Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm

Chapter 86

One of the guards, an aging man with thinning hair, saluted a second time and said, “Captain—you’re needed.”

Though his features remained neutral, Maximus’s shoulders shifted, and his chin rose a bit higher. “What is it?” he said, a bit too quickly to pass for unconcerned.

“Another body,” replied the guard. “In the servant’s passages.”

The second guard, a slender, frail-looking young man, was deathly pale. “You saw the body?” Matilda asked him. The guard nodded. “How fresh?”

Maximus gave her a sharp look. The guard said, “They think it’s from last night —from the way the blood’s half-dried.”

Maximus’s eyes were unfocused. Thinking—he was figuring out what to do. He straightened. “You want to prove how good you are?” he asked her.

She put her hands on her hips. “Do I even need to?”

He motioned the guards to lead the way. “Come with me,” he said to her over his shoulder, and—despite the body—she smiled a bit and followed him.

As they departed, Matilda looked back at the target.

Maximu