Page 17 of Roses and Murder
“Explain,” Beck said.
“People have lots of kids and they keep trying until they have several sons. Sometimes, it’s to help run the family business and sometimes, it’s for marriage alliances. Sometimes, there’s a house on the property for the kids, but sometimes, they all live under the same roof.
“It’s possible to get in and take out your target without alerting the whole house, but it’s a skill you have to learn. The Ghoulenjoyskilling. He might just be picking his victims by whoever didn’t attend some big event. They wanted to keep Elsbeth away from the groom, but there’s always someone who isn’t there. Someone is feuding and didn’t get invited, the kids are in a bad mood, or someone is sick.”
Neco was actually really good at this. I might actually be able to pull this off with his help.
Ollie talked his uncle into lending us horses for the frequent trips we’d be taking to the Merchant District while we sorted this. Ollie’s uncle had always been family, so he would have said yes, but he was apparently all in when he heard Neco was involved.
“What’s going on with you and Ollie’s uncle?”
I mean, we could talk aboutthat,right? It had nothing to do with the Ghoul. He wasn’t going to be a dick and ignore me the whole ride just because he could.
“Rowena. She’s got some puppy love going with Ollie’s cousin and she’s been offered an apprenticeship with their horses.”
“Seriously? I’m happy for her. Your sister hates my guts and has assaulted me more than once, but I like her.”
Neco puffed out his chest and grinned proudly.
“She’s only supposed to finish it if someone starts it, but she’s also protective of me.”
I looked at him like he was utterly insane.
“I’m guessing she doesn’t know what you do at night, but she does have eyes. The only person in Guttertown bigger than you is Autar, and he’s a giant marshmallow, so he doesn’t count.”
“You know the Madame was nice to him once, and he asked her to marry him?”
I laughed so hard, I nearly fell off my horse. I was going to drag Autar so hard for that the next time he came to the tavern and told me I knew nothing about women. The Madame thought marriage was an unfair legal arrangement that only benefitted men.
“Did she hit him? Or ask Panas to hit him?”
Neco just snorted.
“That woman can destroy a man without laying a finger on him. But no, she was nice to him. The Madame told Autar he couldn’t handle her, and she’d eat him alive. He looked like he might tell her he was into that, but he opted not to say it.”
“I keep telling him one of those women is going to castrate him one day, and he keeps telling me I don’t understand women.”
“Autar isn’t one of your lovers, too, right?”
“Gross. I’m not spilling his secrets, but it would be wrong for us to be together. And Autar is so into women, I don’t know why you think he’d give me a second look.”
Even if Autar ever found out my secret, we were probably related and even if we weren’t, I wasn’t his type. If I grew out my hair and started wearing dresses, Istillwouldn’t be his type.
Neco just grunted and decided he was done talking to me. I didn’t know what set him off this time, but I was enjoying talkingto him again. There were just as many interesting stories if you worked in the brothel as there were if you worked in the tavern.
We didn’t have to talk about us or what went wrong. We didn’t have to say a damned thing about what would happen after this, even thought I was dying to know. We could just share funny stories like my half-brother asking the Madame to marry him and Neco decided he didn’t want to do that anymore.
Neco didn’t want to make friends or make up. He was doing this for Mom and nothing else.
Message received.
It didn’t use to be this hard talking to Lance. I didn’t assume anything about anyone after spending so much time in a brothel. I saw so many people put on one face on the streets and a totally different one in the brothel where they knew their secrets weren’t going to get out.
The Madame ran a discreet service. No one whispered about who or what someone was into and if you didn’t want to be seen going in, you just slipped a note to someone from the Jagged Key Isles and they got it to the Madame so she could sneak you in.
I didn’t know Lance was into men until I found out he had boyfriends. Autar could have been, too, and maybe I was just a little jealous because even though women kept turning down hismarriage proposals, everyone loved him. So, I just blurted it out and asked.
There was only ever one reason Guttertown found it wrong for people to be together and it had been the reason I’d been pushing him away for so long. I wasn’t going to ask because it was Autar’s secret, but Autar and Lance were related somehow.
