Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2)(23)

He’d bought a townhouse, after all. Decorated it to make it cozy and comfortable like a home. He seemed more at peace in Chicago than she could remember him being in New York.

“I don’t know,” Violet finally said.

“You have some time to figure it all out.”

Maya took Violet’s words wrong, but she didn’t correct her. Violet didn’t know if that was in Kaz’s plans, but she wasn’t sure it would be in hers. New York was her home—Kaz’s, too. She just wished she could have him there like she had him here.

That wasn’t a difficult thing to want.

But it was impossible to make it happen.

At least the way things were at that moment.

“Twenty to twelve,” Maya said, lifting up her phone for Violet to see. “Should probably get going, yes?”

She pulled out the cell phone Kaz had given her and checked for any missed messages or calls. Not surprisingly, there weren’t any. Kaz didn’t play on the phone while he was working … or whatever.

“Yeah, we should probably head back to the townhouse,” Violet agreed.

Once Violet was inside Maya’s navy blue Mercedes, and the heat was turned on high, she waited as her friend typed in a message on her phone. Almost immediately after she sent the message, Maya’s phone began to ring. She picked it up, speaking Russian and leaving Violet out of the loop.

She didn’t mind. Her gaze traveled back out the window, looking down the busy Chicago street.

The snowfall and cold didn’t seem to deter the people. They just walked right on through.

Out of the many words Maya spoke, Violet did hear a couple that she recognized.

Kolya. Nyet. Ostanovit.

Maybe Violet was picking up things here and there. Even if they were just common and easy phrases, it was something.

However, guessing by those words, Violet figured the conversation was probably not for her to eavesdrop on, so she turned her head the other way, looking out at the parking lot of the park. She surveyed the few cars parked there, covered by snow.

One, in particular, caught her eye.

Only because it wasn’t covered in snow at all.

For a split second, time slowed as Violet took in the man standing at the back of the black car, wearing a long trench coat and a fedora that kept his eyes shadowed by the brim as he bent his head down. His arms were crossed, and his body language spoke of unease as he turned away from a couple who walked past him.

It didn’t matter.

Violet had seen his face.

All that dread she had been pushing down and ignoring during the morning came thrashing right back up with a vengeance.

“Maya,” Violet said quietly.

She was still focused on her call.

Violet looked from Maya in the driver’s seat, back to the parking lot across the street. The man was no longer resting on the back of the car but walking around toward the passenger’s door.

He looked over his shoulder.

Violet caught his eye.

There was no mistaking his face—she had grown up seeing it almost every day.

He smiled when their gazes met and waved two fingers.

Vito Amadori.

Her father’s underboss.

It seemed her family had found her.





“Perhaps you should lay off the food, brother,” Konstantin said from his spot across the table, eyes on the newspaper he held.

While the brother in question merely glared as he cut into his steak, Kaz paid neither any mind as he sent off a text to his brother for an update. Trying to keep up with Vasily’s movements, covering his own, and trying to maintain business was a constant job, one that was taking over every moment of his life.

Even though it was necessary and vital for him to do what he did, Kaz was still beginning to see how it was starting to bleed into his private moments. When he was home, with Violet at his side, his mind still constantly strayed to what he needed to do.

She was worried, he could tell, but he could never give her specifics. And that was just another thing that added to the pile of shit he had to deal with.

But he was close, so he had to content himself with the knowledge that by the end of it all, it would all be worth it.

He just had to make it to the end.

“You’ve ordered twice in thirty minutes,” Konstantin added.

Waving his knife in the air, Kolya asked, “What else is there to do in a restaurant? Should I sit and go hungry?”

“If it means the rest of the guests here have to, then perhaps you should.”

Kolya grumbled something in return, going back to his food. Kaz smiled, his gaze shifting to the front entrance as the doors opened and three men in black entered. Their clothing wasn’t particularly flashy, understated really, but one wore a gold chain around his neck and a gold ring with diamonds on his pinky finger.

Kaz had never seen the men before in his life, but the sight of them made him sit up straighter.

Fuck.

For men like them, one could tell just at a glance whether someone else was a part of this life—just in the way they carried themselves.

And from their coloring, and the way their lips curled up when their eyes cut to Kaz, he knew they weren’t friends.

As they started across the floor, tension already crackling in the air the closer they got, their presence was enough to make Konstantin glance over in their direction. Maybe it was because of the city, or the way one of the Italians kept flexing his fists, but some of the guests in the restaurant quickly dropped money on the table and rushed to leave.