True Justice

by Morgan Kelley

  She made that note on the board.

  So, the first two people in the chain were dead.

  That didn’t help.

  “Who else do we have connected to this?” Elizabeth asked. “Who else can we work with to find Rosemary?”

  Emma flipped through the notes she’d printed out.

  “We were given a name. Louis Mateo—we later found out that was Roscoe McKinney’s alias.”

  She recalled.

  Elizabeth wrote them both on the board.

  “What was his function?”

  “He was Rosemary’s partner. He was selling the girls, and he was trying them out too,” she said, pulling out a disc. “It’s all on here.”

  “Pass for now,” Elizabeth said. “I have daughters. That will put me right over the edge.”

  They didn’t argue there. It would put any decent human being over the edge.

  “And the status on him?”

  “Again, dead,” Greyson stated. “We received a letter from Viktor saying he killed him and Rosemary is next. We figured he would take her out. We called Ethan and had him send in the Feds.”

  She recalled.

  This didn’t look like they missed much. Everyone was dead but the woman behind it, and the one person buying up the youngest flesh.

  “So, Rosemary is last in the line?” she asked.

  They all nodded.

  Elizabeth stared at the names. There were only four people—yes, there were five names, but four actual individuals.

  How the hell did they keep this all running from a strip club?

  The FBI had it tagged as a huge thing. She knew it was involved in some of the mess in New Orleans that the hunters were dealing with, but how did one person—the only one alive—keep this going.

  “What are you thinking, baby?” Ethan asked.

  He could tell she was working it out.

  “You definitely missed someone. This doesn’t work for me. One person still running this massive interstate operation? Really?”

  Yeah, it looked like they had. Again, the head of the snake got away and so did the babies.

  Elizabeth pointed at the board.

  “He said he was going to kill her?” she asked, referring to Viktor.

  “Yes. In the note, that was exactly what he said,” Emma confirmed.

  Emma showed her a copy of the note that had been left on Roscoe’s body.

  Yeah, no.

  She wasn’t buying it.

  No.

  Freaking.

  Way.

  “That’s bullshit. She’s his supplier. He’s going to protect the ONLY person who is giving him his girls. He’s going to make sure she’s safe.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “He’s going to know her.”

  Paris agreed.

  “He clearly knew them personally. That’s why he went after Anthony Delmarco. He shanked him to keep him quiet. The man knew too much.”

  She agreed.

  Ethan too.

  “So, we need to figure out why didn’t he kill her? This is Viktor Marchenko. He would know how to find her. We found their home, and he strolled right in.”

  She pointed at the list.

  “When the men were out looking for women to mule in, who was watching the hen house from any other foxes who wanted to come in and save or steal the chicks?”

  They stared at the board.

  “Rosemary worked the bar, and her husband Roscoe was a bouncer,” Emma stated.

  “At the same time?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long are strip clubs open here?” she asked, glancing over at the city residents.

  “They don’t close. They are open twenty-four-seven,” Greyson admitted.

  She waited for one of them to get it.

  Then it clicked with Emma.

  “Someone had to be watching the girls that were being tricked out in the club. Someone had to be babysitting when they couldn’t be there.”

  “Yep. You missed them. We have to go back through to see who stands out.”

  This seemed like a good time for Ethan to mention what was coming.

  “Elizabeth, I have the autopsy reports. Chris got in touch with the ME here, and he has them. There are four dead women.”

  “I need them printed out.”

  “I can print them,” Paris offered. “Email them.”

  He did.

  Paris sent them to his printer. “Give it a couple of minutes. They’ll be ready,” he offered.

  It looked like someone was going back down to the Archer’s condo to fetch some autopsy reports.

  “Heath!”

  He entered the room.

  “Yeah, Mrs. B?”

  She told him what she needed.

  “On it.”

  He headed out.

  “Also, my love…,” Ethan said, focusing on his wife. He wasn’t done giving her all of the news. He was pretty sure she was NOT going to like his other news.

  He knew his wife.

  Elizabeth stared at him.

  “Whenever you say anything followed by ‘my love’ like that, it’s like when I say ‘honey’. I hate it. What did you do, Ethan Jackson Blackhawk?”

  He laughed.

  “I mean it. What’s up?”

  “Want to mingle, hang out with the rich, power players in Vegas, and with your sexy husband?”

  “Uh, I’m doing that right now. Greyson and Emma are rich, you’re sexy and a power player, right?”

  Yeah, not quite.

  “We have a fancy party to go to on Thursday,” he stated.

  She stared at him.

  He had better be yanking her freaking chain. There was no time for her to play arm candy.

  “Um, I have to interview Robert Lee tomorrow to see what he meant by the notes in his notes. I don’t have time to play dress up with you. If you have a work function, you may have to fly solo. I’m a busy girl.”

  Oh, he was aware.

  “It’s not work-related,” he stated, reassuring her that he was aware of her time constraints.

  He had them too.

  “The gala?” Emma asked, figuring it out. That was the only big thing going on in Vegas with power players.

  Elizabeth looked over.

  “WHAT? I know you don’t expect me to play dress up and go to a gala in the middle of this.”

  “Oh, I do.”

  Well, shit.

  “What is going on?” she asked.

  “You’re going to want to hang out with the commissioner and scare him senseless, right?”

  She opened her mouth, and then closed it. That did have some merit. She’d love to ride that cocky, arrogant, asshole’s tail for a few hours.

  In his own interrogation.

  This might be a second-best option.

  “Uh, yes? Let me remind you that I can do that at the police precinct, so this had better be damn good.”

  He was aware.

  “Well, the Crofts have a party to attend.”

  She looked at her watch.

  “Ethan, it’s almost Wednesday. Where the hell am I going to get the time to get a gown for a freaking gala?”

  He smiled.

  Oh, he already had a plan.

  “If I make the dress appear, Cinderella, will you join me?” he asked.

  “She’s more like that mean, old, hag step-sister,” Ivan stated from his spot against the wall.

  “Zip it,” she said. “No one’s asking you to the ball, Quasimodo.”

  He laughed.

  She had a point.

  Then again, where she went, he went.

  “Well? I called the commissioner, and he’s going to put us at the Croft table. We can keep our eyes on them, and we can scare the shit out of the people being bad in Vegas.”

  She sighed.

  “Okay, but one condition.”

  “What?”

  “I want Ivan to be in a tuxedo and he has to go with us. Heath can drive the limo.”

>   “WHAT?” Ivan stated.

  “I get to pick out the monkey suit. He’s Scottish. I think he needs a kilt.”

  The man stared at her with his mouth open. Just when he thought he’d heard just about every ounce of jackassery from her, she found something even more absurd.

  “PARDON?”

  “Mean, ugly, step-sister, huh? Suit up, skirt boy. You’re going to be getting a breeze on your man junk.”

  Ethan laughed.

  It was hard not to when it came to them.

  “You wouldn’t do that to me. You can’t do that to me. He’s my boss. You’re my job.”

  “Oh, Fairy Godmother…I want a kilt for my sexy-legged friend. If you get him in one, I’ll go, wear a sexy dress, and even sit in your lap, Deputy Director.”

  Ivan sputtered.

  He was screwed now.

  Ethan lifted a brow. Well, that was going to be even better, and could make her day.

  “Done.”

  “Director!” Ivan stated. “Come on! Where am I going to put a gun in a kilt? Don’t do this to me.”

  He laughed.

  “You did start it with the whole ‘ugly step-sister’ thing,” he stated. “Recall that?”

  She sat there and smiled like the Cheshire Cat. Then she looked at her nails and pretended to buff them on her shirt.

  “Checkmate, Ivan. Checkmate.”

  “There are days when I see why people want to shoot you in the ass.”

  Emma was amused.

  The Blackhawks were nothing like they seemed at first. Beneath it all, they were normal people.

  She could respect that about them.

  Heath came in and handed her the papers.

  “Thank you.”

  “Why is Ivan scowling, Mrs. B? Did someone interrupt his sex call to Blue?”

  “You too?” he asked.

  “He has to wear a kilt to a party.”

  Heath laughed.

  “So do you,” Elizabeth stated.

  “For you, Mrs. B, I’d do it. Besides, I’m sexy and I know it. I can work a kilt. I don’t have knobby knees like Ivan. He will have to shave. He’s like a bush.”

  She giggled.

  “That’s one hell of a picture,” she stated.

  “I hate you all,” Ivan said, trying not to laugh. “I really hate you all.”

  “Children,” Ethan said, getting them to focus.

  “So here are the ME reports. Let’s go over them,” Elizabeth said, taking that as her cue he was done with the playtime intermission.

  She began flipping through the autopsies.

  “Well, this is…interesting,” she said, grabbing the last set of victims’ reports.

  “There’s escalation.”

  She passed them around.

  Paris and Ethan studied them together.

  “There are visible signs of torture,” Paris stated. “Someone is getting off on it.”

  Ethan agreed.

  “Victim one, Jane Doe one, was burned. She has wounds to her feet, the backs of her legs, and her genitalia,” Ethan stated.

  Paris studied the second one.

  “Our second Jane Doe was suffocated. From the ME’s report, she was revived and tortured over and over again.”

  Elizabeth knew what that meant.

  “He’s playing with them. They are toys to him, and he is taking his time.”

  Ethan leaned back.

  “Victim three was starved to death.”

  They all looked at it.

  “It takes a while to starve someone,” Greyson said. “Weeks.”

  “Then she’s victim one, and he needed a place to keep her,” she stated. “He has a place.”

  They were aware.

  “We had a general location,” Greyson stated, “but before we could go for him, Dimitri’s sister was killed. We had to stop working on that.”

  That hung there.

  The family was hurting.

  “We have to check out that address.”

  “It’s not really an address,” Greyson stated. “Again, it’s a general location on a specific street. We don’t have a building number. It’s not far from Vine. There are a few houses there, some buildings, and way too many for us to look at. We get attention, and now we’re targeted,” Greyson stated.

  She whistled.

  Heath came in.

  “I need you and Gamble to find something for me tonight,” she stated.

  “What?”

  “I need a place where someone could keep women to torture them.”

  “You mean Ivan’s bedroom?” he asked.

  She walked over to Heath and hugged him. “I love you. You are my brother from another mother. Let it be known that you are officially my favorite of them all.”

  Ivan flipped them both off.

  “You two are funny. Like a rash.”

  Ethan laughed.

  “Seriously,” she said. “The killer is taking women, and he’s keeping them for an extended amount of time. On this one street, there has to be something that stands out.”

  He saluted.

  Heath would do anything she asked.

  “I’ll take Gamble and head out. I hope he doesn’t need to sleep.”

  “I can go,” Ivan stated.

  “No, you’re on duty all day tomorrow. They can sleep and work a little tired. You won’t be able to,” she stated. “You’re on my wife,” Ethan stated.

  He got it.

  “It looks like you’re my tag team partner.”

  “Great. Where are we going?” he asked. “Hell? An Ebola clinic? What torture do you have planned?”

  She opened her mouth.

  Ethan stopped her.

  “Baby.”

  Later.

  She’d get him later.

  “We have some exploring to do. I think we’re going to head to a strip club. Aren’t there two?” she asked Emma who was still holding their information.

  “Yeah, from last time. ‘The Titty Corral’ and ‘The Pink Kitty’,” Emma stated. “I visited both. I know my way around them.”

  Greyson still didn’t tell her that wasn’t happening. He wasn’t in the mood for a fight, and if he went there, it would happen. In the privacy of their own room, he’d beg or argue then.

  Now?

  No.

  Not.

  Happening.

  “We can split them up,” Elizabeth offered. “We can’t be at the same place at the same time, so I’m going to hit up ‘The Titty Corral’. The name amuses me.”

  Ivan rolled his eyes.

  “I bet.”

  “The place won’t,” Emma stated. “Trust me. It’s a dive and a hole. That’s perfect for a sex trafficking ring.”

  “No playing stripper,” Ethan stated.

  “You do it one time in your life, and they NEVER let you forget it.”

  That had Ivan’s attention.

  “Pardon?”

  “Yes, yes, I played a stripper to catch a killer, I played a hooker, and a myriad of other roles.”

  Yeah, but Ethan loved that stripper one best. What married man wouldn’t?

  “Then I guess that leaves ‘The Pink Kitty’ for ME. I’ve been there before,” Greyson said, as everyone stared at him. The way he said ‘me’ said it all.

  “Greyson,” Emma began.

  Before she could say more, his phone rang.

  “It’s my brother. I need to take this. God only knows what Sam has done. I hope the hotel is still standing.”

  He answered.

  “Dante, what’s up? Are you safe?” he asked, seriously worried about them.

  “We need to talk.”

  Well, that didn’t sound good. This probably merited a face to face.

  “Do you have the tablet that Elizabeth left with us last time?” Greyson asked.

  “Yeah, it’s here. Why?”

  She grabbed the remote and pinged it.

  Dante’s face came online, and he looked freaked out. No, that was putting it mildly
.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Don’t lose it.”

  Well, that was the sure-fire way to tell he absolutely was going to lose it.

  Greyson was predictable if anything.

  “What happened?” he asked. “Is Sam okay? Did the commissioner come for you? What?”

  It was time to break the bad news to his brother. He was NOT going to like it. In fact, Greyson was going to lose it.

  “We were locked down, and we were watching TV. There’s not much to do but work or that.”

  “Okay,” he said, standing there. “And? Who am I having sex with now? Last week it was your husband. Was it good for you?” he teased, seeing Steele behind him.

  Only, he didn’t laugh.

  Oh Christ.

  “Just tell me.”

  “You need to see this.”

  He sent the link, and Elizabeth clicked on it. It pulled up one of those rag tabloid shows. He was about to tell him not to stress it when he saw his mother’s face on the screen.

  “Oh no,” he said. “Please for Christ’s sake let this be some kind of mistake,” he muttered.

  Elizabeth hit play.

  “I don’t know when they are due because they are keeping it hush-hush, Bill, but, yes, they are definitely expecting a baby. My son is finally giving me a grandchild!”

  Greyson couldn’t believe it.

  This was exactly what he DIDN’T want to happen.

  “I don’t know what they’re having yet,” Reggie told the man as they stood outside his family’s home.

  WHAT.

  THE.

  FUCK?

  “I hope it’s a little girl. I’m sure there will be more,” Reggie stated. “I’ll keep you in the loop.”

  “Grey, breathe,” Dante stated.

  It was too late.

  That’s when the eruption happened.

  It was huge.

  “I’m going to kill her. I’m going to go to jail for homicide when I kill my big-mouthed, blabbing mother who only thinks about her own fucking self!”

  Dante cringed.

  Yeah, this was pretty much how he thought it was going to go down.

  Just.

  Like.

  This.

  “She goes on to talk about lots of things, but then my phone rang, and it was a reporter that was trying to confirm it. I denied it, of course, but…”

  He stormed around the room.

  Then he pointed at his wife.

  “You’re on lockdown.”

  She stared at him.

  “Pardon me, Greyson Croft?” she asked. “I know you’re not shouting at me like that now. You know better to talk to your wife like that.”

  Everyone cringed as he moved toward her.