Her husband was curious too.
“We handle it later. Right now, we have a shit mess. We have dead underage girls, and we have Viktor Marchenko. From the second I took this case, we were focused on too much. With our attention scattered, we may have missed something. I think we need to find this sex ring, and that might bring us closer to Viktor.”
“And the commissioner?” Dante asked.
“Like I told Emma and Dimitri. He’s going to hide out for a while. We’re presently trying to dig up more on him. I want to take him down with things he can’t explain away. Riley heard him put a hit out on Delilah, but we don’t have proof. We know that he was likely behind a cleanup effort, but we can’t prove it. It’s his word against ours. We keep digging until we find substantiated evidence.”
They all agreed.
“I think we should focus on what we know,” Greyson stated.
“We know that Julie was at the strip club with her pimp and then went missing,” Emma stated. “Then he was killed.”
Tessa made notes.
“We know that Julie lived on Vine, and we have a pimp flop on Vine.”
Greyson brought up one other thing. “We also know that Anthony Delmarco was murdered by someone, and he was left in a park. Again, more loose ends.”
Paris thought about it. “What park?”
He wasn’t sure.
“You know there’s a big one over on Vine, right?” he asked.
That was more proof that they had an area to focus on to find the sex ring.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if it were that one,” Greyson stated. “Let’s aim our focus there.”
Dimitri agreed.
Tessa and Paris knew what he was asking. They knew exactly how the man thought.
“You want us to pull Vine Street apart?” Tessa asked in clarification.
“Yeah, let’s go with that. If it smells like smoke, chances are there’s a fire.”
They had to start somewhere. There was so much going on in Vegas, and their lives, that they needed to focus.
“Can I task you guys with that?” he asked the Archers.
“We’re on it.”
They grabbed a tablet and headed to a corner to work.
Okay, that took care of that.
Emma pointed at Natasha. “Go under for the time being. Then we don’t have to worry about you.”
“I have a change of gear in the car. I’m going to be the nun.”
Chris laughed.
Dimitri pointed at him. “Don’t be a pervert. We are Catholic.”
He laughed even more. Not that the man would be offended if he made a sex joke, but that Dimitri was religious.
Who saw that coming?
“Say your goodbye,” Greyson said.
Natasha crawled into her boyfriend’s lap, and she slowly kissed him. When she was finished, she pulled away, Chris’s lower lip between her teeth.
Emma put her hand over Dimitri’s mouth.
“I’ll see you later,” Natasha stated. “Miss me a little bit.”
He would miss her a whole lot. When she got out of his lap and headed out, he stood to watch her.
When he turned back around, and they were all staring at him.
“What?”
Emma laughed.
“Someone is madly in love, and I think I hear wedding bells.”
He yanked on her hair. “Brat.”
That one comment, actually calmed Dimitri. Natasha would be safe. He didn’t doubt the family would protect her.
In fact, he was going to ensure the whole family was safe. He didn’t like what he was planning, but Dimitri had a backup plan to save them all.
He only needed time to slip away.
Kat broke the silence. “Can you give me something to do?” she asked, worrying her hands. “I need to do something to keep from going crazy,” she said to Greyson. “Please, Dad.”
His heart flipped.
Katerina was like his child. If anything happened to Curtis, he’d protect her.
“Why don’t you work on Anthony Delmarco? We still have the FBI’s tablet. Maybe you can find a way to connect him to someone.”
She was grateful.
She took the tablet from Emma.
“Thank you, for this.”
Katerina went to a quiet corner and began working to keep her mind off her husband.
Emma, Greyson, Chris, and Dimitri would handle the apartment search that the janitor had brought up.
Until that moment, Dante and Steele had been relatively quiet. Investigating wasn’t really their thing, but they would jump in and help where they could.
“If you can get the autopsies,” Steele offered, “I can go over them to make sure nothing was missed.”
Emma gave him a kiss.
She knew how hard that was on him.
Steele, after his abduction, had a hard time dealing with the dead, since he was almost one of them.
“I think that would be great,” Greyson offered. “I’ll contact Riley and see what he can do.”
Before he could, a nurse walked in.
They all stood and waited with baited breath. Kat rushed over, and she took Emma’s hand when she offered it.
“Mr. Croft is out of surgery, and he’s doing fine. He’s going to be in the recovery room a little while longer. Then, you can all see him.”
Kat started crying.
Emma pulled her against her body and held her through the storm. She let her weep it out so she’d feel better.
“How bad is he?” Emma asked. “His arm…”
“He’s going to need therapy, but he’s going to be fine. He got lucky. It went straight through.”
They all relaxed.
Viktor’s error had worked out in their favor.
“We’ll wait to see him,” Greyson offered.
“Yes, Mr. Croft. I’ll come back for you.”
When she left, he was only thinking one thing. It wasn’t about Curtis’s recovery, or how close they’d come.
It was all about revenge.
Viktor Marchenko was going to pay.
With his life.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
He’d spent most of the day touring the FBI building in Las Vegas, and Ethan Blackhawk knew one thing.
It was one hot mess.
No wonder the OT was off the charts, the budget was way off, and absenteeism was running rampant.
Robert Lee had no idea how to run the place. To make it even worse, he didn’t answer directly to him. He answered to Miles Lane out of FBI West.
Well, that was about to change.
Ethan was going to whip both buildings back into shape, whether they liked it or not. While Greyson ran it, the place was doing well. Crime was down, and he’d managed to scare his employees into doing their job.
Much like he did.
What Ethan had learned from visiting the FBI building was no one liked Lee, and no one was worried about their job.
When you could lose your career and paycheck, you stayed hungry for work.
It made you a better employee.
It made you do your damn job.
What Ethan had now was a clusterfuck. He hated to admit it, but he was going to have to come back.
There was no way he could let that place run the way it was going. When he asked for reports, Lee stared at him like he was crazy.
Apparently, his secretary was keeping him afloat.
It was as if the man had never heard those words before.
Then, as he toured the place, the employees were afraid to talk in front of Lee.
Ethan knew intimidation when he saw it, so he did what he had to, and lost the man. The second he was gone, the dirt came out.
The man had been fraternizing with the police commissioner. That didn’t bode well for Ethan, considering what he knew was going on in Las Vegas. So, Ethan could only do one thing.
He was going to watch.
Wait.
Bide his time.
And then handle it.
If Robert Lee thought this was going to be Ethan’s only visit to Vegas, the man had another thing coming.
This was only the beginning.
As he walked onto the jet, the pilot was waiting for him.
“She’s in the last seat, and I think she’s sleeping. She got here about an hour ago. She was quiet.”
That said it all.
Elizabeth wasn’t normally described with that one word. She was chaos, active, crazy, and boisterous.
He was worried about her, and this was just more proof that Bonnie had turned their lives upside down.
Heading to the back of the jet, he touched her leg, and she sat up, a gun in her hand.
He stared down the nose of her Glock, and her finger was on the trigger.
His heart thumped.
“Hey! I missed you too. Well, not enough to pull a gun on you when I saw you, but I still missed my wife.”
She lowered her arm.
“Sorry. I was napping.”
Yeah, she did that a lot lately instead of sleeping. When Elizabeth went deep, the nightmares began.
“The pilot said you just got back an hour ago. Were you out exploring Vegas?”
“Yeah, I was.”
“Doing what?”
She glanced over. “Tracking Bonnie.”
Of course she was.
“Elizabeth.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it, Ethan. Let it go.”
He gave her some emotional space, like she had always given him. Something was eating away at her, and he didn’t think it was only because of what had happened.
“Okay, baby. I grabbed you something to eat,” he said, handing her a takeout container.
“Thank you.”
“Was it nice?” he asked.
“What?”
“Vegas.”
“Yeah, in a tacky, ‘I love Elvis’ kind of way. I did like all the lights. Those I don’t mind. How was the FBI building?” she asked, changing the subject so he wouldn’t dig back into her day. What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas.
“Good. Greyson has some wiggle room. You didn’t tell him about Viktor Marchenko, right?”
She smiled.
“No, I would never do that. That’s classified intel that I shouldn’t have heard about when you were talking to yourself on your way here. I know the rules.”
He kissed her on the cheek.
“I figured as much,” he said, knowing she absolutely gave them the heads up. He’d cover them all if it came to that.
“Oh, and I lost my tablet somewhere. I’m so damn forgetful. Maybe you can forget to cancel my password for a couple of days. You know…I may find it again.”
He laughed.
“I can do that.”
She began eating.
“Baby?”
She looked over.
“I love you.”
That made her smile. “There’s no one I love more than you,” she said.
“Uh, Callen.”
“Okay, well him.”
“Our kids.”
“Yeah, and them.”
“Wyler.”
She didn’t say anything.
That silence spoke volumes.
“Elizabeth.”
“He left, Ethan. That’s on him. Don’t bring him up. I can’t fight his wars too. I have enough on my plate with explaining to our kids why Grandpa is gone.”
Ethan wished he could heal them all. When Wyler bailed, it created a huge hole in all of their lives, and Elizabeth was picking up the slack while chasing Bonnie, and doing her job.
Then there was little TJ.
They all were taking turns loving that baby as much as they could to make up for his father leaving him the day he was brought into the world.
He dropped his arm around her shoulders, and she shared her food. It was peaceful and calm.
Yet, she was anything but.
“We’re ready to go,” he said, signaling the pilot when the man stuck his head out of the cockpit.
They closed the doors.
The FBI jet began its taxing down the runway, and before long, they’d be back in DC.
And Ethan had to prepare.
For what was coming.
Chapter Twenty
Two Hours Later
Riley’s House
S he didn’t mind spending time with him, but she was pretty sure she was safe. Now that Thomas Christ was dead, Delilah really thought that Riley was over reacting. She was finally safe, and that was a relief.
“I’m sorry you had to fight through the chaos to get to me at the courthouse,” she said.
He smiled over at her. “I don’t mind at all. I like spending time with you.”
“Do you think it’s over?” she asked.
Riley wasn’t sure, but as long as he was there, she was safe. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her, so he went with that.
“I think it is. The man will back off for a bit. He’s not going to risk anything major pointing his way. Besides, the Crofts know, and they’ll handle it.”
She wasn’t sure how they’d handle it, but what did she know?
What bothered her the most was how corrupt the whole city appeared to be. It horrified her. The commissioner controlled all of the divisions in the police department.
If he set up a cop to die, and then killed another…
Jesus.
What else was he capable of?
This was why she defended people. A lot of cops tended to be corrupt. Well, most of them. Riley was different.
“Why don’t you just report it? There will be an internal investigation…”
“Greyson asked I not do it. He thinks he’s in the clear, and they want to give him some rope to hang himself.”
She laughed. “That sounds like Greyson Croft to a T. The man is always thinking.”
Yeah, it did.
“So, where are we going?” she asked, looking around the neighborhood. It wasn’t far from hers, and it was nice.
“I’m going to stop by my place, so I can get some things. Greyson offered up his home, and I figured we should head there. I didn’t want to be without swim trunks this time.”
She laughed. “You could have dove in naked. I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
“I may not want to swim with a sexy man-eating shark naked. You’re dangerous,” he teased.
Delilah leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “You have no idea. When I chum the water with a do-gooder cop who’s sexy, I can’t help myself.”
His body reacted.
Delilah drove him insane.
“I hope you don’t mind that we’re playing sleepover,” she said. “I know you have a life outside of me.”
Did he?
It was funny. Since falling for Delilah, he could barely remember what he did before her. She was a force to reckon with, and being a masochist, he liked it.
He laughed.
“I don’t mind spending time with you. I enjoy it,” he offered. “Do you mind?”
Uh, hell no!
Riley made her crazy when they rolled around naked. He was dominant in bed, and she could just feel. It was hotter than the desert heat.
“No, I don’t. I’m actually off the next few days. With Dante and Steele’s wedding coming up, I was going to get my hair and nails done.”
“Well, that’ll be fun.”
“Are you going to the wedding?” she asked.
“Are you inviting?”
She smiled. “I do believe I am.”
“Then I do believe I’m going as your date.”
It made her giddy.
She really liked this guy. He was genuine, sweet, and a gentleman. Plus, he held nothing back. Maybe it was her past, or it was the fact that she dealt in bending the truth that made her paranoid of men who kept secrets.
That was her big no-no, and a red flag. Nothing made her want to run faster than a man hiding shit.
“Here we are,” he said, pulling into his driveway.
It was a simple house, but it was nice. There was a swing on the porch, and the lawn was tidy.
“It’s not much, but it’s mine.”
She glanced over.
“If you’re worried about impressing me, you can stop. You already impress me, and that is hard to do.”
He lifted a brow.
Had he been trying?
Yeah, he was. There was something about being near her that gave him such joy. Riley could be himself. Still, he knew there were issues coming.
He was a cop.
He was good at seeing oncoming trouble.
“Besides, you had me at porch swing. It reminds me of the house I grew up in. In fact, if you go two blocks over, there it is. I rode my bike up and down this street.”
That intrigued him. He didn’t know too much about her past, other than her brother’s death.
Delilah waited for him as he headed around the truck, and together, they took the stairs to the porch. She picked up his paper and sat on the swing.
He was cautiously optimistic as he unlocked his door. “Do you want to come in?” he asked. “Or are you sitting out here and using me for my swing?”
She laughed. Yeah, that was definitely not what she wanted to use him for.
Not even close.
“Are you kidding? Of course I do. You got to see my place. I think it’s only fair.”
He smiled and held the beautiful wooden door open for her. “Welcome to my home.”
When they went inside, he immediately went to his fish tank and fed them.
That amused her.
“Fish?”
He laughed. “I’m a cop. I barely feed me. I can’t have a cat or dog.”
She grinned. “I understand. I don’t have pets because that would make me seem approachable, and that ruins my street cred. ‘Hi, I’m getting this killer off. Can you hold my cat’?”
That amused him.
What he loved most about her was Delilah was funny and approachable when she wasn’t playing attorney.
She was the girl next door.
Suddenly, he wished she lived next to him. Then they could sit on his swing every day.
“I’ll go grab my bag. Feel free to wander.”
She laughed. She’d said the same thing, and they ended up naked.
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 40
