Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal Book 2) (5 page)

“We were in the process of it. Why?”

“I’m starving.”

Just like that, Maya dropped the whole ‘Italian’ thing, and strolled across the kitchen to pick up the food menus Violet had set down earlier.

The girl passed Violet another look. “So you and Kaz, huh?”

“Uh … yeah.”

“Glad he finally figured out something about his life.”

Kaz hadn’t given much thought to the rooftop greenhouse garden that was listed with the property when he had Rus make the transaction for him. What the fuck would he do with it? But as he walked behind Kolya out onto it, he found a use.

The moment the door shut behind them, Kaz stopped, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You good, Kolya?”

“What the fuck do you care?”

Kaz’s eye twitched as he tried to remind himself that this was his friend, and it wasn’t a good idea to shoot one’s friends. But over the years, he didn’t think he had ever met someone as perpetually upset as Kolya was. It was as if the man only knew how to be angry, at all things all the time. It still amazed him how Maya was able to put up with his shit.

“Whatever the problem is, Violet had no part of it. So either show her a little more respect, or I’ll give you a reason to.”

Kolya didn’t respond to warnings as any rational person would; rather he reacted as though it were a challenge. One second, he was still angry, and the next, he was offering a manic smile, looking at Kaz with a brow arched.

“That so? And how exactly are you trying to teach that lesson,
pizda
?”

Kaz used to react when Kolya called him a pussy. He’d let his anger take over until they were both exhausted and bleeding, but that was back when Kaz was a hothead. Now, he hardly reacted at all.

“You really want to do this now?”

“Then what’s your preference? Before or after those goddamn Italians try to come crawling through here to find her?” Kolya took a step forward, his eyes narrowed on Kaz. “I don’t care, Kaz. Whatever fucking happens to her, not my problem, but because you care, Maya will care. You know more than anyone how fragile she can be, and when she takes this shit on, I’ll have to fix it.”

“Then your problem is with me,” Kaz said after a moment. “Don’t give her shit because you decided to indulge your wife. If you really didn’t want her here, she wouldn’t be.”

Kolya opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened behind them. Konstantin popped his head out, already smiling at the sight of them.

“Bad time?”

“Fuck off.”

“Good to see you too, brother.”

No one could truly explain the relationship between the two Boykov brothers. With Kolya as the oldest at the same age as Kaz and Konstantin as the youngest, they were always in some battle of wills whenever Kaz crossed their paths. It almost seemed like Konstantin enjoyed pushing his brother as far as he could before Kolya would snap back, usually with a fist to somewhere on his brother’s body. It was impossible to miss the certain competitive nature between the brothers. Though weren’t most siblings like that?

Kaz didn’t fully understand why Konstantin was being groomed to take over his father’s position with him being the youngest brother, but then again, many things about other
Bratvas
were kept quiet.

Kaz’s own brother, Ruslan, and his preference for men was a good example of that. Vasily kept all of that hush-hush.

But obviously, given Kolya had been married for two years to Maya, he didn’t have that same issue. Maybe he just hadn’t wanted to be the boss—Kaz didn’t know, and he didn’t ask.

“I see the girls are getting along just fine down in the kitchen,” Konstantin said, grinning in that way of his.

Kaz reminded himself again that it was not nice to shoot friends. “You’d better not have made one of your fucking comments to Violet.”

Konstantin’s eyes flew wide in false innocence. “I would never.”

Bullshit.

This man thrived on chaos.

“I’m warning you,” Kaz said. “Unless you’re looking for a fist to the throat.”

“They didn’t even see me.”

That did nothing to make Kaz feel better. “You have to go through the kitchen to get to the stairs, so how the fuck are you up here if they didn’t see you.”

“I went through a window, but that’s not what’s important right now.”

Kaz put his fingers to his temples, looking back and forth between the both of them, trying to make sure he heard clearly. “What’s happening right now? Are you two fucking with me?”

“Waste of my time,” Kolya mumbled, glancing at the silver watch adorning his wrist. “So what is it, Kaz? Besides the fucking obvious explanation down in the kitchen, why are you here? If you were trying to hide out, you’d fuck off to some other country and be done with it. But you came
here
, which means you’re into some shit. So if I have to step in it, at least let me know what kind it is.”

“Vasily,” Kaz said. It was all he needed to say for Kolya to understand.

“Right. That I can get on board with it.”

Not with keeping a girl safe from her crazy-ass family, but let the man hear about taking down his enemy and he was all for it.

Fucking Kolya.

“We never did get around to explaining how you wanted to go about that, Kaz,” Konstantin jumped in.

Kolya fell silent once the question was asked, he too looking at Kaz for an explanation.

The answer wasn’t one that would be easy to hear or even one that would be relatively easy to execute. No, every night for four months, Kaz had gone over strategies, working through multiple scenarios at a time because he knew his father better than most, so he had a good idea as to how he would react.

All it took was a spider.

Violet listened to Maya chatter on the phone as she placed a brunch order that was far too large for just four people. She felt someone watching her from behind, though she hadn’t heard anyone come in the house, and spun on her heel to see who it was.

A blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman with delicate features leaned in the kitchen entryway, an apple raised to her painted red lips as she took a bite. She didn’t say a word, just chewed on her bite and looked Violet over like she was deciding what to say.

At least Violet had taken a minute to run upstairs and pull a pair of jeans on. She still hadn’t taken Kaz’s shirt off, though.

Finally, the girl swallowed her bite and said, “
Zdrastvooyte
.”

Violet blinked, not having the slightest clue what the girl said. “Uh …”

Maya reached out her hand, waved back and forth between Violet and the new girl, and then waved again, mouthing, “Hello.”

Ah.

Violet turned back to the newcomer. “Hello.”

“I guess you don’t speak Russian, huh?” the girl asked.

Obviously not.

“English and Italian,” Violet said. “No Russian, sorry.”

Maya hung up the phone, finished with her order. “Oh, I’m sure she knows a few phrases—no Russian I know doesn’t go a day without spilling a cuss or two. Especially when he’s fuck—”

“That’s enough of that,” the girl interrupted. “I don’t want or need to know what my brother does or does not do and says with his wife, thanks.”

“I wasn't talking about Kolya,” Maya replied sweetly. “I was talking about—”

“I’m Violet.” Violet jumped in, wanting to get the two off the topic they were heading for. She didn’t know these two women especially well, and she didn’t know what history they might or might not have with Kaz. She wasn’t all that interested in finding out, either. “And I didn’t hear you come in.”

The girl shrugged. “Konstantin likes to fuck with people—you need better window locks.”

Again, Violet just stared at the girl, unsure of what to say.

She’d mention that window thing to Kaz, though.

Maya sighed. “You have zero people skills, Vik.”

“She’s not running away, no?”

Where would Violet go, exactly?

“Violet, this is Viktoria Boykov,” Maya said, waving to the girl still standing in the kitchen entryway. “And
preevyet
would have been just fine. No need to be so formal.”

“For someone I don’t know—not likely.”

Maya rolled her eyes and waved a hand like she was dismissing Viktoria. “Don’t mind her attitude; it’s not noon yet, which means she shouldn’t be out of bed.”

Viktoria smiled serenely. “Yet here I am.”

“And why is that?” Maya asked.

“Kon came over saying someone was in town—figured I should come and say hello.”

“Why?” Violet asked before she could stop herself or think better of it.

Maybe it was the fact she didn’t get particularly nice vibes from Viktoria, or it could just be that she didn’t know the woman all that well. Still, the girl was a sort of beautiful that had an almost cold quality to it. Right from the platinum of her hair to the iciness of her blue gaze. So Violet was left wondering how this woman knew Kaz at all, and why she felt like she had to come over as soon as he was in town just to say hello.

Viktoria turned her sights on Violet. “Why, what?”

Violet’s upbringing made it difficult for her to be put in any sort of situation with confrontation. She had been taught to sit down, be pretty, and stay quiet. There was no need for her to go causing trouble when there were enough people who would do that for her.

“Why come over?”

Viktoria shrugged. “Old friends—it’s the right thing to do. And Kaz is always causing … some sort of ruckus. I enjoy the entertainment.”

Maya pursed her lips, eyeing her sister-in-law from the side. “Cut it out, Vik.”

Violet didn’t like the sound of that, either.

Viktoria acted like she hadn’t heard Maya at all. “And it seems, this time, he’s really gotten himself mixed up in something fun. My brother—Kon—he talks. Maybe too much.”

Stiffening, Violet asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The girl smiled in that cool, unbothered way of hers. “Welcome to Chicago, Violet Gallucci. I certainly hope you’re worth the trouble you’re about to cause.”

Kaz didn’t know what to expect when he came down from the roof with Konstantin and Kolya trailing, but it definitely wasn’t the girls sitting around the island. Maya was at the front door, collecting the delivery bags from the man standing on the other side.

Like any good guard dog, Kolya broke away from them to help his wife—if help meant scowl at the man who was merely trying to get her to sign the receipt.

When he reached Violet’s side, he scanned her face even as he dropped his hand to the small of her back. While she might not have looked upset, he knew Violet had a way of hiding what she was thinking from him. She did offer a smile, no matter how fleeting, before her attention returned to their guests.

Kaz also didn’t miss Viktoria glaring at him from out of the corner of his eye.

Most people mistook her surly disposition for being a bitch, but Kaz was one of the few who knew her well enough to know it was all a part of the wall she put up to keep people away—not to mention all the shit that happened sixteen months ago between her and her then boyfriend.

One of the few times no one tried to call Kolya off someone.

Beneath his touch, he could feel Violet stiffen, and when his eyes snapped back to her, she was looking back and forth between the pair of them, a thinly veiled accusation in her expression.

Bending slightly so he was at her ear, Kaz said, “It was never like that.”

“Not even once?” she asked in return.

“You don’t stick your dick in a boss’ daughter,” Kaz said then added, “at least not a Russian one.”

Rolling her eyes, she shoved him, looking back at Maya, who was grabbing plates from a cabinet. Konstantin took the seat next to his sister, but it wasn’t as innocent as he tried to portray, not when he hadn’t lost his smile.

“So … is someone going to address the Italian elephant in the room, or nah?” he asked, glancing at each of them in turn.

When Kaz leveled a look at him, he ignored it.

But Violet sat up a little straighter, staring over at him. “Go ahead. Address me.”

Konstantin wasn’t taken aback by the challenge in her tone—it merely spurred him on.

“How did the two of you meet? I highly doubt you cross paths often.”

“It was my birthday,” Violet said, glancing down at the plate Maya set on the table in front of her. “My friends and I went to his brother’s club by mistake.”

“You’ve met Rus then …”

“Yes.”

“And he approves?” This, Konstantin asked in Russian, knowing Violet wouldn’t understand what he was saying.

Kaz shrugged. “Couldn’t have gotten here without him.”

That much was true, but that didn’t mean Ruslan approved of Violet. He was the kind of person who liked someone simply because Vasily didn’t—he and his brother shared that trait—but as to whether Ruslan actually thought anything of Violet, Kaz had never thought to ask.

It wasn’t as if he had much chance to do so before he was sitting in a jail cell.

“Curious,” Konstantin said as his gaze shot back to Violet. “What do you see in Kaz?”

“A part you’ve never seen.”

Maya’s surprised laughter cut through the room, and even Kolya cracked a smile though it only lasted a few seconds. Even Konstantin was laughing softly at Violet’s remark as he reached for the food in front of him.

“Have you always been so selfish?”

The laughter in the room came to a halt as Viktoria’s question pierced the air. She hadn’t even paused her eating when she asked, cutting into her omelet with a little more force than necessary.

But while Kaz had thought to entertain this interrogation since he knew Violet could handle her own, he knew it was no longer innocent, not with the way Viktoria had asked that question with too much lilting innocence woven through it.

He didn’t have time for that shit. “Vik—”

“I’m just asking,” she was quick to say. “Maybe she actually cares about you, or maybe she’s never had Russian cock, but I would like to know what I’m dealing with. Girls like her don’t give a fuck about what happens to everyone else their drama touches.”

Kaz’s sharp reply was at the ready, but Konstantin beat him to it, and in a way that Kaz wouldn’t have.

“Enough.”

Viktoria’s lips pressed together at the sharp command from her brother, not daring to say anything more—no one ever did.

No one would have thought Konstantin was ever capable of being serious, not when he found humor in most things, but there was another side to him, the one his father had groomed and sharpened—the one that would make him a formidable boss once he took the reins.

So when he gave a command, there was no question as to whether it would be heeded.

“I think we’re done now, no?” Konstantin asked, pushing his seat back and getting to his feet.

Viktoria frowned down at her plate. “I’m not—”

Konstantin didn’t give her a chance to finish before he was snatching up her unfinished plate and tossing the food in the trash before setting the plate and utensils in the sink. When he looked at his sister expectantly, she silently climbed to her feet and grabbed her coat without meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Give me a call when you’re ready to get started,” Konstantin said as he clapped Kaz on the shoulder. Then, without warning, he touched a hand to Violet’s back, just a quick touch that couldn’t be mistaken. “Pleasure seeing you again, Violet.”

She mumbled something in return but seemed too shocked by the situation to say anything more.

Without a word to anyone, however, Viktoria was out the door ahead of Konstantin; the sound of a car door slamming was heard before he could even close the front door.

It was after their departure that Kolya stood, readying to leave as well. He stepped off to the side with Kaz as Maya spoke with Violet one last time.

“You’ll need to get on this,” Kolya said, never taking his eyes off his wife. “Whether for yourself or for her, you only have so long before someone comes knocking.”

“I hear you.”

And he did.

If Vasily didn’t know where he was by now—and Kaz had no doubt he’d been searching—he would within the next twenty-four hours. Undoubtedly with some assistance from Alberto Gallucci.

And he wasn’t ready for him to enter the equation just yet.

Violet tipped her head back at the feeling of Kaz’s fingers threading into her hair. From behind the couch, he looked down at her, leaned over to give her a quick kiss, and then straightened back up again.

“Stay inside,” he said. “Out of sight.”

She knew better than to argue with him, despite how nice of a day it was outside with the cold. Nice weather for a walk, but Violet had yet to explore the community the townhouse was located in—and they had been in Chicago for a week.

Always, she was told to stay inside.

Kaz came and went, without much explanation as to what he was doing, not that Violet minded enough to ask.

But she was getting a little bored.

And curious.

“Violet?” Kaz asked, drawing her out of her thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“Inside, out of sight. I’ll be back soon.”

She straightened back up on the couch, sighing. “Inside. Got it.”

Kaz tugged playfully on her hair again. “Don’t pout.”

Violet grinned, unable to stop the action. “I thought you liked that?”

“Another time,” Kaz responded, smirking in that way of his.

She tipped her head back for another kiss before he disappeared out of the living room, and she heard the front door close as he left the house. As much as she pretended she didn’t mind when he had to go, once he was gone, everything else felt a little colder.

The townhouse was too quiet.

TV was boring.

At least, when Kaz was there, she could entertain herself with him. Violet wasn’t used to sitting around doing nothing and … waiting.

Well, that was how Kaz put it.

She wasn't sure what they were waiting for exactly.

Flipping through the television channels, Violet tried to find something interesting enough to keep her attention diverted from the restlessness burrowing deep in her nerves. She understood Kaz’s demands, as far as that went. It was likely people were looking for them—their fathers, most importantly.

She just didn’t understand why he could flash his face in public, but she had to stay put.

Violet had just found a familiar sitcom she enjoyed and got herself comfortably situated on the couch when a ringing started to echo throughout the bottom floor of the townhouse. It took her a full ten seconds to realize it was the house phone. Since their arrival, that phone had rung maybe twice.

And once was a restaurant calling back to confirm the address when a deliveryman had lost it on his way over to deliver their dinner.

Violet scrambled off the couch and went in search of the ringing phone. She found it hanging in the kitchen. Not thinking that she shouldn’t answer the call—Kaz hadn’t said anything about the phone—Violet picked it up.

Her standard greeting—born of habit and culture—was right on the tip of her tongue.

“
Ciao
?” she asked into the receiver.

“Ah, Italian, even better.”

Violet straightened at the unfamiliar, gruff voice on the other end of the call. While she didn’t know who was calling, the accent was one she had grown used to. The caller’s next words sealed any confusion she might have had left.

“I expected my son to pick up the phone, Miss Gallucci, but better it be you, I suppose. What is that old saying—killing two birds with one stone, no?”

Vasily Markovic.

Fuck
.

Somehow … she just had a feeling … Violet knew she’d fucked up.

“I have nothing to say to—”

“I’m sure you don’t,” Vasily interrupted smoothly. “But better you listen for a bit, anyway.”

Violet resisted the immediate urge to slam the phone down on the receiver and then call Kaz. But only because Vasily didn't give her a choice as he started talking before she could.

“What did you think was going to happen, Violet?” the man asked.

She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and squeezed the phone a little tighter. “I don’t understand what you mean, Vas—”

“Ah, no, my dear. There’s no need for you to use my name—we’re certainly not familiar enough for that, and I have no intention of becoming familiar enough with you to allow you to use it.”

Jesus.

This man was something else.

Kaz occasionally spoke of his father’s theatrics and the man’s hostile demeanor, but Violet had never experienced it firsthand. She didn't know the man.

“Before we get off topic, I’ll ask again. What did you think would happen after you took off with my son? Did you think you would be allowed to skip off into the sunset toward a happily ever after of your own making?”

Violet opened her mouth to respond with something as equally biting as Vasily’s comments, but his sharp laughter stopped her.

“You’re young, of course,” he said quieter, “and I’m sure that reason alone will be the one and only thing to save you from the worst part of your father’s wrath once he comes looking for you. And, my dear, he
will
come looking for you.”