We are the Crofts.
We take care of our own, and we will take care of you too...
Signed,
Greyson Croft
Prologue
Las Vegas
Two weeks
Earlier
T he death was planned.
As he snuck around, doing bad things, his days were numbered. It was only fair that he paid for his crimes like everyone else.
He was being sneaky.
That just wasn’t right.
Before the day was out, he’d be taken, tortured, and killed. As the time ticked away on the clock, patience wasn’t as easily passing.
Where was he?
He was supposed to show up, do his thing, and then…die. If he didn’t show soon, the plan would be ruined.
That couldn’t happen.
This whole plan took weeks to set up, balance, and ensure that it wouldn’t fail. All it would take was the man to arrive, and the fun could begin.
By fun, it was all about the blood.
He was going to die a painful death.
It was time.
He was messing with the wrong people, and now there would be spilled blood.
In Vegas, it was an eye for an eye, and this man had dug into things that he should have left alone.
He knew too much.
He was a bastard for what he’d done.
And now he was going to find himself on the wrong side of the grave. It was destined to happen, like some old movie where the players executed the script in a fashion that left the viewer in awe.
He was going to scream bloody murder.
That was why he was going to die out here, where no one could find him.
The trap was set.
The plan was laid out.
And as soon as he showed, it would be done. All it took were some errantly placed clues, and the man would fall for it. He fancied himself some Sherlock Holmes, and for that alone, he would pay.
With blood.
His life.
His soul.
This was justified, and before the night was out, he was going to be buried in the trees and lost to the world. His family would mourn him.
They would wonder where he went.
And then, one day, they would move on. He was on his way out. If the wife was lucky, he would have one hell of a life insurance policy.
If not…
Well, it didn’t matter.
When you stuck your nose into the wrong holes in Vegas, you were risking getting it ripped off.
Oh, he’d keep his nose.
The rest of him…yeah, not so much.
As the night ticked away, hope waned. Then there was the telltale lights of his vehicle coming up the road.
Yes, he’d taken the bait.
Now it was about incapacitating him, so he could die before the night was up.
A plan was a plan.
This had to be done exactly right.
When he got out of his vehicle, it was fun to watch him look around in confusion. It was entertaining to watch him stare at the cabin and wonder.
Well, soon, he wouldn’t have to wonder.
Soon, he’d be in it.
Bound.
Gagged.
And bleeding on the floor.
As he walked toward the trees to reach the front porch, it was time to make a move. As soon as he stepped past the hidden space, his life was over.
The strike to his head did the job.
He crumbled into a heap, and he stopped moving.
With the toe of a boot, he was nudged.
He was still breathing, and that was good. Dragging him up the stairs, into the cabin, and to the kitchen was the easy part.
What was coming would be hard.
He needed to spill his guts.
Literally.
It was time to find out what this man knew and to see if he planned to use it. It wasn’t as if he was leaving the rickety old cabin.
No.
His fate was sealed.
It was too late.
Once he was awake, the games would begin. Hopefully, he had a strong stomach. For what was coming, he would need it.
Then the killer laughed.
They both would.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Two Hours
Later
It was done.
The place was a bloody mess. It was time to place him where no one would find him, and then hose down the scene of the torture.
He’d screamed.
He’d begged.
He’d pleaded for his life.
None of it mattered. When it came down to it, he didn’t spill what he was looking for, and that was a problem.
A huge one.
So, he squirmed against his restraints, and when he was cut open, he howled in pain.
Until he died.
There would be a shallow grave, where he would be left to rot. Well, unless they needed him.
One never knew when you had to make a body turn up. If it worked for the plan, he’d be found.
Now, he was going to disappear.
Everything was happening as per the plan.
This was perfect.
Now, it was about the cleanup, and getting out of there unseen. His car would be planted, and the cops would be called. There was no doubt his family would miss him.
For them there was sympathy.
For the man…there was none.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Club Aquarius
Two Weeks Later
He had fallen in love.
Dimitri Gideon never thought it was possible, but here it had happened to him. He was madly, crazily in love with his new family. The Crofts had proved that blood didn’t matter when it came to claiming people as your own.
It touched him.
He was learning a lot from the man who headed his new family. Most importantly, that if you wanted to open your heart, you could find people who would fit into your life.
It had happened for him, Katerina, and Natasha.
He never thought it was possible, but he had been proven wrong on this one. With the Crofts, Dimitri’s heart had opened, and he’d found something he never thought would be available to him.
He found love.
Happiness.
Center.
That shocked him on such a deep level that it stole his breath whenever he thought about it. He knew how huge of a revelation this was.
It was astounding.
Why?
Because Dimitri was a hard man to love.
Before the Crofts had rolled into Vegas, he’d simply been placed on this Earth to be a mercenary. He knew from the day he was a child that he would be like his father.
He was a hired gun.
He was a murderer.
He was nothing more than a weapon used by governments, and those who could afford to buy his services.
Then he met them, and something changed. They didn’t judge him on his past, but instead judged him on his present. No one had ever given him a gift like that, including Randall Mason.
No one, except the Crofts.
Yes, they knew Dimitri, previously Maximillian, was tainted, they knew his real name and his crimes, but still they didn’t let him sully himself any more than they would themselves.
It was like he mattered.
For the first time in his life, other than when he was raising his sisters, he had a place.
It changed everything.
His needs drastically changed. He wasn’t out to spill blood. Instead, he was out to make a difference in the world.
For him.
For Kat.
For Nat.
Now that he found a family, he didn’t want to be that hired gun who broke the law to put money in the bank.
He didn’t want to take the next job for money, only to come home at the end tainted by the sins of what he’d done.
The Crofts had been dropped into his lap
by Randall Mason, and he now had a sense of belonging in the world, and especially in their home.
That was a gift like no other.
Dimitri was on his way to happiness. Now, he actually believed it was out there, and he was going to be allowed to find that little moment of peace for himself.
Before, it had always been a pipe dream.
Now…
Anything was possible.
Greyson Croft, the ex-Fed, had become his brother. While they were both soldiers, they connected on some much deeper level. He got him as a human being. There was that iciness in both of them. There was that sense of justice that lived beneath the surface, simply waiting to be set free. They were two men cut from the same loyal cloth, and that he appreciated.
They were brothers born of different blood, mothers, and nationality, and yet now, they were the foundation of their unified family.
It was a beautiful thing.
Then there was Emma Croft.
Jesus!
What could he possible say about her?
The redhead ran him over with that sunny smile, sweet disposition, and her kind eyes. She mothered her way into his heart, as if she knew that was exactly what he’d been missing all of his life.
The woman just knew what would get to him, and she used it to make him fall in love.
And he absolutely fell head over heels.
How could he not?
She was sweet, gentle, and kicked ass when it was needed in her family.
He loved her to death—not as a piece of ass—because he respected Greyson far too much to even go there, but as a sister. She, in a short time, had managed to wiggle her way past the tough exterior and find a place in his heart beside Katerina and Natasha. He was beginning to realize one thing too.
Blood didn’t matter.
Before the Crofts, it was his duty to protect his sisters. It was a penance of sorts. His father was a bastard, siring kids that had no shot at life. He’d taken them on because of the blood.
Now he wanted to take on people DESPITE the blood.
Like Emma.
Greyson.
Curtis.
The list was growing, and for the first time, Dimitri wasn’t afraid of that. He welcomed it.
They were his.
As friends.
As family.
As part of his soul.
Emma, in her wise ways and gentle nature, now mattered to him, and Dimitri would fight to the death to make sure she was safe.
He’d die for her like he’d give up his life for the two women he raised on his own.
The family was growing.
Yes, it was, and there was a male on the radar.
What the hell was he going to do about Curtis Croft?
He’d knocked up Katerina, Dimitri’s sister, he’d stomped his way into the Gideon’s lives, and he actually had a way about him that drew them all in.
Dimitri found himself actually liking the man.
No.
He respected him and that was so much more important in their world. He trusted Curtis with something so precious to him. It was a gift. Katerina had been the worst of the bunch, broken, battered, and raped by someone who was supposed to protect her.
By sharing her…
He was sending out one message.
The man-child was welcome in his family.
Curtis wasn’t some rich kid, handed the keys to the Croft kingdom by adoption. He was smart, he worked hard, and the boy was madly in love with Katerina.
That mattered more than anything. He had nothing to gain by falling for the woman. She had money, but Curtis now had access to so much more.
She was pretty, but there were plenty of women who threw themselves at him.
He was happy to be a father.
That was huge for all of the Gideons. Since they had a shitty one, who hurt them all, this was paramount.
Curtis wanted his child.
When he watched them as a couple, Dimitri actually had hope that love really existed out in the world.
The young man would fawn over Katerina, as if she were the only woman in the world.
He opened doors for her.
He held her hand.
He watched her with so much love.
Dimitri had seen that before.
It was how Greyson doted on Emma.
And it was sweet.
Then there was Christopher Ford.
He wanted to loathe the man on principle alone. He’d hurt Emma, and to Dimitri, that was unacceptable. Only, he was being forgiven, and he had to tow the family line.
Truthfully, at the beginning, he hated all things cop, and the irony of the universe was now he was tied to them. Chris Ford was a conundrum of epic proportions and with each day, Dimitri was trying to navigate between being able to accept the man and loathe him for his past.
He was trying.
The man was hard to read.
Chris Ford watched Emma as if he was smitten, but he also protected her like a big brother. It was giving off mixed signals to Dimitri, but Greyson didn’t appear worried.
That was his cue to stay back and just observe. When Greyson was concerned that there was a man around his woman, then Dimitri would step in and neutralize the situation.
Only, Emma wasn’t the only woman being watched by Chris Ford. As of late, he was checking out Dimitri’s other sister, Natasha, the same way.
It concerned him since the man didn’t seem to know what he wanted in life. The last thing he wanted was a sister who had her heart handed back to her.
So, Dimitri did what he needed to do. He’d ordered Natasha to back off.
She was going to get hurt, and it worried him. She’d suffered enough in her life, and that wound was the last thing Dimitri wanted for her. A broken heart sucked.
He knew better than anyone.
He’d had it happen to him once, and it still made him wary of the opposite sex when it came to a relationship.
Plus, as of late, he seriously doubted that the man was going to make a move. It was better for Natasha to move on and be safe than to wade into that mire.
Honestly, he didn’t understand it.
Natasha was gorgeous.
How did the man not want her?
She was smart, sweet, and oozed nothing but sexuality. The man had to be crazy not to see it. So, when Chris began backing off and avoiding Natasha, Dimitri started planning. He had to make sure his sister was safe, so ordering her away from the man was the best he could do.
Frankly, it sucked.
What he secretly wanted was for Natasha and Christopher Ford to stop doing this insane dance and get it over with. While he didn’t like thinking about his sisters and sex, it was part of nature.
She was beautiful.
He was a virile man…
It was bound to happen even if Dimitri told his sister it was ‘hands off’. Look at Katerina. He’d told her the same thing. Dimitri was smart enough to know that his other sister wasn’t going to listen to him either.
So, he was biding his time.
All he could hope was no one got hurt when they came together.
While Chris and he had a rocky start, Dimitri still respected him. The man turned in his badge for Emma, and that spoke volumes to his character.
What kind of man tosses nearly twenty years of his career for a woman he wasn’t ever going to sleep with?
A crazy one?
Or one who could be trusted with someone so precious as Natasha Gideon? It was the main reason Dimitri hadn’t killed the man and dumped his body somewhere in the desert.
Chris Ford loved his new family, and that was one thing Dimitri got. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what his sister’s life would be like if the man would just take a chance.
Could she be free like Katerina?
After all they withstood, did she have a shot at happiness too?
God!
He hoped so. He’d give up any shot at love for himself if he could just get his
sisters settled with someone who would treat them will love, kindness, and compassion.
Dimitri knew he was too far gone to ever have a shot at love, but they weren’t. So, while he told his sister to back off, he knew that was the equivalent of giving her permission.
His girls never listened to a damn word he said.
Dimitri knew it was coming.
Chris was family, and he was safe. He could pretend that he didn’t really like him, but that was the furthest from the truth.
Christopher Ford was fun to make insane. There was nothing like a cop in your midst to stir the pot. It was the only reason he tormented him.
Dimitri wanted to see what his breaking point was.
So far, he hadn’t found one.
That was a good thing.
It made him want to laugh. At one time, he’d be planning deaths. Now he was planning lives.
What the hell had happened to him?
Oh, yeah.
The Croft Family had rolled right over him, and he was helpless to fight off the allure of their kindness.
They were good people.
He genuinely liked them all.
Sitting in his bar, one of many he owned, he looked around at the décor. Everyone always asked why he named it ‘Aquarius’, and that was simple enough.
It had been the beginning.
His beginning.
The Age of Aquarius was a time of renewal, prophecy, and change. It was the first legitimate business that he’d purchased with his ill-gotten gains.
It was supposed to be a way for him to change his fate, alter his future, and have something to fall back on if he ever burned out.
Or if he died.
His sisters would have a piece of him to remember what he stood for in life. The bar was family too.
It was broken souls who came together to make something that no one thought could be done.
Well, he’d proved the naysayer’s wrong.
When he was buying the bar, Randall Mason gave him the name and told him it was meant to be. The man seemed to know what was coming. Dimitri was pretty sure that even back then, he understood what was coming into all of their lives.
Randall would die.
Emma would become his heir.
Lost Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 2) Page 2