Her Hero: Next Door Read online

  Her Hero: Next Door

  Book one of Her Hero series

  By George H. McVey

  Copyright © 2018 by George H. McVey All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Erin Dameron Hill/ EDH Graphics

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental or used fictitiously.

  Introduction

  Raisa Felfan’s life is comfortable. A second-generation Russian immigrant, she spends her days working in her family’s diner and flirting with the gorgeous man next door. Everything changes when the local Russian mob boss decides she will be his next mistress, and he refuses to take no for an answer. Suddenly her comfortable world is turned upside down. What’s a girl like her to do?

  Kris Lawson is not what he seems. He owns and operates the flower shop next door to the Felfan diner, but he isn’t just a florist. He has a dark side that keeps him from asking the sweet woman next door to date him. That is until a local mob boss decides to force her into his bed. Now Kris’s training as a government operative is going to be used to keep this beautiful woman safe. Kris claims Raisa as his own and sets out to show the mobster just why you don’t take what’s his.

  Will Kris turn out to be Raisa’s Hero? Is it as hopeless as Raisa tells Kris it is? Does the mob boss always get what he wants? What happens when Raisa finds out that she has found Her Hero: Next Door?

  Warning! This book has adult themes and situations that may trigger some people. It explores themes of stalking, human trafficking and abduction. The language and situations are more mature than other books by this author. It has a romantic heat index of 4 out of 5.

  Dedication

  For Sheri: You still make my heart sing.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Books by George

  Chapter One

  R aisa looked up as the door opened and smiled, it was seven-thirty and he was right on time. She turned to the window where her brother was fixing the breakfasts that their customers ordered. She handed him the ticket for her favorite punctual customer Kris, the guy next door. Maybe today would be the day he’d finally ask her out.

  His eyes caught hers as she turned around and he smiled. It sent a jolt of desire straight through every fiber of her body. He was sexy in that completely unknowing way.

  Raisa watched as Kris walked to the table in the back corner of the diner. He took the chair with its back against the exposed brick wall facing the front. It was the only place he’d sit, and he would wait for that table every time. She tried to make certain to keep it free at this time of the day because she knew he’d be in to eat.

  She grabbed a large to-go cup and poured his coffee. The first time he’d come in two years ago she’d made the mistake of bringing him a normal coffee cup. He had smiled and asked her if he could have a large to-go cup instead. Just like everything else that day it had become routine. She couldn’t help but take in his looks again. Kris was the type of man every woman dreamed about; tall, dark, gorgeous. His polo style shirt with the logo for his flower shop was stretched tight across a thick chest and shoulders. His arms strained at the sleeves. It tapered down to his waist and she knew his abdomen was rippled with a washboard stomach because she’d seen it when he was working out on his balcony in the apartment next to hers. His jeans were black, they were always black and tight in all the right places.

  She sighed and carried his drink over to him. She could look and even dream but she knew that’s all it would be. Guys like Kris never looked at girls like Raisa. She worked in a restaurant, and while she couldn’t cook for anything, she did enjoy sampling her brother’s food a bit too much and it showed. She wasn’t some size two model and guys like Kris always went for the size two models.

  “Hey Kris, here’s your java. Your order should be up in a minute.”

  He smiled and nodded. That was the other thing; Kris was quiet, he hardly ever spoke. Oh sure, those first few months he said more as they got to know each other some but he was a constant. Nothing changed. He sat in the same place, ordered the same thing, drank three cups of coffee and took a refill with him. Paid his check in cash and left her a five-dollar tip for his breakfast which was more than any other customer. Then he walked next door to Doghouse Flowers and made floral and gift basket arrangements to get men out of the doghouse with their ladies. That was his specialty.

  Raisa wished she was bold because she’d strike up a conversation with him. But she wasn’t. She was shy and introverted. She’d rather be home with a good book than being the life of the party. She was forced to be friendly with people here at the Diner but she needed her quiet time at home to recover. She would never be able to tell Kris she was interested, and not just because she feared he’d tell her he didn’t return her interest. There was something between them, a connection, but she was too afraid to see what it was. She sighed as her brother hit the bell letting her know Kris’s food was up. She carried him his breakfast and refilled his coffee. Then she went back to her place behind the counter wishing she could just be bold once.

  Kris Lawson walked into Felfan Diner and smiled. There she was, Raisa, the girl next door. She lived next door and she worked next door. He often wondered if that was a sign. She was perfect in every way. Quiet yet friendly, curves in all the right places, she wasn’t one of those tiny stick-sized women he was always afraid to touch for fear they’d break. No, Raisa was perfect, and when she smiled his heart and soul screamed at him to make a move and claim her for himself. Then his brain would remind him that he was a killer and didn’t deserve someone as sweet and innocent as Raisa.

  He moved to the corner and put his back to the brick wall feeling less exposed that way. He could see the whole dining room of the diner and had a clear path to the kitchen door and the rear door down the hall behind him if needed. He never forgot for a second the words of his Special Boat Unit instructors, “Always have a way out. If you have more than one plan, you’ll never get outmaneuvered.”

  Raisa brought him his coffee and he couldn’t help but watch her walk to him, every step accentuating her curves under her cute top and tight pants. Every time she got close his body and soul screamed “MINE” and yet she wasn’t for a man like him. She deserved a man who was pure and innocent like her, not some washed up special forces squid turned private contractor like him. She should be with a man who walked in the light, not the shadows. So as much as he wanted to tell her what she did to him and how his blood sang for her, as much as he wanted to wrap his arms around her and devour her full lips, he just smiled and nodded and watched her walk away again.

  He should never have listened to those guys from the governme
nt that came to see him right before his second enlistment was up. He was already tired of the pressure that being the team leader of a Special Boat Unit had put on him. He was meticulous, when the SEAL team assigned to his unit got a mission, he pored over their objective and planned both infiltration and extraction methods upon methods to get them safely where they needed to be to complete their mission and get home again. The powers that be were impressed with his unit’s record. They’d never once had a mission failure. He got his teams in and out with the least amount of collateral damage. That was the reason they came to him and offered him a position with Blackguard Security. While the name made it seem like they were a private security company, and they did enough of that to look legitimate, in reality they were a Black Bag Ops contractor for the U.S. Government. There were people and situations that needed to be dealt with but couldn’t be handled through official channels and they needed a man like Kris who could always get the job done. They’d asked him not to reenlist but instead offered him massive amounts of money to work off the books for his country, taking out some of the worst and most dangerous people in the world.

  The half a million dollars they paid him as a signing bonus had allowed him to buy the apartment building he and Raisa both lived in. He’d made some modifications that allowed him to have the safety of three hidden escape routes from his apartment and a safe room in case he couldn’t get out. All the hallways had security cameras in them and while they went to his security office they also were synced with his smart watch. Especially the one on his floor and the main entrance. The rest of the money had gone to open Doghouse Flowers. His mom had been a florist and he’d learned to arrange flowers and put together gift baskets from her. The act of doing so often calmed the storm in his heart and mind after a particularly bloody mission.

  Kris knew that what he did saved lives and kept people safe but the act of taking lives, even the lives of monsters and killers left a black scar on his soul. It was why he wouldn’t allow himself to explore the connection between him and Raisa. He was afraid that his darkness would rub off and darken her innocence. No Raisa wasn’t for him. He should stay as far away as he could but there was something that he couldn’t just walk away from. Instead he tortured himself with her sweetness knowing he couldn’t have her for his own.

  He went to the register and paid her, slipping her the five-dollar tip he gave her every morning, took the refill of coffee she gave him and went next door to arrange flowers for a husband who’d accidentally recorded over his wedding video. Then he’d see if Blackguard had an assignment for him. It had been a while since he’d planned a mission.

  Chapter Two

  R aisa was tired, the breakfast and lunch shift had been brutal today and thankfully she was about to be done. The young college student they’d hired to act as night manager was due in about half an hour and she would be able to go home and get off her feet. She looked up when the bell over the door rang only to freeze when she saw the three men entering the diner. Gregori Volkov was the ruthless boss of the local Russian Syndicate. He’d risen through the ranks of the Bratva until he’d grown too ruthless and unstable even for them. Since then he’d established his own Syndicate with men as evil as he was.

  With him, as always, was his right-hand man, Nestor Morozov. Where Gregori was short and fat with a receding hair line and dressed like a reject from an eighties porn movie, Nestor was the opposite. The man was six feet tall, and looked like a reject from the Mr. Universe bodybuilders competition. Even his muscles had muscles. His long black hair was tied back in a ponytail. Where Kris Lawson had looked dangerous and sexy, Nestor just looked dangerous. With the two of them was Gregori’s cousin Vladimir known as Bad Vlad. The younger man was skinny and pale. Dressed like a goth with chains and metal all over his dark clothes, his eyes were lined with black eyeliner and he wore black lipstick, which Raisa thought was a strange thing for a man to do.

  Gregori looked at her like a wolf taking in its prey just before the chase. The way his eyes roved up and down her body made her skin crawl. He looked and acted like he was seeing her naked and it made Raisa want to take a long hot shower just to get the filth of his look off her skin. “Where’s your worthless brother, my pet?”

  His voice was worse than his perusal of her. She felt violated by his tone and the use of a private name for her. “Stephan, can you come out here please?” she yelled. There was a grunt from the kitchen and her brother walked through the swinging door and stopped when he saw the men in front of him. “Gregori, why are you here?”

  The man stepped up to him and walked around him to come closer to Raisa and she backed up until she was in the corner between the counter and the wall. Trapped with no way to move away from the gangster. “I’ve come to get my money, Stephan.”

  “You know I don’t have it yet. I called you yesterday.”

  Gregori reached out and stroked her face and she flinched. “Yes, I know, but it is still due. I can’t be seen as weak, letting you slide on your payment, then everyone will think they can slide.”

  Raisa was confused. “What money? What are you talking about?”

  Gregori smiled. “You didn’t tell your sweet sister about the money you owed me, Stephan?”

  Raisa looked at the frightened look on her brother’s face. “This has nothing to do with her, Gregori. It’s between you and me.”

  The Syndicate leader shook his head. “That isn’t how this works and you know it. If you owe me, your whole family owes me. Since it is just you and sweet Raisa, then she owes me as well. You borrowed ten thousand dollars from me; where is my payment?”

  “I told you I don’t have it yet. I need more time.”

  “And I’ve told you payment is due. If I don’t have my money by end of the week, then I’ll have to get it in other ways.” He licked his lips and put a finger on Raisa’s lips. “However, I am not a heartless man. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll forgive fifty dollars for every day your sister spends at my home.”

  Raisa shoved the mobster away from her and rounded the counter. “That is never going to happen. We will get you your money.”

  Gregori’s eyes narrowed. “My Pet, the sooner you understand I get what I want, the better. Until you are willing to help your brother pay off my debt, I’ll be charging him one thousand dollars a day in interest. I wouldn’t wait too long to come to me, or else I’ll have no choice but to hurt him.” The mob boss nodded to his goon and Nestor walked up to her brother and punched him in the kidney three times, leaving her brother on the ground in pain. “That’s for not having my money. If I have to come back, or if you don’t come see me by end of the week, next time will be worse.” He walked over to her and patted her on her rear with a smile. “When you come be prepared to stay, sweet Raisa, because once I get a taste I won’t be letting you go.”

  She spat at him and he slapped her across the face. “Just for that it will only be twenty dollars off per day and I’ll make sure your stay is painful.”

  Gregori snapped his fingers and Vlad opened the door. Nestor kicked her brother on the way past him and smiled over at her. “See you soon, kitten.”

  Then the three were gone. Raisa knelt down to help her brother up. “What the hell, Stephan? How could you borrow money from them?”

  Her brother straightened up and moved to a chair. “What was I supposed to do, Raisa? You remember when the flat top went out and we needed to get a new one. I had to get the money to buy that and the bank wouldn’t give us a loan. It was either ask Gregori or close the diner.”

  Raisa sighed. “What type of loan did you try to get, Stephan? Did you offer collateral?”

  Her brother shook his head. “I don’t have any collateral.”

  “We have the diner. You could have gotten an equity loan using the diner as collateral and not put us in this position.”

  Again, he shook his head. “Then I would have had to get you involved. I was trying to keep you from worrying.”

  She laughed, but not i
n a good way. “Instead you get me pawed and smacked by the Russian Syndicate boss who wants me to sleep with him to pay the debt. I’m much better off, thanks.”

  “Don’t be like that, I’ll try and figure something out. Maybe we could still get the equity loan.”

  She shook her head. “It will take longer than a week to do that and do you think he is really going to wait longer without making me pay?”

  “Then what are we going to do?”

  She hung her head. “I don’t know, Stephan, but I’m going home. You made this mess, you figure it out. Before he comes back for me.”

  Kris locked up the shop after the last of his employees were gone. He had a manager because there were times he had to be gone for Blackguard assignments and he didn’t want to close the shop then. He had built a niche for himself as the place a guy could go to get the perfect gift to get himself out of the doghouse with his lady. Today alone Kris and his team had to create 12 forget-me-not birthday bouquets for clueless guys who missed their woman’s birthday, three anniversary-overlooked gift baskets with chocolate covered strawberries, champagne and massage oils. Then there was the guy who came in just before they closed and asked for him because he’d told his wife of one year that she was acting just like her mother. That one had been a challenge. He’d put together a spa basket complete with a gift certificate to the hot springs spa just outside the city, a selection of bath oils and bombs, a soothing Celtic music CD, a coupon book printed up for her husband to do foot massages, back massages, head massages and flash cards on how to do them. Along with the aromatherapy massage oils to help with those. It probably wasn’t going to be enough but at least Kris tried to help.

  He often found it funny that these men came to him for help getting out of the doghouse. After all he didn’t have a wife, or girlfriend. Occasionally he had a one-night stand with a woman he picked up at a party or club but mostly he just went home and fantasized about the woman in the apartment next door. The one girl he wouldn’t let himself even ask out. Raisa Felfan. She deserved someone as filled with goodness as she was, not the florist that walked in shadows and dealt death to the worst villains on earth for his government. No, he’d just go home and break open a bottle of top shelf whiskey like always and drink himself to oblivion. Or he’d step out onto his balcony and work out, pushing his muscles as far as he could until exhaustion sent him into sleep.