Page 37 of Roses and Murder
“You should have made it last longer when you killed him.”
“Ma’am, only psychopaths do that,” Neco said.
I blew out a sigh. This wasn’t the time for one of Neco’s long-winded speeches about how he was anassassinand not a serial killer and there was totally a difference.
I knew Neco, and the Ghoul weren’t even remotely the same. Theycouldhave been. They both decided they were going to kill someone and did it. The Ghoul enjoyed it and got addicted to it. He kept escalating. Neco thought it was just like stepping on a roach.
Trevils stepped forward. I didn’t much have a plan forafterwe got the crowd riled up, but now we had a pissed off mob with no target. I didn’t know what to do with that.
“Everyone is mad and you have every right to be. This man targeted your town and your friends. He was here to kill again, and he was stopped for good. You might not like how it was done, but he’s dead and he won’t be killing again. What we aren’t going to do is desecrate a corpse. That’s whathedid. So, you’re going to go back to your party and we’re taking him.”
Yeah, out of everyone here, Trevils would be the one people would listen to the most. He also had alotmore experience with calming angry mobs than us. Every single Guttertown resident here had spent time in the cells because wewerethe angry mob and just didn’t run fast enough.
Everyone grumbled, but they left. Trevils turned to us and he was all business.
“I’m going to move him somewhere until morning. You need to be sorted before you go to your father. I don’t particularly give a shit how you choose to present yourself, but Folcard is going to take it personally because he would have used you differently. I don’t agree with any of it, but it is what it is. Take her home and take care of her. Meet me at the same pub tomorrow and I’ll go with you because I have a lot more experience managing Folcard’s mood.”
Yeah, I didn’t really think Trevils would give a shit I wasn’t a man. He didn’t ask why and he didn’t care. He may eventually, but right now, he was treating it like it wasn’t his business. I trusted him to keep my secret. Hopefully, he could make his men keep it, too.
I didn’t trust a damned soul in Lower Cutwart. They hated us in Guttertown and they didn’t have the same loyalty. They worked hard to marry out of their station, even if they knew they would be unhappier when they got there.
Hopefully, they were too distracted by the dead body to notice me.
The biggest change was Neco. We knew he was in love with her and why he pushed her away.Shedidn’t know that. We also knew he would lose his mind when he found out she wasn’t a man.
For one thing, he hit her. It also solved his hang-up about making Theda happy. I didn’t think Theda cared either way if he was with a man or a woman as long ashewas happy. Neco just got idiotic ideas in his head and decided that was how it was without discussing it with anyone else.
Like, he was about to throw Lucy over his shoulder and carry her back to Guttertown. I got it. She had a black eye, a busted lip, and she admitted she was going to need one of us to stitch her up if we couldn’t get Athan or Tarja this late. I was freaking out, too. She could havedied.
Lucy and Caitrin were just like my mom. Strong women who didn’t want to show weakness in public. Mom was a different person when it was just us. Lucy would want to walk home. She’d only want to be carried if she couldn’t do it herself.
Neco stepped forward like he was just going to grab her and do it. I smacked my arm across his chest.
“Don’t. She’ll ask if she needs help and it probably won’t be you.”
She couldn’t hear us because she was a few steps ahead with Ronan, Ollie, and Basselt.
“How do I make this right? Ihither.”
I tried not to laugh at Neco. His whole thing was defending women and children and Lucy could brawl just fine on her own.
“Well, you’re going to have to tell her everything and apologize, but letting her fuck up your facetwiceis probably going to go a long way. She’s Guttertown born and bred and so are you. Obviously, don’t hit her again, but if a Guttertown man raises his hand to a Guttertown woman, there’s nothing stopping her from popping him back.”
“Yeah, butIdon’t do that. I find it repulsive.”
“Neco, when you hit her, evenshedidn’t know she was a girl. She got home and her period started. That was when she found out. How the fuck wereyousupposed to know?”
“Because she snuck in my window every night and half the time, she fell asleep in my bed!”
“And Lance always had that thing about not pissing in front of each other and we went along with it. We were ten wheneverything fractured, so the only way you could have known was taking her trousers off and we all know you’d never do that.”
“But—”
“Neco, I love you, but you’re a fucking idiot when you get this idea in your head. There was no way you could have known. We only found out recently. Mom thought Lance just had some hang-ups, and that’s how he ended up a legend at the brothel. She only figured it out when we found out about Lucy and announced it before we left. The only reasonwefound out was because she started her period and Ollie saw. She decided to trust us after.
“I have no doubt you would have found your way back to each other and she would have trusted you, but that was taken away from her. She’s not just injured and traumatized from fighting a serial killer. Caitrin made her think she was a boy until she couldn’t to avoid ending up in the brothels because of her father. A bunch of people who could snitch could have noticed.”
“I’ll kill them,” Neco growled.
