Page 1 of Roses and Murder
Roses and Murder
I love my mom, but I'm not sure I can do what my father asks to save her life.
I can hold my own in a fight. Always have. This isn't the kind of fight I'm used to. I can brawl with my fists or wits, but this is serial killers. I have to work with my childhood friend turned mortal enemy, Neco Argent. He used to avoid looking at me and now he's staring. I'd hit him, but he's apparently one of the serial killers we're supposed to be catching.
How is this my life?
This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t how it was supposed to work. I signed up for the guard and Mom got the cure. If Mom had time for a completely inexperienced tavern owner to catch a serial killer, I wouldn’t have even come here because Basselt would have had time to harvest the herbs and make the cure.
I never would have betrayed Mom and come to this pretentious house to get insulted by my father because I wasn’t manly enough for him. I wasn’t even a man. Folcard probably had rudimentary sword training, but he sent other men to fight for him. And he’d never fought Guttertown style.
So, yeah, he might think I was a fop, but I could utterly destroy his arse in the brawl.
“My mother collapsed with blood pouring out of her mouth. She doesn’t have time for me to do what your inspectors can’t even do.”
“Then you should have planned better and come sooner.”
I took a step forward because I really was going to hit him. I’d get punished, but it would just be so satisfying to break his nose. Neco grabbed the back of my trousers and yanked me back. Why did he even give a shit? We were mortal enemies.
“I think we can come to a better arrangement than that,” Neco said. “You need someone dead in a way that doesn’t blow back on you. If you had someone who could have done that, you wouldn’t be blackmailing your sons. I’m not copping to a damned thing and I never will, but if the choice is some rich arsehole, I probably hate and my momma, I’ll have it done before the end of the night. It takes a village and Caitrin is like a second mother to me.”
“You seem to misunderstand how this works,” Folcard sneered.
“Oh, I understand just fine. You changed the rules. We expected to come here, join your army, and get treatment for our moms. You changed the rules and you’re putting both of us in a lot more danger than if we were just joining your guard. Not only that, our moms could die while we fix your little problem.”
What the fuck? Yeah, all the Argent kids hated our fathers. I think we all dreamed of mouthing off to them or getting some kind of revenge, but frankly, the scales were never in our favor. Neco could ruin this for both of us.
I got what he was trying to do, but he was gambling with Mom’s life. He might be really secure in his serial killer skills, but if he got Mom killed, I was actually going to murder him.
His father hadn’t exactly said much, and I didn’t think he would. The Barons were supposed to be equal, but we all knewthe Folcards ran the show. Even if he disagreed with what was going on or wanted to give us a break, he’d never say anything.
Folcard was grinning like a psychopath. I didn’t know if he was pissed and about to tell us we could go home and watch our mothers die or demand more payment from us.
“Are you two together? My son has that look about him.”
This time, it was me who grabbed the back of Neco’s trousers to stop him from assaulting our fathers. I mean, I knew what I looked like as a guy, but literally no one gave a shit about that in Guttertown. And Neco was hot, but I’d really rather break his nose than be with him like that. And he thought I was a boy.
“I don’t actually care,” Folcard said. “I don’t need heirs from a bastard. Especially not one who looks like that. If you expect to mooch off each other for payment, then I’ll allow it, just not how you think. Neither of you gets the cure unless you both complete your tasks.”
Neco Argent was a serial killer, and I was going to find a way to fucking murder him. He just puffed up like some idiot men with giant egos did.
“Done. You might have sired us, but we are loyal to our mothers. This doesn’t work if they die.”
What game was Neco playing? You didn’t negotiate with these men. We had nothing to negotiate with. I mean, Neco was clearly a very good serial killer if the rumors were true, but did the Barons even need that? If they wanted someone dead, they could make up literally anything and have them executed. We needed them much more than they needed Neco.
“If you’re as sure as you say you are, then you should be able to handle this in a fortnight. I don’t like your mouth or disrespect. Your mothers will get a diluted tonic that will keep them alive by your new deadline. If one of you completes your task, but the other doesn’t, then that’s it. Your mothers can die for all I care and our doors are closed to you forever.”
If it wouldn’t make things worse, I would have outright brawled with Neco in the middle of this pretentious room and probably gotten my arse beat. Especially since I knew that look on Neco’s face because we’d been so close when we were younger.
The big, surly fucker was actually pleased at how this all turned out.
That went better than expected. I mean, I was pretty sure Lance was going to knife me in the gut when I wasn’t looking, but I got everything I wanted. The Barons had their fancy education, but I just outsmarted them. And Lance wasn’t my brother, so I wasn’t some kind of deviant, so I was in a pretty damned good mood.
Until we stepped out of that obscenely wealthy room and Lance punched me in the face. I felt my nose break. Damn. Lance didn’t look like he could hit that hard, but the kids always did used to underestimate him at school. I mean, I guess I owed him since I broke his nose once, even though he deserved it.
“If you want to play with Theda’s life, then that’s on you, but leave mine out of it,” he hissed.
“Not here,” I said, grabbing his elbow and hauling him out of here.
