Yeah, and she’d conned them into caring about her family.
Well, shit.
“This pisses me off,” Dimitri stated.
Emma added, “She told me a couple times she wished I’d stop investigating. She just wanted to let it go so they could heal.”
Shit!
Shit!
Shit!
“But why?” Natasha asked.
“She asked me if her husband was cheating. It came up a couple times. What if, while he was doing this investigating, she assumed he was cheating on her?”
“You know the saying about a woman scorned,” Tessa offered up. “We can be mean.”
Well, this was the epitome of mean.
“And Gina?” Natasha asked.
“She wants power,” Greyson stated.
Tessa got more beeping. “I have more to connect them. It’s not a coincidence. They are distant cousins twice removed.”
Greyson continued, “So she wanted Tony’s money, and she likely altered his will. That’s why Dalton tracked it to the bank and Donnie Hatfield. He likely wouldn’t let him in the vault, but with some money, he likely told him who was there.”
“They suck,” Natasha said. “Who in their right mind kills their husband?”
They all laughed.
“A lot of people,” Greyson added. “They had the perfect crime, until we investigated. Here, we thought that Dalton stuck his nose in something, and he did. He figured out that Gina wasn’t who she said she was, and Tony’s ex was killed—likely by her.”
They listened.
“Then Gina planted the idea in her distant cousin’s mind that her husband was a cheating bastard. Gina killed him, and they buried the body.”
Emma picked up. “Only, no one found the body, and they began to worry. They couldn’t continue on with their plan unless someone found Dalton. Tiffany wouldn’t get her payout on his life insurance money if he didn’t ‘turn up’.”
These people were insane.
Here was the proof.
“So, they planted him in Tony’s warehouse because they needed to hide the crime. Someone killed him to frame Tony.”
Emma laughed. “And we opted to continue investigating.”
“So, then who killed Tony?” asked Natasha.
“Gina had an airtight fast food alibi,” Dimitri stated. “Her bodyguard gave it to her.”
“That means that Tiffany was in the house waiting for Tony.”
“He has pretty good security,” Greyson offered.
Dimitri disagreed. “I checked out his security panel. It’s the kind you enter one code to shut off. There are no sensors in the house. She could have come in, turned it off, turned it back on, and Tony wouldn’t have suspected it. Let’s face it. The cops won’t investigate Tony’s death. They don’t care.”
Dimitri had a point.
“Gina also knew that Tony’s two bodyguards would be gone, since they flubbed the attack on Katerina. It was the perfect time to have it happen.”
“How do we prove this?” Emma stated.
“We don’t,” Greyson offered. “We call in Riley Henderson, give him all we have, and we let him handle it.”
“Think they’ll nail the women down?”
Greyson pulled out his cell. “Oh, if they go after Tiffany, and threaten her family and life insurance, I bet she takes one for her girls.”
Dimitri shook his head. “I feel used.”
They all did.
This was just more proof.
Vegas was a cesspool.
Greyson got the man on the phone. “Riley, we solved the case. We need you to do the dirty work,” he stated. “Give us an email account. You’re going to get a shitload of evidence from an anonymous source. It’s going to solve your case, and Heath Spencer’s. You take the credit.”
He listened to the man talk.
“It’s our pleasure. Good luck.”
He hung up.
“Well, the case is over.”
Really over this time.
Greyson didn’t like how they couldn’t see it come to fruition. It lacked something when you couldn’t bring in the bad guy.
Still…
This was how it was.
“Let’s enjoy our day. Dimitri, send Riley the fun stuff. Emma, how about a swim?” he asked. Greyson wanted to make love to his wife. It had become their tradition after closing one of the cases.
He wasn’t about to break it.
Hell-freaking-no.
“Works for me,” she stated, slapping him on the ass. “Someone has to burn off some bacon.”
He grinned wickedly.
“Well, in that case…”
He tossed her over his shoulder, and headed for their room. The family laughed.
“Does anyone feel a little let down?” Chris asked.
Dimitri laughed. “Like you didn’t get to go in, kick their asses, and toss them in jail?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Miss being a cop?” Dimitri asked. “You know we can’t always be the ones who kick in their door and take them down. Sometimes, we have to hand it over. We have to stay on the DL or we can’t do our job.”
He looked at the woman in his lap.
He’d miss it, but he’d found something more. She was far better than a badge.
He’d found love.
“To another closed case,” Chris Ford said, nuzzling Natasha’s cheek.
“Here. Here,” they all said.
Vegas was down two criminals.
The family had won.
Again.
Epilogue
Tuesday
Afternoon
G reyson enjoyed molesting his wife for a couple hours. They stayed in bed curled around each other for quite a while. Finally, they figured they should head down to lunch or someone was going to send in reinforcements.
It was funny as hell.
Retirement, and being your own boss, was a damn good thing.
As they headed down the stairs, the front gate alarm went off.
“It’s the detective,” Dimitri said, heading across the tile floor of the foyer to meet the man outside.
Greyson and Emma followed.
At the door, Riley stood there in street clothes, his face hidden by a hoodie. He’d played incognito to get past the media.
Still, it must be a good day for him.
“Hey, I closed the case,” he offered. “It’s all tied up in a pretty little justice colored ribbon.”
“How?” Greyson asked, inviting him in.
“Don’t worry, no one saw me head here,” he offered to a scowling Dimitri. It was clear the man didn’t like him. “I took a friend’s ride.”
They headed toward the family room.
“How did you do it?” Greyson asked again.
“I hit the wife hard. I told her that we were going to break her kids apart and put them in four different foster homes and she’d never see them again.”
Emma sighed.
Unfortunately, if they didn’t have family, that was likely what was going to happen anyway.
“We saved one and lost four,” she said.
Greyson got it.
They managed to get Sam out of the system, but now Dalton Harding’s kids went in.
It was a losing battle.
“I’ll set up some money for them,” Dimitri offered, feeling guilty. “I’ll pull some strings and see if I can find a couple who wouldn’t mind a couple of kids.”
“Do you really think we can find them a home?” Emma stated.
“We will.”
“I happen to know two really nice gay men who are looking for kids. They might be willing to take them in.”
Greyson stared at her. “Dante and Steele?”
She laughed. “No, remember Harrison Tyler? He was the man who sued Randall and lost, and we ended up getting his theater back to him. He and his husband were talking about adopting kids.”
He did recall them.
They wer
e the two gay men they’d once thought were killers. They were always at the functions and loved kids.
“They’d be perfect.”
“I can pull some strings,” Riley stated.
That worked for them.
“So, why did she do it?” Emma asked. They had their suspicions, but it would be nice to know the truth.
“She thought he was cheating on her. When I told Tiffany that he was following a lead for Tony, she broke down. She didn’t know that her distant cousin was plotting Tony’s death to get rich. She didn’t know that his ex, Erin Scott, was in Tony’s old will, and had to be killed.”
“Greed.”
“Yep. You know how it is. If it’s not because of sex, drugs, or money…”
Yeah, they got it.
“Thank you for your help. This is a big gold star on my record,” Riley stated.
“Was Heath pissed?” Emma asked.
“Oh, yeah. He was seething that I managed to get one over on him. He was convinced that you both had killed Tony. When I brought in the two women, he tore me apart in front of the bullpen. I won that one. He’s eating crow.”
Emma laughed. “Fuck him.”
“Emma Croft! Do you kiss your husband with that mouth?” Greyson asked.
She gave him a kiss. “All the time.”
The detective laughed. “The drugs are being moved in less than a week. Are you ready to catch a detective off guard?”
Greyson smiled.
“Yeah, I am. Would you like to stay for lunch?” he asked. “We’re having bacon.”
He covered Emma’s protesting mouth.
“I love bacon. I’m in.”
He tucked his wife beneath his shoulder, and they headed toward the kitchen.
Yeah, they might not have been able to bring in the bad guy, but they could do it vicariously through this man.
It looked like they had a new ally in Vegas.
And they would need it too.
A war was coming.
And Greyson Croft wasn’t going to lose.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
After the detective had left, Greyson knew he really needed to talk to Emma. So, he lured her up to their secret room, and instead of molesting her, he sat her down to talk.
“It’s important.”
She got worried, and fast. Her husband had a look on his face, and she didn’t like it.
“What’s wrong, Grey?”
“Paris came to me.”
“About?” she asked.
“They can’t get a baby from Paris’s sperm counts. They don’t have enough to fertilize the egg. They like to implant four or five eggs.”
“And?”
“They can’t even get one strong one.”
“Poor Tessa.”
“Yeah, well, Paris had an idea.”
“What?”
“He needs a donor. Me.”
Emma stared at him. “He wants you to give him sperm?” she asked, making sure she understood exactly where this conversation was heading.
“Then the child would be…”
“Yes. Technically, the child, or children, would be mine.”
“Greyson.”
“I know, Emma. I didn’t tell him yes. I told him I had to speak to you. I know how huge this is. I know what I’m being asked, and what I’m asking from you.”
She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel.
“I put him in that chair, Emma. I was in charge, and I killed this part of his life.”
“But that child would be my husband’s. I don’t know if I can swallow that.”
“He also doesn’t want to tell Tessa.”
“Oh, Greyson. This is a nightmare. If he lies, and she finds out about it…?”
“I know.”
“It will destroy our family, and his marriage. Tessa will ask us why we didn’t tell her. We’ll be just as guilty as he is.”
He was aware.
“Emma, what do I do?”
She closed her eyes.
Took a deep breath.
“What choice do I have, Greyson? What choice?”
He wasn’t sure.
This was huge.
Greyson had to think about this.
This little act was life altering.
It would change everything.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Monday
One Week
Later
He was ready to do the deed. Planting the drugs was going to be so damn easy. He’d sprinkle them around the perimeter, and when a drug dog picked up on it, they’d have access to Croft’s warehouse.
It was perfect.
Picking the lock, he got inside. When he hit the lights, to flood the place so he could see, something was off.
There was a folded note on the ground, and nothing else. The place had been emptied.
As he approached it, his gut was screaming, but curiosity was getting the best of him.
Picking up the note, he read it.
‘You’ve just broken into our property. The police are coming, and you’re being filmed. Kiss your job goodbye. Those drugs in your pocket are going to get you tossed in jail.
GC.’
“Son of a bitch,” he said, as the sirens were screaming outside the building. He raced to the door, and it was locked. All the windows were bared, and here he was with a kilo of cocaine in his jacket.
He was screwed.
He was going down.
“Damn you, Greyson Croft!” he shouted, glaring at the camera. Someone had betrayed him.
Then there was laughter over the security camera microphone.
“CHECKMATE.”
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Philadelphia
Curtis had something to handle for Greyson. While they knew a little about Thomas Christ, there was an informant that they’d found who knew even more.
So, Curtis was hunting him down.
He’d been a cop in the city, and he knew Emma and Thomas Christ.
Curtis didn’t like doing this behind Emma’s back, but Greyson liked to make sure all of his bases were covered.
This was one of them.
When he tracked the man down, handing him the fat envelope of money, he was back in the car with his wife.
“That was fast,” Kat said. “Did we get it?”
He had the file.
“Do we look?” he asked.
“I think so. How will you know if you got the stuff?” Katerina said.
She had a point.
Opening the folder, Curtis scanned the contents. It was petty ante stuff by Thomas Christ, but one thing stood out.
It made him sick.
“Holy shit,” Curtis muttered.
“What?” Kat said.
“Thomas Christ was implicated in a set up murder years ago. They couldn’t prove it. His hired killer was taken out.”
That was curious.
“Who was set up to be killed?” Kat asked.
“Gage Starling. It looks like Thomas Christ was involved in Emma’s brother’s murder. The junkie wasn’t a junkie. Gage was set up.”
Kat stared at him.
“Oh, babe, this is bad.”
Curtis knew.
Hell was about to open in Vegas, and lots of people were going to turn up dead.
Greyson Croft was going to go on a murdering spree.
For Emma.
For a cop taken down.
And for vengeance.
The war was officially started.
No one was safe.
Coming Next:
Kiss of Souls
Book seven in the Littlemoon Investigations
April 2017
Other books by Morgan Kelley:
Standalone books
The Junction
Serial Sins
The Blood Betrayal
Romance/FBI Thriller Series
Elizabeth, Ethan, and Callen
The Killing Times (book
1)
Sacred Burial Grounds (book 2)
True Love Lost (book 3)
Deep Dark Mire (book 4)
Fire Burns Hot (book 5)
Darkness of Truth (book 6)
Devil Hath Come (book 7)
Consumed by Wrath (book 8)
Redemption is Here (book 9)
Dead Shall Speak (book 10)
Pledging to Die (book 11)
Slay Bells Ring (book 12)
Past will Haunt (13)
Choices will Destroy (14)
Blood shall Run (15)
Act of Blood (16)
Stalked by the Past (17)
Dying to Love (18)
Kiss of Souls (18.5) a Littlemoon/FBI crossover.
Revenge has Come (19) June 2017
Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Series
Greyson and Emma Croft
Celestia is Falling (book 1)
Vegas is Dying (book 2)
Christmas is Killing (book 3)
Love is Bleeding (book 4)
Heaven is Weeping (book 5)
Hell is Burning (book 6)
Justice is Dying (book 7)
The Croft Mob Series
Greyson and Emma Croft spinoff series
Dark Justice (1)
Lost Justice (2)
Paid Justice (3) August 2017
The Littlemoon Investigations Series
Julian and Tori Littlemoon
Blood Red Rage (book 1)
Lost & Broken (book 2)
Unthinkable Games (book 3)
Truth is Found (book 4)
Haven of Nightmares (book 5)
Forbidden Secrets (book 6)
Kiss of Souls (book 7) April 2017
The Hunter Trilogy
Dakota Rakin
Lost Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 2) Page 46
