“Fuckin’ A’, Mrs. B. Fuckin’ A.”
He headed out.
“Well, there goes another one,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “We’re blowing through bodyguards.”
“For the record, I was above nice to Heath. He was my favorite. I didn’t scare him away. Blame Croft.”
“That you have to even preface that says it all,” he teased his wife.
“Please get me a good one for Callen. If you try to pass off Wilcox, I’m going to shoot him.”
He laughed.
“I’m not kidding.”
Oddly, he believed her.
“Let’s go get dressed. I can’t wait to see you in these dresses. I get to pick which one I like best.”
“So the one with the least fabric?” she asked.
Blackhawk grinned and didn’t have to say anything else.
“Honestly, Ethan Blackhawk, I suspected as much.”
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Delilah had one stop left and then she could head home to Riley. It was probably the most important stop of her day, and that was saying a hell of a lot.
As she stood outside the door, she prepared herself. Then she knocked.
When Chris Ford opened the door, he looked like shit. In a way, she couldn’t blame him. He’d lost someone he loved and had left the family. He had to be hurting.
“Mr. Ford?”
“What?” he asked.
“I have some things for you, and I need your signature on them. Then I’ll be out of your hair.”
He didn’t get it.
Why was the Crofts’ lawyer at his place?
“Can I come in?”
He opened the door and stepped back. What was he going to do? Close the door in her face?
“Sure, come on in. I was just packing up a few things,” he said.
“Moving?”
“Yeah, Georgia.”
She was aware.
That was partially why she was dropping in to see him.
“I have this for you,” she said, pulling out an envelope for the man. “I just need a signature.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s a certified check for two million dollars. It’s from Greyson. He wants to make sure your life in the new town is easy. He wanted to make sure that when you retire, you can buy that big boat and relax like you always wanted.”
“What?”
“I think you heard me. It’s a stipend from the family. You were part of it, and you held stock in the businesses. He’s cashing you out.”
He didn’t know what to say.
“That’s generous.”
And so final too.
“It’s from Emma too.”
His heart skipped.
“Yeah, well, that’s nice.”
It hurt him that she’d have a lawyer deliver it and not come herself. He wished he could see her one more time, but he felt like an asshole just showing up at the house.
“I should send a thank you to Terrace Glen before I leave to say goodbye.”
Delilah got his signature.
“They aren’t there. They vacated the house. Dimitri has been shot, and they are lying low at Sky Villa until they can find Viktor Marchenko.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“He went after Viktor. He nearly died. He’s recovering there.”
His heart skipped.
“Who’s protecting them?” he asked.
“They have some people, but Emma has been put on lockdown,” she offered.
Normally, she wouldn’t say anything, but Greyson had told her what to tell him if he asked. He didn’t buy for a second that Chris wanted to leave.
From the look of it, neither did she.
“Jesus.”
“Greyson’s mother blabbed to the world on TV that Emma is pregnant.”
He felt sick.
That was bad.
“So, I need your signature here too.”
He signed the paper and she handed him the envelope.
“That’s part one.”
“There’s more?” he asked, still feeling sick over it all. “What now?”
She pulled out another packet.
“You’re beneficiary in a will.”
“For who?”
“Natasha Gideon. She named you as beneficiary. I did the will when you started dating.”
Jesus.
He didn’t know if he’d survive any of this. Emma was in danger, Dimitri was shot, and now Natasha had been brought up too. His life sucked.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s not money.”
“I don’t want her money.”
“It’s a percentage of ownership in the business. Congrats. You own one-third of Gideon Securities. It changed hands on the day she died. She said she knew if something happened to her, you’d help keep Dimitri going. Next to her and Kat, the only other thing he loves is his business. They built it from the ground up, and she wanted you to have it.”
Well, that was…insane.
“The estimated value is close to one hundred million. You have access to one-third of that.”
“Jesus on a hot tin roof! That’s so wrong. I don’t want it! I’m not signing for it!”
She handed him the packet.
“Well, you don’t really get to decide. Dimitri is CEO, and now you’re COO—chief operations officer. Kat is CFO. Congrats.”
“Does Dimitri and Kat know this? I’m not family. That can’t make them happy. I’m not a Gideon.”
“They are both aware, and I beg to differ. You’ve been family a long time, Mr. Ford. To them, you were always part of them. In fact, Dimitri named you and Greyson beneficiaries to his part of the business if he were to die.”
“I may be sick.”
“Don’t puke on these shoes. I just got them.”
Chris was awash in so many emotions.
Before he could say anything else, Delilah shook his hand and headed back to the door.
“Good luck, and Godspeed.”
She headed out.
What the hell?
What was he supposed to do now?
Chris grabbed a beer and headed toward his couch. In a matter of minutes, he’d become a millionaire and COO of a huge security company.
What.
The.
Fuck?
He sipped his beer and turned on the TV. He needed to think this through. He needed to focus on what he needed to do, and nothing else.
This had caught him off guard.
Big time.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Sky Villa
When they arrived at the penthouse, Curtis was busy reassuring Kat that Sadie would be fine without them for a few hours. Their daughter was with Dante and Steele, and they were practicing for when they had kids.
Only, he didn’t tell her that last part.
‘Practicing’, and Sadie’s name in the same sentence, would freak her out.
As they headed in, they found Paris, Dimitri, and Tessa on the couch. Curtis hugged them all and was so glad to be out of the penthouse at the hotel.
It was crowded.
It was bad enough that any attempt at intimacy with a baby in your room was harder, but with two gay men in the next room?
AWKWARD.
Not the having sex part but hearing them do it. Steele was very vocal.
“How’s the arm?” Curtis asked, checking out his brother-in-law/father-in-law’s arm. He still wasn’t sure if he was more a brother or father. Kat called him both.
When he spoke to him, Curtis noticed the man couldn’t even look at Kat. That wasn’t a good sign. His wife had wept for days after Natasha died, and she’d hoped Dimitri would comfort her, but instead, he pulled away from the family.
It had broken her heart.
“It’s okay. I’ll be down a while, but I’ll live.”
Well, that was good.
Katerina was tired o
f this game they were playing. She needed him to deal with the situation. She needed Dimitri now more than ever. He was her last link to Natasha, and she was struggling as a new mother. She was trying to keep up the façade, but it was slipping.
This estrangement between them was killing her.
“Dimitri, can I speak to you?” Kat asked.
He ignored her.
Oh, well, that was NOT happening. Two can play at the stubborn game, and a Gideon was a Gideon. She had the same streak in her that he had.
She focused on Paris and Tessa.
It was time to go around the man wall.
“Can you three give me a few? I need to speak to my very stubborn brother.”
“Sure, we can get Curtis up to speed on what we found and what happened with Elizabeth and Greyson.”
They got up, headed out onto the balcony, and slid the door closed to give her privacy.
She sat beside him.
“Why do you hate me? Do you wish I died instead of Natasha?” she asked, staring at him.
His head nearly swiveled off his shoulders.
“Katerina!”
“Well, you didn’t want to see Sadie born, and you didn’t even see her. What am I to think? Why do you hate me?” she asked. “I needed you, Dimitri. You’re all I have left.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I failed you both, Anfisa. I failed you both. That day I saved you, I promised you both that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I let him get my sister. I let him hurt her. That’s on me.”
She touched his leg.
“Dimitri, what if you never came into our lives? Where would we be?” she asked.
He closed his eyes.
She could answer that for him.
“We’d both be dead. You took us and increased the odds. I’m going to miss Natasha so much, but I know that you gave us both a life. She wouldn’t hate you.”
“I hate me.”
She moved closer.
“I forgive you for running. I forgive you for the sins you have burdened yourself with. I forgive you of everything you carry. I know she does too.”
He looked up, and she wiped a tear from his face. She’d never—in all of her life—seen him cry.
Never.
“I love you, and I forgive you. If you can’t be near me because it hurts, I understand. I’ll let you go so you can have peace, but please know that’s not what I want. I want Sadie to have you. You’ve been my miracle. Before Curtis, before Sadie, there was you. You are my hero.”
“I did hold her,” he whispered. “I did see Sadie. She looks like you when you were a baby,” he said.
“How?”
“After you had her, I was at the hospital. I snuck in to make sure he couldn't get to you. Then I wandered past the nursery. I saw her in that little pink hat with the rosy little cheeks. I told the nurse I was her uncle, and she let me hold her.”
She listened.
“She’s beautiful, and if anything were to happen to her because of me, I couldn’t survive it. When I came for you and Natasha, I never thought we’d get to this point. I never thought that I’d make it. Now I have, but she hasn’t. I hurt.”
She crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around his body. “Oh, Max.”
He cried.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “Please don’t hate me. I’ve failed and broken my promise, Anfisa. I’m so sorry. I wish he took me instead. I would give up my life to have her back for you.”
She kissed away his tears like he’d done so many times for her. She let him cry until he could feel better. He was mourning now. When Nat had died, he was in anger mode.
Revenge mode.
Now he was finally mourning the loss of someone he loved so very much—a child he raised.
“She was going to leave,” Kat offered.
He looked up.
“What?”
“She told me that she realized that you saved her, but she needed to travel the world. She needed to spread her wings, Papa.”
Whenever she called him that, his heart skipped. Through this all, his only other regret, along with losing Natasha, was he’d never have anyone call him that.
With Greyson having a child, he was jealous.
He wanted that life.
Dimitri wanted that secret wish more than anything. Yes, he’d had a wife—one found out of necessity. Now he craved one found from love and happiness.
It was his pipe dream.
“She was going to quit her job with us after Viktor was caught. She wanted out.”
“Chris was going to propose.”
“She wasn’t ready. Nat was the daredevil. She lived for the adrenaline. She wanted love because she never had that, but she, as soon as she achieved it, was done. Nat wanted to be free. She’s free now, Dimitri. She got exactly what she craved most. She isn’t forced to be in security. She isn’t forced to be in Vegas. Her spirit lives on, and I think she’s part of my child. I think Sadie will be that free spirit too.”
He listened.
“You were losing her either way,” she said. “We were going to have to say goodbye.”
He rested his head against her shoulder.
“I’m so tired, Anfisa. I’m so damn tired. I’ve fought for so long, and I don’t have much left in me. I’m empty.”
Katerina kissed him on the cheek.
“So, let us carry you a bit. Emma will mother you back to health, Greyson will keep you safe, and the rest of us will help you rebuild that strength. Nat is gone, Papa, but she is not forgotten. She lives in us. Let’s celebrate that. It would make her so sad to see you like this. She’d be upset that you aren’t thinking about the good times.”
He knew she was right.
It was so hard.
So was this…
“We have more siblings.”
That had her attention.
“We do?”
He nodded and told her.
“I want to meet them.”
“The youngest is coming. Ethan is getting her out of Romania for me.”
“But you’re tired. You just said you have nothing left to do it anymore.”
He laughed.
Oh, he was aware.
“Ironic, no?”
“You are a good father,” she said, tucking his hair behind his ears. “I hope I’m as good a parent as you are, Papa.”
That touched him.
“I’ll give her a good life.”
“WE will.”
He held her hand.
“I’m proud of you, Anfisa. From the day I killed him and saw that tenacity in you, to this very moment. I’m so damn proud of you.”
“Then fight for me. I need you. Sadie needs you. I know what you sacrificed, and I know what you gave up to be there for us. Start living. Start living for you. The rest will fall into place. I want you to find what I’ve found.”
He kissed her on the forehead.
“You look beautiful,” he said. “Make sure your husband treats you like that precious flower.”
“Or?” she asked.
“I’ll kick his ass.”
She smiled.
And there was the man who raised her.
There was her father.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Outside
Sky Villa
Viktor was desperate to find his brother. There were only three places he could be. Terrace Glen was abandoned, and he wasn’t there. Sky Villa and the hotel that held his bar.
He’d already checked out the bar and he wasn’t there. He’d paid a vagrant to go in and ask for Dimitri.
They hadn’t seen him.
So that left one last place.
So, Viktor waited there.
If his brother was alive, he would eventually come out of the building. While he might not have his gun, he would be ready for him.
There had to be a way.
He’d studied all of them. Each and every one.
So,
he would bide his time until the perfect moment came about, and then he’d take it. He’d get his revenge.
Dimitri was predictable, and the fact that he’d grown attachments made him even weaker. If need be, he’d begin killing them all.
Then it would be on.
Then it would be a showdown.
He would ruin the man’s life.
Already, he’d seen the limo go in with the Croft plates. Already, he knew there had to be a way to get to his brother. If they were here, that meant he might be able to get him to leave.
He’d flush the rat.
He’d make sure it was something he couldn’t resist.
After all, he knew Dimitri Gideon.
They were one in the same.
They were killers.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Poppy grabbed some snacks, something to drink, and she headed out in the car she’d ‘borrowed’ from the undercover division. It was one that Dimitri wouldn’t recognize, and she could sleep in the back seat if need be.
She knew what he’d said earlier, but something was making her gut scream.
She needed to watch Dimitri. The man wasn’t focused, and if what he said was true, his brother would want him dead. She wanted Viktor Marchenko for killing Natasha. So, she’d watch the bait to see if the rat made an appearance.
Dangerous her ass.
She was up for it.
Poppy had a damn job to do.
Granted, he was in his ivory tower, but her job was to find Natasha Gideon’s killer. That meant using bait.
If what they said was true, and she believed them, Viktor Marchenko would go straight at Dimitri.
He’d wait for him to emerge.
So, at night, when he was more than likely to make an attempt, she’d watch the man who was being stalked.
Heading out, she found a location where she could watch the doors and watch the underground access.
She’d know when he left.
She knew what vehicles he drove.
She knew what the family drove.
It was only a matter of time.
True Justice Page 42