Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1)(22)

Each time she had tried to sit down and talk to him since it happened, he hadn’t seemed to have a word to say back to her.

Actually, he mostly ignored her.

“Okay, what gives?” Nicole asked.

Violet’s fork, filled with a cut of prime steak, froze midway to her mouth. “I beg your pardon?”

Amelia sighed to Violet’s right. “You’ve been quiet since we got here. You can’t be that pissed off at us, Violet. We didn’t do anything that you didn’t do.”

Violet was still confused as hell. “Again, what?”

“Telling our dads what happened,” Nicole supplied.

Ah.

Violet shrugged. “I’m not angry.”

“Then why aren’t you talking?” Amelia asked.

“Because I don’t care about my mother’s reveal for her upcoming collection or what anyone wears to it,” Violet said.

Yeah, maybe she was a little pissed at her friends, if she thought about it. She understood her father when he explained that she was the one responsible for her friends when they went out because of who she was, but her friends knew better.

And she didn’t feel like pretending that they were innocent.

“Wow,” Nicole muttered.

Violet frowned, feeling just a little bit guilty. Maybe the girls hadn’t done anything that she wouldn’t have done if put in their position. And they’d been her friends—since forever.

“There’s a shop on Sixteenth Street,” Violet said, deciding she didn’t want to play the bitchy game with the girls. “Ma mentioned it. Anything she says is good has to be gold, right? Maybe I’ll head over there and check it out, see what I can find.”

The thought of sitting through another one of her mother’s collection reveals was almost revolting, but Violet didn’t have much of a choice. Her friends weren’t the first to bring it up.

Alberto was.

And since Violet needed to get back in her father’s good graces, she would do whatever he wanted. Including spending a day at a place she hated, doing something that bored the shit out of her.

“Want us to come?” Nicole asked.

Even Amelia looked happy at the prospect.

Violet, on the other hand, figured she could probably handle picking out a dress on her own. “Next time? I have a busy week with school, and I’m just going to fit it in sometime in between that.”

“If you’re sure,” Amelia said.

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

Thankfully, her friends dropped the topic. Violet’s week was actually panning out to be pretty slow. She had some catch-up work to do for the classes she was failing, but that was it. If she could at least get her grade point average just beyond the failing mark, her father wouldn’t have such a fit.

That’s all she wanted to focus on right now.

Keeping her father happy.





“Of course you wait until the last minute to find a gift.”

Kaz didn’t bother to dignify that remark with a comment, knowing that his brother would only give him shit, no matter what he said. “I had shit to do.”

He didn’t bother to mention he knew f*ck-all about women’s clothing. Sure, he could appreciate a woman in a figure-hugging dress—more so, if he were the one to take it off her—but actively going in search for women’s apparel, especially since it was for his younger sisters … well, he was a bit over his head.

He’d been up early that morning, handling business down at the docks, making sure shipments were coming in on time and the right people were compensated for their time. Afterward, he’d made his way out of Little Odessa into the city, heading toward the boutique his sisters favored. He called Ruslan along the way to make sure he knew that after he finished there, he would be on his way to pick him up.

Last week, he had called, letting him know that he’d talked to Vasily, and that he was welcome to attend the party. Kaz hadn’t bothered to mention the way he had went about it. Then, Ruslan had seemed to accept him at his word, but now that it was the day of, he had felt the need to call and check in.

“He might have agreed,” Ruslan said over the line, “but he’s never been one to hold back how he feels.”

Kaz was silent for a moment, concentrating on the traffic in front of him. The street was packed tight with cars, making it hard to find a parking spot, and it was only worse for Kaz because his car drew more attention and made people stop and stare. Eventually, after circling around, he found a spot a couple blocks up. Swinging in smoothly, he cut the engine and pulled on a pair of sunglasses before climbing out, and heading down the street.

“Don’t worry about Vasily,” Kaz said. “He won’t make a scene, not in front of the twins.”

If there was one thing to be said about Vasily, he cared about his image. While in the privacy of his own home, he was prone to violent outbursts and making sure his thoughts were clear in blatant, brutal honesty, but he was always quite careful when there were others around. At the twins’ party, friends from their school, along with a number of their own associates would be in attendance. Vasily had always presented the idea that they were the perfect family. He wasn’t going to f*ck that up.

No matter if Ruslan showed ...

Even in a city as densely packed as Brooklyn, where celebrities, tourists, and the common person all mingled, Kaz stood out. It might have been his height—six feet, three inches—or the way he presented himself, but people tended to give him a wide berth as he walked, stepping out of his path before he’d even had the chance to get close.