“In the future, I’d really like you to let me know if you’re going to be out all night,” Alana said softly. “I trust you, but I do worry.”
Uh. That sounds… an awful lot like something a wife would say.
Doesn’t it?
Yes. Now, shut up. She’s a very smart woman and could have done anything she wanted. She’s here by choice. She could have rented a room, a house, anything.
Dressing as she is by choice.
She wants something. I know it.
This… this isn’t normal. Something is wrong here. Something isn’t right.
She wants something.
“Sorry,” Rene mumbled. “Ended up finding something I really wanted to look into.”
“So I surmise. It isn’t yours, is it?” Alana asked, gesturing with a hand at him.
“Huh?” Rene said. Looking down at himself he remembered he was covered in a butcher’s shop worth of blood right now. “Oh, no. I found two people involved with my kidnapping. This is all theirs. I took them apart to find out what they knew. Which was… pretty much nothing, I guess.”
Alana nodded at that, then laid a hand on his shoulder.
“Come along, then. Let’s get you cleaned and put to bed. We do have university tomorrow, among other things to do,” Alana said, then forcefully led him to the bathroom. “Not to mention you need to train the children tomorrow morning.”
She’s going to try and kill us.
With what, her mouth?
She doesn’t have a weapon on her, idiot. Nowhere to put it.
Alana got him into the bathing room and began to strip him immediately.
Our own weapons, she’ll take them and try to kill us.
No, she won’t. Stop being a ninny and just let this happen. When was the last time we got any care at all from a woman?
Other than Mother. She doesn’t count.
Feeling like he was a pig being led to slaughter, Rene let Alana handle him as she wished.
She got him naked, cleaned him of anything that could be picked off without water, gave him a full once-over, and then took care of anything on his person she found that needed attention.
At some point, she’d brought in a bucket of hot water while he sat on the stool she’d put him on. He’d been somewhat lost in the personal care she was providing him. The water was used with a small hand towel to wash him clean of all the blood.
Much faster than he wanted, Alana was done with him. Cleaned, taken care of, and dressed in sleep clothes, he was in bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
And she did nothing to him that was even vaguely threatening.
I like her.
A lot.
Let’s marry her first.
“Okay,” Rene murmured, before dropping off.
***
Feeling far more rested than he’d expected to, Rene slunk into the Tramp’s Tail as soon as Lori went to bed and night fell.
He’d spent the day at university, working in the lending office, and being with Lori and Alana. Dinner with them had been uneventful and pleasant.
Irini was right behind him. She’d joined him just as he’d gone inside. He hadn’t seen her since they’d separated the night before for their respective tasks.
Walking into the backroom once again, where it felt like he was spending most of his nights lately, Rene found Dephan wasn’t there.
Rose, Pinky, and Darla were, however. Each one was clearly working on something at their three much smaller desks arranged near Dephan’s.
Should have the building expanded or something, and add more rooms. This is getting ridiculous.
Standing up, the three women immediately adopted a familiar pose.
They put their hands together in front of them, squared their shoulders, and blanked their faces. It was eerily similar to how Dephan carried herself.
Must be teaching them decorum or something.
Or her version of it.
Irini closed the door and then slunk over to the corner she’d been in the other day. Squatting down, she looked rather comfortable there.
Rene went and sat down at his desk, then looked at the three women.
“Dephan is currently handling a guest,” said Pinky lifting a hand up to curl her blonde hair behind an ear. “Could we entertain you until she comes back?”
“No, thank you,” Rene said with a shake of his head. “You’ll have to tell her what she’s missed, so listen carefully.”
“Sure, okay,” Rose murmured.
Rene turned and looked to Irini.
“Everything went fine yesterday,” she said. “Killed the woman, made sure everyone saw it happen, and told them all why it happened.
“Dumped her body into the night-soil pit. All done.”
“Good,” Rene said, then looked at the three women. “I killed nine Ravens last night personally. I disposed of seven of them. I’ll need someone to go clean up the other two. I left too much of a mess to handle by myself.”
“Ah, of course,” Darla said. “I’ll… handle that, I guess.”
Pinky very subtly turned her heel and tapped Darla’s calf with her own. It all looked like she was just shifting her weight around.
“You can count on me, boss,” Darla said, with a lot more enthusiasm. Her head partially turned toward Pinky then back to Rene.
I wonder.
Is Pinky their leader? Someone always ends up stepping up.
She looks more like the idiot of the trio though. Must have hid her intelligence better than I suspected.
“Thanks. Anything else come up since yesterday?” Rene asked, looking from one woman to the next.
“No, boss,” Rose said. “It’s uh… pretty calm an’ quiet today. Though I can say that Dephan has been payin’ bounties out today. Your offer is definitely makin’ the rounds. It’s doin’ good!”
Rose smiled at him prettily, her words dropping some of the firm pronunciation they’d all had up to this point.
Dephan is definitely instructing them.
“What were you three working on?” Rene asked, now rather curious.
“Dephan’s been teachin’ us how to read an’ write,” Rose said, turning around. It gave him an amazing view of her lovely figure in a dress that was likely to be described as skin-tight. She grabbed a piece of paper and turned around, showing him. “See? I’m learnin’ pretty quickly, she said. Pinky already knew most of it, so she doesn’ count.”
Pinky and Darla both looked somewhat unnerved that Rose was telling him all this.
“Oh?” Rene asked, leaning forward to peer at the paper.
It was full of terribly drawn letters, numbers, and what could barely be called three-letter words. He’d seen small children back home in his last life with better penmanship.
But one had to start somewhere.
“Good work, Rose,” Rene said with some humor. “You can put it on the wall behind me when you can spell out your first word.”
“Oh, I already did,” Rose said, then leaned over her paper to look at it. “See? This is cat. C-A-T.”
Grinning, Rene found he rather liked Rose. She seemed intelligent and stupid in equal measure.
That, or just lacking in common sense or social graces.
“Well, I guess that—”
The door to the room clicked and slid open rapidly.
Dephan walked in, followed by another person wearing a very large cloak. A cloak so thick and dark that it completely obscured whoever might be under it. The attached hood was like a monstrous sack over the person’s head.
“Hello, Dephan,” Rene said, the woman having stopped just inside the room.
The person in the cloak closed the door and their head turned slowly one way, then the other. Looking at everyone in the room.
They don’t want to be known.
“Would it help if I asked everyone to leave?” Rene asked. If he could get to the heart of this quickly, he could move on.
Head moving up and down quickly, the hooded visi
tor agreed to that.
“Right. Everyone but Dark Mask, out,” Rene said, making a gesture toward his bedroom.
Dephan gathered up the girls and took them out, back into the main areas of the Tramp’s Tail. When the door shut, the hooded figure lifted a gloved hand to point at Irini.
“She stays. She’s bound to me,” Rene said, leaning to the side.
“Fine,” the hooded visitor said, then pulled the hood of the cloak down to reveal it was Lieutenant-Captain Aurora.
“Ah, hello, Miss Dean,” Rene said with no small amount of surprise. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“You were right,” Aurora said with a hiss. “Carden pushed to do nothing. The other Lieutenant-Captains wanted action. Me pushing with Carden guaranteed he got what he wanted.”
“I mean, yeah?” Rene said with a chuckle. “Carden is likely as hip-deep in everything as Ronder was. I just wonder how much he gets paid.”
Aurora shook her head looking rather annoyed.
“It’s like… the whole guard is corrupt to a degree. And it feels like it’s being done on purpose,” Aurora muttered.
“On purpose?” Rene repeated, curious now. “Why would you say that?”
Aurora didn’t respond immediately, just shook her head.
“If you explain that, I’ll give you the names of three guards who took a bribe from me last night,” Rene said.
“What!?” Aurora asked, looking rather heated now.
“I bribed three guards to carry the corpses of Ravens guild members I’d just killed in front of them. They came pretty cheap,” Rene said. “So, explain your comment for their names?”
Pressing a hand to her temple with a sigh, Aurora looked beyond pained.
Is it weird that I want to reassure her?
The personas are starting to mix and blend.
Of course, it isn’t weird. She’s in distress.
Our lady might shed a tear. The poor fair princess.
“Everywhere I look, it’s guards that are hired from… backgrounds you wouldn’t want to hire from,” Aurora murmured. “People who are far more likely to take a bribe and look the other way, simply because of their connections and where they came from.
“It isn’t fair of me to feel that way, I suppose, but it isn’t like they’re being tested. Or educated. They’re just given the job without anything more than an interview. I got my commission through hard work. I tested for it. The front-line guards just… walk in and get hired.”
That… does seem a bit odd. Doesn’t it? I wonder if the recruitment process is the same in Laetus.
We owe Mother a letter anyway. Her brother was in the guard, wasn’t he? We can ask her to ask him.
“Mm. Definitely sounds a bit odd,” Rene replied. “If I were a curious person, I’d look into how they used to recruit before Carden assumed office. See if it was different.
“If it is… what was different and why? Though, you’re not exactly known for stealth and subtlety. If you get caught again, I might not be there to save your rear end.”
Wrinkling her face in clear disgust, Aurora shook her head much more firmly this time.
“No. I’m not going to look into it. It’d probably just get me killed,” she grumbled.
“And you don’t want to die for justice anymore it seems,” Rene murmured.
“What? No. I never wanted to die for justice. That’s stupid. I never—”
“I would disagree,” Rene said. “I’d say you were willing to die for justice up until I saved you from your own squad. After that, you were willing to be bought. Then Mr. Anatolis showed up and you changed yet again.”
Looking pensive and thoughtful, Aurora stared at him hard. The gears were turning in her head as she processed everything she’d just heard.
“Maybe I am changing. Maybe… maybe I was focusing on the wrong things,” Aurora said. “Maybe I’m doing that again. Maybe I don’t want to know what’s going on after all. Maybe… this was all a mistake and I should just collect a paycheck.”
“Or become a housewife,” Rene countered. “Mr. Anatolis has a considerable amount of money, I would wager.”
Turning a faint red, Aurora looked off and to the side.
“The names of those three guards?” she asked instead.
Rene pulled out a single sheet of paper from his inventory, while disguising it as being plucked from his clothes.
“And here you are,” Rene said. “Truth be told, I was planning on giving them to you anyway as a way to make amends. You’re not a bad person, Miss Dean. You’re just a good person trapped in a bad situation without a clear way out.”
“Does seem that way,” Aurora muttered and took the slip of paper. She read it over quickly, then pushed it into pocket on her person, and readjusted the cloak around her.
“I’ll look into Carden,” Rene promised. “I’d been meaning to check him out anyway. See if I can’t buy him. If I can, I’ll let you know. That way you can keep yourself on the right side of the game.”
Still looking rather upset, annoyed, and generally displeased with the whole situation, Aurora closed her eyes.
“Thanks,” she said after several seconds. “Never thought I’d end up having to play these kind of games. Thought… thought I’d just… do the job and catch the bad guys.
“And here I am… working with a bad guy to catch what should be a good guy.”
All while being pursued by a younger man.
“I’m certainly a bad guy,” Rene said. “But my intention is to make sure the other bad guys follow my rules. And my rules are certainly better than the other bad guys’ rules.”
“Rules?” Aurora asked, her eyes moving back to him.
“Indeed. Rules. No use of children in any way. Murder is prohibited unless absolutely necessary, as is maiming or seriously injuring someone, or rape. No need to have rape in the city, when I run most of the whorehouses—and my rates are pretty great, if I may say so myself.
“Now… knocking someone out, robbing them at knife point, prostitution, gambling, smuggling—I’m all for that,” Rene said, nodding his head emphatically. “Lots and lots of other things we can get involved in, without resorting to killing our sheep. You can shear a sheep, as long as it’s alive. Can only eat it once.”
“How kind,” Aurora replied dryly.
“Indeed!” Rene said with a laugh. “Now, shall I see you out? Or did you have other business to conduct?”
“No… nothing else. I’m just—actually, yes,” Aurora said. She’d half turned toward the door, but was now facing him again. “I… that is… is… Rene involved… in any of your business? Does he know who you are? He isn’t a target for you, is he?”
I love her.
“I don’t know Rene personally, no,” Rene said. “Nor does he know of my existence. Rene Anatolis isn’t involved in any of my business whatsoever. Far as I know, he and his father run a very above-board lending office.
“I can honestly say that loans don’t walk in my door as often as they used to since he came to the city. Why come to me when they can go to Laetus Lending? Though I suppose it’s Felicie Lending here.
“And lastly, no, he isn’t a target. Why, should I make him one?”
“No!” Aurora commanded with a chop of her hand. “No. I was just… curious. I don’t know much about him, but you had me help him. Just trying to figure things out.”
“Ah. Well, I hope your romance with him goes well,” Rene said.
Aurora’s face turned red and went stiff at that. Pulling down her hood she adjusted her cloak, and then left.
“You enjoy toying with her,” Irini growled. “Toy with her, and notch my ears, hm? That’s not fair.”
“She didn’t try to kill me,” Rene said coolly.
“Hmph. Next time I try, you’re not notching my ear. You can punish me in other ways—and yes, I’m offering the bedroom as well. I’m heading into my season soon,” Irini said, then pulled a blade out of her belt. “Actually…”
<
br /> “Hey, no,” Rene said, staring at her. He didn’t have the time to deal with her foolishness. “Bad. That’s bad. I seriously will notch your ear again.”
“Fine, just realize the more you notch me, the harder it’ll be to get rid of me,” Irini purred. “Two is going to be impossible. Three? I might as well just go to a clerk and have my name changed to Irini Anatolis.”
“Don’t,” Rene said as he watched Irini tense up. She was looking a lot like she was going to pounce at him. “I’m going to notch you. I really will.”
“Notch me, then, Rene,” Irini said, pulling a second dagger free. Her legs shifted underneath her as she got ready. “Notch me till I have no choice but to be yours, and you have no choice but to kill me or accept me as yours. Or crop one of my ears. That’ll make it very obvious to others that I’m taken.”
Then she leapt at him with blades in both hands.
Shit.
The threats not working anymore!
Haha! I like her. This’ll be fun.
Notch her and bed her.
Notch and bed everyone.
Chapter 34
Rene sat there, taking slow deep breaths. Wondering how he’d ended up in a situation like this.
With every breath, he worked to get his heart rate back under control. Even then, it still pounded away at his temples and in his chest.
“What the fuck was that about?” Rene asked in a soft gasp.
“That? That…was incredible,” Irini panted out, from where she lay a foot away. Drenched in sweat and sucking down air like she was dying, the Alis was absolutely spent. “And if we have sex…as good as we spar…I think I’ll die. You’re an amazing mate.”
Laughing softly, Rene leaned back onto his hands and stared up at the ceiling through his mask.
“That was sparring? Pretty sure you were trying to kill me,” Rene said.
“I was—you’re too fast,” Irini said, rolling over onto her back. Her mask and hood were still quite firmly attached.
“Huh,” Rene grumped.
That was really fun. It’s been a long time since we could let loose like that.
She nearly got us a few times. That was a great workout.
Shut up.
“Let’s do that again tomorrow. I think I learned a few things,” Irini said. “Are you going to notch my ear when we get home or now?”
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