She wouldn’t.
“I think you should take it.”
“You’d lose your partner.”
He smiled at her reassuringly.
“Yeah, but you’d get to be captain. Everyone wants that after they get their gold shield.”
“You want it?”
“Nah, everyone but me. I just don’t want to die, and then retire to Florida to go fishing. I’m simple.”
She sneezed.
“Oh, shit! If you’re getting sick, you better not give it to me,” he said, moving his desk chair away from her. “That’s what you get for doing something so crazy like chase Dimitri Gideon into the woods. You’re lucky he didn’t kill you.”
She laughed.
He had no idea.
“I don’t think he’d kill me,” she stated.
He looked at her like she was cuckoo.
“Uh, he works for Greyson Croft, his sister was just blown up, and we’ve all heard about his reputation.”
Yeah, but she’d kissed him. She’d also spent a whole night against his body as she fought for his life. He wasn’t going to kill her.
“I think a lot of that is hype.”
He laughed.
She sneezed again.
“GO HOME! I don’t want this. I’ll continue working on Natasha Gideon’s case. I don’t want to get sick.”
“I’m not…”
Then she realized that would give her the perfect opportunity to interview Emma Croft and Dimitri Gideon. While she filled out paperwork to take some time off, this was visual confirmation that she was getting sick. That would take all the suspicion off of her as she dug around on her own time.
Well, that worked for her.
“I do have a headache and feel a little achy.”
“If the commissioner asks, and I’m sure he will, I’ll just tell him you’re sick.”
“Thanks, partner.”
She grabbed her things and headed out. Yeah, she was off to do her damn job.
Immediately, as soon as she was gone, Hunter headed to her desk, opened the bottom drawer, and pulled out what he needed.
LYSOL.
Then he sprayed everything down. He liked his partner, but hell! He didn’t need to get sick.
He wasn’t good with the man flu.
He had a Vegas shitstorm brewing.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Christopher Ford’s
Condo
It was a new day.
Chris hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be as shitty as the last two weeks.
As he lay there in bed, he was looking at his phone. He desperately wanted to call Emma. He desperately wanted to reach out to her for someone to help him.
But he couldn’t.
He wanted to apologize, but he knew there was no way she’d forgive him for this. There was no way she’d let him come back after he’d left.
Reading Natasha’s journal had been healing.
While he’d always love Natasha, he realized that he was leaving his family and running. Natasha wouldn’t want that.
Then again, she didn’t really want him.
Oh, the irony.
How did he get into things like this?
As he stared at his phone, and the picture of him and Emma as the wallpaper, it chimed.
He actually dropped it.
When he opened the phone, he saw the alert. Chris had email.
Damn.
He hoped she’d text him.
Pulling it up, he saw it was from Greyson. It hurt to open it, but he knew what it was going to be.
It was his one-way ticket out of there.
‘Christopher,
I just received confirmation. Some strings were pulled, and you have your new life. I’ll close on your home on Monday, and you have a job interview lined up with a sheriff’s department. You’ll get it. It’s a formality. A colleague from my FBI days owed me. It’s in Georgia.
Good luck, and I will miss you, my brother.
This will be my final correspondence because I love you.
GC’
His heart broke.
This was what he’d expected.
What Chris had hoped was someone would come save him, but then again, why would they?
He’d left.
He’d said his goodbyes.
Chris typed a reply. It was only three words.
‘Thank you. Goodbye.’
And then he hit send.
His new life had just been delivered, and it looked like the family wasn’t interested in fighting for his life.
And neither was he.
Chris was heading to Georgia.
To die alone.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Sky Villa
Penthouse
They were all there, and it was time to get down to business. Elizabeth introduced Christopher Leonard to everyone, and she was just happy to be focused on work.
Not last night’s mess.
As they had coffee, they waited for Riley to show up for his day with Greyson.
“Stay in, stay safe, and don’t do anything stupid,” Greyson told Emma and Dimitri. “I’ll get Sam to you.”
Emma hesitated.
“What?” he asked.
“Is it a good idea to move him today? We don’t know how outraged Viktor is going to be, and we’re going off intel on what Dimitri would do. That screams dangerous. What if he switches it up?”
Dimitri thought about it.
“She may be right. At any point, he could lose his mind and go left instead of right. I’m not crazy.”
Elizabeth laughed.
He stared at her.
“I get it, you don’t like me. I’m a killer, and you think lowly of me and my kind.”
Greyson glanced over at her, praying he wouldn’t have to ostracize the FBI help to protect his brother.
This was his city too.
“No, I just think you’re crazy, as is your family,” she said, pointing at Greyson. “As is my family,” she said, pointing at her, Ethan, and Chris. “To do what we do…you have to be a few bricks shy of a wall.”
He didn’t speak.
“I think with Viktor, you should use your gut. If you think that he might take a shot, don’t move the kid. Just lay low because he thinks you’re dead, and that might save your life.”
“Kat and Sam.”
Greyson reassured him.
“We took your case. We’ll watch them.”
He had to trust him.
“I’m going to divide up the workload with you, Greyson. I’ll take the two Feds. They will be afraid of me because of who their boss is. I might be able to scare them stupid.”
He was good with that.
“I’ll take the cop and Derk Utz. They live in Vegas, so they know I can make their lives a living hell.”
When there was a knock on the door, Heath went to go answer it.
“It’s dresses, boss! Did you order some pretty things for yourself?” he asked.
He laughed.
“Uh, they’re for tonight. They are for Elizabeth. Sign for them.”
She’d forgotten about the whole thing. If she didn’t want to scare the bejeezus out of the commissioner for the Crofts, she would blow it off.
Oh, and for the stunt in the police station. She owed him some serious pain.
“I’ll be back in time to get ready for it,” she stated. “Ivan will keep me on track.”
He laughed.
“Right. Like I have any control.”
“We can be fashionably late,” Ethan offered.
“We can’t,” Emma said, pointing at her husband. “Make sure you’re home and ready.”
“I’ll go,” Dimitri said. “I feel better.”
“And there’s the opposite of laying low,” Elizabeth stated. She lightly touched his shoulder, and he nearly wept. “Yeah, ace, you are of no help to anyone right now. Ride your couch, watch some TV, and maybe work on some files,” she sai
d, dropping some in his lap.
“So, you trust me?”
She laughed.
“I don’t trust anyone but my husband and Chris. Nothing personal, but I’ve been burned before.”
Ivan stared at her. “Really? Your armor isn’t really happy to hear that.”
“Okay, and my Marine babysitter. I do it to humor him. He’s like a constant wedgie—uncomfortable and a continuous reminder that I shouldn’t have worn britches.”
“Seriously.”
“More like a hemorrhoid.”
Ethan cut them off.
He handed Elizabeth the addresses for the two Feds and gave her a kiss. “Be alert, don’t get hurt, and try not to make a spectacle. It will attract the crazy to you.”
“Hopefully, you won’t hear from me until after I meet with the gunrunner.”
“Be careful. We call him Babylon for a reason,” Dimitri stated.
She laughed.
“I’m serious.”
“Uh, okay. He was named after an empire that fell in ruin and destruction. The odds are in my favor. I’ll be okay,” she stated.
“At work, he’s Cleveland. At play, he’s the scummiest asshole this side of the city. He’s going to be in a suit, wearing body armor, and ready to hurt you. If he finds out I sent you…”
“He won’t. I won’t burn you,” she stated. “As far as he needs to know, Homeland has him on the radar for being a snake—because they do.”
He hoped she wouldn’t burn him, but he didn’t necessarily believe her. She was a Fed, and he was a reformed bad guy.
She picked up her guns off the table, checked to make sure they were loaded and began slipping them into a back holster, and two underarm holsters.
The three guns said it all.
She was tired of getting injured.
“Ready, partner?” she asked Ivan.
He tossed Elizabeth a small box. Inside was something the size of a watch battery.
“Are you proposing, darlin’?”
“Not if you were the last sea serpent in town, and I had to get my soul out of your slimy bowels.”
She snorted.
“That’s a new one. Taking you away from Blue has made you mean. I like it.”
Ivan found her amusing.
“It’s GPS. Put it where no one will find it.”
“On your dick?” she asked.
He walked into that one.
“Bra. If you get taken, one of the last things people take off a victim is the undergarments.”
“Uh, very horrified husband standing right here,” Ethan stated. “I can do with less of a picture in my head.”
“Me too,” Chris offered. “How about you just don’t lose her?”
“She’s tricky. It’s backup to her watch. The bad guys know the good guys are tracked, and we all know she’s taken her watch off to ditch me before…”
“You do it one time, and they never let you forget.”
Oh, he was aware.
“He’s right,” Dimitri stated. “I’d lose your watch, your guns, and your shoes first.”
He pointed at him.
“See?”
She turned around, tucked the dot under her breast, and got it done.
“Ready?”
He was.
“Let’s roll, crazy magnet. I feel like getting shot at and blown up. Oh wait, that was yesterday. I can’t imagine today. I see cannibals and man-eating pythons in my future.”
She gave him a fist bump.
“Men, in the plural, I love you,” she said to Chris and Ethan.
Blackhawk blew her a kiss.
They headed out.
“Once my partner gets here, we’ll head out,” Greyson said, glancing at his watch.
It was no sooner out of his mouth than the man appeared, and he didn’t look happy.
“Uh, you ok?”
“I was practically strip-searched downstairs. Maybe getting me clearance might help?”
Greyson laughed.
“My bad, son. I was busy with other things. I’ll take care of it when we head out.”
“It’s fine. Where are we heading?”
“We have a cop to shakedown, and when I say shakedown, I mean really do it.”
He laughed.
“Okay.”
“It may get ugly. Are you good with that?”
He looked confused.
“Uh, what do you mean ‘ugly’?” he asked.
Dimitri held his fingers, shaped like a gun, to his head and made a clicking sound.
“OH. That ugly.”
“Yeah, I mean as in illegal.”
He stared at him as he weighed all of that. It couldn’t be easy for a cop. Riley was one of the good guys.
“Hello?” Greyson asked.
Dimitri struggled to get up from the couch.
“Give me twenty minutes to get some body armor on. He’s a cop to his core. I’ll go with you.”
Riley trusted Greyson Croft. He’d helped him, he’d gotten Delilah into his life, and so far, he hadn’t let him down.
“Wait, Dimitri. I can do this. Yes, I’m a cop to my core, but I won’t judge anyone in this family for something you have to do. I can’t say I’d be able to do it, but I will support you.”
That was the best they could hope for at this point.
“Dimitri, you and Emma have an interview, right?” Riley asked. “Delilah told me to tell you she’s on standby.”
He’d forgotten about that.
“I guess, yes.”
“Well, you handle that. We’ve got this,” Riley stated.
Greyson gave his wife a kiss.
He and Riley would be fine. He was a good man.
“Heath!” Croft called, and the big man came in eating a cupcake.
“I hope that’s not Elizabeth’s,” Ethan said. “She’ll kick your ass.”
“Mrs. B wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s a sweetheart. She gave me a cupcake for being her favorite.”
EVERYONE laughed at the sweetheart part. She didn’t play that game…ever.
“We’re heading out, Heath. Get ready.”
He shoved his cupcake into his mouth and checked his sidearms.
“GOOMFHD GO TOMDH,” he said.
When Greyson stared at him, Ethan found that amusing and opted to translate it for him.
“He said ‘good to go’. I’m accustomed to him talking with baked goods in his mouth. Elizabeth too.”
He would take his word for that.
The big man followed Greyson and Riley out and left Emma, Dimitri, Ethan, and Chris behind.
“We’re going to the police station,” Ethan stated. “Chris, did you talk to your associate at the morgue?”
He nodded.
“Doctor Stone has the paperwork, and he knows you have the two women from last night coming in too. Do you mind if he helps me do the autopsies?”
He knew three autopsies in a day was a tough one, and with Chris being sick, Elizabeth would kick his ass. She didn’t tell him to have it done ‘or else’, so he wouldn’t push him.
“No, that’s good, Chris. Let’s go get started. Emma, can you get Paris and Tessa to work on the files? I’ll email you my profile on Viktor. Pass it off to Paris.”
“We can do that. The detective hasn’t called yet.”
He dropped his arm over Chris’s shoulder and pointed at Wilcox.
“Let’s roll.”
The man followed.
“Have a blessed day, ma’am,” Wilcox offered as he followed his boss out of the room.
Then they were gone.
Dimitri wavered. His legs nearly gave out. While everyone was there, he tried to be strong. Getting up to insist he was going was pretty damn stupid.
He couldn’t pull that off.
He was a mess.
Emma sat him on the couch.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just so damn tired.”
“You’re healing. Do you feel any better?” she asked, sitting beside
him.
“Yeah, a little, Emma.”
“I’ll have the detective meet us here when she calls.”
“I have to shower,” he said.
She grinned at the fact that the man was going to preen before Poppy got there.
Her smile gave her away.
“Stop. You’re hoping to find a miracle in a pit of shit. It’s not there.”
“And you’re negative. You’re a catch, Mr. Gideon.”
He laughed and closed his eyes.
“I’d chase you,” she said, a little too brightly.
He looked over at her. There were a few things he was good at in his life—killing, and navigating the emotions of women. He raised two girls through the teen years.
“You miss him, huh?”
The tears came.
She nodded and wiped at her eyes.
“Greyson sent him an email. He said goodbye,” she said. “He didn’t want to show me, but I need to rip the bandage off. He’s never coming back.”
“When I’m better, I’ll go beat his ass for you.”
She touched his cheek.
“No, he’s hurting. I don’t hate him. He ran too. Only, someone had to shoot you to get you back here.”
He placed his long fingers over her hand on his face.
“I would have come back if I didn’t die. I wasn’t running, Emma. I was chasing revenge. You’ve always meant everything—you and Greyson.”
She wiped her eyes again.
Her heart still hurt.
They’d come so damn close to losing him.
Dimitri lifted his arm, and she went under his good shoulder and leaned against him.
He wasn’t the only one broken. When she doted on him, it gave her something to do. There was no way she enjoyed being inside while she could be out working.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this,” he said.
“What?” she asked, looking up at him.
“Will you help me into the shower?” he asked.
“There’s a big tub in there. Want to take a bubble bath? I’ll close my eyes.”
“Emma.”
She laughed.
Finally.
“I meant I can help you into it. I won’t look at your man parts. Then Greyson will kill you.”
True Justice Page 35