True Justice

by Morgan Kelley

  Riley pointed at Heath.

  “He’s the only one not with a girl.”

  “HEY! I just broke up with my girl. You don’t have to rub it in.”

  “Then let me buy you a lap dance,” Greyson said. “You know, to get over your broken heart.”

  He stared.

  “Who will watch you?” he asked.

  “I will,” Riley stated. “I’ll make sure no one hurts him. Hell! I’ll sit on him.”

  Greyson laughed.

  “You’re such a chicken—afraid of Delilah.”

  Hell, yes, he was.

  “Okay. I’m in. I was in Afghanistan. Nothing she can do to me is going to hurt me more than a scorpion in my damn boot or an insurgent.”

  “Thank you, Mitchel. Is there anyone else we can talk to who doesn’t work the stage? Maybe another person like a bouncer or bartender?”

  He thought about it.

  “My backup bartender. He covers for me when I’m off, but he’s big into drugs. He’s basically just a lump.”

  Croft didn’t care.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Derk Utz. I don’t know his address. Like I said…lump. He was supposed to be in today, and I’m working a double. You won’t get anything out of him.”

  That was for him to determine.

  He’d take a chance.

  “Let’s go get some Danger,” Riley stated, hating to admit he was having a damn good time.

  Not the strippers.

  The investigating.

  As they headed to a table, Greyson and Heath both looked at it like it was a biohazard.

  “Just don’t lick your pants. You’ll be fine,” Riley stated, laughing at them. “You two are big, badass and afraid of a few germs.”

  “The silent killer,” Greyson said, as Heath tossed him some hand sanitizer.

  He used it.

  As they sat, Riley’s phone chimed.

  “It’s Delilah,” he said.

  “Don’t answer it,” Greyson said. “She likely saw the news. She’s going to know where you are.”

  “Uh, then not answering it will make it worse, right? Isn’t that how it works?”

  He shook his head.

  “You can’t hear anything in here,” Greyson said, as a woman with big, jiggly tits bounced past them. He tried not to look, but they were right there.

  Damn it.

  They were going shopping.

  “I’m with him,” Heath said. “Your girl is hot. She’s going to be unhappy you’re in here. Don’t get glitter on you.”

  It chimed again.

  He stared at his phone.

  Then tucked it away.

  Damn it.

  This was going to get him killed.

  When the song changed, Danger got off the stage and headed their way. She immediately sat in Heath’s lap when he lifted a finger.

  Clearly, he’d been in a few strip clubs. The man knew how to order off the menu.

  “Hello, boys,” she purred with a Russian accent as she took a seat in the man’s lap. “What can I do for you?”

  “My friend here just broke up with his girl. He’s lonely. Can you make him forget?”

  She laughed.

  “Mr. Croft, I know who you are. You’re not in here to help your friend,” she said, wiggling in the man’s lap.

  “Uh, I’d like to forget,” Heath said, grinning like an idiot. Clearly, his fear of germs had disappeared.

  “Well, big man, and I do mean big, what do you really want? Then you might get lucky.”

  “We need information on Rosemary. We hear you’ve been here the longest.”

  She laughed.

  “Pay for a private dance, and if you’re a good boy, then I’ll think about it.”

  Greyson handed Heath two hundred bucks and smiled. “Good luck, son. You know what to ask her.”

  She led him away.

  “He’s going to enjoy that,” Riley stated.

  “Yep, I know. Now tell me why you really took this job?” he asked.

  “I told you…”

  He lifted a brow.

  “You’re the straightest arrow I know. Why did you willingly take it, Riley?”

  “I think I want to marry Delilah. I think she’s the one. If I can’t support her, what kind of man does that make me? Last weekend, she bought a pair of shoes that cost more than my whole wardrobe.”

  “She doesn’t judge you by what you make, Riley. I happen to know for a fact that she’s crazy about you.”

  “Well, that’s awesome, but I can’t marry her until I get her to see I’m a good provider and not some leech.”

  “Delilah is pretty damn smart. If she thought you were using her, she’d kill you herself.”

  He laughed.

  He was well aware.

  “There’s something about her,” Riley stated.

  Greyson laughed.

  “I can’t imagine what that would be…”

  “Well, the sex is hot.”

  “I bet.”

  “Is it weird that I’ve only known her a few weeks and already I want to marry her?” Riley asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Nope. I knew the second I saw Emma. She was meant to be mine.”

  He got the same feeling.

  “My last relationship was four years long, and then it was over.”

  “Why?”

  “She didn’t want a family or to get married. To her, it was a good time. I wanted more. Despite my best judgment, I proposed.”

  “Turned you down?”

  “Yep. Honestly, it didn’t even sting. I think I needed it to be able to finally walk away.”

  Greyson understood.

  “I was engaged once before my wife. She was supposed to be mine, and she dumped my ass while I was in the military,” Croft stated. “I get that need.”

  Riley pulled out his phone and answered her text.

  “That’s how you know,” he said.

  Riley looked up.

  “What?”

  “If she wasn’t the one, you wouldn’t be so worried about it. You’re texting her in the middle of a strip club. She’s the one, son. She’s the one.”

  They both looked up as Heath headed their way.

  He was flushed.

  Really flushed, and his shirt was out of his pants. Greyson did NOT want to know.

  “She gave me two names,” he said, as Danger headed back up to the stage. She waved at him and blew him a kiss.

  “Uh, and they are?”

  “Scott Downing and Devin Barosi. They were working here while Rosemary was, and they were bouncing here too. They went MIA after she ran a few weeks ago. Danger hasn’t seen hide nor hair of them.”

  And that was the best two hundred bucks Greyson had ever spent.

  “I need that hand sanitizer back,” he said, as Greyson pulled it from his pocket.

  “Do you think this is going to burn my dick?”

  They both stared at him.

  “It was a lap dance.”

  He grinned.

  “I know, and it was the best one I’ve ever gotten. Scorpions bite less.”

  Greyson shook his head.

  “I don’t want to know. Let’s go. You’re a menace.”

  Heath laughed and waved at the woman on the stage. She winked at him, and he followed Greyson Croft out.

  Heath loved Vegas.

  Loved it.

  * * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *

  Sky Villa

  Wednesday Noon

  Ethan carried his wife upstairs, and no one at the front desk asked any questions. Apparently, Greyson Croft had warned them that he was not one to screw with.

  Good.

  He didn’t need any more jackassery.

  When he placed her on the couch, she was more awake and functioning.

  And pissed.

  He knew the look. She was about as mad as a rattlesnake who just got stepped on too.

  “I’ll peel the skin off his ass,
” she stated, “and those two cops too.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  She stared up at him, and he could see the light was hurting her eyes. She was squinting. That was a sure sign that someone had a concussion. This would be her second in two weeks.

  That alarmed him.

  Football players got hit less in the head than his wife did on the job. That was saying a lot about her method of investigating.

  “We were ambushed at the scene, they didn’t believe that I was a cop, and they wanted to make me bleed.”

  His blood pressure went up. When she closed her eyes, he knew they needed to handle her wellbeing first.

  Callen was on a tear. If they didn’t get her checked, he’d be on the first plane to Vegas.

  “I need to have you looked at.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but he stopped her from speaking.

  “You have three choices, Elizabeth.”

  “What are they?”

  “They are you go to the ER.”

  “NO!”

  “You let Steele Croft look at you. He’s an ME. You should be accustomed to that.”

  “Uh, no. I let Chris look at me because he knows me. That’s just creepy and weird when some strange ME checks you out.”

  Ivan laughed.

  Ethan figured as much.

  That was why he was choice number three.

  “Then you let me call Chris at the office and he checks you out via link.”

  She wouldn't fight that. It was the best chance all around, and, honestly, she needed it. She felt like shit.

  “Fine.”

  He pushed a button on the remote and it rang Autopsy One back in DC.

  Chris’s face came online, and he was smiling.

  Until he saw her.

  “Christ! What happened to her?” he asked.

  Apparently, Callen hadn’t been at the office with Chris when he saw the news.

  Ethan ignored that and went with the most important thing. “My brother isn’t there, right?”

  He shook his head.

  “He’ll be pissed that I borrowed his bride-to-be and dinged her up. I need you to look her over and make sure she’s okay. She won’t go to the hospital, and she won’t let our only other doctor, who is also an ME, check her out.”

  “She wouldn’t cheat on me with another ME, huh?”

  She laughed.

  And her head hurt.

  “I need you to take pictures of her eyes. Send them here.”

  Ethan did just that with the remote for the tech and he sent the pictures to the screen.

  Chris studied them.

  “She’s got a concussion. One eye is dilated a little differently.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I just have a headache. He kicked the shit out of me.”

  “Who?” Chris asked.

  “The one officer. I called him Officer Dickwad. He had me on my knees and was talking about a blowjob.”

  “WHAT?” Ethan and Chris said at the same time.

  Oh, it was a damn good thing Callen wasn’t there.

  Obviously, she did have a concussion. She wasn’t thinking straight, or that tidbit of information would have been kept to herself.

  “Explain, or you’re heading back to DC,” Ethan said, and he wasn’t kidding.

  “I headbutted him in the balls. He changed his tune and tried to clean my clock,” she said, touching her chin. “Is my face fucked up? I have to get married in two weeks. Callen will kill me.”

  She was scraped up.

  “You’re going to bruise. You need ice and a hot shower. She’s favoring her shoulder.”

  “If you pull my badge, Chris, I’ll make your life a living hell. Welcome to your new personal life.”

  Chris weighed his options.

  He didn’t doubt she’d do it too. He carried his tablet into the morgue office, so she’d have privacy.

  “Strip.”

  She stared at him.

  “Pardon?”

  “I need to see you rotate your shoulder. You know I can’t let you out in the field with a bum arm. Strip. As for you making my life hell, go ahead. I won’t be helping you if need my assistance on this case.”

  She stared at him.

  “Well played, Newton. Well played.”

  Ethan pointed at Ivan.

  “I know you’re dinged up, but go make sure no one comes in. Chris will check you out next.”

  He got up.

  “I’m good. They just took mid torso shots on me. They were working on her arm.”

  “Traitor.”

  He smiled and blew her a kiss before he headed out of the room to stand guard.

  When the coast was clear, she pulled off her sweater and turned around.

  “Bra too. That’s a sports Bra. It’s blocking your shoulder blade. I need to see it all.”

  “What the hell, Christopher?”

  “Then stop getting hurt. You are too old for this shit and you know it. This is your second hit to the head in two weeks. It hasn’t knocked sense into you, so stop letting them hit you there.”

  She laughed.

  “I mean it.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  She pulled off her bra and Ethan held the tablet, so Chris could see her arm.

  “Rotate it.”

  She did.

  There was a slight hitch in the motion.

  “Turn, I need to see the front.”

  “I’ve heard that before,” she busted him, and paid when her head throbbed.

  “Funny. Wear a sexier bra next time. That sports bra is hideous. You’ve done better. No one can get turned on by that.”

  Ethan laughed.

  Elizabeth stood there.

  Chris watched her rotate her arm.

  “Get dressed.”

  “That was fast, Newton. You used to like more foreplay,” she teased.

  “You used to make me work for it, you hussy.”

  She pulled on her bra and sweater, and Chris waited. She knew what was coming.

  “Well?” Ethan stated.

  “If she ices it and heats it the rest of today, I won’t pull her badge. I will want to check it again tomorrow, and, yes, it’s just to see you naked.”

  She stuck out her tongue.

  “That’s for ruining my punchline.”

  Ethan pointed at the hall that led to their bedroom. “Go get in the shower. I’ll talk to Chris for a minute and come check on you.”

  She did what he said.

  Elizabeth knew he could send her back to DC, and he would. Ethan wouldn’t screw around, and if Callen saw her…holy shit!

  There would be a scalping.

  When she was gone, Ethan faced Chris.

  “Thank you.”

  “No problem. Just keep an eye on her. She’s a menace to her own safety, and we all know it.”

  Well, that was an issue.

  “I have a problem.”

  “What?”

  “Director Robert Lee was found dead. That’s why she’s a mess. The cops thought she killed him.”

  He whistled.

  Yeah, he’d thought the same thing when Ivan clued him in on the ride to Sky Villa.

  “You two like to do it up Vegas style, don’t you?” he asked.

  “Yeah, and now I need a favor.”

  “What?”

  “Can you call your ME friend, appropriate the body, and hop a plane to be here tomorrow?”

  Chris was surprised.

  “ME?”

  “Yes, you. I need an autopsy, and I figured since you and Jameson Stone played nice…”

  Who was he kidding?

  Chris would love to be there.

  “Okay, I’m in.”

  “You can stop smiling,” Ethan stated.

  Oh, he really couldn’t.

  It was Vegas, and he missed being near Elizabeth. Chris was worried about her.

  “Call ahead. Stop Jameson Stone from doing it. I don’t want him touching tha
t body, or letting the commissioner interfere. I’ll have security on you, so you’ll be safe. Someone will have your back, even if I have to do it personally.”

  “Okay, I can do that.”

  “The jet will pick you up late tonight. You’ll land in the morning. Bring your vitamins, water, and get some sleep on the plane.”

  He laughed.

  “You too?”

  “Yes, me too. She’ll be happy to see you.”

  He was aware.

  “See you in the morning.”

  “Oh, and bring your tux. We have a party tomorrow. Tag. You’re coming.”

  He grinned.

  “I can do that. I’m not using it for the wedding, so no worries.”

  He hoped the man was kidding. If he got lucky, that wasn’t fair.

  He grinned.

  “I can’t confirm or deny that.”

  “Well, tell Callen you’re coming.” And he hung up, laughing his ass off. Now Chris would have to explain the situation. Was it the easy way out?

  Hell, yes.

  And he’d take it.

  Ethan tapped a few keys on the screen and called his boss. It was time to tell him that Vegas was about to blow—oh, and to tell him that he’d let the cat out of the bag.

  The Crofts would have one more mystery to solve to take down Commissioner Raye.

  And he would help them.

  * * * G R E Y S O N C R O F T * * *

  Chris Ford’s

  Place

  He wasn’t drunk anymore. Chris had stopped pounding those beers hours ago when he began reading Natasha’s journal. There were so many entries, and with each one, his heart began healing a little more.

  She loved him.

  He’d had something great.

  He’d been lucky.

  They made him laugh, cry, and realize that he could mourn her and not hate himself. After each date, she made an entry. After each time they had sex, she made an entry.

  He was able to reread their time together.

  At the next entry, he let her words sink in, and they meant so much to him.

  And they hurt.

  ‘Tonight, we went out for dinner, and it was the best time. Growing up, I would wonder if I would ever be free of my mother and her torture. I spent time chained to that radiator, cold, hungry, and dying, and I didn’t understand why.

  Now, I do.