Page 21 of Where the Wind Whispers

“You need to be safe,” he was explaining through her refusals. “The only way I can guarantee that and still have you relatively close—at least to keep you in the same fucking city—is to put you somewhere Vasily won’t bother you. If he thinks you’ve left me and gone back to your father, then you’ll be useless to him, Violet. Listen to me for—”

“The answer is no,” Violet said, angry and hurting. “I don’t want to go back to my father.”

“I didn’t ask if you wanted to; I said it was safe.”

“You’re insane if you thought I was going to agree to that, Kazimir.”

At the use of his full name, Kaz’s gaze narrowed. “Are you going to force my hand, then?”

Violet blinked. “What?”

“You’ll be angry at me for a little while. You might even hate me for it, Violet. But understand one thing more than anything else between us—I will always do what I have to so that you are safe and protected first and foremost.”

“To the detriment of my happiness?”

“You might not think so now, but I’m doing this so we can be happy.”

Violet wasn’t really hearing him.

She was too pissed.

Too hurt.

“Do you know what he’s going to expect from me?” Violet asked, panic already beating hard in her throat and making her sick. “Do you?”

Kaz said nothing.

Violet’s fury exploded at his silence. “To beg, Kaz. For his attention and his forgiveness. For whatever he fucking wants!”

Blank as paper, Kaz simply stared at her. “Then you’ll have to do that, krasivaya. Make him believe it. Make him think you’re sorry, that you made a horrible mistake, and that you want nothing more than to be his pleasing, sweet sunshine of a daughter.”

Kaz had been right.

A little bit.

Violet thought she might hate him for this.

Three days and she was still pissed at him.

It didn’t matter how often he said it was for the best—that it was only temporary until he got a bead on Vasily and put an end to that threat—she refused to speak to him. And even when she did, her words were stilted with anger lacing her voice.

Despite wanting to make it right with her, he knew where his focus needed to be. So he let her stew as he and Alfie worked. And now, finally, he had some answers.

But it was also today that Violet seemed to be at her worst. It could be because he was finally leaving her alone instead of trying to get her to talk to him for the first time, or it could have been because she was going back to Alberto’s the next day.

Either way, the second time their bedroom door slammed shut, Kaz had to squeeze his eyes shut and count backward from five. She was deliberately trying to rile him up, he knew, and he had elected to ignore it the first time.

But now, it was getting too hard to ignore.

And when another door slammed, Kaz got to his feet, leaving his office in a flurry of motion as he took the stairs nearly two at a time.

Though only home for a few days, he was already feeling better, and though the wound on his neck was nearly healed, he was still quite careful with it.

Twisting the handle of the door, Kaz shoved it open, just in time to see Violet tossing a suitcase out of the closet with a loud thud. Next came clothes, shoes, and even a few purses. While some landed on top of the suitcase, more landed on the floor around it.

Violet walked out the closet, hair tumbling wildly around her shoulders, dressed in that delicate lingerie she usually wore to bed with him. No, she wasn’t playing fair at all.

Noticing him, she came up short when she saw him, but that surprise quickly morphed to anger as she went on, pretending he wasn’t there.