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I t 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 his marriage 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.

Thus, I just shut up, so I didn’t say anything else stupid and apparently, that was the wrong thing, too, because I could feel Lance glaring at my back. I didn’t know what to say to him anymore, so I was just going to save his mom and go from there.

Getting from Guttertown to the Merchant District was much easier on horseback than walking. I didn’t mind the walk because I usually didn’t mind my own company. It just took a while. Going with Lance and wanting to talk, but not knowing what to say so I didn’t make things worse was agonizing.

In hindsight, maybe Beck and Ronan were right, and I was a bit of an idiot for letting this go on until I knew for sure Lance and I weren’t related. Lance might never forgive me, even though I let him break my nose.

Thankfully, we got to the Merchant District before the silence got too awkward.

We hitched the horses, but I didn’t steer us to the first crime scene.

Trevils would be eating lunch now and I had some questions for the old fox.

He didn’t tell us everything he knew last time, probably because he thought we’d be the Ghoul’s next target.

“You again?” he grumped.

“If I figured out the Ghoul is a Baron or one of their kids and is possibly using weddings or name-day celebrations to avoid witnesses, then I know damned well you did, too.”

Trevils looked shocked for a minute.

“Kid, I have no idea what your father has planned for you since you told me they changed the rules, but you’d make a hell of an apprentice if you wanted to learn to do what I do.”

Lance just snorted because he knew Trevils was also trying to catch me, but Trevils also wasn’t wrong because Keeva tried to convince me to do the same thing before she agreed to take me as her apprentice.

“Why didn’t you share that with us?” Lance demanded. “My mom could die.”

“Because I’ve been doing this since before you were born and know how this works.

You walk in there with proof it’s one of them and they will tell you that you failed your task.

I’m sorry to be harsh, but they will never save your mom if it’s one of them.

You give them a name and they are going to give the public one they have a problem with. ”

I already knew that and was trying to come up with a plan to expose the Ghoul in a way they couldn’t pin it on an innocent. I just hadn’t told Lance because he was already stressed and my plans usually worked.

“Do you think they know and are planning to pin this on Neco?” Lance asked.

That was his theory, and it was a good one. I was a little mad at myself for not considering it myself because I usually planned for everything.

“They didn’t like it when I told them there were two of them. I think they always have a fall guy prepared when I’m looking into something in case it’s one of them. They seemed put out that they were going to have to find two people this time. I haven’t said anything because I need a plan.

“If I catch both of them, I’m pretty sure I can convince them to pin it all on the Blight instead of an innocent person.

On the other hand, I’ve seen the bruises on the women and kids of the Blight’s victims. Even if they came to me for help, I can’t legally do anything about it because the Barons consider them property.

It’s confusing the fuck out of me because I’ve devoted my life to catching murderers, but I also think abusive men should pay, too.

I don’t have a plan at this point and I don’t even know who did it. ”

Yeah, he’d never figure out I was the Blight and I’d be damned if I swung for the Ghoul’s crimes.

I didn’t think anyone else should, either.

The Ghoul fit my code and once I found out who he was, I could easily slit his throat, but he was too high profile.

They’d never pin it on me, but they’d hang someone for it.

Probably some poor idiot who stood up to them and hadn’t done anything wrong.

We didn’t just need to name the Ghoul. He’d just be relocated to Guttertown while either myself or some other poor sap hung for it.

We needed to expose him in a way the Barons could never cover this up.