Page 5 of Where the Wind Whispers

“I thought—”

“You shouldn’t be here, Nate,” Ruslan interjected, his tone as sharp as a razor’s edge.

Violet still wasn’t sure what to make of the whole scene, or why the two men seemed to inch a little closer to one another with every word they spoke.

Like they were close.

… familiar.

Friends, maybe.

Violet didn’t know why, but even friends felt wrong.

“I’m worried,” Nate said, “about you, your brother. It means I fucking care, Rus, but you’re so caught up in your own shit you can’t even realize that, huh?”

Ruslan moved forward fast, taking back the bit of distance Nate had gained by moving away from the wall. Violet quickly realized no space was between the men as Nate’s back was to the wall and Ruslan was close enough to the man that their hands brushed together.

Violet’s gaze traveled down to the men’s hands, and she almost missed it … just the slight sweep of Nate’s pinky finger against the side of Ruslan’s hand, and then Ruslan’s thumb stroking back.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Ruslan repeated quieter.

“I was—”

“Worried, I got that.”

“I’m sorry,” Nate muttered.

“For what?” Ruslan asked.

Nate sighed, his dark gaze never leaving Ruslan’s. “You’re right—I shouldn’t be here. You’re already on with her, yeah? You didn’t want me involved, now. I knew better than to be coming here, anyway.”

“You didn’t want to do this,” Ruslan responded. “Your words, not mine. You, Nate.”

The man chuckled dryly. “But wasn't it you who didn’t want to do this for years, Rus? Who really did this, huh?”

Shaking his head, Nate pushed off the wall, taking a step away from Ruslan with his hands up high, like he was surrendering.

“I’m gone—I’m already so fucking gone, Rus.”

“You don’t know any—”

“I know about her,” Nate interrupted with a sad smile. “Isn’t that enough?”

“Wait a minute.”

Nate already had his back turned to Ruslan and was heading back toward the way he must have came. Violet thought then that she probably should have gone back inside the room.

She’d seen too much.

She hadn’t known … not about this.

Maybe she wasn’t supposed to.

Still, she stayed, watching as Ruslan took three long strides, fisted the back of Nate’s dress shirt, and pulled the man into the cinderblock wall again only to kiss him in a way that spoke nothing of friends but everything about lovers.

“You don’t know anything,” she heard Ruslan say when she slipped back into the room and out of sight.

Three silent minutes later, Ruslan strolled into Kaz’s room looking as if nothing had happened and like he didn’t even know she had been there watching the whole thing unfold. He barely spared her a glance as he crossed the room and dropped the bags of takeout on the small table.