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W e were really bad at this and it was basically no contest when Caitrin wandered downstairs and into the kitchen and realized Basselt and her daughter were missing. Lucy told Caitrin everything, but sometimes, she didn’t tell her until after she did it.

Caitrin was a Mama Bear, and she was downright terrifying when it came to her child.

Ronan and I knew that. Caitrin didn’t even have to say a damned thing.

She hauled us into the kitchen and just glared.

The Barons hadn’t realized people would say anything under torture.

They really just needed someone’s pissed off mom to come in and glare because we immediately spilled everything.

Lucy couldn’t hold that against us and take away sex and taste testing because she knew damned well her mom was scary.

We told her everything. And even though she should have been in bed, she marched out, kicked everyone out of the tavern on the biggest drinking day of the weekend, and then kicked Ronan and me out to go help Lucy.

Lucy could also be scary, but she wasn’t as scary as Caitrin yet and we were both worried about her, so we did exactly what we were told.

It was storming like crazy out. We rushed to the brothel to see if maybe the Madame could spare Beck, but she was already kicking him out of the brothel when we got there.

“Take him. I knew when he met a girl, he was going to get stupid. He’s way too distracted to work.”

We all just stared at her. The Madame knew everything about everyone, but she couldn’t know that. Caitrin wouldn’t have told her and Lucy was so careful we didn’t even know. The Madame just threw back her head and laughed in our faces.

“Oh, please. No sixteen-year-old boy pays to pleasure one of my girls when it’s their first time and doesn’t want anything reciprocated unless they are hiding something.

I thought that was always Lance’s business, but then he finally started returning Beck’s affection. He’s just a little too pretty.”

“Her name is Lucy,” Beck said. “She’s only pretending to be Lance because she belongs in the tavern and if she needs anything from her father, she’s going to be stuck at the brothel.”

The Madame just nodded.

“Caitrin hated that man. She even asked me about poison when he was still coming around. Honestly, good for her. Go save your girl. Her secret is safe with me.”

And I believed that. The Madame only used the secrets she knew when she needed to. Fuck, if I heard something, sometimes, I passed it to her just in case. Was I one of her little birds?

I’d think about that later. Honestly, only Beck and Neco were going to be a damned bit of good against a crazed serial killer, but Ronan and me would be cheering them on and making sure the brawl didn’t get near Lucy.

Damn, we hadn’t had a storm this bad in a long time. I could barely see a foot in front of me and the road leading out of Guttertown was mostly dirt with a few paving stones. It was going to take forever to clean my boots.

But we kept going. Neco was there, and I already knew Basselt was going to use his nose to make sure Neco and the Ghoul met. Thing was, Basselt couldn’t be in two places at once and the Ghoul could be at multiple places.

He might not even be in Lower Cutwart. I wanted him to be in the Merchant District, but I also didn’t. Lucy needed this, but I didn’t want her hurt.

I also knew she might think Neco hated her guts, but he would protect her with his life.