True Justice

by Morgan Kelley

  Dimitri didn’t know what to say.

  “I just spent a whole day fighting to keep you alive, Mr. Gideon. I’m cold, I’m tired, and I want a fucking beer about the size of goddamn Texas. I think I’ve earned it. So please. Keep your freaking pity party to yourself. I may pull out my gun and shoot you in that very fine ass of yours before we make it to the bottom of this goddamn mountain!”

  He wanted to laugh.

  Poppy was fire and ice.

  She was sweet and wild.

  That appealed to him on some deep, dark level. She’d saved him, and she was still trying to keep him alive. Poppy Wayne was something.

  “Now, let’s get home!”

  He watched her turn around, pick up the poles, and keep going. She kept going despite him provoking her.

  He’d been trying to make her leave him, and she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t leave him.

  Then he looked down at his hands.

  She gave him her fur-lined mittens to keep his hands warm. Her fingers were red, and they had to hurt. She gave him her jacket to protect his shoulder, and she was definitely cold.

  She was being kind.

  She was being more than kind.

  She was protecting him.

  It was far and few between who did that in his life. Up to that moment, Emma was the only woman he knew who would do that for him. She knew what he’d done, too, and she still loved him.

  This woman…

  Well, shit.

  “Poppy?”

  She stopped.

  “What? Do you want me to kill you myself? I’m just about there. Take that as your warning before you open your mouth.”

  “Thank you.”

  She looked at him.

  That was not what she was expecting.

  “Thank you for fighting for me. Get me home. I’ll take over from there. I appreciate what you’ve done for me. I really do.”

  She nodded and hustled it down the hill. She was almost there. All she had to do was get them to her car.

  And figure out why she wasn’t putting him in cuffs for admitting he’d committed murder.

  A couple of times.

  * * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *

  Across Vegas

  Elizabeth wanted to get her interview started, but she really had to check-in with home. She missed her husband, and Callen had to be missing her. Besides, he’d taken care of them while they were in the field, and he was running her division, so she could be away to have Ethan’s back.

  That was important.

  She dialed his number as Ivan drove them toward Robert Lee’s home.

  Callen answered on the second ring.

  “Are you naked?” he asked.

  “I can be. What are you wearing?”

  “A tie.”

  “Only a tie, sexy man, or is there a smile with that tie?” she teased.

  Callen laughed.

  “Well, since I woke up with Chris beside me, I’m thinking naked isn’t the best way to start my day. I don’t mind naked with a man if you’re in the middle.”

  She snorted.

  This was truly the other love of her life.

  “Are you safe, beautiful?”

  “Yes, but I needed to talk to you about something and it’s important.”

  “Okay, is Ethan safe?” he asked, hoping this wasn’t one of those calls. He hated when they were hurt.

  “Yes, and you got me chocolate donuts with raspberry filling.”

  He laughed.

  “Yes, because that’s your favorite.”

  “And my favorite coffee.”

  “Of course.”

  And there it was. The man always put her first in everything, and that was amazing to her. There was never a day that went by where he didn’t make sure her needs came first. That was love.

  She was a lucky woman.

  “I just wanted to tell you that I love you so much. You’re the best husband in the whole world, and I can’t wait to marry you and go away with you. Are we coming to Vegas on our honeymoon?”

  He laughed.

  “No, so stop trying to get me to tell you. I’m not going to spill it.”

  “The place you bought is nice. I thought maybe this was our secret honeymoon love nest.”

  “What I have planned is even better. I miss you, Lyzee, my love.”

  “Ivan is here with me, so talk really dirty. He needs help learning how to do that.”

  Callen snorted.

  Ivan rolled his eyes.

  “You’re my heart, my soul, and without you, there’d be no breath. Without you, sweet love, there would be no reason. I am lost without you, seeking for my better half. Because of you, I’ve found heaven.”

  “Kiss ass. Buy her a penthouse and write her poetry. You are an embarrassment to the male species. A kiss and a slap on the ass is all they need,” Ivan stated.

  Callen found that funny as hell.

  So did Elizabeth. She knew for a fact that Ivan doted on Blue too. He was full of shit.

  “Oh, Callen James, I love you.”

  “I love you, too, angel, but someone else wants to talk to you.”

  Chris got on the phone.

  “I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too, Christopher. Are you feeling okay? Did you take your vitamins and drink water yesterday?”

  “I did take them, and I had ice cream, coffee, and sex with a hooker.”

  “Did you record it? I want to watch to make sure you did it right.”

  He laughed.

  “I’m good, sweetness. I’m good. I’m going into work now, and I wanted to tell you I love you.”

  “I love you too. Give me the big goofy guy beside you. The one naked but wearing the tie.”

  Chris snorted and did as she asked.

  “You rang?” Callen asked.

  “I need a favor.”

  “What? Anything.”

  And that was why she loved him.

  “Kiss our kids, tell Dad I love him, hug Chris, kiss him if he’ll let you, and remember that I’m marrying some sexy Indian in two weeks.”

  He laughed.

  “Don’t elope with my brother to that white chapel. I’ll be pissed.”

  “How about skinny dipping in the rooftop pool?”

  “Some Indians have all the luck,” he teased. “Send pictures. I want to critique his skill.”

  She gave him a kiss and hung up.

  “I don’t know how you balance it all,” Ivan stated.

  “My big hips. Isn’t that what you normally say?” she asked sarcastically.

  “I was being serious.”

  “It’s easy when you love someone, you call them when you’re apart, you think of them when you’re not together, and you pray you don’t fuck it up.”

  “Is Chris still struggling?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I think he’s feeling the tension between him and Callen. He’s trying to adjust to all of this too. They’ll be fine once they work it out.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I love them both, and they know how much the other person means to me.”

  Ivan didn’t get that.

  He couldn’t imagine sharing Blue.

  “We’re here,” he said when the navigational system went off.

  “Wow, someone gets paid a lot more than I do,” she said as they checked out the house. “Are we sure he didn’t get paid more than Ethan too?”

  This felt off.

  That was way too much house for his pay grade. She was a director, too, and she and Robert Lee were at the same level in the FBI. She couldn’t afford this house. The man wasn’t married, so it wasn’t a two-income family kind of deal.

  That meant one thing to her. Someone was getting some illegal funds.

  “You can ask him that, and I’m sure you will,” Ivan stated, thinking the same thing. He was paid pretty well, too, for his job, and he couldn’t afford this house in Vegas.

  “Oh, I will.”

  Ivan buzzed the gate.
>
  Nada.

  The lights were on, and there was a car in the driveway. The man was definitely home.

  “I’m going over the gate. I’ll knock on the door and be polite,” she stated. “I didn’t come over here to drive away without my questions answered. I need to know who was the mole he made note of in his papers.”

  Ivan unbuckled his seatbelt. It looked like they were breaking and entering together. There was no way in hell he was letting her do it alone.

  NOT.

  HAPPENING.

  Ivan, being a gentleman, boosted her up, and then followed her over and up the driveway toward the man’s home. He waited as she knocked on the front door and nothing.

  No one answered.

  “Let’s check the back,” she said, heading off the porch and toward the rear of the house.

  He followed.

  As they headed around, she could see into the window, and something looked off.

  There was blood on the countertop, and it was dripping down the sides toward the floor.

  Yeah, that was NEVER a good sign.

  You didn’t get that much blood from a cut finger while you were making dinner. That was a slaughter, and she didn’t think the ex-director was craving a steak that damn fresh that he’d kill a cow in his kitchen.

  “Uh oh,” she said, pointing.

  Ivan looked into the window and sighed.

  It had just gone from scaling the fence to legitimate breaking and entering.

  Well, here went nothing.

  He pulled on his black leather gloves and got ready to do the deed for her. He busted out a square of the kitchen door window, reached in and unlocked it.

  “Stay behind me,” she said, heading in with her gun drawn. Ivan had his out too—just in case.

  They cleared the room, and the smell of death was horrendous. There was no doubt what was waiting for them near that blood.

  “Ten bucks said his organs are on the outside of his body,” she said.

  “Uh, no bets, sicko. There’s something wrong with you to even want to wager on that—and that you can tell by smell alone. You need a vacation.”

  That was the damn truth.

  Together, they rounded the corner and she’d been spot on with her assessment of the situation.

  There, on the butcher block island, lay ex-Director Robert Lee in all his dead glory.

  Beside him, and on the floor, were his organs.

  Someone had cut him down the middle of his body in what looked like torture gone horribly wrong. His intestines were all over the place. They’d sprung from him like some sick coil from a ‘Jack in the Box’.

  All thirty feet of them.

  She moved closer to get a better look, and she had to be cognizant of the sprung intestines.

  “I wouldn't touch him,” Ivan stated.

  The look she gave him said it all.

  Was he crazy?

  “Gee, thank for that, Ivan. Here, I forgot how to act on a crime scene. I was going to use his small intestines as a slingshot,” she said, leaning over him to check his wounds out.

  With the butt of her gun, she opened his mouth. It wasn’t easy. Rigor was setting in, but she could get his mouth open enough to see inside.

  His guts weren’t the only things outside his body.

  “His tongue is gone. Do you think it’s a coincidence we were going to ask him about who the rat was in the whole mix, the cat’s got his tongue, and he spilled his guts?”

  “I’ll say no on that one, but I will say someone likes clichés. If that was a message, then they’re a sicko.”

  She heard a gun cock.

  “Hands up! You’re under arrest for the murder of Director Robert Lee!”

  She raised her hands.

  Normally, she wouldn’t, but Ivan was between her and whoever was behind her. She didn’t want him getting shot in the process.

  “I’m with the FBI,” she said, going to reach for her badge.

  The second gun cocked.

  “STOP! You’re going to jail for breaking and entering and murder!”

  What jackassery was this?

  When she turned, both cops had their hands on the triggers and the intent was clear.

  They were going to make her life a living hell.

  Well, shit.

  This was going bad.

  Chapter Six

  Wednesday

  Base of the Mountain

  P oppy finally got him down to her vehicle and off the cold mountain. It was already warmer down by her car, and she was grateful. If she didn’t get sick, it would be one hell of a miracle.

  It was three hours of torturous bumps, hills, and peril. The entire time, she talked to him, trying to keep him awake. Only, she lost him ten minutes before she hit the bottom.

  He’d passed out, mumbling to himself. The last thing she heard was Emma Croft’s name and his continual apology for whatever he’d done to her.

  Well, this was a conundrum.

  Hospital or Sky Villa?

  Her gut said hospital, but then she thought about everything he’d said earlier. Dimitri had a valid point. His brother was a killer. If he had been the one who ended Natasha Gideon’s life, maybe he was next. Taking him there seemed pretty reckless.

  Taking him to an empty condo seemed just as bad to her too.

  As she loaded him into the back of her vehicle, he fell asleep on the seat, spread out in the back of her SUV.

  She checked his temperature, and it was back up.

  God!

  She hoped he didn’t have some raging infection that would kill him.

  Hopping into the driver’s seat, she grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and pulled it out.

  She had to call someone.

  From what she’d seen on the news, the Crofts were pretty close to the man. They lived in the same place.

  She opened his phone using his finger and scrolled through it until he found her name.

  Everything was in Russian but her picture and her name.

  She hit the icon and prayed the woman would answer and could hear her. The reception was shitty at best.

  When Emma Croft answered the phone, she sounded concerned, and she should be.

  “Dimitri! Are you okay? Where are you?” she asked. “Where have you been?”

  “Mrs. Croft?”

  There was that pause as she tried to figure out who was on the other end.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Detective Wayne.”

  There was a gasp.

  Poppy got it. She’d been a cop in the same division. She knew that when a cop called from a person’s phone, it was always bad news.

  “Mrs. Croft?”

  “I’m here, Detective.”

  Emma’s heart began pounding. She wanted to throw up the second she heard her voice. Emma was smart enough to know where Dimitri was, and that he wasn’t coming home.

  He’d succeeded on his suicide mission.

  He was dead.

  The tears came.

  “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she whispered. “Viktor killed him, didn’t he?” she asked, tears filling her eyes.

  Poppy began driving, making the ride back to Vegas was a long one. She didn’t have time to hesitate. This man’s life depended on it.

  “He’s been shot, Mrs. Croft. I found him on the mountain, and he’s barely alive.”

  “Where is he shot?” she asked, going into mother-mode. She was so grateful he was alive that she’d stitch him up herself to save him.

  “His right shoulder. I had to stay with him all night on the mountain. We just got off. He’s not bleeding, but I think he has a fever and he’s in and out of it. I wanted to take him to the hospital, but he wants to go home. What should I do?”

  She’d know him best.

  After all, he’d been saying her name and apologizing profusely for something.

  It had to be big.

  “Ignore anything he says,” she stated, covering for him. “He’s hurt and like
ly delusional.”

  She laughed as she looked up at him in the rearview mirror. The sexy devil had already said plenty. That was for later. There was no doubt in her mind all of it had been true.

  It changed nothing.

  Poppy was drawn to him. She wanted to help him despite the illegal nature of his admissions.

  Now…she was trying to keep him alive.

  Turning up the heat in her SUV, she prayed he made it back to Vegas.

  Not only was he a link to finding the man who killed Natasha Gideon, but she had a feeling Viktor Marchenko was neck deep in so much other bullshit.

  She had a case to work.

  “Mrs. Croft, he wanted to go to Sky Villa, not the hospital. I really think I should get him to a doctor.”

  “NO! If you take him there, he’ll die. Uh, infections and all. You know how it is.”

  She laughed.

  “He already told me about Marchenko. You can stop protecting him. I have him now.”

  Emma was worried.

  “Detective, I’m at Sky Villa. Get him to me, and I’ll have a doctor ready to go. I’ll take care of him.”

  This was where she negotiated.

  He was her leverage.

  “If I do this, you have to give me access to interview him. You have to let me find Natasha Gideon the justice she deserves. I worked in the same building as you. I was in the same squad room. I know what’s going on. I’m not an idiot.”

  Emma knew what was happening.

  It was time for honesty. She recalled Poppy, and the woman wasn’t inept. She was a decent cop and deserved the truth.

  “Then you know Commissioner Raye is crooked. Then you also know he killed Thomas Christ to keep him quiet. Since you work as a homicide detective, you know my reputation. Pretend I’m not married to Greyson Croft. Take that out of the equation. Would you believe me then?”

  She did.

  In fact, she believed her now.

  Emma Croft had a short tenure in the homicide division, but she was damn good at her job. Chris Ford had been her boss, and he was a good man.

  She missed them both. The police needed more good cops and less bad ones. That’s why she’d been willing to take the promotion offered to her.

  “I am up for captain after this case.”

  “Then God bless your soul. I hope you keep it and it doesn’t get you killed. They tried to kill Chris Ford. They killed Thomas Christ. Remember Captain Patty Stout? She was a killer. The odds are NOT in your favor.”