Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3)

by Morgan Kelley

  When he saw her tonight, and she’d stabbed him, he knew the truth.

  She was corrupted—like him.

  Only the wickedest of the worst element could lie to a pro and not get caught, and he didn’t want her near his family. He didn’t want her corrupting what he’d come to love.

  The people at Terrace Glen were his heart. They filled him with something he’d never had before.

  A family.

  Now they would be in danger.

  Dimitri also didn’t want to feel that sexual pull toward her. There was something about her legs, and those pouty lips that tormented the hell out of him. When he’d turned around and saw her, it wasn’t as a woman. He saw his purchased prize, and that lust filled him.

  Then she shanked him.

  And he still didn’t kill her.

  What the fuck was his issue?

  Dimitri didn’t like the feelings brewing in his gut. He didn’t like that she always grabbed his attention, making him want to break the rules.

  His rules kept him alive.

  Now he was angry, frustrated, and wishing he could walk away from the whole thing. He didn’t want to work this case with Marissa Pierce.

  He knew better.

  Only, if he walked, who would protect the people he loved most? Who would protect the Crofts?

  Dimitri was trapped, and that pissed him off. He prided himself on always having an escape route to leave a bad situation, and now he was stuck in a predicament he didn’t really enjoy.

  If he walked, he lost everything he’d built the last year. He’d lose Emma and her kindness, and he’d lose Greyson and his comradery.

  He’d have to leave his sisters behind, and he’d never see Katerina’s baby born or Natasha get married.

  His fight or flight instinct was telling him run, but his heart was telling him stay.

  There was only one person to blame…

  Marissa Pierce.

  It all started the second he’d seen her again, and he knew it was going to be bad.

  It was a punch to the solar plexus.

  It was painful to know he’d been taken by this beautiful woman, and he’d never seen it coming.

  He was tricked.

  That ate at him.

  What was he going to do?

  As Dimitri paced Sky Villa, he needed to work this out in his head. The hotel scene had been confusing, but now he got it. He thought back to that night where he carried Marissa back to her apartment.

  The scent of her perfume made him insane, but his control was still intact, and he was safe.

  He recalled placing her on the couch and seeing the pretty kitchen decorated by her, and it didn’t fit in with the rest of the drab apartment.

  She’d been a mystery, as if she wanted to give herself one place to be at peace. That kitchen, fancifully decorated, looked to be it.

  In that moment, he’d known the undeniable truth.

  He wanted her.

  Something about her intrigued him, and he was drawn to that mystery.

  When he watched her sneak out, feeding the homeless people, he honestly believed it was to help them.

  Then she disappeared without a trace, and that mystery appealed to him too.

  He couldn’t find her. She was like a thief in the night.

  Dimitri had to do something, but what?

  He didn’t like the way he reacted to her being around, and he didn’t like the way she was now touching his family.

  He feared for them.

  Dimitri prided himself on being able to tell if someone was on the up and up.

  Now he couldn’t.

  He couldn’t read her.

  That meant he couldn’t keep his family safe, and he couldn’t run for his life. So that left being a trapped animal, and that was dangerous.

  As he moved around his luxury condo, he was pissed, bitter, and on the verge of hurting someone. Dimitri normally was a master at control, but now, he wanted to put his fist through a wall in anger.

  Then the doorbell rang.

  “Who the fuck?” he muttered storming there. When he whipped the door open, he saw her.

  Emma.

  She was there waiting for him.

  “Well, this doesn’t look like home, but we have trackers on all the vehicles for a reason,” she said, ignoring the look on his face. She trusted this man with her husband’s life every day. There was no doubt in her mind she would be protected there.

  Besides, this wasn’t like Dimitri. He wasn’t a runner. He was a fighter, and she knew something was off.

  Her mom instincts were kicking in—big time.

  “Where is your husband?” he demanded, his accent present and accounted for, despite his attempts to calm down.

  It irritated the hell out of him too.

  She irritated him, and for that, he was ashamed.

  “He dropped me off. I’m your problem for the night. I guess heading here was a bad idea, huh? It’s kind of hard to hide fourteen stories up.”

  That was a total mother way to handle it.

  He crossed his arms and glared at her. The whole time, his heart was breaking inside. He wanted her to save him.

  God!

  Dimitri needed someone to save him.

  “I’ve never been in here. Are you going to make me stand here all night, Dimitri?”

  His heart skipped.

  No one came here.

  No one.

  Dimitri didn’t fuck women here, and he certainly didn’t entertain company. This was his hidey-hole, and he came here when the demons threatened to take him under.

  Like now.

  Yeah, this was bad.

  He was in no mood for the pretty redhead who tried to mother everyone she loved.

  Right then, he was unlovable.

  Broken.

  Unfixable.

  “You should go. I’ll drive you home.”

  Emma could see, and hear, the storm. This man was struggling. This was exactly why she told her husband to bring her here. Against his judgment, Emma was willing to do battle for Dimitri and his soul.

  Someone had to do it.

  The man was slipping from their grasps, and she couldn’t let him go.

  So, she’d face this scary storm.

  She stopped him from grabbing his keys. “How about you do it after I help you with your arm? If you don’t want me here, then I’ll catch a cab.”

  He stared at her. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Clearly. Love makes me do stupid things. I could be at home in my bed with my husband, and yet, here I stand, Dimitri.”

  He let that hang there.

  He prayed for a miracle.

  And he got Emma.

  Jesus!

  What the hell had happened in the span of one day? Just last night, he’d been in control.

  “Clearly, it does,” he said, handing the word back to her.

  “Well? Can I come in?”

  He moved backward, allowing her access to his private sanctuary. He didn’t let anyone there but Kat or Natasha. No one had seen it but his sisters.

  And that realization hit him in the heart like a well-aimed punch. Emma was here.

  One more sister for him to love.

  That both made him relax and get angry all over again. She had this power over him too.

  Now he had to wait to see if she’d hurt him.

  “Welcome to my home,” he said, fighting to be pleasant to Emma.

  When she entered, it was hard not to look around to check it out. The place was finely decorated, but it was contradictory of what she knew to be true.

  Dimitri was making a statement.

  He was hiding, and Emma didn’t buy it for a damn second.

  “It looks like you,” she offered, as he locked the door behind her.

  “Yes, it’s sparse and cold,” he said.

  She stared at him like he was crazy. “Actually, I thought strong and masculine. It’s clear you don’t think highly of yourself, Dimitri. I,
on the other hand, do.”

  Dimitri didn’t know what to say.

  “This is a bad idea. You being here, Emma, it’s not a good thing. Please just leave.”

  “Why because you want to yell at someone, and I’m here? So, go ahead and bitch and scream. I’ll stitch you up, and we’ll get some sleep.”

  He didn’t think she got it.

  He was edgy.

  Angry.

  Horny.

  Bitter.

  “You’re not safe here. I’m a danger to myself and everyone around me right now. I don’t want to hurt you. Not you, Emma.”

  There.

  He said it.

  There was no doubt in her mind that he was fighting an internal battle, and she would make it easy for him. She’d stand in front of him, giving him all she could.

  Emma would protect him when he was too weak.

  “Oh, Dimitri.”

  She walked right toward him and into his body. Lovingly, she rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m very safe with you. I wish you felt the same about me.”

  That melted the chill.

  How could he be mean to her now?

  “Emma.”

  She held onto him. “It’s okay, Dimitri. I understand. We all have those demons. We all have those secrets that scare even us, and they chase us. Let me help you tonight. Let me fix up your arm, give you some pain meds, and just keep you company. I know you think you know what’s best, but tonight, I think you need me here.”

  He did.

  God!

  He really did, and that was the problem. If she wasn’t married to a man he loved and respected, he would be trying to steal her away for himself.

  He loved her.

  He loved how sweet and innocent she was.

  He wanted that in his life, and she wasn’t his.

  “I trust you,” she said, when his heart quickened. “You’re my brother, my friend, and I love you as my own.”

  He wrapped his good arm around her and let her heal a piece of him.

  He was already wearing down from the fight. He was exhausted emotionally, physically, and mentally.

  Dimitri knew he needed to hold on for one moment, and maybe he’d get strong again.

  She looked up at him. “Now, where’s the pain meds and antiseptic. You’re a hot mess.”

  He laughed.

  “You have no idea.”

  He pointed to the bathroom off the living room area. “I’m going to go change in my bedroom.”

  He headed down the hall, and Emma went into the bathroom on a hunt for anything they could use to clean him up. Under the cabinet, she found the kit.

  Including a tranquilizer bottle and painkillers.

  Yeah, that would work.

  She grabbed one of each. Someone needed to sleep, and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  In the kitchen, she found water in the fridge.

  Everything was pristine, black, and white, and spotless.

  Yep.

  This was Dimitri Gideon personified.

  Cool.

  Calm.

  And hurt.

  From the counter, she opened the huge first aid kit. She grabbed it and headed down the hall toward his bedroom. When she walked in, he was pulling on a pair of jeans.

  “Emma!”

  She laughed. “What? I live in a house with seven men. You have nothing I haven’t seen. Sorry, but the male anatomy isn’t shocking. I was a cop. We all shared a locker room.”

  He still stared at her as he tried desperately to keep his back away from her view.

  “I already saw them, Dimitri. You can pretend they aren’t there, or I can if you’d like.”

  He stared into her green eyes.

  There was so much emotion in his.

  “Choose,” she said, giving him that escape route. When you trapped someone, who was wounded, they reacted like an animal, and she didn’t want him more worked up over all of this.

  “I’d like option B, if possible.”

  She shrugged. “Okay. Here,” she said, handing him the pills and the water.

  He took them.

  “I was thinking bourbon.”

  “I was thinking it would be nice not to have you die from mixing drugs and alcohol, so the water is your drink of choice.”

  He laughed despite himself.

  She had that effect on him.

  From the day that Randall Mason sicced him on her, he’d always been intrigued. Emma had that essence around her like she would never hurt anyone, and he needed that for now.

  “Now, sit on your bed and give me the needle. I’m going to clean your arm and stitch you up.”

  “Have you ever done this before?”

  “Hell no! What sane person has? Had you come home, Steele would have done this. I’m not a seamstress. I was a cop.”

  He raised his hand.

  “Like I said…”

  He laughed more. When Emma was around, he always felt a million times better. She had this way of making him feel…human.

  No one else did.

  People stared at him, and they saw Dimitri Gideon, the killer—the mercenary—the man who did horrible things for money. She saw Maximillian Marchenko. He didn’t get why she wasn’t afraid or loathed him.

  He couldn’t figure it out.

  What was it about her that made him seem like he was worthy?

  “How hard can it be?” she asked, as she cleaned the wound with alcohol and clean gauze.

  “I’ve been hurt worse. This is nothing. I could have handled it. You’re pregnant and should be home sleeping.”

  “About that,” she began. “I needed to ask you something. I know it’s personal, but I figured this was as good a time as ever, since you’re a captive audience, and it’s just us.”

  He didn’t like the sound of that.

  At all.

  It freaked him out. He was trying not to covet his friend’s wife, but it was so damn hard.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Our wedding is coming up in two months, and I was wondering if you’d walk me down the aisle. I want you and Chris to do the job. It feels right having the two people I trust more than anything beside me that day.”

  He stared at her.

  “Seriously?”

  “If it makes you uncomfortable, I get it. You can say no, and there will be no hard feelings. I just wanted you to be part of my day. You and Chris ARE my brothers. I lost Gage a long time ago, and we eloped because Greyson didn’t want me to be alone on our wedding day.”

  He listened.

  “Well, here’s another wedding day, and I’m just as alone. My parents are dead, and I don’t have him anymore. It would mean so much to me to have you do what you did for Kat, and what you’ll one day do for Natasha.”

  How could he say no?

  Especially since he knew what Greyson had found out.

  Yeah, he was going to kill Thomas Christ for what he took from this sweet woman.

  “Well?”

  “I’d be more than happy to do it. Will all three of us fit? Chris is a tad bit bulky.”

  “I’m sure he’ll say that about your ego.”

  He laughed.

  He was feeling better.

  “I’m in.”

  She took his face in her hands and stared into his aqua eyes. “You are a good man, Dimitri. Despite the hype you believe about yourself, I see the truth.”

  He was about to say something.

  Only, she gave him a kiss.

  It was soft.

  It was gentle.

  It lingered.

  He moved away from her. “Emma.”

  She smiled at him. “I trust you with my life. I know you would never hurt me. Sometimes, we just need to feel.”

  He was speechless.

  Emma patted the bed. “Time to stitch you up. Walk me through it.”

  He explained what she had to do, and it wasn’t easy to stay beside her. Emma’s fingers mov
ed over his skin, and her perfume was right there.

  He was trying to be good.

  He was trying not to think about it.

  “I need a favor,” she said, as she threw in the first stitch. She knew he wasn’t going to like it.

  “What?” he asked.

  “No more hookers.”

  He stared at her. “Emma, I’m sorry it embarrasses you, and it’s beneath our family.”

  She put her hand over his mouth.

  His eyes went big.

  People didn’t touch him. They didn’t get too close, and they never treated him like he was just like everyone else.

  Emma did.

  She had no boundaries, and that confused the hell out of him.

  “It’s not that. I’m not embarrassed by anything you do, Dimitri. I’m worried about you. We are watched. Don’t think that Thomas Christ or Commissioner Raye haven’t put out feelers on any of us. They could get to you through a hooker, and if I have to find you dead, I won’t survive. I lived that once, Maximillian. So, for me, I’m going to ask you lose them for the time being.”

  He stared at her.

  When she used his real name, his whole world shifted. He stopped being angry. Instead, he worried about her. He heard the sorrow.

  He wanted to make it stop.

  “Okay.”

  Dimitri couldn’t believe he agreed to that. What the hell was wrong with him?

  She hugged him. “Thank you. When the heat cools down, then I don’t care, but we have so many issues right now, and we can’t lose you.”

  “I get it. I’m security.”

  “What you are is an asshole,” she stated.

  He stared at her. “What?”

  “If you think that’s why I’m asking you, then you’re not half as smart as I thought.”

  “Emma.”

  “Here, let me spell it out for you. If you die, my heart will be broken. You’re important to me and Greyson. You’re not expendable. We can hire security. I can’t hire a brother. Let that sink in,” she said, throwing in the next stitch.

  “Jesus! You’re mean,” he said, flinching at how much that one stitch hurt.

  “Yeah, people are deceived by my sweet, sunny exterior. They forget I was a cop. I can be mean, and you won’t see it coming.”

  The next stitch was gentle.

  He relaxed.

  “I understand what you’re saying,” he stated. “I’ll agree to it for you.”

  She gave him a kiss on the top of his head.

  It was so motherly.

  It was comforting.

  Dimitri relaxed.