Short Excerpt
“Get in here, girl.” Marin Petrov pounded on his desk. Natasha heard it echo all the way in her
own office.
Jolting from the forms she had been filling out for his next business trip, Natasha slid her feet
into her black stilettos and quickly made her way from her office into his. The absurdity of one
of the worst human traffickers in Europe having an office fit for a lawyer never ceased to strike
her as disturbingly or perhaps disgustingly normal. She kept her expression blank and bored
when she stepped in front of him.
His gaze drifted, as it always did, from her pointed heels along her stockings to her leather skirt
and white buttoned blouse. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. She never let him intimidate her.
It was why he’d kept her alive when most of his secretaries met untimely accidents when their
noses strayed too far into his business.
“We’re moving to Kiev.” Petrov tossed a stack of papers in her direction. She crouched down to
retrieve them, careful not to give him the view he wanted. “Get it organised. Now.”
Natasha nodded politely and exited the office as quickly as she had entered it. Her disgust for the
man was difficult to mask at times. Of all the undercover assignments Natasha Itsov had taken
for Interpol, she thought working with the Auctioneer might possibly be the worst. She glanced
briefly down at the documents in her hands and froze when a familiar name caught her attention.
Blackbird Security Firm.
The last time Natasha had dealt with Blackbird there had been complications. Major
complications. She wondered briefly about the broken-hearted man she had left behind. Poor
Darren. A smile briefly flashed across her face. It lit up her icy blue eyes. Her full lips slowly
dropped down into a frown though as she considered the implications of Petrov’s interest in the
security firm.
She had met Darren Martel when they worked on a joint-task force many years ago on a human
trafficking case for the International Criminal Court. Their affair had been brief but fiery. She
could still picture every inch of his freckled skin in her mind and had frequent dreams about
tying him to her bed.
Oh, sweet Darren.
Why would Petrov be interested in Blackbird?
It was a question still plaguing Natasha several days later while setting up the office in Kiev. She
heard rumours of a new girl Petrov had gone to Moldova to grab. Her Interpol handler told her
they’d almost captured him there. They grabbed another slimy bastard instead, Valentin Krupin.
Steven Samuels and Gareth Richardson from Blackbird had contacted them with the info but the
wolves were gone with the girl before they arrived.
Her fingers itched to pick up her telephone, but it was too risky for direct contact. Petrov would
kill her if he found out, and Interpol wouldn’t be pleased with her either if she ruined years of
undercover work. Natasha finally decided to create a dummy e-mail account. She used old codes
Darren would remember to let him know where she was, what she was doing and warn him
about the Auctioneer.
Her krasnij lis.
Her red fox.
Find Dahlia online at:
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About Dahlia:
Dahlia Donovan started out working in the insurance world. After ten years, she morphed her
love of investigating accidents and studying people into writing about them. She's a bit of a
hermit and despises being in front of a camera. Her life wouldn't be complete without her
husband and her massive collection of books and video games.
Her first novel Ivy started out as a crazy dream which she turned into an adventurous and
suspenseful paranormal romance. Her second novel Natasha is schedule for release at the end of
August. It will be followed by an Ivy short story titled Masquerade sometime in the autumn. A
third novel in the Blackbird series, Alicia, will come out in 2015.
Readers can find Under Fire, a free short story available to all her newsletter subscribers. See her
website for more details.
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