“Not yet,” he answered.
“I’m not a fan of sarcasm.”
Right then.
Right.
He was done.
“Are you out of your mind?” he roared.
“Honey—”
“In an alley in the fucking Quarter with the likes of that?”He pointed a finger atButtersnatch.
“He’s not ‘that,’ he’s a man, Lore.”
Loren turned to Marlow.“Did you search him?”
Marlow reached behind his back and came around, tossing astraight razor onto the floor a few feet in front ofSatrine.
“Oh dear,” she mumbled, staring down at it.
Loren decided it was time she discovered whathe’dbeen learning about Winnow Dupont.
“She’s ordered kills on all of us.By all of us I mean you,me, my father and your mother,” he informed her.
Eyes huge, she looked from the razor to him.
“And you’re attempting to shirk your guard and meet in analley with someone who undoubtedly would not mind collecting one of thosebounties,” he stated.
“I didn’t know about the bounty part,” she said.
He scowled at her.
Then he tipped his head back and scowled at the ceiling.
“How much do you feel like continuing breathing after allthis is done?”Marlow asked.
Loren turned to his friend to see he was addressingButtersnatch.
“A lot, milord,”Buttersnatchanswered the floor.
“How does she get word out, all the way fromLincstone?”Marlow demanded.
Buttersnatchkept his knees buttwisted to look up at Marlow.
“I usually—”
“If you think you’re getting paid, you piece of shite, thinkagain.You can talk in front of your king, or you can talk somewhere else.Thatbeing where I take you and you’ll tell me what I want to know just so I’llfinish it, put you out of your misery and make youstopbreathing,”Marlow promised.
Buttersnatchswallowed.
“Talk,” Marlow whispered ominously.
“Itain’t’er,”Buttersnatchsaid.
“Explain,” Marlow ordered.
