“Who the fuck are you?”
Setting down his fork and knife, Kolya picked up his beer bottle, one that had been left untouched since the moment it was set down in front of him. He seemed to be studying the label for a moment before wrapping his fingers around the neck of it as he pointed at himself. “Me? Fuck me, I’m not important. Repeat what you said—your orders.”
“Find them,” the Italian said, not realizing the danger he was in. “And kill anyone with—”
He didn’t get to finish the statement before Kolya was lunging across the table, shattering the bottle on top of the man’s head, and then dragged him back by the collar to slam his face into the table.
Kaz had quickly understood what Konstantin meant as he swung on the man to the right, even as the man tried to draw the weapon at his waist.
Minutes at most passed before each of the Italians was on the ground, all except for the one Kolya still had a hold of.
“There are lessons to be learned here,” Konstantin said to the man who was bleeding profusely from both his nose and mouth. “Never threaten a man’s wife.”
Kolya slammed his head once more before letting the man drop to the floor in a lump. Kaz wasn’t even sure the man was still breathing.
“These Italians,” Kolya tsked as he fished money out of his wallet, sighing as he pulled out more than a few hundred-dollar bills. “I thought there was respect for one’s wife. Animals, the lot of them.”
There was no way the Italian who’d done all the talking could have known that it was Maya with Violet and not just one of Kaz’s people, but in Kolya’s head, that hadn’t mattered.
Fucking crazy.
“It seems you have visitors,” Konstantin said as he pulled out his phone and called a number, asking for a sweeper—whatever that was—before hanging up once more. “Your timetable has to move up. When do you want us to make the move?”
“Tonight.”
But before he did, he had to check on Violet.
He didn’t have a missed call from her, but he knew, just as the Italian had said, that it was only a matter of time before they found her too.
He just hoped he found her first.
A faint whisper of relief washed through Violet when a familiar contact lit up her phone. Almost at the exact same time as she answered her call from Kaz, Maya’s phone began ringing in the middle console.
Violet tried to focus on her own call and not Maya’s when she connected it to the Bluetooth, and Kolya’s dark voice echoed through the car’s speakers.
“Where are you?”
Violet blinked.
The question had come from both calls.
Violet answered Kaz one way; Maya answered Kolya with an actual place.
“With Maya,” Violet said.
“Coming out from the Heights, Kolya.”
“And you’re … okay,” Kaz said quietly.
“We’ve got a problem,” Kolya said.
Violet wasn’t sure whether she should be amused or irritated by the situation. Kaz was the type to keep Violet calm until he had her close and could explain whatever was going on.
Apparently, Kolya was not.
Violet decided to cut the bullshit. “I saw Vito—my father’s underboss—about five minutes ago.”
Kaz swore severely on the other end of the call. “Did he approach you?”
“No.”
“He’s going to try,” Kaz said, surprising Violet at how frank and clinical his words came out. “We are about twenty minutes out from your spot—” His words cut off for a second, and mumbling sounded in the background before he was back. “Fifteen with the way Konstantin drives like a fucking maniac.”
All Violet could think to ask was, “Where’s the Porsche?”
“Too many cars right now,” Kaz explained. “Fewer are better.”
“Kolya?”
Maya’s soft question drew Violet’s attention from her own phone call to her friend’s face.
“Da, dushka,” Kolya replied, less gruff than before. “I’m almost there, yeah?”
“I know,” Maya replied, glancing into the rearview mirror and then hitting the gas a little bit harder. “Drive faster, okay?”
“It’s to the floor, Maya.”
“Put it to the pavement, Kolya.”
She looked in the rearview again.
Violet wondered what the fuck she was looking at, only to find a familiar black car following behind them with windows tinted so dark, she couldn’t see through the fucking windshield.
Shit.
“Violet?” Kaz asked.
She passed Maya a look, who seemed a great deal calmer about the situation given their current circumstances.
Violet wasn’t quite sure what to do—whether she should take Maya’s lead and keep quiet that they had someone on their ass or tell Kaz what was happening.
“This is why I can’t let you out of my fucking sight,” Kolya muttered.
Maya laughed lightly. “You worry for nothing. We’re fine.”
Violet had a realization then.
Maybe it wasn’t a matter of keeping the situation calm until they were in better circumstances, but rather, the way different men handled the same situation.
“Kaz,” Violet said quietly, hoping whatever Maya was telling Kolya at that moment would override her low tone, “Vito is behind us.”
Kaz relayed that information to whom Violet suspected was Konstantin.
“Ten minutes,” Kaz said. “Don’t hang up the phone. Don’t open the door if they force you to stop. Don’t say a thing if they get you out of the car. Understood?”
“Yeah,” Violet said, her anxiety climbing higher, “I got it, Kaz.”
Beside her, Maya cussed in a hiss, shooting another look into the mirror.
Violet glanced through the back window to find the black car was mere inches from their back bumper. While they’d hit the highway, Violet didn’t think the roads were good enough for this kind of fast driving.
“What was that?” Kolya asked.
“I broke a fucking nail when I shifted into last gear,” Maya snapped.
Kolya went deadly silent.
Out of the corner of her eye, Violet watched Maya frown and glance down at her fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.
Her nails, natural and clipped short, were fine.
“Where are you now?” Kolya finally asked.
Maya rattled off a location.
“Next exit is in two miles,” Kolya said. “Take it and hit the safe house.”
“Kolya—”
“I watched you take your nails off last night,” he said quietly. “They’re too short to break. You really shouldn’t lie to me, dushka. Hit the safe house.”
The call clicked off, and Violet’s grip on her phone tightened.
“Is that Kaz?” Maya asked, never taking her eyes off the road.
“Yeah,” Violet replied.
“Can I have the phone, please?”
Violet handed it over without asking why Maya wanted it.
“Kaz,” Maya said, her usual cheeriness gone as she spoke, “let Konstantin know that if he’s behind Kolya, he should probably pick up the fucking pace.”
With that, she handed the phone back to Violet.
“Sit tight and hold on to something,” Maya said, “I don’t have time to slow down for this exit with the way he’s on my ass right now.”
“Everything is fine,” Kaz said, his dark tenor calming Violet’s frayed nerves.
“Is it?” she asked.
“It will be.”
That was the last thing Violet heard him say before Maya was taking the curving exit ramp fast. Right behind them, the black car followed. Just as their car hit the sharpest point of the turn, Violet felt the hit.
It lurched their car forward with enough force to send the back end spinning sideways.
The surprise tap from the black car scared the fucking hell out of Violet, and she dropped the phone to the floor.
Her heart found her throat as Maya somehow managed to keep the fucking vehicle from falling into a total spin, and then corrected it so they were straight again and coming out of the ramp into a more residential area.
Violet wanted to grab the phone, but she would have to take her seat belt off, and given that they had just been hit from behind, she seriously believed it could happen again. She did not need to be unbuckled when that happened.
But the phone call was still connected.
That she could see.
That was all Kaz asked for.
Violet’s gaze snapped back and forth between the phone on the floor, the road in front of them, and the car driving way too close to their ass end. Maya never once took her eyes off the road as she took turn after turn, weaving through street after street.
They passed neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
A schoolyard with children playing safely behind a chain link fence.
“Almost,” Maya murmured, more to herself it seemed.
The black car wasn’t giving up, apparently. It didn’t matter how fast Maya drove or the many streets she took in what seemed like an effort to confuse their pursuers, the car behind them never faltered.
Violet knew at least one person in the car was Vito.
She wondered who else was with him.
Was it someone who knew these streets like Maya did?
Someone who knew Chicago?
Another minute passed, and Violet realized they were in an area a lot less dense with houses than it had been. More trees, more space between homes, and more privacy.
“How far behind us do you think they are?” Violet asked.
Maya didn’t even ask who she meant. “Kaz and Konstantin? About five minutes. And they’re not coming from behind.”
“And Kolya?”
She didn’t answer, her gaze cutting from Violet’s face to the road ahead of them before she jerked the wheel hard to the side, taking them off the road and onto the large patch of gravel.
Violet blinked and took a hard breath at the sight of a black Hummer coming straight at them.
Except it bypassed them.
Even as Maya hit the brakes, and the tires slid and screeched on snow and gravel, she still heard the smash of metal as the Hummer hit the black car head-on.
“For fuck’s sake.”
The curse was out of Kaz’s mouth as they drove up to the scene in front of them. A totaled car sat in the middle of the road, while Kolya’s Hummer was some feet away with barely a scratch. As Konstantin rolled to a stop, Kaz could better see that Violet and Maya were safe from the wreckage.
They were barely out of the car when Kolya threw his door open. The man came stumbling out, his eyes going back to his wife first, and then turning on the car he had practically turned into a pretzel. His intent was clear as he walked right up to the car, forcing the door open on the driver’s side. With a knife, he cut through the seat belt then dragged the man from the wreck.
But he didn’t stop, not until they were further out of sight.
Fucking hell.
“Kaz!”
He heard his name a moment before Violet came barreling into him—a moment before the first scream of pain rent the air.
“Don’t worry,” Konstantin said to Maya as he glanced back to where his brother had gone with his prey. “He won’t be long.”
That was up for debate. It seemed there was no off button for Kolya when it came to Maya.
“How did they find us?”
Violet’s question brought him back to the present, his attention now on her. He had planned to tell her later when they were back at home and he had a chance to think about what he was going to say and how he would say it. But he was out of time, and there was no easy way for him to explain this.
“Vasily reached out to Alberto.”
Violet looked horrified, as though the thought wasn’t even plausible. “Why would he do that?”
She probably thought, as he had, that Vasily would never seek the aid of someone like their father, if only because they were enemies. There was no doubt she had grown up hearing the disdain for the Russians from her family, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to ask a favor of a man he hated.
“Because he can’t show his face here. There’s no issue with the Italians here.”
“Yet,” Konstantin called out.
There was genuine worry in her eyes, now more than usual, but he couldn’t get her mind off that, not when she was still standing next to the proof of just how close her father had gotten.
“Let’s get you home, yeah?”
Kaz looked at Konstantin—who was already nodding. “We can take care of this. Maya will go with you.”
“But—” Maya protested, still looking at where her husband had gone.
“You know he doesn’t like you to see this,” Konstantin said, a little firmer. “I’ll make sure he calls as soon as we’re done.”
Reluctantly, Maya nodded. “You always do. Be careful, Kon—and make sure he doesn’t go too far.”
There was a warning in her tone, a story only the pair of them knew, but Konstantin nodded and headed to the mangled car. There was another person in the passenger seat, his face bloody as he hung helplessly. Konstantin didn’t cut him out immediately; he merely crouched down so they were nearly eye level and pulled out a cigarette to fit between his lips.
No, Konstantin was in no rush at all.
With his arm around Violet, and Maya walking just ahead of them, Kaz walked them to the car.
Violet’s head snapped up at the sound of screeching tires coming from outside of the townhouse. The shower upstairs didn’t turn off as the front door was opened and then slammed shut, a familiar voice ringing out.
“Maya!”
On the loveseat in the corner, Maya pushed up from her seat just as Kolya stormed into the living room, his gaze sharp, dark, and a little … crazy, even.
Wild might have been more appropriate.
Violet wasn’t quite sure she had ever seen someone look so out of their fucking mind while at the same time, managing to maintain an outward composure.
She wondered what kind of man Kolya was in his mind to have that sort of control.
The second his gaze landed on Maya, Kolya softened a bit in his stance, but barely. He didn’t even pass Violet a look as he said, “Go.”
Maya gave Violet a small smile. “It’s all right. He doesn’t have manners, but he meant to say please, too.”
Violet put her hand up, waving it all off as she got up from the couch and strolled past Kolya, making her way toward the kitchen. He didn’t look at her as she passed, either. He was far too focused on his wife, not that Violet minded.
She hesitated in her steps when the voices echoed from back in the living room.
“Why lie?” Kolya asked.
“Because look at how you reacted, Kolya.”
“Because you lied.”
“Wrong,” Maya said.
“No, I’m right. I reacted the same way I would have.”
“I was fine.”
“You were—”
“Fine, Kolya.” Maya sighed loudly. “I was doing exactly what I needed. I had it under control, and you would have gotten there in plenty of time.”
“I saw the marks on the back of your bumper. You’re placating me—he is already dead. It’s pointless to lie in the hopes of keeping me from going back to the bastard driving. He is dead.”
Violet swallowed hard, ignoring the sliver of ice crawling up her spine.
“You always do this, Kolya. You go crazy, and there’s no calming you—no helping you. You would have gotten there in plenty of time.”
“I did,” Kolya replied. “And look how it turned out, no?”
Violet decided to keep walking, but the conversation continued behind her. She could still hear them talking even as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine.
Drinking might calm her nerves, but who could say.
; “There’s no switch for you, Kolya,” Maya continued.
Violet caught sight of Kaz coming to stand in the kitchen entryway. Shirtless, with just a pair of cotton sleep pants on and his hair still damp, he watched her with his arms crossed as she searched for a wine glass.
Kaz acted like there wasn’t a private conversation going on—she figured he probably had a better idea of what was going on than she did.
“No switch,” Maya continued, “where I’m concerned.”
“There is,” Kolya shot back. “You are the fucking switch. I shut off—that’s it. When someone hits that switch, I have no care. You know this, dushka.”
“But—”
“Because you are,” Kolya interrupted quieter. “My dushka—my soul, Maya. I turn off. I’m not sorry for that.”
Eventually, the conversation died down, and Violet heard footsteps a second before Kaz glanced over his shoulder with a frown and a nod. Shortly after that, the front door closed.
The silence practically echoed as Violet lifted a full glass of wine to her lips.
“Eventful day,” she mumbled around the rim.
Heady, red wine covered her tongue, but it didn’t help the anxiety.
“I know,” Kaz murmured. “But everything turned out fine—the message that was sent ended up being a massive failure on your father’s part.”
“But he’ll try again.”
Kaz’s jaw ticked. “Likely.”
Or maybe Vasily would.
Violet chose not to ask.
“Do we leave now?” she asked.
“Run, you mean?”
“Do we?”
Kaz pushed away from the entryway and strolled farther into the kitchen. “We didn’t run in the first place. I never intended to hide where we were.”
Huh.
“This was only a matter of time,” he added.
“They came a little too close, Kaz.”
He came to stand behind her, placing his palms flat on the island counter on either side of her body. For a long while, he just stayed there, letting her sip her wine while he said nothing.
Violet hadn’t realized it, but she’d needed that. As simple as it was, it calmed her as nothing else could. He calmed her.
Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal Book 2) Page 8
