She fought back.
“Coward. You are nothing but a chicken, and that’s the simple truth. You’ll run before you’ll trust someone to catch you. Bock freaking bock.”
Did she just cluck at him like a chicken?
Was she insane?
“You are a pussy, and you know it.”
That was it.
He snapped.
Dimitri grabbed her by her arms, and he lifted her off her feet. Her toes barely touched the ground. He could feel his hands sinking into her arms, and he didn’t care. He didn’t think he could save her from himself.
“You don’t know what cowardice is and why someone will run. You’ve only had love. I have had nothing but being afraid. Don’t pretend you get me.”
He shook her.
“You’re hurting me,” she said, never looking away from his stormy aqua eyes. Dimitri was in there. She only had to reach him. “Let me go.”
He hated that in her eyes there was mercy and love, not fear. Why did this one woman not fear him?
WHY?
He shoved her away from him.
Emma caught herself before she fell to the mat. She wasn’t done, so she followed him. When he laid on the floor to do his sit ups, she sat across his hips.
“Go away! Damnit! Why don’t you hear me?”
She stared him in the eyes when he sat up, putting himself nose to nose with her.
“I love you, Dimitri. I’m not going home without you.” Emma did the unexpected. She wrapped her arms around him, holding on.
He had no choice but to let her.
Emma held him through the storm.
“I’m going to be the death of everyone I love. How do I live with that? I went to the underground and bartered away my life. They’ll ask me to kill one of you. Don’t you get it, Emma? I don’t deserve your love. I knew what they’d want, and for her, I was willing to take the deal and run. Now I can’t run with her. She doesn’t want me! I have nowhere to go.”
She didn’t let him go. Instead, she simply wrapped her legs around his hips and stared into his eyes.
“You do deserve love. I will mother you until the day I die. I’ll care for you, even when you frustrate the hell out of me. You’re mine, too, Dimitri. I love you. I love your sisters, and we will get through this.”
“She didn’t want to be near me. Am I him? I’m so confused. Did my father make me into this, and him too? Are children born evil? Am I that?”
She touched his cheek.
“You have a huge heart, Dimitri. He’s not out saving women, he’s out killing them. You are not him. You are you. Are you dark? Yes, but that’s not a bad thing. Greyson has those dark places too.”
“The military,” he said, softly. “It made me.”
“You can tell me about it. You can always find me and tell me when you need me. If you ever call, Dimitri, even if you leave, I’ll come. I’ll always come.”
He didn’t deserve her.
“Did I really hurt you?” he asked.
She took his face in her palms. “No, you didn’t hurt me. I’m good, Max.”
He sat there, and she stayed, soothing him by running her hands up and down his back.
“I’m sorry I betrayed you,” he whispered, unable to look at her. He couldn’t face her disgust. Not Emma.
She again made him stare into her eyes. “I forgive you, Maximillian. I understand why you did it. It wasn’t out of anger, or malice. You saw a chance to be free of Vegas, and you took it. I can’t hold that against you. You wouldn’t kill us if they asked. You wouldn’t hurt either of us.”
He wouldn’t.
He couldn’t.
He loved them so much.
“We’ll fix that mess later. Now we focus on you. You can’t leave me, Dimitri. You can’t leave Katerina or Natasha. We are yours.”
She whispered to him in Russian, praying he’d let it soak in to the cold recesses of his soul.
He listened, his forehead resting against hers. As she continued to talk, her hands moved up and down his scarred back. It offered him peace.
“Before you, our lives weren’t filled. When you came into them, Max, you gave us more love, more laughter, and more family. We are whole because of you. While she didn’t see value in you, I do. I would die without you, so you can’t leave me. Greyson would be vulnerable without you, so you can’t leave him. You’re ours, and we’ll get you through this.”
He wanted to weep.
“I know why you felt the need to do it, and I understand it. I’ve been that lonely. Before Greyson found me, I ran, and I was living that. She wasn’t the one, Dimitri. That’s why she left. I promise you that she’s out there. That other half of your soul is waiting for you to find her.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“When you find her, she won’t leave. No matter how dark it gets, or how scary the moment, she’s going to protect you and it’s going to make all the difference. Marissa wasn’t the one, and your heart will heal.”
God!
He hoped she was right.
“What if I never find her?” he asked. Dimitri had watched his sisters both fall in love, and it was relief and pain all at once. He prayed they’d be happy, and he’d prayed for his own salvation, but he always suspected it wouldn’t come.
“You will. Have faith. I do.”
For the next five minutes, he didn’t speak, and she didn’t ask him to talk. He stayed there, held in her embrace as she offered him peace.
“Thank you, Emma.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’ll always come for you, Maximillian, and I will always be available when you need me. You only have to find me and take what you need.”
Her words soothed the anger.
They beat back the self-loathing.
It was as if someone threw on the lights, illuminating some of the shadows in his soul.
“I have you,” she promised.
He buried his nose in her hair and relaxed into the smell of Emma’s perfume. Dimitri knew what they had was special. She was sitting on his lap, moving around, and all he felt was calm. He didn’t want to roll around with her. He just wanted to be hers. She was that mother his sisters found, and he would take her offer.
He needed someone to heal his wounds.
“You’re covered in bite marks,” she said, touching his throat. “Does it hurt?”
“Yes. She took my heart from my chest. I wasn’t even worthy of her. That hurts far worse than some rough sex.”
Her heart broke.
“Look at me. Who did you make this bargain to?” she asked.
He wasn’t going to tell her.
Dimitri had to protect her.
“Talk to me, Max.”
When she used his real name, it forced him to face those demons. Dimitri didn’t doubt she knew that too. Emma was a mother to her core. She got everyone around her.
They were lucky.
“You’ll feel better if you get it off your chest, and we face it together.”
He trusted her.
“He’s this asshole on the seedier side of Vegas. They call him Babylon. They call him that because he leaves things in rubble, like the city.”
“Charming.”
“He’s a snake.”
“He sounds it.”
“No, he looks like one. He’s tattooed in scales, and he forked his tongue.”
“Uh, that’s so very gross.”
He laughed. “He’s worse than me on the horrible human scale. You can’t trust him. He’s the reptile in the garden of sin.”
“Tell me about him,” Emma said, still running her hand up and down his back.
“He brokers deals. He knows everything that’s going on around Vegas. He’s trouble. I bailed on them to go legit with Greyson, and he now owns me with that one favor.”
“But you got us Viktor’s location.”
“Approximate.”
“We’ll handle him. One step at a time. We are fighting so many battles at onc
e. Going into this, it was Thomas Christ, the Commissioner, Marissa’s case, and then Viktor. Well, Thomas Christ is dead, so we can cross that off our list.”
Dimitri was grateful for that. The Crofts were safe.
“Commissioner Raye will back off for a little while. He’s going to be busy prepping to pick his new homicide captain. When it comes to us, he’ll lie low. He’s scared. He nearly screwed up and got caught being felonious.”
He listened.
“Marissa found her sister, and she’s leaving. I know that hurts you, but it would hurt you more if she stayed. She isn’t good for you,” she said, touching the vicious scratches down his chest. They were raw and angry.
That was never a good sign when sex came to that.
“All that’s left is Viktor. We’ll handle him, and then this Babylon. You aren’t owing your soul to anyone.”
He rested his forehead against hers.
The weight of the world was on his back.
“Emma, I don’t know how to deal with emotions. They scare me.”
“Own what you feel. Take the chance.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her. It was warm, and it was filled with pain.
Emma couldn’t push him away.
When he pulled away, he started laughing. “Nothing.”
She snorted. “Gee. Thanks. That doesn’t kick the hell out of my ego.”
“That was like kissing a sister. You’re sitting on my junk, as you call it, and nothing.”
She wiggled.
He laughed more. Finally, that oppressive hate and anger was lifting. He may have made a mistake, but he didn’t lose the people who loved him.
Emma was definitely a mother.
People said there was nothing stronger than a mother’s love, and he understood it now. No matter how bad you made a situation, a mother would be there.
Emma would be there for him.
“She screwed up. You’re a catch, Mr. Gideon. Maybe you need to realize you just weren’t HER catch. You’ll find her. Just be patient. I’ll be by your side through this walk.”
He sighed.
It was hard to be angry around her.
“Let’s clean up your neck and chest,” she said, holding out her hand.
He took it.
She led him to the kitchen so she could make sure that skank didn’t give him rabies. What Emma didn’t say was if that woman ever came back…she’d kick her ass.
No one hurt her family.
NO ONE.
They’d found her sister’s killer, helped her get her body back, and put their lives on the line. Her behavior was shitty, and Marissa Pierce had been a bitch.
“I’m not mad at her,” he offered, seeing the anger flash through her eyes. “She’s just like me. Damaged.”
Emma leans against him. “Sometimes, moy brat,” she said in Russian, “the damaged ones are the best souls out there, since they know what pain is like.”
He was touched by her use of Russian, and calling him ‘my brother’.
“Sekret moyego serdtsa.”
Going up on her toes, she gave him a soft kiss on his lips. She accepted that term of endearment. She would be the secret of his heart any day.
As she stood there, using that first aid kit, she took care of him. Emma washed off all the scratches, the bites, and marks that Marissa had left.
“Do me a favor,” she said.
“Yes?”
“Give your heart a little break. Love is tough. Women…we can be good or bad. Choose better.”
“I don’t know how to choose someone to love.”
Emma smiled at him. “Well, when you love someone, you want to protect, love, and take care of the person, right?”
“Yes.”
He felt that way with her, with Greyson, with Sam, and his sisters.
“If she doesn’t want to protect you, then she’s not the one. Move on, and keep that guard up.”
She was right.
“She was bad for me, wasn’t she? I chose poorly.”
“Training wheels, my brother. Training wheels. You have to start off slow. Besides, who am I to judge. I had sex with Thomas Christ. He was my last sex partner before I fell into Greyson Croft’s life. Look how that turned out,” she teased.
He laughed.
It was genuine.
“You’re all patched up.”
Somehow, he didn’t think she meant the bites and scratches from Marissa.
“Am I?” he asked.
“Yes, you are. Come home with me. We have interviews tomorrow, and I need you to watch our home. We need you, Dimitri. You may have made that deal, but you’re still ours, and if Babylon tries to call it in, he’ll have something in common with the original Babylon.”
“What?”
“He’ll be in ruins too. If he comes for my family, I will burn him down.”
“I don’t want you near him.”
“Awww, another caveman. How cute.”
He stared at her.
Then he laughed.
“You let me worry about him. If he thinks that Greyson is the dangerous one, he has another lesson on the horizon. When a mother gets angry, it’s bad. REALLY bad.”
He hugged her.
“I love you.”
She felt the same. “I will always love you and hold you up, Dimitri. You can count on me.”
He genuinely believed that.
“Home?”
“Yes, we should go home.”
“I’ll drive. Greyson gave me the keys to his ride. Want to have some fun?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Uh, what kind of fun are you suggesting?” he asked. “You realize Dante and Steele regularly use it for…”
She stopped him.
“I was talking about getting some donuts and leaving crumbs all over the seats.”
He stared at her.
Then he began laughing. “Count me in. That’s going to make him insane. He loves that car. He changes the air freshener every six weeks.”
Emma grinned. “I know. I can’t kick Marissa’s ass, but I can jack up Greyson’s mistress. You in?”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
She held out her hand, and he took it.
“Partners in crime?” she asked.
That hit him right where it needed to.
“Partners.”
And for that, Dimitri Gideon would be grateful.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Terrace Glen
He’d taken his shower, and it was good to be heading to bed. It had been a long day, and Chris was beat. Being on alert, non-stop, sucked.
What he wanted was to curl around Natasha and to sleep. He was too tired to even think.
When he came into the bedroom, she was sitting on their bed. She was in a pink nighty and smiling at him.
“You look good enough to eat,” he said, jumping onto the bed beside her.
She noticed the worry lines.
“You look stressed. Are you okay?”
“I’m the only one on guard duty now that you and Dimitri have to stay inside. I need to rest and get ready for another day.”
“I can help you.”
“No, you can’t. You guys are on lockdown. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
She kissed him, and it was long and sweet.
“If I wasn’t so old, so tired, and barely alive, I would be climbing all over you,” he vowed. “Maybe the morning?” he asked hopefully.
Natasha smiled, but she was worried.
When she searched online, one of the signs that he wasn’t into a woman was decreased sex.
Was that this?
She had an idea.
“I know what might help you relax,” she said, tugging down his boxers. The minute she touched him, he sprang to life.
Well, that was a good sign.
Chris watched her. “If you want sex, you’re doing the work,” he teased. “I can’t.”
“I have a better idea.”
“What?”
She showed him.
Licking him, she enjoyed the way he shook. Gently, Natasha took him in her mouth and began showing him how much she loved him.
She worked him gently.
Slowly.
With love.
The entire time, Chris was having pleasure overload. While he wouldn’t ask for a blowjob, since that wasn’t his style, he would let her play all over his body, and this was one hell of a gift.
“So good, Natasha,” he said, as she practically swallowed him whole.
Chris watched her and it was hard not to react.
“You’ve been talking to your sister again,” he said, getting her to laugh.
The vibrations nearly killed him.
It was so damn hot.
He popped out of her mouth.
“Don’t hold back, Christopher. You won’t hurt me. I’m not breakable.”
He grinned.
“Well, if you insist.”
With that, he grabbed her head and forced her back onto his erection.
She moaned in pleasure as he worked her head up and down his dick. Then, he let her continue that same way on her own, once she got the rhythm down.
“More,” he said, his body reacting to each pass of teeth and tongue over his sensitized erection.
Natasha listened, since this was about pleasing the man she was crazy about. She glanced up, and he was braced on his elbows, as he stared down at her.
“Jesus! Keep talking to your sister,” he ordered.
She laughed and again, the vibrations sent shivers through his body.
Chris dropped back and stared at the ceiling. He never wanted this to end, so he fought it.
Then, he felt guilty for taking all the pleasure and offering none back to her.
“Stop.”
She did.
“We can have sex. I can do it,” he said. “Apparently, you giving me a blowjob gave me my second wind.”
She grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Before she knew it, Chris was on his knees and tearing off that innocent pink nightie. Once it was free of her body, he saw she was naked beneath it.
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 47