Page 145 of Bratva Knight

“Yes. Her and her brother—” and he was gone, pushing his way out of the protective circle of Arturo’s men and running after her, not even letting me finish the sentence.Whatever.

“I need to find my father.” Illayana looked around frantically, searching. It was hard to see anything in the place with the smoke and all the people moving around, some fighting, some running away.

I didn’t give a shit about Dimitri, as bad as that sounded. There was only one person I wanted to find. “You find your father. I’ll find Nikolai.”

“We shouldn’t separate,” Arturo chimed in. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Tell someone who cares. I’m going.” I stepped away and he yelled out.

“Wait! Vin, go with her.” His younger brother nodded and moved up to my side, gun ready. There was none of that playful banter he was very well known for. Just pure focus and determination.

Illayana’s arms wrapped around me in a tight hug. “Be safe.”

I quickly returned the hug. “You too.”

Arturo’s men dissipated, following him and Illayana as they went a different way. I ran in the direction Illayana had indicated, Vincenzo jogging at my side. A man came at me from my right. I fired, never slowing down. Another from the left. Vincenzo took him out. A knife came soaring towards me. I ducked, plucked a dagger from my thigh, threw it and kept running. Four soldiers stepped into our path, far too close for me to try and get a shot off, and attacked. Two on Vincenzo and two on me.

Duck, swerve, twist; I avoided their strikes, my movements quick and fluid. I pulled out another dagger and slashed upwards in a powerful arc. One of the men screamed, stumbling back. I blocked a strike from the other soldier and stabbed him twice in quick succession, one blow to the rib, another blow to the side of the neck. He crumbled.

I kept running.

Nikolai, where are you?

Vincenzo caught up quickly, coming back to jog at my side. After all of it was over, I’d probably feel bad for not sticking with him, but in the moment I didn’t care. I needed to find Nikolai. He was there, somewhere in the chaos—

“Watch out!” Vincenzo dived, tackling me out of the path of an axe flying through the air. I grunted on impact. Soldiers swarmed us, yanking Vincenzo to his feet and punching him.

A boot came flying towards my face and I only just managed to roll out of the way before he literally stomped me to death. He was on me quickly, pinning me to the ground with his hands wrapped around my throat.

I gasped, struggling to breathe as I thrashed wildly.You stupid piece of—

I frantically ran a hand down my body until my fingers curled around the handle of a gun.

Bang!

He slumped against me and I shoved him off, straddling him. I stuffed the gun I’d just used to shoot him in the stomach into his mouth. His eyes widened.Good. He is still alive.I emptied the clip. Blood splashed me in the face, along with what I think was part of his tongue (I wasn’t sure).

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and ran to help Vincenzo. The dude did just save my life. I couldn’t just go running off again.

Having no qualms about shooting someone in the back, I fired my gun at the man crouched over Vincenzo and shot the other two standing over him. Not wanting to waste any more time, I rushed over and pulled Vincenzo to his feet.

“You good?”

He groaned, holding his side, but nodded. “Good. Go.”

We took off again, a little slower this time thanks to the injuries we’d sustained along the way, but still, fast enough.

“Where is he?!” I almost sobbed when we still hadn’t found him. The panic inside me increased every second we went without finding him, almost suffocating me. I started to lose hope, my will to live going right along with it.

“Is that him there?” Vincenzo pointed to the right and I almost broke my neck snapping my head in that direction.

Relief nearly had me dropping to my knees, my legs buckling.

There he was.

My Nikolai.

I always loved watching him fight. There was something truly hypnotic about the way he moved. The way he swung his arms. The long stretch of his legs as he delivered powerful kicks. The brutality with which he took his enemies lives. It was like nothing could stop him, like he was death reincarnated.

---