Saving Anya

Saving Anya

The Medlov Crime Family Series

Book IV

Latrivia S. Nelson

Saving Anya

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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 at 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.”