Page 90 of Where the Wind Whispers

But Violet had seen something his mother probably hadn’t noticed in her spiel.

His fist, shaking, had been shoved in his pocket.

His jaw, tight with stress, clenched.

Kaz was hitting his limit.

Violet didn’t know why exactly, but she knew that look on her husband.

He was losing his control.

Entirely.

Violet was on her feet, passing her daughter off to Irina before she followed behind her husband. She only saw his back a second before he disappeared behind locked doors that lead out of the OR floor.

“Kaz, wait!”

He didn’t stop.

Violet jogged to catch up, pushing through the doors in time to see Kaz take another corner, one she knew led to a line of elevators. She only caught up with her husband once she was in front of the elevators, the door just closing as she slipped in, making sure to put her hand up to keep a woman from entering the elevator as well.

“Take another one,” she told the scowling lady.

The doors closed, and Violet turned to face Kaz. His back was to her, and his whole body was tense, as though he were readying for a battle and fit to kill.

“Kaz.”

“Let me think.”

Violet flinched at the venom in his tone.

She wasn’t accustomed to this Kaz.

“I want to help,” Violet stressed.

Kaz barked out a laugh, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes as he turned around and leaned against the elevator wall. “You can’t help. You, like my mother, have no idea—”

“Because you’re not explaining it, Kaz! I don’t know what’s wrong beyond Ruslan, but something is, and you can’t blame us for not understanding when you’re not giving us the ability to. Don’t you get that?”

He dropped his hands, that flashing darkness back in his eyes as he waved toward the elevator door. “I can see it on her face, you know? It’s all there, even if she’s not saying it. I can fucking see it.”

Violet’s brow furrowed as she took a hesitant step closer. “What do you mean?”

“My mother—she’s thinking if this was Vasily, if this had been him today, this wouldn’t have happened. Rus wouldn’t be nearly dead in an OR. And the worst fucking part is she would be right. She would be entirely right, Violet.”

She still didn’t understand.

“How would Vasily have made a difference?”

Kaz spat out another bitter laugh. “Because he would have made a different choice. See, I had a choice today—you, my child, or my brother. Do you get it yet? Do you understand the choice I had to make?”

Violet just blinked, feeling so unsteady on her feet.

Like the floor was about the swallow her whole.

“My father.”

It didn’t even come out as a question.