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Prologue
Karlicov Lenvick took position in the back of the auditorium. He did what he did best. Remain in the shadows as he kept a watchful eye on Nalia. He could see her mother, Danella, sitting alongside her husband, Raymond, waiting for Nalia’s name to be called. Karlicov’s daughter was graduating from grad school with her MBA. She’d already established herself in a firm here in Chicago and they offered her a great position with an excellent salary. He knew all about it.
He clenched his teeth as he thought about how much he loved her. How much it sucked to have to give her up in order to protect her from his lifestyle and the choices he was forced to make. When he and Danella fell in love, it had been a mistake from the start. Her family were enemies with his. But that conflict went back a hundred years and to a time and a people none of them even had a connection to.
But that was the Slavic way. To hold a grudge so strong that it would stand the test of time. He had no choice when he broke things off with Danella. It was separate or have both women taken from him and killed. The one man who knew of their existence held that information over Karlicov’s head.
He sighed. Cornikup was no longer a threat. He knew that and disappeared, he was misguided, and his power was weak. Especially since Karlicov worked for Nicolai Merkovicz, head of the Russian mob.
In that moment Nalia’s name was called out. He still felt sick every time he heard her last name, Nalia Sharp. It was Danella’s, bu
t it could have been worse. It could have been Raymond’s. An average guy, with an average job, working as an accountant for an upscale business firm. It was Raymond’s pull that got Nalia the interview and job, not Karlicov’s.
The clapping continued as fellow students cheered her on as well as her parents.
He was shocked when Nalia looked right at him. His heart skipped a beat. His pride caused tears to fill his eyes. She knew all about him. She knew why they couldn’t have a relationship. She was more like him than even Danella wanted to accept. Nalia was strong, smart, determined and well trained, because he’d told her all about him and why he couldn’t be her father.
He stepped back behind the column as Danella looked over her shoulder. She wouldn’t see him or recognize him. She forbade him to be near his daughter. She was still angry for the way they parted and angry that he saw Nalia on her thirteenth birthday and told her about his existence. Little did Danella know that Nalia was getting into trouble, hanging out with the wrong crowds and about to engage in a crime against one of Cornikup’s main operations.
Karlicov had to intervene thanks to Storm and some inside information to Nicolai.
Instead of hating him and wanting to defy him, Nalia told him that finally things made sense. Her desires, her need to be empowered and take care of herself. She begged him for some contact, for instruction to defend herself in case anyone ever found out she was in fact his daughter. Nalia was stubborn, but also a young woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. She was fearless, and that fact would get her into trouble or even killed if she didn’t learn control and patience. He lost the battle in denying her. He loved her with all his heart and he had to do whatever it took to protect her even from afar. What he hadn’t expected was for her to fall in love with Boian.
His heart ached at having to make them go their separate ways. He watched as the ceremony was beginning to conclude and he headed out of the auditorium and down the hallway to the exit doors. He did what had to be done. Boian and his brothers, Viktor, Chatham, and Dusty, were hardcore American soldiers who nearly died serving their country but also had blood connections to Nicolai. Karlicov wouldn’t have trusted any other soldier to teach his daughter self defense, weaponry skills, use of various weapons and other survival skills, especially since she took so well to it all. It made him proud, but also fearful that one day she could have to use it.
Boian wasn’t happy about having to stop training Nalia. Although nothing happened between them, he could see the love in Boian’s eyes and that in Nalia’s. When Viktor showed up too Karlicov knew where this was headed. He didn’t want her to have this life. He didn’t want his daughter to become an instant target and Boian understood. He took the order and he ended their training. She more than likely didn’t need it anyway. Not as a professional businesswoman, not as Nalia Sharp.
* * * *
Nalia Sharp hugged her mother and then her father Raymond. They were smiling ear to ear and so proud of her. She had done it. Worked hard, completed her Masters, and was all set to start a new position at the business downtown in Chicago. She’d started her internship there as a freshman in college. The bosses took to her well and she had many fantastic mentors over the years. She was thrilled with her starting salary and already well on her way in competing for a higher position. She enjoyed helping out with people’s businesses and coming up with better strategies and ways of making more money for them. She had a knack for numbers which got her in a bit of trouble in her younger years when she ran poker games and other things in the schoolyard. Never mind the small stint working the numbers racket betting on sporting events and collecting money from college students with bad gambling habits.
She chuckled to herself. If her mom only knew half the stuff she did, she wouldn’t be so proud of her right now. Nalia glanced back toward the post in the back of the auditorium again despite knowing that her father already left. He took a chance coming here.
Her heart felt heavy. She wanted him to share these moments and to be by her side enjoying life, engaging in dinners together and talking about business and getting his feedback. But that wasn’t going to happen. Instead she was forced to have those conversations with Raymond. A man who insisted on her calling him dad despite knowing damn well he wasn’t her father. Raymond hadn’t a clue who her father was, or at least Nalia didn’t think he did.
She felt the loss of not having Karlicov in her life all the time. Instead he came and went, maybe left something for her somehow, like the necklace gift wrapped in a beautiful little box inside her locked car. How the heck did he do that? Better yet, why did she find that to be so cool?
She took a deep breath and exhaled. Her fantasies of being involved with the Russian mob and becoming an asset to their organization and working side by side with her father were like the forbidden fruit. Karlicov would never let her get close enough.
She hadn’t spoken to him in months. He made it clear that they couldn’t have a relationship. She missed seeing him. She missed all that training she used to do when she first started college. She swallowed hard and her heart still ached a little. She had been stupid. A silly girl who thought she could win over the heart of an older soldier, a member of some elite group of men she knew nothing about. Boian was everything a woman wanted in a man and then some. Drop dead gorgeous, dark blue mysterious eyes, muscles galore, tattoos, capabilities made up in stories and in the movies and so much sex appeal she had been ready to give him her virginity.
She felt her cheeks warm. She was silly in so many ways back then. Boian had been ordered to teach her everything from shooting a gun to self defense to survival skills. The sick thing was that she loved it all. She even fantasized about being a soldier in the Russian mob. Being one of the people that others were intimidated by and afraid of. It excited her, gave her a rush in so many ways. It was like her comfort zone but instead she was forced to be a professional woman in a business world made for normal people with normal families and average lives.
She wasn’t normal or average. She was a fighter, a go-getter and had to use some of that determination to get where she was. But she couldn’t help but to feel like she was wasted talent. She wanted more. She craved more, but Nalia knew her destiny was pretty much laid out for her. She wanted to be the unexpected, but her father put the botch on that fast and no one, no one but her mother and her knew that she was Karlicov’s daughter.
“So, we have reservations in about thirty minutes at Ronaldo’s to celebrate. My God, Nalia. I’m so proud of you,” her mother told her and hugged her arm as they walked out of the auditorium and to the car. On the way out Raymond stopped short and she could tell he appeared upset.
