Page 3

I really hadn’t maimed Neco Argent enough to feel better, but at some point, he was going to hit me back and I’d get my arse laid out in the fancy part of Nestran.

I honestly didn’t know why he hadn’t hit me back so far.

So, I wasn’t going to take a third shot at his broken nose because my mother didn’t raise an idiot.

Plus, I’d just found out he was a serial killer, so I’d probably shouldn’t have broken it in the first place.

That was pretty much the only reason I was even humoring him and following him.

My first instinct was to stomp back to Guttertown and ask Basselt if two weeks was enough time for what he needed to bloom so he could make the cure.

I could tell my father to get fucked and I wouldn’t need to pull off some impossible task I wasn’t remotely qualified for, so Mom didn’t die.

I was still going to do that, but right now I was doing whatever the fuck we were doing right now.

Neco decided we were going to a rich person’s tavern, which was just insulting.

Yeah, it was fancier than mine and they were probably serving food we didn’t have access to, but our recipes were better.

“You’d better have a damned good reason for bringing me here,” I hissed.

“This place charges way more than you do, but the drinks are inferior, and they water it down. They can also buy meat at the market instead of hunting it, but the stew is more barley than meat.”

“Telling me you gave money to another tavern isn’t doing much for my desire to hit you again.”

“You make it sound like I was cheating.”

“You are!”

“Relax. I come here on business and that’s why we’re here.”

What kind of serial killer business was he getting up to that he needed to cheat on the Whispering Raven with watered down booze?

He took us straight to some grizzled old man who looked like he might actually survive a Guttertown brawl.

He also looked like he was ready to throw down with both of us for disturbing his lunch.

“Lance, meet Inspector Trevils.”

Neco Argent was actually insane. He was one of the kids Aimes looked after, so he would have heard about the legendary exploits of Inspector Trevils. If I was gutting people in my spare time, I’d steer clear of that man, even if the Barons just gave me a free pass.

“Do I know you and why are you interrupting my lunch?” he grumped.

Ollie said he was super polite and pretty decent at the tavern, but he also wasn’t working right now.

Ollie was one of the most easy-going people I knew, but if someone bothered him on his breaks, he got pretty cranky about it.

And Neco was a full-on psycho because he took a seat at his table like he’d been invited to join.

“We’re Argent kids,” Neco announced, like that made sense to either of us.

“Congrats?” Trevils said.

I’d known Neco since we were babies, so even though his face was stone, I knew he was annoyed Trevils didn’t magically know why we crashed his lunch, so I decided to help out.

“Our moms are sick. Our fathers changed the rules, and the only way we can get the remedy is catching your serial killers,” I explained. “I run a tavern, so if you want to get shit faced, I can help you, but I’m completely unqualified for this.”

“I’ve been meaning to stop there to check out your new drink and entertainment. I adore my wife, so I’ve got no reason to visit the brothel. The men who visit are raving about your tavern. Everyone is scrambling to recreate what you’re doing and the results are terrible, even the singing.”

“Lance is the genius behind all that,” Neco bragged.

Who the fuck body snatched Neco? He left if I was working the house, but I knew he was there eating and drinking when I wasn’t.

He’d never once complimented me. He’d been corrected numerous times by Mom and Ollie when he gave one of them credit for one of my recipes.

He just grunted and pretended like he never heard them.

He’d never complimented me for anything good that came out of the Whispering Raven.

“Anyway, Aimes was our babysitter. He comes by the tavern and we give him food and drink in exchange for stories. We don’t have storybooks in Guttertown.

Someone has to have the time to tell them to you.

Aimes always has the best stories and our favorite when we were younger were the exploits of the legendary Inspector Trevils,” I said.

“You don’t have to kiss my arse. The bloody Barons are my bosses, even though we have a king. Aimes probably didn’t tell you I caught a lot of bad guys who didn’t get the noose because of their fancy title.”

Neco actually laughed with me. Yeah, something had taken Neco over. We didn’t talk much aside from screaming at each other for the past ten years, but he’d never laughed that easily.

“Shit-talking rich people is our favorite pastime. No books, remember? You’re the exception,” Neco said.

“Well, I’m not as bad off as Guttertown, but I live in Lower Cutwart because they pay me shit. I loathe discussing any theories before I have a firm idea. In this case, a fresh set of eyes might help.”

Clearly, because one of the killers he was looking for interrupted his lunch.