Her Lucky Number Thirteen (The American Soldier Collection 13)

“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.