Where the Sun Hides (Seasons of Betrayal #1)(91)

“Time?”

“To think,” he clarified.

“Oh.”

Suddenly, Kaz pushed away from the counter and Violet. Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed a fistful of his jacket, tugging to pull him back. She liked him closer—there with her. Standing with her, locking her in with him.

That’s where he needed to be.

“Don’t go right now,” she said quietly, her gaze lowering.

“I have to talk to Vera for a second, okay? Drink the tea. Don’t worry.”

That was much easier said than done.

Still, Violet let him go, releasing his jacket from her hold and staring out the small kitchen window as he followed the direction his sister had gone just a couple of minutes before.

Violet didn’t miss how on his way out of the kitchen, he grabbed the packet of photographs that were sticking out of the top of her bag, resting on the table.

Not ten seconds later, the voices started to raise from down the hall.

“Are you serious, Kaz? Are you trying to get yourself killed—oh wait, it’s too late to ask that question, considering the two of you are here. What were you thinking?”

“Vera—”

“And of all the women in New York, you picked the one that would piss off Vasily the most? If the situation wasn’t so serious, I might have given you a pat on the back.”

“Vera—”

“And how long do you think you can hide out here before Vasily arrives?”

“Will you shut up long enough for me to speak?” Kaz asked dryly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Please, enlighten me on how you expect to get out of this one without our mother having to bury you … I’ll wait.”

“Jesus, when did you become so pessimistic?”

Clear as day, Vera said, “The day my brother brought the one female to my door that would surely get him a bullet to the forehead. How do you want me to act, Kaz? Should I go out there and smile pretty, make sure she’s happy and comfortable? Wait until her psychotic father sends some of his people to kick in my door trying to get her back?”

“Don’t, Vera,” Kaz said with an edge to his voice. “Don’t blame her for the decisions I made.”

“No, you’re just as guilty as she is, but at the end of the day, she may get no more than a slap on the wrist. You, Kaz … they’re going to bury you for this.”

Violet clenched the cup a little harder in her hands, wondering how much truth was in Vera’s words.

Probably more than she wanted to admit.

They had gone into this whole thing so stupidly. Together, sure, but dumb all the same. The innocence of it was quickly wiped away by the fact it had always been hidden, quiet, and secret. That alone was enough to say it was wrong, and they knew it was.

And yet, here they were.

Violet lifted her cup for another sip as Kaz strolled back into the kitchen, his expression a blank slate. He stopped at the table, and one by one, dropped the pictures down as he looked through them. She wasn’t quite sure what to say, so she let him do whatever it was he was doing.

Finally, when he came to the last one—the most revealing of them all—Kaz scowled and tossed it down, too. “These were not included in the one Vasily showed me.”

Her heart stopped. “What?”

“The one photograph he showed me was innocent, and he alluded to more, but nothing to this …” Kaz’s jaw clenched before he finished with, “Extent.”

Anger and betrayal swirled fast in Violet’s emotions, warring with one another for attention. “You knew he—”

Kaz spun around, a hand raising slowly. “Don’t do that with me right now.”

Violet dropped her unfinished tea into the sink, the cup clanging loudly against the metal. She took a step forward, hurt and so angry. “Don’t do this? Like what, like I shouldn’t be angry with you that you already knew?”

“You’re assuming. Don’t assume.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, Kaz.”

“I’m not. You’re angry, and you’re worried. You’re lashing out at me instead of listening to me.”

Violet had all she could do to stay where she was, knowing he had a point. It didn’t help her fury a great deal. “Go ahead, then, explain to me how you knew he had pictures of us, and you couldn’t be bothered to pick up a phone and at least tell me that he had them!”

“Have you thought … Oh, I don’t know, in the last fifteen or so minutes—maybe since you got the pictures—that this was exactly why I didn’t call you?”

How was he so calm when she was clearly pissed?

“You’re doing it again. Patronizing me. Stop it.”

Kaz sighed, and raked a hand down his face. “I knew he had the pictures, yes, but he also made it clear that if he caught me running around with you again, that he would send them to your father. I was waiting for his attention to cool down enough that I might be able to get away with meeting up with you. This wasn’t something I wanted to do over the phone, Violet. But let’s not forget how he had someone following me for weeks.”

Violet snapped back at the sudden heat in Kaz’s tone. “I—”

“Weeks,” he repeated sharply. “And obviously, by the looks of those last few, we can safely f*cking assume I get so entirely distracted by you that I don’t even notice when someone is photographing me from outside my goddamn home!”