“Why?” he asked. “Why are you looking at me like you know something you’re not saying?”
“We know one thing,” she said, hopping off the counter. “One hooker had one conversation with this killer, and she walked away because she wasn’t what he wanted.”
“What?” Greyson asked.
“He’s Russian.”
Chris was staring at her. “You don’t think it’s him, right? I’ll vouch for my friend. Dimitri wouldn’t hurt a woman, let alone an underage one.”
She smiled. “Oh, I know more about your friend than he knows. I am aware he’s not involved. Like I said, we can’t find the ring leader, but we have a few clues about the man buying up these girls like cookies on a Sunday morning.”
Elizabeth headed toward the door.
“Well? Are you going to tell us?” Chris asked.
She stopped at the door and turned. “Does the name Viktor mean anything to you?” she asked.
“Because I’m Russian? So I must know every Russian in Vegas?” he asked sarcastically.
“You have a nice smile, Maximillian Marchenko.”
He didn’t flinch.
“Who?”
She shook her head and laughed. “Listen, I don’t give a shit about what you’ve done in your past. We all have one. What I do know is I have your dossier, and a file that Commissioner Raye was putting together.”
They all held their breath.
“Yeah, he’s got a big ol’ hard on for you. Don’t be shocked.”
He wasn’t.
This wouldn’t be the first time the law tried to nail him with something.
Elizabeth continued, “The man you’re going to want to take down, or avoid like the plague is a man by the name of Viktor Marchenko.”
Dimitri stared. “I don’t know him.”
She laughed. “Do some research. Viktor Marchenko, he’s in town, and he makes you look like an altar boy,” she warned.
Greyson stared at his friend. Somehow, he didn’t think it was a coincidence that they had the same last name.
She rattled something off in Russian, and then smiled at Dimitri.
“You didn’t hear that from me.”
Then she walked through the doors.
When she was gone, Greyson glanced over at him. “What did she say?” he asked.
He didn’t speak, but instead, he looked pale, and not from his shoulder being targeted earlier.
Emma understood most of it. She moved toward Dimitri and touched his arm. “She said he’s your relative.”
He looked down at her, and there was worry in his eyes, and hers.
Greyson had to know.
“Are you related to a man by that name?”
He tried desperately to brush it off, but now he was worried. “That name is like Smith in Russia. There’s a million of them.”
Still, he felt off. The Fed who left seemed so sure of herself, and he was very unsure.
Emma read the paper in the file. “There’s nothing about a Viktor Marchenko in this file.”
“It would be redacted,” Greyson stated. “Ethan would have blocked out anything that was classified.”
Chris didn’t get it. “Then why tell us?”
Greyson knew.
“So, it’s off the record. He’s giving me a heads up on this. We’re going to be looking for a sex ring, and he wants us to find the man who’s buying the girls too.”
Emma was good with that.
Still, her husband was staring at their head of security, and it was making her nervous.
“Really, Grey,” Dimitri offered, seeing the look. “I don’t know that name.”
Chris pointed. “Uh, our pretty Fed left something on the counter where she was perched.”
They all looked over.
“Elizabeth left a tablet?” Emma asked. “She should…”
Greyson stopped her. “She’s giving me a way to look into the FBI files. She’s telling me that this file doesn’t have everything, and if I want to know, I have to break into the database. She’s covering us, and she’s covering Ethan. That tablet will come back stolen. We won’t have much time.”
Chris laughed. “I don’t know if I should hate her or if I should applaud her creativity. She exited without setting off the alarms.”
That had their head of security’s attention.
Dimitri was way off his game. He didn’t even realize that Chris was right. Normally, he’d be all over her until she was off the property. He rushed to the screen on the wall and rewound it. Elizabeth was on the recording. She walked over to the gate, she pushed in a code, and turned to blow him a kiss.
Then she was gone.
“I don’t get her.”
Greyson didn’t care. This was their way into the database. “I’ll do it since Curtis isn’t here.”
He took it and flipped the case open.
There was a note.
‘Roses are pink, geraniums are red. You didn’t find this tablet, or I am dead.’
Despite how serious the situation was, it made Emma laugh. When all the men looked at her, she couldn’t help it.
“You’re just all pissed because she kicked ass, took names, and owned all the cavemen in this castle. I’m impressed.”
Greyson didn’t have to be. He knew her street cred, and it was legit.
He peeled the Post-It note off the tablet, and on the back, there was a code scribbled onto it.
“She gave you the way in,” Emma said.
Yeah, and he was going to use it.
Greyson went in, entered the code, and the file started loading. “I’ll send it to the screen.”
They all watched the large kitchen screen as lots of information flashed there, and then the one damning piece of evidence.
“Uh oh,” Paris said, the second he saw it.
Tessa agreed. “He’s a bad dude, and according to the FBI. They have one picture.”
It opened.
Dimitri gasped.
They all stared at him, then the picture, and then back at him again.
Chris was the first to speak. “I’m going to take a long shot at this one, family. I’m going to bet that Dimitri’s father spread his sperm around even more. He looks like you, Dimitri.”
Emma saw it. “He has your eyes, and Kat and Nat’s too.”
Yeah, he saw it.
It made him ill, but not because his vile father had procreated with yet one more woman. That he expected. This was so much more.
“I take it back. I do know him.”
“What?” Greyson said. “How?”
“When we were leaving ‘Aquarius’ yesterday, I saw him. He was there. Inside.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded.
“We have a huge problem,” Emma stated. “He might be your brother, and if he is, and he’s the buyer?”
Dimitri glanced over.
To him, it wasn’t a problem. It was simple.
“Then he’s dead.”
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
He met him in the park. They were heading out to do their thing, and he was their drop off. “Is she in the trunk?” he asked, passing the man the money.
“Yes, and the other one?”
“I dumped her. No one will know she was mine. While I enjoyed her, you really need better stock. She didn’t last nearly as long as you promised. I need someone who will be able to handle my…urges.”
The man stared at him in disgust. He didn’t like him at all. In fact, he was someone he wished they never began doing business with in the first place.
He was a deviant.
And that was saying a lot since perverts were their specialty.
“You realize they might connect her to us, right?” he asked. “This makes our lives very difficult.”
He laughed. “That’s not my problem,” he said, holding out his hand for the keys.
He palmed them.
Viktor didn’t like that this man wanted a face to face meet
ing. He normally wouldn’t have done it, but he wanted to tie up some loose ends.
The man being the biggest one.
No one had seen him yet, and he’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.
He knew his brother.
His reputation preceded him.
“Thank you, and I’ll be going, but first…”
He shoved the shiv through the man’s ribs, puncturing his heart. There was that gasp of surprise as he was lowered to the bench, and then he died within seconds.
Viktor pocketed the blade, and wiped his hands on his handkerchief.
“We are done doing business, for now. I need to move along after I handle some family business. No offense, but you’re running a sloppy business, and I don’t like sloppy.”
He began walking away, and he was all smiles as he waved at the women in the park, and grinned at the little kids.
He had a new girl, and he was going to have some fun.
Well, later.
Now it was time to handle his brother, and the two girls he tried to save.
Only, their luck was running out.
And soon.
Chapter Fifteen
Courthouse
Monday
Nine A.M.
A s he pulled up in his truck, he held her coffee cup and briefcase as she unbuckled her seatbelt. The entire time, he couldn’t help but watch the transformation. Delilah was like a chameleon.
When they woke up, she hadn’t had any clothes or makeup on, and she’d been drop dead gorgeous in the girl next door kind of way. Now she was primped, primed, and ready to take on the world for her clients. She had her hair coifed, her red lipstick on, and even her glasses.
She was so freaking hot that Riley was having a hard time thinking about anything else but her body and the sexy girly things beneath her suit.
Truth be told, he wasn’t sure which side of her he liked more. The feisty attorney, who chewed asses, or the fresh-faced woman, who smiled at him when she woke. Riley wouldn’t mind having both of those women in his world.
Only, he knew there was going to be an issue. He could see it coming.
He must have been staring because she touched his arm and got his attention.
“Uh, are you okay?” she asked in concern. “Is it about dropping me off here? You can take me to my office, and I can drive here.”
He lovingly placed his palm against her cheek.
“It has nothing to do with that, Delilah. I was just thinking about you. Have a good day at work, and don’t leave, okay?”
“Where would I go? I have some maniac who wants me dead, and a client who will be dead if I don’t do my job. I’m going to be crazy busy,” she teased. “A woman-lawyer’s work is never done.”
He leaned in to kiss her, and she moved away.
It caught him off guard.
“I’m sorry,” he said, moving back. “I figured after four rounds of sex, sleeping together, literally, and today, I could kiss you goodbye. I didn’t mean to…”
She stopped him.
“There are cops all over the place. Once I get out, they’ll see you. I don’t want them to give you shit because you’re seen with me, but kissing the enemy?”
He stared into her green cat eyes.
“I don’t care if they find out.”
“But your boss…”
Riley had to make a choice. He could sneak around with Delilah and pretend they weren’t an item, or he could face the facts. He wanted to be with her, and he didn’t care if anyone connected him to the Crofts.
They’d make shit up anyway, and he didn’t want to be away from her. Besides, if Thomas Christ saw her with a cop, one he couldn’t bribe or buy, he might leave her alone.
The commissioner too.
This was his way of protecting her even when he couldn’t be by her side. Delilah mattered, and he wanted something a little more permanent.
Maybe if he did a good job of this, she’d understand later when he told her what they might be up against in a relationship.
IF she even wanted one of those.
He could only hope.
“They will make your life hell, Riley. Thomas Christ will ride you.”
He still didn’t care. He could ride him all he wanted, but when it came down to it, he wasn’t going to let her get hurt. The other cops would leave her alone.
Maybe a few good ones would watch her back.
Delilah wasn’t the job. She was a human being who deserved to be safe.
To prove he didn’t care, he rolled his window down, and waved to a cop he knew. Then he stared at her.
“Riley! Put that up!”
He wouldn’t let her stop him.
“So you just used me for sex?”
“What?” she asked. “How did you come up with that conclusion, Detective?”
“I think you’re embarrassed to be seen with me. I’m the one beneath you.”
“Riley.”
“It’s okay, Delilah. I get it. Have a good day.”
She saw how she’d hurt him, and it broke her heart. Riley Henderson was a decent, kind, good man, and she didn’t want him upset.
So, she gave in.
She grabbed him by the tie and tugged his mouth to hers. “You’re not beneath me,” she said, giving him a kiss, “but you can be later, if you like,” she offered, letting her mouth run deliciously over his.
Riley enjoyed the kiss, and the way Delilah smelled. It was a mix of her perfume, and his cologne.
That said it all, but in case she didn’t get it…
“You’re not the enemy,” he said. “I can still do my job without you interfering.”
She laughed. “Until I have you on the stand and I have to tear you apart,” she said.
“Then I’ll just have to take it out on you later,” he muttered, her lips doing insane things to his. “Like last night.”
He gave her chills.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” she admitted. “I hate cops, but this one…”
He waited.
“Are we really going to see if this works?” she asked. “Is this going somewhere?”
He laughed. “Are you wearing garters?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, then I know exactly where it’s going. I like that place too,” he said.
She laughed. “Me too.”
He handed her the disposable coffee cup. “Say you’ll call me if there’s trouble?” he asked.
She touched his cheek. “You can rescue me any day, Detective.”
“I’ll keep that in mind for later.”
She closed his truck door, and he wanted to make sure she got inside and to safety.
Riley got out, and he watched her.
He took it all in. Her walk away, men staring at her in lust and disdain, and the sway of her ass as she crossed the quad. At the door of the courthouse, she blew him a kiss.
Yeah, he’d rescue her.
In a heartbeat.
But for now, it was time to get his ass to work.
He had a feeling there were other people who needed him too. Word would be traveling back, and he was likely going to have a shitty day.
He could feel it brewing.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
LVPD
Thomas Christ got the call. As he was sitting in his office, he heard from the man who wanted the mess cleaned up.
“Is it done?” Commissioner Raye asked, whispering into the phone.
“Yep. When he comes in, I’ll break the news. Then, we’ll wait until the techs clear the scene, and find that one piece of evidence.”
“Where did you leave it?” he asked.
“On the floor by the door. I pulled it from his garbage can. Everyone here knows Detective Henderson loves that gum. He chews it all day long. That wadded up piece will be enough to frame him. It puts him at the scene.”
“Perfect.”
“I know. I came up with it myself.”
“
Well, good work. I’ll be in later. I want to watch it all go down,” he said, laughing.
“Sure thing.”
Commissioner Raye hung up.
It was going to be priceless. He couldn’t wait to see it happen. That’s what the rat deserved.
And he would pay in lock up.
That was for sure.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Greyson was worried.
They were heading out while Paris and Tessa were going to start doing some research on the names Elizabeth had given them. They would try to crosscheck them with anything they could find on Anthony Delmarco and Viktor Marchenko.
While they were glad for the FBI’s intel, there was still holes in the whole thing. Greyson knew they needed to fill them in or they risked screwing this up.
They couldn’t do that.
The FBI was pulling out of the sex ring investigation, and that meant he was on deck. He had a job to do in his city.
Still…
This was going to be damn hard.
They weren’t hoping to find much, but they had to try. Maybe something would turn up.
Now came the hard part.
They were dividing up.
“Emma,” he said, as she gave him a hug.
He didn’t have to say anything more. His wife saw the concern in his eyes.
“You’re the one I’m worried about,” she admitted. “Dimitri saw that pervert in his club. He felt like he was being tailed, and this man is bad news. You two are in more danger than us.”
No one was saying the ‘B’ word—for Dimitri’s sake. They knew what he was thinking.
Had he left one of his siblings behind?
Was this on him?
Was his brother this big of a sicko?
“We’ll be fine,” Greyson admitted, hoping his wife wouldn’t worry too much. He knew that was a lie, but what was he supposed to do? Take the easy assignment and leave her in danger?
No, they had to do their perspective jobs.
Greyson was expecting the worst, and so was Dimitri. Thank God, his wife was paired up with Chris.
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 31
