“I was curious,” he went on as though Kaz hadn’t spoken, “as to why you haven’t been around as much lately, and when you are, you’re asking questions that are of little importance. So I did some digging of my own, Kazimir—and let me be honest, I almost wished you had the same predilection as your brother. At least that could be contained. But Violet Gallucci? I thought you knew better than that.”
Vasily withdrew a picture, and even from his distance, Kaz could clearly make out his own face, along with Violet’s. He still remembered that day … picking her up and grabbing ice cream on their way back to his place, before she had spent the night. It had been a good day, but he had never suspected that he was being followed, that anyone had gotten that close to him to take pictures.
How the fuck hadn’t he noticed?
“I’ve been lenient with you, Kazimir,” Vasily went on. “I allow you your tantrums, your displays of defiance in the presence of others. You’re still young, after all. But on this, I have never, and will not ever, bend. This is your last chance to heed me, boy. Walk away. Do not go near her again. This is my final warning. If she means that much to you, think of an excuse, I don’t give a fuck. But when you leave this place today, I want there to be no mistake. Violet Gallucci no longer exists to you. Am I understood?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” Kaz said, his voice steady, his eyes locked on Vasily. “But understand me. I’m not going to walk away from her because you command it.”
He couldn’t, even if he wanted to. She was too important to him, too ingrained in every aspect of his life for him to try and dig her out. If he did, he wasn’t sure what was going to be left.
Now, it was Vasily getting to his feet, that mask of indifference slipping as the anger peeked through. “Do not force my hand, Kazimir. I am at least trying to give you the opportunity to finish this on your own.”
“Why?” he asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Keeping us apart, why is that so important to you? Our families have been enemies for years, but that could end just by us being together. At the very least, it would ensure that neither attacks the other. What are you hiding that might get exposed?”
It was clear that Vasily had been expecting the question, as his mask didn’t slip again. “Next time, I won’t be so generous.”
Kaz got close enough to Vasily to make sure his point couldn’t be misunderstood. “Believe me when I say that the last thing I need is your generosity. And until you burn these fucking stars off my chest, you don’t get to control who I’m with. You want to speak on Rus, then speak on the consequences of your actions, because the only reason I let you walk away was because he asked it of me. If you think to touch a hair on Violet’s head, I’ll bury you.”
“Kazimir, you—”
“Over the years, you’ve made it quite clear where I stand with you. You want our name to continue on, and the only way you can have that is through me. If I’m going to take that seat, I’ll do it the way I want. Now, do you understand me?”
Vasily was quiet for some time as he stood opposite Kaz, staring him down like he had never witnessed this side of him before. He had obviously thought it would be easy, that he would merely need to give a command and Kaz would heed it. But there was one thing about Kaz that he seemed to have forgotten. Kaz was never one to blindly follow rules.
That just wasn’t who he was.
“Sure,” Vasily said after a spell, “I understand completely, but I do have a question for you, Kazimir. What do you think Alberto Gallucci will do to that daughter of his once he finds out who she’s spreading her legs for?”
“You fucking wouldn’t …”
Vasily held the picture up once more, waving it in front of Kaz’s face. “A picture tells a thousand truths, and this … this is just one of many that I have.” He shook his head, a laugh escaping him, “You should have kept those curtains closed, Kazimir.”
Violet kept her head down, attention focused solely on the silent phone in her hand, as she walked toward the entrance of her building. Like she had a hundred times earlier that day, she checked through her call log and her text messages.
She already knew what it would say.
No missed calls.
No new texts.
Violet chewed on her inner cheek, barely noticing the people passing her by on the busy street. The messenger bag hanging off her shoulder, filled with her stuff from school and her laptop, felt heavier for no reason in particular. She already had enough invisible weight wearing her down, the bag only added more.
Selecting a familiar contact on the phone log, Violet scrolled down to the last message she had gotten from the number.
One week prior.
Next time. -K.
That was it.
Violet hadn’t heard a single thing from Kaz since that last message he sent after he dropped her off just beyond the Little Odessa border. She’d called a couple of times, but it rang through to voicemail, and she didn’t exactly think it was smart to leave that type of message.
But he knew her number.
And so she waited for something to come back, and when it didn’t, Violet started to worry that maybe something was wrong. The worry turned to anger, but that quickly bled away.