Page 20 of Where the Wind Whispers

It was yet another sign to her that he was not one-hundred percent better, and that he was probably hiding a lot more about how he felt and his pain than he let on. Violet tried not to worry too much, but that was hard to do when Kaz was stubborn by nature and was liable not to tell her more than he had to simply to keep her from worrying even more.

“All right,” Violet said, perching up on a stool in front of the island as Kaz came to stand in front of her. She reached up to graze her fingertips across the edge of the bandage around his neck. She didn’t linger there for long when Kaz grabbed her hand only to press a light kiss to her fingertips. “Talk, then.”

“Stop fretting.”

“I’m not nagging,” she pointed out.

“I can see it in your eyes. What’s done is done.”

It was never that simple.

Even Kaz had to know that.

“Talk,” Violet repeated.

Kaz took a single step closer, his arm coming to wrap around Violet’s waist while his hand came to rest on her stomach below her navel. “I have one goal in this whole thing right now.”

Violet was pretty sure she knew what that goal was but asked anyway. “Which is?”

“To keep you safe while I finish business.”

Kaz quieted after he’d said those words, that darkness returning in his gaze as he looked her over. Violet leaned up on the stool to kiss the underside of his jaw, wanting to take whatever hell that was going on in his head away for the moment.

It must have worked, at least a little bit.

She felt his smile grow, and he relaxed a bit.

It was enough.

“You will,” she assured.

Kaz made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat before he said, “I need you to go back.”

Violet couldn’t have pulled away from him faster than she did, the stool rocking from the abrupt movement. Kaz didn’t let her go far, his firm grip keeping her from slamming into the island countertop.

“Go back where?” she asked, a sharp edge to her tone.

“Let me finish before—”

“Go back where?”

A muscle worked in Kaz’s throat, as if he was chewing over his next words but didn’t want to spit them out. But he did.

And they damn near killed her.

“To your father.”

No.

No way.

Nope.

“Violet, let me explain,” Kaz said.

If the expression she must have been wearing didn’t clue him in on how she felt, then her repeated, vocal refusals had to be more than enough for him to get the point.

Violet pushed off the stool, her hand coming up to force Kaz away from her as her feet hit the floor. She shook her head, putting more space between her and Kaz as she took in what he was saying.