Chapter1
Kendra Elliott picked up her younger brother’s backpack from the hallway for the third time that day. She’d tripped over it the first time then she’d moved it. Her brother, Cliff, was being obstinate about getting to kindergarten this morning. She had no time for this. She looked at her watch. He’d miss the bus. She’d have to drive him and she had an injunction to file. Some Russian guy was trying to knock down a building that might have historical significance. She was going to stop him.
As the lawyer for the Historical Preservation Society, a non-profit organization, she was always filing injunctions to stop people. No one seemed to care about history anymore.
Her mother, Jamaica Elliott, just sat on the couch; she had Alzheimer’s and most of the time didn’t know where she was. An aid should have been here by now so she could go to work. She couldn’t leave her mother here alone.
She opened her front door then crossed the hall the apartment of her best friend, Tembi. She worked as a flight attendant and often had several days in a row off. She hoped her friend hadn’t gotten in late last night.
Tembi opened the door, her hair a mess and a big yawn creasing her face. “Hey, Kendra.”
“My mother’s aid is late. Can you stay with her until she comes?”
“As long as she doesn’t mind me in my pajamas,” Tembi said.
“You could be naked and she wouldn’t notice.”
Her mother’s doctor had been pushing Kendra to put Jamaica in a home. Kendra didn’t have a heart to do it, but she was having more and more trouble getting people to stay with her mother. She couldn’t afford to lose her job. All three of them would be out on the street.
If she left this second, she might get to court on time for the hearing on her filing for an injunction. The judge certainly wouldn’t grant it to her if she wasn’t there. She knew that judge well. Punctuality was as important as your paperwork being correct. Kendra’s heart sped up when she found Cliff in the doorway to his bedroom. In his underwear.
“Is that how you want to go to school?”
“Yes.”
“Then fine.”
She scooped up his clothes, tucked them in his backpack then dragged him out the door. She buckled him into his car seat. He cried as she did it. She could dress him in the care before she dropped him off.
“I want to get dressed,” Cliff said.
“When we get to school.”
“My friends will see me in my underwear.”
“Not if you dress in the car.”
“I’ll dress now.”
“Not, while I’m driving.”
His school was close to her work and close to the courthouse. This way she could pick him up easily when he was sick. She could park once then walk him to the front door. He’d only have to dress in a parking garage.
She turned the key on her ten year old car. With her loans and small salary, she couldn’t afford anything else. I made a dying whale noise. “Please start. Please start.”
Cliff couldn’t miss another day of school. Nor did she have anyone who could take care of him today. All of her usuals were unavailable. She had to file this injunction before the building was knocked down.
The car finally started.
Damn greedy billionaire.
“You said a bad word, Kendra.”
Crap. She’d said that out loud. “I’m an adult. I’m allowed to.”
“No fair.”
“Life isn’t fair. If it were, we’d both have a father and I’d be making a huge salary.”
Cliff giggled. “You say that all the time.”
She pulled into the parking garage. She swiped her pass. The gate opened which always made Cliff squeal. Oh, to be a kid and see the joys in the small things in life. Life was simpler at five years old. As much as sometimes she wanted to curse her mother for having a baby late in life, she loved the little boy. Probably had been part of her early onset Alzheimer’s. She didn’t even remember the father or having sex. But she did and along came Cliff.
He’d made Kendra a less selfish person. She’d worked even harder with Cliff in the picture. She wanted better for him than what she had, but she could never give him a father. She wasn’t ever getting married.
She had sex sometimes. She had a few friends with benefits she could call on when she got the itch, but nothing was going to amount to a romance. Tembi would joke that she’d had her heart removed at law school. At least she’d had the romantic love part excised. That only led to heartache.
Cliff chose to dress himself, standing in the back seat of her car. She took his hand when he was done and he hosted his backpack onto his one shoulder. She dropped him off. He hugged her now that he was calm. She just had to wait him out. He always saw her way of doing thing eventually.
“Bye Kendra.”
He skipped into his school. She sighed for a moment. Must be what a mother felt for her child. Kendra then turned and raced to the courthouse. She arrived a little hot, but not sweaty.
Her phone rang before she could go inside. It was Tembi. Not good.
“Hello?”
“Hey, did you leave food for your Mom? She’s hungry.”
Her mother hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning. “Can you make her eggs?”
“Yes, I can. Okay if I make myself some?”
“Go ahead.”
She’d have to pick up more because everyone ate them in the house. Hopefully she’d remember by the time her day ended. She reached the court with seconds to spare. She didn’t even sit down when the Bailiff told everyone to rise. The judge entered the courtroom with a stack of papers. The woman didn’t look happy, but Kendra crossed her fingers behind her hoping all would go well.
***
Sacha Kozlov stood beside his brother, Viktor. Both had hard hats on, waiting for the wrecking ball operator to start his piece of machinery.
Viktor turned to Sacha. “You ready?”
Sacha was. He was out on his own and going to open his own nightclub. Not anything that competed with his brother’s in another part of Manhattan. Viktor’s was a private club. Sacha’s ideas were bigger than that. He wanted to make the hottest club in the city. The only thing standing in his way was this building that had to be knocked down.
The crane operator started his machinery. Sacha’s heart sped up. He couldn’t have been more excited. Despite being a lawyer, he was looking forward to owning his own business. He’d been Viktor’s lawyer for years, but had chosen to go out on his own. He’d saved his money. A few class action suits had helped and now his net worth rivaled his brother’s. Viktor had made it clear how proud he was of his younger brother. Sacha had made enough that he could be sitting at home. He’d always been more ambitious than that.
The wrecking ball would topple this building. The one Sacha had planned would be bigger and have a penthouse for him. He already resided in one, but he wanted to be closer to work. Besides, he’d own the whole building this time. Presently he only owned the top floor of where he lived.
“This is so exciting, Sacha,” Alia Kozlov said.
His new sister-in-law also wore a hard hat. Her smiled creased her face. She glowed with the early stages of pregnancy. Her flat stomach hadn’t begun to show yet, but he’d been assured that he would be an uncle in six months. And he’d bet his big, bad older brother would dote on that child. They’d built a house in the suburbs, choosing not to raise kids in Manhattan. He understood that even though he and Viktor had been raised in the city. Kids should have room to run.
Not that he was close to having them. No woman had caught his eye and with the amount of work this nightclub, Zap, would be to get up and running, he doubted he’d find someone now. Marriage and kids would have to wait. Besides, he already had a kid. He just didn’t know where the little one was. That was something else on his list for the year. Find his son.
“Wait, stop!” someone yelled above the sound of the crane.
Sacha spun around to see a stacked, black woman rushing toward him. She wore a suit and a fiery look. Wow. Those were some luscious lips, but why was she yelling?
She finally reached him, her hair a little mussed. “Stop.”
“No, we’re on schedule,” Sacha said.
He signaled to the crane operator to continue.
“No, you aren’t,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Kendra Elliott. I’m an attorney for Preservation One. I have an injunction to stop demolition of this building.”
Sacha blinked. It was a decrepit building. Who cared if it was historical? He wanted to replace it with something safe; something that would create some jobs.
She handed him a piece of paper. He read it through, admiring how thorough she’d been in her wording. She was a good lawyer and he didn’t see any way around it.
“Damn,” Sacha said.
Her smile was triumphant. This woman and her injunction stood between him and his dream. Why did he find her sexy? Maybe it was her unwavering gaze. She hadn’t taken her eyes of off him. She must feel very right in her position.
“Is there a problem?” Viktor said.
He’d hand his brother the piece of paper, but it wouldn’t mean anything. His brother wasn’t a lawyer. “She has an injunction to stop the demolition until it’s proven beyond a doubt that this building isn’t historical.”
“What?” Viktor said. “Can’t you do something? You’re a lawyer.”
Sacha frowned at his brother. “This is airtight. I’m going to have to do some research to prove there is no historical significance to this building.”
A delay. He should have known things were going too smoothly. He sighed, then handed the piece of paper back to Kendra. “Okay. I’ll stop, but I plan on having a full report on your desk in a week. Then I will knock down this building.”
He got in her personal space when he said those words. To her credit, she didn’t flinch. She didn’t blink. She just held his gaze as if she wasn’t intimidated by him. He couldn’t even detect a flutter in the pulse at her long neck.
She smelled of peaches. His favorite fruit.
“I’ll look forward to it,” she said.
He waited for her to turn away under his scrutinizing gaze, but didn’t seem to be cowed. How odd. Most people found his resting face to be scary. His ice blue eyes and almost Nordic blond hair made him seem like an obvious James Bond villain. Guess Kendra didn’t watch those movies. He finally stepped away from her. He saw the lilt of a smile on her lips. She’d been doing it on purpose. Damn her. He didn’t back down to a woman.
“Have a good day, Mr. Kozlov.”
She spun round then left him watching her walk away. She had curves into next week. And that ass would probably be like biting a watermelon. Damn. He shouldn’t be thinking about his adversary that way.
Viktor’s chuckle brought him back to reality from mooning over Kendra Elliot.
“Pack it up. There will be no demolition today,” he said.
“You okay, Sacha?” Alia said.
He smiled down at her. “I’ve only been waylaid. It will still all come together.”
She smiled back at him. “That Kozlov tenacity.”
She squeezed her husband’s hand. His sister-in-law knew all about his family’s tenacity. It had taken that to finally bring Viktor and Alia together. Despite his initial dislike of Alia, she’d turned out to be good for his brother. The man had more balance in his life.
*
Kendra was about to finish her day. A friend was picking Cliff up form after school care. She didn’t have to relieve the aid at her apartment because for a rare treat, she had paid for someone to stay overnight. Kendra planned on meeting Tembi for a drink. Just one. She wasn’t going to get outrageous; one lone drink and a chance at adult conversation that didn’t have to do with preserving buildings.
Kendra wasn’t completely sold on the idea of saving the old building, but that didn’t meant she didn’t give her all to the cause. She was a pragmatist. She had to be. Taking care of her mother and her little brother, she had no choice.
Once in a while she treated herself. Tonight was that night.
Her phone rang. She hoped Tembi wasn’t backing out. She didn’t recognize the number, but her instincts told her to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Miss Elliott?”
“Yes.”
“This is Sacha Kozlov.”
She hadn’t received his report yet. She couldn’t wait to see what he came up with. Smug billionaires rarely backed down from what they wanted. She didn’t think that Sacha Kozlov would be any different. Men that rich thought that they could get away with everything. If they threw enough money at it, all would be right.
“Yes?”
“I’d like to meet you and give you this report in person.”
“I’m about to leave the office, but you can drop it off here in the mailbox slot in the door.”
“No, I want to hand it to you.”
Must not have found anything historical. He wouldn’t be so smug if he did. She’d have to have someone at Preservation One check his work. Not her job. Her job was to grant them time to do it by blocking demolition. Some of the bigger companies could keep it tied up for years. Thankfully the organization didn’t pay her by the case. No, she was on salary. Not a large one, but it kept a roof over their heads.
She sighed. She’d have to send a text to Tembi that she was going to be late. “Where do you want to meet?”
“At the building,” he said.
“Why there?”
“It’ll make sense when I talk to you.”
“Fine. I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
She could walk. She didn’t want to take a bus or move her car. The bar she was meeting Tembi at was close to her office. No need to find a new parking space. She walked in the warm weather of spring, the building that was almost knocked down a week ago. It was a majestic building made of stone with tall windows. It had a certain charm. Wanting out of the heat, Kendra tried the front door. It was open.
She was early so she looked around. Then she heard voices, but something in their tone told her not to yell out. Mr. Kozlov could already be here. She stopped, listening to see what direction the sounds came from. She moved closer, tiptoeing. She peeked around a corner and almost gasped. Standing in the room was Carmen Lopez, a Councilman for the City. He was up for re-election. What was he doing here? Was he meeting Sacha?
She watched for a moment when it dawned on her. She took in the conversation.
“I told you that your men are not making their quotas,” Carmen said.
He paced the small area. A man with tattoos seemed to be the object of his lecture.
“Your crusade has sent the cops down on us. You need to dial back,” he said.
“I can’t. It’s key to my getting elected again. Now we need to get out of here.”
“Why did we meet in this building?”
“I have a key to it and I know it isn’t being knocked down for a while. Preservation One will take care of that.” He laughed. “Now get me the drugs you owe me.”
The man pulled some bags out of his back pocket. “It’s good stuff from what I hear.”
“You haven’t sampled it?”
“No, I don’t use.”
Carmen shrugged. “Donors who are high give more money.”
Kendra must have gasped because both men looked in the direction. She didn’t think they could see her.
“What was that?”
“Maybe a rat. No one should be here,” Carmen said.
“I’ll check it out.”
Kendra ran for it. Her sensible shoes with the rubber soles didn’t make a noise. Her heart beat a staccato in her chest. She had to get out of there. If they caught her, who knew what would happen? She’d be another statistic in a city full of them. She had no idea if he set her up for this or not. It was his building. What if he was part of this? She had to be able to tell someone. Her heart was in her throat as she heard footsteps behind her. She hadn’t thought that she’d wandered this far into the building, but the place was a rabbit warren of rooms. Which way had she come? There was a clear hallway at this point.
Just by chance she saw light and ran toward it. Was this the front door? Maybe. She didn’t have time to pause or get her bearings. She ran to the light. It was the front door. She shoved it open, not caring at that point if she made noise. There would be people on the street. There would be safety if she hid somewhere or pretended she was just walking by.
She shoved out the door, turned left then planned on skidding to a halt as if she hadn’t been running. Pretend she was just a passerby. Instead she ran into someone and her heart skidded around her chest. They’d caught up with her. Damn.
***
Sacha caught Kendra before she fell. Where had she been running to? She fought him like a woman on fire.
“Kendra.”
She lashed out at him and he was afraid she was going to truly hurt him, so he wrapped his arms around her.
“Kendra.”
She stopped struggling. He realized that he liked the feel of her against him. He didn’t want to let her go. The softness of those large breasts reached him through his suit and shirt. Nice.
She looked up at him with big, soft, brown eyes. They had some green in them. “Mr. Kozlov?”
“Sacha. I think we’re past the mister stage.”
She looked down as if just realizing he was holding her. “Let me go.”
When he loosened his grip, she shoved him away. “You rat bastard.”
“Hey, you ran into me. I was just making sure you didn’t go ass over teakettle,” he said.
So much for being grateful, okay, maybe he’d held onto her longer than he needed to, but she’d felt good: soft in tall of the right spots; curvy where he was straight. He’d never been so acutely aware of how another human felt. This included the women who had been in his bed. Kendra could have been in a ski suit and he still would have felt her curves. She was that stacked and wonderful.
“You brought me here.” She looked over his shoulder frantically. “Tell me that they’re going to shoot me in broad daylight. On the street?”
He glanced in the direction her wild eyes were looking. He didn’t see anything that should cause alarm. “Who?”
“The men sent to kill me,” she said.
He blinked having no clue what she was talking about. “I didn’t send anyone to kill you. I’ve brought you the report my people compiled.”
She looked over his shoulder then at the briefcase by his feet. Her shoulders relaxed. “Then the men in your building weren’t sent to kill me because I blocked demolition?”
He smiled at her and hoped it would be warm. “I’m a businessman, a legitimate one, and a lawyer. I have no need to kill people. I can either throw money at the problem or bring them to court.”
She seemed to digest that. “But I saw something.”
“Whatever you saw has clearly upset you. Can we go inside out of this heat?”
She backed away from him. “Not in there.”
He put his hands up in surrender. “There’s a coffee shop down the block.”
“I think I need something stronger.”
“There’s a bar next to the coffee shop. I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Fine.”
She spun in the direction he’d pointed then looked back at him. “I don’t want you behind me.”
“I’ll walk next to you and not touch you. I promise.”
He wasn’t sure his libido could handle her touch again anyway. She eyed him as they walked. She almost stumbled. He held the door for her when they arrived at the bar.
The place was quiet for happy hour, but Sacha figured this might be for the neighborhood people and they might not be out until after dinner. Either way they didn’t have to fight for a table. Only three people were inside. He directed her to a booth so they could talk in private. She was clearly still shaken up. She’d jumped when he put a hand on her lower back. What had she seen that had her this upset?
She sat, but faced the door. He didn’t care which side of the booth he had. He just wanted her to tell him what she saw. This was his building they were talking about.
The waitress came.
“We’ll take two vodkas on the rocks,” he said.
“Vodka. Of course,” Kendra said after the waitress left.
“I drink other stuff, but I think it might calm your nerves quicker. Now tell me what you saw?”
She took a large sip of her drink. He watched as she wiped her mouth with the cocktail napkin. “I heard voices. Then I was able to get close enough to listen. Councilman Carmen Lopez was telling another man that he wasn’t reaching his drug quota. Then he asked the man for the drugs he owed him and they exchanged a bag of white powder.”
“This was in my building?”
“Yes, Lopez said he had a key.”
“First I’m going to get the locks changed. I don’t want that stuff going on in my building. Then we need to get you in to talk to a cop.”
“You know a cop? Because they love Lopez. No one is going to think he did anything wrong. It will be my word against his.”
“Did they see you?”
“Not that I know of, but I can’t be sure. They might have been looking out when I ran into you. They could know me by now.”
Sacha had no choice. It was the code he’d been raised with. If a woman was in trouble he had to help her. Kendra was certainly a woman who needed help. She was in deep trouble. If Lopez figured out who she was, Kendra would have a price on her head. He couldn’t leave her. He had to take her in. Just like Viktor had taken in Alia when she’d seen a murder, Kendra was now his responsibility. And everyone she was connected with.
“Then you need to come home with me,” Sacha said. His current building had great security -- the benefits of living on the top floor. No one could come up to his floor without his permission.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Kendra was no longer ashen. The brown of her eyes was sharper, in fact those green flecks stood out against the brown.
“Kendra, you’re in danger. I can’t let you go home.”
“I have people who I have to take care of. People who need me.”
“A husband?”
She seemed to be hesitating in telling him.
“Kendra if I don’t know the whole story I can’t protect you,” he said.