Page 43 of The Duplicity of Thieves

“Josie doesn’t cook?” I’m not really surprised.

“She used to,” she says with a ghost of sadness. “I don’t mind. I rather enjoy it.”

“Well, the patients are lucky if they’re getting these cookies. This could mend just about any broken bone if you ask me.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that. David is always trying to hijack them from the break room,” she giggles.

“There are a lot of people in that waiting room,” I say. It’s heavy on my mind.

“Oh, yeah.” Her face falls. “We don’t have enough staff for the demand.”

“Why not?” I take another bite of the cookie.

She picks at her food. “Not enough money.”

“I thought the crown sends money every moon? We came here to drop it off.”

“This isn’t my place to say.”

While I’ve mostly fucked around when it comes to work, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to make a difference. I’ve been selfish, but I don’t want to see Asphodel fall apart. Hades doesn’t want his people living in squalor. He wants to protect them. Sending Hermes to bring the money has clearly been a mistake. This entire time he has probably been doing whatever he could to run from David. He must have been too busy to notice the place is in disrepair and needs help.

I look into her eyes and show her I’m being serious. “I can do something about it.”

Vivian sighs and looks around quickly. “The crown donates money, but the demand is going up. More people have been moving to Asphodel, and most of them don’t have money. We can’t get any healers to work here because the pay isn’t enough to survive in this city.”

“Why is David employed here then? He doesn’t strike me as a charity worker.”

“Because Hermes pays for everything. He’s a great healer, and he likes to help. Without Hermes he would leave.”

“How do you afford it?”

Her face contorts. “That’s rude.”

“You’ll dish David’s business to his boyfriend’s best friend without issue, but not your own?”

“My sister would kill me if I told you this,” she warns.

“I’ll take the chance.” I wink.

She huffs and shakes her head. “People don’t know this, but Jo contributes sixty percent of our funding.”

“David said she’s an escort.”

Vivian chokes, coughing until she washes down the sandwich with a bottle of water. “You could say that.”

“So she really is an escort?”

Vivian starts to laugh maniacally to the point she is gasping for air, as if I have said the funniest thing she has ever heard. “An escort of violence, sure.”

I narrow my eyes at her and ignore the comment. “Why does she donate that much?”

“She says that it’s her way of contributing to society without having to be a part of it. Where we came from there wasn’t really medical care. It was all do it yourself.”

“How much does the crown contribute to funding?”

“Probably about ten percent,” she shrugs.

Ten percent? What the fuck? I make a note in my head to discuss the allocation of funds with Hades. I feel like shit. This is something that could have been taken care of ages ago if I hadn’t spent all this time chasing pleasure.

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