She reached into her hair and pulled out a bobby pin. She twisted it and got down to business.
“What’s she doing?” Dimitri asked, unable to see her. Curtis and Chris were his eyes. They could watch the actual camera footage.
“Poppy is picking a lock. I can see her,” he said. “Make it fast, Poppy. You have someone heading your way. They are at the water fountain around the corner.”
She began sweating.
There was no way to pretend this wasn’t breaking and entering, and there would be no way to talk herself out of that mess. It would mean kicking someone’s ass and trying to escape. That would mean leaving Kat behind. Somehow, she didn’t think that would go over well with Dimitri.
“You have five seconds,” Curtis stated, giving her a running clock.
Dimitri held his breath again.
“Three,” Curtis said.
She heard the lock pop.
As he got to one, she was in and closing the door behind her.
“I’m in,” she whispered.
They released their held breaths and knew that was going to be the worst part of this for Poppy. She’d managed to get in, and now it was about finding the file.
Heading for the door, Poppy crossed her fingers. “I’m about to enter the code you bought. We had better pray it works.”
She pulled up her sleeve and looked at the code. She’d written it on her arm where Kat had, thinking it was likely a good place.
“I’m trying to hack the security system,” Curtis said, “but without a plug into their server, I don’t think I can do it in the time we have.”
She typed it in.
It beeped.
Then it went green.
“The code was legit. I’ll get the file.”
She headed in and got down to work. The office was cleaned up, and she had no doubt it would be a challenge.
If it was even there…
She crossed her fingers and prayed.
Kat was in the ceiling above the room. She could see the guy at the desk and the door with the lock.
“I need a distraction. Can someone call records and keep them on the line?”
“Emma is dialing right now,” Dimitri stated, now focused on Kat and her part of the mission.
The phone rang.
As soon as it did, and he reached for it, Kat dropped to the floor and crawled to the door. Sticking Dimitri’s security box beside it, it began deciphering the code.
“I need twenty more seconds.”
Emma heard her and kept the guy busy with a shit ton of inane questions that would likely piss him off.
The box beeped. She hoped he didn’t hear it. Punching in the number, she headed in.
Pulling up her sleeve, she navigated the room full of boxes until she found the one she needed.
And there it was.
Grabbing it, she pulled it down and opened the box to root through it. That’s when she saw the issue.
“Uh, we have a problem.”
“What?” came Dimitri’s voice in her ear
“It’s empty. There’s nothing in it. There’s no evidence, no DNA, nothing. It’s an empty cardboard box.”
Poppy heard her.
“He must have taken everything. We definitely need that file now,” she said.
Yeah, they did.
“Kat, get out,” she said.
“Copy.”
She began the process of getting back to the elevator and her partner.
“It’s on you,” Dimitri stated to Poppy. “Kat is getting out. Show us what you can do.”
Poppy didn’t miss the test in that. It was clear he was in boss mode—not boyfriend mode.
That was fine with her.
So, to get it done, Poppy moved around the office searching for the file.
“We have a serious issue,” Chris stated out of the blue, breaking the silence over the com.
“What?” Dimitri asked.
“Commissioner Raye just pulled up in his Lincoln. He’s heading into the building. You have two minutes to get out of there!”
Poppy knew she couldn’t leave—not without the file. There was no way Dimitri would allow her to go back in if they pulled out. It had been dangerous to begin with, but to redo it?
Yeah, no.
“Poppy, hurry,” Chris warned.
Dimitri gave the order.
“Get out.”
She closed and opened drawers.
“I need to find that file,” she stated, ignoring his direct order. Would there be hell to pay later?
She wasn’t sure.
Only, this mattered.
“He took the stairs,” Curtis warned, as Curtis tried to keep hacking the security system. “He’s entering the office. You have to hide!”
Well, shit!
Poppy had only one place that she could do just that. She dove under the desk.
And prayed.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Emma was sitting there with Dimitri and Greyson. Dimitri was listening and had his laptop open with the mic on for them. The second he heard Chris warn Poppy, that fear level began rising. If she got caught in there…
She was going to jail.
Immediately, Dimitri was up and began pacing the room. His woman was trapped in the office, and he began wondering if he’d done the wrong thing by sending in someone who had NO experience doing this kind of thing.
“Give her a chance,” Emma stated, trying to help calm Dimitri and give Poppy the opportunity to do her thing.
“We need a distraction,” Dimitri stated.
“I’m hacking the fire alarms as we speak,” Curtis stated. “I need a couple minutes.”
“You don’t have them. He’s opening that door. Poppy is trapped in there.”
“Poppy, are you hidden?” Chris asked.
“Under the desk,” she whispered. “Only spot.”
Shit!
That was the worst place to be. He was going to sit there, and he’d surely notice a woman beneath it.
“I’ll get her out,” Curtis stated.
Dimitri was pacing.
When he stopped, he stared helplessly at them.
“Give her a shot. She’s not caught yet,” Emma said. “You hired her, now let her prove that she belongs on your team. We can always get her sprung if she’s caught.”
He knew she was right.
They could buy a myriad of lawyers, judges, and juries.
Still…
He’d been on a lot of scary jobs, but this one was the worst.
Dimitri was going to have a freaking stroke.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Poppy looked up as she was crouched beneath the desk. The file was taped above her head.
Well, holy shit!
She never thought to look there. Pulling it free, she grabbed her phone to begin snapping pictures.
“I have the file. Get me that distraction,” she whispered. “I’ll get out. You get him out.”
Curtis was typing like a maniac.
“I can extract her,” Kat said, moving her way through the ceiling of the one floor. “I can be there in ten minutes.”
“She doesn’t have ten,” Chris said, staring at the laptop. “She has ten seconds.”
Poppy heard the door opening.
“Yes, I just have to get a file,” stated the commissioner as he headed into the room.
As he turned on the desk lamp, Curtis got it.
The fire alarms started screeching.
“Oh, shit!” muttered the man. “I’ll call you back. The building is on fire.”
The second he was gone, Poppy got out, opened the folder, and began taking pictures of everything. The light on the desk helped.
“Get out!” Chris stated. “We didn’t set off that alarm. That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
Kat’s voice came over the com.
“I took care of it.”
That was all they needed to know.
“He’s coming for this file. If we take it, he’ll handle anything that’s in it before we even get to look at it. I’m copying.”
“We need another distraction. That will only last a couple minutes. Come on, Curtis. Shut down the power,” she whispered. “I set a small fire. It won’t keep them busy for long.”
He was aware.
“Do it,” Dimitri said. “Poppy, you have two minutes. That’s it. It’s an order. I want you out in those two minutes.”
She continued snapping pictures. She hit the end of the file and then closed it.
“Done. I’m returning it.”
Dimitri was able to breathe. This was going to be the death of him yet.
“Get out.”
She headed out the door, slipped into a bunch of people heading down the stairwell, and grabbed Kat by the arm when she saw her.
She didn’t blend.
At all.
This was bad.
Poppy had an idea. She popped some handcuffs on her, and walked her out of the building, past the masses of cops, and toward their ride.
Once there, she shoved the woman in, hopped in with Chris, and pointed.
“I suggest you drive it, Grandpa.”
“HEY!”
Curtis laughed and helped his wife out of her handcuffs. “Let’s go home.”
And they did.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
One Hour Later
When the commissioner heard it was only a wastebasket fire, immediately, he thought the worst. He didn’t trust anyone, and he knew that file was explosive.
Heading up to his office, he dropped to his knees and saw the file was still there.
Immediately, he relaxed.
The file was safe.
The whole Croft thing was making him a paranoid wreck. Jeffrey needed a vacation, and this was his proof.
Pulling the file out, he flipped through the pages, rereading everything he’d found. Yes, he’d checked the DNA. He’d had a friend handle it.
Well, it was time to get rid of the only file, the only trace, and the only paper trail back to him.
“Good luck, Poppy Wayne. Your mother’s death will never be solved.”
And then he shredded it.
* * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *
Sky Villa
When they finally returned, the whole team was ready to see what was in that file.
Poppy was excited. She’d done the job, and she only hoped that Dimitri would be proud of her.
When they walked into the penthouse, he was waiting for their return. Immediately, he went to Poppy, bypassing everyone else, and planted a big one on her mouth.
It was one hell of a kiss.
When she was finally set free, she couldn’t help but be giddy. That was one hell of a welcome home kiss.
“Uh, hello, boss. That was one really great perk to working this job.”
Chris made kissy noises.
“New policy. Apparently, we make out after a job,” Chris teased. “Everyone buy breath mints. Oh, wait! We’ll get them with the body armor and black credit card.”
Oh, Dimitri was so happy to have his girl back, and the team, he’d show him who was laughing.
He kissed Kat next.
“Good job, Anfisa,” he said. “Welcome back to the team. I missed you.”
She missed doing the job too. Being a mom was good, but being Kat…that was even better.
Then when Chris wasn’t paying attention, he kissed him too.
“What the hell?” he asked.
“That’s for being a smart ass.”
“Well, I liked it, Mr. Gideon, so who’s laughing now?” he asked.
Emma laughed.
“Welcome home, team. Shall we?”
Poppy tossed Greyson her phone, and he plugged it into the tablet that sent everything to the wall.
“Ignore the naked pictures,” she teased, dropping onto the couch.
“I will make copies later,” Dimitri offered.
“Uh, they’re of you, boss.”
He sputtered and then pointed at Chris.
“I will hurt you in the morning at the gym. Don’t think I won’t.”
“You are NO fun.”
Emma ignored them, and she watched the pictures upload.
“He had the DNA tested,” Emma stated, recognizing the paper. “He had it sent out and handled.”
“When?” Dimitri asked. “That takes time. Even if it was a private lab, we’re talking weeks.”
There was a note trail.
“He is a sneaky snake,” Emma stated, seeing it. “He didn’t send it to a customary place,” she stated. “Look.”
There was a receipt.
“He swabbed the DNA and sent it to one of those,‘trace your roots’ places, telling them it was his. He must have wanted something over you to control you if you took the captain job.”
Oh, the man was a sicko.
Yet, Poppy was confused.
“Then how did he find out who was the person who killed my mother and sister?”
Chris saw it.
“They give you a potential person who might be in your family tree—if they had their DNA tested too. He was betting the whole thing on it. Those kits are very popular. I’ve had mine done.”
Emma looked over.
“What did it say?”
“It’s not important.”
That had everyone’s attention.
“Come on,” Greyson urged.
“Fine. I’m twenty-five percent Russian and seventy-five percent sexy as hell.”
Dimitri was in a good mood. He laughed.
“You can thank the Russian for that.”
Chris rolled his eyes.
“Children,” Emma stated.
They went back to the topic at hand.
“So, he snags a relative and then heads to the person’s house to find them. When he gets their name, he can run a search online and most of those cheesy sites will give you the ‘possible people related to you’ matches,” Emma stated.
“Jesus. That’s…genius,” Poppy stated. “Oh, and totally illegal, plus a lot of creepy.”
Well, that had never stopped him before.
Why start worrying now?
The man lived the illegal side of things. Here was just one more piece of proof.
He killed Thomas Christ.
Tried to frame Riley Henderson.
Oh, and his wife went MIA.
“What are we going to do?” Emma asked.
Greyson pointed at the name scribbled in the notes. While they weren’t sure who that person was, they were going to find out. It may be the person who popped from the DNA kit, or it could be just about anyone else.
With the commissioner, one never knew.
“Run that name on the FBI equipment,” Greyson stated. He was sick of the man’s reign of terror. It was about to end.
Dimitri was at the helm, and his slim fingers moved effortlessly over the tablet.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Brandon Ames,” Emma said, as they watched him run it through the normal parameters. It didn’t take long.
“We have three hits,” Dimitri stated.
He pulled them up.
“It’ll be number three,” Emma stated, as she read through the three names. “He’s a cop. That’s right up the commissioner’s alley.”
They opened it up.
As it turned out, it was a cop out of the commissioner’s old office outside Vegas when he was a captain. He thought he’d hidden it well enough.
“Well, someone is getting a visit,” Dimitri stated. “Won’t he be shocked?”
“Oh, yeah,” Greyson stated.
“I’d love to ask him some questions,” Poppy stated. “I’d love to kick his ass.”
Dimitri shook his head.
“You’re benched.”
“Pardon?”
He waited for the explosion.
“We can’t bring you to him.
For all we know, he IS the killer. We only have a name,” Dimitri stated. “We don’t know if he’s the one who matched the DNA, or if he’s the one helping the commissioner. He’s been known to employ cops to do his dirty work, Poppy.”
Her face fell.
“He’s right. Plus, if he sees you coming,” Greyson stated, “he might call the commissioner. Like with you not taking the actual file, we have to tread carefully if we want to find this person.”
“I’m sorry. You can’t go,” Dimitri stated. Still, he was waiting for her to defy him.
Only, she didn’t lose it.
Instead, she looked over at Emma.
“Can I help you then? I can switch out. I’m still viable in the field to investigate. I’ll help with finding the commissioner’s wife. Since he knows I’m with Dimitri, as in WITH, he’ll assume I’m working it to catch him in this. That won’t be a surprise.”
She had a point.
Emma was good with it, but that came down to what Dimitri thought.
Poppy was his girlfriend and employee.
Emma glanced over at Dimitri.
“What do you think?”
“I’m good with that.”
“She can come with me and Chris. You can take Greyson. I have a feeling it’s going to be about boys behaving badly.”
Croft laughed.
“What gave it away?” he asked.
“Well, you and Dimitri playing in the same place at the same time,” she stated. “We all know you two. Oh, and by the way, this throws a wrench in our plans.”
“What do you mean?” Greyson asked.
Emma loved that he didn’t see this one coming. It didn’t happen often, but she was about to hand him some revenge.
“You’re heading out of Vegas, right?”
“Yes.”
“The bunny ranch is closer.”
And then it hit him. His wife was making him visit hookers to work the case—even though she said she would handle it.
Damn it!
“Oh, come on!” Greyson stated.
They all began laughing.
“Sorry, babe, but Commissioner Raye just screwed you over. You and Dimitri are going to hit a brothel, and then shake down a cop.”
Mob Justice Page 49
