Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2)(15)

Kolya’s features blanked again, his gaze hard as he looked at Violet and then at Kaz. “She cares—likes you. I don’t want those sorts of problems. You know how she is.”

“She is right here,” Maya snapped.

Kaz’s hand came up to cup the back of Violet’s neck gently, but he looked at Kolya as he spoke. “Somewhere else, yes? Upstairs, outside. Whatever. Not here.”

Kolya frowned. “Fine. Maya—”

“Stays,” Kaz said. “No harm.”

Then Kaz gave Violet a smile and another quick kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Drink your coffee, get dressed, hmm? I’ll be back.”

Still not quite sure what had happened or what was wrong, Violet watched Kaz stroll out of the kitchen with Kolya following close on his heels. But not before he tugged playfully on a short strand of Maya’s hair as he left.

The action alone was affectionate enough for Violet to know the two were in a relationship.

As soon as the two men were gone, Maya turned back on Violet.

“So … Violet, yes?” she asked.

Violet shrugged. “Yep.”

“New York?”

“Born and raised.”

“I heard you come from the Italians,” the girl said.

Violet blinked, unsure. “Why has everyone I’ve met so far brought that up?”

Maya laughed. “Because it’s important. Are you going to order food?”

“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 f*ck 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 f*ck 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 *. 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 f*cking 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 f*cking comments to Violet.”