Milano: A Lovers' Christmas

By C. Lamar Powell

Paid Assassin, Will Draike, is on an assignment in Milan, Italy, chasing down a rogue Italian Mafioso who has stolen money from both the Russian and Italian Mafias in New York City. Will's task is simple...kill him and return the stolen money to the rightful owners. After completing the job, Will decides to spend some down time with the new love interest in his life, Marlena. Marlena is everything he has ever wanted and everything he needs. As Will gets closer to her he falls deeper and deeper in love. Soon, however, that love is threatened as Will comes face to face with the most formidable opponent he has ever encountered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. Lamar Powell
• Release date: Dec 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370510931

C. Lamar Powell

C. Lamar Powell has more than 25 years experience working for the Department of Defense as an Intelligence Officer (specializing in Human Intelligence or HUMINT), Russian interpreter, and translator. He has also served as the Chief of Recruiting for the Defense Intelligence Agency and is a certified Advanced Linguist and Master Language Instructor from the Department of Defense's Foreign Language Institute.

Book preview

Milano

A LOVERS’ CHRISTMAS

A Will Draike Novella

MILANO – A Lovers’ Christmas

Carmel Coast Publishing Enterprises

Washington, DC

© 2016 by C. Lamar Powell - All rights reserved (1/2016)

Milano – A Lovers’ Christmas

A Will Draike Novella

Published by Carmel Coast Publishing

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under code 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Author. Requests to the Author for permission should be addressed to [e-mail]

Printed in the United States of America

Book Cover Design by CCPE Graphics

First Edition

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

~ Albert Camus.

PRELUDE

In the dark of night, looms a sky of crystal blue, flashing shimmering eyes of green iridescence.

...Eyes that are silent...

speaking loudly in hushed tones.

...Eyes that speak of a subtle past,

etched indelibly into the future.

...Eyes that speak of love unbridled,

yet gone unnoticed.

Within these eyes, lies the promise of love, passion, and understanding, only to be revealed by the dark of night under a sky of crystal blue.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The novella you are about to read takes place within the timeline of my forthcoming book titled And Hell Follows with Him, which is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2017. While not a full-length novel, this tale explores, among other things, the relationship between Will and Marlena, whom Will meets on a job in Omaha, Nebraska in the aforementioned book.

CHAPTER ONE

The cold northeast wind pelted a wintry mix of snow and ice against Maksim Lomachenko’s face as he exited his car and headed to his cigar shop on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. As miserable and blustery as the weather was, Maksim didn’t feel a thing.

He unlocked the shop door and took off his coat, then laid it across the back of a chair in the store front. He was wearing a black Armani Collezioni suit with a blue, Italian silk dress shirt. He removed a small lint brush from his breast pocket and gave his suit a light brushing.

The cigar shop was elegant, and spacious. The lounge area consisted of a few small walnut tables with cushy leather wingback chairs. It boasted the finest selection of cigars in all of Brooklyn, however, the prices were very reasonable—perhaps too reasonable. But what did Maksim care? The shop was merely a front for his organized crime activities.

It was 12:30 p.m. and the meeting was due to begin at precisely 1 p.m. He was glad to have the 30 minutes of dead time to cool off.

To say that Maksim was angry was a gross understatement. He was livid. It was Thanksgiving Day and although he was a Russian National and didn’t celebrate the holiday he was less than thrilled to be coming to the office. He preferred to be at home with his family, but this emergency meeting he had called was just that—an emergency. As the head of the Russian Mafia brigade in NYC you had to do the dirty work and do it in a timely manner.

Maksim entered the large walk-in humidor and selected an Opus X Angels Share Reserva D Chateau cigar. He walked to the rear of the humidor and pressed a hidden button under one of the upper shelves. After the click, the back wall slowly swung open on one side to reveal a large lavishly furnished office.

Maksim went in, then walked over to his bar, poured himself a glass of Bowmore 25-year-old Scotch and sat down at his large black-walnut desk. Uncharacteristically he downed the sweet, smoky liquid in one large gulp. His two underlings would be arriving in a few minutes and he wanted to mellow a bit.

Recently his crime brigade had been caught with its pants down and he wanted answers...and he wanted blood. He’d allowed his underlings to do business with a trusted Italian Mafioso, against his better judgement and the deal had gone bad. What was supposed to be a joint and lucrative money-making Arbitrage deal turned out to be a scam. Even worse, the Italian had disappeared with 13 million dollars of Maksim’s money. Recently Maksim had discovered that the brokerage firm that the Italian represented was an Italian Mafia front as well. After meeting with the heads of Italian Mafia families in New York it was discovered that the betrayer, Dario Nicolosi, had betrayed his own brethren as well. Since then a massive manhunt had been launched with both the Italians and the Russians searching, but as of yet, no one had turned up a single clue to Nicolosi’s whereabouts. Dario Nicolosi had simply vanished. The bottom line was, Maksim wanted his money back and he wanted the Italian who had stolen it dead. He needed results and he aimed to get them at any cost.

Maksim got up and poured himself another glass of Scotch. Just as he sat back down he heard the front door open. He waited anxiously as his underlings, Matvei and Ilya, made their way through the store front.

If he hadn’t been so pissed off Maksim would have laughed at the two silent buffoons as they sauntered in—heads down, not making eye contact. They were comical in their obvious trepidation. They both looked as though they had just been sentenced to a Kolyma death camp. Matvei, the taller and slimmer of the two, was as white as a ghost with fear. Ilya, who stood about 5’3" and weighed in at 245 lbs, walked directly behind Matvei and looked pale and blank-faced as well.

Maksim didn’t waste any time. He motioned for the pair to sit down in the chairs directly in front of his desk.

Maksim spoke first. Ok, he said. "I’m sure I don’t have to tell either one of