“Oh, maybe because I don’t have a heart or soul or maybe because I’m just a bitch.”
He looked surprised.
Honestly, he’d come to this room to lick his wounds. He figured Emma would forgive him.
“I didn’t mean…”
“Why are you here, Dimitri? Did your girlfriend tell you I did something else to her? Are you here to tell me to be nice to Princess Marissa even when she’s physically abusive to us?”
“No.”
“Well, it’s about time you know why I punched her in the face. She hit Chris. No one hits anyone in this family. We don’t do physical abuse, so, yes, I punched her. She was belligerent, she was going to get herself killed, and I don’t need that on my shoulders too! I’m already handling this,” she said, pointing at the screen.
He let her rage.
She deserved to, and he would take it.
After all, he chose sides, and had his heart handed back to him when he ended up on the wrong path.
“Since she came here, you’ve changed, and frankly, I don’t like the man you’ve become. Family sticks. Family loves. Family doesn’t toss you over for a woman or man.”
He got it.
“She left and isn’t coming back. I’ll leave you alone,” he offered, willing to retreat.
Emma stopped him. “You can stay. I’m going to go eat something. I’m pregnant, hurt, and sick of watching those animals abuse a child. I have to get out of here.”
She headed past him and slammed the door so loudly, her diploma from college fell off the wall.
“I’m leaving,” Dimitri said. “I only came to say goodbye to you both. Once I’m gone, you’ll be safer than with me here. I tried to stick, but I can’t. It’s better for me to disappear.”
Greyson stared at him. “If that’s your choice. Are you leaving with her?” he asked.
He only wished.
A broken woman didn’t even want him.
What was his worth?
“No. I offered her my heart, and I told her the truth about that,” he said, pointing at Julie on the video. “She doesn’t want to see me or have anything to do with me. She won’t interfere in this case anymore. She’s getting her sister tomorrow, and she’s gone.”
Greyson was stuck between them.
He was the buffer.
“If you love her, you should follow.”
He shook his head. “If she loved me, she’d want me to follow. I care about her enough that I’ll let her go. I owe her that. My brother killed her sister, and that’s not forgivable. I can see now that there was never anything there but me hoping for a miracle. Well, I’m not getting it.”
Greyson moved toward him.
“Take care of my sisters. If Natasha marries Chris, please give her away for me on her wedding day. Tomorrow, I’m going after him. I’m going to end him and then end me.”
“Dimitri.”
“I’ve done something that you need to know about.”
Oh, he didn’t like the sound of that at all. It scared the shit out of him.
“What did you do?”
“I sold my soul to make sure he’s found. I went where I swore to never go, and I made a bargain for his location. He’s close to Vine and Canal. We were right. He lives and plays near there.”
Greyson didn’t like this.
“I owe a favor. I already know what it’ll be.”
“What?” he asked.
“They’re gunning for you. They’ll ask me to kill you or Emma. I won’t do it. I can’t. It’s better that I offer myself up over this. It’s better if I die.”
He was horrified.
He turned and faced his friend.
Then he hugged him.
“I’m going to my place. I need to leave here. I’m sorry. I did it for her, and she still left. I know in my heart I wanted to do it for my sisters, but I realize it was for her so she might feel something for me and stay. I wanted to rescue Marissa, and I can’t. You can’t save someone else when you’re drowning yourself.”
“Oh, Dimitri,” he whispered. “We knew who killed her sister. We could have found him in time. You didn’t have to make that deal.”
“I did it so then I could leave with her. It was my way of breaking the ties here. Once I went and made the deal, in my heart, I knew I couldn’t stay here. If I did this, I’d have to leave. Now that she doesn’t want me, I have nowhere to go. I’ve damned myself to be alone.”
Greyson hugged him despite his irritation at what he did. “Stay. You have here. You have us, brother.”
The emotion overwhelmed him. He’d just done something so horrible that he’d basically told the underground scum he’d betray them, and still Greyson cared about him.
He didn’t deserve them.
He didn’t deserve this love.
Dimitri stared him in the eyes. “I’ll end him. Take care of my sisters. They will both be your family now. Promise me that you’ll hold Chris accountable. You’ll make him protect her.”
“Dimitri.”
“Tell Emma I love her so very much, and tell her I couldn’t face her to say goodbye.”
Dimitri headed out.
Greyson began pacing.
This was a mess.
It was all on him. He’d taken this case, thinking they were doing good, and all it cost them was his family’s stability.
Curtis’s blood.
Kat and Natasha’s heart.
Emma’s soul.
And Dimitri’s life.
He’d screwed up, and he had to make it right.
Somehow.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nighttime
Vegas
E mma was in the kitchen when her husband came in. She was leaning against the counter, eating a bowl of cereal. Her face said it all. She was not amused by her conversation with Dimitri, and she was hurt.
He needed her help, and Greyson needed to find a way to get his wife on Dimitri’s side in all of this. Once she was, Emma would be able to pull him back from the brink. There was no doubt in his mind.
Croft had to salvage this family, since it was on the verge of collapsing under all of this mess.
“Dimitri left,” she said, before he could even say a word to her.
Greyson heard the concern in her voice. He could work with that.
“Yeah, he’s not coming back here ever again. He said to tell you goodbye.”
She stared at him. “WHAT?”
He told her everything that the man had said to him because she deserved to know. This was her family, too, and Emma was the core.
“Jesus. We don’t need this right now,” Emma said, scrubbing her hands over her face.
“Emma, you have to cut him a break. He’s hurting. Marissa Pierce…taking her case was a mistake. This one is on me. I tried to do good, and all I ended up doing is jacking this whole thing up. We never should have taken this case. Now, I’m on damage control.”
Emma looked at her watch.
“I’ll go.”
“You’re not leaving here alone,” he said, getting the feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“Grey. I have to. You have to stay here so the family is safe. Chris can’t do guard duty nonstop. He needs a break too.”
He got it.
They were all on burnout.
They needed a vacation, and soon. With the wedding, and everything else coming up, the family was running thin.
“I hate saying this, but you’re right. Go, but make sure you’re safe. I don’t need to freak out even more.”
She hugged him.
“I can’t let him hurt.”
“Even when he hurt you?” he asked.
“Especially when he hurt me. We love our family, Grey. They came to us broken. They came to us damaged. We can’t give up on them. Katerina needs her brother here when she has her baby. Natasha is just falling in love and still has some of the wounds from long ago. They both need him. I will go down fighting for Dimitri, even if he betrayed my
heart to a woman who didn’t deserve his.”
He smiled.
“What?”
“You are quite the little mother.”
She laughed. “I’m taking your car.”
He stopped laughing.
“Emma.”
“Dimitri, unbeknownst to you, had the glass replaced. It’s bullet proof.”
He tossed her his keys. “Live in it. You’ll be safe. I can buy a new one.”
She laughed.
“Tuck Sam in. He has tutoring tomorrow. Make sure Curtis has his pain pills, and NO he cannot have sex—even if he doesn’t have to do the work. That’s the part you need to really be specific about because he’s going to go for a loophole. The nurse will be back in the morning.”
Greyson laughed. His wife had covered all the bases, and he was proud of her. He was proud of what they’d built—even if it was messy at times.
“Remember when it was just me and a girl, and I fell in love?”
“When you saw that girl and made her yours?”
He kissed her.
She remembered.
“Yeah, well, we’ve accumulated people along the way.”
Emma touched his cheek.
“And I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
And for that, he was grateful.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
He was out hunting for a new girl. The last one didn’t last as long as he would have liked.
So, he tossed her.
Yes, he dumped the body, and no one would find her. She was in the desert in a shallow grave. Too bad her mother never told her that hooking was dangerous.
At first, he was going to leave a little message for his dear brother, but then he reconsidered. He had a better plan—one that would hit closer to home.
When you were going to strike, make it count.
That was what his mother told him when he vowed revenge on Maximillian. So, he would take her advice and do just that.
Viktor was going to hurt his brother in ways he never thought possible. He was going to break him, mind, body, spirit, and soul.
It would be perfect.
Until he could take that perfect shot, blowing up Maximillian’s world, he needed a distraction.
That meant finding a girl.
One.
Perfect.
Specimen.
It only came down to how he was going to find her. The people he’d been purchasing from had told him no more, and when he killed their mule, they cut him off.
How dare they?
While they had him over a barrel, he still had options.
Yes, he knew them.
Yes, he could tell the cops.
Only, they could do the same to him.
So, desperate times called for desperate measures.
He was making a little house call.
At the man’s home, he slipped in through the back door. When he found him, he pointed a gun at him.
“I need another girl.”
He laughed. “We don’t have any. You’ve taken our supply and killed them. The FBI has been after us, and you drew even more attention. She and I are going under. We are going to hide before we get caught. We don’t need one hundred counts of trafficking of minors. That’s the chair.”
“I’ll kill you.”
He laughed.
“Go ahead.”
He held the gun and there was a silencer on the end of it. Viktor meant business.
“You won’t do it. You need us. You’re sick, and you need what we supply.”
He laughed.
“Let me deflate your ego.”
And then Viktor filled him with bullets from his silenced gun. On a piece of paper, he left a love note for a certain redhead he knew his brother favored.
On it, he spilled his guts.
Well, this man’s.
Oh, he didn’t need them and they should have known that. There was no honor among killers.
None.
And here was the proof.
He was going to take what he wanted, and no one could stop him.
No one.
Vegas was going to be his—even if he had to devour it one soul at a time.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Midnight
Sky Villa
He was miserable as sin and it was damn good thing that he was alone. He was in the mood to hurt someone, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Dimitri considered himself a smart man, surviving in a world where he didn’t belong.
Well, that intelligence had been his downfall. He let his guard down, and he’d betrayed his family for a woman.
He’d offered them up to make her want to stay with him. A part of him was so disgusted that he wanted to hurt himself. The other part was weak, vile, and pathetic.
That part made him want to suffer unimaginably.
Mix the two together, and he had a volatile brew.
As he punished his body, by working out in his home gym, he wanted to make sure every part of him hurt. He wanted his shoulder to burn and ache, his back to bear the brunt of his anger, and his abs to scream with agony.
Why?
Because his heart felt all of that and so much more.
He deserved it.
There was never a lower moment in his life than when he’d hurt the Crofts, sold his soul for a favor, and fell for a woman who didn’t care about him.
Wasn’t love supposed to conquer all?
Yeah, BULLSHIT.
Not in his world and not for him. He should have known better to think anyone would feel that for him. He’d broken his rule of sleeping with the same woman more than once, and here was his punishment.
He was abandoned and alone.
Love was only for the lucky, and Dimitri…he wasn’t lucky. In fact, he was cursed. Here was his proof.
Damn his heart for aching and needing to feel.
Damn his soul for wanting that connection to someone.
And fuck him for the hell he’d have to endure in his damnation.
He deserved this and so much more.
As he worked out, pushing his body past its limits into a new level of self-hate, he suddenly felt someone behind him. As he dropped from the pull up bar, he turned, pulling the gun from his waistband.
It was aimed right at her.
“You could shoot your junk off like that,” Emma said, leaning there. “You’d kick the hell out of Chris for sticking his gun into his pants like that. You know better.”
That was even more proof. He was off his game. He’d never heard her come up behind him.
“Who let you in?”
“Natasha taught me to pick a lock. It’s really easy. Now I can be felonious without you knowing.”
He stared at her. “GO AWAY.”
“Are we back there again? It’s getting old. I’m not leaving you in this state of mind.”
He turned, placed his gun on the bench and went back to his pull-ups.
Emma didn’t stop him. She’d been watching him for a couple of moments, and she saw the truth. He was hurting. Dimitri was definitely trying to harm himself, or sweat away the demons.
Instead of saying anything, Emma just gave him time. She knew him well, and she had faith in the man he was beneath all this self-loathing.
She’d reach him.
“Are you having fun?” he asked, sensing her eyes on him as he tortured the muscles in his body. It should have bothered him that she was seeing his back and all the damage done there years ago, but with Emma, he didn’t mind.
That pissed him off too.
He loved her so damn much it hurt.
“She was a fool not to take you up on your offer. If I were her, I would have taken you with me. You’re a sexy man, Dimitri. I think it’s the bad boy with so many demons persona.”
He ignored her. She was just trying to make him feel better. No one wanted damaged.
No one.
“I see Greyson has a big mouth.”
�
��Yeah, in a family, that happens. Who left all those scratches all over you?” she asked. “And the bites.”
“No one.”
“Dimitri.”
He was angry.
He was pissed.
He wanted to be alone.
“Go home. For Christ’s sake, get away from me. I’m on the edge. I don’t want to say something to hurt you. You should be home in your castle with your happy life.”
She laughed. “Yeah, it’s always happy when someone’s gunning for you. Pity party is over.”
He growled. “Go away, Emma. Run.”
This was where trust had to come in. She knew Dimitri could kill her, but she had to believe he’d protect her. He was family, and that mattered.
“No, I can’t do that. I have to help you through this. If it were me, you’d be by my side—no matter how bitchy I got. You’d take it, let my use you as that verbal punching bag, and then soothe my heart.”
“You don’t know me,” he hissed, and that was the problem. He didn’t know himself. He’d actually betrayed the people he loved more than anything for a woman. The first one that gave him any emotions, any feelings, and he turned on them to save her.
He didn’t deserve them.
That was his proof.
“I know you very well. In fact, I know you so well that I came here unarmed, knowing you’d never hurt me.”
He dropped down but wouldn’t look at her.
“You know nothing. What don’t you get, Emma? When it came down to it, I sold you out. I sold the whole family out to find my brother and get retribution for a woman who doesn’t want me. Your life is pretty compared to mine.”
“I want you. You’re mine, Dimitri.”
His heart ached.
“Go home! You have no idea what I’m living.”
Love wasn’t working, so she’d have to push him to the edge to get through to him.
“Yeah, poor you. Hide away here in your tower until you can end your life by your terms. Well, fuck you. I’m stopping your suicide mission, if I have to shoot you myself and drag your ass out of here behind me.”
He turned.
“You don’t know me, or what you’re dealing with. I am him. I am that killer. I prettied myself up for you—for your husband—for my sisters. I’m done being pretty. I’m a monster, and I hate everyone for being happy,” he raged, trying to get her to understand. “From the scars on the outside to the ones no one sees, I’m hideous.”
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 46