Page 120 of Where the Wind Whispers

She was thankful for that bit of graciousness.

Even behind the window and safely inside the warm house, Violet could still hear the wind whistling outside.

It chilled her right down to the bone.

It almost sounded like crying whines scratching against the window.

How appropriate …

At some point, Violet must have turned her head to look at the clock, even after she’d promised herself she wouldn’t, because the next thing she knew, lights were coloring up the wall. Headlights—from someone driving up the driveway.

She didn’t even wait to look out the window and see if it was her husband.

No, she flew off the damn window ledge, bolting out of the room and making her way to the front of the house. The men in the next room trailed after her, one demanding she leave the door closed as her husband had said.

Violet didn’t listen.

She threw the door open just in time to see Kaz’s SUV pull up. He’d refused to take whatever Carmine had come in, demanding to take his for the car seat that was in the back for the baby.

Violet’s heart finally started beating again.

Her lungs took in a real breath.

A hand snaked around her wrist just as she tried to go out the door to meet her husband, but she managed to jerk out of the hold, and it wasn’t more than a blink of time before she was down those front steps.

Kaz’s arms were already open—peace reflecting in his eyes.

Violet didn’t ask when she found his embrace.

She didn’t ask what had happened.

She didn’t want to know.

But she knew, even as he hugged her tighter and kissed her mouth softly, that it was over.

It was all perfectly fine.

“I think the baby’s hungry,” Kaz told her.

She could hear Anastasya’s soft coos coming from the back seat of the SUV.

The wind, as hard as it was, barely registered to Violet’s overworked senses.

“Krasivaya, let’s get the baby inside,” Kaz said quietly, “and get back to life.”

Because life for them was loving.

“Yeah, okay.”

She held him for another thirty seconds first.

Kaz let her.

Four years later …

“Daddy, look!”

Kaz turned from the conversation he was having to search the yard for his daughter, finding her some distance away, picking up multi-colored leaves that had fallen the night before. She was a curious girl, always finding things to explore—from the various rooms in the house to the giant yard in the back of their house—but she never ventured too far.