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  Saving Anya

  The Medlov Crime Family Series

  Book IV

  Latrivia S. Nelson

  Saving Anya

  RiverHouse Publishing, LLC

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  New York City, NY 10004

  Copyright © 2012 by Latrivia S. Nelson

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  Saving Anya is dedicated to Chris and Kim Nelson, Karen Moss, Kandace Tuggle, the women of the Medlov blogs, Kcbena Cash, Taurus Nolen, Walter Gunn, Yuri Obeliski, Joyce Williams, Mark T. Lenowkski, Jordan A. H. Nelson, Tierra E. Nelson, Linda Artis, Loria Jackson, Marsha Nelson and my sweetest love and best friend, Adam Nelson.

  Thank you all for your support and love during this series. Thank you for believing in me and pushing me to be a better author. Thank you for being such wonderful friends, family and colleagues. Thank you for being in my life.

  Acknowledgments

  This book would not have been possible without the staff of RiverHouse Publishing, the creative work of Kandace Tuggle or the hard work and dedication of Karen Moss. Also, during the time that Adam was sick, reading the many emails, letters and blog posts of my fans gave me the strength to finish this. I thank God for you all, and I hope that you enjoy the fruits of our labor together.

  This series is over, and now it’s time to get busy on The Medlov Men Series, The Children of The Medlov Men Series and the second book of The Chronicles of Young Dmitry Medlov. Hang on. It’s going to be a crazy ride.

  Prologue

  There was something very powerful and sacred about the relationship between daughter and father for Manon Smirnov. She had grown up protected and hidden in the shadows of an empire and under her father’s tutelage, learning from the great Evgeny Smirnov, the Czar of the underworld, the leader of an organization so clandestine in nature that even many mafia figures were not sure that he or his men existed until it was too late.

  Then after years of waiting, watching and begging, her father was finally going to put her on with her own little operation right in the heart of Prague as the manager of the Red Square Hotel, her father’s hotel – a meeting place for the Vory v Zakone and all the men who were blessed to do business with them.

  Her father had finally sent for her from Paris and given her this small but very promising gift. In return, he wanted nothing more than for her to succeed. And she would do just that. She would make this hotel the safest place for men like her father to meet. Taps on every phone. Surveillance in every room. Bullet proof windows for suites. Sound proof walls for the meetings that didn’t go too well. It would be the most luxurious hotel in the city and also the most exclusive. And it was all hers. That was until her brother showed up and took it away.

  One meeting was all that it took.

  One day over twenty years ago, Dmitry Medlov, her father’s bastard son, walked into the hotel and burned down any hopes that she had of proving that she could be great, that she was worth all the time and money that her father had invested in her.

  That day her father got into a car and went to a meeting, never to return. But someone did return. Dmitry Medlov. And he showed up the next day with the deed to Red Square Hotel. She was the first one that he fired, then her entire team. The only people he kept were worthless locals who were hired to do the work that she and her team were above. He looked her in her face and gave her a one-day notice without even knowing that she was his blood.

  She never saw her father after that, and she was forced back to Paris, where she had to go back into the shadows to protect her own life.

  But the tide had finally turned. A relationship with a man whom Dmitry had burned had proved to be the way to avenge her father’s name and reclaim her inheritance.

  Plus, she wanted more than anything to make Dmitry feel the way that she had over twenty years ago when she was just a young girl, still clinging on to her father’s every word. She still remembered their long talks, their quiet walks through the beautiful fields of Prague, their laughs and their hopes and dreams. Her father had chosen to show her a side of him that no one in the world knew existed. And Dmitry had walked in and taken it all away without even blinking.

  Why?

  For money.

  For 500 million dollars and a title that didn’t belong to him or his brother.

  Overtime, however, Dmitry had veered from his original plan. He was safe when he stuck to the code astringently. No family. No children. It equaled no vulnerability. And then one day, he got sloppy. He fell in love and moved his little family to the very chateau that she used to spend hours with her father in. Dmitry began to raise a family of his own with a little girl of his own. Somewhere, somehow Dmitry Medlov had forgotten his old sins and buried them, just like he had buried their father.

  Now it was time to dig up the past, one bone at a time and make him pay, starting with the sweet little girl that she had seen with her own eyes running through the fields with her father, probably having the same conversations, making the same plans, sharing the same love.

  Payback was a bitch and so was she.

  Chapter 1

  The sun was on the horizon, breaking dawn and cascading across the vast green lands while in the deep in the valley between snow-capped mountains and hundreds of acres of farmland, the quiet palatial Medlov chateau began to finally rustle awake.

  Lights turned on the second floor as people began to move about. Alas, the weekend was over and it was again Monday. Time for the real world to emerge - even for the smallest of the Medlov clan.

  Giggles came as a bubbly Anya bolted from the bathroom in her bunny pajamas, running down the hallway away from her father with her baby doll in hand. Her wild, long hair tangled about her rosy face as she sprinted into her pink bedroom and jumped up in her unmade, but very fluffy canopy bed.

  “Now, now, Anya. It’s time to get ready for school,” Dmitry said, walking into her bedroom a few seconds later. A smile laced his curved lips. And any attempt to scold the child swiftly failed.

  A whine followed quickly. “But Papa, I don’t want to go to school,” Anya begged as she hugged her baby doll tighter. “I want to stay home with you and mama and the babies today. Momma said I could feed Maxim. I’m getting really good at it.” Her voice carried an adorable pout, nearly succeeding in her intentions to derail her itinerary as her father came over and sat down beside her.

  His large frame caused the mattress to sink just a bit as he rested his tired body beside her. Dark circles were evident under his crystal blue eyes from the torturous, sleepless nights that had become normal since Royal had the twins. They both stayed up bouncing babies, changing diapers, making bottles and burping the boys, hoping for sleep in between their nightmarish first-weeks with the newest additions to their little family.

  Dmitry reached out and grabbed her gently, pulling her into his embrace as he kissed her cheek. She smelled of innocence and lavender. It was her very own fragrance, and he adored it. “They’ll be here when you get home from school. Promise,” he assured of the twins. “But you have to go to school. It’s Monday. All the good little girls will be a
t school today, learning their alphabet and numbers, learning how to be proper princesses.” His voice was calming and assuring as only a father’s voice could be.

  Dmitry had patience with only four people in this world, his three little ones and his wife. As for Anya, it seemed as if he actually had more patience for her than all the others combined and often looked forward to their little negotiations. It gave him an opportunity to see just how smart his daughter was. And Anya never ceased to amaze him. Each and every time that she negotiated, she pushed just a little further.

  “I already know my alphabet in English, French and Cyrillic. I know my numbers too. Mrs. Mabry said I was the smartest girl in class. So, I think it will be okay to miss a day, don’t you, Daddy?” She batted her bright blue eyes at him.

  “You have excellent persuasive tactics for a five year old, but no, I don’t think you’re skilled enough to miss school.” He knew that his Anya would not be happy with his decision, but he had to stick with it. Royal had been on him lately about how much he was giving in to her every whim. Even he knew that he was being a complete push over, but how could anyone truly deny such a beautiful little girl.

  “If you let me stay here today, I won’t ask you for anything else for the rest of the year, Daddy,” Anya finally said, taking his face in her hands. She said so emphatically as if she was swearing an oath.

  “Didn’t you just say that about that Bratz doll that you had me send Davyd out for on Saturday night?” he asked with a grin.

  Anya’s small shoulders slumped. “Please,” she begged, knowing that she was losing the battle.

  Dmitry put his forehead on hers and rubbed a hand through her inky, black mane. “No,” he said softly. “But if you’re a good girl at school, I’ll make sure that you get to feed Maxim as soon as you get home.”

  It wasn’t what Anya was hoping for but as she looked across the room and noticed her mother peeking through the door watching the entire interaction, she knew that things were as good as they were going to get.

  “Good morning,” Royal said with a soft smile on her face. She leaned against the door in her plush white robe. The rings under her eyes matched her husband’s and her hair was even wilder than Anya’s.

  “Momma, can I stay home today, please?” Anya asked, moving her pleas to her mother.

  “I don’t even know why you ask when you already know the answer,” Royal said, opening her daughter’s dresser drawer. “Do you want to wear pink or purple today?”

  Anya had two favorite colors, and she wore a variation of the two every single day.

  “Pink,” Anya pouted off the bed. She went into her walk-in closet and began to pull out her school uniform.

  Dmitry stood up and stretched. “Well, my work here is done. She’s had her teeth brushed and her face washed. The rest is up to you, my dear,” he said as he bent to his wife’s ear.

  “Ummm, thanks,” Royal said, feeling his lips on her neck.

  Dmitry heard Anya rustling in the closet and turned back to Royal. “We now have less than one week before the six-week sentence is up, and I can ravage you from head to toe,” he said with a growl.

  “Promises, promises,” Royal said playfully. “I don’t know if you can handle me after six weeks of no sex. I might be too much for you.”

  “Please say that’s a challenge,” Dmitry toyed. “Because, I’m going to make you eat your words.”

  Royal turned to him with her daughter’s underwear clutched in her hand. “Well, I have plans of making you eat a lot more than that,” she said suggestively.

  “Are you hungry, Daddy?” Anya asked eavesdropping as she stepped out of the closet with her jacket and skirt for school.

  Dmitry cracked a smile at his wife, knowing that they would pick this conversation up later when they were alone. “Starving,” he answered. Turning to his daughter, he smiled and cleared his throat. “That’s why daddy is headed downstairs to fix you breakfast, munchkin.”

  “Can I have pancakes?” Anya asked innocently.

  “You certainly may,” he said, running his hand through her hair. “Any other requests?” he asked as he walked to the door. He looked at his wife and licked his wide, rose-colored lips. “Maybe something different for the lady of the house?”

  “I’ll get back to you,” Royal answered as she swept his body with her eyes.

  “I’ll be looking forward to it,” Dmitry answered as he disappeared behind the door.

  Royal bit her lip and turned back to her chores, trying to suppress the laugh that was trapped behind her devious smile. The truth was that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her, but rules were rules. The doctor had ordered the over-sexed pair to absolutely wait until her six-week check-up before they made love again, which meant that all they could do at the present was foreplay each other to death. And in between taking care of now three children, running business and normally day-to-day chores, even that was nearly impossible.

  ***

  Hot pancakes cooked directly from daddy’s hand and served up on a little porcelain plate just for Anya was just what the little princess ordered before school. While still pouting because she wasn’t allowed to stay home with her new brothers, she had managed to be in better spirits with the entire family at the kitchen table.

  However, the family was barely awake.

  Dmitry did his normal morning ritual at the head of the table. With a glass of orange juice beside a cup of coffee and a plate full of turkey bacon, fried eggs and toast, he thumbed through his financials on his I-Pad and occasionally looked over at the news playing on the television mounted up on the wall directly in front of them. It took everything in him to focus this morning as his age as well as his children were catching up with him. He remembered a time when such trivial tasks would have neither effected his body nor his psyche but that was many lifetimes ago.

  Now, he was much grayer than when his daughter was born five years ago and a little less resilient on just a few hours of sleep. His enormous seven-foot frame was slouched over the table, holding up all 320 pounds of aching muscle. He, too, had forgone his usual dress for silk pajamas and a cotton gray t-shirt – a far cry from the man who normally dressed in three-piece suits. But this was the life that he had chosen, and in truth, regardless of how hard it was at times, he enjoyed it immensely.

  His life was peaceful, meaningful and finally worth something.

  Drifting off in her own world, Royal sat beside Dmitry stirring her coffee and dozing off to sleep. Still in her robe, she had managed before breakfast and after dressing Anya to pull her hair into a loose ponytail and run hot water over her face to stay awake through breakfast, but that was about all that she could muster. All she could think of was rest and how much of it she had been denied lately.

  Where before the babies’ birth, she always was dressed to the teeth by breakfast, now if she dressed at all, she was off to a good start. It was odd, but she didn’t recall Anya’s arrival even with post-partum depression being as dramatic as the twins’ arrival, which had been laborious but without the mental exhaustion that she had suffered with her daughter. She could only attribute that to the fact that Ivan wasn’t a part of this pregnancy.

  The twins had been a handful to carry and even more difficult to birth. After being in labor for eight hours, she had undergone a well-needed C-section and awoke to Konstantin and Maxim Medlov. Konstantin was the oldest by three minutes, but Maxim was the largest by five ounces. Konstantin was a spitting image of his father with blonde locks and bright blue eyes while Maxim was a spitting image of Ivan and Anya, ironically, with jet black hair and startling almost grayish blue eyes.

  They could never get away from the man, no matter how they tried. Ivan’s genes were forever present, always serving as a reminder that he had been on this earth and he had forever impacted their lives. Only, she was in a place in her life where he was not such a moot factor.

  At the end of the day, Royal thought both of her children to be beautiful, and she love
d them dearly. And in truth, she didn’t mind that two of her children looked like Ivan, because they were nothing like him and everything like their father.

  What woman wouldn’t be proud?

  With the new additions and all that was still required by Royal, she was thankful for the help that she had around the house. The nanny who was nearly twice her age came in during the day and some evenings. The entire family had learned their lesson about hiring young nannies like Victoria.

  Stepan, the family butler helped run the other parts of the house along with maids, and Davyd, their dearest friend and Dmitry’s closest companion, took Anya to school, drove Royal to all of her appointments and to her boutique and ran most of the family’s errands. He was most definitely their rock, more like the grandfather of the bunch than an employee. In fact, Anya had no clue that he wasn’t a Medlov.

  Still, no amount of money could help with the true parenting. That was left up to her and Dmitry. And they devoted themselves to the job one hundred percent of the time.

  After the nanny from hell, Victoria, had been dismissed over a year ago, Dmitry and Royal had agreed to do some things by themselves. And with a family as complicated as they were, it was best.

  Besides, not many people would knowingly work for a mob family – not if they were smart. And everyone who did work for them had been thoroughly checked along with their families, from the nanny to the cook to the yard hands and farmers. No one was allowed on the chateau property without first being cleared by Dmitry himself. He had a guy in the CIA who did a thorough check for everyone and if they didn’t pass the background check, they didn’t get on the property.