Violet stepped into the waiting elevator and tried not to give her irritation away when Tony slid in beside her without a word. She pressed the number for her floor and leaned against the golden rail as the doors closed and the elevator began to lift.
She couldn’t even walk herself through her own building and up to her apartment without Alberto’s appointed babysitter following right behind.
And lately—at least for the past few days—it seemed like Tony was sticking even closer than usual. Most times, he would wait outside places when she went in to do her business. But no, he started coming in right behind her for no apparent reason and with no explanation when she asked why.
Boss’ orders.
That was all she was given.
Violet had a sneaking suspicion she knew exactly why her father had ordered Tony to stick closer. Kaz’s release was no secret.
Alberto was crossing his t’s and dotting his i’s where Violet was concerned.
And it was working.
With Tony’s suffocating presence, she wasn’t comfortable with even glancing at her phone if it buzzed for fear he would be looking over her shoulder. Sure, Tony stayed outside her place when she was home, but it wasn’t that simple for Violet.
Four months.
She’d waited four months to talk to Kaz when he was on the outside and not confined to a fucking cell. When he was locked up, their conversation stayed on mostly safe topics and rarely ventured beyond what would happen when he was back in the city. Occasionally, that slipped into their conversation too, but just enough to let her know he was waiting on her.
Whatever she wanted to do.
Violet had the distinct feeling that if she made that call, or sent out a message, it wasn’t going to be enough. She wouldn’t be able to just talk to Kaz and leave it at that until they could figure something else out. She had no doubt in her mind that she was going to want to see him.
So until she could do that, she forced herself to leave the fucking phone number untouched.
The elevator had shifted a second before the doors opened with a loud ding. Violet shot a look in Tony’s direction, wondering if he was going to walk her down the short hallway to her door as he had done the past few evenings. Sure enough, he waved a hand as if to let her go first.
Sighing, Violet pushed off the wall and strolled out of the elevator. It wasn’t Tony’s fault, and her annoyance wasn’t his burden to bear. He was just following orders, and for the most part, he made his constant presence in her life bearable.
Violet was pretty sure Tony had better things to do than babysit her.
But the man never let on, and she didn’t ask.
Halfway down the hall leading to her door—the only apartment on the highest floor—Violet said, “I’m home, Tony, so no need to tuck me in, too.”
Tony chuckled, stopping at a decorative side table with a bouquet of fresh flowers resting on the top. A leather chair sat beside the table. As far as Violet knew, most floors in the building had those personal touches in the hall to make the building feel less … apartment-like.
“I’m sure you can handle that on your own, principessa,” Tony replied easily.
Violet brushed off the ‘princess’ remark and kept walking even as Tony took a seat. “Is that where you’re staying tonight?”
“Until Con gets here and relieves me for the night, yep. Whenever the hell that is. Could be near morning, and by then, I gotta be back here anyway.”
Boy, that sounded fun.
“When do you sleep, anyway?”
Tony flashed her a cool smile. “When I’m dead, apparently.”
Violet thought her father was going a little overboard with the bodyguards, but who was she to say. She was the one who had broken the rules, after all. Alberto didn’t trust her with an inch.
And frankly, rightfully so.
The first chance she got, Violet was gone.
Digging through her purse, she found the apartment keys at the very bottom and pulled them out to unlock the door. Giving one last glance over her shoulder at Tony, who had his phone out and was now playing some annoying sounding game, Violet disappeared into her apartment and shut the door behind her. She turned the deadbolt back in place and kicked off her shoes before even turning around to face her empty place.
Except the second she closed the door, it was as if the air had shifted. Something felt different. Not wrong, or even off, just … different.
Maybe it was the fact her hallway light was on, and it was the last thing she had turned off before she left her place. Always, no exceptions. Or maybe it was the slight scuff of black on the light-colored hardwood floor of her entryway as if someone had spun on their heel a little fast and left a mark behind. That hadn’t been there either, and no one had been in her place with black-soled shoes for weeks.
But beyond those little details, something else caught Violet’s attention.
A lingering scent in her hallway she would recognize anywhere. Smoke, leather, heat, and spice.
Kaz.
Violet dropped her bag to the floor with a thump, and she didn’t think twice about running to her bedroom, her heartbeat echoing in her ears. She didn’t want to hope and be wrong, but the anticipation that coiled through her had a smile on her face before she even reached the room.
There was a second, a moment’s hesitation, as she palmed the door handle and gave it a sharp twist, shoving it open as she walked in. Nothing was different, not at first glance. Her bed was left undisturbed, floor clean, but standing off to the side, leaning a shoulder against the wall as he stared out the windows at the city below was the one person she wanted the most.
He turned, shifting just far enough that she could see his face—familiar gray eyes and the slightest of smiles that grew as he turned to face her fully.
One second, she was still standing in the doorway, staring at him, and the next, she was across the room. She wrapped her arms around him just to prove he was real, that he was actually there. She wanted to feel the warmth of his skin, his heartbeat against her cheek.
But that wasn’t enough, not nearly, at least until his arms closed around her, and just like that … her world got a little smaller, she could breathe, and things felt right again.
Violet hugged Kaz tighter, not caring how he had gotten past the front desk without being seen, never mind how he managed to break into her place. She barely even considered the enforcer outside her door as she leaned up on her tiptoes to stare a grinning Kaz right in the eyes.
“Krasivaya,” he murmured.
Violet wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to say first, but Kaz helped her out by pressing a hard, searing kiss to her smiling lips. It was like hearing an old, favorite tune the way he pulled her closer, and she fisted the back of his jacket to keep him right where he was. The soft swipes of his lips moving over hers turned demanding in a blink, his tongue striking out at the seam of her mouth.
Violet didn’t even care that her fingers ached from holding onto him so tightly, or that her lungs burned with the need for breath as he kissed her deeper, his tongue warring with hers for a brief moment before his teeth nipped at her bottom lip.
So familiar.
So good.
She didn’t give a fuck what her father thought. Things that fit together as perfectly as she and Kaz did weren’t wrong.
All too soon, Kaz was pulling away. She pouted, and he chuckled at her crestfallen expression before pressing another quick kiss to her lips. Violet shivered when one of his hands came up to cup her chin in his palm. She felt his thumb slide across her lower lip and then over her cheek.
“I guess that answers that, no?”
Violet let out a shaky breath. “Answers what?”
“Things,” he said vaguely.
She didn’t have the first clue of what he was going on about, but at that moment, she was too caught up with the fact he was there with her to care about the rest.
There.
… with her.
In her place.
Violet’s eyes widened, and she instinctively tried to take a step back from Kaz. He held her in place, refusing to let her move farther away from him.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re here.”
Kaz smiled, lax and easy. “We’ve established that, yes?”
God, why did he have to sound so damn good when she needed to think?
“No,” Violet said, her fingers unfurling from the back of his jacket. “Here, in my place.”
“Locks aren’t really an issue for me, Violet.”
“Good to know.”
“And you haven’t called,” he added quieter.
Violet swallowed back the nervousness beginning to form. “I couldn’t.”
Kaz waved a hand high. “There’s no one here right now.”
“So?”
“Would you have called me tonight?”
Violet found his gray gaze and held it, answering honestly. “No.”
“I was beginning to think you didn’t want to call me. And then you come in here, and kiss me like that, so maybe it’s not a matter of not wanting to, hmm?”
“I couldn’t call. Someone is always around.”
“But not right now,” he reminded her.
“There’s someone outside. Tony—one of my father’s men.”
Kaz’s lip curled up at the corner. “Muscle, which doesn’t mean a whole lot.”
“It means that I can’t get out of here without him being right behind me. It means you couldn’t come here if I did call.”
“I don’t—”
“And that’s what I would have wanted,” Violet interrupted, hoping he understood. “I wanted to go—or you to be here, and I couldn’t have that, so I was waiting.”
Kaz sighed. “I missed you. I was tired of waiting.”
Violet didn’t bother to contain her pleased smile. “Missed me, huh?”
He stroked her lips and cheek again with the pad of his thumb. “More than you know, sweetheart.”
“And what now?”
She couldn’t even hide the sudden dryness in her voice. It had been far too long since she had been close to Kaz, never mind having him touch her. It made her feel a little fuzzy in the head. Stupid, even. She didn’t care—she wanted more.
“Right now, whatever you want,” Kaz told her softly.
Violet’s answer was instant and immediate. “You. I want you.”
Kaz flashed her another one of his sexy smiles. “I’ve been working on that.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. You know we’re going to have to leave for a while, yes?”
Violet nodded, not bothered in the slightest. She had figured that out long ago. No way would she be able to have Kaz and stay in New York, too. Her father just wasn’t going to allow that, and she wasn’t willing to let Kaz go.
Alberto had promised to kill Kaz if he came near Violet again after that final encounter four months earlier. She refused to risk Kaz like that again, but she wasn’t going to walk away from him, either.
That left her with one option.
To leave.
Violet wasn’t even sure if anything left in New York was worth staying for now.
“Where have you been the last few days?” Violet asked.
“Around,” he replied.
“I don’t remember you being this vague before jail, Kaz.”
Kaz laughed. “I’ve been tying up loose ends and keeping an eye on things that matter.”
Violet wondered … “Things like me?”
“Things like you, krasivaya.”
Fisting the front of his jacket, she tipped her head up and caught the underside of his jaw with a kiss, feeling his smile form as she did so. The coarse facial hair covering his cheeks and jaw tickled her skin.
“You need to shave,” she said.
“You sound like my sister. Don’t do that.”
“But you do need—”
“Don’t,” he said firmer, cocking a brow.
Violet let him go with a laugh, and Kaz finally released her from his hold. Despite how much she just wanted to bring him closer again, she took the bit of space to breathe and think clearly once more.
She wanted to ask him a million and one things. Stuff about his family and what had been going on since he was put away. His time in lockup and all the nonsense that went with it. But mostly, she just wanted to know how in the hell they were going to get themselves out of their current situation.
“You’re here now,” Violet said, fingering the hem of her shirt.
“Yeah.”
“And I’m not going to want you to leave.”
Kaz shrugged. “Maybe you’ll have to come with me then.”
“Tony—enforcer, remember? He’s outside. I already told you this, Kaz.”
He barely reacted to her statement, like it didn’t faze him in the slightest.
“I didn’t think for a second that your father would be letting you run around unmanned, Violet.”
How was that going to help them?
“I’ve got a flight to catch,” Kaz added after a moment. “Are you going to be joining me or not?”
Again, she didn’t hesitate. “Where the hell else am I going to go?”
She didn’t even ask how or what his plan was.
Violet just didn’t care.
He was all she wanted now—didn’t he know that?
“That’s all I need to know,” Kaz said. He nodded at the walk-in closet across the room. “Think you can pack a bag in ten minutes?”
“Probably less.”
“You might want to take some shit, Violet. Whatever means something to you. I don’t know how long we’re going to be gone, or if you’ll have something to come back to.”
She still couldn’t find it in herself to give a damn.
Not with him there.
“None of it matters anyway,” she said.
Kaz’s smile deepened. “All right. Five minutes, yes?”
“Five minutes.”
Kaz didn’t follow Violet when she made a beeline for the closet. She wasn’t even sure what he was doing as she grabbed a tote bag that was large enough to fit a few outfits and very little else. As long as she had a change of clothes, she could take care of the rest as needed.
She knew that without even asking.
Violet was well aware that Kaz wasn’t the type to just jump the gun. He figured shit out and planned accordingly. If he said it was time to go, then it was, and he would take care of the rest.
Simple as that.
Before long, Violet was strolling out of her closet with the bag tossed over her shoulder. She found Kaz waiting in the bedroom doorway, holding out one of her warmer, thicker winter coats. Much warmer than the one she was currently using. While spring was a couple of months or so away, it was still chilly.
“It’s colder in Chicago,” he said when she took the coat from him. “Windier. You’ll need it when we land.”
“Okay.”
Kaz chuckled and used the tip of his thumb to rub at a spot above his eye. “That’s it? No questions or demands?”
“I told you what I wanted.”
“Yeah, I guess you did.”
“Tony is still out in the hallway, Kaz.”
He didn’t even blink when he said, “I know. Don’t look.”
Violet wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but when he held out his hand, she took it without hesitating.
“Got everything you want?” he asked.
She passed a look at the framed photographs on her corner desk. She rarely used it for anything, preferring to be lying in bed when she was on her laptop. Over the years, she’d just filled the desk with pictures of her family and a few of her friends.
“I’m good,” she said.
Kaz drew her into his side and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Let’s go then.”
He tucked her hand around his arm as he directed them back through the apartment and toward the front door. She slipped on a pair of sneakers, foregoing the heels she had kicked off earlier.
Kaz’s hand landed on the doorknob, and once more, he said, “Just don’t look.”
Violet wasn’t sure what she thought she would see when he pulled the apartment door open. Maybe that Tony had skipped off, thinking she’d settled in for the night, and that was it.
Or maybe that was what she was hoping for.
She was wrong.
Tony was right where she had left him, still looking down at that phone of his and lost in whatever game he was playing. Violet’s fingers dug roughly into Kaz’s arm at the sight of the enforcer, as if she was subconsciously trying to pull him back into the apartment and hide him.
Kaz didn’t even react; he just kept moving forward, bringing her along with him.
Clearing his throat loudly, Kaz effectively made enough noise to draw Tony’s attention away from his phone. The second Tony looked up, Kaz was reaching for whatever was at his back at the same time.
Violet heard Kaz’s words from before still ringing loudly.
Don’t look.
How easy that should have been.
Tony stood, reaching for the gun she knew he kept holstered at his side under his jacket.
Kaz already had his gun aimed, and the hammer cocked back under his thumb.
Don’t look.
The noise was deafening when Kaz pulled the trigger. Louder than Violet realized it would be. She had never—despite growing up around men who always carried handguns—heard one fired before. Certainly not at close range.
She should have turned away.
Instead, she watched the bullet tear through Tony’s face.
Kaz merely blinked as the man dropped back into his seat, his phone on the ground, whatever game he’d been playing still going. Whoever he was, he no longer mattered now that he was dead.
At the moment, his only concern was Violet.
He doubted she had ever seen someone die—not this way, at least—and as he glanced back at her, her expression confirmed his thoughts. There was horror, maybe even a little disgust, but she hadn’t screamed nor did she throw up—as someone he knew had once done after seeing a body.
Truthfully, she was handling it far better than he thought she would.
When he placed a hand on the small of her back, urging her forward and toward the elevator, he could feel the slight tremor working through her, but even still, she said nothing.
Not when they boarded the elevator, the doors closing off the sight of the enforcer bleeding out in his chair, or even as they made their way through the lobby of her apartment building.
He used to be so careful when he came here—always making sure to take the back entrance to avoid any cameras and steer clear of the front desk staff he knew were in Alberto’s pocket. But as he walked with her, briefly meeting the gaze of one of the receptionists standing behind the counter, he didn’t give a fuck.
Outside, Rus’ car awaited them—his Porsche already shipped to Chicago ahead of them. Grabbing her bag, Kaz circled the car, opening the passenger door for her before dropping her bag in the backseat.
Once he was inside, he checked his watch, gauging how much time he had before they needed to be at the airstrip. Minutes to spare.
Pulling out, Kaz navigated them through the traffic, leaving Violet to her thoughts for the time being. He didn’t doubt that she was still trying to process what she had seen. She probably wasn’t particularly comfortable with what he had done, but he didn’t want there to be any confusion as to who he was.
Would he ever harm her? No. He would go to the ends of the earth to keep her safe. But others? If they thought to cross him or attempt to keep him away from her, they wouldn’t be as lucky.
By the time they reached the airstrip at ten minutes to eleven, the jet was already waiting, the lights of the interior dimly illuminating the strip. There was a car nearby, its owner sitting on the hood of it, but as their car rolled to a stop, he dropped to his feet.
Alfie was one of the few men Kaz knew he could trust, so when he reached out for his assistance in setting this up, Alfie hadn’t hesitated. While he knew very little of Alfie’s business practices, he knew the man could get his hands on just about anything.
Like the jet waiting for them.
“I wanted to see for myself,” Alfie said once he got close after they exited the car.
“See what?” Kaz asked as he grabbed Violet’s bag from the backseat, along with his own.
“If she would be at your side. Words are easy. Actions … that’s when you see what a person is worth.”
Alfie wasn’t one to bite his tongue, even when the person he was speaking about was standing right in front of him. But Violet wasn’t a shy little thing and boldly stared at him, unblinking.
“Yeah?” she asked. “Then what am I worth?”
Alfie smiled. “Guess we’ll find out. Safe travels. And Kaz? Watch your back. You’ve been out for less than a few days, and you’re already making noise.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Kaz said in return. “You done?”
Alfie didn’t take offense. Kaz wondered if anyone could make him lose his cool.
Taking hold of Violet’s hand, Kaz led the way to the jet, letting her go up first before he boarded behind her. A flight attendant was already waiting for them to offer refreshments, but Kaz dismissed her as he left Violet in the cabin and went to speak with the pilot.
One quick conversation later, Kaz was back, taking the seat opposite Violet. He was reaching to buckle his seat belt when Violet’s voice cut through the silence.
“What’s in Chicago?”
He wished she would look at him instead of out the window so he could see what she was thinking. “Friends.”
She nodded, but he could tell that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. But he wouldn’t elaborate, not yet. It would only be a few hours until she met them anyway, and she could form her own opinion.
Violet fell silent again, her thoughts somewhere else.
Kaz wasn’t usually one to explain his actions and the decisions he made—his position afforded him that luxury—but he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that with her. He wanted her to understand.
It wasn’t until the jet was in the air did he snap off his belt and cross the short distance to her, taking the seat beside her. She didn’t hesitate to shift, turning so she was facing him better.
“You have a question? Ask.”
“You … Did you really have to kill him?”
Kaz sat back, thinking about his answer before he spoke. “A message had to be sent. Sure, I could have knocked him out, and we could have left then too, but you know your father and the men who work for him. He’ll still send someone for you, undoubtedly, but now, he’ll think twice.”
Unable to help himself, he reached out to finger strands of her hair. Even as he did so, his attention on his task, he still said, “Men like me … We need a declaration. It’s no longer just about bending rules or breaking them even. Vasily asked me back before he set me up whether I would stay away from you. Tony was my answer. I won’t let anyone stand between us, Violet. No one.”
Violet shook her head, meeting his gaze. “You can’t kill all of them, Kaz.”
“I’ll do what I have to.”
“Kaz—”
“I love you, Violet. Don’t ever forget that. I’m sorry you had to see what happened with Tony, and I’ll probably be apologizing for many things in the near future, but when you took my hand tonight, you made your choice. And when I took his life, I made mine.”
She was quiet for so long that he was afraid of what she would say next …
“Is there a bed on this thing?”
Kaz glanced back at the door he already knew was there. “Yeah. What of it?”
“Let’s go to bed, Kaz—at least for a few hours.”
As she led the way, he knew he would follow her anywhere.