Vegas is Dying (A Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 2)

by Morgan Kelley

  Emma began knocking on the door as hard as possible. Since she’d been here and done this visit once before, she knew what was coming.

  Before long, a half-naked man stumbled toward the sound and he looked like a party bus had run him over. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was a mess, and someone had written all over his body in marker. None of the things were complimentary as they pointed down with an arrow aimed at his boxers.

  “Hey, what do you need?” he mumbled.

  Emma pulled her badge and showed the young man, who stared at it blankly as if it wasn’t registering.

  “We’re being quiet now, so who called the cops?” he asked, watching the man beside the sexy woman as he also showed his ID.

  “I need you to round up every one in the house for a little impromptu meeting.” Emma hoped they’d get dressed first.

  He didn't like that idea. “We all just went to bed five hours ago. Last night was epic.”

  Briggs shook his head. The man had to be his age, maybe a year younger, and here he was wasting it. Since he knew what was coming, he felt sorry for them. Unfortunately, he was responsible for his own choices. He chose this road to travel.

  Thank God that he had given up one-night stands. Now, he had a woman to focus on, and he’d take that over this mess any day.

  Emma followed him in as he went from body to body, waking each and every one from their alcohol and likely drug induced slumber.

  There were the three guys she’d encountered the previous day with her husband and two new ones. When two women stumbled in wearing their bras and skirts, Emma shook her head. Yeah, this was going to be eye opening.

  “What do you want, Detective Hotness?” asked the one party-boy right before one of the women dropped into his lap.

  Emma kicked it off. “We’re here because of Liza Harper.”

  The one man spoke again. Apparently, he was the self-proclaimed king of the fools.

  “You said she was dead. We gave her room and shit away. I hope you weren’t wrong, because she’s going to be pissed.”

  Briggs shook his head. How he didn't get that a homicide detective wasn’t going to be there for anything but death and bad news amazed him.

  “Liza is dead, but we need to talk about something she left behind as her legacy,” Emma began. “Who here slept with her?” she asked, looking around.

  Four of the five men raised their hands. The only one who didn't was the one with the comments about his junk written across his body. That was ironic.

  Now, Emma focused on the women.

  “Who did you two sleep with?” she asked.

  The first woman pointed at two of the men, and the other the last three.

  Well, that ruined it for the walking billboard.

  “Who here used protection?”

  Now the loudmouthed one spoke. “What are you, our mother? You walk in here and ask about our sex life, who we sleep with, and now if we used condoms. You really don’t have any right to do any of that.”

  Emma crossed her arms across her chest. “Listen up, if you answer the question, you’ll see where I’m headed. In fact, if you didn't spend all last night on a bender, you’d really understand where I’m going with this. This isn’t exactly a conversation I wanted to have with a bunch of people I don’t even know, but here it is. Now, who here used protection when they slept with Liza?”

  One man raised his hand.

  Well, at least someone had a clue.

  “Every single time you were with her?” Emma queried.

  “No.”

  So much for that testament to his intelligence. “You all need to make a list of all your sexual partners after you had contact with Liza Harper.”

  “Why?” asked the yappy one.

  Emma stared him in the eyes and dropped the bomb. “She was infected with HIV.”

  No one uttered a single word, but a miraculous thing happened. That one sentence pulled them from their childish stupor. Each one of them didn't look foggy any more.

  “Shit,” one of them muttered.

  “Are you sure?” came the next question.

  The king of the room spoke. “She had HIV?”

  Emma nodded.

  The women began to cry at the news.

  “I suggest you all go to your family doctor and get tested for HIV as soon as possible. Since you four slept with Liza, you’ve been exposed. Then you,” she pointed at the one who didn't sleep with Liza, “You slept with these women?” Emma pointed at the two half-dressed co-eds in front of her.

  “Yeah, that one.”

  “Well congrats. You may have contracted it by proxy or a secondary source.”

  No one uttered a single word now that the ugly truth was out in the open. They all just stared at each other, like this was some cruel joke. It was like they were being pranked and at any moment they waited for someone to jump out and let them in on it.

  “We’re going to die?” he asked incredulously.

  Emma had news for him. “We’re all going to die. The only difference is that you possibly picked your way out of the world. Get to a doctor, tell all your sexual partners that you had contact with post Liza Harper, and let this be something that turns you around and gets your life straightened up. People now live longer lives with medication once diagnosed with HIV.”

  They still all looked shell shocked.

  The ‘bed babes’ got up and went to find their clothes as Emma suggested. They didn't look back. All the men sat there staring at her.

  “If it matters gentlemen,” she stated, putting her hand on Curtis’s arm to signal to him their departure. “I’m sorry.”

  With that, the two of them navigated their way through the mess and out the door into the sunlight.

  The trip back to the precinct was relatively quiet. How did you follow up the news they delivered with idle chitchat? Emma could honestly put that conversation up there with some of the worst of them in her life. She was pretty sure that she’d rather tell people they had lost a loved one than that ever again. It was brutal.

  “That just scared the bejezuz out of me, and I don’t have indiscriminate sex anymore,” Briggs finally admitted, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine.”

  Emma knew what he meant. When she was in her early twenties, in her mind, Emma believed that she was indestructible too. “Come on, Curtis, we have more work to do today,” she said, pulling into the parking lot and dropping off her work vehicle.

  “I’m going to finish running the doctor from this morning. I have a third of the searches done,” he said, following her into the precinct.

  In the squad room, she found the sexiest man alive sitting at her desk, his feet were up on the corner, and her flowers from Randall Mason were snapped in pieces and in her garbage. It was a testament of his mood, when he’d take his anger out on helpless foliage.

  “Rough trip?” he asked, eyeing his partner.

  Emma shrugged. “Yeah, not the most pleasant of situations, and they took it just about how I expected.” She sat on the corner of her desk and stared at her husband. Deep in his eyes, she could see a storm brewing. “How were your meetings?”

  “It’s the same as always. We’re fiscally in the black, so I have my job another month. I can’t hire anyone else. I’ve got new regulations coming in, and all the usual Federal crap that I have to deal with.”

  Yeah, he wasn’t happy. Emma could hear it in his voice.

  “Curtis, you should go run those searches. I’ve got some things to take care of with Grey,” she said, holding out her hand.

  He took it and stood beside her.

  “I’ll shoot over anything I get,” Briggs said, knowing that something big was coming if his boss appeared this edgy.

  Emma knew they needed a little time alone to talk. The general office details never fired her husband up this much, and before they went to the Crassmount to deal with Dyer, she needed her husband focused. Two sets of eyes there would be more advantageous.

  “Take a
walk with me?” she asked, knowing a place they could go to just talk.

  “Sure,” he answered, refusing to let go of her hand. Right now, everything was stirred up in him. He was scared to death of what was coming, and if it would cost him his wife.

  They walked out the back door and down the secluded alley to a small opening not far from the police station. There was a little park, no bigger than the size of an office building. It looked to have been a vacant lot that someone had decided to beautify and make into a piece of nature in the center of the city.

  “I didn't know this was here,” he said, looking around. It wasn’t big, but it was peaceful. Together they sat on a bench.

  “I found it one day accidentally. This is where I come to eat my lunch when I’m not out on the street,” she answered.

  He nodded.

  “Why don’t you dump some of what you’re carrying on me for a little while, Grey? I can tell the burden is getting too heavy for you. It’s written all over your face and in your eyes.”

  Croft stared at her, unsure what to say. What was eating at him had the potential to destroy them both.

  “I’m fine.”

  Emma crossed her arms. “You’re allowed to lie in the relationship but I’m not?” Yeah, it had to be pretty bad for him to hide the truth. “I don’t think that’s fair.”

  He knew she was right. Emma deserved to know what was coming.

  “The man who had the job before me, Edward Green,” he began telling the story. “He took a lot of kickbacks.”

  Emma took his hand in hers and ran her thumb over his knuckles. “Yes, I know. That’s why they hired you.”

  Croft nodded. “Before he went to jail, he told our boss, Ethan Blackhawk, that there was a source coming out of the city that was central to the payouts.”

  “Okay.”

  “But he wouldn’t say who, because he was worried about getting shanked in prison. So, when I was hired, my boss told me to keep my eyes open and if I was approached to bend the rules or do anything questionable to let him know. He didn't want me going down the same way the last director did.”

  “I’m with you.”

  He looked over at her. “Do you trust me?” he asked suddenly and out of the blue.

  “Grey! Of course I trust you. I married you and live with you. I know what kind of man you are,” she stated emphatically.

  Croft sighed. “I was approached and offered some ‘perks’, and it was suggested I take them.”

  “Perks?”

  He told Emma about the conversation he had with the commissioner. How the man suggested he start seeing other women, sleeping around and playing the game, in order to impress the men who ran in the circle. He relayed the conversations of the man trying to get him to play nice with Randall Mason, and his suspicions that the billionaire was the center of it all.

  This was quite possibly the most sickening conversation they’d ever had together. Her stomach rolled at what he was saying, and at what she believed he was going to do.

  “You’re going to let it suck you in, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice quivering. Somehow, she believed this would how she lost him.

  Croft nodded. “I’m going to watch and wait to see if Tom Booker tries to lure me in with big bait. If he does, I may look like I’m guilty of many things, Emma. I just don’t know how to explain to you what’s coming.”

  Emma wanted to weep.

  “You may hear that I’m sleeping around or taking money, and I need you to know, it’s not going to be true. I may take the money, but it’s getting handed right over to Ethan Blackhawk.”

  “The Feds are going to set up a sting and use you as bait,” she said with so much emotion in her voice. It scared her that he would be wearing a bull’s-eye on his back.

  “I need you to know, that I won’t betray you. No matter what you hear, what you think you see, I won’t be the real me, Emma.” Croft could see the pain in her eyes.

  She wasn’t sure what terrified her more, the fact her husband just told her that there would be rumors he was sleeping around or that the seedy underbelly of Vegas was going to be gunning for him.

  Emma stood and released his hand.

  He didn't blame her if she ran. Croft just told his wife he was going to tarnish his reputation on purpose and make her life a living hell. She had a high profile job too now thanks to him and the media. Greyson wasn’t the only one who would have to hold up under people’s speculative stares.

  Was she a dirty cop too?

  Emma would be judged on his actions, and it might get messy from here on out.

  He waited for her to leave him. It wouldn’t surprise him at all, and in his heart, he swore he’d make this up to her one day. He’d prove that she didn't waste her time on him. All he needed was to take down the ring and move on with his life.

  Before telling her, all of this sounded so easy as he worked it out in his head. In fact, he’d convinced himself that she’d be okay with it and laugh it off.

  The look on her face said otherwise.

  Emma didn't know exactly what to say. She didn't see this coming. “Are you going to sleep around, Grey, and then tell me it was all in line with bringing down Commissioner Booker?” She needed to know. Immediately, she watched his face for any indication that he was hiding something. If he lied, Emma would see it.

  “I will never cross that line by touching another woman for the rest of my life. I won’t do that for the job, Emma. I need you to believe me. I love you more than anything else in this entire world, and I’m so afraid I’m going to lose you.”

  It was a huge admission from her big strong husband.

  Emma believed every word he said. His eyes were filled with pain and hurt over what he was going to make his wife suffer through, and he hid none of it.

  “You’re my heart and I won’t offer it up, even for the FBI.”

  “Then, I guess we do this together. I’ve always wondered what it was like to be a dirty cop, so I guess we find out.”

  “Emma,” he objected. He couldn’t do it to her. He wouldn’t. Not his woman.

  She laid down the law. “We’re a team, Grey. I’m not sitting idly by as you are sucked down into the mire without a way out. We do it together or we walk away from Vegas right now.”

  He stared at her.

  “Do you trust me, Grey?” Emma handed him his own question back to him.

  “I do, with every fiber of my being, and like no one else in the entire world.”

  Emma went to him and sat in his lap. As she took his face in her palms, she stared into his eyes. “Then, we go in as a couple, and we make it out as one.”

  “It may ruin your reputation,” he warned, knowing the mud and muck would be flying. “People will talk about you and the media will crucify us.”

  “I don’t give a shit about my reputation, Greyson. Not when it comes to you. I’ll hand it all over, just to protect us.”

  He couldn’t believe his luck and fortune. What she was offering to do for him was more than any one man deserved. Emma was willing to be his partner in a journey he feared taking alone. She’d anchor him to her and keep them both in the clear.

  “I love you, Emma. I’ll never forget what you’ve just offered to do for me, for as long as I live.”

  Resting her forehead against his, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held onto her husband.

  No one was taking him from her.

  If it meant getting down and dirty, then screw it, she’d do it. Let them call her a crooked cop. Let them doubt her ability to do her job. Let them think she was lining her pockets.

  But no one, NO ONE was taking Greyson Croft from her without one hell of a fight.

  Even if it was a battle to the death.

  ~ Chapter Nineteen ~

  Tuesday Early Evening

  After their discussion in the park, they both decided to escape for the last couple of hours before it was time to head to the Crassmount to talk to Randall Mason.

 
; There was only one place which had the solitude they craved.

  Home.

  The entire trip home, their hands remained locked together. They were holding fast to the truth, that together they were an indestructible team. As far as they were concerned, Croft and Croft were solid.

  Once inside, Greyson Croft made love to his wife like a man on fire. Never before had it been quite that frenzied, and they’d had some pretty heated love making. This time was completely different and Emma was drowning in his need and want. She could only cling to him as she weathered the storm.

  It was full of passion.

  Heat.

  Love.

  And everything her husband was feeling for her. The emotion behind it pushed him on and overwhelmed Emma. There could be no doubt that her sweet man loved her more than anything in the world.

  As their bodies and hearts collided, she took in the words he whispered and locked them away for the next few months of what was coming. She’d pull them out and cherish them when she was cold and afraid or there was an inkling of fear.

  Forever, would she know that Greyson Croft was the only thing she needed in the world in order to survive. As long as she had him, it would all work out.

  Now, as he was standing in their kitchen in a pair of boxers and his wickedly handsome grin, he made her coffee. The storm had passed and Emma believed it would all be okay after all.

  Greyson was the luckiest man ever and he wasn’t even thinking about the sexual aspect of their relationship. After dragging her home and taking his wife like it was the last time he’d ever touch her, he came to one huge conclusion.

  Not only was she his lover, wife, and heart, but Emma was most definitely his best friend. That meant everything. He knew he could trust her with his pain and secrets, plus lean on her in the privacy of their condominium.

  He was blessed.

  Now, he was dosing her up with caffeine, because she definitely deserved some. Emma had let him lead the way when they’d returned, when he had needed just that. Part of the frenetic coupling had been because of their discussion in the park, the other half was due to the evening that had yet to come.

  As she crossed towards him, his heart thumped in his chest. Never would Greyson love anyone but her. She understood him and believed in him. Most importantly, Emma trusted him with everything that she had, and he’d never let that be destroyed.