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L ance 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 his fault 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.

“You both look like you’re going to puke,” I said.

“Lance figured out a hangover remedy. It doesn’t kick in until you get a really good belch and that doesn’t happen right away,” Ronan groaned.

Yeah, Lance had always been smart like that.

“The Madame will fire you and ban you from the brothel if you let out a nasty drunk burp in her presence,” I said.

Momma raised me so I wasn’t rude like that.

I went to school with this moron named Aldo who did what most of Guttertown did and hit up the brothel when they got their first chin hair.

You could just walk up to a girl and ask if she wanted to go to bed with you, but Aldo decided to march straight up to the Madame and demand her best girl right before he let out this vile belch right in her face.

Panas had been training Beck and me for about three years, so when the Madame tossed him a look, he let Beck and I get our first experience tossing someone since Aldo was our age. The Madame could hold a grudge, so he’d never been allowed back.

“Mom is also going to kick our arses if she sees us this hungover, so we’re sneaking in the back to my room until Lance’s cure kicks in. Want to come?”

Beck had the same look on his face that he always did when he invited me anywhere it was going to be more than just him.

He asked because he really wanted me to come, but he was prepared for me to say no.

I never got annoyed with him for asking, but I guess today was the day that persistence paid off.

“Sure.”

Weird. Beck had been asking for the last ten years like he wanted me to say yes, but he sure seemed shocked when I did. A man was allowed to grow and change his mind when he had more information.