Deadly Knight

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental. RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, JANUARY 2023 Copyright ©2023 Relay Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Bella Ash is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers. Cover Design by Mayhem Cover Creations. www.relaypub.com Blurb Trust no one. Those are the words Kostya Sokolov lives by. His father was murdered by a Russian mob boss, then his brother was targeted by the same cartel. Now, he has vowed to avenge them and fill the streets with blood. Then an assassination attempt leaves him with amnesia and a lot of questions. What is he doing in London and who is Maya, the beautiful woman taking care of him? For once in his life, he allows himself to trust… Until he realizes she’s the daughter of the man he has vowed to kill. Maya fled to London to escape her family. The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a member of a Russian mob—especially one who wants to kill her brutal father. But despite his violent plans, she’s drawn to him. There’s something about his unflinching loyalty to his family, his fierce determination, and his piercing eyes… She can’t deny the smoldering attraction between them. But how can she fall for a man who is set on killing her own father? Contents 1. Maya 2. Kostya 3. Maya 4. Kostya 5. Maya 6. Kostya 7. Maya 8. Kostya 9. Kostya 10. Maya 11. Kostya 12. Maya 13. Maya 14. Kostya 15. Maya 16. Kostya 17. Maya 18. Kostya 19. Maya 20. Kostya 21. Maya 22. Maya 23. Kostya 24. Maya 25. Kostya Maya End of Deadly Knight Thank You! Make an Author’s Day About Bella Sneak Peek: Vicious Heir CHAPTER 1 Maya Someone was following her. Footsteps attempted to mirror hers, the thud of her flats on the pavement being echoed by a second, slightly heavier sound that was almost perfectly matched to her pace. Almost. A fraction of a second was all it took for her ear to pick up on the dissonance, and now that she’d heard it, she couldn’t ignore it. The orange glow of the streetlights overhead wouldn’t save her—not on such a quiet street, filled with shadows between the flats she walked by. Terrible things could happen in the shadows. Maya knew that well and she shuddered, not wanting to think about her past. She paused in one of those shadows. Her back to the wall to give her some protection, Maya squinted into the darkness, hoping to catch a glimpse of her pursuer. The street was silent and empty, which was typical in this neighborhood at this time. Had her pursuer given up on the chase, or was he lying in wait somewhere, biding his time, waiting for her to make a mistake? “Only one way to find out.” Stepping away from the wall, she continued on, trying to soothe herself with the idea that maybe it had simply been someone else working late and eager to return home. A car drove past, making her jump. A quick glance at the driver had her breathing a sigh of relief. Perhaps her paranoia really was all in her head. That comforting fantasy vanished when she heard the footsteps again. They were moving faster now. “Dammit!” Maya curled her fingers into nervous fists and found that her palms were sweaty. Her stomach, already uncomfortably full from the Chinese takeaway she’d eaten during her overtime shift at work, clenched tight with dread. She let a stale breath out of her lungs, then squeezed her eyes shut and summoned what little remained of her courage. Moving swiftly, she ducked into the next alley and bolted, hoping to put space between herself and the man pursuing her. She didn’t get far. Beyond the rush of her pulse in her ears and the frightening thoughts flitting through her mind as she ran, Maya heard something else that slowed her, then made her stop entirely. There was a pitiful noise coming from a little deeper in the alley. Someone—a man, by the sounds of it—was in pain. She looked over her shoulder again, half-expecting to see the light from the main street blotted out by a stocky male outline. But there was nothing. And by the sounds of it, the footsteps had stopped again. She turned her attention back toward the sound and approached carefully, still not fully trusting that it wasn’t some kind of trap. But even if it was, what other choice did she have? She could either progress through the alley and pass the noise, in which case she’d risk being captured if it really was a trap, or she could turn around and face whoever had been following her. Between a possible trap and a certain confrontation, she’d take her chances on the unknown. A rusted metal dumpster was placed against the side of the flat on Maya’s right. She held her breath and moved on silently, then poked her head around the far side to see if anyone was there. What she saw made her gasp and jump back. Her heart rattled against her rib cage, begging for escape. There was a man there. She’d only seen his outline in the shadows, but she knew that she wasn’t imagining things. He’d been positioned over a few errant garbage bags, his body draped in such a way that it almost looked like he was sitting, but his