His gaze strayed back to the woman and what he saw next stunned him. He couldn’t blink, couldn’t breathe, could only watch as she used sign language to speak to the child. It became quickly obvious the child didn’t understand but she patiently showed the boy several signs that he was able to pick up easily, grinning his happiness as he showed her.
Jozef knew exactly what they were saying.
Hello.
Boy.
Food.
Hospital.
Doctor.
Then she signed her name. S-H-A-U-N.
Jozef stared as her beautiful fingers moved to create each shape, showing the child until he understood. Her patience and kindness astounded him. As far as Jozef could tell, she hadn’t known the child before sitting down with him, yet she was taking time out of her day to teach him an important skill. A skill Jozef knew too.
Jozef rarely met people outside of his family who understood or used sign language. It was so rare, in fact, that he’d given up finding anyone who could and started teaching the people around him, particularly his security team, how to sign.
This woman was different. She was unique and beautiful.
A powerful bolt of lust shot through his body. He hungered for her. A total stranger he hadn’t met.
She showed the child the sign for goodbye and then she stood, stretching her back. She picked up her groceries, ruffled the boy’s hair and set off down the street.
Jozef had to make a decision. Follow the mysterious woman or go find Gustav in the market and record the man’s routine. They would pick him up soon, take him to their borrowed house outside of the city and force the whereabouts of Jozef’s uncle from him.
He watched her walk until she disappeared. She was not his mission and never would be. She would be better off if she never met Jozef. He was the harbinger of death. Jozef rarely spent time with anyone outside of his inner circle unless they were a target. Those that he did spend time with didn’t survive long.
If he became involved with the woman, her mortality would become a question and he couldn’t bring himself to imagine anything happening to her. She was special.
He turned away and headed toward the market. He would hold her image close to his heart until she faded. Her ghost would be his comfort during the lonely nights when he paced his rooms, his mind occupied with death, strategy and war.
She would be his angel of mercy.
The woman he would never know.
Chapter One
One year later.
“Koba, you have a visitor.”
Jozef’s muscles strained with effort as he dragged his body up to the ceiling, tilting his head to the side as he lifted himself and held the pose for 40 seconds while the guard stood behind him, waiting quietly. Jozef let go, dropping to the floor of his cell. He’d intended to do four sets of ten pull-ups and was only halfway through.
Who is it? he signed, reaching for the towel on his bed and mopping the sweat off his face and chest.
Two of the guards at Prison Karvina had learned sign language after Jozef had been transferred from Prague after his sentencing.
Within a month of imprisonment, it became clear to the authorities that Jozef had too much support in the Pankrác Remand Prison outside of Prague. During his first week he’d stabbed his cellmate. It’d been a calculated move. Inmates and guards alike who hadn’t known of him and his reputation would have preyed on what they saw as a weakness; his inability to speak or scream for help. After the stabbing, he’d been moved to solitary until his trial, which suited him. It was a good way to avoid Krystoff and his lawyers while giving Jozef the uninterrupted time he needed to strategize his next moves.
The prison officials hoped that by moving him closer to the Polish border he’d have fewer allies and serve his time quietly. They hadn’t counted on Jozef’s global mindset. He had men in prisons throughout Czechia and surrounding countries. If they transferred him to Siberia, he’d still have all the support he needed on the inside.
Jozef effectively ran Prison Kavina. He’d always had a policy of treating his men well and caring for their families if they got picked up and jailed. His family-inclusive mentality had won him the undying loyalty of some of the most hardened men in Eastern Europe. All it took was checking in on their mamas while they were inside.
He brought the guards alongside by padding their salaries and paying off the local authorities and politicians to look the other way as he rose through the ranks in prison. It hadn’t all been tea-time chats. A few of the more tenacious bosses hadn’t wanted to give up their positions to the enforcer of the Koba clan, but Jozef had convinced them otherwise. The prison guards simply looked the other way as Jozef cut a bloody path through the system, working his way up until he had enough power to ensure his every need was met both inside and out.
“Krystoff Koba is here to see you.”
Jozef dropped the towel and pulled on a T-shirt. He’d been waiting for this moment. His uncle had visited Pankrác before Jozef had gone into solitary, but the conversation hadn’t gone well and Jozef had declined any more visits. Krystoff refused to believe anyone in the family was responsible for Shaun’s poisoning.
Jozef’s single-minded purpose while in prison, besides climbing his way to the top, was finding the person who’d nearly killed his fiancé, put Jozef in prison, and tore him from the woman he loved.
He’d spent every night for a year fantasizing about what he would do to the traitor when he got hold of them. Peel the skin from thier body one strip at a time, drain every drop of blood, dismember them while they were still alive. He didn’t care who it was, when he found the traitor, he was going to take his revenge
