Chapter Eight
Sunday
Afternoon
G reyson was feeling horrible about what he’d done. Maybe he shouldn’t have stuck Emma and Chris with the sleazy strip club. He knew it was a dirty trick, and he should know better, but he was sick of being the bad guy.
Yes, Emma was his wife, and he wanted to protect her, but sticking her with that place was a cheap tactic to get out of it.
Now that he’d had her call, and he thought it through, he felt like shit.
“You’re overthinking it,” Dimitri said, knowing what he was stressing. Whenever Greyson was worked up, he got that look on his face.
“On our way home, I have to stop and get Emma a present.”
Dimitri laughed. “She practically owns a jewelry store. I think you’ve bought her off enough.”
He glanced over. “I just sent them to a strip club. What the hell is wrong with me? Why would I do something like that? I’m supposed to protect her, and I just sent her into an STD hellhole.”
Dimitri tried to calm his nerves.
Really, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t like someone was shooting at them. They were just talking to strippers.
Here was why love was bad.
It twisted you up inside.
“You gave them an interview while you took a home search. It’s not that bad. You didn’t want to be the cheating asshole for once. She gets it.”
“Yeah, but she’s going to look like the cheater.”
Dimitri laughed. “Well, yes, she likely will, but we don’t listen to the media.”
No, but Emma was the only good thing in his life, and he’d just sent her to a strip club, and with another man.
Besides, Dimitri said, “What are the chances anything will go wrong?”
Greyson looked over.
“Seriously?”
He laughed.
“Hey, I’m trying. If you’re looking for a pep talk, you’ve come to the wrong place. I was stabbed last night. I’m having a shit week.”
“I said I was sorry. Are you going to make me relive that for the rest of my life?” Marissa asked from the back seat.
Dimitri grinned into the mirror. “Yes, I plan on rehashing it until I stab you. Then we’re even.”
“Great.”
His phone rang, and Greyson checked it out. A part of him wished it was Emma again, so he could apologize.
It wasn’t.
“It’s that burn number,” Greyson said, right before taking the call.
“Riley? What’s up?” Croft asked.
“Yeah, I did what you asked. I just finished checking out the pictures before I sent them to Emma.”
“Wait. What? Why were you sending pictures to Emma? She’s interviewing strippers,” Greyson asked, putting it on speaker.
“She said she had something huge, and she needed all the Jane Doe photos.”
Dimitri saw the look on Marissa’s face as she listened to the conversation. Immediately, he elbowed Greyson, to give him the heads up.
This was why she couldn’t ride along tomorrow. It was hard to do their job when they couldn’t be open and have a conversation. They didn’t need her thinking that they assumed Julie was dead.
Greyson got it. They had a third set of ears that shouldn’t be privy to their conversations.
“Hold on, Riley. Can you pull over, Dimitri?” he asked, pointing at the side of the street.
Dimitri didn’t hesitate.
When he parked, Greyson hopped out, and he was right behind him. There was no way he was going to let Greyson stand on the street without him watching his back.
“Stay here,” Dimitri told Marissa, giving her a look. It said it all.
“You’re bossy.”
“I am your boss,” he stated. “So I get to be bossy. It’s part of the job.”
She closed her mouth.
Both men met on the curb, and Greyson continued the call with the detective.
“Sorry about that, Riley. We weren’t alone. You are clear now. Go ahead.”
He picked up where he’d left off, explaining about his and Emma’s conversation.
“All I know is she said she had something, and that she’d get back to me. She sounded jazzed.”
Now Greyson was really freaked out.
Dimitri patted him on the back.
What the hell had he been thinking? He’d given his wife the strip club because it was safer, and he didn’t expect her to actually do any sleuthing. He was damn sure that Emma wouldn’t find anything pertinent.
Her safety was always paramount.
The pimp was dead.
All she had to do was question some women.
But shit…
She’d found something.
“She said she’d call me back, but I haven’t heard from her yet. What’s going on?”
“I’ll call her and find out. Are any of the women Julie Pierce?” he asked.
“Nope. They aren’t. I checked.”
Well, that was good and bad news. That meant the hunt continued, and there was a chance that Julie was still alive.
“I’ll call you back.”
When he hung up, Dimitri tried to calm him down. “You have to chill out. You’re making it worse than it is.”
Was he?
His wife was out playing cop, and he wasn’t by her side. Yeah, he trusted Chris, but come on!
He’d screwed this up.
Greyson hit the picture of his wife’s face on his phone. It went right to voicemail, and that didn’t help his freak out. In fact, it only added to it.
He called again.
Nothing.
Here’s where the Croft meltdown began. If he didn’t get a hold of her, he’d let his imagination begin running wild.
Dimitri was just about to pull his phone and call Chris when it began ringing in his pocket.
He pulled it out.
It was Emma.
“Hey! Are you safe?” Dimitri asked as Greyson stopped pacing on the sidewalk.
“Well, I may have rabies from this place, but I’m good. Why?” she asked.
“Is she mad at me?” Greyson asked.
“Are you made at…?” He stopped and handed him the phone. This was too weird for him. There was no way he was playing intermediary in this game.
“Honey!”
“Grey, what’s wrong?”
“Are you okay? I just called you.”
“Yeah, I’m good. I was dialing Dimitri. I figured you’d be side by side. You know, riding off to the nice, clean, happy search while your wife did the dirty job.”
“Uh, yeah, about that.”
“Greyson.”
“I’m sorry.”
She laughed. “I got to make out with Chris, and I sat in his lap. Who’s laughing now?”
Dimitri did.
Chris did too.
“I’m going to hurt him at home.”
She snorted. “No, you won’t. You know how the media is. He’s a good kisser. Not as good as you, but eh, a woman can’t be choosy when her husband screws her over with the grunt work so he looks good in the end.”
Greyson was busted, and he knew it.
Dimitri, on the other hand, was willing to play along. He enjoyed tormenting the man beside him.
It was brotherly.
“If you’re rating kissing, how did I do?” Dimitri asked. “You know, after we slept together.”
Greyson stared at him.
“Really?”
Emma was amused.
“You get an A plus, my Russian stud. I look forward to doing it again.”
Croft got it.
This was his punishment.
It was a lesson learned.
“Are you done busting my ass?” Greyson asked. “It seems you forgot I get bitchy when men are playing ‘Kiss Croft’s wife’.”
“Well, about that. The media kinda caught us getting down and dirty.”
“EMMA!”
She snorted. “I’m sure it’s already on the news. You know how I get when my husband screws me over giving me the shitty interview that he thinks will be a waste of time. How very FBI director of you, Greyson.”
Of course he had to fall in love with a very smart woman who would call him on his shit.
Perfect.
“Tell your ex-bodyguard I’m going to kill him.”
Chris was still laughing. “Tell your sneaky husband I had to cup a stripper’s tit in there, and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.”
Dimitri stopped laughing. “You cheated on my sister with a stripper?” he asked.
“I asked permission first. Well, to make out with Emma, but she was cool. Chill, commie. My bases are covered. I’m not new to this game.”
Dimitri sputtered.
Emma was amused. “Anyway, two things. Dimitri, you have a woman by the name of Betty Elder heading to ‘Aquarius’ tomorrow. She’s selling tricks in the club. She has two kids, and I am getting her out. I need your help.”
He smiled.
Yeah, this was family.
“I’ll handle it. I have a few openings where I can place her. I’ll make sure she’s handled for you.”
“Thank you, Dimitri. I knew I could count on you. She’s doing it to support her kids. Save her.”
Oh, he would.
“If you can’t find one, send her to Dante. He can use another assistant. We run his ragged. She’s street smart, and she won’t put up with his shit. That’s always a plus.”
“Yes, Mom.”
She snorted.
Greyson was listening, and he was proud of his wife. At least something good came out of that interview he’d dumped on her.
And she didn’t seem too mad at him.
“So you were out saving strippers?” he asked.
“Well, and I found something interesting. Guess who tied two dead girls on Riley’s desk to a strip club, a sex smuggling ring, and a missing girl.”
He stared at the phone.
“WHAT?”
“I think we have a sex smuggling ring going on right under your mob-y nose, Greyson. Someone is peddling young girls.”
That horrified him.
While he was running Vegas, he was keeping the criminals at bay. They thought he’d kill them all, and that made them careful with what kind of businesses they ran.
He didn’t tolerate drugs.
He didn’t tolerate sex trafficking.
Clearly, someone didn’t get the memo.
“I’m taking the strip clubs from here on out,” Greyson stated. “Emma, don’t take this the wrong way, but get your ass to Terrace Glen. I don’t need you poking a sex ring with your ex-cop fingers.”
“I’ll use Chris’s.”
“EMMA!”
“Okay, take a pill, cranky. You sent me here. I don’t know why you thought once I was ‘with child’ I’d lose my ability to think like a cop. You were way off base on this one.”
Yes, he had been, and now he was rectifying that little error. His wife was not screwing with a sex ring. It put all kinds of horrible pictures in his head.
“And now I’m sending you home.”
“You may want to rephrase that, or you’ll be sending me over the edge, and there’s only one person who isn’t afraid of you.”
Dimitri raised his hand but said nothing.
“Not you, Dimitri. Don’t be a smart ass,” Emma said.
He looked around.
It’s like she knew, or had eyes on them—which was impossible.
“I’m talking about me. So, I’m going to go home, and I’m going to get the family to start picking this apart. I don’t think we have one girl gone astray. I think we have a sex trafficking ring, and not the reverse one that Dimitri runs. Someone is filtering in young flesh, and pedaling it. We have to find Anthony Delmarco. Lose your baggage.”
They knew who she meant.
Marissa.
“We are going to be playing in some not so nice places. I have the next strip club name.”
Greyson was not amused. “Chris?”
“Yeah?”
“Take her home. I don’t care if you have to sit on her. Get her ass back behind the gates!”
Emma objected.
He shut her down, and she could hear it in his voice. Greyson was worried about something, and this was bigger than her playing in a strip club.
“What’s the big freak out?”
He figured he owed her, and it might convince her that they had a huge issue on their hands.
“When I was still with the FBI, we had a mole go missing. She was sold off into the trade. We thought we lost her. She turned up dead, and we couldn’t figure out how it happened. Someone inside the FBI was helping—or that was what I thought. After I left, Director Lee muddied up the investigation. It’s been going nowhere. That rat is in the clear, and it’s still an ongoing Fed investigation. If you poke at the sex trade hive, you may get stung by a bunch of FBI hornets.”
She whistled.
And she got it.
If they investigated, they were dropping themselves right into FBI territory, and that would be like a gift for Robert Lee.
Yeah, they had an issue.
Dimitri was appalled. “You have someone on the inside of the FBI selling women to the highest bidders?” he asked.
“We can’t confirm, but the second we start poking this mess, the Feds are going to be all over me. I have the files at home. They’re not full because I couldn’t get enough to get a sting.”
Emma got it.
It might get dicey, and none of them could risk that. They already had vans outside their home, their attorney filing harassment suits, and every Fed in the city pointed at them.
It was time to regroup until they had a plan.
She was going to follow his order, even if she didn’t like being bossed around.
“Well, then I’ll meet you at home. You might want to head in yourself as soon as you search that apartment. We have to warn the family. If this case is going to lead to screwing with the FBI, we are risking a lot.”
He was aware.
He didn’t want to play with the FBI. They were leaning on him as it was, and that made it hard to do their jobs.
Speaking of jobs…he was regretting taking this one—not because he didn’t want to help the women disappearing, but he had to worry about their family.
His wife.
The men he called brothers.
The baby growing in Emma.
The FBI could get mean, and they were already making their lives uncomfortable.
“I’ll see you at home in an hour. We will make sure we get in, and fast.”
“I love you both. Be safe.”
She hung up.
“I don’t like tangling with the Feds,” Dimitri stated. “It puts us in the spotlight, and that makes me nervous.”
Yeah, him too.
This was going to be bad. He could tell. While he would never have a problem risking himself, he knew the cost was too high.
He needed help.
“I have to make this call.”
Dimitri stood beside him, scanning the area. He was feeling off. There was something not kosher, and he couldn’t put his finger on it.
But what?
As Greyson dialed, he crossed his fingers. He had one shot at getting some help on this one, and it was going to be a risk.
For him, and for the man.
“Deputy Director Blackhawk.”
“Ethan?”
There was a pause the second he recognized his voice. “Hold on.”
It got quiet.
There was the sound of a door closing.
“What’s going on?” Ethan asked. “It’s not like you to call me.”
“I have something hypothetical to ask you.”
“From a mob boss to a Deputy Director of the FBI, or to Ethan Blackhawk.”
“Oh, this is definitely the first one, and that’s why it’s a little tricky.”
Ethan didn’t like the sound of that.
While he really liked Greyson, he knew that any communication with him was dangerous. Technically, they were on different sides.
“Shoot.”
“Does the FBI have any sex trafficking operations going on in Vegas?”
He paused.
“Yes.”
“Are they actively searching for someone?”
“Well, they’ve tried. They keep hitting roadblocks, and they think it’s because they continually get a heads-up when we’re about to move. We keep missing the people by minutes.”
Yeah, he had that issue too.
That freaking FBI mole was back.
“I have something I have to ask, and I need a HUGE favor. Just hear me out.”
“What?”
“My family has just taken on a missing girl case, and it was all done innocently enough.”
“Okay.”
“We just found out that it’s looking like she was a victim in a sex trafficking ring. I think it’s the same one I tried to take down when I was in the FBI, and the same one that’s now stalled for Lee.”
That was NOT good.
They were the good guys, and Croft was the bad guy. The two should never cross, unless one was chasing the other. This meant that two different sides were working the same case, and they would bump into each other.
“What can I do?” Ethan asked.
“I need you to give me some leeway. Is there any way you can pull your teams for a week, max? I’m about to go digging, and if I do, the Feds are going to be all over us.”
Ethan thought about it.
“I can run interference, but you have to let the FBI close it. If you find the person, you need to report it directly to me. I have a rat in that office, and I really don’t like rats.”
He figured as much.
“What about the vans outside my house? Can you call them off?”
That was news to him.
“What vans?” Ethan asked.
“I have four FBI vans outside my house, trying to find out what I’m doing at all times.”
“Are you sure? They can’t be FBI sanctioned. I wouldn’t sign off on something like that. Your lawyer is ready to eat ours for breakfast, and Gabe doesn’t want to make you any richer than you already are. He personally denied the request when he was given it.”
Then they had an issue.
Well, Ethan Blackhawk did.
“So, if you didn’t authorize it, then who did?”
They both knew that answer.
“I’ll handle it. They will be gone by tomorrow. I can give you five days, Greyson. I can call audit, and I can have the teams pulled in. I can’t give you more time than that. If I even get called out on this call…”
He knew.
They were both on the opposite sides of the law.
He was the bad guy.
Supposedly.
“Five days, starting tomorrow morning. After that, I can’t intervene. Get it figured out, and maybe we can find that mole inside the FBI. I’ll handle the rest.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Literally. Expect the information coming your way. I’ll get it to you by way of special courier.”
He hung up.
“Can we trust him?” Dimitri asked, hating that they were putting their asses on the line this close to the FBI.
“Yeah, he’s the epitome of straight arrow. He won’t screw me over. Ethan knows how to play the game, and he’ll use me to get the killer handled, and then he’ll dismantle the FBI to get that mole. You don’t screw with him. He takes his career very seriously.”
“We should go. I don’t like how I feel right now. My arm hair is standing up, and I have that feeling in my gut,” Dimitri stated.
Greyson was good with that.
He was feeling way off too.
Something bad was coming.
And soon.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Washington D.C.
Hoover Building
The second Ethan hung up, he knew he had a problem. He sent a text to the one person he trusted to share this new information with, and he hoped she’d help him out.
If there was a mole, he couldn’t risk that the rat was digging around in his DC nest.
Something had to be done.
At the knock on his door, she was standing there. It didn’t take her long to arrive from her own area down the hall.
“You’re free, right?” he asked.
Elizabeth closed his office door. “Are we fornicating or do you have something for me to handle?” she teased.
He laughed. “Maybe both, but the first one will have to be right after my meeting. You wear me down. I have to be focused.”
She grinned. “Good point.”
“I have to take a trip tomorrow morning. I’m leaving the office.”
“Okay, and?”
“I need backup.”
“I’m in.”
As always, he didn’t even have to give her details. Elizabeth would always have his back, and for that bond, he was grateful. After his meltdown, a few months ago, and their separation, they were now stronger than ever.
Their marriage survived, and he had his partner back.
“I’m about to stir the pot, and when I do, there’s only one hell raiser I want by my side.”
She snorted. “Callen’s busy, huh?”
He tugged her into his lap. “He doesn’t kiss as well as you do,” he teased.
“Should I ask why you’re going around making out with your brother without me being able to watch?” she teased.
“Maybe I’m just kissing my gorgeous wife’s ass, as I try to get her to perch herself against me.”
She did just that, getting comfortable.
“Yeah, like that,” he said, giving her a soft kiss. It was good to have his wife back.
“Where are we heading?” she asked, nibbling on his ear. She knew it made him crazy, and that was exactly why she did it. Before he texted, she was planning to stop in for some lunch.
HIM.
“I have to hit Las Vegas.”
“Uh oh.”
He told her what Greyson had told him. She listened, and didn’t bat an eye.
“How about you do the FBI stir-up, and I’ll deliver the information? The second you call them off the Crofts, I’ll get onto their property.”
“Don’t get caught.”
She laughed. “Seriously. Do you know me? I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.”
Her mouth found his, and she stole his breath.
When he pulled away, she had his shirt open.
“Now, about my fee,” she said, whispering in his ear. “You have to pay half now, half later. I think you should be late to your meeting.”
She bit him on the neck and he moaned.
“Did you lock the door?” he asked. “Can you be fast? I have to get back to my…”
He didn’t have time to say the rest.
She rocked his world.
Twice.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
LVPD
Commissioner’s
Office
When the commissioner called him, he wasn’t too busy that he couldn’t show up for a little visit. Director Lee knew he had some messes to clean up, and he was using the police to help him.
They had to work hand in hand, making sure that the crime in Vegas went down, or he’d be out.
And that wasn’t a good thing.
Robert had worked hard to get this office. When Greyson Croft was asked to resign, he fought tooth and nail to earn the right to head the Las Vegas branch.
It was a power step. It was right below handling the FBI West commission, and he had his eyes on that next.
Robert Lee wanted to move up the ladder, and he wanted to be sitting in the Director’s office at the Hoover building before he turned fifty.
So, he had to do this right.
It wasn’t easy to handle Las Vegas. The last two FBI directors went down to corruption, and he was desperately trying to keep his nose clean.
Deputy Director Blackhawk was a ball buster, and had laid down the law. If you weren’t doing your job, you were out of one. He didn’t want to cross the man.
No one did.
While most thought that Ethan Blackhawk was picked for his position, simply because his wife and Gabe Rothschild went way back, it had become crystal clear that he was no joke.
The man ran it like he owned it.
He didn’t take shit.
He wasn’t above tearing a place apart to rebuild it, and he also didn’t give a shit what anyone said about him.
The chatter about him, his wife, and his brother was notorious, but he didn’t flinch. The last time someone brought up the couple, he found himself missing his hide. Blackhawk chewed ass like a pro. It was clear what he’d learned from Gabriel Rothschild.
So, Robert wasn’t taking any chances.
His office was not up for dismantle. He was doing anything he could to make sure they stayed afloat, and on the boss’s good side.
Robert Lee knew what would happen if his boss audited the place. Heads would roll. It wasn’t to say he was running anything illegal, but he didn’t clear everything with his boss.
Why?
Vegas was a whole other beast. While the rest of the country played by one set of rules, Vegas didn’t. So, he had to use what he had to keep the place from blowing up.
It wasn’t easy.
In fact, he might be getting an ulcer.
That’s why he agreed to show for this meeting. He had the feeling shit was coming, and he didn’t want to take any chances.
So, as he prepared to meet with Commissioner Raye, he hoped the man had cleaned up most of his issues. They had new ones heading their way.
“Thank you for coming,” the commissioner said, as he entered the room.
“You’re welcome, Jeffery. What’s this about?”
“The Crofts.”
He sighed.
That wasn’t what Robert wanted to hear. He was more worried about all the other things going on.
“I already authorized three vans. I can’t give you more. We haven’t found anything that links them to illegal activities. We’ve called in three warrants on their warehouses, offices, and a few businesses, and nothing. You may have to come to grips with them not doing anything illegal.”
“I understand that.”
“I hope so because you guaranteed me that there was something there, and I allowed the vans. My boss will kick my ass if he finds out.”
“I appreciate that you did that for me, Robert. I’m in the same boat as you are. Vegas is bad. Every law bureau is struggling right now. Croft has his hands in everything.”
Robert was getting sick of all of this. It was a dead end, and he was wasting taxpayer resources.
“What’s going on?” he asked, willing to give the man a chance to explain.
“I received a call.”
“From?” he asked.
“Anonymous.”
He sighed again.
Robert should have seen this one coming.
It was a mess.
“What did Croft do now that has you in a tizzy?” he asked.
The commissioner told him.
“There’s word out on the street that they are fabricating documents against my homicide captain.”
He listened.
“They are trying to take him down, and we want it on the record that he’s being framed for something. You know, in case the media is given these fake papers.”
Well, at least he wasn’t asking for anything more. That he could do. He could type up a memo, and make note of it in a file if it ever came to public light.
“I want to be ready for any of his games. He’s planning something, but I don’t know what.”
Lee considered it. “I can open an investigation if you can get me something. I can’t go on anymore witch hunts. I was sent a writ to cease and desist. Their attorney is out for blood and the FBI is their artery. I was told hands off.”
He got it.
It looked like the attorney was going to have some issues. He was going to handle that ASAP. If he could put a dent in Croft’s team, he could slow them down to cover his bases.
She was a pain in his ass anyway.
It was time to handle it.
“If you can get the shark attorney off our backs, we can handle the rest.”
He could do that.
“Robert, thank you.”
“This time, this is it. From here on out, I can’t play in this mess. If Croft isn’t breaking any federal laws, it’s hands off. We aren’t your spy agency. We work for the people of this country, and I have bosses to answer to on a daily basis. This pisses them off.”
He got it.
The commissioner was good for now. It was all going to work in his favor.
He could tell.
When the Fed left, he sat back and tried to figure out what he was going to do.
They had a lawyer who was a pain in the ass, and she needed to go down.
But who?
Heath?
No, he was a loose cannon. No one in their right mind would hire him. He was a few bricks short of a wall.
Then it hit him.
He had a killer right in his pocket. Since the man had killed once before, why not again?
It was time to check-in with Thomas, and hope the man could be swayed to do some dirty work.
They had to keep a unified front.
And they needed a woman to disappear.
When he arrived at the office, there were detectives all over the place. They were doing their thing, and the captain was doing his. He was glad to see the man was holding it together. Their earlier talk worried him.
The last thing they needed was for his inside guy to lose control and do something stupid. In Vegas, you had to play the game carefully.
As his captain looked up, he saw him through his office windows and motioned for him to come in.
Good.
It was time to handle a mess. Hopefully, the man would be up for the job.
Riley was working on his cases, and he saw the man enter the bullpen.
As he headed past him, he was curious.
Riley got a bad vibe from the man, and he could tell something was off. The man had that look on his face.
It made him edgy.
He needed to hear what was going on in that office, and that meant losing his babysitter for a few minutes.
Riley chugged his cold coffee.
“Hey, Lester, can you grab us some coffee?” Riley said, handing him his empty cup. “I want to make copies of this file so we can reorganize our case load. I have these dead women, and I need to figure out how we’re going to handle it. I feel disorganized.”
Lester Lucas laughed. “That’s because you are unorganized, Riley.”
“Yeah, well, we have more dead bodies than time,” he said, picking up the file.
His partner laughed and headed toward the breakroom.
Riley raced for the copier and pretended to be pulling the file together. As he stood there, their voices were easily heard through the wall, and what he heard deeply disturbed him.
In fact, it made him ill.
“You have to take out the attorney. Make it look like a fluke. I don’t care if it’s a random shooting, a drive-by, or she’s raped and strangled in her own home.”
Christ laughed. “I like the last option. I’ve seen her in here,” Christ said. “I could use some pussy. She seems like one of those women who’d make me hot and bothered. I can handle her. She wouldn’t be the first.”
He didn’t care.
This was about buying them some time.
“Good. The Crofts will be distracted if something happens to her. They won’t see us aiming for that bitch. Croft thinks we’ll go for him or his wife. Let’s fuck with them. The FBI is going to cover for you with that file. I told them Croft is fabricating documents to take you down. We’re covered. The FBI will back me up IF they come out.”
Christ relaxed. “I’ll get her tonight. I’ll need an alibi. Make sure you invite me over for a drink. We’re going to have a meeting at your place,” he said.
The commissioner could do that.
As Riley listened to them plot Delilah’s murder, he couldn’t believe it.
Both men were corrupt, and sick. That they could even have a casual conversation about raping and murdering a woman made him want to vomit.
He had to do something.
And fast.
Riley grabbed his file and headed back to his desk. He sat and tried to figure out what to do. He only had until tonight, and there had to be a way to get to Delilah, and then get her somewhere safe.
When Lester returned, he was staring at him.
“Uh, did something happen?” he asked his partner. “You look like shit!” he stated.
“Huh? What?” Riley asked, trying to stay composed. He needed a way out of there, and fast. The commissioner and the captain were out in the bullpen, setting up his alibi.
“You’re pale. Did you see a ghost?” he asked.
“I feel sick all the sudden. Maybe I’m having a reaction to the dentist doing that filling, he said, taking the excuse and running with it.
“Hey, if you’re getting the flu…”
He backed away.
“I do feel like puking all the sudden.”
Ironically.
That wasn’t a lie.
“You should go home. I got this. We’re only working these unknown cases. I can reorganize and get them started for us. I’ll call you if I get anything. Don’t puke on our desks,” Lester said.
Riley pushed away.
“Thanks. I’ll text you later.”
He headed out.
Lester shook his head and couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with his new partner.
Something was up.
Outside, Riley jumped into his ride, and knew right where he had to go.
Delilah’s office.
There was no way he could let that asshole hurt her. She hated cops, but no one deserved to be raped and murdered.
No one.
And shit like that wasn’t going down on his watch.
Especially to her.