Page 4 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

I resisted the urge to correct him. Matthias was—not is. It wasn’t the first time Vas had slipped into present tense when referring to his best friend and formerPakhan. I didn’t have the heart to reprimand him. It felt wrong to chastise the man who’d lost just as much, if not more, than me. Matthias was my husband, but we’d only been married for a little over a month. Vas had been his best friend and second in command for years. They were like brothers.

“How’d you turn out so normal?” I joked to ease the broiling tension beneath my skin.

Vas lowered the umbrella, shaking out the excess water before he wrapped it up and handed it to his father’s driver. “I take after my mother. The only one with a real personality in my family.”

“That woman knew how to get herself in a spot of trouble,” Tomas cut in with a wink. “She once glued down everything on my desk because I was late for dinner.”

“It was your anniversary.” Vas rolled his eyes.

“And I sent flowers.”

“Which she was allergic to.”

“And chocolate.”

“Which she hated.”

“Yes, I became vastly aware of that when they ended up smeared all over my Armani and Versace suits the next day.”

“How long had you been married?”

Vas snorted. He took my hand to help me into the back of the large SUV before taking his seat up front. His father ignored him and settled himself next to me.

“Three years.”

I stared at the man, dumbfounded. The driver pulled away from the curb and into the flow of traffic.

“You were married three years, and you didn’t know she was allergic to flowers and didn’t like chocolate?”

Hell, I was pretty sure Matthias had known my blood type, the kind of toothpaste I preferred, and what deodorant I used before he even got his hands on me.

“It was a…” Tomas hesitated, “strained marriage in the beginning. We were young and stubborn, and neither of us wanted an arranged marriage. Up until that point, she’d never voiced a complaint or stood up for how I initially treated her, but with time, I learned to watch and listen. And she learned to obey.”

And there it was. The mafia code for women of made men. Everything always seemed to come back to the one word that demanded so much.Obey.

“From what I understand from Matthias, you weren’t much for obedience yourself,” the man teased, his murky eyes lighting up.

I met his gaze, once again expecting to find anything other than the blatant amusement shining through them.

“I liked to keep him on his toes,” I admitted with a shrug, letting the tension in the vehicle roll away for the short ride. It wasn’t long before the driver nosed us into a parking spot conveniently located in front of the piroshki shop. “But if you ask me, he’s the one who kept me on my toes. That man ran so hot and cold I needed a thermometer everywhere I went just to detect the change in temperature.”

My mind rolled back to all those times. Seemingly caring one moment and inexplicably standoffish the next. Tomas didn’t need to know that, though. I let the reference hang in the air between us, refusing to elaborate any further. Not that the BostonBratvaleader seemed to care. He gave me a short nod and a knowing smile before he slid gracefully out of the door his driver opened for him.

Taking a moment, I breathed in, letting the air fill my lungs, the fragrant scent of cloves surrounding me before I slowly released it. Vas waited patiently, his brow etched with concern and his gaze softening as I exited the vehicle.

Did he know what was coming? Was he choosing not to warn me? Would he do that? Would he let his father kick me out of their lives without so much as a sliver of protest? He didn’t owe me any loyalty, but I hoped we’d gained something akin to friendship since I’d married Matthias.

Only time would tell, I guess.

CHAPTER TWO

For someone so keen to talk to me Tomas, was eerily quiet at the small table we’d been seated at. The owner nearly tripped over himself when we walked in the door. He obviously knew who Tomas and Vas were by the way he smiled, shook their hands jovially, and then cleared out his entire restaurant only minutes later.

Matthias had never taken me anywhere other than the compound. I expected the people there to worship him and his men like gods. They were devoted to their boss, the man who controlled their paycheck and even their lives. But to see how the men were welcomed warmly and enthusiastically by the owner of the shop and his staff left me somewhat stunned and off balance.

I knew theBratvaran this territory, but I’d never realized how well they ran it. Elias ruled with fear, and I often forgot that Matthias refused to employ fear tactics. He took care of his people and the neighborhoods. I pondered on what I knew about how he’d run his territory. Over the weeks leading up to our charade of a wedding, he’d opened up about certain parts of the business. Some he’d told me himself, but I learned most of it from watching and listening.

Now that I thought about it, the name of the shop was Piroshky Piroshky. It took me a minute to put the pieces together, but I remembered Vas saying that Maxim, who was theAvtorvet—brigadier—to this area, met with the locals once a week to see what was needed and to hear out their complaints. All of Matthias’sAvtorvetsdid this in their own areas, even Leon.

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