Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1)(27)

“No worries. We’ll be there.”

It didn’t matter that Vasily and Ruslan were at odds. Ruslan was still expected to show.

“Rus! You made it!”

Kaz turned just in time to see Nika hurrying across the backyard, throwing herself at Ruslan as he stepped down to their level. Vera was right behind him, along with Irina, and a number of caterers that were bringing out the last of the food.

In a way, Ruslan had come out prepared with his own little army.

Vasily wouldn’t cause a scene, not with the number of people at the party, and especially not with Irina, the twins, and Vera in attendance—he saved his savagery for when they weren’t around.

Dina was right behind her sister, barreling into Ruslan as he caught them easily, his lips moving, though Kaz couldn’t make out what he was saying.

Vasily’s scowl grew worse as he looked over at his eldest son, and with fire in his eyes, he took a step in their direction, as though he meant to pull them apart if he had to.

“Ah, I wouldn’t do that,” Kaz said easily, not taking his eyes off his siblings.

“You can’t save him from me, Kazimir,” Vasily returned in a dark voice. “You shouldn’t try.”

Kaz nodded, his lips turning down at the corners. “Maybe so, but then who would save you from Vera?”

Vasily had chosen wisely in a wife. She was quiet, knew when not to ask questions, and kept her opinions of how he treated their children to himself—even the twins took after her in their quiet manner.

But Vera, on the other hand, she didn’t bend to Vasily’s whims. If she thought he was wrong, and that was more often than not, she called him out on it, but only in regards to his parenting. When it came to the Bratva, she let him run it as he saw fit.

Unlike with Kaz, Vasily was careful to mind his words around Vera in regards to Ruslan. Maybe he was trying to mend the relationship with his eldest daughter, but even Kaz knew that he wouldn’t be able to fix something that wasn’t there.

“Give him today,” Kaz said from his position at his father’s side. “Tomorrow, you can hate him again.”

For the first time in what felt like ages, Kaz thought he saw his brother’s shoulders relax, like the weight of his burdens had finally been lifted.

... if only for a short while.





Violet kept her attention focused entirely on the textbook in her hands, and not her father sitting across the room behind his large desk. She knew he was watching her, he always had at least one eye on her.

Earlier in the day, her father had called with a simple request for her to come over and have lunch with him. He offered nothing more when he called, and made it clear his request was not up for debate. Violet dropped the lunch plans she had with Amelia and Nicole, and found a driver waiting outside of her Manhattan condo, ready to drive her across the city to Amityville.

After eating lunch with her father, Alberto invited Violet up to his office to sit and talk for a while. She ended up on the couch studying while her father scribbled on papers in a folder. Very little talking was being done at all.

It was unnerving.

“How has Gee been treating you?” Alberto asked.

Violet finally lifted her gaze from her reading, and found her father had dropped the pen he had been writing with. Gee was her driver—her new not-so-much best friend.

“Fine, Daddy.”

“He says you’ve been following the rules and only staying in the upper part of Brooklyn.”

Violet shrugged. “That’s what you wanted.”

“Only when he drives you, right?” Alberto pressed.

“Of course.”

She was not planning to defy her father again. Her lesson was well learned. Even driving anywhere now was impossible to do by herself, because Gee had been given the second set of keys to her car and was not permitted to hand them back to her until her father allowed it.

“Have you seen the Russian since the club incident?” her father asked.

Violet hesitated before answering. Her father’s sharp eye looked her over, searching for any proof that she was about to lie. Her encounter just a couple of days before with Kaz Markovic had been nothing more than chance. She didn’t think he was purposely seeking her out, and in fact, she hadn’t even noticed his flashy car parked anywhere outside of the shop before she went in that day. Then again, her driver had been in a fit over the smothering traffic and just wanted to find a place to park, so maybe that was why they hadn’t noticed him.

While she didn’t understand why the man would risk going so far into Brooklyn just for the sake of shopping for his sisters’ birthday, she wasn’t going to get him in trouble for doing so.

“No,” Violet said quietly. “I haven’t seen him or anyone else from Brighton Beach.”

Alberto’s lips pursed, and Violet recognized the action immediately. It was her father’s way of considering her words, and whether or not he wanted to believe them.

Before the club incident, he might have taken her words as instant truth with no questions asked. Now, he was not as forgiving.

Violet didn’t drop her father’s gaze, knowing that if she did, he would find her lies.

Alberto was the first to look away. “I worry, that’s all.”

“I was the one who went into their space, not the other way around,” Violet replied. “It was a mistake, and they seemed to understand that.”