“There was something there for me, Greyson.”
He shook his head, deciding to be honest. “There wasn’t for me. I need more than that instant attraction of what a woman looks like to fall into bed with her. You’re a beautiful woman, but we don’t have that connection.”
“And you and the sheriff do?” she asked, bitterly.
“Yes. I knew it the second I saw her.”
Gail crossed her arms and glared at him. “You did lead me on. I thought that we were beginning something.”
“Again, Gail, I didn't know that a second date was going to make you believe I was looking for anything more permanent. I didn’t do anything other than take you to dinner twice. I didn’t promise you anything but conversation and friendship.”
She stood. “I want a transfer from your team because working with you is uncomfortable.”
Greyson nodded. “I can do that, but I’ll ask you not to rush it,” he said, also standing. “I’ve already applied for my own transfer. When everything’s done here, I won’t be returning to the office. So, I’ll ask you to think about it before you leave the people you’ve built lasting relationships with because of me.”
“You’re leaving?” she stared, incredulously. “You’ll walk away from a team you’ve worked with for the last eight years to be with HER?”
“I am, and yes, I will.”
“Wow, she must be really good in bed.”
Croft saw red at how she cheapened it. “That’s why I’m leaving, Gail, because you continually cross the line. Our discussion is over.” Croft dismissed her, before he lost his temper.
“Good luck,” she said, slamming the door behind her.
Emma had just poured a cup of coffee and was sitting when she heard the knock. “Come in,”
Briggs peeked his head around the corner. “Can I join you?” he inquired, grinning. He could smell the coffee from out in the bullpen.
“Sure! You may want to avoid the conference room. Grey’s in there with Gail, and he looked mad.”
He dropped into one of her chairs. “Thanks for the heads up. I want no part of that hell in the cell cage match.”
Her either. “Want some coffee?”
Briggs started laughing. “Am I that transparent? That’s why I’m here,” he answered honestly. “I figured you fed me, so now you’ve adopted me. I’m like the cat.”
She started laughing. “Terrific. You better not pee on my carpets.”
He started laughing, and then abruptly stopped.
“What? Did I go too far?” she asked, trying to read the look on his face.
“Are you handling all this okay?” he asked, hesitantly.
“You know, Curtis, I get the distinct impression that wasn’t what you wanted to ask. You’ve been tiptoeing around me for a couple of days now. We’re both adults here, so why don’t you just say it?” She was pretty sure it was going to be regarding her fast relationship with Greyson, and she appreciated that the man was looking out for his partner and friend.
“I read your file on what happened in Philadelphia,” he admitted. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stop myself. Croft told me to destroy it, but I had to look.”
That so wasn’t what she was expecting. “Oh, is that where this over protectiveness is emanating from? Do you feel sorry for poor Emma and think I need to be babied?”
“No, I just wanted to tell you I was sorry that you went through all of it.” He looked at her hoping she would understand. “I’m glad you and Croft found each other. You’re a matched set.”
She stared at him, trying to decide how much anger was warranted. “What do you mean?”
“He’s strong willed, tough on the outside, but underneath it all, he’s fragile. You’re breakable on the outside but incredibly strong on the inside. You both fit together.”
Her heart softened and the prying into her past was forgiven. “Thank you, Curtis. He’s fixing what’s broken inside me. I’m lucky. I once thought I couldn’t face another murder or case like this, but now I’m seeing that I can as long as I have him beside me.”
“Take care of him, okay? Wherever this journey leads you, please keep him safe. He’s like a big brother to me.”
Emma nodded. “I promise I will.”
When the phone rang, Briggs took his coffee to the window to stare out at the scenery. He was a little sad inside, knowing that the man he looked up to would be moving on soon. Once it was all over, he knew he wouldn’t leave Emma. For God’s sake, they had a cat together.
Emma answered the call from Doctor Brooks, getting excited at what he was telling her. They actually had a semen trace from Betty Kline’s body.
She hung up the phone and turned in her chair. “We have DNA from a male.”
“Really?” said Briggs. “Wow! We might be closer to finding the identity of our killer.”
Emma considered what he was saying. “Or maybe not. If she had sex before she was abducted, that’s who left the sample.”
At the slam of another door, both Emma and Briggs paused, staring out into the bullpen. There, a visibly angry Gail stormed past. The look on her face wasn’t a happy one.
“That must have been ugly,” Briggs said, glad he wasn’t there for it.
It wasn’t long before a second set of footsteps sounded, leading toward her door. It was obvious who was coming, and he wasn’t happy either. His generally quiet gait was now an angry staccato.
Emma poured him a cup of coffee as a flushed and irritated man entered the room.
Briggs took his cue to escape as fast as he could, closing the door behind them to give them some privacy.
“Here, babe,” she said, placing the mug in his hand, and leaning her hip against the corner of her desk.
“Thanks, Em.”
She sympathized with him. “Didn’t go well?”
He started laughing. “It was awesome. I had a great time.”
“Want to talk about it? I’m a really good listener, and if you want, I’ll sit in your lap.”
Croft wasn’t turning that down. “I’ll pass on the talking about it, but definitely take the option of you parking yourself here,” he patted his knee.
Emma crossed to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding onto him a few minutes until the tension drained out of him. She wasn’t sure if it was her or the coffee, but he was calming down.
Greyson nuzzled her shoulder with his scruff and enjoyed the calm after the storm. “What time is the meeting?”
“In fifteen minutes. Dr. Brooks called too,” added Emma.
“What did he say?”
She grinned. “He found semen when he was checking for assault. He sent it to the lab earlier, and we should be able to get the results before the meeting with the mayor.”
“Really? Semen is something new. None of the other victims had any found on them,” said Croft. “He’s either getting sloppy, or she had sex right before she was abducted.”
“Yeah, I just had this conversation with your partner. I guess we’ll have to find out whose semen it was, and go from there.”
Croft nodded, lost in thought. Before he’d even finished his talk with Gail, he’d received an email from his boss listing the potential job openings.
He’d been right.
One did catch his eye. It would all come down to her willingness to come with him. He wasn’t sure he could get her to leave Celestia. If that were the case, he’d be unemployed. He was old school and having his woman being the breadwinner didn't sit well with him. It was probably a good thing he still had active duty status with the reserves. If worse came to worse, he could fall back on the military and possibly score a desk job.
Emma touched his cheek, seeing he was lost in thought.
“What?” He looked up. “I’m sorry. I was thinking about something pressing.”
She let him keep his thoughts to himself. His privacy was important, and if he wanted to share, he would. “I said that we need to get moving to make the meeting with the m
ayor.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Are you sure that you can do this? I can go by myself,” Emma offered, seeing the storm brewing in his eyes.
Greyson’s blood pressure spiked. “Hell no! You aren’t going anywhere alone. This killer implied that, not only are you a whore, but you’re on his list. You go everywhere with either Briggs or myself. I’m not taking any chances.”
“Are you done being bossy?”
Croft pushed her up out of his lap and began pacing. “Not even close. I plan of telling you what to do the rest of our lives.” When he realized what that inferred, and he stopped and stared at her.
Emma heard his words, but knew he was rattled and took them with a grain of salt. “You know he’s wrong.”
He didn’t know what she meant. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not really a whore. I’d like to think I’m just really good in bed with the right man,” she stated, trying to make him laugh.
Croft stared at her openmouthed.
Emma giggled. “Wow! That stopped the tirade pretty damn fast. I guess if I randomly throw sex at you, it’ll get you to calm down. I’ll keep that in mind for future meltdowns.”
He lifted an eyebrow, trying not to grin at how easily she managed to diffuse his temper. “If you throw sex at me, I can guarantee it won’t calm me down at all. It’ll do the exact opposite.” Greyson wasn’t going to admit it, but since meeting Emma, he was thinking about sex about every seven seconds or so. It took a lot of control to not just follow her around making lascivious comments and running his hands up and down her body.
What he wanted was to get her back to the cabin and naked.
What he had to do was solve a serial killing.
Damn priorities.
Emma crossed to him and wrapped her arms around his torso, hugging him. In her mind, she was dwelling on what Agent Briggs had told her. Hard and tough on the outside, but he was vulnerable underneath. “Good to know,” she said, grinning and patting him on the ass.
Greyson growled at her.
“The lab first, and then the mayor’s?” she offered.
Dipping his face to hers, he met her lips in a gentle kiss. “Lead the way, Sheriff. I’ll follow you anywhere.”
Wasn’t that the truth?
Neither spoke as they approached the make shift lab. Greyson Croft was simply tired and needed a vacation. He’d gone hard core FBI for months straight. His last vacation had been fishing with his father and brother almost a year ago, and the weekend he spent away in the reserves on duty. Working day in and day out for that long was finally getting to him.
Or it was because he suddenly wanted more of a personal life and less professional?
“Will you go away with me after this?” he asked, stopping before they entered the lab.
“Where?” she asked, staring up at him.
“Somewhere not here or Philly?” His plan was to take her to the new city, and let her see it would be terrific to begin new lives together there.
She thought about it, finally noticing how weary he looked. His handsome face was etched with stress and there were the beginnings of lines by the corners of his eyes. Emma ran her fingers over the speckling of gray in his hair above his ears. “Yes.”
He relaxed visibly. “Yeah?”
“Tell me what I need to pack, and you need to get a damn cat sitter. I’m not allowing that claw ridden menace alone at my house.”
Croft began laughing. He honestly believed she’d fight him at first. This might be easier than he thought. “I can have Dante come stay with the cat.”
Emma shook her head. “Oh, that’s even better--a gun toting disaster and a pissed off hairball. I’m totally screwed.”
Already, he was feeling better at her teasing. “I’ll handle it.” He kissed her quickly. “I love you.”
She grinned. “How could you not? Your brother tackled me, and your mangy cat has taken over my home. I’m the perfect woman.”
“I like sports and beer on the couch on weekends when I’m home.” Croft threw it out there randomly, to prep her for what life was going to be like.
“Will you be partially naked? Because then you can count me in,” she said, grinning.
His body reacted to her words and the visual of them rolling around on the couch.
“Let’s go. You’re getting red,” she stated laughing, knowing what he was thinking about. Emma was woman enough to admit the same fantasy was bouncing around in her brain too.
Once inside, Gail and another technician glanced up at them.
“You results are in, Croft,” the bitter woman stated, looking back down at her work. She didn’t plan to ever think about him again. “The sample matches the cigarette butt that you brought in for testing. It’s the same individual.” She looked up from her paper test strip and toward Emma.
There was no greeting or acknowledgement in looks they exchanged. In fact, one glare was filled with hate, the other with proprietary ownership.
“Thanks,” was all he said before he put a hand on Emma’s lower back, and they turned around to escape. Before they hit the door, he glanced back over his shoulder and asked, “One hundred percent certainty?”
Gail replied. “Damn near close. Every strain matched up, and it’ll hold up in court.”
He turned and opened the door for Emma, feeling the woman’s eyes on his back. If that cigarette butt became the center of their case, they were screwed. This was his worst-case scenario.
Once they were outside Greyson glanced down at her. “Well, we can now put the pressure on the mayor. I hope you have your back up plan ready. If it turns out that he’s the killer, that cigarette butt is going to be the bane of both of our existences.”
“Send Gale over to swab Lila,” she simply answered.
Croft didn't even think about that possibility. He stuck his head back in to his techs. “Send someone over to the sheriff’s office and swab the entire staff. I want you to tell them that we need to assure there was no cross contamination on the scenes.”
Gail crossed her arms. “Who specifically?”
“The woman. I need her father’s DNA, and she’s my closest link.”
The tech motioned to the woman beside her. “We’ll take care of it,” she said, looking back down.
“Thanks.”
“Sure.”
Greyson was marginally grateful that the woman was only shooting visual daggers at him, keeping the comments to a minimum. They might be able to finish this assignment peacefully.
Outside Emma waited for him.
“You’re pretty smart, Sheriff,” he said, taking her hand in his and leading her to the Jeep.
She laughed. “I told you I had a plan B. Maybe you should trust me a little more.”
“I will now that I know how devious and sneaky you can be,” he promised. “Want to go scare the mayor?”
Emma closed the passenger door. “You know I do. This ought to be an interesting interview,” she paused, looking over at him while he drove. “I don’t think he killed her, Greyson.”
Neither did he, but he wanted her point of view. “Why not?”
“I don’t know yet. It just feels wrong.”
“Intuition?” His gut was telling him it was all too convenient. The man was knocking up one victim, sleeping with another, and hanging out with a woman who was notorious for affairs.
“Yeah, something like that I guess.”
In the back of his mind, he was bothered that a woman would so easily throw away her marriage for sex. First, there was Megan Landry, and then Betty Kline.
“Can I ask you something? Without you getting mad at me, and it turning into a fight?”
She looked over at him. “I guess. What?”
“Will you ever cheat on me?” Croft just blurted it out.
“What? Where the hell did that come from?” she asked, touching his arm. This had to be part of the past that hurt him. Why else would he bring it up?
Parking, he continued, �
��Two of the women were married, and they decided to run out and toss away their marriages for sex. I just need to know, if we ever ended up together, would you cheat on me?”
Emma didn’t hesitate. “No. If I didn’t love you completely and totally, I wouldn’t agree to marry you. If I was even the least bit hesitant, I’d know that we weren’t meant to be. My mom and dad were together a long time. I grew up believing that you made that commitment and stayed together. There’s no such thing as a starter marriage in my mind. It’s for better or worse, or don’t say ‘I do’ in the first place.”
That helped him relax a bit.
“How about you?” she asked.
He supposed she deserved to know. “When we were having dinner last night, I told you there was something I didn’t want to discuss.”
“Yeah?” She’d admit that curiosity was killing her.
“I was on my first tour of duty and was involved with this woman.”
Emma watched him carefully. Here was more proof of his emotional frailty. It was all over his face.
“I was three months into my tour, and she stopped emailing, writing, or calling.”
She took his hand in hers.
“Six months went by of me being frantic, wondering if she was safe, hurt, sick, or dead. On my last few weeks, I was so worried I wasn’t paying attention and there was an explosion. I turned and took shrapnel to the back, just above my flak jacket.”
“The scars?”
“Yeah, well they sent me home to heal. I wasn’t allowed back for a while.”
She touched his cheek and stared into his eyes. The silver was stormy and clouded with so much emotion.
“I got home and found out that the girl I was willing to dedicate my life to was bored waiting for me, and she moved on.”
Emma understood why he married his job and didn’t have one-night stands.
“Since then, I just didn’t think I could ever commit because I didn’t want to come home from an assignment to find my heart had been hurt again. I didn't want to relive that betrayal over and over.”
She leaned in and kissed him softly. “I won’t cheat on you, Grey. I won’t disappear tomorrow for another man. I love you.”
Celestia is Falling (A Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 1) Page 35