A faint whisper of relief washed through Violet when a familiar contact lit up her phone. Almost at the exact same time as she answered her call from Kaz, Maya’s phone began ringing in the middle console.
Violet tried to focus on her own call and not Maya’s when she connected it to the Bluetooth, and Kolya’s dark voice echoed through the car’s speakers.
“Where are you?”
Violet blinked.
The question had come from both calls.
Violet answered Kaz one way; Maya answered Kolya with an actual place.
“With Maya,” Violet said.
“Coming out from the Heights, Kolya.”
“And you’re … okay,” Kaz said quietly.
“We’ve got a problem,” Kolya said.
Violet wasn’t sure whether she should be amused or irritated by the situation. Kaz was the type to keep Violet calm until he had her close and could explain whatever was going on.
Apparently, Kolya was not.
Violet decided to cut the bullshit. “I saw Vito—my father’s underboss—about five minutes ago.”
Kaz swore severely on the other end of the call. “Did he approach you?”
“No.”
“He’s going to try,” Kaz said, surprising Violet at how frank and clinical his words came out. “We are about twenty minutes out from your spot—” His words cut off for a second, and mumbling sounded in the background before he was back. “Fifteen with the way Konstantin drives like a fucking maniac.”
All Violet could think to ask was, “Where’s the Porsche?”
“Too many cars right now,” Kaz explained. “Fewer are better.”
“Kolya?”
Maya’s soft question drew Violet’s attention from her own phone call to her friend’s face.
“Da, dushka,” Kolya replied, less gruff than before. “I’m almost there, yeah?”
“I know,” Maya replied, glancing into the rearview mirror and then hitting the gas a little bit harder. “Drive faster, okay?”
“It’s to the floor, Maya.”
“Put it to the pavement, Kolya.”
She looked in the rearview again.
Violet wondered what the fuck she was looking at, only to find a familiar black car following behind them with windows tinted so dark, she couldn’t see through the fucking windshield.
Shit.
“Violet?” Kaz asked.
She passed Maya a look, who seemed a great deal calmer about the situation given their current circumstances.
Violet wasn’t quite sure what to do—whether she should take Maya’s lead and keep quiet that they had someone on their ass or tell Kaz what was happening.
“This is why I can’t let you out of my fucking sight,” Kolya muttered.
Maya laughed lightly. “You worry for nothing. We’re fine.”
Violet had a realization then.
Maybe it wasn’t a matter of keeping the situation calm until they were in better circumstances, but rather, the way different men handled the same situation.
“Kaz,” Violet said quietly, hoping whatever Maya was telling Kolya at that moment would override her low tone, “Vito is behind us.”
Kaz relayed that information to whom Violet suspected was Konstantin.
“Ten minutes,” Kaz said. “Don’t hang up the phone. Don’t open the door if they force you to stop. Don’t say a thing if they get you out of the car. Understood?”
“Yeah,” Violet said, her anxiety climbing higher, “I got it, Kaz.”
Beside her, Maya cussed in a hiss, shooting another look into the mirror.
Violet glanced through the back window to find the black car was mere inches from their back bumper. While they’d hit the highway, Violet didn’t think the roads were good enough for this kind of fast driving.
“What was that?” Kolya asked.
“I broke a fucking nail when I shifted into last gear,” Maya snapped.
Kolya went deadly silent.
Out of the corner of her eye, Violet watched Maya frown and glance down at her fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.
Her nails, natural and clipped short, were fine.
“Where are you now?” Kolya finally asked.
Maya rattled off a location.
“Next exit is in two miles,” Kolya said. “Take it and hit the safe house.”
“Kolya—”
“I watched you take your nails off last night,” he said quietly. “They’re too short to break. You really shouldn’t lie to me, dushka. Hit the safe house.”
The call clicked off, and Violet’s grip on her phone tightened.
“Is that Kaz?” Maya asked, never taking her eyes off the road.
“Yeah,” Violet replied.
“Can I have the phone, please?”
Violet handed it over without asking why Maya wanted it.
“Kaz,” Maya said, her usual cheeriness gone as she spoke, “let Konstantin know that if he’s behind Kolya, he should probably pick up the fucking pace.”
With that, she handed the phone back to Violet.
“Sit tight and hold on to something,” Maya said, “I don’t have time to slow down for this exit with the way he’s on my ass right now.”
“Everything is fine,” Kaz said, his dark tenor calming Violet’s frayed nerves.
“Is it?” she asked.
“It will be.”
That was the last thing Violet heard him say before Maya was taking the curving exit ramp fast. Right behind them, the black car followed. Just as their car hit the sharpest point of the turn, Violet felt the hit.
It lurched their car forward with enough force to send the back end spinning sideways.
The surprise tap from the black car scared the fucking hell out of Violet, and she dropped the phone to the floor. Her heart found her throat as Maya somehow managed to keep the fucking vehicle from falling into a total spin, and then corrected it so they were straight again and coming out of the ramp into a more residential area.
Violet wanted to grab the phone, but she would have to take her seat belt off, and given that they had just been hit from behind, she seriously believed it could happen again. She did not need to be unbuckled when that happened.
But the phone call was still connected.
That she could see.
That was all Kaz asked for.
Violet’s gaze snapped back and forth between the phone on the floor, the road in front of them, and the car driving way too close to their ass end. Maya never once took her eyes off the road as she took turn after turn, weaving through street after street.
They passed neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
A schoolyard with children playing safely behind a chain link fence.
“Almost,” Maya murmured, more to herself it seemed.
The black car wasn’t giving up, apparently. It didn’t matter how fast Maya drove or the many streets she took in what seemed like an effort to confuse their pursuers, the car behind them never faltered.
Violet knew at least one person in the car was Vito.
She wondered who else was with him.
Was it someone who knew these streets like Maya did?
Someone who knew Chicago?
Another minute passed, and Violet realized they were in an area a lot less dense with houses than it had been. More trees, more space between homes, and more privacy.
“How far behind us do you think they are?” Violet asked.
Maya didn’t even ask who she meant. “Kaz and Konstantin? About five minutes. And they’re not coming from behind.”
“And Kolya?”
She didn’t answer, her gaze cutting from Violet’s face to the road ahead of them before she jerked the wheel hard to the side, taking them off the road and onto the large patch of gravel.
Violet blinked and took a hard breath at the sight of a black Hummer coming straight at them.
Except it bypassed them.
Even as Maya hit the brakes, and the tires slid and screeched on snow and gravel, she still heard the smash of metal as the Hummer hit the black car head-on.
“For fuck’s sake.”
The curse was out of Kaz’s mouth as they drove up to the scene in front of them. A totaled car sat in the middle of the road, while Kolya’s Hummer was some feet away with barely a scratch. As Konstantin rolled to a stop, Kaz could better see that Violet and Maya were safe from the wreckage.
They were barely out of the car when Kolya threw his door open. The man came stumbling out, his eyes going back to his wife first, and then turning on the car he had practically turned into a pretzel. His intent was clear as he walked right up to the car, forcing the door open on the driver’s side. With a knife, he cut through the seat belt then dragged the man from the wreck.
But he didn’t stop, not until they were further out of sight.
Fucking hell.
“Kaz!”
He heard his name a moment before Violet came barreling into him—a moment before the first scream of pain rent the air.
“Don’t worry,” Konstantin said to Maya as he glanced back to where his brother had gone with his prey. “He won’t be long.”
That was up for debate. It seemed there was no off button for Kolya when it came to Maya.
“How did they find us?”
Violet’s question brought him back to the present, his attention now on her. He had planned to tell her later when they were back at home and he had a chance to think about what he was going to say and how he would say it. But he was out of time, and there was no easy way for him to explain this.
“Vasily reached out to Alberto.”
Violet looked horrified, as though the thought wasn’t even plausible. “Why would he do that?”
She probably thought, as he had, that Vasily would never seek the aid of someone like their father, if only because they were enemies. There was no doubt she had grown up hearing the disdain for the Russians from her family, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to ask a favor of a man he hated.
“Because he can’t show his face here. There’s no issue with the Italians here.”
“Yet,” Konstantin called out.
There was genuine worry in her eyes, now more than usual, but he couldn’t get her mind off that, not when she was still standing next to the proof of just how close her father had gotten.
“Let’s get you home, yeah?”
Kaz looked at Konstantin—who was already nodding. “We can take care of this. Maya will go with you.”
“But—” Maya protested, still looking at where her husband had gone.
“You know he doesn’t like you to see this,” Konstantin said, a little firmer. “I’ll make sure he calls as soon as we’re done.”
Reluctantly, Maya nodded. “You always do. Be careful, Kon—and make sure he doesn’t go too far.”
There was a warning in her tone, a story only the pair of them knew, but Konstantin nodded and headed to the mangled car. There was another person in the passenger seat, his face bloody as he hung helplessly. Konstantin didn’t cut him out immediately; he merely crouched down so they were nearly eye level and pulled out a cigarette to fit between his lips.
No, Konstantin was in no rush at all.
With his arm around Violet, and Maya walking just ahead of them, Kaz walked them to the car.
Violet’s head snapped up at the sound of screeching tires coming from outside of the townhouse. The shower upstairs didn’t turn off as the front door was opened and then slammed shut, a familiar voice ringing out.
“Maya!”
On the loveseat in the corner, Maya pushed up from her seat just as Kolya stormed into the living room, his gaze sharp, dark, and a little … crazy, even.
Wild might have been more appropriate.
Violet wasn’t quite sure she had ever seen someone look so out of their fucking mind while at the same time, managing to maintain an outward composure.
She wondered what kind of man Kolya was in his mind to have that sort of control.
The second his gaze landed on Maya, Kolya softened a bit in his stance, but barely. He didn’t even pass Violet a look as he said, “Go.”
Maya gave Violet a small smile. “It’s all right. He doesn’t have manners, but he meant to say please, too.”
Violet put her hand up, waving it all off as she got up from the couch and strolled past Kolya, making her way toward the kitchen. He didn’t look at her as she passed, either. He was far too focused on his wife, not that Violet minded.
She hesitated in her steps when the voices echoed from back in the living room.
“Why lie?” Kolya asked.
“Because look at how you reacted, Kolya.”
“Because you lied.”
“Wrong,” Maya said.
“No, I’m right. I reacted the same way I would have.”
“I was fine.”
“You were—”
“Fine, Kolya.” Maya sighed loudly. “I was doing exactly what I needed. I had it under control, and you would have gotten there in plenty of time.”
“I saw the marks on the back of your bumper. You’re placating me—he is already dead. It’s pointless to lie in the hopes of keeping me from going back to the bastard driving. He is dead.”
Violet swallowed hard, ignoring the sliver of ice crawling up her spine.
“You always do this, Kolya. You go crazy, and there’s no calming you—no helping you. You would have gotten there in plenty of time.”
“I did,” Kolya replied. “And look how it turned out, no?”
Violet decided to keep walking, but the conversation continued behind her. She could still hear them talking even as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine.
Drinking might calm her nerves, but who could say.
“There’s no switch for you, Kolya,” Maya continued.
Violet caught sight of Kaz coming to stand in the kitchen entryway. Shirtless, with just a pair of cotton sleep pants on and his hair still damp, he watched her with his arms crossed as she searched for a wine glass.
Kaz acted like there wasn’t a private conversation going on—she figured he probably had a better idea of what was going on than she did.
“No switch,” Maya continued, “where I’m concerned.”
“There is,” Kolya shot back. “You are the fucking switch. I shut off—that’s it. When someone hits that switch, I have no care. You know this, dushka.”
“But—”
“Because you are,” Kolya interrupted quieter. “My dushka—my soul, Maya. I turn off. I’m not sorry for that.”
Eventually, the conversation died down, and Violet heard footsteps a second before Kaz glanced over his shoulder with a frown and a nod. Shortly after that, the front door closed.
The silence practically echoed as Violet lifted a full glass of wine to her lips.
“Eventful day,” she mumbled around the rim.
Heady, red wine covered her tongue, but it didn’t help the anxiety.
“I know,” Kaz murmured. “But everything turned out fine—the message that was sent ended up being a massive failure on your father’s part.”
“But he’ll try again.”
Kaz’s jaw ticked. “Likely.”
Or maybe Vasily would.
Violet chose not to ask.
“Do we leave now?” she asked.
“Run, you mean?”
“Do we?”
Kaz pushed away from the entryway and strolled farther into the kitchen. “We didn’t run in the first place. I never intended to hide where we were.”
Huh.
“This was only a matter of time,” he added.
“They came a little too close, Kaz.”
He came to stand behind her, placing his palms flat on the island counter on either side of her body. For a long while, he just stayed there, letting her sip her wine while he said nothing.
Violet hadn’t realized it, but she’d needed that. As simple as it was, it calmed her as nothing else could. He calmed her.
“Don’t take it personally if Maya stays away for a bit,” Kaz said, his words whispering along the back of her neck as his lips brushed her skin.
“Why?”
She found it was easier to talk if she focused on his words and not the heat traveling through her blood.
“Because Kolya is … well, he’s a little insane where Maya is concerned,” Kaz explained. “It’s better to just let him do what he needs to do to get back to his normal, nasty self.”
“All right.”
“You’re taking this all well, hmm?”
Violet took another sip of wine, unsure of what he wanted her to say. “It scared me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But the thought of being dragged back to my father scared me a hell of a lot more. I’m not a possession, but he thinks that I am.”
“You’re not going back to him.”
Violet let out a soft breath. “Don’t make promises, Kaz. At least not ones we don’t know if you can keep.”
“I’ll keep this promise—even if it kills me, krasivaya.”
Kaz watched as Violet brushed by him, but instead of heading up to their bedroom, she went to the living room. One delicate hand held the wine glass, but his gaze had strayed down from it to the curve of her hip, swaying just enough to get his attention every time.
His thoughts should have been on Vasily or even Alberto since he had been bold enough to send his men in Boykov territory, but the second his gaze strayed to the bare skin of her midsection where her shirt didn’t quite cover, he didn’t want to think of anything else but her.
Pushing off the wall, Kaz crossed the floor in a few long strides, catching her around the waist before she could sit. Instead, he drew her down over the top of him, her legs on either side of him. Plucking the glass from her hand, he set it on the floor beside them.
“Kaz—”
It still baffled him sometimes … the way he felt when his name fell from her lips. Maybe because, even when it was innocent, he could still hear the way she moaned it when he was fucking her.
He lived for that sound, and though it had only been days, he already missed the sound of it.
Before she could finish whatever she thought to say, his fingers had drifted from her waist until they spanned out over her throat.
And there it was …
That slight hitch in her breath as he pressed just a bit harder. The way her lips parted …
Outside their bedroom, she was fragile to him, someone he wanted to protect, but here, when he had her beneath his hands, he wanted to see how much she could take before she broke.
Pulling her toward him, he didn’t kiss her lips but ran his lips along her jaw, feeling her skin heat up as he bit at the cord in her neck. She arched into him, but he held her exactly how he wanted, dragging the straps of her top and bra off her shoulder and pushing the material down until he could get her breast in his hand, her nipple between his fingers as he squeezed.
A sharp, needy sound tore from her, her hips grinding further into his erection. He could practically feel how hot her pussy was beneath those shorts she wore, and he was dangerously close to ripping the fucking things off just so he could get in there, but he reined it in, contented with the process.
Releasing his hold on her, he drew back just far enough to drag the shirt over her head and unsnap her bra. His hands full, he didn’t hesitate to kiss her now. Even as he drew her bottom lip into his mouth, pulling at it, the answering whine made his dick ache.
One hand curled around her neck to keep her in place as his other pushed its way into her panties and down to her begging, slippery flesh.
Fuck, she was already shaking, and he hadn’t even touched her properly. How easy it would be to get her off right then …
“Do you want to come, krasivaya?” He asked the question against her mouth, her lips parting with a gasp. She was trying to concentrate, he knew, seeking out his fingers to give her more, but he didn’t give in. Not yet. “I need an answer.”
Violet nodded, but as quickly as she did, she answered him with a quick yes, knowing his rule on needing to hear her.
“Then do something for me, hmm?”
“Anything …”
“Get on your knees.”
There was no hesitation on her part, no questioning glances as she merely pulled free of him and slowly moved to her knees between his, looking up at him expectantly.
He fucking loved that look on her face.
She knew what he wanted without him having to ask.
Shoving his pants to his ankles, Kaz fisted his cock, nodding for her to put her mouth on it. And when she wrapped her lips around of it, taking more of his length into her mouth, his head fell back, his hand drifting to curl in her hair.
At first, he guided her movements, pushing her mouth down slowly then pulling her up, making a moan vibrate his cock with how rough he handled her. There was never a need to instruct her on how best to suck him because the moment he growled, “Take my cock,” she did just that.
His entire body was vibrating with the need to come, but more than that was the need to hear her scream.
Yanking her off his cock, he was pulling her back over him in the next second. Her breath left her in a rush, but her need was as great as his was as he grabbed the base of his cock and lined it up with her slit. But even as he felt like he was about to split apart if he didn’t get inside her, she didn’t do what he wanted.
No, she dragged it over her pussy, smearing her juices all over his cock, and just when he thought he was about to go mindless, she finally sank down on him achingly slow, her head falling back as she did.
Her pussy felt like a fucking vise around him, so fucking tight it felt like the first time all over again.
He gave her a moment, letting her get used to his size before he had his hands curled around the curve of her hips, but he didn’t move yet.
“Look at me.”
Her eyes opened, the pupils blown, even as she did as he asked, her hands going to his shoulders, her nails digging in. That pouty bottom lip of hers was red and inviting, and had it not been between those teeth of hers, it would have been between his.
“Kaz,” she whispered his name like a promise even as she moved her hips, dragging her pussy up and down his cock.
Violet fell into a slow rhythm, one that made his hands tighten on her body. That wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted her mindless—he wanted her fucking begging him to fuck her harder.
He knew what she needed better than she even did.
Wrapping his fist in her hair, he tugged her forward until he was just an inch from her mouth. “Are you going to come on my cock, Violet? Is that what you want?”
She couldn’t give him the response he wanted, not when she could barely catch her breath, each one hitching in her throat.
“You come so fucking easily, don’t you? God, fuck yourself on my cock.”
Kaz didn’t really need to tell her, not with the way her hips shifted forward, all rhythm lost as she chased an orgasm only he could give her.
Those fucking moans … the way she lost her breath between pleas—he was about to fucking explode.
But before he lost himself in the sensation, he splayed a hand over her stomach, dragging it down until he could get his thumb against her clit and rub.
He didn’t make her beg for this one because she was too close to the fucking edge. When she finally broke apart, his name echoing off the walls, whatever thin thread of control he had left snapped.
Jerking her beneath him, keeping her legs tight around his waist, he shoved his hips forward, and a breath exploded from him as he began to fuck her harder; the hands he had grasping her thighs squeezed so tight, he knew there would be bruises.
That first shuddering wave of her coming had nearly forced his to the surface, but he had managed to drag it back. But now, as he felt her pussy clamping tightly around him again, he didn’t fight it. He gave himself over to it, thrusting hard before emptying inside her.
As his senses came back, and he became aware of the droplets of sweat dripping down his back, he felt at ease in a way he hadn’t felt in a while.
Three days to be exact.
Kissing the corner of her mouth, he said, “Once a day from now on, hmm?”
Her answering smile made him chuckle, but when she said, “Twice a day and I’m yours,” it made his cock jerk all over again.