Dark Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 1) (4 page)

It was hot.

As she headed his way, he couldn’t help but grin. This sexy redhead was all his. He’d done something right in his life to deserve this. What did he do?

Yeah, he had no freaking clue.

“What are you grinning at, babe?” she asked, picking up a towel to dry off her face and hair.

“Oh, I’m definitely grinning at you.”

She was well aware. That was exactly why she swam every day. It had nothing to do with staying in shape. They had enough bedroom cardio to do that. This was about turning on her sexy husband.

As he sat there in his swim trunks, bare chested, and wearing sun glasses, she knew what he was thinking. His body told the tale, and she was thinking the same thing.

Maybe they’d head back up to their bedroom.

Or the living room.

The pool house.

Hell!

Their kitchen.

Emma wanted to roll around with her sexy older husband. Now that they had copious amounts of time, they enjoyed spending it naked.

It was like early retirement where instead of being old and wrinkly, they could enjoy each other’s bodies.

“I’m glad I can still make you think about me,” she said, moving toward him.

“Oh, kitten, I think about you more hours in the day than anything else. Right now I’m thinking…will she sit in my lap and make me a very happy man?”

Emma didn’t hesitate.

That was her cue.

She straddled the lounge chair and gave him what he wanted. With Greyson, she always would. He was the sexiest pirate in the world.

And he was all hers.

As soon as she perched herself across his lap, she could feel him beneath her. Yes, her husband was ready to spend more time naked. That always gave her a thrill.

He wanted her.

It was always befuddling to her. This sexy, older man thought she was a treasure, and he treated her that way each and every day.

Hallelujah.

“Someone is very happy to see me.”

He laughed. “You could say that.” For someone over forty, he still had a strong sex drive. Emma was at the center of it. She turned him on, made him crazy, and drove him wild.

With her, his libido was working overtime.

He loved every second of it too.

Croft tugged her mouth down to his, and the kiss they shared was filled with so much passion and love that it swamped him. In his chest, his heart skipped the second their lips touched.

This was home.

This was everything he’d fought for as a soldier, as a Fed, and as a man running the Vegas mob.

This woman was his destiny, and he’d reached it. Nothing mattered past this. With Emma, he’d reached the pinnacle of his life.

Slowly, she pulled away, running her finger down the scar on his cheek. It sent shivers down his skin.

It always did.

Emma had this effect on him.

“Babe, you make me all hot and bothered,” she murmured, again leaning toward him. When Greyson licked a droplet of water from her throat, it was her turn to get turned on.

Greyson grinned wickedly as his hands found her wet hair. They slipped into it, as he plotted his next move.

He was going to plunder.

Just as he was about to kiss her again, someone, nearby, cleared their throat.

“Um, really? Out here now?” Curtis said, dropping down on the lounge chair beside them. “That’s why bedrooms have doors, and the patio doesn’t.”

Greyson glanced over, ready to make some pithy comment, but the man’s appearance stopped him in his tracks.

Curtis looked like hell.

That didn’t seem right.

Something was up.

“Why do you look like you’ve gone on a bender?” he asked, pointing at his face. There were bags under his eyes, and there was no damn reason for it.

Curtis had been adopted, and he was part of their family. They didn’t work that much, so he should be having a damn good time with the new woman in his life. Plus, he had no bills, a racy car, and money to blow. He was a spoiled rich kid in a young man’s body.

They’d made sure of it.

On top of all of that, Katerina Gideon had the hots for their ‘son’. She’d chased him down.

And caught him.

“It was a long night.”

Emma looked concerned. “Want to talk about it?” she asked, the mothering instinct kicking in. To her, Curtis was their son. Maybe only on paper, but they loved him with all of their hearts.

If he was hurting, they needed to fix it. She reached out and touched his knee. “You can tell us anything. We’re here for you, Curtis.”

God!

He really wanted to spill it all. He and Kat were hiding something huge, and he needed to get it off his chest. They were his family, and it felt horribly wrong to hide it from them.

They were Mom and Dad.

They were the only people who loved him in the world, and he owed them the respect that went with that.

Still…

If Dimitri found out, the shit was definitely going to hit the fan.

“I can’t.”

They stared at him.

It had to be big.

Curtis told them everything. When he ran his hands thought his curly brown hair, Greyson swore they shook.

Okay, this was bad.

They had to get to the bottom of it. He didn’t like the idea that their son couldn’t come to them with anything that had him tied up in knots.

“I know what it is,” Greyson said, knowing how to get the man to talk.

“What?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, what?” Curtis added.

“Mama, he killed a man. Put a gun against his head,” he began, screwing with the boy.

Emma gasped. “Pulled the trigger now he’s dead?”

Greyson nodded. “Life had just begun, and now he’s gone and thrown it all away.”

Curtis stared at them. “You do realize I know what that song is, and I know you’re yanking my chain, right? I swear the two of you have too much time on your hands.”

They laughed.

How couldn’t they not?

It was funny as hell.

The look alone on Curtis’s face as they had begun repeating the lyrics, and once he got it…

Yeah, it was priceless.

“Why don’t you just tell us, son?” Greyson asked. “We won’t get angry or judge you.”

Curtis stared down at his hands. He really wanted to share it in the worst way, but he’d promised Kat they’d keep it quiet as long as they could.

Only, this was his family.

That mattered to him.

These two people had taken on the role of mother and father, of sorts. They took him in, adopted him, paid off his debt, and gave him a fabulous life. He’d been a kid raised by a poor grandmother, and now he lived on an estate outside of Vegas. They attended lavish parties, threw them, and he had his own limo.

How could he not tell them?

“If Kat finds out…”

Emma took a stab at it.

“She’s pregnant, isn’t she?”

Curtis looked around wildly. “Shhhhh, you can’t be saying that out loud! He’ll kill us!”

Greyson stared at his wife. “You’re good. You got that on the first shot.”

“I was a cop. We’re pretty smart. Really, what can he be stressed out about? Curtis has money, he has a home, and he has a beautiful girlfriend. What else is there? If he didn’t kill anyone, there’s only one thing left that would freak a young man out.”

She had a point.

Greyson focused on him. “Son, you knocked the girl up? Really? Should I have sat you down at twenty-seven and explained the ways to protect yourself from this? I assumed, since you were a Fed, that you knew all about the birds and the bees.”

Curtis smirked. “I’m going to bet you’ve never seen a condom in your marriage, so you probably shouldn’t be talking birth control with me—she should.”

Emma laughed at the look on Greyson’s face.

Curtis was damn right.

Emma popped a pill to spare her sexy cave-Croft from having to bag up before he got lucky. Besides, they had spontaneous sex way too often for him to be bothered with something like that.

“You have a very valid point.”

“See?” he muttered.

“What happened, Curtis?” Emma asked, getting her husband to let her handle this.

A situation like this called for a calm head.

“The night of the commissioner’s Spring Fling, we had sex for the first time. It’s all it took.”

Greyson shook his head. “You’re worried about Dimitri, aren’t you?”

“Hell yes, we are, but I’m also worried about something else.”

They didn’t get it.

What could be worse than a pissed off Russian killer? That was like the pinnacle of trouble. If there was one mess you didn’t want to fall into, it was the one where you knocked up one of Dimitri Gideon’s baby sisters.

That was
T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

“What are you stressed about?” Emma asked, hopping off her husband’s lap to sit beside Curtis. When she took his hand in hers, he was tense.

“I told her we should get married, but she won’t do it. Kat knows I rushed with Brynn, and she’s making me wait until after the baby is born.”

They got it.

With Curtis, this was a slippery slope. He’d rushed into marriage once before, and with disastrous outcome.

“So, you want to get married?” Greyson asked, just making sure they were all on the same page.

“Hell yes! I don’t want my baby born illegitimately. I was the bastard, that’s not happening to my kid.”

“Want me to talk to her?” Emma asked.

“You can’t, Mom. If you do, she’ll know I told you, and that will be bad. We both know a pissed off woman is a bad thing, but a pregnant one…deadly. Toss in her brother and I’m going to be buried in the desert up to my neck.”

Greyson laughed. “One of us doesn’t really have experience with that, and it would be me. My girl is protected.”

“I wasn’t thinking and neither was she. I offered to do the right thing, but Kat doesn’t want to marry me. What if that’s just an excuse? What if she’s not into me and doesn’t want to break my heart?”

All these things were racing through his mind. How could they not?

Here were the scars left behind by Brynn.

They’d destroyed his heart.

Emma dropped her arm around his shoulders and left a chaste kiss on his cheek. If he couldn’t see how dedicated Kat was, he needed a wakeup call.

She knew how to do it—tough love.

“You’re probably right,” Emma said. “How could she love you?”

He stared at her.

“Uh, ouch? I expected that from him,” he said, pointing at Greyson, “not you, Mom.”

She smiled.

“I mean it. Look at you, Curtis. You’re smart, you’re good at computers, you’re handsome, sweet, and you dote on her. You’re gentle, a kind soul, and you can give your child a great life. Yeah, she must be thinking you’re a loser.”

He got what she was doing.

Greyson laughed. “You walked right into that one.”

He had.

“Then why won’t she marry me? Dimitri is going to find out, and when he does…I’m dead. He’s going to kill me. You saw what he did to me when I wanted to date her. I knocked up his baby sister, and we aren’t married. That can’t be good.”

She squeezed his hand. “It’s not good, Curtis, but you want to marry her. If she won’t, there’s nothing we can do or Dimitri can do to change that. Kat is an adult, and she’s got to make this choice.”

“I wish I never opened my mouth and told her that I was going to ask her to marry me in a couple years after we took it slow. I didn’t think she’d hold me to it.”

“And you’re sure she’s pregnant?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, we’ve been to the doctor.”

She was excited.

“We’re going to have a baby in the house. That’s a wonderful thing. Maybe you need to enjoy this process, and worry about Dimitri a little less. What’s done is done, and he’s not going to kill you.”

Greyson laughed.

Emma pointed at him. “You’re really not helping, babe. Stop tormenting him.”

Greyson patted the man on the leg.

His wife was right. Curtis was really distraught. There was a time and a place. This wasn’t it.

“She’s right. You’re missing all the great things that come with having a baby. There are milestones, a baby book, sonograms, and so much more. Why don’t you focus on that?”

“And Kat?”

“I’ll talk to her,” Emma stated.

Curtis didn’t look calm at all.

“If you do that, she’s going to know it old you.”

“No, she won’t. I’ve noticed her in the bathroom a lot lately,” she offered. “Morning sickness?”