The American Soldier Collection 13: Her Lucky Number Thirteen (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever)
The American Soldier Collection 13: Her Lucky Number Thirteen
Nalia is on the run from the Russian mob. The survival skills her father’s soldier taught her years ago have finally come into play. She’s scared, she’s all alone, and there’s no one to trust — or so she thinks — as an old flame tracks her down to rescue her. The soldier she longed to have years ago is back and with his team. Their job is to protect her with their lives.
Her entire life is turned upside down, and there seems to be no future but one of hiding and living in a world where enemies have no faces. Throughout her entire life the number 13 has brought nothing but bad luck and bad memories. That same number comes into play time and time again leading her to a life she is destined to be part of. Meeting Team 13 clarifies her destiny, and nothing else seems to matter but loving them.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense
Length: 48,802 words
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER COLLECTION 13: HER LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN
Dixie Lynn Dwyer
LOVEXTREME FOREVER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: LoveXtreme Forever
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER COLLECTION 13: HER LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN
Copyright © 2016 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-136-1
First E-book Publication: April 2016
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of The American Soldier Collection 13: Her Lucky Number Thirteen by Dixie Lynn Dwyer from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
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This is Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s right to earn a living from her work.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
www.BookStrand.com
DEDICATION
Dear readers,
Thank you for purchasing this legal copy of The American Soldier Collection 13: Her Lucky Number Thirteen.
Sometimes in life we can perceive different things in different ways. Perhaps associate a number with bad luck, or a date with a bad memory and forever that number or that date remains in our head as negative.
Nalia has been through a traumatic experience. Yet, she embraced the desires, the need to be trained and prepared in case someone attacked her, and never expects to use that training to save her life. She associates the number thirteen with emotional days that changed who she was after each time. She considered herself on her own with no real family or connection of belonging.
Meanwhile in actuality, everything happened for a reason and ultimately that stubbornness she always had, the desire to be exactly like her father, to be prepared, to be smart and to survive on her own all came into play and saved her life. When she meets her men and falls in love with them, she thinks they could be bad luck too, but learns quickly that the things she used to look at as bad luck or in a negative fashion are actually good luck and ultimately her destiny.
Please enjoy Nalia’s story as she struggles to believe that good things can happen to a woman like her, and the men of team 13 are her lucky charms after all.
Happy reading.
Hugs!
~Dixie~
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
About the Author
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER COLLECTION 13: HER LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN
DIXIE LYNN DWYER
Copyright © 2016
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.
“Give me a moment please, ladies? I’ll meet you by the car,” Raymond said. Her mother didn’t look twice and pulled Nalia along with her toward the waiting limo. But Nalia looked over her shoulder and she spotted the man in the dark suit. Raymond looked scared and then kind of angry. She watched the exchange of words and then Raymond glanced over toward her and his wife then back at the man and nodded his head. The man in the dark suit kept a firm expression. Nalia’s gut clenched. Who was that man and what did he want?
“Mom, who is that Dad is talking to?”
Her mom glanced that way. “Hmmm, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve seen him before. You know your father, though. He knows so many people. He’s working on some big deal at work. He’s been in meetings the last few days and hasn’t gotten home until the wee hours of the morning. It’s something big. He keeps saying our lives are going to change.” She hugged Nalia’s arm.
“Your dad has been saying that since we got married. He’s always involved with something,” she added as the driver opened the side door for them to get in. Nalia watched as Raymond turned to head toward them and the man he had been talking to walked away. Raymond looked upset.
“Is everything okay, Dad?” she asked him as he got into the car.
“Fine. Let’s get to the restaurant,” he snapp
ed and she glanced at her mother. Her mom touched his hand and he snapped at her.
“Don’t, Danella.”
“Is something wrong?” Danella asked him.
“Don’t ask me about my business. You know the rules,” he snapped again.
The rules?
“Why are you suddenly so angry with me?”
He turned to say something to her mother with his teeth clenched and such anger in his eyes it made Nalia question who he was right now. Her mom gasped and then lowered her eyes. Nalia held his gaze and he gave her an evil look before he turned away. She didn’t like the feeling she had. Call it instinctive but there was just something about Raymond that got under her skin and often made her wonder why her mom fell in love with him. A few minutes of silence passed and then she saw him cover her mom’s hand with his and then squeeze it. Her mom looked straight ahead, and Nalia wondered what was going on as her heart ached for her mother.
Nalia often wondered what she had seen in Raymond to accept his proposal when Nalia was in high school. Especially knowing her biological father and how handsome and powerful he appeared. When she asked her mom what she saw in Raymond, her first response was stability. That didn’t seem right at all. But as Nalia got older she learned a little about falling in love and not being able to act upon it for other reasons. She knew she would never marry a man she didn’t love. She would rather live a lonely life than one without true love.