Chapter Four
Sunday Early
Morning
Sky Villa
D Imitri Gideon was lost in his dream. It was a maze of darkness, trees, and so much hate. He couldn’t get free, no matter how hard he tried. He waited for it to overtake him, and he knew it would. He’d been here so many times before, and the outcome was always the same.
He’d been lost in this nightmare.
Without having to even think about it, Dimitri knew what came next.
All that was left was for him to rush through the trees, run into the small house, and stick a knife into his father’s throat. He could hear the screams and begging from Katerina, and he could hear her horror.
He felt it.
He lived it.
As his dream played out, he was a captive audience. He was moving through the darkness, willing his body to stop. He prayed for unicorns, a rainbow, anything that would stop the blood from coming.
As always, nothing stopped it.
He was forced to relive it as his penance once more.
So, it began.
As soon as he rushed into the house, he pulled the bowie knife from his boot. Once inside, he rushed toward her small, vile bedroom where their father and his friends went to rape her.
He opened the door and there she was—this slip of a girl—pinned beneath him as he pummeled her tiny body with his. The smell of sex and blood assaulted him.
It horrified him.
Only, it wasn’t his father’s blood.
YET.
Dimitri hadn’t delivered the killing blow.
His mind was in control, and it forced him to focus on his sister. She wasn’t a day over ten, and she was being destroyed by the man who created her.
The copper-y penny smell made him want to puke, as their father dug his nails into her throat, as his swollen erection was forced into her small body.
The rage was there.
The hate.
The anger.
He knew it was time. With one swift move, he stuck the knife into his own father’s throat, killing him. With a strength that he didn’t know he had, he finished him off, snapping his neck like nothing more than a small branch beneath his boot.
He was done.
Kat was free.
As soon as he had her in his arms and she clung to him, the vision wavered. It was a different house, a different girl, and still it caused him so much pain.
He had to lie to get her. He had to pretend to want her for nothing more than sex. It was anything but. This was about saving her.
He gave the woman more money than she’d see in a lifetime, and then headed toward the dark room to get his new property.
Inside, he found her, her ankle chained to a radiator, her bone stick legs protruding from beneath the rags that the woman forced her to wear.
Immediately, she looked up at him with dead, cold eyes. She was close to death, and he’d nearly been too late. He’d had to kill so many to get the money to save her.
He’d had to wade through the blood of many women, men, and children to save this child—his blood.
In that moment, he didn’t regret it.
As Natasha’s mother unlocked the chain and grabbed the broken girl by the hair to drag her across the floor, clumps of what looked to be dirty red hair fell from her head.
It made him sick. She was less than human as she howled like an animal in pain. Then she scooted back to the corner as if she expected him to hurt her.
The poor thing cowered.
His heart broke.
Dimitri could hear himself talking in Russian, trying to coax her away. She wouldn’t budge. It was a sad testament to what this woman did to her.
She was a victim, but she’d rather stay with her than trust a stranger.
After a few moments of him kneeling on that dirty floor, she finally understood.
He was her salvation.
Dimitri reached down for her, and when he lifted her into his arms, he could feel the bony edges of her body, digging into his. She weighed nothing. She was like a sack of dust, barely straining his arms.
She was on death’s door as she clung to him, and in that moment, he took a vow. He’d avenge them. Those two broken children, one his full blood, and one his half-sister, would have their revenge.
He carried her out, tucked her into the back of the car with his other sister, and handed her some water and cookies. She ate them like she’d hadn’t been fed in weeks, as she backed away from him so not to be hurt.
He could see Natasha in the darkness huddled on the floorboard of the back seat, trying to be invisible. She was trying to disappear by making herself as small as possible.
That enraged him.
And it scared him since he knew what came next.
Revenge.
Vengeance.
Punishment.
Whispering to Katerina, he turned and went back into the house. He knew Natasha’s mother was done.
For this, he’d never forgive or let her live.
What was one more soul on his shoulders?
What was one more kill?
There had already been so many, and he’d never forgotten any of them. They were links in the chain that held him to this world.
At the door, he knocked again, and she opened it, smiling like she’d won the lottery.
Oh, she had.
The reaper had come, and it was time.
Once inside, he beat her to death with his own hands, breaking her limbs, spilling her blood, and then ending her by slicing her throat. In the end, he wrapped that chain round her bloody neck, locking her to that radiator—a shiny gold coin shoved down her throat.
As her blood ebbed across his boots, he stared down at her with nothing but emptiness.
He had no remorse.
He had no sorrow.
Instead, he walked out that door, never to return. Once outside, the car was gone, and it was a different scene.
Dimitri knew what was next. He was struggling to get free, as he was tied to a chair.
He recalled those months of this, and he prayed the memories would flash past him, giving his battered soul a break.
Only, they didn’t.
Dimitri was being tortured, and the entire time, he knew he deserved it.
He’d killed so many, and he justified it all. It was his duty, his honor, and his privilege to end their lives. He was tortured for three months, and they made sure the scars were mostly invisible. He’d been battered, bruised, starved, and the entire time he only thought one thing.
He’d failed the two little girls. They were by themselves as he took this one last job to make them enough money. Only, he’d screwed up. He’d been betrayed by a woman—one he trusted.
Now, he was fighting to live to get back to them.
Love had done this.
Someone he’d felt safe with had broken him. Dimitri mourned it in his dream, struggling to get free of the memories and burdens of his heart.
He focused on his sisters, and he knew he had to escape. They had nothing but him, and his will to live had to be greater than his longing to die.
As the dream shifted, more death came. He’d killed them, too, doing horrible things to escape. He slaughtered the woman who’d helped them.
Dimitri killed her, and the child she carried to prove a point. He hadn’t known she was pregnant, but it didn’t matter.
It was too late for her, and for him.
All of this made him, and as he was about to fall into the cataclysmic abyss of darkness. He won again.
Dimitri woke himself up with a start.
He was free.
God!
It was lies.
He would never be free!
Emma could feel him moving.
The whole bed was shaking, and she felt horrible that she’d caused this pain. As she sat up, his fists were clenched, his body taut, and he was struggling.
She touched his chest, and he was warm. Immediately, she pulled the blankets off them, and she went to her knees.
“Dimitri!”
He continued to battle something.
“Dimitri! It’s okay,” she said, hoping she could get through to him.
Suddenly, he sat up with a start, his eyes popping open. He focused on her, and she stayed very still.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice heavy with the drugs and horrors of sleep.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He covered his face as he tried to shake off the demons. “No, but I will be.”
The worst part, when he was most vulnerable, was this moment. It was when he woke, confused, disoriented, and when he could be hurt the most.
Emma moved closer, and she wrapped her arms around him until he stopped shaking. Then she laid back, taking him with her until he was pressed to her side.
He fought to move, but she held on.
“Shhh. I’m here. Just rest a second. It was only a dream. It can’t hurt you.”
Oh, she was very wrong.
It could hurt him.
It always did.
“It was more than a dream. It was my life,” he whispered, trying to regain control of everything around him. Once he was in control, he could beat it back.
Emma held him closer, and she soothingly ran her hand across his arm and back. “I have you. You’re safe. Whatever was chasing you won’t get you here.”
He wasn’t so sure of that, but the scent of her perfume, the soft feel of her body…it calmed him.
It helped him relax.
She gave him a kiss on the temple, and all the tension was gone. It helped that she wasn’t asking him uncomfortable questions.
Instead, she just held him.
Dimitri didn’t remember when that had happened last. No one ever touched him. Kat and Nat loved him, hugged him, but when he woke afraid, scared, or haunted, it was always alone. This was the first time in…ever.
His heart rate slowed.
He pulled away from her, still grateful for that contact. He didn’t have the words to tell her what it meant to him. He refused to break. He was stronger than that, and he had to be.
Everyone needed Dimitri for his strength.
Except her.
It confused him so much that it brought tears to his eyes.
With her, he felt value.
Emma didn’t give up when he moved away from her. Instead, she battled harder for him. She went with him, placing her head on his shoulder, and her arm over his waist.
She held him as he fought whatever was in his heart and mind. Emma wasn’t giving up. She’d lost one brother, and she wasn’t losing this one.
As they lay there, he finally spoke, breaking his silence.
“Greyson would not be amused if he saw this.”
She knew differently. He’d told her to help him, and she was doing just that.
This was what Dimitri needed.
“He knows I’m in bed with you. I spoke to him three hours ago, and he’s fine. Relax.”
He was trying.
It wasn’t easy.
“What time is it?” he asked.
“It’s a little after four in the morning. You should go back to sleep. You need rest in order to heal. Tomorrow is going to suck if you don’t sleep.”
He didn’t doubt it.
Every day sucked.
“I can’t go back to sleep.”
She knew he was afraid, but he wouldn’t say it.
“Well, I need to sleep. Can you just stay here with me?” she asked.
He’d be stupid not to take her up on her offer. He really hoped Greyson knew, or this risked everything he’d found and fallen in love with in his life.
He couldn’t lose the family.
“Please?” she asked.
“Okay, Emma.”
She laid there, her hand moving back and forth across his abs. She was hoping it soothed him.
When he yawned, she kept going. She snuggled closer, dropping her leg over his, and pulling the blanket over them. They cuddled like two kids scared during a thunderstorm.
She’d done this with Gage so many times when they were kids.
It brought back memories.
“I like the smell of your hair,” he admitted, as he yawned again. “You always smell like a garden.”
She didn’t speak.
Instead, she held him even tighter. Clearly, it was soothing him because it began to work.
Slowly, Dimitri slipped into sleep. She could hear the soft in and out of his breathing.
He was relaxed again, and this time, he wasn’t dreaming. That would help him. Maybe he could find some peace.
She didn’t move for a little while. When the clock said five fifteen, she knew she needed to head down and get the things Greyson would have sent.
They were starting a case, and she should rest, but she couldn’t help but want to mother him.
One day he’d open up to her.
She knew he would.
Until then, she’d battle on.
Dimitri Gideon wasn’t going down.
Not on her watch.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Across Town
Julie’s Apartment
Marissa Pierce couldn’t sleep. She was rattled to her core. The sexy Dimitri Gideon hated her fucking guts, and she couldn’t blame him.
What had she been thinking?
She stabbed the man in a hotel room.
Marissa was obviously out of her damn mind, and she needed to apologize today. Maybe, if she was lucky, he wouldn’t kill her. She knew what they said about him.
He was lethal.
He was dangerous.
He was sexy.
He was the kind of man you didn’t get attached to because they didn’t live long. Still, he was the epitome of masculinity. When she’d seen him without his shirt, she wanted to touch him, run her fingers over his skin, and do wicked things—even as she wanted to hate him.
He was an enigma.
Marissa didn’t get why a man as sexy as him had to hire prostitutes. What was he thinking?
Any woman would crawl just to touch him.
Including her.
Working with him at ‘Aquarius’ had been hard. He smelled so delicious, and she always checked him out.
Marissa heard all the women talking. He’d slept with each of them, but only once. The stories they’d tell about the sex made her green with envy.
She wanted that one taste of paradise to forget. Only, she’d never have it.
Why?
Because she tried to stab him.
Why couldn’t her life be easy?
Maybe there was hope. After all, she couldn’t believe she was going to be getting his help, but she was.
Again.
That day he brought her home, she’d been scared. She wanted him to stay, and she wanted to beg him for help, but she’d lied to him.
That was so wrong of her, and she knew it. Dimitri had rules, and she’d broken them while working at ‘Aquarius’. That had been her first mistake.
Her second was that she wanted to be near him. When he was around, she felt safe.
That was priceless in her life. He could give her what no one else could.
Protection.
The day he rescued her from the detective who pushed her around, she wanted to kiss him.
She still did.
Only now that was gone.
He wanted to kick her ass, and she didn’t blame him. She would have reacted the same way too. Stabbing a man was not the way to get his help, or attention.
Today, she’d be on her best behavior.
Today was a new beginning.
Dimitri and his friends would help her find Julie, and she could move on with life and finally be free.
There was hope.
There was a shot at happiness.
It had to work out.
There was so much on the line.
Julie’s life depended on her playing nice, and for her sister, she’d do anything.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
When he opened his eyes, Emma was gone. In fact, he looked at the clock, and he’d slept another two hours.
What the hell?
How did she get him to fall back to sleep, and where was she?
Dimitri hopped out of bed, and he pulled on a t-shirt that he’d grabbed from his dresser. Once on, he padded down the hall to the main area of his living space. From the doorway, he could see her in his kitchen.
Emma was making something.
“Hey! You’re up,” she said, picking him up from the corner of her eye. “I made you something to eat,” she said, as he slowly approached her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She laughed at the look of confusion on his face. “Are you okay? I just told you I’m making us breakfast.”
He stared at her.
“What?” she asked, looking around.
“I just don’t know what to think,” he said. “In one day, I’ve been assaulted, stabbed, drugged, I slept with a woman married to a man I consider my best friend, and now she’s in my kitchen cooking—in a place I don’t bring women. Ever.”
Emma knew he was off balance, and that was exactly her plan. Dimitri was a man of planning, constant restriction, and abusing himself over his past.
If she could keep him guessing, he wouldn’t be focused on anything else.
Emma knew men.
She was married to the biggest enigma of them all.
Instead of answering, she handed him a mug of coffee. She went up on her toes and gave him a kiss.
“You’re funny. Not many people see that. You should let that side of Dimitri out. He’s sweet.”
Now he stared in horror.
“No one sees that,” he said, taking a seat. “There’s a reason for that, and I’m not sweet! No one calls me sweet!”
Truth be told, no one made him breakfast in his home.
Hell!
There was a good reason for that. He didn’t want to be weak.
“Well, you were hurt, I did drug you, and I figured to get your forgiveness, I’d feed you.”
“You don’t need my forgiveness.”
She stared at him. “I do. I didn’t know about the nightmares. Had I, I wouldn’t have taken your free will and forced you to sleep with that tranquilizer. I think my need to take care of you got a little out of hand.”
He wasn’t upset with Emma.
He couldn’t be.
There wasn’t a malicious bone in her body. Besides, he knew anger, hate, and abuse. That wasn’t her.
“Why do you want to take care of me?” he asked. “That’s what I don’t get. Why? I’m nothing to you.”
She headed back toward him. “That’s bullshit. You mean a lot to me.”
He laughed.
There was no way that was possible.
Other than his sisters, since he saved them, he was nothing to anyone but a tool to be used to kill, hunt, or protect.
No one ever got to know him.
Ever.
“I’m serious. You matter, Kat matters, and Natasha too. I love all three of you. To me, you’re not Gideons, but Crofts. I’ll fight for you, Dimitri, even if you tell me to stop.”
He was staggered by that.
Dimitri didn’t understand why, and it embarrassed him, so he tried to cover it with a joke.
“Want to run away and get married?” he teased.
She took his hand in hers. “If I wasn’t happily married, you’d be one hell of a catch, Max.”
Emotion filled his eyes. He got up to move away from her.
“Please don’t,” she said. “Please don’t run anymore.”
He stopped.
“I don’t know how to deal with how you treat me. I’m not accustomed to it, Emma. I feel wrong for enjoying it, like I don’t deserve it.”
“So what you’re saying is you want me to treat you and your sisters like shit?”
“No. They don’t deserve to hurt. This is on me, and only me.”
“Why?”
He turned and moved at her so fast it was startling, but she’d been a cop, and she was braced for it.
“Because I’ve done things that would make you hate me. I’m not this,” he said, slapping himself on the chest. “I’m not the good man you’ve pictured me as. I’ve killed, I’ve lied, and I’ve done horrible things. Maximillian is dead because he was a monster. His father made him one.”
Emma didn’t give up.
She knew what was on the line with him. If they let him fall, they’d lose him forever. He was family.
He was theirs.
“Maximillian isn’t a monster. He’s my friend. He’s my brother, and I love him. You can scare the world, Dimitri, but you won’t scare me away from loving you.”
He was frustrated.
He threw the coffee mug at the wall, and it left an ugly brown stain.
“You don’t know me. I buy women for sex, and I’m an asshole. I don’t deserve your kindness and love. It’s only a matter of time…”
He stopped.
Already, he’d said too much.
She didn’t deserve to carry his burden. That was on him, and him alone.
Instead, he went to the wall and picked up the broken shards of mug, and of course, she was right beside him. Emma kneeled and helped.
As he reached for the biggest chunk of ceramic, her hand covered his. Dimitri glanced over at her, meeting her gaze.
“I won’t ever stop loving you. Why can’t you just accept that? Why can’t you just say ‘I love you too’, and know that in ten years, I’ll still be here? Greyson will still be here. We are your family. You can’t carry this all on your own. You have to let someone in. Let it be me.”
He stared down at the cut on his finger, and he’d never even felt the pain. That’s how filled with it his life had become.
Then, as usual, she took care of him.
Emma took his hand in hers, and she put pressure on it with her own hand to stop the bleeding.
That spoke volumes.
Finally, she broke the silence.
“You have me when you need me. I won’t force you to feel anything for us. When you’re ready, you have a family who will support and help you. This loneliness, Dimitri…it’s self-imposed. You have a chance. If you push it away, that’s on you.”
She went back to the kitchen and tossed the shards of mug. Then she went and cleaned up the coffee from the wall. When she stood, he was standing there.
“I don’t know how to be that man. I don’t know how to be part of a family. I watch all of you, and it’s so foreign to me. I’ve never been given that love, Emma. I don’t know why I’m worthy.”
She saw him struggling.
“You’re worthy because you are. Every child is worthy of that protection. I can’t go back and fix that, Dimitri, but I can fix the now. Kat needed a role model to help her be a wife. Natasha needed to see that she deserved to be safe, and she found that too.”
“I don’t know what I need,” he admitted. “I’m so far gone that I don’t know how to get back.”
“You need love.”
He couldn’t believe he was worth it. No one had ever loved him in all of his life.
“You can fight me, you can throw coffee mugs at your walls, and you can say you don’t deserve it, but that is NOT going to stop me. I battle stubborn every day. Look at my caveman. I’m going to love you whether you think you deserve it or not.”
“You’re insane.”
She laughed. “This mother gig is a bitch. There should be a handbook.”
He relaxed.
“I don’t know how to ask for anything. I’m the provider, not the one given anything.”
She stared into his eyes.
He was getting frustrated.
“Ask for a hug,” she said.
Dimitri trusted her.
“I need a hug.”
She went into his arms, and held him.
For the longest time, he didn’t move. Dimitri soaked in that feeling. It wasn’t lust. It wasn’t about their bodies pressed together. It was about how she held him. Her hand moved slowly up and down his back, ignoring the telltale bumps of his scars.
She accepted him.
ALL of him.
Finally, she spoke, “Ask for what you need. You are worthy, and for once, let me provide for you—not the other way around.”
He didn’t know how to do that, but he’d try.
“I need to know that you’ll forgive me for what I’ve yet to do. The killing, it never stops. I am that monster.”
That was the problem.
From a young age, he was never protected. He’d built the walls, and he’d hidden behind them. Now she was asking he take them down.
It scared him.
Well, that was about to change.
“Then let me do it for you. If you can’t carry the weight anymore, tag me in. Let me handle it.”
That astounded him. She didn’t even ask what he was taking on, but she was willing to do it.
It was selfless.
It was unselfish.
It was so much like a mother that he couldn’t fathom it. Instead, he buried his face in her hair and just breathed.
“Who do you need to kill?” she asked.
He couldn’t tell her that he planned to execute Thomas Christ in the most painful way for taking her brother away from her.
Then he was secretly glad it all happened. The selfish part of him wanted her to always care about him like this. She was the only one who ever had.
“I was going to off your husband so I can steal you away as my own.”
She snorted. “Well, he’s not going to make that easy, now is he?” she teased back.
Dimitri laughed. “He’d be an idiot to let you go.”
“Keep telling him that so he appreciates me,” Emma added, winking at him.
Dimitri’s eyes were clearer, and some of the demons were pushed back.
It was a start.
“Now, tell me what you need,” she asked. “It’s a new day. Help me help you.”
What didn’t he need?
A therapist.
A padded cell.
Prison.
“Can I have a kiss?” he asked.
She gave him one, and Dimitri cherished it in case it was the only one he ever received.
“Thank you for that,” he said, when she smiled up at him. “I will hold that in my heart.”
She patted his chest above his heart.
“That’s why I know you have the ability to be whoever you want. You’re not a monster, and you aren’t too far gone. Your father did not make you one.”
He only wished.
“Now what do you want?” Emma asked.
“Well, since this is so easy. Can I have some breakfast? I don’t remember when I ate last.”
That she could do.
Emma led him into the kitchen. “Well, I wasn’t sure what you like to eat. I don’t ever see you eat breakfast. So, I went with eggs.”
“I like eggs. We’re friends.”
Then it occurred to him.
“Wait, how did you get eggs? I don’t keep food here. I hope you didn’t go out alone,” he said.
“Down boy. I’m taking care of you for the next hour. Baby steps.”
He laughed. “Yes, Mom.”
“I called the big man, and he handled it. Greyson can deliver a plane if I need one, so why not breakfast foods?”
It figured.
“Of course this was him. It’s not fair when you both team up against me.”
The idea that both of them were trying to heal him gave Dimitri hope. Two people found him redeemable.
That had to mean something.
Emma handed him a plate and there was bacon. She knew why it was there. Greyson was making sure his friend was fed and he knew everything about Dimitri. They spent all their time together.
Greyson must have seen a storm brewing too. He was a smart man who missed nothing. He, too, knew it was coming their way.
Dimitri was the center of it.
He carried her plate with him, so they could eat at the table. She brought him more coffee.
Together, they ate.
“Ask,” he said.
“Are you going to be okay to work this case? If not, you can pass, Dimitri.”
He stared at her. “That wasn’t what I expected.”
“Yeah, you thought I was going to ask about your back or the nightmares. Well, they aren’t my business. I figure if you want to tell me, you will. If not, then I don’t bring it up. Now, this case—that’s my business—since Greyson opted to take it.”
She was giving him an out.
“I wish he didn’t.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Uh, because she stabbed me?” he offered. “That’s never a good sign when the client has tried that,” he teased.
She wasn’t buying it.
“Good answer. Now try the truth.”
“I’m sexually attracted to her. There.”
She laughed. “Well, she is beautiful. I’d do her if I was into babes.”
He stared at her. “The pictures in my head.”
She snorted.
She gave him her bacon.
“You don’t like bacon? Who doesn’t?”
She knew with him, she had to give a little to get a little. “When my brother was killed, I held him in my arms. I stared down at his body, and all I saw was the way the knife cut him to pieces. There was meat, human meat, and it makes me squeamish. I can pull it off when Greyson is around, but not often.”
He didn’t know that.
Her explanation changed everything. Now he wanted to protect her even more, and let her help him.
She knew damage. Her past held it too.
Dimitri shared a little more.
“I dislike that I want Marissa and hate her at the same time. She lied to me, and I didn’t see it. Why? Did I let her attractiveness blind me? Am I slipping? Can we trust her?”
They were all good questions, and Emma understood why he was so worried.
She was too.
Marissa had stuck a knife through their head of security’s body. That didn’t bode well.
“I think she’s desperate to find her sister, and we can’t judge her based on last night’s actions. We need a little more. What would you do to find Kat or Nat?”
He laughed.
What didn’t he do?
His nightmares proved it.
As he ate, he noticed she was waiting. There was no pressure, and for the first time, he wanted to get the burden off his chest.
“I killed my father.”
She didn’t flinch.
“Yes, I’ve been told.”
He knew he needed to tell someone. Why not trust Emma? She comforted him.
Dimitri told her everything. “He was raping her when I arrived. I killed him and took her away.”
Emma listened to the gruesome details, and tears filled her eyes.
He didn’t stop. “When I saved Natasha, she was a mess. She was dirty, starving, and going bald from the lack of any light. She was basically an animal, locked in a room.”
As he described it, tears slipped from Emma’s eyes, and he wasn’t surprised. It had been terrible.
He’d cried over it too.
“What no one knows is I went back in and slaughtered her mother. For years, I carried that.”
Emma refused to look away. It caught him off guard as she gazed into his aqua eyes. “I’m sorry that you had to do that.”
It staggered him.
She was shedding tears for him, not his sisters. He didn’t get it.
“Why me?”
“You had to do it.”
“They are the ones who suffered.”
“But you saved them. Who saved you?”
When she turned her head, he was staggered. Emma got it. She saw what no one ever had. Yes, his sisters were broken, but he’d had to do horrible things to save them.
He was broken too.
“What?” she asked, seeing the look on his face.
“Nothing. I was thinking. Anyway, I had to kill her.”
“I would have too.”
He laughed.
“I would have. I would have killed her for trying to break someone beautiful. I would have killed her for starving and neglecting a child. I would have killed her for making you face and handle that.”
He ate his bacon.
“I kill a lot,” he admitted. Dimitri thought about being held prisoner and tortured, and how he’d killed the woman who betrayed him.
And the child.
It weighed on him.
“Sometimes, Dimitri, you have to do it. Before, I thought it was black and white. Now I see there’s a shitload of gray. We live in that gray. There are times in our lives when we have to break the law.”
“And if I had to break it and kill someone else?”
“I told you. I’d do it for you.”
Her hand was there.
He took it.
It was the first time he’d touched her first.
“Emma, stay who you are. Some of us, your husband included, need that purity. Don’t let it taint you too. If you do, then we don’t have that one beacon to hold onto in life.”
She got up and went to his side. He hugged her, resting his head on her chest. As he closed his eyes, there was that peace.
“If you need this, Dimitri, you call me. I’ll come. No matter what, where, or when, I’ll be there. I’ll show up and be that person for you.”
“I don’t know why.”
She lifted his chin. “Because love doesn’t judge. It’s free, and it’s never given with restraints. You have my love. There’s nothing you can do to change that.”
“Your husband…”
“If you kill him, I can’t love you,” she teased.
He laughed. Finally, that light met his eyes. “You have a point. I guess I’ll have to behave.”
“That’s probably for the best. Now, I have to finish eating. We have to be at ‘Aquarius’ soon.”
She sat.
“Thank you, Emma.”
“You’re welcome, Maximillian.”
His heart skipped. “I hate that name.”
“Then I won’t use it. I don’t want to bring you pain, only peace.”
He thought about it.
“You can use it.”
“Why?”
“You’re the only person I’ve loved in my life. You give me that peace. You can use it.”
She patted his hand. “He’s a good man.”
Dimitri said nothing.
He couldn’t.
He knew that was not the truth.
He’d lived as him, and it had been hell.
Maximillian Marchenko was evil to his core.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Outside Sky Villa
Following Dimitri Gideon wasn’t easy.
It was a challenge to say the least.
In order to stalk a killer, you needed to be a killer yourself. It was a good thing he was a rising star in that world and could compete with the best of them—him included.
One mistake, and a killer like him would be on to you. Dimitri Gideon, or as his past life knew him, Maximillian Marchenko, was the best at one time.
The KGB had trained him, and then he went private to make money. The US government utilized him, and gave him a new identity to set him free in the public sector.
He was highly sought after.
Now the Crofts employed him as their head of security, and so many wanted him to protect them too.
He was wasting his skill.
My, he’d given up the high life for something so mundane. Maybe that’s why it had been so hard to find him. He’d gone and done something unpredictable.
He hid in plain sight.
Now that he had turned up, watching him was so very important.
The man, who once worked for two countries, could smell a tail a mile away. One error, and all of his hard work would be for naught. He couldn’t risk a mistake.
With a man like Dimitri, if he suspected you were there, he’d turn and bite you when you least expected it.
So space mattered.
For now, he’d watch from a distance until the perfect opportunity came up.
When he could, he’d take a shot, and then it would be over.
One by one, he would dismantle Maximillian Marchenko’s family.
Why?
Because he could.
Vengeance was best served cold.
Like the soon-to-be dead man’s heart.