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I knew they would send for me even before the scene outside the tavern.

It was why I snuck out of Lucy’s bed and took care of my target last night.

She always did sleep like the dead when we were kids.

I was back and holding her in my arms before that shitshow outside.

I wasn’t going to keep secrets from my friends anymore because that blew up in my face.

I just hadn’t had a chance to tell them yet.

Something stunk the last time I was in the same room with Folcard, but I just figured one of their fancy maids hadn’t emptied a chamber pot and left food out to spoil.

It was worse than anything I smelled in Guttertown, but I figured a maid was being passive aggressive because these people were arseholes.

Now that Leodos told me the stench was coming from Folcard, I didn’t know how it was possible for one person to smell that bad.

It wasn’t like he was doing hard labor outside like everyone else.

He could have built a bath house like the Madame did.

Folcard didn’t have to haul water to bathe like the rest of Nestran did. Someone did that for him.

You had to try really hard to have a stink like that. It was probably seeping into my clothes and I was going to have to go to Lucy’s party with second hand stink. Ollie was going to give me so much shit about it.

“Are you dense, boy?” Folcard snapped.

“Sorry, what?”

Yeah, it was so bad, I wasn’t even paying attention to him.

“You could have clarified when my daughter didn’t,” Folcard said.

No, I couldn’t. I had no idea. No one in Guttertown knew. I had to play this right. Lucy was happy with her deal ending the way it did. She was free of Folcard and Caitrin was still getting the cure.

I wanted mine. I didn’t want to be a soldier, but I would have if it saved my family.

The wages would probably be shit since they were keeping most of it to “pay them back,” but if I could supplement what I was earning protecting the girls at the brothel with a little murder, I could buy Momma a house and take care of her.

Momma wasn’t one of those women who wanted to work there. She had to. If I could replace what she was earning with extra money, she wouldn’t have to anymore. I needed to play this very carefully.

I lost complete respect for myself as I launched into this completely misogynistic monologue to kiss this man’s arse.

I didn’t want him looking at Lucy or her tavern again and this man was petty.

She was a girl, so he thought he owned her body.

She made damned sure her body was her own, and she even hired Basselt to make sure other girls got that option.

I wasn’t going to take that from her by fighting her father and defending her. Sometimes, men got violent and sometimes, they just needed to rant. I was going the route where he could get a freebie trashing the woman I loved and I wouldn’t kill him so he didn’t come at her tavern harder later.

And he did. He went on this grotesque rant about how women should be soft with long hair, big boobs, and child-bearing hips.

If I didn’t know he had children all over Nestran and I was in love with one, I’d bet a week’s wages he hadn’t actually met a woman before.

They came in all shapes and sizes and that was a beautiful thing.

Men wore their hair long, too, so that wasn’t a woman thing.

Beck’s had never been cut, but even men who weren’t from the Jagged Key Isles wore their hair long.

Rich people were weird and I couldn’t stab him to shut him up.

When Rowena was a kid, she was a terror. Sometimes, you just had to let her yell until she was done. She grew out of that when she was six. This was worse than that. Rowena was a kid and didn’t know any better. Folcard had adult children and was puppet mastering our monarchy.

I just really wanted to stab him.

He looked like he was finally winding down and if he kept going, I might actually slit his throat, so I jumped in.

“Well, you showed her any way. She’s just a stubborn woman. She doesn’t have the cure, and she’s too proud to go crawling back to you for anything else. You could just pretend she doesn’t exist because she’s probably furious you changed the rules on her.”

I mean, she wasn’t. She had the cure lined up and was preparing for a street party. Lucy was proud of the fact that she burned that bridge. So was I. I planned on getting very drunk and finally kissing her. I just couldn’t until everything was settled.

“Hrm. Yes. It’s just unnatural for a woman to look like that. I wanted to talk about your contract, too. Have you completed your end?”

“What’s going to happen if I did?”

“Well, Trevils would have reported to me if there was a murder, so I happen to know you didn’t.”

“Unless someone waited until his family was visiting in-laws and haven’t reported it yet. Not confirming if they did or didn’t until I know what’s going to happen.”

Because Keeva also taught me how to get rid of a body. I left them because it was really risky to move them and I didn’t leave any other evidence. If they were going to screw me over, then they’d never find that body.

“I think if someone was careful enough to do it when his family was gone, then their mother would get the cure, and I’d be interested in paying them a small fee to continue that work.”

“What about Trevils? Because he’s well-loved and I actually like the man.”

“That man is like a dog with a bone, but I’ll handle him with regard to your work. The only reason I haven’t insisted he retire at his age is that he’s nearly irreplaceable. Eventually, he’s going to insist and you won’t have to worry.”

“Then, yes. It’s done. I can do it again for money, but I won’t touch women and children. I also want the ability to decline jobs.”

The man was a complete moron, but he wasn’t totally stupid. I’d all but told him I was the Blight and he just needed to connect the dots. He could hang me or hire me. I was counting on this stinky, little weasel wanting to hire me.

“Done. But if you ever get caught, I don’t know you.”

I grinned. I wasn’t going to get caught, and I’d just gotten everything I wanted.