Dark Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 1) (18 page)

They’d destroy them later.

There was no way they were seeing the light of day from here on out.

The family protected its own.

“Can I go back?” Dante asked.

He hesitated.

“Please? I love him. He suffered so much. He can’t wake up here alone. You know what they did to him. By now you’ve read his medical file. He needs me by his side.”

The man agreed, giving in. He had read his file.  “Let’s go.”

Dante left, following the doctor.

When he was gone, Emma took a seat. “We’ll wait a while, until he wakes up. I want him to know he has family still. You can’t be booted off the island just because you’re angry.”

“Emma.”

She put up her hand, knowing who he was thinking about. They both were.

“Please, Grey. I can’t. He’s a completely different story. Steele left because he’d been broken. Chris left because he’s a dick.”

He tucked her beneath his arm. He completely understood. “Okay, honey. Let’s wait.”

Together.

 
         
* * *
  G r e y s o n   C r o f t   * * *

Chris Ford’s

Luxury Condo

Friday Night

When he got home, he wanted a few beers, a steak, and to forget the day. Today had been the worst day of his life. He’d had to do something so distasteful, that he’d never forgive himself. Every time he thought about her, he could see her face.

There was betrayal in it as he was forced to break her heart. In time, he hoped Emma would forgive him.

He prayed she’d find it in the goodness of her heart. He knew he didn’t deserve it, after all, when she kicked him out of her home not that long ago, it stung.

No, it made him hurt like nothing else ever had in his life.

The fact that he’d done it to her…

Intentionally…

He was a douchebag.

When he put the key in the lock and pushed open the door, he saw a strange box.

The cop in him wanted to call for backup, but he suspected who it was from. He could see his things in there, and this was proof that today had cost him everything. Emma really believed he was turning on them.

A part of him knew that was necessary, but it still made him sick. So much for his acting. Apparently, he was up for the Academy Award.

Carrying the cardboard box into the kitchen, he placed it on the granite island. Slowly, he emptied it of its contents.

Gently, he pulled his dress blues, crisply pressed, from the box. Chris placed them on the counter.

A few of his t-shirts, that he’d left there after rehab, were next to join them.

Reaching in, his hand came in to contact with a picture. He pulled it out, and it was a sucker punch to the solar plexus.

It brought tears to his eyes.

It was of him and Emma. On his chest was a scar from where he’d been shot. Beside him was the woman who saved his life.

He wiped his eyes.

This sucked.

Chris reverently placed it on the counter. If she never forgave him, he’d always cherish that photo and the memories. It had been his last happy day. After that, he’d left their home.

Today, he left their hearts.

It was done.

Reaching in again, he found an envelope. He could only imagine the death threat inside. It was in Greyson’s precise handwriting, and he figured he was a goner.

Pulling out the letter, he opened it.

‘Chris,

Here are the last of your things. I brought them over and left them inside your door. I didn’t feel right about leaving it on your doorstep with your key.

I wish things were different. We loved you so much and considered you one of us. You weren’t just a friend. You were a Croft to the core. Anyone of us would have died for you because we thought it was mutual.

Family before everyone else.

That’s our code.

We thought it was yours too.

It’s okay that it’s not. We all have choices to make. This was yours. I’ll even forgive you one day for hurting Emma. When her heart heals, and she forgets about the man she called brother, I’ll forget that you wounded her. There will be no retribution. Honestly, I believe you’ll suffer enough without her in your life.

You threw away something you don’t always find. For that, I’m sorry.

I wish you luck. Keep the things. We don’t want or need them. If you ever need help, contact me—not my wife. Out of respect for her, and what she’s mourning, don’t bother her. To her, she lost her brother today, and she needs time.

I’m sorry we weren’t enough as a family, and I’m sorry for whatever made you decide against us, even when you know we’re trying to save this shithole town.

I forgive you.

I hope when you look back, you can forgive yourself. I know what you let them do to her today, and that shows you weren’t the man we loved.

Goodbye, Captain Ford.

Good luck.

G.C’

It made him sick.

He knew he needed to stop this before he really lost everything in life. At the office, he’d gotten what he had to get. The commissioner gave him plenty.

At first, he believed he could play both sides, remaining in his job as a spy for them.

It wouldn’t work.

It was Emma or being a cop.

It was an easy choice.

It was time to get out.

Chris pulled off his dress blue jacket, folded it carefully and then ran his fingers over the medals.

Twenty years.

It was ironic since he was so close to retirement. There were only three months left until he could get his pension and get the hell out of the job.

Only, he couldn’t wait.

In three months, he’d have lost the people he loved. So, it was time to make the sacrifice.

Carefully, he unloaded his service revolver, placing it on his medal-filled jacket.

Next came his badge.

It was hard to let that one go.

He gently ran his finger over the gold shield. At one time, it had been silver, and he’d worked the Vegas streets. It had been hard.

It had sucked.

Then he passed his detective exam. That day had been one of the best in his life. He’d been on a high.

The first day he walked into the homicide division, he’d been on the top of the world.

He’d loved it.

Then when they offered him captaincy, it was the icing on his cupcake. It was a career that could make him forget his divorce, Denise, and the shitty life he was running from each and every day.

Now he’d realized he was losing something that mattered more than the job ever did.

It hung in the balance.

Tomorrow, he was turning in his badge and walking away from the last twenty years of his life.

Emma mattered.

Greyson mattered.

Natasha…she was there. He had to take his chance now before it all passed him by.

Tomorrow, after he turned it all in, he was going to have one hell of a job trying to prove to them that he wasn’t the man they judged him to be.

He didn’t betray them.

He couldn’t.

It was time to come clean.

For him.

For Emma.

For the family.

 
         
* * *
  G r e y s o n   C r o f t   * * *

Terrace Glen

They’d set up their love nest. All their clothes were tucked away in the same closet, and he couldn’t be happier.

He was with Kat.

They were going to share a place together. Yes, he wanted to move slowly, but he’d realized something.

When it was right, it was right.

Look at Emma and Greyson or Tessa and Paris. He had to hope that one day, she’d marry him, and he’d have that family. He wanted to give his child a last name that he or she would be proud of for the rest of their life.

It mattered.

He wasn’t a Briggs anymore. He wasn’t that abandoned kid who wasn’t wanted by his mother or father. He had two parents who loved him.

They loved him enough to adopt him as an adult. That was the ultimate act of love, and he was beyond blessed.

Now he was the luckiest man in the world.

He’d found both kinds of love—that of family and that of a really good woman.

Speaking of which…

Kat was lounging on the couch, her eyes closed. He loved watching her.

She was dressed like a cat burglar, and it was the sexiest thing ever. It amazed him that she loved him like she did. It scared the hell out of him that he was going to be a parent.

Still, he’d make it work.

He always did.

When he turned around to put a few of his priceless comic books that Emma and Greyson had gotten him as a gift on the shelf, he heard her move.

Turning, he was caught off guard as she leapt at him, wrapping her legs around his hips.

His Anfisa was like a wild storm.

She blew through him, stealing his breath. As her mouth found his, devouring him with all she had, he thanked God he’d found a woman who chased him.

She wanted him for him.

That was a huge gift.

“Kat,” he muttered.

She didn’t stop kissing him. “Let’s christen our new home.”

Yeah, he could do that.

When he carried her to their bedroom, she was pulling off his shirt, her hands were all over him, and he could barely breathe.

Shit!

This was what he loved too.

Kat was on fire.

He wanted to go up in a blaze with her. Later, he’d take his time, but now…he wanted her like nothing else in his life.

She was his air.

Heart.

Soul.

She devoured, only breaking the kiss to get his shirt off. When she stared at him breathlessly, she wanted to beg him to marry her.

He was her other half.

She saw that now. This was a good man who would love her until the end of their time.

He tugged off her shirt, but before he could find her mouth with his, she found his neck and bit him.

Curtis moaned. “Katerina.”

She didn’t stop there. Using her body as weight, she got him to tumble to the bed. She was on top, and she never wanted anything more than to taste him.

“You were brave today. That was sexy,” she said, kissing down his torso.

He couldn’t breathe, let alone think.

When she had his pants open, his erection out, and her mouth on him, he groaned in absolute pleasure.

“Work me hard,” he begged.

Kat gave him what he craved.

He stared down his body as his girlfriend gave him one hell of a blowjob. If it wasn’t for his youth, being accustomed to her wicked mouth, and the sheets clenched in his fists, he would have cum.

Kat didn’t let up.

He popped free of her mouth. “I love tasting you.”

Then she went back to destroying his control. While she’d been forced to service her father’s fellow soldiers for so many years, this was nothing like that.

This was healing.

With each touch to Curtis’s body, a part of that festering wound to her soul was healed and sealed.

He was fixing her.

“Jesus, Kat! You’re killing me,” he muttered when she sucked the tip of his dick so hard he nearly came up off the bed.

He loved every second of it.

“More. Give me all.”

She gave him all she had. This was another reason they needed their own space. Sex wasn’t quiet. It was the total opposite. Sex with Curtis was exuberant.

She wanted to rock his world and make him shout her name over and over again.