“Why didn’t Dimitri kill him?”
She laughed. “Dimitri doesn’t kill lightly, Captain. When he does, it’s only after planning, finding the right time, and doing it without leaving a trail.”
“Mace Bristol.”
She shrugged. “He did it for Emma and Greyson. He loves them.”
Yeah, he saw that.
“We’re here.”
“Okay, talk strategy to me. What’s our plan?” Chris asked, trying to calm his nerves.
“I was going to make out with the guard, steal his key, and walk in the front door.”
“Like hell you are!”
She laughed.
Natasha couldn’t help it. She loved watching him get all riled up. It was so damn sexy. When he’d run his hands through his brown hair in frustration, it made her all tingly.
“But…”
“You are not making out with anyone but me!” he blurted, and then realized what he had just said. “I mean…”
“Is that an invitation, Captain?”
He began sputtering.
“Maybe later, when we are on our date,” she offered.
“Natasha!”
She opted to cut him a break before he lost his mind. She could see it coming, and coming soon. Chris was really stirred up.
“Katerina gave me the intel. Tony Mays is predictable if anything, so we know how many people he’ll have watching his drugs.”
Well, at least there was that.
“Okay, what are we up against?” he asked.
“There will be one guard at the gate, and I’ll get us past him. Then there is one guard at the door. He’ll be easy too. The hardest one will be the one doing patrol of the office.”
“Why will he be the hardest?” Chris asked.
“Because he’s not stationary. When you sit in one place, you stop focusing. The first two will be bored and daydreaming. The one who is walking around will be focused on his surroundings, but once we take him out, we’ll be in the clear.”
Well, he only hoped it would be that easy.
“We’re going to take them out, one at a time, and we’re going to get in.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“It is. I’ll go in by foot. When you see the guard go down, head over. I’ll let you into the gate.”
“Natasha,” Chris said, as she stopped the vehicle behind a cluster of desert shrubs.
“Yeah?”
Chris did something very un-Chris-like. He pulled her face toward his, using the long red braid and kissed her. It was heated, filled with passion, and pulled them both under.
When he finally set her free, his whole body was alive with fire.
“That’s in case you feel the need to make out with someone.”
“You’ve ruined it for them all.”
It made him smile.
“Be safe.”
Oh, she would.
They had a date tomorrow, and she was going on it.
“I’ll see you at the gate, Captain.”
And then she was gone.
Chris had no choice. He was going to do the job and go after the girl.
She was family.
His.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Terrace Glen
She was pacing.
It wasn’t like Emma to be freaked out, but she was. Not only were they breaking the law, but she was sending in Chris. The man was still recovering.
Well, that was what she was telling herself.
“Emma, let’s work,” Greyson said, trying to get her mind off of it.
She knew he was right.
She couldn’t handle it.
“Okay, what do we have?” she asked. “Curtis, what did you find out about that hotel key?”
He grinned like the cat who swallowed the canary. That’s how they all knew he’d found something huge.
“Spill it, son,” Greyson ordered.
“After running the coding, I can tell you that without a doubt, it is not a hotel key.”
She was game. “Okay, what the hell kind of key is it then?” she asked.
“Another warehouse.”
Greyson was intrigued. “Why was he hiding a warehouse key behind a picture in a locked office? I would have gone with mistress in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah, we all would have,” Emma stated. “In fact, I went there.”
“No clue as to why a warehouse key,” Curtis said, but then he grinned. “Again, it might have something to do with WHO owns the warehouse.”
“Who?”
He sent it to the screen.
“Well, if you look at the long list of fake names, no one owns it.”
“How is this going to help us?” Dante asked. “If you can’t find the name…?”
Curtis shut him down.
“Oh, I found it. I also found a manifest of what is stored there.”
“What is stored there?” Emma asked.
“Piñatas.”
That had Greyson's attention. “As in Drug stuffed piñatas that are owned by Tony Mays?” he asked.
“Well, I can’t actually pin it to him, and neither would the DEA, but if we put two and two together…”
Yeah, it was too big of a coincidence.
There was no way.
“I tied shipment invoices to the invoices in the warehouse Nat and Chris are at right now. This key is to one more of Tony Mays’s playgrounds.”
“But not the one they’re going into, right?” Emma asked.
“Nope. It’s geo-coded with a location. It’s pretty clever. I tracked it to the opposite side of Vegas. They’re good to go.”
Emma relaxed.
That was good enough for Greyson.
“Why would an accountant be hiding a key to a warehouse that might be stuffed with drugs?” he asked.
“Maybe he stumbled onto something when he was doing Tony’s books,” Emma stated. “Maybe we’ve been assuming he was dirty and knew about the crimes, but he was trying to figure something out?”
“And Tony killed him?” Curtis asked.
“Maybe,” Emma offered.
Curtis wasn’t so sure. “We don’t have a body. No one is going buy into this unless we find him.”
Greyson knew Curtis was right.
“Well, we’ll do what we have to do.”
“And that is?” Emma asked.
Greyson grinned. “We’re going to head there and look around. If we want to figure out what happened to Dalton Harding, we have to find the trail he took.”
She grinned. “That sounds like breaking and entering to me.”
Curtis tossed her the key.
That was not his area of specialty. He was just the hacker. But he had good news.
“Well, technically, it’s not if you have a key to the place,” he offered. “Then it’s just entering.”
They all laughed.
Well, there was one hell of a technicality.
It looked like they were going to be taking a little walk on the wild side.
“Dimitri and I will handle it tomorrow.”
Emma cleared her voice. “Excuse me?” she asked.
Greyson chose not to acknowledge her. When dealing with Emma, he’d found it was better than the option of watching her in danger.
That pissed Emma off.
It looked like her cowboy needed a wake-up call. If he thought she was going to sit around while he did the dangerous things, he had another thing coming.
Tonight, he was going with Dimitri to leave the painting, and tomorrow, he was planning to head out with Dimitri.
It was as if he forgot who the hell his partner in the field was.
Well, it was time to remind him.
He went to continue.
“We need to talk,” she said.
Greyson stared at her. “Not now, Emma. I’m not going to have a fight with you over this.”
She stood. “Well, here are your choices, Greyson Thaddeus Croft. You can come discuss
it, or you can spend the next three months wondering why you’re not getting sex.”
All the men in the room cringed.
Greyson didn’t.
It was clear he wasn’t amused that she’d throw that down in a room full of people. It insulted his ego and masculinity in one fell swoop.
Oh, his wife was in trouble.
They had a little rule about her usurping his control in front of people, and it seemed that his kitten had forgotten that. After all, he was in charge of the family.
Right?
Emma headed out of the room and toward the stairs. “Decide.”
It was all she had to say.
Greyson did the only thing he could.
He followed.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Warehouse
He was nervous.
Chris watched the guard from where the car sat in the dense desert underbrush. He sincerely hoped that Natasha knew what the hell she was doing.
If they got caught…
No.
He wasn’t going there. He had to trust her skill, and he had to trust the person he’d been partnered with for the job. Natasha was good at what she did, and the family was relying on her skill. He wasn’t going to let doubt creep into his head.
If Greyson and Emma trusted her, he had to do so too.
Watching the guard, he saw her moving along the gate. She was actually going to go right up to him.
What?
Was she insane?
What the hell was she thinking?
Chris really had no clue what the plan was if she was approaching the guard.
He wanted to shake her.
Then he watched.
Ducking down, she tossed something not far from the shack where the guard was currently sitting. He must have heard it because he stepped out and turned his head to the side where it came from.
It was all the time she needed.
Natasha crept up behind him and knocked him out with a big rock.
The man hit the ground like a ton of bricks.
He was going to be out for a while.
She motioned toward Chris, who headed her way. As he approached, she was dragging the man back into the guard shack to hide his prone body.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“Yeah, one down. Two to go.”
Chris couldn’t believe how calm she was. There was laughter in her aqua eyes and she looked like she was having...
Fun!
Christ!
What the hell had he waded into on this one?
Natasha knew what he was thinking.
“It’s like a game. Play with me,” she said, touching his cheek. She was wearing black leather gloves.
“I’ll play with you.”
He pulled on some gloves. “Where to next?”
“We have to slow down the guard at the door. He’s leaning against the building. Do you want to get him, or do you want me to do it?” she asked.
“I have him.”
She started playing with the wires for the security system. When she pulled out a black box, Chris was intrigued.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to re-loop the feed. They won’t see us on the cameras. We’ll be ghosts and that’s for the best in this case, don’t you think?”
Oh, he really did.
“No wonder cops don’t have a chance against you three,” he said, securing his own leather gloves so they wouldn’t leave prints.
“You’re not a cop anymore, Captain. You’re my partner.”
That hit him where it counted.
Those words.
If he thought about it that way…
Yeah, he could do this.
“Watch my back,” he said, as they crept out of the booth. Chris moved toward the man leaning against the building.
He took a deep breath.
And then he did what he had to do.
Man number two was out cold.
They could take out the last man, and be done with it.
He crossed the line for family, and for a woman he just might love.
They were playing one hell of a dangerous game.
And he was scared shitless.
Chapter Nine
G reyson wasn’t amused by his wife’s throw down in front of the family. In fact, he was downright irritated.
When he finally caught up to Emma, she was already in their bedroom. Truth be told, she didn’t look happy, but then again, neither was he.
“What you just did…”
She cut him off.
“It doesn’t even come close to comparing how you’re pushing me out of our life and making me some piece of porcelain you have to keep hidden behind the walls of Terrace Glen.”
He stared at her.
Where the hell had that come from?
Did Emma think this was why he wanted to go out with Dimitri?
“You take Dimitri to all the dangerous parts of the case. You make me feel like I’m just a trophy wife who can’t handle herself. I used to be a cop. I can take care of my own ass, Greyson.”
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off again, only this time, it was with her finger in his chest.
It was amusing and infuriating all at once.
“When we agreed to do this, I was supposed to be your partner. You’re making me feel like I’m nothing.”
Was he doing that?
“Emma.”
“No! Don’t Emma me! Tomorrow, you could easily have chosen me to go with you. I can break into a building with the best of them. I can hold my own. Yet you picked Dimitri. Why?”
His patience was wearing thin.
“Emma.”
“WHY?”
“Because I don’t want to see you get filthy in the muck that is this shithole. Is it so damn wrong that I want my wife-to-be the one whole, pure, and clean thing I have left? Is it so bad that when I wade thought this grime, I get to focus on you and know that there is some good still in my life?”
He began pacing.
“I have to play criminal!”
He threw his arms up in the air in frustration.
“Hell! I am a bloody criminal! I have to act like I have no morals, no conscious, no feelings, but the opposite is true. I'm not taking Dimitri because I want to keep you captive here. I take him because we’re alike. I am him.”
She moved toward him.
This was weighing on him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s all fine. I have this circle jerk that never ends. We kill off a criminal, three take his place. I was done with this. I was free, and now I see that’s not true. I have to keep playing this game, Emma. I simply want you to be that one beacon of white that I have left in my life. That’s all.”
“Greyson.”
“I have to have certain things in my life, Emma. I have to have some control. I feel like we’re being sucked in. I don’t want you doing it. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel.”
“Okay. I won’t go.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“Had you articulated this, instead of being a dick, I wouldn’t have fought you on it.”
“Yeah, well, you did it in front of our family.”
She laughed. “Yes, king.”
He pulled her into his body. “I have needs, Emma. I have so many that it’s pulling me apart from the inside out.”
She went into his body.
Greyson was easy to read—especially when he was rock hard and vibrating with lust.
“What do you want, Greyson? As your wife, it’s my job to give you whatever you need to have to survive.”
His heart skipped.
“I need you. I need your mouth on my body, and I want to forget that I just sent a young woman and Chris into a very bad situation. If anything happens, it’s on me.”
Emma’s green eyes met his silvery ones. “Then let me help you forget.”
Going to her knees, she worked
on the belt, button, and zipper of his pants.
Greyson stared down at her, focusing on his wife and it was damn hard to think. Only one word came out.
“Emma.”
“Let me carry some of the weight,” she whispered, as she tugged him free from his pants.
Then, with a puff of breath, she sent chills across his body. They nearly took him to his knees.
Greyson moaned. “Jesus, Emma!” he whispered, as he watched himself disappear into her warm, wet mouth.
“More,” he begged.
Emma didn’t hesitate to give Greyson what he needed. In fact, she took what she needed too. Pleasuring him, driving him wild, and pushing him over the edge was something she craved. Sharing these intimate moments were special to her.
It gave her great pleasure to take some of the pressure off of her husband’s shoulders.
Greyson’s hand found the back of her head. With his hand, he slowed her down, taking Emma’s mouth all the way down his erection until she kissed the base.
He moaned again.
“God! So good.”
She worked him harder.
Greyson had to lean against the wall or his legs were going to give out on him.
He became more vocal with each wet stroke of her mouth and hand.
“Make me cum, kitten! God! Make me cum!”
That was exactly her plan.
Her wicked pirate needed to take a break, and it was her duty, as his queen, to give him reprieve.
And she would.
Emma wanted to give him everything she had. She wanted him to never doubt what lived in her for him.
Love.
Need.
Undying devotion.
Greyson could feel the heat rising up through his body as he watched his redheaded kitten tear his control to shreds. What started as a fight was going to end in an explosion.
His.
When she added the gentle scrape of her teeth, and the squeeze of her hand, Greyson knew he was done. He was only a mere man, and this was something he’d never be immune to in his life.
The picture alone was enough to do him in.
Here he was, wearing a suit, his pants puddled at his feet, his wife on her knees…
Lost Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 2) Page 18
