Page 10 of Shattered Empire (Shattered World)

A match made in hell. Now they would rot there.

“Well, that wasn’t part of the plan.” Leon sighed, holstering his gun. “Now there are two bodies to clean up.”

“Why are you complaining?” Vas quipped as he too holstered his weapon. “It’s not like you’re the one cleaning it up.”

“True.”

“Still,” Maksim hedged. He was the only one, besides me, who hadn’t put his gun away. “We don’t normally kill women.”

“Eh,” Vas shrugged. “Can’t say she didn’t have it coming.”

“But…” Maksim pushed. His shoulders were stiff, jaw clenched tightly enough that I could see the muscles in his throat tightening. He didn’t like what I’d done.

“She wasn’t an innocent, Maksim,” I reminded him sternly. “Do you really believe that if we had let her live, she would have just hidden? No, she would have talked to anyone who would listen. She wasn’t some pawn or coerced. That viper was an active, willing participant to kidnapping and selling a girl she duped into being her best friend.”

Maksim huffed as he stowed his weapon before he crossed his arms against his chest.

“You aren’t judge, jury, and executioner, Ava,” he growled. I lifted my head to meet his thunderous gaze. Had he so patiently told this to Matthias, too? Been this forward? I knew they were close, and I had no intention of ruling like Elias did. Through fear. And now, in the comfort of our circle, he could vent his frustrations, but something about it was off. It felt more like he was blustering. Blowing hot air.

“Listen to me, Maksim,” I warned him, stepping into his space, my eyes never leaving his. “I don’t expect you to agree with all of my decisions. I’d be worried if you did. But let’s get one thing straight. Iamthe judge, jury, and executioner here, make no mistake of that. Now, I understand we don’t go around killing women and children, and I plan to 100 percent uphold that.

“Unless you come after my family. And then all bets are off. Feel free to air your concerns or file a grievance, but anyone who maliciously and purposefully raises a hand against me or mine will suffer the consequences regardless of gender. Understood?”

The three men smirked, eyes shining as they looked down at me.

“Understood,” they all confirmed, laughter in their voices.

Fuckers had been testing me.

“Same go for your sister?” Vas asked after a moment.

I let my gaze slide to his. The warmth of his hazel eyes did nothing to heat the frigidness in my own.

“My sister was murdered the night of my wedding. I don’t have another one.” I told him as I turned on my heel and strode out the door, almost missing Leon’s whisper.

“This is why we should have told her.”

What did he mean by that?

CHAPTER FOUR

Istared down at the numbers written in Libby’s journal.

1-3-6

14-3-1

19-1-7-2 (3)

Each number represented a specific part of the book. The page number followed by the paragraph on that page followed by the word in that paragraph. Flipping through the pages at the beginning, I turned to the page labeled as the first. My finger slid gently to the third paragraph and over until it found the sixth worth.

Well.

Easy enough. I repeated the process with the second cipher.

Far.

I could already see where this was going, but wanting to be absolutely sure, I followed the cipher one last time. This one was different. It contained four numbers instead of three and had one in parentheses. So the seventh letter in and two of those three letters made the word, which was ‘ago’. Since “ag” made little sense, I went with “go.”

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