Page 64 of Dishonor Among Thieves
I flew to my feet and grabbed Neo’s sleeve, tugging him away from Elgit. “You can’t be serious,” I said. “We’ve five new mouths to feed under this roof, and you’re going to hire an outsider for a job you know perfectly well I wish to do?”
Neo’s jaw set and his yellow-gold eyes narrowed. “We’ve discussed this.”
“We have not discussed anything!” I spat, keeping my voice a harsh whisper so as not to disturb Elgit’s rest. “You’ve told me you wouldn’t hire me, but you’ve never once given me the chance to discuss it with you. And now, you’d give the work to someone else? To that…creep?”
Neo’s face hardened. “Please,” he said sarcastically. “Creep? The man is an old friend, Brex. Rough around the edges, but he’s the sort who will do exactly what needs to be done.” He leaned down and stared into my face, his eyes softening. “Tell me you’d kill Haeloc if it came to that. By the gods, Brex, why would you wish to put yourself in that kind of danger? After everything you’ve been through, why seek out more death? More injury to your troubled soul?”
I stepped away from him, every bit of affection Neo had earned burying itself deep. “Do not use my vulnerabilities and honesty against me. Because I failed to do what needed to be done with Gini, you question that I would protect you? Would protect anyone I loved against any threat?”
Neo tried to reach for me, but I stepped farther away. His touch would melt my resistance. The spark of something true I felt for him burned inside me, wanting his comfort. Seeking his love. And yet, my mind and heart were hard. “Is this because I am common? Because my only weapons are pretty tools and not magic or terrifying red eyes and fangs?”
“You wield far more power than you give yourself credit for,” he said cryptically. “I wish you would consider things from my view.”
“What I wish is that my husband would talk to me before squandering our already stretched resources on a man who is not part of this household. I don’t like him, Neo.” I tried to soften my approach. “He…he…”
Neo turned his back to me, his hands clenched in fists this sides. “I’ve known Trond for quite a bit a longer than the two days you’ve been my wife. I offered him the job back in Fish Head End, and he has accepted. I will not go back on my word to him.”
“And yet you’d disappoint your wife? Endanger the good of the family you’ve invited into your life?”
Neo’s back stiffened, his black hair loose over his shoulders. “I’m sorry to hurt you,” he said. “The decision is made.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Go, then. I will not stop you. And may Trond be the true friend you seem to believe he is.”
Neo slammed the door a little more roughly than was necessary. I could not shake the disappointment from my heart. I couldn’t believe that he would offer the job of guarding Haeloc’s manor to a man like Trond. Perhaps before we were married, but now?
I paced the room, trying to make sense of my wild emotions. I hadn’t had the stomach to kill Gini, even though I had every reason under the sun to do so. If Haeloc returned, I was absolutely certain I would protect myself from him. Kill him to protect my husband without a moment’s hesitation. But if it were true that Haeloc dabbled in magic, Neo’s concern about me facing him, especially alone, would be well-placed. As much as it hurt to admit, I was only a common woman with a harness full of throwing knives and a heart full of angry vitality.
But my instincts—the one thing I had relied on through nearly every decision I’d made—had never let me down. I trusted the wild suggestion that Neo marry me to protect his secrets, as well as mine. I believed that Gia and Odile were good women, capable of adding me to their blood-made sisterhood. I trusted Flynn and Syndrian and all of the people under this roof, even when I had no reason to believe that their goodness would last. That their kindness was real.
I believed that a tortured vampire, his history marred across his face and back, could be the man I would grow to love. To let into my mind, heart, and body, not out of desperation. Not manipulated by illusion. Because I’d chosen him. Just like he’d chosen me.
I may have hesitated with Gini, but my instincts here were clear. Trond was not to be trusted. I was certain of it. And I would prove it to my husband.
ChapterSixteen
Iran to the stable in search of Rain, but he was nowhere to be found. The foundlings were running through the open grass behind the stable, with Flynn somehow playing on two different teams, one made up of Kiva and Ivo, with Tabby and Remy on the other. Baby Fina crawled through the grass with Odile’s dog Joi keeping watch as only an elderly dog could.
Rain’s and Gia’s horses were gone, and without them, I’d have no way to find Haeloc’s manor. I groaned and punched my fists against the stable wall as Syndrian came in to ready his horse.
He lifted a dark brow at me. “Everything all right?”
I shook my head. “No. I do not know. Yes, in fact I’m certain everything is not all right.”
Syndrian tilted his head toward the road, his long ponytail swatting his enormous shoulders as he moved. “This have anything to do with Neo and that trencherman?”
“Trencherman?” I echoed, unfamiliar with the term.
Syndrian wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of one hand, a look of contempt on his face. “A man who goes where the food is and eats his fill.” He shook his head. “Seems like the type. Values nothing so much as he does a free meal.”
A free meal…
“Syndrian,” I said worriedly, my heart throbbing in my chest. “Do you know the way to Rekker Haeloc’s manor?”
“Haeloc?” The cutler’s dark brows drew together in a defensive scowl. “Let’s just say I’ve run across the man from time to time.”
“Can you take me there?” I begged. “Now? I am certain Neo’s friend Trond is…” I suddenly was not certain. But I knew that the life of my husband might depend on me trusting my instincts and acting on them. “I fear Trond is to blame for everything. The massacre at the sanctum. He made the introduction to Haeloc that started this trouble for Neo in the first place. I don’t understand how, but I have a strong feeling.”
Suddenly, Syndrian’s countenance changed. His dark brows lowered, and he stabbed the air with a powerful finger. “Arm yourself,” he suggested. “With everything you’ve got. That one dabbles in magic, Brex.”
