Page 10 of Roses and Murder
“Neco is sitting right here,” Neco said dryly. “It was complicated before and now it’s not.”
Oh! I got it now, too. A whole bunch of stuff was just fine in Guttertown, but not that. It was kind of fucked up. Guttertown was fine with most things sexually as long as everyone consented, but family was off limits. The fancy people outside of Guttertown would jump me if they saw me holding hands with Ollie or Ronan, but they thought marrying family was more acceptable than marrying a poor person.
Gross.
“Why did you turn it into this whole feud instead of just asking?”
“It was easier,” Neco grunted.
On behalf of all men, we were really stupid sometimes. It wasnoteasier on either of them. And Neco wasn’t going to have an easy time with Lucy, either, because she was stubborn. If he’d spoken to her right after their fight, they could have both apologized. She could have told him they weren’t siblings and our whole group wouldn’t have been fractured.
“Have youmetLance Argent, Neco? You broke his nose and completely cut him out of your life. You got into screaming fights any time you were in the same room. That wasn’t easy on either of you. And if you think getting back into his life is going to be easy, then you don’t know Lance Argent.”
“I do know Lance. That’s why I let him fuck up my face.”
Ronan and I looked at Neco like he was insane. I mean, yeah, he was killing people, so probably part of him was. He had no way of knowing Lucy’s secret, but it didn’t work like that with guys, either. Maybe your mates if you were drunk, but not men you had feelings for.
“No offense, since you can sneak in my room and kill me, but you’re a fucking moron,” Ronan said.
“I can’t worry about any of that. You’re all with Lance. Keep him out of the Ghoul task since he won’t listen to me.”
I didn’t think it was possible to look at Neco like he’d lost his mind even harder, but I think we all did.
“Caitrin is the only person who can tell Lance what to do and if it comes down to protecting Caitrin, then Lance isn’t going to listen,” I said.
“Lance was like that when we were kids,” Ronan pointed out. “He didn’t grow out of it. Caitrin would have rather died than have Lance go to his father, and he went anyway because he wouldn’t allow it.”
I couldn’t smack Ronan without giving it away to Neco that he was saying things that could give away her secret. The only reason Neco wasn’t fishing more about why we shut down thetavern and got drunk was because he was trying to figure out how to keep Lucy out of danger.
“Well, yeah. His father is Folcard. He’s the worst of them. He said terrible things to Lance because he doesn’t ooze masculinity. If he hadn’t changed the rules, he would have just let Caitrin die because he thought Lance couldn’t handle the military. The two of you don’t know what it’s like. It’s not safe for him.”
“Um, I work outside of Guttertown all the time,” Ronan said. “It’s the only way to get paid work. Lance knows how to keep his head down and mind his business. If you’re that worried, workwithhim instead of excluding him. You’re going to have to do some serious groveling and this could help.”
Neco threw up his hands and started pacing.
“I can’t catch a serial killer while an angry man who wants to maim my nuts is with me. That’s how mistakes get made.”
“You’re going to have to because if anything happens and Caitrin dies, he’s going to blame you. And you’d do the same if you were in his shoes,” Ronan said.
Neco just grunted, but it was the best idea. Neco and Lucy might be explosive together, but Folcard would find any loophole to screw her over. She couldn’t sit out and let Neco do it for her.
And I trusted Neco to have her back the best.
Imade Ollie swear not to drink again and then I made Basselt swear to look after Mom and thump Ollie in the head if he so much as looked at the booze. They were both unhappy with me and I got it. Even I thought it was stupid not to bring Basselt with me.
It would be so easy to use him and let his nose figure it out. I wasn’t that person. IlikedBasselt, and no one deserved what the Barons would do to him if they found out a Theran was banished and living among them. I was also thinking long term. His wife had been a healer, and he gave enough of a shit to pay attention to her work.
The shifters might have remedies that didn’t need copper. If Basselt taught them to Athan and Tarja, then Ilyn couldstock things in his shop. Future Argent kids could avoid selling themselves if their moms got sick. There’d be other reasons, but in Guttertown, illness was the most common reason.
Ollie pulled me into a bear hug.
“If you won’t take Basselt, why can’t you go with Neco?” he sighed.
“Because he’s being weird and he’ll fight back if I hit him again.”
“He showed up, and you had a whole conversation without screaming.”
“He was just trying to sniff out Basselt because it’s someone he doesn’t know,” I sulked.
