He lifted her up and started pulling her across the room. She glanced at her mom, her tears streaming down her face at the sight of all the blood. He killed her. She was dead and so was Karlicov.
Anger pooled in Nalia’s belly. She couldn’t let him get away with this. She wouldn’t let Vincent either.
“No. No, I’m not going with you,” she screamed at him and he struck her with the gun in the back of the head. She remembered her father’s words. Run. Trust no one. She had to get away. She had to go into survival mode. She had to.
“You don’t know everything about me. You know nothing,” she screamed at him.
“I know you’re weak like your mother,” he said and when he lowered the gun to drag her she used one of the moves that Boian had taught her and got free. Raymond’s eyes widened and she shifted and thrust her hand upward, knocking the gun from his hands. He grabbed for her and struck her repeatedly but she didn’t give up. She fought for her life and countered his moves, wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He shoved at her, trying to get her off of him as he banged her body against the cabinets and then the curio closet in the corner of the room. Fragile pieces her mother collected over the years shattered and rained over them but she kept her grip and tightened, letting the anger, the determination to live shove her into action. She screamed and cried, thinking of how he killed her mother and how she now had no one and was going to become the hunted.
He fell back on top of her on the floor. She gasped, losing her breath but then held on tight. She couldn’t let go. She needed to kill him and get away from here. He struggled to get free and she remembered her training and instinctively went for the move. She twisted and heard the crack. His body went limp and she released him, shoved him away, and pulled from underneath him.
She was shaking, she was so scared and sick. She looked at Raymond, eyes open. She’d killed him. She actually killed someone. Then came the anger again. Her father was dead, her mother, too, because of Raymond. She ran to her mother and checked her pulse then cried as she felt nothing. She wanted to die right here and end it all. She continued to cry and hold her face to her mother’s arm, sobbing. Then she remembered her father’s words.
Run. Don’t trust anyone.
She jumped up and wiped her tears. She ran for the basement and went to the corner and the hidden spot in the back of the room no one ever bothered with. She shoved aside the old spider webs and dead insects. She reached inside and pulled out the two bags. Guns, money, burner phones, knives, and ammunition. She took a deep breath and stared into the old mirror, barely seeing her full reflection. Life was over as she knew it. She was on the run. She was all alone and Vincent Scarlapetti would one day die because of what he did to her and her family.
Chapter 1
“Where is she?” Karlicov asked as he slowly awoke in the hospital. He coughed and Nicolai was there to comfort him. He held his gaze with a firm expression.
“We do not know.”
“What do you mean, Nicolai? How long has it been?” he asked and tried sitting up. He cringed from the pain.
Storm was there to help him. “Easy, Karlicov. You were shot twice and we all thought you weren’t going to make it. It was touch and go there for a while,” Storm informed him.
“How long?” he repeated.
“Thirteen days.”
Karlicov closed his eyes. He had been under sedation, painkillers and in and out of surgeries for that long? “Fuck,” he whispered.
“We have a lot of men looking, but she disappeared,” Storm said to him.
He looked at Nicolai. “Nothing more to tell me? Nothing?” he asked and felt defeated. His poor, beautiful daughter was caught in the middle of some mess. Into the middle of the lifestyle, the criminal element he worked so hard to keep her out of.
“Cosivan, Boian, Viktor, Chatham, and Dusty have been gathering more information while also continuing to search for her.”
Storm gave a wink. “Never seen those five quite like they are right now. By means they were not willing to share they gathered information on Nalia’s reason for disappearing even from us. Seems that Vincent Scarlapetti was working with Raymond, and negotiated a deal to take your daughter. He wants revenge after you killed his brother and cousin. In his sick, fucked-up head he planned on taking Nalia and marrying her, then having a child with her to join blood lines. We believe she thinks that they framed your death on her, and the death—”
Storm stopped talking and looked at Nicolai.
“What? Of who?” he asked and looked between both men.
Nicolai held a firm, serious expression. “Danella is dead. Raymond killed her,” he told him.
Karlicov felt the tears hit his eyes and his heart ached. He loved Danella. Had given up that love to keep her safe and look where it got her.
“I want him dead,” he whispered.
“Already done,” Storm replied.
“Who? Boian, Cosivan, and his soldiers?”
“Nalia,” Nicolai said to him.
He closed his eyes and felt his heart ache. His poor, beautiful Nalia who he tried to protect and love from afar was forced to fight and to kill. He swallowed hard then felt the hand on his shoulder. He blinked his eyes open.
“She is strong, Karlicov. She believes that she’s been framed for both murders and being hunted by all the top families. She’s running on fear and will continue to do so unless we can find her before Scarlapetti’s men find her first,” Nicolai told him.
“Why is he still alive?”
“You know there are rules and proper ways to do things?” Nicolai said to him.
“Just as there are proper ways to seek revenge?” he retorted.
“We couldn’t get close to him if we tried. He’s disappeared and every little lead we’ve come across turns up nothing,” Storm added.
“Then we wait and we find Nalia first and get her to safety.”
“How do you suppose we do that since it seems no one was able to find her so far, and even if we did, she’s so scared and thinks we want to kill her, so who would she trust?” Storm asked.
Karlicov looked at Nicolai. He held his boss’s gaze and felt his heart tighten and his gut clench. Was it the right thing to do? Was he standing in the way of the inevitable? Look what giving up on his true love had cost him. Danella and now maybe even his daughter, too.
“Call them, Nicolai. Send them to find her and keep her someplace safe.”
Nicolai nodded and he and Storm walked out of the room to let him rest.
* * * *
“Who is he talking about?” Storm asked.
“Cosivan and his men.”
Storm whistled low. “Holy shit, I didn’t see that coming. Is there something I should know about?” Storm asked Nicolai.
“As you know, Storm, Cosivan, and his four buddies were soldiers, Special Forces in the Corps before they retired a few years back. They had several missions that were close calls, but the five of them live for danger. They have troubled pasts and Viktor trusted them with his life. Cosivan and he go way back to when they were children. Dusty, also having some family in Russia loyal to my family, got into some trouble.”
“Dusty isn’t exactly a Russian name.”
“It’s short for Dustoyva. Viktor gave him the nickname and it stuck. Anyway, when they returned from war, and serving as Special Forces, they needed work to stay out of trouble and to keep the demons away. Viktor asked me if I could help them like I had helped him when he was young. He thought of them as his brothers, his family, and I could see how close they were. Viktor is my nephew, so of course I gave the men the opportunity to prove their commitment to the family. They’ve never failed to do so.”
Nicolai understood too well what Karlicov was going through. Karlicov always knew he had a daughter. Nicolai didn’t know he even had a daughter until three years ago, and when he, too, tried to find her and attempt to protect her, even if it was from afar, she had been taken and her mother k
illed. He had yet to find her.
Nicolai kept straight faced as they walked out of the building and to the awaiting SUV.
“You and Karlicov are close, too, like brothers so did you always know about Nalia?” Storm asked him.
“Karlicov had saved Nalia from getting into a bit of trouble when she was a teen. She found out about him when she was thirteen and then began to act out, get into some juvenile crimes when she was a kid.”
Storm widened his eyes. “So Karlicov stepped in?”
“He had to. She was about to engage in a more serious crime and against property belonging to a Cuban gang. He confronted her, saved her before she could be involved and her friends that did the crime paid the price. It wasn’t enough to scare her because all she seemed to want was her father’s love and attention. Karlicov kept seeing her without her mother knowing and he had her trained.”
“Trained?”
“In self-defense, weaponry, survival skills he hoped she would never need but felt compelled to have her prepared, just as Karlicov is always prepared.”
“That’s how she was able to get away, to defend herself and kill Raymond. Who trained her?” Storm asked.
Nicolai looked at him. “Boian did.”
“Oh,” Storm said and then licked his lower lip.
“Karlicov saw the changes in Nalia as she was starting college, getting older, more mature and the changes in Boian. He forbade Boian to ever see her again and the training was over.”
“So Boian fell in love with her and she fell in love with him?” Storm asked and then looked out the window.
“You know as well as anyone about how dangerous our lives are. You make sure that you protect Aspen and when you begin to raise a family, you protect them with all you have. Our enemies will stop at nothing to destroy us.”
Storm nodded.
“So this is a big decision by Karlicov to choose Cosivan and Team 13 to find her and protect her?” Storm asked.
“He knows that his fight to protect her from this life was a fantasy, and that now she will need the love and protection of soldiers who will do whatever is necessary to protect her.”
“Team 13 are intense men, to say the least.”
“They aren’t any more intense than you and your men, and they are just as resistant to having feelings, to making a connection and showing any sort of vulnerability, just as you and your men are. It seems Karlicov is now wanting to condone a relationship if it were to happen between his daughter and Team 13. All we can do is hope she accepts them when they find her and she doesn’t try to kill them before they can explain that she’s safe and that her father sent them for her.”
* * * *
Boian slammed the guy’s head up against the wall in the office.
“Please. Please, I don’t know where she is. I don’t,” the Slavic piece of shit replied.
Boian was losing patience. He knew these fuckers caused her to run. She had to be so scared and out of her mind with worry. Three more days and it would be thirteen weeks she was on the run. Thirteen fucking weeks. Boian was beginning to think she was dead or worse, that Scarlapetti had her.
“You know something. I know you fucking do. We’ve been watching this place. Four men just left thirty minutes ago. Where the fuck are they going?” Dusty demanded to know as he stood right by Boian. They were all beyond worried. From the moment they knew Nalia was in danger they all gathered together and planned on helping her. It had been too late when they got to her mother’s house. Boian knew immediately that Nalia had killed Raymond. In that moment he didn’t know why, but now, thirteen weeks later and they knew everything.
He shook the guy and pushed his gun against his throat.
“I will blow your fucking head off if you don’t tell me where Scarlapetti’s men were headed. Then I’ll kill your whole fucking family,” he threatened.
He was shaking, he was so angry and just as the disappointed feeling filled his gut and he was about to release his hold on this piece of trash the man shivered.
“They’ll kill me anyway. They have my daughter and wife,” he said and started to cry.
Boian squeezed him and lowered him slowly to the ground.
“Where are they going?”
“My family. Please. They have my family,” the man begged of them.
“Tell us where they have them and we’ll help if you know for a fact that those men know where Nalia is,” Dusty told the man.
Boian released him, letting the man fall to the floor.
Dusty pulled out his cell phone.
“Send men to Costano Avenue, house number 16,” Boian heard his brother in arms give info to the other men they knew. There were troops of them still on the hunt trying to locate Nalia and save her.
“Are they going after Nalia?” Boian demanded to know.
“Yes. Someone caught sight of her or someone who they believe is her. The jet probably is leaving right now.”
“Where? Where are they headed?” Dusty demanded this time.
The man told them an address. Someplace in Sacramento, California.
Boian struck the guy, knocking him out before he looked at Dusty.
“He won’t be able to warn them that we’re on our way. Let’s move.”
Chapter 2
It was early evening and Nalia was heading back to the small trailer she rented. As she made her way across the side streets, ignoring the chaos of nightlife around her, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Something was wrong. Someone was watching her.
It was crazy, but since the night her entire world turned upside down, she fell into this instinctual, protective mode and was more in tune to everything, even her gut instincts, than ever before. Her fears were now turned into anger. Anger at the man Vincent who caused all this damage to her life and who killed her father as well. She knew it would take time and patience to regroup, to plan and survive, but she was determined. Her father had warned her about the possibility of this day, yet she never really thought it would happen. She did train like the potential was a great possibility and thankfully so. She used everything Boian had taught her.
She swallowed hard. She thought of Boian a lot and of a time when things seemed so different. He was older, capable, a soldier. He seemed to have feelings for her one minute and the next was cold as ice. It was the making of some forbidden love story, but she was so young, inexperienced, and a danger to him and especially to her father. It gave her a little insight into the way of life her father led and in being part of a Mafia-like organization.
Yet, when she thought about the attraction she felt for Boian and the way she trusted him so much, she didn’t care about the dangers of pursuing him. Thank God she hadn’t kissed him or thrown herself at him like some lovesick nineteen-year-old. Although, look what not giving in to that attraction got her. Lonely, still a virgin, and now in the midst of danger Boian and her father tried so hard to keep her out of.
She shivered as that same feeling of being watched took over all other thoughts. She cleared her head. She had to stop thinking so much, but she was lonely, scared and knew at any moment Vincent, his men, her father’s men and family could find her and kill her because they thought she killed Karlicov and her mother.
The tears burned her eyes. She was all alone and that was how she was going to live for however long she could.
She pulled her hoodie tighter, kept her hand on her gun and the hood down low over her face as she made her way around the back. Only a few months back she was wearing designer dresses, picking out clothes for her office job in the city and planning to attack the work place with vigor, enthusiasm and a determination to be a CFO within a few years. Now here she was like some criminal thug on the street, her manicured fingers chipped, the hands of a killer on the run.
She gripped the small bag of groceries tighter as she decided to make sure no one was indeed following her by taking the long route through the outdoor mall. She would pass the side bars on the strip and mix in
with the crowds of people.
She finagled her way to the most crowded spot by the outdoor bar. There was a dark space covered by a partition that looked to be where servers went to grab items being cooked in the small kitchen. She moved into position, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone noticing her or approaching. She then reached into her small backpack and pulled out the other hoodie in grey. She put that one on and then threw on the sweats. It was so damn crowded no one seemed to look toward where she was or care that she changed her hoodie right there. She put the backpack back on under the hoodie after shoving the groceries into the backpack and tossing the bag.
It was enough of an alteration in her disguise to not make them look at her if indeed someone was watching her.
She hurried out the back open bar area, passing a small crowd of people laughing and enjoying their drinks. What she would give to go back in time and enjoy hanging out with her friends from college, and thinking that mobsters and murderers didn’t exist She slipped past them, looking all around her as she snuck down along the side alley and to the side street before the trailer park. Her heart was pounding inside of her chest. Fear, loneliness, desperation were all emotions she was getting used to.
“Going someplace, Nalia?”
She jumped as the deep voice startled her and two men dressed in dark clothing now stood in front of her.
“Excuse me,” she said and pretended to walk by. Then the gun was against her side and he shoved her hard against the wall.
Her palms landed against the bricks, stopping her face from colliding with the hard, rough surface.
“Let go of me.”
“You’re coming with us,” the other one said. She felt the fear hit her gut. These were men who worked for Scarlapetti. She didn’t run this far and hide this long to get caught now.
The American Soldier Collection 13: Her Lucky Number Thirteen (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 3
