Page 8 of Roses and Murder
“You aren’t going anywhere near the Ghoul. I don’t even want you leaving Guttertown.”
“Neco, I can’t even tell you the things I’ve done to avoid the father who sired me. Mom and I had done just fine on our own. You aren’t my father and you don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Seriously, men usually only did that to women and Neco definitely didn’t know my secret. There was no way he could know. But then again, he’d been sneaking into houses and killing people without leaving a trace. Fuck me. Did Neco creep in my flat with the intention of gutting me, see my tits, and decide to call it off?
“All the Argent kids do what they have to so they can avoid their fathers. I’ll do what I need to so that I can keep Rowena away from it. They aren’t like us there. They don’t know everyone and, in most cases, if you mimic their accent and don’t make a scene, no one bothers you. You are a scene. Can you even grow a beard? It would help some. They think facial hair is manly.”
Okay, so Neco Argent definitely hadn’t seen my tits. What a relief. I had to keep them strapped down, but I had really nice tits. Neco didn’t deserve to see them.
“I’m a Guttertown brat, Neco. I can handle myself if the fancy folks want to fight.”
“Don’t be stupid. No, you can’t. If it’s a Baron’s legitimate son, who do you think they will side with if you fight back? The merchants’ sons will jump you in a group. Just stay away and let me do this.”
“Dick face, if you do this, they are going to find a way to not give my mom the cure. They’ll say I violated my contract by having you do it and they may try to take the tavern. I have to do this. So, help me or get out of my way. You’re a serial killer. Help me get in his head.”
Oh, great. Now there was an offended serial killer at my table. I never really got the idiot part of pretending to be a man. He wasn’t mad I called him a dick face and didn’t want to follow his plan. No, the giant idiot was mad I called him a serial killer.
“Okay, I’m an assassin. There’s a difference,” he sulked.
“Did someone ask you to kill those men and pay you money? Because that’s an assassin.”
Neco ground his teeth. Yeah, pushing his buttons was my favorite thing.
“I paid myself from their hidden cash and passed the rest of it onto their victims. If I’d advertised my services, people wouldhave hired me. I’m going to get paid now. I can work with immunity and I have a plan if someone doesn’t deserve to die.”
“What the fuck happened to you, Neco?”
Because seriously, the best friend I used to talk to every night wasn’t violent. He was intense, but he got into the least amount of brawls than any of us. We’d been enemies for the longest time, but there was a reason I didn’t suspect him when I realized The Blight had connections to the brothel. Yeah, he broke my nose, and I was still mad about that, but he never came at me with his fists again, even when we couldn’t avoid each other and got into a screaming match. Neco still thought I was a man. He should have had no problem thumping me if he thought I had it coming.
“Some arsehole rich fuck was fine with Momma having a miscarriage because he wanted to fuck her when she was that far along. I didn’t just lose my eye. The only reason they didn’t kill a kid for that was that the Madame sent my father a letter that I was protecting his offspring. Nothing happened to him. He was still rich as fuck when I killed him. He was the first. We get punished for fighting back if they hurt us. It’s pest control.”
“I get it but why do you have to do it?”
“Because no one else will.”
“I’m serious. I need your help to get into the Ghoul’s head.”
“And I can’t help you. I’m not a serial killer, I’m an assassin.”
I just rolled my eyes. He seemed hung up on that and I wasn’t sure there was much of a difference. His idiot plan was going to get Mom dead and my tavern seized. He probably didn’t want me involved because he wanted to catch the Ghoul himself.
“Well, I’m not letting you meet Basselt. If you aren’t going to help, then buy something or get the fuck out,” I snapped.
“Fine. And I don’t want to see you outside of Guttertown.”
Arsehole. Trevils told us where the crime scenes were and gave us permission to check them out. I guess I was doing that without the giant fucker.
Lance Argent was the most infuriating man I’d ever met and now that I knew he wasn’t related to me, I just really wanted to kiss him. I’d never do that without his permission, but the Madame had literally just reset my nose and my eyes were nearly swollen shut because of Lance. I wasn’t going to let him hit me again unless I earned it and kissing him without his consent definitely deserved it.
I wasn’t telling him what to do. He didn’t get it. Lance wasn’t just androgynous. He was beautiful. In Guttertown, that just meant more people were going to ask him to their bed. Outside of Guttertown, it was different. Everyone was going to find him beautiful, too, and some people were going to think it was hisfault how he was born for confusing them because he didn’t do stupid shit like growing facial hair.
It was stupid. If they were confused, it wasn’t anyone else’s fault. Beck oozed masculinity, but he didn’t need it after Panas taught us both to shave. He had this amazing, long hair on the top of his head, but the rest of his body was hairless.
Lance was under my protection whether he wanted to be or not. I just had to be sneaky about it because he had a mean right hook and he was faster than me. I left when he asked me to because Lance always did have a temper. Ronan and Beck stumbled out after me and they were both extremely hungover. Yeah, something was going on. There was no reason for someone who wasn’t an Argent kid to get pissed over our fathers.
We were all headed back to the brothel. Beck needed to check in, Ronan had his murals, and I needed to get what I needed to stalk my prey. This name, I had no problem killing, but I wasn’t going to be careless about it. And now that I had a free pass, I needed to check out the Ghoul’s kill rooms.
Still, I was trying to make my way back to my friends now that I knew Lance wasn’t my brother and it wouldn’t come back on anyone if I slipped up. I could help them get home, even if the brothel was next door.
