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I was hoping I didn’t have to knock on Neco’s door.

I wasn’t going to hit a kid, but I especially wasn’t going to smack Rowena if she assaulted my tits again because she guessed I was the one who fucked up her brother’s face.

Yeah, Neco still thought I was Lance and was a complete psychopath about his sister.

He’d toss me through a wall and then gut me in my sleep.

Plus, I just really liked that kid, even if she hated my guts.

Neco was eating breakfast with Panas and Beck when I found him. Panas was one of those men who spoke even less than Neco did, but he didn’t really have to. If he needed to terrify someone, he could do it with a look. I also knew he was mostly a gentle giant because he watched us sometimes.

“I have intel on the Ghoul. We’re going to need to talk to the Madame, Athan, and Tarja,” I announced.

“You don’t have little birds like the Madame and you couldn’t work without me yesterday. How did you get any information I don’t already have?” Neco demanded.

Yeah, I knew about the Madame’s spies. We might get more intel out of her than just bedroom diseases because she knew shit about everyone. I also wasn’t outing Basselt, even if I was pretty sure Neco wouldn’t hurt him.

Basselt was keeping my secret, and I wasn’t going to go around blabbing his without his consent.

“Do you want to catch the Ghoul or do you want to interrogate me? Just trust me.”

Neco Argent didn’t trust anyone. The only person he’d never questioned was his momma.

He wasn’t asking me any more questions now, but he was going to pester me later.

Especially since there was literally no way to tell from the crime scenes that the Ghoul was sick or Trevils would have done it by now.

“Mom should be getting out of the bath in a few,” Beck said.

“She usually has her breakfast after that and then does the books. She doesn’t like being disturbed when she’s messing with numbers because if she messes anything up, they are going to figure out we’re all cheating on our taxes, but she loves chatting while she eats. ”

Ah, fuck. The books. I needed to get that done.

“I’m dreading doing ours,” I said. “The rest of Nestran knows about the Bloody Mary and our singers. They are trying to recreate both. Their patrons are coming here and eventually, they will send a spy to try to steal my recipe. The Barons are going to know we’re making more money and want their cut of my profits, even though they’ve got nothing to do with it.

I’m going to have to get creative, but not so creative they know I’m lying to them. ”

“Same,” the Madame said, joining us from her bath.

“My business is booming because yours is. A lot of the men who think they would never pay for sex go to your tavern to try the Bloody Mary and hear your singers. They get drunk and then start lusting after the pretty girls singing. Most of them end up over here.”

“What can you tell me about bedroom diseases?” I asked.

Oh, the Madame was pissed. I should have phrased that much better.

“Mostly that if you have one, you shouldn’t have been in my bath with my son!”

“Not me. I think the Ghoul has one, and it’s bad.”

“Symptoms?”

“No idea, just that he smells bad. Like, worse than a Baron normally would.”

“It might not be a Baron then. There’s one called Black Paranoia I haven’t seen in Guttertown for a long time that attacks the body and mind.

It’s not really a bedroom disease, though.

It can spread in the bedroom but that’s not the only way.

You can catch it from the pustules on the body or just from getting sweat on you.

Guttertown figured out the cure, and the Barons forced us to give it to them.

It’s one of the cures they keep to themselves unless they need something and a lot of people outside of Guttertown think our healers aren’t as good. ”

Neco had stopped staring holes in my head like he was fully planning on asking later how I’d figured all this out. The Madame had just thrown a wrench into our entire theory, but she might have given us a major clue as well.

“There was no sign of a struggle. That’s why we thought Baron. If someone broke into your house with a disease like that, you’d just run unless it was worse if you didn’t.”

“I couldn’t tell you why they didn’t run.

Black Paranoia first cropped up when my grandmother ran this place.

I’ve only been alive since we had the cure, but I’ve been told untreated, it’s worse than death.

The Barons all hate each other, even if they are related, but they all have access to the cure. ”

“That should make him easier to find, though, right?” I asked.

“Harder to stop if he can give us disease,” Neco pointed out.

“If you take the cure as soon as you know you’ve been exposed, you don’t have to deal with the badness of figuring out you have it.”

“How’s he getting around?” Beck asked. “Demon Pox sets people in a panic because there’s no cure.

This should, too, because you have to kiss Barons’ arses and hope you have something they need or admit Guttertown has skilled healers.

Trevils would have heard about it and pass that to Neco and Lance. ”

“You’re trained to protect the girls. They have their own training,” the Madame said. “Some things, you can’t see until their clothes come off and some of these savages have the means to take daily baths and choose to do it once every fortnight. The smell might not tip anyone off.”

“It tipped Lance off,” Neco said.

Beck had to be in on Ollie’s plot because he usually was. I was honestly shocked Ollie hadn’t gotten some Ronan-level vengeance from the Madame, or my mother for that matter, for all the nights we ended up in the cells.

“Do you really need to know how Lance got that information or would you rather use it to catch the Ghoul?” Beck asked.

“I work better with all the information. Knowing how Lance obtained that information would help me figure out what to do with it.”

Tough shit. I was keeping the fact that Basselt was Theran to a ‘need to know’ basis and Neco and I weren’t friends anymore. Still, I had to give him something.

“You and Lance are smart in different ways,” the Madame said. “You can’t think you’re the only person helping him.”

The Madame gave me a sly wink. That woman and her spies.

She didn’t even have one in my tavern and she’d figured it out.

Beck and his mom were close, but he didn’t tell her everything.

Especially not secrets that weren’t his to tell.

No, that woman figured out my cook was Theran and hunting the Ghoul for me all on her own.

“Have your little birds heard anything about the Ghoul?” I asked.

“I’d tell you if I did, especially since your mothers’ lives are on the line.

They are mostly placed in the houses of people I want to keep an eye on and there are a few in the palace.

The Barons don’t know who the Ghoul is, but they don’t think he’s one of them.

They don’t think one of them is capable of the things he’s doing.

I asked as soon as I found out Caitrin’s life depended on catching him.

I just hadn’t had a chance to talk to you. ”

I let out a breath. That meant Neco was safe for now. They hadn’t given him a name to pin the Ghoul’s crimes on him. He still needed to hold off just in case it did end up being someone related to the Barons because they still could.

I thought finding out the Ghoul was sick would be a gotcha moment, but it just complicated everything.