Chapter Two
W hen he got the call, they’d been finishing up sex. Emma had been cuddled against him, and it was peaceful at Terrace Glen. Only, it didn’t last for very long. The ringer on his phone went off, scaring the shit out of him and Emma.
It was Dimitri.
Why Croft got that sick feeling, he wasn’t sure, but he knew it wasn’t going to be good.
“Dimitri, are you okay?”
“No. I need you to come. I have a problem.”
Greyson could only imagine what that would be. A man hires a hooker, after leaving his home angry.
Yeah, he was expecting a bloodbath.
Jesus.
“I’m on my way.”
“What happened to Dimitri?” she asked curiously.
“Nothing, honey. I have to run out.”
She got out of bed.
“Uh, you’re not coming with me, Emma. You’re safer here,” he said, pulling on his pants.
“Bullshit. I’m not letting you go out at eleven at night when we have people trying to frame us. I’m riding shotgun, Greyson.”
She had a point.
“Dimitri is at the hotel, and he needs me.”
She lifted a brow.
That couldn’t be good.
As she dressed, Emma pulled a gun from her dresser and tucked it into the back of her pants. She knew what was coming was likely going to be bad.
“I don’t think you need…”
Who was he kidding?
He grabbed one of his guns too.
“What happened exactly?” she asked.
“We were talking about some issues, and he and I had a disagreement. He left. All I know is he needs help.”
She knew what he was thinking, and it made her sick. Emma prayed that he didn’t do something stupid.
“Do you think he killed a woman?” she asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
Emma didn’t like this.
Mostly, because it was eating away at Dimitri. He couldn’t see it, but she could. This had to stop. There had to be a way for him to get off this runaway train before it derailed and killed him.
“I’ll grab some things.”
“Like what?” he asked. “A shower curtain to wrap up the body?” he inquired, staring at her.
“Well, excuse me for wanting to plan ahead. Cops notice things missing from hotel rooms.”
“Emma, it’s our hotel. I think we can doctor the scene later,” he offered, grabbing his keys. “We have to hurry.”
Emma followed him out.
As she did, Greyson called Chris.
“We are heading out. We need someone up to patrol. Can you and Natasha handle it?” he asked.
He heard the answer, and he was willing to handle it.
Normally, he wouldn’t stress it, but he didn’t trust Sam not to steal another car or try to run away again. Before, he’d been trying to keep people out.
Now he was trying to keep people in.
Oh, the irony…
Life was funny.
Their lives were chaos.
As they hit the garage, he grabbed his car. He didn’t get to drive it much. The media knew it was his, but it was fast.
“Buckle up,” he said, as his wife began doing just that.
He headed out, opening the gate and gunning it through the opening. It luckily caught most of the reporters off guard, and he was able to get far enough away that he knew he could lose them once they hit the strip.
“What are we going to do?” Emma asked. “If he killed someone…”
He didn’t hesitate.
“We will clean up the mess.”
She knew what he was planning. “There’s a bag in the trunk.”
He was aware.
He’d placed it there.
There were medical supplies, a first aid kit, and plastic garbage bags.
Yeah, their life had drastically changed. More money did equal more problems, and here was the proof.
“I wish you would have stayed home,” he admitted, once they were close to town.
She glanced over at him.
“Are you kidding me? And miss out on the fun?” she teased. “I love hiding a body in the desert at midnight after making love to my husband. Who has Saturday nights like this?”
Yeah, God forbid they actually do something normal like sex and sleep. That would be too damn easy.
“I’m going to kick his ass.”
“No, you’re not. He’s hurting, Grey. That’s not how you fix this. You don’t get angry. Dimitri doesn’t know it, but he’s just like Sam. He’s lost. We find him, we heal him, and we take care of him.”
He sighed.
“I’ll handle it,” she stated. “This needs a woman’s touch. He will listen to me.”
Greyson hoped so.
He was getting cranky too. He’d just told Dimitri no body because that would cause issues, and here he was on his way to the strip to likely clean up after a mess.
This was bad.
Very.
Very.
Bad.
He held the towel to his arm. He wasn’t gushing blood anymore, and that was probably a good thing. He’d had the fortitude to restrain Marissa’s arms before she could wake up.
Now she was pissed off.
She was glaring at him from the bed and cursing his name. Well, he had news for her. She was going to have to try harder if she wanted to insult him.
He’d been called all those names before.
“When I get free, I’m going to kill you,” she hissed from the bed.
Oh, she only wished.
Marissa had gotten lucky. He’d been distracted. From here on out, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
Ever.
Again.
“I hate you,” she hissed.
“Yeah, I’m not all that happy with you right now either,” he said. “You freaking could have killed me.”
“I wanted to kill you, you asshole!”
He didn’t get it.
He’d never been unkind to her.
Why was she trying to end his life? Then again, maybe he should have let her.
“What is your problem, Marissa? You came in here with a knife. You’re damn lucky I didn’t shoot you!”
“You slept with my sister! What did you do with her?” she raged. “Where did you dump her body, you asshole!”
He was confused. “I don’t know who you’re talking about, Marissa. All I know is I hired a hooker…”
He pointed at her.
“I’m not a hooker!”
Well, she could have fooled him, especially since he’d called a madam and ordered one up.
“Listen, you can stop blaming me for whatever it is you’ve come up with in your head. You’re the one who is dressed like a prostitute. Imagine my surprise when a woman I used to employ wasn’t trying to suck my dick but shank my throat!”
She got off the bed, and he shoved her back down with his good arm.
“I’m going to kill you!”
“Clearly, but I don’t know why. I hired you when you needed a job, I took care of you when you were hurt, and then you disappeared without a word. What the hell is going on?” he asked.
She got up again and kicked him in the leg with the tip of her pointy heel. She got him right on the shin, and it hurt maybe more than the knife.
He began cursing in Russian.
Marissa went at him again, and he shoved her back down. “If you come at me again…”
“You’ll what? Kill me?”
“I’m contemplating it. Trust me, you’re close to pushing me past my control.”
There was a knock on the door, and then Greyson’s voice. Dimitri didn’t have to answer. He knew the man had a master key card, since he owned the place.
When Greyson came in, he was relieved.
Until he saw Emma.
Jesus.
Great.
This had just gone from bad, to embarrassing, and then right to disastrous. Here he was, in a hotel room, with a hooker he hired—who was once an employee and who stabbed him—with a woman he didn’t want to see him behave like this.
This was why he saw hookers at a hotel and not the house. It wasn’t right to flaunt this in front of her.
Perfect.
Emma saw him and immediately, she rushed toward him. “Dimitri, are you okay?” she asked, concern in her voice.
“I’m good, Emma.” He tried to move away from her so she wouldn’t have to deal with this mess.
Or to touch him.
He didn’t think he deserved it.
“Let me see your arm,” she said, dropping the bag she’d been carrying.
He stood there.
Emma touched his arm. “Dimitri, please let me see your arm.”
He sat, seeing that she was NOT going to give up.
“What’s going on?” Greyson asked, relieved that the woman was still alive. This made his night a million times easier.
“He killed my sister!” Marissa hissed.
Greyson stared at her. “Wait! Didn’t you work for him?” he asked, finally recognizing her. “You were the hostess!”
“Yes, I was, and I’m trying to find my sister. I have information that says he saw her.”
Emma pulled the towel away. She needed to get to his arm. “I need to take your shirt off,” she said.
He moved out of her reach.
“Dimitri.”
Greyson had to grab Marissa before she attacked again, this time with her high heel in her hand behind her back. If this hadn’t been serious, he would have laughed at how awkward this was.
Only their life.
“Sit,” he ordered.
She tried to get up again, and despite being restrained, she was going to try to hurt him again.
Greyson had to step in.
“Emma, take him into the bathroom. I’ll handle this, and you deal with his arm.”
She took him by the hand and led him into the bathroom. Once he sat down, he wouldn’t look at her.
“What did I do to make you upset with me?” she asked, when he was giving her the cold shoulder. There was a chill in the room, and she figured it had to be her.
“Nothing.”
“Then look at me.”
He did.
That’s when she saw it.
He was mortified.
This was the same look that Dimitri gave her when she hugged him or gave him a kiss. It was one of embarrassment.
Well, at least she didn’t upset him.
“What happened?” she asked, reaching for his shirt. Again, he pushed her hands away.
“I came here to get laid. She tried to stab me. That’s all you need to know.”
Emma tried to be calm. She’d learned a lot about this man over the last year, and she knew he was struggling.
“Newsflash, she did stab you. Now let me see your damn arm. You’re bleeding all over the floor!”
He looked down.
The second he did, she grabbed the shirt and yanked it off his body.
He stood and stared at her, putting his back as far from her as he could. “Don’t touch me!”
She didn’t understand.
Then, she could see his back in the mirror, and it horrified her. She knew he had scars, but in the light of the bathroom, they were a million times worse.
He was a mess.
There were vicious angry scars crisscrossing his whole back.
“Dimitri, who hurt you?” she asked, tears in her eyes.
“Don’t, Emma! Not now, not here, and not with me,” he said, his voice cool and low.
She didn’t budge.
“Yeah, why should I care that someone I love is hurt?” she asked, a tear slipping free.
Shit!
She was crying.
He sat in frustration.
Instead of addressing what was going on, again, she tried something different. She hugged him.
It worked because it caught him off guard and allowed her to get closer to him.
“It’ll wait. For now, I’m here now. I’ll fix your arm and get you a new shirt. Okay?”
He didn’t know what to say.
“Okay.”
She grabbed the first aid kit and checked his shoulder. “When we get home, Steele is going to have to stitch this up. It’s a big cut.”
“I’ll handle it when I get back to my room. It won’t be the first time, or the last. I can handle it.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
“No.”
She got to work with cleaning out the wound, and bandaging his arm. Her fingers moved gently across his shoulder, patching him back up.
When she had it covered, she spoke again, “I’ll get you something to wear. Stay here.”
He took her hand and stopped her.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m not angry at you, Emma. I shouldn’t have been an asshole to you.”
She got it, but she wanted to know the truth, and from him. It had to be from him.
“Then who are you mad at, Dimitri?”
“Me.”
She patted his cheek. “I’m sorry you hate that man so much that you’ll punish him like this. I know for a fact that Dimitri Gideon is a good man,” she said. “I wish you saw him like I do.”
Her words hit home.
“Me too.”
She stared into his eyes. “We’ll fix this, and then we’ll go home. You need to come home.”
He was aware, but how did he explain that home hurt him just as much?
That he was lost there too?
“I’ll be back.”
He watched her leave, and he did the only thing he could. He closed his eyes and prayed.
Greyson was getting nowhere with the woman. She was being belligerent. As soon as Emma came out, he looked toward her, and took a foot to the gut.
He nearly went down.
Emma was on the woman, a gun pointed at her head. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, putting her finger on the trigger.
Marissa stopped moving.
Greyson stared at her.
As did Dimitri who came running out of the bathroom to see what was going on.
He was shocked.
When did she start carrying?
“I just want to find my sister,” Marissa said. “He had contact with her.”
Emma had been a cop. She knew how to interview someone. “How do you know that Dimitri had contact with her?” she asked.
“I found her apartment. I found her things. This was in them,” she said, struggling awkwardly, as she reached into her purse to pull out a card. When she opened her zip-tied hands, there was an ‘Aquarius’ card.
Emma picked it up.
On the back, there was Greyson’s cell number.
She showed it to her husband.
“I only wrote my number on one card,” he said. “It was one day when we were in that strip club.”
Dimitri watched from the doorway and he recalled it. Now, everything was starting to make sense.
“Give him your hoodie,” Emma said, tucking the gun back into the back of her pants.
Greyson unzipped it and passed it off to Dimitri.
“Thank you.”
“Now, how about you stop abusing the men I like, and tell us what the hell is going on, from the beginning?” Emma asked. “You’re pissing me off, and I’m tired, pregnant, and getting bitchy. You won’t like me bitchy, Marissa. I get mean. Spill it.”
She did.
“My sister went missing while she was working the streets. I found this card, and I know he’s had contact with the women in this city. He did something to her!”
Emma knew Dimitri. He’d never hurt a woman. He couldn’t. It wasn’t his nature.
“I have to find her before something horrible happens to her. She’s missing, and her pimp is dead.”
Emma crossed her arms. “So, let me get this straight. You immediately thought your old boss, who helps women on the streets of Vegas, killed her?”
“I thought it was Mr. Ivanov. I didn’t know it was Mr. Gideon. I took a job as an escort to find my sister, and I was sent to offer Mr. Ivanov a date. He was who I was going to kill.”
“You realize that makes you sound crazy, right?” Emma asked.
Greyson agreed.
This whole thing was insane.
Dimitri couldn’t believe it. He glared at her. “And what if I hadn’t been the one waiting for you? You do realize that in this city, women get killed for doing stupid shit like this. You could have come face to face with an angry John who killed you.”
“I have to find her.”
Emma sat. “Can I have a knife?” she asked.
Greyson handed her the bloody one.
She cut the zip tie. “What’s going on, Marissa? Wait! That is your name, right?”
She nodded. “I’m Marissa Pierce. I’ve been searching for my sister for two years. I think something bad has happened to her. She’s not even eighteen.”
Greyson sat in a chair.
“Why didn’t you tell Dimitri?” Greyson asked. “He would have helped you.”
“I would have,” he stated. “Well, before you shanked me in my hotel room.”
Then again, it did save him from sleeping with one more hooker to fill the hole.
Maybe he should thank her.
She glared at him. “He’s hiring women for sex! He’s part of the problem. How do you know he’s not the one killing them?” she asked.
That barb was brutal for him.
Emma came to his defense. “He hires them, and then gets them out, Marissa. He’s trying to save women, not kill them.”
“You don’t know that.”
She looked over at him. “I do know that. Dimitri is a good man. You worked for him. What you see is what you get. Now, start at the beginning. Tell us about your sister.”
“We were put into foster care. I’m older. I swore I was going to find her, and I’ve been trying. She slipped through the cracks. She ran away from her foster home and hooked up with some man named Anthony Delmarco.”
Dimitri stared at her.
“Wait.”
She did.
“When you left, I went to check on you at your apartment. I found a few things.”
He pulled out his phone and pulled up the pictures. Then he handed them to her.
There was a paper with Anthony Delmarco’s name on it.
“I forgot it in my rush to get away from you,” she stated. “I knew his name. I didn’t need it.”
He showed her another picture.
“Is your sister’s name Julie?” he asked.
She was up and off the bed so fast that no one expected it. Then she was on Dimitri, trying to hurt him again.
Emma grabbed her, and flipped her onto the bed. Again, the gun was out, and pointed at her.
“If you touch him again, I’m going to be the one you need to worry about, Marissa. He won’t be killing a hooker, but I may be.”
The warning hit its mark.
She swallowed, and stared at the gun.
“You’ve stabbed a man I love, and you’ve kicked my husband in the stomach. The next time you show any signs of violence, I’m going to show you some street violence I picked up in Philly on the beat. You will not look the same when I’m done. Are we perfectly clear?” she asked.
Everyone stared at Emma.
Greyson was wildly turned on by his wife being all aggressive. It reminded him of when she’d been a cop.
Dimitri was touched by her words.
She was protecting him.
In his world, that never happened. He was the protector, and never the one anyone worried about.
Until that moment.
“I’m sorry.”
“Tell him that. You stabbed him, and you scratched his throat. One more mark on him, and I’m going to have to drag you out in a shower curtain.”
“They leak. Bad idea,” Dimitri said.
She stared at him. “Really? Now? Maybe that should have stayed in your head until later, don’t you think?”
It made him smile.
He needed that.
“Anyway, back to your sister,” Emma stated, once more tucking the gun away. “Remember, third time is when I shoot. I’m not screwing around.”
She sat there.
Again, Dimitri showed her the phone.
Marissa’s eyes filled with tears. “That’s Julie.”
Greyson lifted a brow.
Dimitri knew why. “Remember that case we were working, and we went to that club.”
“Yeah, that’s where she got the card,” he stated.
Marissa stared at them both.
“Wait! You saw my sister?”
Dimitri passed his phone to Greyson, and he checked out the picture. It was the first time he’d heard about Dimitri finding it, but he wasn’t surprised.
He had secrets.
Which was exactly his point earlier.
They were bad.
Here was the proof.
“Yeah, that’s her. I had a conversation with her. That’s why she had my card. I gave her that, and told her if she was in trouble, that she could call me. I also gave her two hundred bucks for a bus ticket anywhere but here.”
Marissa’s eyes filled with tears. “So she’s alive?” she asked, breathing out. “When did you talk to her?”
Greyson thought back.
“A couple months or maybe five-six weeks. Time in Vegas is one big blur.”
Marissa needed their help.
This clearly hadn’t worked.
In order to gain their trust after this mess, she had to come clean.
“We were both put into the system by our mother. She used to let her boyfriends touch us. She was a drug addict.”
They all listened.
“We got separated. I vowed to find her. She’s just a kid. I have to find her before something happens to her.”
Emma listened. “You said her pimp was found dead?” she asked.
Dimitri spoke up, “We talked to him. His name is…”
He stopped.
“What’s his name?” Marissa asked. “I know he’s dead, but if I have his name, I can keep looking. The police won’t help me. She’s one lost hooker in a city of filth.”
Yeah, they were aware.
They were fighting it every day.
Dimitri laughed. “You have no business looking. If you need proof, check out tonight. You stabbed a man. You could be going to jail.”
“Oh, and you’re calling the police?” she asked. “Dimitri Gideon, the infamous man of the night—who hired a hooker to get laid—is calling the cops?”
He flinched.
Emma wasn’t having it. “Tread lightly, Miss Pierce. I’m not your biggest fan right now. If you piss me off, I’m the one with the gun. You’re lucky he wasn’t carrying.”
She gave him a look.
He should have been carrying.
With the way Vegas was trying to swallow them whole, you’d think he’d know that.
Well, he would.
Later.
Dimitri was glaring at Marissa, trying not to notice how Emma was looking at him. He couldn’t meet her eyes. He’d been so irritated with Greyson, he’d left the house without any protection. In a fist fight, he could hold his own.
Against a woman, who he refused to hit…
He was screwed.
“I might call the police if it keeps you from being killed as you pose as some hooker. You could have been trapped with a man who insisted on sex. Then what?”
“I would have followed through. She’s my sister. What wouldn’t I do for information to find her? You don’t understand what a person will do to save their blood!”
Actually, he did get it.
He’d committed a plethora of travesties in order to get Katerina and Natasha to this life. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to save them.
He’d killed.
Robbed.
Executed.
Tortured.
His existence didn’t matter. It was all about them, and he knew it. He was in the home stretch. Once Natasha married Chris, and he didn’t doubt the man would ask one day, he could stop being this man.
He could have peace.
“What’s his name?” Marissa asked again.
Dimitri wasn’t having it.
“Don’t tell her his name. She’s going to get herself killed by playing investigator. That’s not her job.”
She stood.
Emma warned her. “I will shoot you if you look at him funny.”
Greyson, who’d been quiet, finally spoke, “I have a solution if anyone wants to hear it.”
They all looked at him.
“We help people. We’ll take your case, Miss Pierce. We’ll find your sister for you.”
Dimitri stared at him. “WHAT?”
Emma did too. “GREYSON!”
She couldn’t believe it.
“Maybe this was meant to be. She stumbled onto him, and we’re supposed to help her. Besides, she’s got the magic black card. That means we’re going to help her out.”
Oh boy.
This was bad.
Even Emma could see that.
“Greyson, she tried to kill Dimitri. Maybe she’s the last person we should be helping.”
He shook his head.
Croft recalled talking to Julie. He wanted to bring her home and feed her cookies as she did homework.
She was a child, and the system failed her.
Like Sam.
She didn’t have a chance out here by herself, and if they wanted to find her, they had to move fast. There were women dying out on the streets as they sold themselves each and every day.
This girl…she needed help then, and he didn’t step in and handle it, and for that, he regretted it.
Well, it was better late than never, right?
“Dimitri usually picks the cases, but I should have helped her when I saw her. We’re going to help you, Marissa, but you have to stop being violent. That solves nothing.”
She began crying, glad that she was going to get some help with all of this.
“Thank you, Mr. Croft.”
He pulled out his wallet. “How much were you supposed to be paid?”
“Five hundred.”
“Pay your madam, and then go home. Dimitri is right about this being dangerous and stupid. It will get you killed. The police have a file cabinet full of dead hookers that no one is missing. Don’t end up there.”
She took the money. “Thank you, Mr. Croft.”
“Meet us at ‘Aquarius’ tomorrow when it opens. We will talk about your sister and her case then. Right now, we’re going to get Dimitri, and ourselves, home. I suggest you do the same.”
She took the money, and the card her sister had in her possession.
Then she left.
Emma stared at him.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she offered, going on record. “I have a sick feeling in my gut.”
Yeah, he did too.
Greyson knew it was a terrible one, but that didn’t change it. “Our last case, we were hired by a killer. It can’t get much worse than that, now can it?” he asked.
Dimitri shook his head.
He couldn’t believe this night.
All he wanted was to go back to Terrace Glen and stitch his arm closed. It stung like a bitch, and his mood was really miserable.
He had a feeling it was going to get worse.
“I’ll see you at home,” he said, grabbing his things. When he headed out, he slammed the door.
“Greyson, maybe you should have asked Dimitri if he wanted to work this case. He seems angry.”
He kissed his wife.
“I’m angry too. My security guy was nearly taken down by a hostess, playing hooker, and all in my hotel. I’m not a patient man, Emma, and something has to give. Dimitri is playing a dangerous game.”
She was aware.
“Take me home, and I’ll take care of his arm. Have you seen his back?”
He nodded. “His father did a number on him as a child.”
She cringed. “Those three poor kids,” she said, thinking about the one growing in her body. “They lived through hell, Greyson. We have to do something to help him through this. We can’t lose Dimitri.”
He was aware.
Emma had an attachment.
Hell!
He did too.
“When we go home, you go play mother and take as long as it takes to get him in the right frame of mind. I’ll start working on researching our new client. If I find anything bad in the search, we’ll drop her case. If not, we’re going to take this one.”
She didn’t get it.
“Why are you so hellbent on taking this one case, Greyson? Why? Help me understand.”
“You know how you feel bad about not saving Sam before that man beat him in the alley?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Julie Pierce is my Sam. She was right there, and I didn’t bring her home with me. I could have, since I knew she was nothing more than a child.”
“Grey.”
He shook his head. “We find her. We clean her up, and we send her home. I can’t save them all, Emma, but I can save her.”
She thought about Dimitri.
But could they save him?