Lost Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 2)

by Morgan Kelley

  “Because that’s cool. I want to be one too.”

  Dimitri pushed the button on his laptop. “How about we talk about your future while everyone gets some rest?” he said, holding out his hand for the boy.

  He didn’t hesitate to take it.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “To OUR office.”

  That was everyone’s cue.

  Dimitri was on duty, and while Steele was working on the autopsies, they could get some sleep.

  By morning, they should have more.

  They were close.

  They all could feel it.

  * * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *

  A No-Tell

  Motel

  When Natasha mentioned that they were going to lay low, he never thought this was going to be the location. He figured they were going to be staying at either his place, or hers.

  Nope.

  This was the dive of all dives. This motel was a place that dead bodies would likely turn up.

  It was creepy.

  “Nice place here,” Chris said.

  Natasha laughed. “We just need a bed. We use this place because of the location. We can see cops coming, and the dense land behind the building gives a good place to escape.”

  “You’ve thought about this a lot.”

  “You have to when you work for Dimitri.”

  “Are you always going to?” he asked.

  “Yes. It’s the family business. I’m family.”

  Chris didn’t say anything.

  “Is that a problem?” she asked.

  “I worry about you.”

  “I worry about you, too, when you are out there with Emma. Is this going to be our first fight?” she asked.

  Chris wasn’t so sure. When he thought about his future with her, it involved a wife. Could he handle her job?”

  “We can fight and then have make-up sex,” she offered.

  Chris snorted.

  That sucked the tension right away.

  Natasha knew how to handle him.

  “I love your hair.”

  She touched the long braid. “Do you?” she asked, playing with it.

  “It’s incredible sexy. Want to roll around on bug infested sheets until we get some incurable disease from them?” he offered, pointing at the bed.

  She laughed. “Absolutely. I’d do it anywhere with you.”

  Chris was about to say something, but Natasha attacked. She was on him, her legs wrapped around his waist, and holding on for dear life.

  Her mouth found his, and he was sucked under the wave of pleasure. Her lips, teeth, and tongue tore his control to shreds.

  “Natasha,” he muttered, pushing her off him.

  She stared at him with aqua eyes. “What did I do?”

  “I’m all worked up with adrenaline. If we do it, I can’t promise it’ll be slow. I want to roll around and do really wild things with you.”

  “I’m up for anything,” she offered.

  Chris’s heart began pounding even harder than it had been before.

  “Anything?” he asked, trying to stay in control.

  “Yes. Teach me how to please you.”

  That was all he had to hear. Chris pounced, placing her beneath him on the bed. His mouth destroyed, took, and ravaged the woman beneath him.

  Before he moved on, he needed to know if Natasha would really accept him as he was.

  Chris wanted to make up for the years of abstinence and experience everything with her.

  They battled each other, tearing clothes off in the process. Neither relented until they were naked, breathing heavily, and staring at each other.

  Then Chris went right for the prize.

  He slid down her body and attacked her clit like a starving man. Natasha moaned his name over and over again, as he worked her into a frenzy.

  “Oh, God!” she muttered, as she came over and over again. Chris didn’t relent once, and she really believed she would never surface from that amazing pleasure. All the while, he kept her trapped beneath his mouth.

  “Christopher, I can’t,” she muttered as he pushed on for one more orgasm.

  She came again, and her legs were shaking from the pleasure.

  Chris let her surface.

  He loved her.

  She was flushed red, her hair was coming undone, and he’d never seen a more beautiful woman. He licked his lips, tasting her all over again.

  “My turn. Come here.”

  She didn’t hesitate to sit up.

  “Get me wet.”

  She took his erection in her hand, and she gently slid him into her mouth. She worked him hard, but he wasn’t moaning. When she looked up, Chris was watching her.

  “Am I doing this wrong?” she asked.

  “No, I just want something else.”

  “What?”

  “I want to share something I’ve never done with anyone, with you.”

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  He told her what.

  Then he pounced before she could even utter a word. Chris flipped her over, took her hips in his hands, and probed her ass.

  “Christopher,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder.

  “May I?” he waited. If she said no, he’d back off. He didn’t want to, but he would. No meant no in his world.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I want to share this with you. I want to be your first too.”

  Her words nearly brought tears to his eyes.

  “Thank you, baby,” he said, slowly sliding his way into her gorgeous ass. He watched himself disappear, and it was probably the hottest thing he’d ever seen.

  Her little gasps and moans turned him on even more. When he was buried in her body, he was ready.

  Chris began moving, sliding in and out of her. As he took her, she was holding onto the headboard.

  “Oh, God! This is so good,” he muttered, as he drove himself home over and over again.

  Natasha was moaning, too, as she took all of him.

  Chris knew he wasn’t going to last long, since this had been on his bucket list since he was a teenager.

  Finally, he’d found the woman he wanted to do it with, and would for the rest of his life.

  Yeah, he was in love.

  “More,” she whispered, as she could feel him getting ready to explode.

  Chris leaned over her body, reaching around to get her off too.

  It only seemed right.

  As his fingers moved through the wetness, he whispered in her ear.

  “I love you.”

  She came, and so did he.

  Both of them shattered apart at his words, and they tumbled onto the bed still joined.

  When the pleasure passed, Chris nuzzled her shoulder.

  “Be mine?” he whispered.

  “I already am yours,” she answered. “I’ll be yours until our dying days. I promise.”

  Chris wanted to celebrate.

  His body was coming back to life.

  “Oh, Captain. Again?” she asked.

  He laughed.

  Every damn day for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Tuesday Morning

  W hen they all joined up in the kitchen, Chris and Natasha were already there. They had the pile of files, and they were making out at the kitchen table. She was in his lap, her hands were in his hair, and their tongues were tangling in one hell of a kiss.

  It was Emma’s clapping that broke them apart. “I think I need a shower after seeing that.”

  Greyson laughed as Natasha went to move out of Chris’s lap, but he wouldn’t let her.

  “Stay,” he stated.

  It looked like there was more than one caveman hanging out at Terrace Glen.

  Who said they were a dying breed?

  “I’m glad you guys survived the mission last night,” she said, ignoring the giant hickey on Natasha’s neck. It appeared they didn’t just survive, they had one hell of a celebration.

  �
��Me too,” Chris offered. “How are you feeling?”

  She smiled. “I told Greyson.”

  Croft lifted a brow. “I wasn’t the first to know?” he asked. “That’s just all kinds of wrong.”

  She laughed.

  “He is my bodyguard, remember?”

  Greyson knew he didn’t have much time. The Archers were coming down soon, and he didn’t want anyone to know.

  “We’re keeping it quiet.”

  Natasha looked back and forth. “Wait! Are you…?”

  Emma nodded. “Yes, but I don’t want to hurt Tessa. We aren’t going to say anything yet.”

  Yeah, that was probably for the best.

  Besides, Greyson had yet to tell his wife about the sperm donation that Paris wanted. Honestly, he wasn’t sure that his wife was going to be happy about that.

  Technically, he was giving away one of their children. Okay, a million of them swimming in the goo.

  Natasha hugged her. “I am so happy for you. Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. You may need to tell Dimitri. He’s going to want to up your security.”

  “Tell me what?” he asked, walking into the room.

  Emma crossed to him and whispered in his ear.

  “Really?” he asked, smiling down at her.

  “Yes.”

  He started laughing. “I’m so happy for you, Emma. Now maybe your husband can focus on something else.”

  Greyson shoved bacon in his mouth. “Yes, eating pork.”

  Emma rolled her eyes.

  “We’re keeping it quiet.”

  “Tessa?” he asked, hugging her.

  “Yes.”

  “Good idea. I’m going to make sure your security is upped. You’re going to have Chris with you, and Natasha tailing you.”

  That worked for her.

  She could hear the elevator opening. “Let’s get to work. I want to get some interviews done. Who do we have?” she asked.

  Chris slid the files across the table.

  “Well, we have three people who Dalton noted in his files. He interviewed each of them. He was definitely chasing something, and it had to have gotten him killed.”

  “Who are they?” Emma asked.

  “We have a security guard that was working at one of his warehouses. In Dalton’s notes, he was pretty specific about why he was fired.”

  Paris and Tessa rolled in.

  “Morning,” Emma stated.

  She felt horrible that she couldn’t be honest with them, but Tessa looked miserable. She needed her focused.

  “Morning. I’m done with everyone but one person,” she stated. “Some of them are taking some time. I don’t think Gina’s last name is really Sorenson. I’m trying to find her identity. Most of her IDs are bogus. They aren’t leading me anywhere.”

  Emma got it.

  That wasn’t odd. She didn’t doubt that Gina had been a stripper that Tony Mays had picked up along the way.

  “Just keep running them while you fuel up. We’re going to have three interviews today.”

  They took seats and started eating.

  “Back to the security guard,” Emma stated.

  Natasha had the paper. “When Dalton interviewed him, the man stated that he told his boss something illegal was going on in the warehouse. He wasn’t able to turn a blind eye to the trucks coming and going at all hours.”

  “So he went to the drug dealer to complain about drugs?” Greyson asked. “That’s funny and all kinds of stupid.”

  “Yeah, Tristan Bradshaw didn’t find it so funny when Tony Mays shit canned him.”

  “So, in theory, we could have a man who wanted to get revenge on his boss, but realized that he told someone about the situation,” Emma stated.

  “Yeah, the interview was two weeks before Dalton was killed.”

  That gave the man motive.

  “Put him on our interview list,” stated Emma. “Mr. Bradshaw has my attention.”

  “Who else?” Greyson asked, eating a bagel.

  “You’re having a salad,” Emma stated, not even looking over at him. “Don’t think I didn’t see how much cream cheese you plastered all over that carb-y bagel after you ate like nine strips of bacon.”

  He shoved the last piece in his mouth before his wife could steal it away.

  “We have Tony Mays’s last babe.”

  That had everyone’s attention. They just assumed that Gina Sorenson was with him for a long time.

  “What’s her name?” Tessa asked, as Dante and Steele headed into the room holding hands.

  “Erin Scott,” stated Chris, reading the man’s notes. “He interviewed her a month ago.”

  Tessa was typing furiously. “I have an address for Tristan Bradshaw.” She read it off and Emma scribbled it down.

  The laptop beeped.

  “Uh, problem on the ex-girlfriend,” she added after the search was complete.

  “What?”

  “She’s dead.”

  That had all of their attention.

  “What do you mean?” Emma asked.

  She sent the information to the big screen on the kitchen wall. It scrolled until they came to the information.

  “There’s an open police file,” stated Tessa. “Erin Scott was fished out of some lake by the state park. She had ligature marks and it was tagged homicide.”

  Emma stared at it.

  This might be their missing link.

  “When did he interview her?” she asked.

  “Two days before she was killed a month ago,” Chris said. “You realize you may have just found what got Dalton Harding killed, right?”

  She was aware.

  “Someone killed Tony’s ex, and he was snooping around. That might be why he was taken out.”

  It fit, but something wasn’t working for her.

  Emma’s gut was off.

  “I can add something,” Steele offered as he and Dante got everyone’s attention. “Last night, when I saw the files, I immediately saw it.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “You have two killers.”

  They all stared at him.

  “What?” Emma asked.

  “Let’s look at the wounds on Dalton Harding,” he said. Tessa sent the pictures to the big screen.

  “Jesus,” muttered Dante. “Some of us aren’t cops or ex-cops. We like to keep the dead bodies for times other than breakfast,” he said, pushing his bagel away.

  Greyson reached for it.

  His wife pointed at him. “I will make you have a colonic full of seaweed and green drinks.”

  He stopped and pulled his hand back. “You’re a mean wife.”

  She snorted.

  “Steele, continue.”

  “I was reading the notes from the ME, and I saw it. This victim has cuts made at an angle. Your killer was a leftie.”

  They waited.

  “Pull up Tony Mays’s autopsy.”

  Tessa did.

  “He was hit from behind on the right side of his skull behind his ear. That means a righty.”

  “Holy shit. What the hell did we miss?” Emma asked. “How did we not know there were two killers?”

  No one had an answer for that.

  “Who’s the final person Dalton interviewed?”

  Chris flipped through the papers.

  “Donnie Hatfield. He was the president of the bank. Apparently, he has some notes scribbled in here.”

  “What does it say?” Emma asked.

  “It makes note of a will change.”

  That was perplexing.

  “He thinks Tony’s will was changed?” Emma asked. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that Dalton got a little too close to the trouble,” Greyson stated. “Where do we keep our will and official documents, Emma?”

  “In our deposit box.”

  “How often do we reread it?”

  “Never. Why would we? We divided the estate up between the family. That won’t change.”

  “Want to bet Dalton
suspected that Tony’s will was changed without him knowing?” he asked.

  Now that fit.

  “This points us at Gina Sorenson,” she stated, “but she has an alibi for the night of the murder.”

  Yeah, the bouncer.

  And they had two killers.

  It was looking like they didn’t get burgers. They got their killing on instead.

  Tony was taken out by someone he knew.

  “So the bouncer, Milo Clements, and Gina offed them both?” she asked.

  They looked over at Tessa.

  “I ran Milo. He’s clean. He’s worked for Tony for four years. His bank account is normal, and he’s not spending more than he makes.”

  “Gina had to have been behind this,” Emma stated.

  “She’s a leftie,” Greyson added. “I shook her hand before I left, and she offered me her left one.”

  The laptop beeped.

  “I found her name,” she stated.

  “What is it?” Emma asked.

  “Well,” she said, pulling it up on the computer. “Here’s her driver’s license photo from ten years ago. It was in an obscure police file about five hundred miles away. She has a slew of assault charges.”

  They read it.

  “Gina Marmont?” Emma stated. “Why the hell does that sound familiar?” she asked her team.

  Chris knew.

  He’d done the background search. “Tiffany Harding’s last name was Marmont before she got married.”

  “WHAT?” Dimitri stated, nearly spilling his coffee. “So she came to us to find the body? Is she freaking insane?”

  Tessa was running more information.

  Emma got it.

  “Think about it. What did she want? She wanted us to find her husband. She didn’t think we’d keep searching for his murderer. We gave her an alibi. She hired us. Who would kill their own husband and hire people?”

  “That’s ‘Strangers on a Train’,” Greyson stated.

  When they all stared at him, he elaborated since he was the oldest person there.

  “It’s an old movie. A man talks about the perfect crime. The people who know the victims switch it up. One kills the other’s partner, and they then make sure they are unrelated and have alibis. The police won’t suspect a perfect stranger killing someone for no reason.”

  “Damn it,” muttered Dimitri. “She’s working for me. I let her into ‘Aquarius’.”