d ripped open a festering wound and ground salt into it.

  He would own it.

  Instead of taking the man’s out, he handed him his phone. They could be traced. He would need an alibi.

  Sadly, Greyson knew what needed to be done.

  “Get me his personal information. I have to go kill a man for what he’s done.”

  Dimitri watched him walk away.

  Yeah, this was bad.

  And he suspected that it was only going to get worse.

  Chris found her in her bathroom, and she was throwing up. He knelt beside her, and when she was done, he picked her up and carried her to her bed.

  She sobbed the entire way as she clung to his body like a scared, broken child. He could only imagine what that day had done to her. Then all the other days where she had to relive it in her heart and mind.

  “Emma.”

  She curled into a ball, and wept until she shook. “It’s like losing him all over again. It’s like having that wound ripped open all over again. How do I heal from this?” she asked, as she was wracked with sobs.

  Chris hated that he’d been part of this.

  He had to come clean.

  “I told him to tell you. I told him that lying and killing Thomas Christ behind your back would be shitty for a marriage. It’s on me, not him. I was the one who told him this was best, and I’m so sorry. Dimitri wanted to just kill him.”

  That broke her heart. They’d all had a hand in this, and they should have protected her. What Emma needed most was one person in her life to know better.

  To see what this would do to her.

  Now, she wanted to be left alone. The anger was there, and she wanted to rage.

  “Emma,” he said, as she pulled away from him.

  “Leave me alone.”

  That stopped him in his tracks. Chris never once thought that his advice would cause a wedge between them. He’d never hurt Emma.

  He loved her too damn much.

  “I want to die inside. This is too much for me to handle. My poor brother was set up. It was hard enough thinking it was random, but I was able to accept that. Fate was a bitch. He wasn’t meant to live, but now? Now I know he could have been here still. I could have had that one person I was tied to. Instead, I watched blood gurgle from his throat as he bled to death. I was forced to see him sliced apart.”

  “Emma, I’m sorry.�
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  “Sorry?” she asked, getting angry. “I was nearly raped, I watched him die in my arms, and now I hear it wasn’t a drugged-up nut? That instead, it was Thomas Christ’s handiwork?”

  “Emma.”

  “Chris, just go. Okay? I can’t right now. I want to be alone.”

  He got that, but he knew she shouldn’t be alone. That was the opposite of what she needed.

  “Emma, don’t hate us. We wanted to protect you.”

  She opened her eyes. “Then you should have protected me. When Denise came back last month, looking for you, I headed her off. I wouldn’t let her near you.”

  “What?” he asked. “What do you mean? She came back?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “See? I didn’t tell you to protect you. Why? Because you are mine! I would die before I’d let anyone hurt any of you!”

  Well, this sucked.

  He stared at her.

  “I get that you’re mad. I would be, too, but Emma…” He was cut off.

  “Please leave. I need you to leave me alone. I can’t right now.”

  He got it.

  Chris had to admit that a part of his heart broke. Emma didn’t want him near her, and that stung. Then again, he’d let her get hurt, while she’d kept him safe.

  Again.

  “I’ll leave you alone.”

  As he closed the door to her room, she was sobbing, and it killed him.

  Outside the room, he found Dimitri standing there against the wall. It looked like the second string was up.

  “Bad?” he asked.

  Oh, yeah, this was ugly.

  “She kicked me out of her room. I owned my part in this, and that’s all I can do. You’re likely safe. I’m the bad guy on this one, and she hates me. It looks like you’re up.”

  He figured as much.

  Dimitri would handle it.

  Only, they had a bigger issue to worry about at that moment, and it was going to blow up in their faces.

  Greyson could NOT kill Thomas Christ.

  By going at him while he was pissed, he’d make mistakes and risk being caught. They didn’t need that.

  What they needed was a well-organized plan. He led the man down the hall and around the corner so they could talk in private before he went to handle Emma.

  She didn’t need to hear this.

  “Do me a favor. Don’t let Greyson leave. I don’t care if you have to knock him out and tie him up. He’s going to try and kill the man. I have a really bad feeling about all of this, and I always trust my gut. It’s going to get him caught or killed.”