Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3)

by Morgan Kelley

  He listened to her as she knelt with him in that chapel.

  “If he hurts someone else…”

  “We will not blame you. We will not push you away because of his actions. You’re not a Gideon. Today, you’re a Croft. We protect our own, and you are ours.”

  He didn’t know what to say.

  Emma tucked his shoulder length hair behind his ears, and wiped the wetness from his cheeks.

  “I love you, and I’ll fight for you.”

  Dimitri didn’t know how to accept that. No one in his life had ever offered him that. No one had ever valued him enough to make sure he was safe.

  Now he had it, and he was afraid to lose it.

  “You need to make a choice, and I’ll accept it. If you have to leave, then we all do. We’ll close the house down, sell it, and go under with you. We’ll let Vegas fall to stay with our family.”

  “I don’t understand why.”

  Emma leaned against him, resting her forehead against his. In Russian, she told him. It was choppy, didn’t flow as well as she would have liked it, but he got the point.

  More tears came.

  “You are mine, too,” he said, letting go of some of the pain so Emma could carry it. Dimitri gave her something he never shared with anyone.

  His faith.

  He wrapped his arms around her.

  And together…

  They prayed.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  Courthouse

  There was chaos going on all around her. Delilah had been in the middle of the court trial to defend her client, and the shit had apparently hit the fan.

  People were running around like maniacs, trying to get out of the courthouse as if their lives depended on it.

  Then she heard the two bailiffs talking about the shooting in the upstairs office.

  It shocked her.

  Thomas Christ, the man who Riley had overheard threatening to hurt her, was dead.

  She didn’t know what to think.

  There were cops running around, news crews, and even the commissioner. He was lurking, and that freaked her out.

  Her first instinct was to call Riley to see if everything was okay, and maybe to get some reassurance. She was nervous, and she didn’t know what to think.

  Pulling out her phone, she dialed his number with shaky fingers.

  It didn’t take him long to answer.

  “Delilah, honey, are you okay?” he asked, the second he answered.

  “I’m good. Are you okay?” she asked, praying he was somewhere safe.

  “I’m good, but Curtis is in surgery. The Crofts have a giant mess on their hands.”

  She paused.

  What?

  “Why is he in surgery?” she asked.

  Riley gave her the abridged version.

  There were shouts from behind her, and she could barely hear anything he was saying.

  “What’s going on there?” Riley asked.

  She told him.

  “Commissioner Raye went to arrest Thomas Christ for his involvement in the murdered of your partner. That’s why I called to see if you were okay.”

  “WHAT?”

  “You didn’t hear?” she asked, nearly getting run over by three cops with guns.

  “NO! What the hell happened?”

  She told him what she knew, and there wasn’t much. It was just word traveling around the courthouse.

  Riley couldn’t believe it.

  Well, he could believe it because Thomas Christ was a psychopathic lunatic, but his partner? He was shocked the man hadn’t come after him.

  “And he’s dead too?”

  “Yeah, apparently, the commissioner was trying to get his gun so they could arrest him.”

  Riley felt like he was in some weird soap opera.

  Vegas was losing its mind.

  “Then there were shots fired. They are closing down the courthouse. It’s a crime scene, so I’m heading home.”

  “WAIT! I’ll come get you, Delilah! Don’t go anywhere that there are no people! Stay in the thick of it until I get there!”

  “Riley.”

  “Honey, Thomas Christ had been planning your murder with the commissioner. This doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t be trying to arrest him.”

  Her eyes went big.

  “You think…?”

  Yeah, he did. He was going to call Greyson to discuss this with him as soon as he hung up.

  “Loose end, honey. Christ may be dead, but we don’t know if they had other plans to move on you. You’re still not safe, Delilah. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Okay, Riley. Be careful. This whole town is going to Hell in a hand basket.”

  Oh, she had no idea.

  The corruption was everywhere.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  Back at his hole, Viktor was happy. He’d taken a shot at his sister, and granted, he missed, but that was fine. He’d studied the Croft family, and he knew what made them tick.

  If they tried to stop him, he’d start to take them apart too. He was going to enact his vengeance on his brother, whether they liked it or not.

  In fact, he might just kill them off for shits and giggles.

  He liked Vegas.

  It was his kind of town.

  Maybe, when he’d cleaned up his family issues, he’d stick around. With the Crofts dead and the Gideons gone, the city would need new mob.

  Maybe Mother Russia would have to represent.

  Meaning him.

  He could be happy here. There were all the women, the crime, and the opportunity to make big money.

  Yeah, ‘Sin City’ was full of murder, death, and corruption.

  It was his kind of town.

  And shortly, he would own it.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  Hospital

  Waiting Room

  It was all over the news.

  As Greyson stood there, he watched the media replay the shot over and over again.

  It pissed him off.

  It also taught him a lot about the shooter.

  As someone who did what he did, he could spot a pro or a wannabe sniper.

  There were tells. The man was NOT a pro, and that might work to their advantage.

  He was just about to head into the chapel to get Emma when his phone rang. Greyson stared down and saw Riley’s number.

  Maybe he’d found something new.

  “Yes, Detective?”

  Riley told him about Thomas Christ and his death. He told him about the commissioner being the one who took him down, and then he told him about his partner.

  “He’s cleaning up loose ends,” Croft said into the phone.

  “What do you want me to do?” Riley asked. “I heard him and Christ plotting to hurt Delilah. I can take this to the media, the investigating officer, or let Delilah handle it.”

  Greyson mulled it over.

  “Don’t do anything.”

  “What?”

  “We can use this as leverage, Riley. He killed Christ for a reason. Let’s watch it play out, and see what happens. He’s going to be running scared now. He likely set Christ up to save his own ass.”

  Riley agreed.

  “This isn’t a race. It’s a marathon. We’ll keep this information to ourselves, and at some point, we may need to whip it out for protection. Vegas is exploding.”

  Yeah, he’d noticed.

  “Where are you?” Greyson asked.

  “I was out in the field trying to contain Curtis’s shooting. Now I’m heading over to the courthouse to get Delilah.”

  “She’s going to be safe,” Greyson offered. “He won’t do anything high profile.”

  He hoped not.

  “I’m still going to get her somewhere safe. I don’t want to see her hurt.”

  Greyson figured. There was something blooming there.

  “If you need us, call,” Croft said. “Just try and stay out of the commissioner’s way
, and keep your ass out of the sling.”

  Oh, that was his plan.

  “How’s Curtis?” he asked.

  “Still in surgery.”

  “He’ll be fine. He’s tough.”

  Greyson was aware. For now, that wasn’t his concern. Emma and Dimitri were. They were still talking, and he didn’t doubt it might be getting ugly.

  “Be safe, Riley. Head to Terrace Glen if you need to. You can hide out there with Delilah.”

  “Thanks. I may do that.”

  He hung up.

  Greyson was pacing as he prayed they were doing the right thing. Hang the commissioner now, or wait to really put the screws to him?

  He and Dimitri had been digging into the man’s past, trying to find something to bury him.

  This was huge.

  It was also going to be hard to prove. It was hearsay, and he knew it. A lawyer, like Delilah, could tear it apart in seconds.

  Yeah, they’d hold this one.

  Greyson stared up at the TV, and they were running side by side stories. Curtis’s shooting, and the dead homicide captain.

  The city was stirred up.

  Speaking of which…

  As Emma and Dimitri came out of the chapel, the Russian went to his side.

  “Greyson…”

  He wasn’t going to let the man apologize for something that wasn’t his fault. Dimitri didn’t do this. This was on his brother, and they all knew it.

  “I need you to focus.”

  He stared at him. “Okay, on what?”

  He pointed at the screen and told him what Riley had told him.

  “Holy shit!” Emma muttered. “He’s taking out loose ends. We need to hold onto this. We can use it.”

  Croft kissed her.

  She was thinking like a mob boss’s wife.

  “That’s what I told Riley. We can shelf that, for now, but look at the shooting footage. Tell me what you see, Dimitri,” Greyson asked.

  He watched it, and it pissed him off. Still, he saw what Greyson was talking about.

  “He’s an amateur.”

  Greyson agreed.

  “How do you know?” Emma asked.

  “Watch this part right…here.”

  Emma did.

  There was an angle from one of the cameras that had been ahead of Curtis and Kat. When Curtis turned, to talk to the detective, Emma saw it.

  There was that flash.

  “Fourth floor, third window,” she said.

  Dimitri agreed.

  “Okay, and that means?” she asked.

  “When you snipe, where do you do it from Dimitri?” Greyson asked.

  That was easy.

  “You wanted to be the furthest away from the scene. The recovery time isn’t the same. You take the shot there, and you have minutes to escape. Plus, you’re heading out into the mess,” he offered.

  Exactly.

  “If it were me, I would have picked that building.” Greyson pointed to one in the distance on the Vegas strip. “I would have used the roof. It’s an easier shot. Further can be better if you’re a pro.”

  She got it.

  “I would have gone with further away,” Dimitri said, agreeing with him. “I would have had more time to break my gun down, pack it up, and get away. That close is dangerous. You’re in the epicenter, and the cops will be shutting everything down as fast as possible.”

  Emma understood.

  Greyson wasn’t done. “Ditto. This man is self-taught. He also didn’t use the right bullets for the job. He used one that would go right through his target.”

  Emma hated this conversation, but she was learning something huge. Her husband and Dimitri Gideon had a lot in common.

  “What would you have used?” Greyson asked him.

  “I have a collection of Black Talons. I got my hands on them on their way to being destroyed a few years back.”

  “Why?” Greyson asked, keeping the man focused on the details so he wasn’t thinking about Curtis or anything else.

  “They curl on impact, and they make a mess of the human body. They would have torn the victim to pieces, and they wouldn’t have been fixable.”

  While morbid, it was true.

  “Agreed. I would have used a hollow point too. Our killer isn’t trained.”

  Emma had been listening. “What does that tell us?”

  “That we can catch him. If it were Dimitri, we wouldn’t have a shot. Viktor Marchenko has left his mess all over Vegas. He’s going to have flaws, and we can pick them apart and catch him.”

  Dimitri got it.

  “And this case?” Emma asked. “We really haven’t given it one hundred percent. We’re chasing too many details.”

  He agreed.

  “We are only going to have this one shot with the FBI being off our asses. So, we work the sex ring, we find the persons behind it, and we end them. IF your brother is raping women and part of this, we’ll catch him. He’s sloppy.”

  Dimitri could deal with that.

  “We may not catch him immediately, but let’s cut off his fun, and he might do something to come out of his hide-y hole.”

  They all knew how dangerous that was, but they didn’t have a choice. He was shooting at people. One head shot, and they were down family.

  “There has to be a trail. We only have to find it,” Greyson offered. “I say we start looking for it.”

  Emma got it.

  “Then let’s work.”

  The whole family pushed the chairs away and settled down on the floor to do what they knew.

  They were comparing notes to begin the chase. Up first, they wanted the sex ring. Since Julie was found, they could free up time from looking for her. Now they would find the people who set her up to die at Viktor’s hands.

  “What do we know?” Greyson asked, as he sat beside his wife and Dimitri.

  Emma shared what they had found out from the janitor of the strip club. “There’s an apartment on Vine. Apparently, Gerald had a flop there.”

  Tessa made notes.

  Dimitri lifted a brow. “Wait. Marissa’s sister lived on Vine. She’s there now. That building is full of hookers.”

  Greyson jut realized he was right.

  “She does. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. If you’re going to be dragging your ‘merchandise’ around, you want the place to be close. He would want to watch over his prime goods.”

  Emma knew he was right.

  They were going to have to check that place out.

  “It could be the same. He wasn’t really specific,” Chris said, as Natasha sat beside him. He was holding her hand, and they all knew why.

  He was worried that she was going to disappear with her brother if he ran.

  That would break his heart.

  “That’s going to be a good place to start, and I AM going, so if you were planning to tell me no, don’t,” Emma stated.

  Her husband stared at her.

  “Not today, Greyson. Put the caveman back in his cave.”

  Croft laughed. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Dimitri offered a suggestion, “I’m fine with Emma going, but maybe we should do it after dark,” Dimitri offered. “Then I can help.”

  Emma laughed. “Yeah, no. You, your sisters, and Curtis are out of the game. He’s going to stay here…”

  Kat spoke up, “I’ll stay with him. I’m pregnant, but I can handle a gun. As long as he’s not by a window, I’m safe.”

  Greyson looked at Dimitri.

  “Okay.”

  He knew how hard that was for him.

  “I can disappear until this is under control,” Natasha offered.

  Chris glanced over at her. Even though he was afraid she’d not come back, he’d take his chances. He would rather she live.

  “Please do. I don’t know when you’re around half the time. This is going to be a good time for you to vanish in plain sight. Just make sure you come back to me.”

  Natasha’s heart skipped.

  That was
love.

  She kissed him on the cheek. “Yes, Captain.”

  Greyson thought that was a good idea.

  “And me?” Dimitri asked.

  “The house it is.”

  “I’m not hiding from him,” Dimitri said. “He called me out, and we are going to keep working this case. You told me to decide my own fate, Emma, and I will. I’ll take precautions, but I’m not hiding from him. That’s not the man I am.”

  Well, had she known before hand, she might have not used that as her defense.

  She took his hand in hers. “I stand by your choice.”

  They were all on the same page.

  Greyson continued with the update, now that everything was under control.

  “The only thing that’s left is an update I got from Riley a few minutes ago.”

  “What?” Dante asked.

  He shared the information, again, with the rest of them.

  “Thomas Christ was killed.”

  They all stared.

  Greyson flipped the channel to another station, and they watched the chaos at the courthouse. No one said a word, until after it began looping from the beginning again.

  “Well, I didn’t see that one coming,” Dante stated.

  “Does anyone here actually believe that Commissioner Raye was trying to bring the man in for justice?” Katerina asked.

  Emma, Greyson, and Dimitri started laughing.

  There was their answer.

  “So, Thomas Christ played fast and loose with another cop’s life, and he was busted. That seems like poetic justice. He killed my brother the same way, so I’m glad he got his ‘just desserts’. I would have rather been the one who pulled the trigger, but we can’t always get what we want.”

  She left that there for Dimitri.

  He didn’t miss what she was talking about. It was a Mom moment if he ever heard one.

  “The commissioner likely did it because Thomas Christ was a runaway train,” Greyson offered. “He brought him here, and he couldn’t control the crazy.”

  Yeah, he was definitely cleaning up a mess.

  “So now we know that the Commissioner is as dirty as the day is long, what are we going to do about it?” Tessa asked.