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L ucy would be pissed I shut the tavern down all day. Like angrier than the drunks who were pounding on the door all day because we were drinking and we wouldn’t let them in. Probably madder than Petunia if you tried to hitch her to the cart without bribing her first.

Lucy could probably hit harder than that donkey could kick.

Petunia never kicked me, but I’d brawled with Lucy before when I thought I was settling something man to man.

If she took five minutes to understand we were all legitimately terrified, she might not beat our arses in the fancy part of town.

Neco was watching this go down like those fancy plays they did in this part of town.

I always wanted to see one, but the most entertainment I got was when horny old Edna decided her husband wasn’t giving it up enough, so she tried her hand at the tavern and then he showed up drunk to fight off anyone who might be desperate enough to take her up on it.

Shit. Lucy didn’t want Neco to know. Neco was always observant even before he started getting away with murder.

And something was up with Neco. When he cut someone out, he fully cut them out.

He didn’t talk to them and he didn’t even look at them.

He mostly avoided Lucy, but even when they were yelling at each other, he barely looked at her.

He was looking now. He was staring right at her, and that was just something he didn’t do. He didn’t look at Ronan either until he drew for Rowena’s birthday. Something happened. Neco’s nose was broken and both his eyes were turning black.

Lucy had a mean right hook, but Neco had been trained by Panas and thought she was a man.

Lucy could kick my arse, but she wouldn’t have landed a blow on Neco or Beck unless they let her.

They were better trained than the Nestran military, but the Barons looked down on the Jagged Key Isles people, so they thought their culture was inferior.

The Jagged Key Isles folks thought the Barons were rich ponces, so they probably wouldn’t have trained their people on anything.

Ronan noticed, too, and the arsehole poked me because he was also drunk. Ronan wanted gossip, and that was my job. Lucy would tell us what happened while she was gone, but only Neco could tell us why he was looking at Lucy now.

Beck told me what happened last time he tried to get Neco to talk about Lucy and yeah, that wouldn’t work with me. Neco might be stabbing people, but he wasn’t really violent, and he’d never been a bully. He never started anything with anyone, but he’d step in to finish it if needed.

Neco wouldn’t spar with me like he did with Beck because it wasn’t a fair fight. I could handle most drunken fights and tossing people, but I couldn’t handle anyone with Jagged Key Isle training.

So, yeah, I was the silver tongue of the group, but Beck spoke Neco’s language, so I was nominating him for that. I was pretty sure my girlfriend was also going to kick my arse for closing the tavern.

No point in also getting it kicked by Neco.