Justice is Dead (Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 7)
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Justice is Dead
By Morgan Kelley
Copyright © 2016 Morgan Kelley LLC
All rights reserved. Without limiting rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, introduced into a retrieval system, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including without limitation photocopying, recording, or other electronic or technical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
The scanning, uploading, and/or distribution of this document via the internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. For permission requests, email author.m.kelley@gmail.com
Content Advisory: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains graphic violence, explicit sexual activity and disturbing imagery
©Copyright 2016 cover photo Cover art by Celeste Abraham. Property of Morgan Kelley LLC
Other works by Morgan Kelley:
Standalone Thrillers
The Junction
Serial Sins
The Blood Betrayal
FBI Romance Series
The Killing Times (Book 1)
Sacred Burial Grounds (Book 2)
True Love Lost (Book 3)
Deep Dark Mire (Book 4)
Fire Burns Hot (Book 5)
Darkness of Truth (Book 6)
Devil Hath Come (Book 7)
Consumed by Wrath (Book 8)
Redemption is Here (Book 9)
Dead Shall Speak (Book 10)
Pledging to Die (Book 11)
Slay Bells Ring (Book 12)
Past will Haunt (Book 13)
Choices will Destroy (Book 14)
Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Series
Celestia is Falling (1)
Vegas is Dying (2)
Christmas is Killing (3)
Love is Bleeding (4)
Heaven is Weeping (5)
Hell is Burning (6)
Justice is Dead (7)
Littlemoon Investigations
Blood Red Rage (Book 1)
Lost & Broken (Book 2)
Unthinkable Games (Book 3)
Truth is Found (Book 4)
The Carter Chronicles Trilogy
Sinner Repent (1)
Sinner Realized (2)
Sinner Reborn (3)
Oracle: The Phoenix Files
Oracle Rising (Book 1)
The Harcourte Vampyre Society series
Dangerous Revelations (1)
Dangerous Choices (2)
Dangerous Misery (3)
Dangerous Retaliation (4)
Behind Closed Doors Anthology
Illegal Fantasies ~ Behind Closed Doors (1)
Romance Under Arrest~ Behind Closed Doors (2)
Holiday Reinforcements~ Behind Closed Doors (3)
~~~~ About the Author ~~~~
Morgan Kelley lives in the beautiful Pocono Mountains with her husband and two children. After attending college at Penn State University and studying Criminal Justice, Morgan knew her only true passion in life would be murder and books. She put them both together and began her career as a writer. Other than books and writing, you can find Morgan hanging out in her garden and digging in the dirt.
Her other works include: The Junction, Serial Sins, The Blood Betrayal, The Killing Times (1), Sacred Burial Grounds (2), True Love Lost (3), Deep Dark Mire (4), Fire Burns Hot (5), Darkness of Truth (6), Devil Hath Come (7), Consumed by Wrath (8), Redemption is Here (9), Dead Shall Speak (10), Pledging to Die (11), Blood Red Rage (1) Lost & Broken (2), Unthinkable Games (3)Celestia is Falling (1), Vegas is Dying (2), Christmas is Killing (3), Love is Bleeding (4), Heaven is Weeping (5), Dangerous Revelations (1), Dangerous Choices (2), Dangerous Misery (3), Sinner Repent (1), Sinner Realized (2), Sinner Reborn (3), Illegal Fantasies (Anthology 1), Romance Under Arrest (Anthology 2)
Please feel free to visit Morgan at her website: www.morgankelley.com, email her author.m.kelley@gmail.com, or visit her blog at www.morgankelley.blogspot.com.
“You don’t understand what lives in me. You can dress it up, put it behind a desk, and give it power, but I’m still the same man. I’m a killer.”
~ Greyson Croft
“God help me. I have no choice.”
~ Greyson Croft
Greyson Croft, you have a choice to make. Everyone’s life depends on it…
Prologue
Las Vegas
Terrace Glen
If there was one thing she hated, it was going behind her husband’s back and hiding the truth. To her, it always felt so devious, but what was Emma Croft to do?
The city was exploding around them, and she was running out of options. If someone didn’t do something, the outcome was going to be ugly.
Dominic Marianna was gunning for Greyson, and he wasn’t going to stop until he buried him. It had become a winner-take-all grudge match that neither man was willing to lose. Frankly, she was afraid.
It was killing her.
She was getting one hell of an ulcer.
The last thing Emma wanted to do was watch her husband get hurt, or worse—killed. For the last year and a half, since they were married, he’d watched over her, healed her heart, and made sure to provide an amazing life for them.
Now, he was wearing one hell of a bull’s-eye, and that freaked her out. Without Greyson in her life, what would she do? Certainly, she couldn’t keep going on, pretending everything was fine when she was dead inside. When Dimitri Gideon told her about the file that Randall had made, it seemed like the best option for everyone involved.
It was sneaky.
It was devious.
It was likely going to get someone hurt, but it wouldn’t be Greyson, and that was the point.
He’d be safe.
Yes, it would involve keeping a few secrets from the man she was married to, but Emma had already told him that she’d use little white lies to keep them safe.
If there was ever a moment when desperation and deception were needed, now was the time.
Over the last few weeks, Dominic Marianna had upped his game. He’d started taking digs at Greyson, trying to get under his skin, and it was working.
Now that Greyson was the richest man in the city, they ran in the same questionable circles. Dominic was always there, in his face, trying to push Greyson over the edge.
Sadly, it was crystal clear that the man was making headway with his scheme too. Whenever they had a function to go to, Marianna was there with a grin on his face and an ulterior motive. He made sure Greyson knew that they were being watched—even stalked.
There would be glares across the room, him sending Emma drinks with inappropriate messages scrawled on cocktail napkins, and it was going to end in blood shed.
If you wanted to make Greyson angry, flirt with his wife. If you want to make him homicidal, try to touch her.
Dominic was doing both.
All those things were culminating in Greyson Croft losing his cool. On a normal day, when it came to Emma, there was always a chance he’d lose it, but lately…
Yeah, he was a man on the edge. A few times, Dimitri Gideon, their personal security, had to keep the boss from taking Dominic’s head off his shoulders.
In a room full of people, that was a very bad thing.
Dominic Marianna wanted to see Greyson lose it, flip out, and do som
ething very uncharacteristic. Everyone was watching the head Fed, as he ran the law in the city. He was the standard to live up to. If he fell, Vegas would collapse too.
If that happened, there was no doubt that there would be criminals waiting to destroy even more of the headway Greyson had made in the city. People expected bad behavior in Vegas.
After all, what happened here stayed here. It gave people carte blanche to do whatever they wanted.
The only person standing between that wave of crime and terror was Greyson, and even that tenuous dam was crumbling. No one believed that someone with all the power and money in Vegas could be on the up and up.
Now that the corruptor, Trudy Booker, was dead, they had a little breathing room. They had lost most of the ‘bad cop’ rumors that had been dogging them when the local paper did a full-length story on the Crofts.
The new commissioner spilled the beans, explaining how it had been an undercover operation the entire time. Captain Christopher Ford also came out in the Crofts’ behalf to clear up their names.
Once Vegas realized that they weren’t crooked, the tide had begun changing. They were no longer the pariahs of the town to the law-abiding citizens, but heroes.
To the bad guys, they were still a pain in the ass.
That worked for them, so they were going with it.
Some dirt bags were angrier than others. When that story broke, Dominic Marianna started working extra hard to sully Greyson’s image. It had become his mission in life to torment the head Fed into some sort of altercation.
Now, Emma was worried it would happen. Greyson, with every day, wanted to make the man pay.
The breaking point?
It was probably when Marianna took a shot at Dante Croft and Steele Bentley’s relationship.
Someone leaked a lie-filled story about the two lovers to the media, and it wasn’t pretty. It was filled with fabrications about drugs, sex, and abuse, and it pissed Greyson off.
No one went after his family.
No one.
If Marianna wanted a war, then he’d managed to light the fire. It was coming, and that scared Emma. They were high profile, and the media, while presently not camped out at their door, was still watching them.
Emma was worried for her husband.
He was losing it.
That was an understatement of epic proportions.
With each passing day, he was out for more and more blood. When you were all about law and order, protecting the peace, and bringing in the bad guys—that wasn’t a good thing. It was becoming one hell of an obsession, and they all knew it. Plus, it made doing the job damn near impossible.
Greyson was heading down a dark path, and it was a slippery slope to travel.
So, she was doing something about it.
Emma Croft was taking matters into her own hands, and she was going to protect her husband and family at all costs. If he couldn’t carry the weight of Dominic’s barrage, she would handle it.
She was as much a part of this family, and Emma had every right to take care of the people she loved.
And the price of doing it behind her husband’s back?
Oh, it was going to be high, and Emma knew it.
Bottom line?
It might cost her their marriage, but a living Greyson was better than a dead one. She had to weigh the ramifications and go with the lesser of the two evils. Losing him wasn’t an option. Emma would rather have him hate her than be burying him in a wooden box.
That was unacceptable, and she wouldn’t survive it. Then Dominic would have won.
Emma couldn’t let that happen.
So, she was going to bury Marianna, but legally.
Once he was in jail, the Croft’s could move on, have a happy life, and enjoy their time in Vegas. They could be a couple faced with the normal issues in a marriage—who made dinner, what movie to see, and paying the bills.
The only thing that stood between them, and that happiness, was finding the truth.
She was a cop.
He was a Fed.
Emma was going to run this by the letter of the law to keep their newly returned respect in one piece. She was going to hand the local DA the key to lock the mob man away for so many years to come.
Or so she hoped…
As soon as her husband left for a meeting, Emma pulled out her phone and made the call. This was when the trickery, deceit, and trouble began for her. She was crossing the line with this one traitorous act.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do it alone.
Emma had backup.
“He’s gone. Can you meet me in my office so we can work this out?”
She waited for the reply, and then hung up.
It began, and this mission of hers had the potential to tear her whole world apart.
She could hear his footsteps coming down the hall. At the door, he appeared.
Emma couldn’t believe she was going to deal with a Russian killer. It was unbelievable that the man who popped into their lives, thanks to Randall Mason, was about to become her wingman.
Yeah, so much had changed.
“Emma, you needed me?”
“Dimitri, he’s going to be gone for about two hours, so we have to work fast. No matter what, he can’t get wind of this.”
“That’s going to anger him.”
Yeah, she was well aware.
“It might keep him alive. That’s my goal.”
Dimitri understood her desperation, and in a way, he respected it. Family came first.
It was his motto.
“I need you, Dimitri. Please help me.”
He came in, closing the door behind him. “What do you wish to do?”
Emma pulled the file out of the secret spot she’d hidden it. The one paper, left by Randall Mason if she would need it, was the beginning of the end.
She could feel it.
Hopefully, her marriage or their lives would withstand what was coming. Vegas was on the verge of exploding.
“We’re going to find these six bodies and start working this case from the ground up. I’m going to find proof that Dominic Marianna is a murderer, and then I’m going to lock his ass in jail for the rest of his life.”
“It might be easier to just make him disappear. Quite a few cops have tried to do that, and they failed miserably. Are you sure this is a risk you want to take?”
She stared at him before tapping her badge. “It’s my job.”
“I get it, Emma. You want this by the books. I applaud you for taking the harder road on this one. It’s not going to be easy, and if your husband finds out…”
He let it go.
Neither of them had to say the words. They both knew that Greyson would lose it.
No, that was a mild word.
If Greyson found out his wife was wading into the Vegas Mob pool, there would be hell to pay. Dimitri would wear that bull’s-eye. After all, what choice did he have?
The man he considered his father had asked him to take care of Emma until Dominic Marianna was gone for good. He made a promise, and his word was golden.
He was a killer, but he still lived by a code of honor. It was the same one Greyson had.
They weren’t that different.
After all, they were both soldiers, fighting their own wars.
“I know, Dimitri, but what choice do I have? It’s this or watch as my husband falls into this mess. We only recently got our lives back to somewhat normal. This has to be done.”
He took a seat, running his hand through his black hair. All the while, his aqua eyes never left her green ones. He understood her desperation.
“Then we start this, and we see where the chips fall. I’ll have your back.”
Emma was grateful.
She slid the paper across the large desk to him. “Tell me where to find the first body—decrypt Randall’s message for me.”
He did what she asked.
It wasn’t hard, especially since he’d helped create the list. All he had t
o do was think back.
“Thank you, Dimitri. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“Not a problem.”
And it wasn’t.
He was there to protect the Crofts. Randall had wanted it that way, and he didn’t blame him. They were good people. He could tell. He was accustomed to picking out the assholes in life.
They were generally his targets.
Besides, Greyson had paid for his protection, and Emma, if she began this journey, was going to need it.
Whether he agreed this was the way to do it, or not, didn’t matter anymore. The war was beginning, and his job, as a soldier, was to protect the king and queen.
At any cost.
* * * Croft & Croft * * *
Across Town
Marianna’s Casino
To say that he was pissed would be an understatement. Dominic Marianna was a man obsessed with one thing in life, and one thing only.
Destroying his nemesis, Greyson Croft.
It had become his one and only mission. Nothing else mattered in his life but ending the man’s reign in ‘Sin City’. Truth be told, Las Vegas wasn’t big enough for the both of them. Before the week was out, he was going to make the man pay for every bit of aggravation he had caused the last year.