Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2)(49)

Looking down at her, he felt at peace. “That I missed you.”

“Really? Because as long as you were gone, I might have forgotten that.”

“It was necessary,” Kaz said after blowing out a stream of smoke. “But you’re here now, yes?”

“But for how long?”

Before Vasily had taken off, he would have never taken the chance of bringing her back here, but now that he was no longer the hunted, Kaz didn’t feel the need to keep her hidden away.

“For however long you want,” Kaz said, thinking of what he had left locked away in his desk across the hall. He intended to give it to her tonight but was waiting for the right moment.

“What’s the plan now?”

There was a lot to be done—a lot of meetings and sit-downs to be held—but none of that really involved Violet directly. Kaz didn’t doubt that Alberto knew they were both back, so the man’s absence was answer enough. He also didn’t doubt that Alberto would try to send anyone he could to drag her back to his side.

And he wasn’t having that happen.

Maybe there was no better time than the present ...

He left her staring after him to head to his office. Yanking one of the drawers open, he grabbed the small box inside, turning the thing over in his hands as he headed back to Violet. The minute he was back in the room, her gaze strayed to him and then down to what he was holding.

Seeing it, she sat up a little straighter, dragging the sheet up to her chest as she did. “Kaz, what—”

“Some things have changed since I’ve been back,” he started to explain, knowing he just needed to lay it all out there for her to hear. “Vasily has gone off the grid, and as of now, no one can find him.”

“You will,” she said with all the conviction in the world.

He nodded. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Violet was quiet for a moment before asking, “But what does that have to do with that?”

“I’m only boss in action, not in title,” Kaz explained. “With Vasily gone, I’m free to take his seat, but while that guarantees me a certain respect from the Bratva, it doesn’t for you. Don’t misunderstand. If I ever hear someone speak a bad word about you, I’ll cut out their tongue, but as things stand, you are still the daughter of a man my people want dead.”

The muscle in her throat worked as she swallowed, and he caught that look of apprehension on her face before she could turn away.

Kaz wasn’t going to pretend with her—not when there was no way to soften the fact that her father was a dead man walking anytime he left the safety of his home. He had never doubted that she wouldn’t take it well—Alberto was her father, after all, and she loved the man—but the only thing he could hope was that she would allow him to try to lessen her pain.

“But Russians and Italians … we’re not so different, no? We both honor the sanctity of marriage and all it stands for. So if you became my wife—”

“Then I’ll go from being Alberto’s daughter to your wife,” she finished, not betraying a single emotion as she did.

Not sure how she was feeling about that, Kaz added, “At the very least, no one would dare try to take the wife of an enemy unless they wanted to start a war.”

And if Alberto tried, it would be a bloody f*cking day.

“So this is about my protection?”

Scrubbing a hand down his face, Kaz didn’t answer. Not right away. He wanted to pick his words carefully. “It is about your protection, Violet, but that’s not the only reason. Ya tebya lyublya, Violet. You know that—I’ve made no secret of that fact to anyone. I’m not trying to marry you because it would be convenient, but because I want to.”

He heard her sharp intake of breath the first time he said ‘marry,’ but he needed to finish. He wanted her to understand that it was for them first, and everyone else was a distant second.

Flipping the lid of the box up, he crossed the floor, holding it out for her. “So are you going to make this easy on me?”

Her eyes were fixated on the oval diamond, one he had agonized over for two f*cking hours, before she looked at him with stark emotion in her face. “Ask.”

Losing the playful note to his voice, Kaz asked her the question that had plagued him since the moment he knew she was the one. “Violet, will you marry me?”





Violet’s eye caught the glittering oval diamond adorning her left hand a second before Kaz’s fingers curled around her jean-clad thigh and squeezed. That was enough to stop her from staring for the moment—something she hadn’t really stopped doing since he’d slid the ring down her finger with one of his signature smiles.

“Are you still irritated with me?” he asked, never taking his eye off the road.

“When did I say I was angry with you?”

Kaz chuckled. “You didn’t, but it’s easy to tell when a woman has a … certain attitude first thing in the morning.”

Violet passed him a look. “I’m about to catch an attitude.”

His grin only grew. “My point, thank you.”

“Is this about what I said—you being gone?”

“Yes,” Kaz replied.

“A phone call would have been nice.”