No Justice_A Croft Mob Family Book Page 24

  The man was definitely interested.

  It appeared it was mating season at Castle Croft.

  Nikita was making coffee, and Emma had never smelled anything better.

  “I seriously can’t wait until I can drink about ten cups a day. The only thing else I miss more is peeing alone,” she said, pointing at her bump.

  Nikita laughed.

  “I can only imagine, Mrs. Croft. You do look good for how far along you are,” she offered.

  “I like her, can we keep her?” she asked her husband.

  The woman winked at her.

  Nikita poured them both a cup, only giving her half when Greyson pointed out that was all she could have.

  “Spoilsport,” she muttered.

  “How does it feel, carb police?” he asked. “I bet it sucks, huh?”

  Oh, she’d teach him.

  “Yeah, smart ass, it does, except I give birth in four weeks. You can’t have carbs for forever.”

  The look on his face said it all.

  “Who’s laughing now?”

  He scowled.

  “Anyway, thank you, Nikita, for keeping an eye on my wife yesterday. She’ll be inside today with Heath. Hopefully, it’ll be a quiet day.”

  HINT.

  HINT.

  If the universe was listening, that’s exactly what he wanted. Emma safe was a good way to start a Tuesday for him.

  “Want cookies?” she offered Heath, tormenting her husband.

  Oh, he knew what she was trying to do, and it wouldn’t work.

  Heath smiled at Emma.

  “Mrs. C, when don’t I want some baked goods? I mean, you did promise me a bakery, but until then, yes, I do.”

  “Well, I’ll bake you some.”

  Greyson laughed.

  Yeah, right.

  “Nice try. You would quit after waddling around for ten minutes. Your attempt to make me jealous isn’t going to work, kitten. Nice try.”

  She sipped her paltry half a cup of coffee and plotted her husband’s undoing.

  Yeah, watch her.

  Bake was code for buy.

  “I’ll call the bakery. Momma doesn’t need a man to order in when she’s filthy rich.”

  Greyson laughed. Emma never flaunted her money, so that made it even more amusing that the one thing she’d do that with were baked goods for Heath.

  He gave her a kiss on the top of the head.

  “Have at it, kitten. Whatever keeps your waddle-ly sweet ass inside Sky Villa, works for me.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Nikita, since Heath is going to be in with my wife, and Chris is going to be out with Dimitri, want to go to the FBI office with me?”

  She smiled that feral grin.

  “Oh, Mr. Croft, no one has ever offered up such an exciting trip and on a Tuesday too,” she teased. “The FBI office...I do love men in uniform.”

  “I’m a Marine!” Heath practically shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “I have dress blues!”

  Emma jumped.

  “Jesus! The baby heard you,” she said. “Take it down a notch, soldier.”

  He smiled.

  “Just putting it out there. I have a couple of uniforms in case the lady gets bored.”

  Greyson laughed.

  “Someone is really trying hard,” he said, softly so only his wife would hear him.

  Yeah, she could see that.

  “You don’t say,” Nikita stated, right before winking at the big man.

  “Oh, I do say,” he replied, his aqua eyes twinkling in mischief.

  “Yum, tiger. Yum.”

  Greyson needed to break this sex fest up. His castle, and he wasn’t getting a ton of it.

  So…work it was.

  “Anyway, children,” he stated, “when we’re done, I’m going to meet up with Dimitri and Chris to see how they’re doing with their interview.”

  She smiled.

  “Ah, Mr. Gideon. I haven’t seen him in…years. That’s going to be quite the reunion.”

  Greyson lifted a brow.

  Yeah, a bloody one—he was sure.

  That was never good.

  “Is there going to be an issue? I’ve been told about how you turned him into the KGB and he was a POW for a while. He’s not a fan, Nikita.”

  She laughed.

  “Wow.”

  Emma was curious.

  “Uh, that’s not good.”

  She shrugged.

  “Someone holds a grudge.”

  “Yeah, he does. That’s an issue. He’s part of the family. I don’t want you provoking him. I know Ethan planted you here with us, giving you a job, but making him miserable isn’t it. Got it?”

  She didn’t bat an eye.

  “Yes, Mr. Croft, but for the record, there were a lot of things going on that you don’t know about. It wasn’t only the KGB who was after him.”

  “Then share,” he stated. “We deserve to know.”

  She closed her mouth.

  That told Greyson everything he needed to know. If she wasn’t speaking, that meant one thing.

  “Has it been declassified?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  “I could just ask Ethan. He’ll tell me.”

  She was aware.

  The Crofts and Blackhawks seemed to be close. Nikita had two choices, and she genuinely liked the Crofts.

  So, she gave them what she could.

  “Mr. Gideon was about to take out a high stakes person of interest. Your government didn’t want him to die yet. My government was the only way to slow Dmitri down without killing him. They wanted him dead. I knew he would survive. I’ve studied my opponent.”

  They listened.

  Staring at her, it was hard to believe that this woman was a killer like Dimitri. She didn’t look like one. She was quiet, unobtrusive, except for the wild hair, and blended in.

  “The options were limited. Captivity gave him a chance. A bullet to the head…not so much. I knew he was taking care of those girls. I knew they needed him. It was a better option in the long run.”

  They could see she had a soul.

  Well, that was good.

  The killers you knew, he guessed.

  “I was under orders to end him. I bent the rules and isn’t he lucky?” she asked.

  Well, when she put it that way…

  The hard part would be making Dimitri see it that way. He hoped this didn’t blowup.

  “So, I won’t torment him, but if he gets mean, I can be just as nasty,” she promised. “Pretty creatures are the deadliest. No one expects them to strike.”

  They were aware.

  “Just play nice. I’ll make sure he does too. We all have to work together.”

  She smiled.

  “Then we shall be fine.”

  Heath actually sighed.

  “What?” he asked when Emma was staring at him. “I dig her accent. I can’t help it.”

  “Dimitri has the same accent.”

  “And a dick.” He looked at her. “You don’t have a dick, do you?”

  Emma laughed.

  He looked so serious, but that was the funniest part about Heath. He was never really serious. He just played it down to screw with you.

  He was sarcastic as hell.

  “Not yet. Maybe I can find one later,” she purred.

  Heath enthusiastically raised his hand like a student waiting to answer a question in school.

  It was comical.

  Greyson rolled his eyes.

  “Let’s go,” he said, as he grabbed a granola bar since his wife was watching. He was leaving early so he could grab another coffee and a muffin at the local shop.

  Daddy didn’t need his sugar momma to buy him baked goods either. Let her try to catch him.

  “Remember, keep your ass in this building,” Greyson stated, more for Heath than anyone else.

  He saluted him.

  “Got it, Mr. C.”

  “Let’s go, Nikita,” he said
, as they both left the kitchen and went off to do their thing.

  When they were gone, Emma was focused on the man beside her.

  “Got it bad, huh?”

  Heath gave her that big toothy grin.

  “Oh, Mrs. C, you have no idea.”

  Yeah, she did.

  She really did.

  * * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *

  Dimitri’s Condo

  Downstairs

  After she burst into tears, it took him a second to get into the right state of mind. It was just so unexpected. While he was accustomed to women, and tears, he didn’t see that one coming.

  Poppy was genuinely upset, and that freaked him out.

  Honestly, he was planning on keeping it chilly until she made up her mind. It was better to be cold for when she walked away.

  Again.

  This was for him, and his kids.

  Oh, and for his heart.

  Only, when Poppy began sobbing, he couldn’t do that. Dimitri couldn’t be that asshole who only protected himself. He tried to think about Greyson, and how he’d forgiven him. Dimitri dug deep and found some compassion for her.

  He wasn’t a cruel person by any means, and a crying woman would always make him crack.

  ALWAYS.

  Leading her to the couch, he sat her down and grabbed some tissues. As Petra sat on her lap, the little girl watched her curiously.

  “It’s okay,” Dimitri said, even as he tried to coax Petra to come to him, but she wouldn’t. She was clinging to Poppy, holding onto her t-shirt for dear life.

  Poppy sniffled, as she tried to regain her composure. It was so damn hard. Being here was difficult.

  “I’m sorry. It happens at weird moments. I try to fight it, but I just can’t.”

  He understood.

  He’d been there.

  Kat had been there.

  Nat had been there.

  Hell!

  Petra had been there.

  It was a part of his life, and he didn’t think it made her weak, but stronger. She was still able to feel, and that mattered in the healing process.

  “It’s okay.”

  What he wanted to say was he wished she would have stuck around, and had she, he would have nursed her heart back to health. He would have done anything he could to help her.

  Now he felt helpless and angry.

  As Petra played with a piece of her hair, she was focused on the little girl.

  “You should go get dressed,” she said to her. “You have school.”

  Instead, Petra rested her head on Poppy’s shoulder and held on. It looked like the little girl was attached.

  Literally.

  Dimitri glanced down at his watch. This was going to be the hard part. He didn’t want to leave and go out to work for the day.

  Why?

  If he did, a part of him suspected that she’d be gone. He feared coming home only to find she’d run.

  Again.

  Once a runner, always a runner.

  Dimitri had very little left to give as his heart and soul had a big hole in it from her abandoning him.

  His mother leaving.

  Marissa leaving.

  Poppy leaving.

  Surely, someone saw something in him that would make them stay.

  Right?

  When his phone chimed with a text from Chris, he knew he didn’t have any choice in the matter.

  Work called.

  This case called.

  “I have to head out,” he stated, as she held Petra and ran her hand up and down the little girl’s back.

  “Okay.”

  “Will you be here when I get back or am I going to come home to you being gone again?” he asked, his voice thick with anger and venom.

  Poppy heard it.

  She didn’t want to run. She wanted to stay, but now he hated her. Clearly. Dimitri wouldn’t touch her, and she knew she’d ruined what they had.

  He’d pursued her for a relationship. He pursued her to find her. He was done, and she understood.

  Now if only he did, too, then he might understand why she’d left him.

  Fear was a huge motivator.

  “I won’t leave,” she said. “I know you don’t believe me, but I promised, and I won’t do it.”

  He wanted to believe her.

  Only time would heal this, and he knew it.

  “Dimitri?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will Emma be upstairs?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Can I head up there? Sometimes, being alone is good, and sometimes it’s bad. If it matters, before you found me, I was thinking about coming back.”

  It did matter.

  If he fully believed her, and he wasn’t sure he did. Women manipulated him, and he was burned more than once. He wanted to believe her.

  He wanted to trust her.

  Poppy had to rebuild that.

  He wanted to stay with her, but she’d proven that for the last three months, she didn’t want or need him—and now she said she was coming back?

  Really?

  That anger was there.

  That grudge.

  He couldn’t shake it.

  He tried.

  “Yes, feel free. Stay IN the building. We don’t know if there’s a hit still out on you. We don’t know if Jeffrey Raye will take another shot at you, or if it's tied to your past,” he offered, not bringing up how they suspected Zachary Lipton’s bags of bodies to be tied to her too.

  She understood.

  When there was a knock on the door, Dimitri headed there. A beautiful woman came in, and Dimitri gave her a kiss on each cheek as he smiled at her. She returned it with an equally pleasant smile and talk in fast Russian she couldn’t understand.

  It looked…romantic.

  Poppy seethed.

  Jesus.

  Why did she run? He smiled at her like that once, and he actually cared at one point. She’d been scared, and Jeffrey Raye had won.

  She’d lost this.

  She’d lost him.

  Before Dimitri, she didn’t want someone in her life, and now after him, she mourned that too.

  To make it worse?

  The child in her lap bailed too.

  As soon as Petra saw the woman, she was up and off of Poppy’s lap so fast that it made Poppy want to cry all over again. Clearly, this was her tutor. She had a bag of books, and the little girl was holding her hand.

  Dimitri watched her.

  He could see the emotion in her eyes. For a brief moment, he hoped that Poppy would see what she’d left behind, and he hoped that it would hurt her.

  It was petty of him.

  Still, for a brief moment, he wanted her to bleed for the last three months he’d hated the world.

  Then he realized how horrible that was.

  Poppy wasn’t a bad person. Rational him kicked back into control, shoving vindictive Dimitri into the background again. Silently, he scolded himself for being that asshole.

  “Do you want to go upstairs?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, please.”

  Dimitri pulled on his body armor over a t-shirt, placed his dress shirt over it, and then his suit jacket. In his double-shoulder holster, he placed two loaded Glocks, all of the time not looking at her.

  He couldn’t.

  He had to be strong.

  For Poppy, he’d crawl on coals and shards of glass. She had him wrapped around her pinky, and she could leave at any moment.

  He knew the reality.

  She’d taken his heart and she’d destroy it if he gave her the chance.

  “Petra, I love you,” he stated, giving his little girl a kiss. “You be good for your tutors,” he stated. Then he addressed the young woman. “Sam isn’t to play video games. I grounded him.”

  “Yes, Mr. Gideon.”

  “Let’s go, Poppy.”

  His tone said it all.

  Silently, they rode up in the elevator. She wanted to hold his hand like he’d
done so many times with her. So, she tried. Reaching for him, he didn’t move away, but he didn’t hold her hand back.

  It was empty.

  It was cold.

  Poppy tried and set him free.

  When he looked over, she averted her eyes.

  “Be safe today,” she stated.

  Dimitri wanted to hold her hand. Only, until he could trust her not to hurt him, he was too afraid. He felt like that little child, worried that he’d wake-up all alone. He was scared that he’d love her the rest of his life, and he’d never be loved back.

  “I will be,” he stated.

  Poppy stuck her hands in her pocket, and her lower lip quivered. In the mirrored door, she refused to break.

  She couldn’t.

  Once was enough for the day.

  Upstairs, when they reached the penthouse, he unlocked the door and let her go in first. Chris was standing there getting ready.

  “Hey, Poppy,” Chris stated, offering the woman a hug. While he wasn’t happy that their family had been run through the ringer, she’d been raped.

  Someone had to cut her a break.

  Besides, loving Dimitri…yeah, that was hard enough.

  “Hey, Captain,” she answered back, using his title. It allowed her to feel some control.

  Any was better than none.

  “Emma is staying in with Heath. Can you make sure she eats something healthy for lunch?” he asked, giving her a duty. It would keep her mind off of her own issues. “Greyson is on the prowl about his fetus.”

  She smiled.

  “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “Thanks. I’d appreciate it,” he said, seeing Dimitri struggling. Yeah, he didn’t doubt this was going to explode.

  He knew the man.

  When Poppy headed off, without so much as a kiss or goodbye from Dimitri, he sighed.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” he stated. “Want to catch a madam after-hours?” he asked Dimitri, refusing to go there. He’d been his physical punching bag for months. When Dimitri wanted to talk, he would.

  “Yes.”

  Chris felt the tension.

  It wasn’t good.

  Chris knew Dimitri was going to blow or fuck this up at some point.

  It was clearly written on his face.

  Yeah, that wasn’t good.

  At all.

  The shit was coming.