Page 29 of Roses and Murder
The brothel couldn’t really sparemebut the Madame would bring in a cousin since people’s lives were on the line. She wasn’t letting Beck anywhere near this. Ollie and the mysterious cook couldn’t leave the tavern. Not the day after the Day of Respect.
We could do this, but if Lance found the Ghoul instead of me and the Ghoul harmed one hair on his beautiful head, I was going to blow this entire plan.
So, I already really liked Basselt, but apparently Theran also had really good hearing and he could hear everything Lucy was talking about with Neco and Trevils. I fully planned on abusing this later, but right now, I needed to keep my girl safe.
I turned to Basselt. I needed to keep him safe, too, because he was a friend, but he could help as well.
“First of all, Trevils was a dick for hinting you piss in the house, but he’s a good guy and kind of a hero to Guttertown kids, so please don’t turn into a wolf and bite his arse off.”
“Trevils knew Lucy was talking about a Theran because he’s worked with one before. Specifically,me.It wouldn’t bring him back or end my banishment, but I helped him out in exchange for looking into the death of my charge. I needed to know ifsomeone murdered a kid just because he was Theran or they were just hunting and shot an arrow at what they thought was an adult animal. He gave me closure that it was an accident. Trevils is a good man.”
I mean, yeah, Basselt burst out laughing and had to explain to me why he was laughing. He seemed to think it was funny and not offensive, but I would have been offended if Basselt thoughtallhumans pissed in the house.
“We’re going to have to bring Neco in,” I said. “I’m not telling you his secret and I won’t tell him yours, but if you can point him towards the Ghoul without turning into a wolf, he can take that house and we can keep Lucy away from it.”
“I know Neco Argent’s secrets. I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but it’s hard to tune you out when I’ve been trained to pick up words like murder. Several of us shift into small animals that can easily slip into a human’s house. We’ve only been using them to spy. It’s been suggested several times to turn them into assassins and wipe out the Barons in one night in their sleep.”
“Guttertown would throw you a fucking party,” I said.
“We spy on the last Tempris, too. The only reason we haven’t is because the rest of the humans might take it as an act of war, even if we were doing them a favor. We can’t do anything while the Princess Lisana is missing and there’s no heir. If we play anything wrong, we could lose the Tempris altogether.”
“Noted. Listen, Neco is intense, but he’s a good guy.”
I proceeded to air all of Lucy and Neco’s drama to Basselt. It wasn’t like it was a secret. Everyone in Guttertown knew that mess. And they werereallymessy about it. They could get really unmessy and get our group back together if Neco told Lucy he’d been in love with her this whole time and got a little extreme because he thought they were siblings and Neco would grovel to the ends of Nestran if he found out he hit a girl.
“I think we need to worry about the Ghoul instead of getting those two back together. I trust him if you do. We both have secrets that could get us killed. If you think he won’t react badly to me being Theran, then I’ll work with him.”
“Neco won’t care. You helped his mom, so he’d die for you.”
I ran out to snag Neco, but I had to sneak out the back. I wasn’t stupid. If Lucy caught me plotting, she was going to murder me. She’d be fine with it if I pulled it off, the Ghoul was out of the way, and Caitrin got the cure.
Basselt passed Lucy’s plan on to me and it was a good one. I just needed to make sure if the Ghoul ended up in Lower Cutwart that Neco was the one who found him.
Everyone was freaking out about me being in Lower Cutwart when the Ghoul might be striking. Neco was hovering and Ollie was plotting. Beck was stressing and trying to get out of work. Ronan was doing that thing he did where he got quiet and intense. If my plan didn’t work, Ronan was planning retribution.
I didn’t even think the Ghoul would be in Lower Cutwart again. The rich fucks sniffed around the merchant girls if none of their cousins were acceptable. Lower Cutwart girls had to be practically perfect in every single way for them to marry out.
Which was stupid because the men they would be marrying were generally awful and flawed. The Lower Cutwart girls had to be beautiful, demure, have several brothers, and have the abilityto bite down and never react when their future husband was an arse.
Yeah, even if they didn’t think Guttertown women were total trash, that was a match made in the Underworld. They raised their hand to us and we’d hit back. Most Lower Cutwart women were like that, too. It was only acceptable when you crossed the line between Lower Cutwart and the Merchant District.
Finding a beautiful girl in Lower Cutwart wasn’t hard. We had a ton of them in Guttertown. Finding a beautiful girl with several brothers with the disposition to deal with those arseholes was going to be difficult, even if it meant marrying out.
Ifthe Ghoul struck tonight, it would probably be in the Merchants District. Trevils refused to let us take that one because he thought it, too. He promised me that if they were the ones who caught the Ghoul, the men he had were completely loyal to him. They’d say it was me who caught him red-handed so I could get the cure for Mom.
I was okay with that. I didn’t particularly want Neco there either. He might think he had a pass as the Blight, but Trevils didn’t know that yet. If Trevils ever decided to follow him and caught him at the scene, the Barons would just pretend they weren’t paying him and hang him. Everyone made mistakes and Neco could make one that cost him his life.
We had to plan things very carefully in Guttertown. Things tended to get intense at the brothel and the tavern after the Day of Respect. I refused to let Mom work even if she was feeling better. I told Basselt to sit on her if she tried. The Madame borrowed a cousin to help Beck, and Panas and Ronan were going to help Ollie and our new staff. The Madame knew Ronan wasn’t going to get much painting done with us in danger.
“Don’t go inside. If you’re the one who finds him, come get me,” Neco said.
“Fucker, if we don’t pull this off, he’s going to get cured and start killing in Guttertown. This is our only chance.”
“Arsehole, this is your only life. Don’t get murdered. I’m not saying let him get away with it. I’m saying go after him with back up.”
I grunted. That was logical and I could do that. I just wasn’t going to let innocent people get slaughtered when I might be able to stop it.
“We make a pact,” I said. “Trevils drew a map and the houses aren’t that far from each other. We watch the house, but we check in with each other. You don’t go in without back up, either. I’m not doing that to Theda and Rowena. It would kill them and you can’t protect them if you’re dead.”
