Dark Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 1) (32 page)

But Jesus!

She was glad to be home.

“Greyson, this is what they want. We don’t know that camera was off in their vehicle. What if this was a way for them to push you over the edge?”

He stopped moving.

“Shit, Emma. I hate when you’re logical.”

She reached into her vehicle and pulled out a muffin. “Hungry, babe?”

He stared at her. “Really? Do you think that’s going to calm me down?”

She pulled it out of the bag. “It’s still warm.”

Dimitri started laughing.

Greyson sighed. “Fine. I’ll calm down, and because this boosted my heart rate, I burned off the breakfast. I’m eating that damn muffin, with butter, and enjoying it.”

“Where’s Chris?” Dimitri asked.

Emma told him.

“It’s better we don’t leave the house empty anyway. Who knows what will happen now? That was pretty ballsy.”

“Well, for one of them. The other cop isn’t having kids. I handled that for him.”

Greyson wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

“You go nowhere without one of us!” he ordered, pointing at Dimitri. “Got it?”

“I was with Chris. I was safe.”

Greyson stared at her. “He’s in bad shape. They took him down. No offense, but he’s been riding the desk too long.”

She stared at him. “He just had his chest open to fix his heart, he got the crap kicked out of him yesterday by Dimitri, and no, he’s not at his best, but he got hurt trying to get to me. That should say it all.”

He saw how angry she was over the whole thing.

Greyson couldn’t forget that while he’d had to watch it, his wife had to live it.

It cooled his fires.

For her, he’d take it down a notch.

“It’s okay, kitten. You’re safe.”

Emma went into his body. Greyson sent Curtis and Tessa inside. The storm was over.

Well, now a new one would begin.

“They touched my family,” she said. “They came at us in the daylight. How do we protect them?” she asked. “Who’s next? Paris in his chair? Tessa as she’s trying to protect him? Kat as she’s pregnant?”

Even Dimitri flinched.

“Emma, we knew this was going to happen. That’s why I offered to leave Las Vegas. We’re the bad guys now. We can stay and fight, or we can send the family away and run. We only have two choices.”

She wiped at her eyes.

The adrenaline crash was over.

It was cry or punch her vehicle, and it had suffered enough already. Instead, she went with the responsible answer.

“Well?” he asked.

Emma thought about Seth Bell.

He was scheduled to die. If they didn’t stay and fight for the people like that, who would?

“We stay.”

“Emma, I’m not going to lie to you. We’re going to get retribution for this. They came at us, and we’re going to make those two pay.”

She wasn’t shocked.

Well, if you were going to be Las Vegas mob, why not fill the role.

“I hate that it’s come to this.”

He did too.

In all his life, he never thought it would be like this. He was always the law. Now he was the law, but on the dark side.

Jesus.

“Don’t kill them.”

Dimitri made sure the video wasn’t recording before he added his opinion. “How about we just leave a little message for the commissioner?”

Emma couldn’t believe she was going to say this.

“Do it.”

They both stared at her.

“What? You were right. We made the choice to stay, and I have to let go the fact that I used to be a cop. They want to kill us. I’m done with playing around.”

They still didn’t believe she’d said it.

Who was this redhead?

“What’s your plan?”

He told her.

She wished she never asked. Instead of saying a word, Emma grabbed Greyson’s muffin and headed into the house.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

She took a big bite. “I need it more than you do. Take care of it, Dimitri. I’ll have your back.”

With that the door closed.

“Can I have my fifty back? Technically, it’s her muffin since she’s eating it.”

Greyson stared at him.

“Really? Can’t you see I’m a man in mourning?”

He snorted. “Let’s go plan.”

It was going to be swift.

They had a message to get out there. If you screwed with the Croft Family, you were going to get hurt.

Maybe even dead.

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

Chris Ford’s

Room

After Steele had given him a good once over, Chris Ford sat on the side of his bed. His head felt like scrambled eggs, and his body sang a similar tune. He was getting too old for shit like this. The human body wasn’t meant to be beat to hell and back on a regular basis.

This sucked.

When he was younger, he could handle this kind of shit. Now…not so much. On top of the humiliation of getting his ass handed to him by some punk rookie street cop, Emma had taken down her assailant without a scratch.

What a difference a little less than a decade made when it came to being on or off your game.

Chris definitely felt way off his.

At the knock on the door, he didn’t have the strength to say a damn word. If he did, it would sound like a gunshot in the silence of the room.

Hopefully, whoever was there would go away or just come in.

When Natasha peeked her head in, he tried to focus on her face. He waved her into the room, and then pointed to his head, hoping she’d get it.

Nat simply nodded and was worried. He didn’t look any better than he had when they’d gotten him back to Terrace Glen. By now he should be up and about.

The poor man was suffering.

Picking up his hand, she dumped a couple pain pills into it. “These will help,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

He took the bottle of water and swallowed them. When he moved, he groaned in pain.

“Be right back,” she whispered.

Going out in the hall, she came back a minute later with a bag of Epsom salt. They swore by it. After the scrapes they’d gotten into, she knew how he felt.

A body needed to heal, and Chris was no different. Right now, he needed to feel a little comfort and TLC.

She was going to give it to him.

As Natasha moved through his room, Chris tracked her with his eyes.

She moved so quietly, that had he closed his eyes, he’d never even hear her. She was like some sexy apparition.

Natasha could haunt his house any day.

It wasn’t easy to stay focused, but he couldn’t help but be awestruck that she was even in the room with him. She was so beautiful, and Chris couldn’t figure her out.

She was one hell of a mystery to him.

The mystery was what did she see in him?

They had to look odd standing beside each other with his big bulky frame dwarfing her tall lithe one. She had that long red ponytail hanging down her back, and her aqua cat eyes made her look exotic.

And the accent?

It turned him on.

Chris could hear the water running in his bathroom. He could hear her dumping a shitload of salt into it too.

It appeared he was taking a bath.

His day was getting weirder and weirder. In three days, he’d been told to betray his family, handed over his badge, become a target, got the shit kicked out of him not once, but twice, and now he was going to take a bath.

A bath?

Really?

He was more a shower kind of guy.

When Natasha came out, she held out her hand. Of course, he didn’t hesitate to take it.

He had a concussion.

Chris wasn’t stupid.

When a beautiful woman was focused on you, and she wanted you to do something…you did it.

When she led him into the bathroom, he found himself standing in the middle of the ridiculously large space. As she moved around him, he was extremely aware of her presence. How could he not be?

She smelled like lilacs.

When she approached him, he couldn’t even move. When her hands found the hem of his shirt, and she carefully pulled it over his head, he stared at her.

He was confused.

Did she plan on undressing him?

Granted, it had been a while, but this couldn’t be going the way he thought it was going—a sexy woman, a naked man, and both in a bathroom with a large tub?

As a male, it all had one outcome.

Yeah, that couldn’t be right.

His brain was definitely scrambled.

When she tossed his shirt into the laundry hamper, Natasha came up behind him. Reaching around his body, her hand found his button at the top of his jeans.

His heart skipped.

Not once.

Not twice.

But three times.

Shit.

She was going to…

Natasha lowered the zipper.

His heart was now erratically pounding in his chest, which did nothing for his headache. All the blood rushed lower in his body, and the last thing he needed was for her to…

She tugged his jeans down, remaining behind him the entire time.

Chris didn’t know what to think.

Yeah, he did.

Only that couldn’t be possible.

She tugged on the denim, and waited for him to step out of the jeans. As soon as he did, she tossed them toward the hamper too.

All that was left was his boxers and his socks.

Chris began praying.

Natasha stayed behind Chris and helped him by tugging his socks down. She noticed that he had to balance himself on the edge of the tub as she helped him.

The poor man was battered and abused, and Natasha wanted to make him better.

When he was sockless, she helped him back upright. Then she did something he didn’t expect.

Natasha hugged him from behind. She pressed her body, and her cheek to his flesh.

“I’m sorry you got hurt, Captain,” she whispered. “We’ll fix you right up. You’ll be better in no time.”

Then she left a gentle kiss on his shoulder.

He felt it.

There was no way that could have been a mistake. A woman didn’t just kiss you like that accidentally.

Right?

He’d missed the touch of a woman. Her warm breath on his skin was amazing. He wanted to sing a chorus of hallelujahs.

Then he realized what was next.

Yeah, he was in no shape for her to be checking out the goods. It wouldn’t be a good indication of what he was capable of when naked with a woman.

He was too battered to do anything but sleep.

Still…

Natasha touching him might be what cured all the pain. Already, he was feeling a little better.

When he thought she was going for his boxers next, she didn’t. Instead, she stopped touching him.

He watched in curiosity.

Natasha moved back toward the tub. With the utmost care, she rolled up towel on the one end, obviously for his head, and then dumped some bubbles into the tub.

Immediately, they frothed in the swirling water.

He lifted a brow.

Did he look like the kind of man who took bubble baths? Was this what his life had come to?

She noticed the look on his face.

Natasha couldn’t help but smile. One of the sexiest things about Christopher Ford was that he was a man’s man. The look said it all.

She wanted to giggle.

Instead, she explained, again keeping her voice very low so as not to cause him anymore pain.

“It’s so you’re covered in the water. I didn’t think you’d want me to see all of you.”

That was very sweet of her.

Chris relaxed when he heard that. “Thank you, Natasha,” he whispered back.

She moved toward him once the tub was filled with water. Behind him once more, she touched his boxers at the legs.

Chris inhaled.

She tugged.

They were to the floor.

He was buck-ass naked in the bathroom with a gorgeous woman. This was his nightmare and biggest fantasy all rolled into one. Well, at least she was behind him and only saw his ass.