Alina is a young woman born and raised on the south side of Chicago who has packed a lot of living into her first 30 years of life. Married as a teenager to a childhood sweetheart, she was lured by the street life, cutting class and not studying, and would have dropped out of high school if not for the support and encouragement of her husband. Sadly, a member of a local gang became infatuated with her and had her husband murdered as a way of clearing the field for his advances. Of course, her jealous suitor soon died the way he lived as a rival gang took offense at his unjustified murder of a regular citizen for such venal reasons.
Now alone, and with few skills, a heartbroken Alina decided that she needed to honor her late husband’s memory by believing in herself the way he had believed in her and going to college. But she would need money to pay for higher education, and at that time, all she had to offer was a smokin’ hot body packed tightly into her 5’2” frame. A cousin was part-owner of a small strip club in Cicero that needed higher quality dancers to attract more customers and she went to work, earning enough to pay her tuition at the state university in Chicago and learning how to handle, mentally and physically, the amorous advances, wanted and unwanted, of customers. Working nights and going to school during the day, she studied on her breaks but found a love for biology and a talent, in particular, for botany. By the time she graduated, she’d earned a gig as a research assistant focusing on South and Central American flora.
Her job as a botanist, and knowledge of Spanish, made her a constant presence in Latin America, and her street weary attitude and physical attributes brought her all kinds of attention. In the last few years, she’s been called upon by U.S. intelligence to utilize her local knowledge to provide intel on drug traffickers, she’s earned extra money as a jungle guide, she’s run afoul of powerful men and psychos, and she’s survived through dedication to believing in herself and, to be fair, a little luck.
