Page 45 of Where the Wind Whispers

Just another reminder of how dependent his mother really was on Vasily. Since Vasily ran, it was like her life had come to a standstill. Kaz tried to muster up the guilt he knew he should feel, but he couldn’t, not when he still had the scar across his throat—a reminder of his father’s love.

“I totally—oh, Rus is here! And Kaz!”

Nika was the first to find them, her cell phone pressed to one ear, a smile splitting her lips as she ended the call without bothering to say goodbye. She launched herself at Rus first, earning a chuckle from the big man before she gave Kaz the same treatment, nearly strangling him with the force of her grip.

“I feel like it’s been forever since I last saw you guys,” she said looking back and forth between them.

Seeing her like this, untouched by the grief their world sometimes brought, Kaz felt that familiar flicker of hesitation. He could just tell his mother and Vera, he reasoned. They were older and could process what he would say better than two seventeen-year-olds.

But wouldn’t he want to know?

Wouldn’t he have demanded that whoever was delivering the news tell him as well? He remembered all too well what he had been like as a teenager, wanting to be treated like he was older than he was.

Even if he wanted to spare them, they would learn—he would have, had the positions been reversed.

“Where are—”

“What’s all the commotion about?” Vera asked, appearing from around the corner, quickly followed by Irina and Dina. “Oh, Kaz. It’s about time you got here. You do remember that I work, right? I can’t just take off whenever I feel like it.”

Vera didn’t ramble, nor did she really say more than she had to—that was just who she’d always been. She was nervous, worried about what he was going to say, but Kaz didn’t doubt she knew the answer, even as she pretended she didn’t.

For whose sake, he wondered.

“You should sit—all of you.”

His younger sisters didn’t question him, half-absorbed in whatever was more interesting on their phones. Ruslan sat between them, knowing that once Kaz said what he needed to, he would take care of them.

Irina, on the other hand, blinked before her eyes narrowed. “What’s happened?”

Kaz sighed. “Ma—”

“You forget that I am your mother, Kazimir. You don’t command me in my own home.”

Vera laid a hand on Irina’s shoulder, her expression shifting from her usual indifference. “Mama, maybe it would be a good idea—”

Ignoring her, his mother stood her ground, tired eyes trained on Kaz. “Why are you here? You made it quite clear where you stood the last time you walked through those doors.”

“It’s about Vasily.”

“Your father,” she said.

A statement.

A reminder.

But he needed neither.

“Have you both finally settled whatever petty disagreement you had?”

A bit of Kaz’s control slipped. “I wouldn’t consider having my throat slit and left to die a petty disagreement.”

Nika gasped, but Rus quickly quieted her. Irina tried to hide her flinch, but she wasn’t quite able. Her gaze dropping to the floor a moment, she collected herself before asking, “What about your father? When is he coming home?”

There was no easy way to say it, and at that moment, Kaz was reminded of a time when he was a boy and had gotten in trouble in school. That entire journey home, he had worried what she would say once she learned, how upset she would be.

Kaz didn’t fear many things, but he had always feared breaking the hearts of the women he loved.

“He won’t be,” he forced out before he could change his mind.