Dark Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 1) (51 page)

“I’m not talking to you. You’ve tried to entrap me.”

Greyson pulled out the little box.

“Recognize this?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s that jammer your brother used in his office. The one he used to nearly damage my career.”

He laughed. “Well, today’s your lucky day. Neither one of us are going on the record with this. I’m not wired, but this will prove it.”

Commissioner Raye looked nervous.

“Still don’t believe me? Well, I’ll do all the talking. You can just listen.”

Oh, he wasn’t saying jack shit.

That was for damn sure.

“Let’s have a seat.”

Greyson wasn’t giving him a chance to escape. Instead, he grabbed a bench, facing in the direction Greyson had planned.

So far, so good.

“What do you want to talk about? Where’s that killer of yours? You don’t go anywhere without him.”

He laughed. “He’s plotting your murder, so…not sure,” Greyson offered.

That freaked the man out.

It also proved that he wasn’t wired.

Greyson only hoped that little box worked.

“For what?”

“You’re encroaching on my town. I earned this city, and I’m going to run it. You see, I know how crooked your office is, and I know it goes deeper than that. I know there are judges, there are cops, there are so many people who are breaking the law, and I’m going to find them.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, you do, but that’s neither here nor there. Back off, Jeffrey. I played nice as FBI Director, but as head of the family, I’m not going to bend.”

“You’re a criminal.”

He laughed, patting him on the back.

He hoped it looked good.

“Who better to run a city full of criminals? I’m the new mob, Jeffrey. I’m here to stay. I can out buy anyone here, and I have the muscle to take down the opposition. In case you’re wondering, that’s you. See, all the other assholes in this city know not to mess with me. You haven’t learned your lesson quite yet. Why do you think the rest of the criminals backed off? They watched what happened with Marianna. They watched it all go down. They know that I don’t fuck around.”

He sipped his coffee, trying to look like he was telling the man all the secrets in the world.

“I’m going to end you, Croft. You’ll see. You’re not unstoppable.”

He laughed. “Don’t bet on it. In fact, I’m going to prove to you how dangerous I really am. You’re only as smart as your opponent, Jeffrey.”

The man stared at him.

“What are you talking about?”

He pulled the envelope from his pocket.

“This is for you.”

The commissioner took it. “You can’t bribe me,” he stated. He didn’t get why Greyson Croft was laughing.

“You think I’d bribe you? That’s just a note. It begins now, Commissioner Raye.”

He was confused.

Greyson offered him his hand, shook it, and then stood. “Have a great day. As of right now, it begins. That’s your only warning. See you on the battlefield. I suggest you wear your best armor. I fight dirty.”

As he crossed the quad, he could hear Dimitri in his ear. “He’s opening it.”

Perfect.

He knew he would.

Cops were a curious bunch. He knew, because he was cut from the same cloth. He would have opened it too.

It started…

Now.

Commissioner Jeffrey Raye opened the envelope and looked inside. On the paper were four words, and a five dollar bill.

               
 
‘Thanks for the coffee.’

The man was fucking insane.

“What are you up to, Croft?” he muttered, shoving the envelope into his pocket before he headed back toward the building.

He didn’t want to be seen with the man.

It would ruin his street credibility. Croft was the bad guy, and he was going to run Vegas like it should be.

His way.

Greyson hopped into the back of the vehicle.

“Did we get it?” he asked.

The man sitting beside Dimitri grinned. “I got a few great pictures of you and the man talking, you handing him a bribe in an envelope, you shaking his hand, and him keeping it.”

Dimitri laughed.

He couldn’t believe this worked. Greyson Croft was a mad genius. So simple, so wrong, and it worked.

“When this hits the papers, people are going to think the worst,” Dimitri admitted.

Greyson smiled. “Yeah, I know. Thank you, Kent. I owe you one.”

The reporter packed up his equipment. “You just keep your word about not closing our paper down, and we’ll call it even. Oh, and if you need more stories run, I’m your man.”

“My word is golden. My family thanks you.”

Kent Lachner hustled off and Greyson climbed into the front seat.

“Let’s head to the club and meet up with Emma. She should be done with Bryan Calhoun by now.”

Before he could start the vehicle, a call came in from Kat. Dimitri hit the navigational system, and put it on speaker.

“Yes, Katerina?”

“The team broke it wide open. We wanted to let you know so you could pass it onto Greyson. We texted Emma, but she hasn’t replied.”

“Did you contact Nat?”

“No, we figured she was following her and we’d let her know when she checks in.”

“Wait, you broke it open?” Greyson asked. “What did you find?”

Kat told him everything, starting with the ketamine, tealeaves, and the vet connection. Then she lowered her voice to tell them about the sodomy.

Greyson weighted it all in his mind.

“He’s sick.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“We’ll tell Emma. Get all the proof locked down, and we’re going to be passing it off to Miranda Bell, and also to my favorite new reporter. He’ll make sure the whole city has the truth, and then they can’t execute Seth.”

This was what they had been waiting for. It looked like they’d solved it.

Perfect.

Greyson pulled out his phone and turned the volume back on. He noticed that Emma had messaged him. Opening the message, he began reading as Dimitri drove them toward
‘Aquarius’
to meet her.

What he saw nearly made him throw up.

‘Greyson, Adam Price called. He has something I need to see asap. I’m heading there. He promises it’ll clear everything up. I’ll see you after. I love you. Be safe.’

“Dimitri, we have a problem.”

“What?” he asked.

“Adam Price knows we’re on to him, and he’s trying to tie up the loose ends.”

“What?”

He read him the message.

The man floored it.

“He’s got Emma.”

Greyson was going to lose his mind. When he got to her, he was chaining his wife to his side. She was going to be the death of him.

Without a doubt.

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

Emma couldn’t move.

Her body felt like it was weighted down by lead. Her head spun, her vision was skewed, and she wanted to be sick.

The worst part was that Adam Price was telling her all about it.

He’d killed so many women that he’d lost count. He was bragging, and the horror stories were bone chilling.

Then he broke out the book.

It was a written record of most of his kills. In it, there were pictures of the women as he sodomized them with a bat.

The same bat lying beside her.

She wanted to freak out.

“I liked my last mother,” he stated. “She wasn’t too bad. She’d feed me, and she’d get me clothes, but she also touched me. She wasn’t the only one. Do you realize that a lot of them do that? They don’t get caught either.”

Emma’s head was spinning.

“I didn’t like it, Emma. See, I knew I was gay. She wanted to fix me. I’m not broken. I’m perfect the way I am. She was nothing more than a whore trying to use her body to make me something I’m not. She wasn’t the only one. My mother left me, and because of that, I had to deal with countless women abusing me. They all deserved to die.”

Emma couldn’t speak.

When he began unbuttoning her shirt, she wanted to weep. She needed Greyson, and she needed him fast. This was going to put the man over the edge.

Adam Price was going to die.

“I didn’t want to frame Seth. He was a good man. He liked me for me, but he’d come home and tell me about those women, and I had to do something about it. I had to kill them. They were disgusting. He wasn’t locking them up. Did you know he let them go? He’d given up. Well, I hadn’t. I can’t give up.”

Emma tried to move her hand.

Her fingers.

Anything.

Nothing worked.

“I even felt horrible at the end, offering him an alibi. I knew the cops wouldn’t believe it, but I tried. I don’t want him to die. I just don’t plan on stopping my mission in life.”

He moved around the room, getting things ready.

“You really want to sleep through this. I know you’re not like them, but you have to die. You know too much.”

Emma blinked at him, fighting the sleep.

When he noticed she wasn’t going out, he grabbed her face and poured tea and leaves into her mouth.

She choked as she forced the liquid out of her mouth.

“Keep drinking. You don’t want to be awake for this. After I kill you, I’ll dump your body not far from here. I’ll tell them you never made it here or I’ll tell them you came by and I gave you a lead.”

Emma couldn’t fight it.

His hand was on the button on her jeans.

“I’ll make it look like a rape. You don’t fit the type I like, but your husband is a criminal. That works for me. I can get rid of you, and the investigation will stall. I just need a few more days until Seth dies. Then everyone will forget. I’ll go back to killing, I’ll get rid of the women, and the world will be better. No one ever suspects a gay man of rape. I was right under their noses.”

She was aware.

They’d screwed up.

Emma fought the darkness, but it was too much. The ketamine was kicking all the way in.

She was passing out.

Emma’s last thought was of her husband, and how much she’d miss him.

Here was the end.

Vegas had won.

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

When they pulled up, Natasha immediately moved out of the shadows.

“What’s wrong?” she asked her brother.

“Call this number, and tell Kent I need him to get here fast. Tell him the case is broken wide open,” he said, tossing his phone at Natasha.

As she did what they asked, the two men raced toward the man’s home. At the door, they could hear him talking inside.

“We have to break it in. Do you have a gun?” Greyson asked.

“No, but I’m wearing body armor. Let me go in first.”

He got into position and booted the door.

As it flew open, they found Emma unconscious on the floor, naked, and with the man standing over her. In his hand was a baseball bat.

That’s all he had to see.

Greyson flew into a rage. He was past Emma and on the man before he could even swing his bat.

He began pummeling him.

Dimitri had enough time to throw his suit jacket over Emma before he had to pull Greyson off the bloody man.

“You’re dead! You touched my wife!”

Dimitri pulled him back. “If you kill him, Seth dies. We need him alive. Take care of your wife. Get her out of here, and I’ll wait for the reporter. GO! We have enough attention already.”

Greyson knew he was right.

“Day one in jail, he’s dead.”