Page 2 of Deadly Knight (The Bratva’s Elite #2)

Dear Diary,

It’s graduation day! Crazy how years of work are about to come to an end.

Everyone I’ve been around for the past four years will suddenly not be around.

Some are attending the same university I am, but no one I really talk to.

Others are moving away, some even out of the country.

Others are skipping university and working right away, which is fine.

Everyone has different goals that lead to different roads.

Dimitri’s is with the Bratva. I’ve known for years, obviously, but in school it’s easy to ignore. Now… What’s life going to be like for us? Will he have time for me?

I’m scared.

For now, I have to get ready.

Mama brushes the comb through my bangs, readjusting them for what feels like the millionth time.

Her smile is wide in the mirror’s reflection, so I let her keep caring for me.

After a few more brushes, she places the comb to the side and hugs me from behind.

Resting her chin on my left shoulder, her hair, the precise shade of brown as my own, blends with mine, like we’re one and the same.

“You have no idea how proud your father and I are of you.”

I smile at our reflection, tipping my head to embrace her as well as I can in this position. “You talk like this is the end, like I’ll be gone forever. You realize I’ll still be in the same city, just living on campus?”

Her smile instantly flips into a frown. In another situation, her demeanour might lead into a comment about my age and growing up, but we’ve had enough conversations over the past few weeks triggered by my choice of school. So I immediately know what she’s about to say.

“The fact you’ll be in Moscow is what makes me sad.” She straightens, brushing her hand through the curls she’s made possible with the curling iron still cooling off to the side. “For so long, you wanted to move to North America, but you’ve chosen to remain here.”

My smile is watery. In truth, I did spend a lot of my preteen years dreaming about moving across the world, but what twelve-year-old doesn’t? Getting away from my birth place seemed exciting at the time, but the older I got, the draw lessened.

With graduation approaching, so does reality; it’s financially better to remain in the country. Besides, my plan is to teach here in Russia, so it’d avoid dealing with the pesky task of getting the registration board to recognize my degrees and certifications from elsewhere.

There’s also Dimitri, not that I’d ever admit it to my parents. People’s general consensus is that it’s dumb to base life around a guy—which I’d normally agree with—but Dimitri isn’t just any “guy” to me. He’s my future.

Maybe if he were allowed to attend with me, it’d be a different case and we could go off together, but it’s not. His sacrifice involved arguing with his family to remain by my side, and mine is to stay in the city and make that possible.

“It’s better this way.” I pat her hands, turning away from the mirror to face her head-on rather than her reflection. “I wouldn’t want to be so far away from you and Papa.”

Her frown deepens. “As long as it’s not due to Dimitri.”

They like Dimitri, and have since the moment I brought him home, but that’s only because they believe he comes from a respectable family rather than a sinister one.

They’re not aware of the criminals he goes home to or the jobs he does, and that’s the way it’ll stay to prevent them from shipping me off somewhere I’ll never see him again.

I shake my head. “You know I’d never throw my future away.”

Mama finally nods, believing me at least for the moment. I won’t assume this will be the last time the topic gets brought up, but for now, she drops it and waves me towards the door.

“Well then, time to get you graduated.”

She disappears out of my bedroom, which, in a few short months, I’ll be packing the majority of to move into the campus dorms.

Alone, I take a moment, knowing it’ll be the last one I get for the day.

Papa’s downstairs, and we’ll head to school, where it’ll be chaos until the ceremony’s end.

We’ll be going out for a celebratory dinner, and then Dimitri’s picking me up for the after-party.

There won’t be another moment for myself until tomorrow morning.

Mama really worked her magic on me. The black dress, which will soon be hidden beneath a graduation gown, is tight around my torso before the skirt flares at the waist to my knees.

The top is modest, a V-neck without plunging too deep.

My green ribbon remains tied around my left wrist, even when she insisted on replacing it with a bracelet.

It was the one fight she lost, and instead she placed a jewelled clip in my hair to help link some of the curls while my bangs remain fanned around my face.

When I eventually make it downstairs, it’s exactly as I expect and fear. Papa embraces me, mentions how proud he is, and then Mama’s snapping pictures with her phone.

Thankfully, it isn’t long before her alarm chimes. Mama’s horrendous at keeping appointments, so she lives by reminders. She claps her hands together and heads for the door, an extra skip in her step that wasn’t present upstairs.

Papa watches her leave out the door before slowly leading me in the same direction. Alone for the moment, he checks, “How are you feeling?”

I shrug. Nervous would be the best response, I suppose, considering any public ceremony is irritating and nerve-wracking, but at this point, I want it over with. I’d like to return to normalcy and see Dimitri without having to dress up.

“I don’t really know,” is the best answer I can manage.

His smile says he sees right through me in the way only a father could. He claps his hand on my shoulder as I take the lead out the door. “You’ll figure it out, Katya. And if you don’t, it’s okay. Life isn’t perfect.”

It feels like there’s so much packed into that statement. Like he knows something I don’t.

My parents walk in the direction of the seating area, and I join the gathering of graduates, my eyes skipping over everyone who greets me in search of one specific person. Amidst the sea of blue graduation gowns—a colour matching the school’s logo—I don’t spot him.

“He’s coming. Last-minute business to attend to. I’m sure you understand.”

The cool voice close behind me immediately causes my muscles to tense, and I slowly turn on my heel.

Standing close, no more than two feet away, is the man I know way too much about despite only ever having been face-to-face with him the three times Dimitri wasn’t able to get me away quickly enough.

Ivan Volkov. Dimitri’s father and a Bratva soldier high up in the ranks, only second to their leader.

Danger exudes from him despite his casual stance, hands tucked in his slacks’ pockets, which I suspect cost more than my father’s yearly salary brings in.

His dark eyes pin me to the spot, a threat even while his mouth curves upwards in a partial smirk, like he’s aiming for friendliness in the same way a lion wiggles before pouncing on its prey.

Ivan scared me to death the first time I met him. The two times following weren’t much better, but at least I knew how to act: eyes averted, head down. Not out of respect, but fear. Easier to play meek, especially when he holds so much power over Dimitri, even if Dimitri claims otherwise.

After Dimitri admitted everything about his life and family to me, I went online and researched all I could dig up on the Volkovs.

There wasn’t much to be found. If there were, Ivan and his brother would probably be locked up in prison.

I think. The Bratva probably owns the police or something.

What I learned on my own and what Dimitri disclosed gave me enough to go off of—Ivan is someone to avoid, simple as that.

He’s trying to make Dimitri into his duplicate, though Dimitri disregards any and all attempts. Dimitri might train with weapons and run drug deals, but he hasn’t killed anyone—that he’s told me about.

Yet , that annoying inner voice reminds me.

Surely it’s only a matter of time, especially as the years pass.

Nonetheless, I don’t know how to feel about it.

I love him and want to look past anything else, but the nagging in the back of my head demands I listen to the little voice warning me against what my life could become.

“Miss Terasov, you look lovely. Krasivyy .” Beautiful. Ivan tips his head forward in a mocking bow before approaching even closer. My eyes lock on the grass at his feet, willing the ground to suck him up.

I didn’t expect him here since Dimitri was sure his father wouldn’t attend. From what I’ve seen and what he’s told me, they don’t have that kind of relationship, and Ivan never approved of Dimitri attending public school. Maybe this is his attempt at fixing the divide between them.

Ivan slides his hands from his pockets and holds them up in a display of harmlessness when we both know he’s not.

He’s the kind of man who wouldn’t rely on weapons to injure someone, and while I want to believe he’s making an effort to be nice, the little alarm in the back of my head suggests otherwise.

“Only here to talk until my son arrives. I have something important to discuss with you.” His lip curls when he scans the loud group less than ten feet away. “Alone, if you please.”

I should deny him and stay close to my classmates, but rather than deal with the potential argument, I break away from everyone. Ivan follows, stopping closer than before.

With his back to the crowd, his facade drops; his smirk withers away, and I’m facing down the hardened criminal Dimitri protects me from.

“Wh-what do you want?” I ask, mentally cursing my stutter.