Where the Snow Falls (Seasons of Betrayal #2) - London Miller Page 0,1

was, he still wouldn’t have burdened her with the details of it. “I’m fine.”

Vera didn’t look convinced, but she had always been rather good at reading what he wasn’t trying to show. “We both knew Vasily would punish you, but this … He went too far.”

Vasily was notorious for his acts against those who displeased him. He rather enjoyed the theatrical way he exacted his retaliation for whatever slight he deemed worthy enough. Usually, Kaz didn’t care much for whatever shit his father wanted to involve himself in, but now that he was on the receiving end of it, he was pissed.

Pissed and suspicious.

Kaz had never expected that his relationship with Violet, the only daughter of the Gallucci family, would cause Vasily to betray him the way he had. Usually, Vasily was doing everything he could to keep Kaz around, forcing a relationship even as Kaz pushed him away. But this … Vasily was making sure his message was clear when it came to Kaz and Violet.

They didn’t belong together.

If it were anybody else, he might have thought his father was doing it because the woman wasn’t the status he preferred, or maybe she was even promised to someone else, but something about his vehemence for her made Kaz suspicious of it all.

He had so many unanswered questions that while he wouldn’t have stayed away from Violet even if they put a fucking gun to his head, now he wouldn’t because his father was trying to keep them apart for a reason. And he was ready to know why.

“I underestimated him,” Kaz found himself saying but not elaborating on it. “It won’t happen again.”

He doubted next time he would be as lucky.

Vera had always been a careful driver, even with growing up in one of the worst fucking cities to drive in, but today, she seemed to be obeying the street laws a little too much, as though she were trying to avoid any and all attention.

He didn’t have to question why—not when she made it quite clear with her next words.

“I talked to Rus …”

That could mean a number of things, but only one was of concern to Kaz and that was whether Rus had revealed his plans.

While Vasily had thought his stint in jail would magically cure him of whatever spell Violet had him under, it had only managed to make him want her more. When the other inmates kept him up all night with the sounds of their fighting, yelling, and late night musings, just hearing her voice was enough to keep him going—to keep him sane.

Even as he knew he would need to figure his shit out with Vasily—and he didn’t trust that the man hadn’t been making plans while he was away—he needed to get away to clear his head and think about how he wanted to proceed.

And to do that, he was leaving the state.

The idea had come to him a little more than two months ago. When Rus had come to visit him one early Friday afternoon, he had run the idea by his older brother, hoping that he thought the idea was a good one, and more, if he would be able to arrange any of it. Kaz didn’t doubt that his father was looking through his shit and trying to find any evidence of what he was doing, so he had asked for Rus to handle it—because the two avoided each other as much as possible.

And because Rus ran a successful nightclub where people from all different walks of life came strolling through, he brushed shoulders with people who could get anything done with a single phone call.

That was all Kaz had needed.

“Yeah?” Kaz finally responded to Vera, glancing in her direction.

She worried her lips between her teeth, tapping her thumbs against the steering wheel, one other thing they had in common. “I don’t know what the two of you have planned, but I don’t want you to do anything stupid—or at least not more than what you already do.”

Though Kaz wasn’t always prone to outlandish things, he also had a habit of pushing as hard as he could to see how much it would take to break someone. But this decision wasn’t one he had made lightly.

“I’m just taking some time away, letting the waters settle before I’m forced to meet with Vasily. He’ll give me that. And even if he doesn’t, he won’t step foot where I’m going.”

It wasn’t fear, Kaz knew—Vasily didn’t fear any man—but his father made