Brynn began to understand. “We all have demons, Emma.”
“This is my big one and I want to win. I need to stand up to prove I can do this. Greyson isn’t forcing me. He’s holding me up. The man is my strength when I’m weak.”
Brynn understood that fear and weakness. “When I was a teenager, my dad was killed in a liquor store robbery. It was the family business, and I found him. Since that day, I can’t go buy wine without having nightmares for a week.”
She stared up at her partner, taking that leap of faith. “I want to make Greyson proud of me, and I keep feeling like a failure,” she admitted, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s a stupid piece of chicken. Why can’t I just eat it?”
Brynn hugged Emma, offering her reassurance. “You think that man isn’t proud of you? I see the way he watches you, and trust me--he’s more than proud. Your husband is crazy about you. He was going to kick in the door of the ladies’ room.”
Emma laughed, knowing he’d do it too.
“Don’t worry about pleasing him, because he is already very happy with his wife. Now you have to do it for you. You ate fish, so work on that. It’s a different texture. If all you can ever eat is that, go with it.”
Emma wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry you had to come in here and do this.”
Slipping her arm through her partner’s, she grinned at her in the mirror. They were exact opposites. Copper hair, green eyes and thin versus a brunette that was shorter and with blue eyes, but the similarity was there too. They were both women who loved justice and deep down were tough, despite the inner demons.
“Never say sorry. Just invite me over to swim in your pool and ogle your sexy husband in his swim trunks.”
Emma snorted. “Deal.” It wasn’t like Brynn wasn’t already.
“Come on. By now, that super sexy husband of yours is getting nervous. You’ll have to bail the Fed out of jail for peeping in a public restroom.”
It was hard to not visualize him breaking down the door. It was so very Croft-esque. Emma was shocked they managed to keep him out in the first place. Someone must have handcuffed the man to his chair. “Okay, let’s go.”
When the women returned to the table, the men had already paid the bill and were ready to leave. When Emma saw her husband, he looked worried and nervous. Her first instinct was to hold onto him, and she went with it. Moving into his arms, he held her to his frame as he whispered apologies in her ear. They were followed by promises to never do it again. Emma reassured him that she was fine, and didn't mind him pushing. She wanted him to, but not to be disappointed if she failed.
At the words, he pulled away and stared into her emerald green eyes. “Never,” he whispered, shocked that she’d even believe that possible. It was followed by a very husband-like kiss. When people began to stare at the two gun toting people locked together at the lips, Briggs cleared his throat.
Emma giggled and Greyson promised to continue it later.
“Are they always like this?” Brynn asked and she lowered her voice so only Curtis would hear her.
“Yep, except this is relatively tame. You should have seen them the first day they saw each other across the crime scene. You could have cued the music and ran it in slow motion.”
“Love at first sight?”
“Yeah, it was. When you watch them, it’s two souls coming together to be one.”
Brynn smiled. Her partner was pretty damn lucky.
Tuesday Late Afternoon
Back at the office, the four entered the building to stares and speculative glances from all their co-workers. By now the rumors of that morning’s events had circulated full circle. It was only a matter of time before the gossip took over and made its way around the squad.
Walking past their desks, Emma led them to a conference room that she’d staked a claim on for the duration of the case. It would allow them to spread out and get comfortable while working.
Briggs had gotten the fingerprint pulled and scanned it into his laptop. It was currently running in a program to find the identity of the building superintendent. Now, he was searching the records to find out if Sara Jensen had any family, or if like their second victim, she too was an orphan.
“It might be why the killer’s taking them. He might want women no one will miss,” he offered, talking out loud to his boss.
Croft mulled it over. “I don’t think so. This is Vegas. If you don’t want a body to be found, you drive it out to the desert and you dump it for the vultures. You don’t prop it up against a building or put it in a dumpster on top.”
Emma had to agree. “I’m getting a copy of that nine-one-one call. It was anonymous and that’s suspicious to me. If I found a body and didn't kill the person, I’d give my name.”
“Me too,” stated Brynn. “We can trace the location and ask around.”
Croft had a better idea. “We need to keep our focus on the two women. How about I send out some FBI techs to do the dirty work? I assure you, they can find a needle in a haystack.”
That idea worked for her, and it would keep them free to keep focused on the victims. Getting justice for them was their number one priority. “Great. Thanks, babe.”
“My pleasure,” he answered.
“I got something!” exclaimed Briggs as his tablet beeped repeatedly. “Actually, I have a couple things.”
Emma leaned against her husband and enjoyed the comfortable familiarity. “Okay, spill it.”
“We have the identification of the apartment super. His name is Judd Frazier, but you’ll love the second part of the ID. He’s been arrested before, a couple of times. The man has a list of priors.”
Croft leaned forward, recognizing the look on his partner’s face. “Make my night, and I’ll buy you and the detective dinner.” There was the set up for his evening alone with Emma. Even if the man came up empty, he was still keeping up the plan. Obviously, Emma knew what he was up to, because she was sliding her hand up and down his thigh, dangerously close to the part of his body now doing the majority of the thinking.
“There’s one arrest as a stalker and another for beating the hell out of his live in girlfriend.”
“Did he go to jail?” questioned Emma, purposely tormenting her husband. It looked like they’d have the house to themselves.
Briggs scanned. “Yes on the stalking, but no on the abuse against his live in partner. Apparently, she took off and disappeared.”
No one spoke.
“Yeah, never returned to Vegas again,” Curtis added, letting everyone make their own assumptions.
“We need a warrant,” Emma said, looking up at her husband. He was the king of procurement, and if anyone could get one, he could.
“I’ll work on it for you. It should come through by morning,” he answered.
“I have more information for you,” stated Briggs. “The IRS request just came back. Both women did claim employment. Sara Jensen worked for ‘Viva Cabaret’ and Valerie Weist was a dancer in ‘Evermore’.”
“Damn, they’re not in the same show?” Brynn was disappointed. It would have been easier if the women were from the same production. It would mean the pool of potential victims was much smaller.
“Let me keep searching for the company behind the shows. I’ll get something, but it’ll take a day or so. It’s a lot of red tape to cut through for the corporate information.”
She could wait. They were one step closer. Before she could ask another question, her phone began ringing. “Detective Croft,” she answered, placing it on speaker.
“Emma, do you have a moment? I have your DNA back from the lab. The FBI staff has worked miracles when it came to processing the information. Why don’t you come down and I’ll give you all I have?” Steele Bentley offered.
Briggs grinned at his partner. The look on his boss’s face was very familiar and unmistakable. Oh yeah, Croft’s jealousy was brewing.
“We’ll be right down, Doc. See you in a few,” she said, hanging up the phone.
&
nbsp; “He’s a little too friendly,” muttered Greyson as he stared into his wife’s eyes. When she smiled reassuringly, he relaxed. For now, the caveman was at bay. Time would tell if he remained there.
“Bentley is the weirdest ME ever,” stated Brynn. “I never know if he’s serious or kidding, and he has the sense of humor of a cardboard box.”
There was laughter from Emma. “He’s normal with me.”
Brynn snickered. “Yeah, I wonder why? He must have a thing for sassy redheads and not brunettes.”
Croft again was getting flustered. It obviously wasn’t his imagination. His wife was beautiful, and it was expected but it still threatened his sanity. “Let’s go.”
It was hard to not notice that Emma couldn’t escape from beneath her husband’s death grip. She was tucked so firmly under his shoulder that one would think she grew out of his side.
Now, it came down to fighting it or just letting her dominant, bossy man have this little concession. Emma made up her mind and gave in to him. As they walked through the bull pen, there were stares, but that couldn’t be helped. All Emma was focused on at that point was keeping her husband from killing the city ME.
If that was possible!
The morgue was exceptionally quite at night. It was close to dinner time and most of the staff was off eating or preparing for the switch in shift. Inside the doors, they found Doctor Bentley leaning over a desk and reading some printouts.
“That was fast,” he said, as he stood to greet them.
“We’re on our way out for the night, Doc, so give us something good to work with,” said Emma as she hooked her arm around her husband’s waist and offered him calming reassurance that there was nothing to be worried about.
“Do you want tox or DNA?” he inquired.
Brynn picked for them, “Tox us first, and then we’ll take the rest. Let’s end our night on a high note.”
The man flipped through the pages. “When it came to toxicology, our victim number two was clean of all drugs. She wasn’t on anything illegal, but I did find antidepressants in her system. That could be from her eating disorder.”
“We found her shrink’s appointment card on the refrigerator. We’ll drop in and visit the woman to see what was going on in Valerie’s life,” Emma replied. “It might give us some perspective.”
“I can say that our dead woman was killing herself fairly quickly. Already, her kidneys were forming crystals from the starvation as was her liver decreasing its function. What that tells me is she was in the beginning process of multisystem organ failure.”
“Timeline?” Croft inquired.
“She would have been dead in six months without some sort of medical intervention like dialysis or hospital inpatient stay,” Doctor Bentley said, flipping the paper. “Now, it’s time to go on to the big information from DNA swabbing. Both of our victims had sex with the same man. His sperm was present in both bodies, and the state of the little swimmers gives us a timeline. They were in the final stages before they died.”
“Meaning?” Briggs asked, hating when they discussed sperm. It was something people shouldn’t have conversations about- even the ME and law enforcement. It creeped him out.
“The victims had sex with the same man relatively close together. I’d say hours to a day apart. The male sperm can live in the female body up to five days. Our victims were dead a day or two before we found them, so I estimate that they were having intercourse roughly the day before they each were killed.”
“Good to know. Now we only need to find the main source of the sperm, and we might be one step closer,” Croft said, dropping a kiss to the top of Emma’s head. He couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever thought about kids. Maybe that was something he should know about the woman he had married. Eventually, they would have to discuss it.
“Get me the DNA profile. I’ll run it through the system against anyone we have samples from or cross type it with matches from other crime scenes,” offered Briggs.
“Absolutely, Agent,” he replied. “I’ll call you if anything else comes in or we find anything else about the killer from the trace evidence.”
Emma nodded. “Have a good night, Doc. See you tomorrow,” she said, walking out with her husband. Out in the foyer, they all paused.
“I guess I owe you dinner, Curtis,” said Croft, pulling out his wallet and handing the man his credit card. “I’m going to take Emma home.”
“Yeah, I’m tired,” she admitted.
Briggs grinned. “Am I still staying with you two?” he asked, enjoying the heated flush that was creeping up Emma’s neck. Tired his ass- there was no doubt what they had planned for the evening.
Repeatedly no less!
“Yeah, the desk will call us when you’re in the lobby,” his partner said, squeezing Emma’s hand.
“Can’t I just wander up?” asked Briggs, as he teased his boss.
Brynn laughed, knowing how hard that would be. “Are you kidding? They live in Fort Knox. Good luck sneaking in there.”
Briggs didn't get it.
“You can try, but I’d wear your Kevlar,” he said over his shoulder as they walked away. Right now, all that was on his mind was getting his wife home and spending the remainder of the evening making love to her.
All night long.
When they were out of earshot, Briggs looked over at his ‘date’ for dinner. “You’ve been to their place?”
She laughed before continuing, “Yeah, it’s amazing.”
He wasn’t sure if she was serious or not.
“It’s on the thirteenth floor, with a sky top pool, an armed guard and the most amazing view of the strip.”
“Really?”
“You’ve got to see it. It’s to die for. “
~ Chapter Five ~
The entire ride home, Croft was focused on what was beneath Emma’s clothing, and how long it’d take to get her out of them. At that moment, he wished they didn't have so much security in their parking garage. What he’d like to do is drag her in the back of the SUV and have some sweaty teenage sex with his woman.
“What are you thinking about, Grey?” she purred, running her hand up his chest as she leaned in to nip his ear.
The moan came easily, since it had been over a week since he’d found himself buried in his wife. “Sex,” he muttered, praying that she would behave.
“Me too,” Emma whispered, following it up with what she wanted to do with her very sexy husband as soon as they got home.
Her suggestion appealed to every fiber of his being.
Pulling into the garage, he stopped at the camera and tried to keep a straight face. As if on cue, his wife leaned over to unzip his pants and set him free just out of the view of security. It took everything in his power to not make any move indicative of what her hand was doing to his body.
Oh Hell! Where was the guard?
“Mr. Croft, welcome home from your business trip,” stated William, taking his time with the conversation. “We’re glad you’re back safe and sound.”
Emma loved tormenting her husband, and this had to be killing him. She stared right into the camera. “How’s your wife, William?”
Croft glanced over at her incredulously. Emma was playing with fire, and he’d get even if it was the last thing he did.
“She’s great, Mrs. Croft. She’s visiting her sister back east. I hope there’s no snow, and she makes it home for the holiday.”
Emma was stroking and teasing more, and she could feel her husband’s body vibrating with need and lust. He was so close to the edge, she couldn’t help but grin.
“Oh, she should be just fine, I’m sure.”
The flames were building deep within, and if his vixen wife thought he wouldn’t climb onto the seat, right then and there, she was wrong.
“I hope so, ma’am.”
“Me too,” Emma added, waving with her free hand as the buzzer sounded to let them in.
“You’re in trouble once we get inside,” Greyson mutte
red as he navigated the descent into their garage.
“Well then, if I’m already in trouble,” she replied, unbuckling her seatbelt and dropping her head into his lap to torture him further.
“Emma!” he exclaimed, as he couldn’t help but fall into the bliss of her hot mouth as she teased his body. “Christ, you’re out your mind! There are cameras everywhere!”
It was making her crazy at how he was reacting, while still trying to remain in control. The feel and taste of him was so enthralling, Emma believed she was spiraling deeper into the addiction. If this is what it felt like to be high on some illegal substance, then she understood why people did it.
Greyson Croft was her drug of choice.
“Oh, honey,” he moaned, pulling the SUV into their space as his wife frenetically worked him in and out of her mouth. Emma was showing no intent to stop. He was completely and totally at her mercy in that moment.
When she cupped him, he actually shook. Breaking away, she stared up at him. “I want you so bad,” she purred, unable to get enough of him.
Greyson began laughing. It wasn’t a funny laughter, but that of a man on the edge, teetering precariously and ready to fall into the insanity. “You can’t imagine what I want to do with you right now,” he whispered, as he kissed her deeply. As Emma’s hands ran down his body, and she stroked him again, he knew he needed to get them upstairs or this was going to end badly.
“Get out!” he demanded, after breaking the kiss.
She grinned wickedly. Her dominant man was using his ‘bossy in bed’ voice, and it made her crazy. There was nothing like dominant Greyson all stirred up.
Croft was out of the vehicle and zipping himself back up before she found her way to his side.
“I’m ready, Grey,” she whispered, her skin feeling all flushed and tingly. It had been too long without touching him, and now she was giddy and feeling tipsy on the endorphins.
He slammed the door and moved aggressively towards his woman. “You like to tease me and bait me, Emma?” he practically growled. “Then you have to deal with the aftermath.”
Vegas is Dying (A Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 2) Page 11
