Page 40

CHAPTER FORTY

ST. CLARE

They come.

After the conversation Perry had with the baddie bunch, where Arlie hung up mid-sentence, I really didn’t think we’d be opening the door to her, Tommy, and Ever.

They’re … an odd group. Now that I’m not obsessively jealous over Arlie, I can sort of understand what’s making Lars—and, sadly, Perry—so heart-eyed over her. She’s almost as tall as I am, a solid woman with a don’t-fuck-with-me face who still manages to have this warmth about her.

Tommy, on the other hand, has this general vibe that he has no clue how he ended up here, but he’s happy about it. Chaotic curls, short beard, eyes that look far too amused for the situation we’re in.

Then Everett is … well, he looks like the scariest of the bunch. The bald head, slightly manic smile, long chain earrings, and dark eyeliner don’t help the impression.

I’m not sure I can trust any of them, but they’re all we’ve got.

“No one can know we were here” are the first words out of Arlie’s mouth. The cabin is small as it is, but with the three of them here too, the room is feeling very squished. “Especially Luther. I’m not interested in him holding back work as blackmail to give you up. Because I’ll do it. Instantly. ”

“Good to know,” I mutter, but Perry doesn’t seem worried.

“You’d never give me up,” he counters, dropping onto the couch beside Tommy, who’s opened a chunky laptop with a bunch of techy things connected to it. “Because then he’d kill me, and there’s no way you’d want to go on living without me in the world. I’m too bright and shiny.”

“Not sure those are the words I’d use to describe you.”

“Fun and adorable?”

“When have I ever used the word ‘adorable’ in my life?”

“I’ll be honest, probably never. But I’m a first for everything.”

“Including the limits of my sanity.” She rubs her temple and nods to Tommy. “Who are we looking for?”

I glance between them. “What exactly is the plan here?”

“Perry said you were looking for someone. We’re here to find that someone.”

“Carson Alexander?”

The vibes in the room go tense.

“Nah,” says Everett. “I’m out.”

“Wait. Why?”

“Because no one has ever seen the guy, and the ones who have don’t live to talk about it.”

“That sounds … villainous.”

Tommy’s attention is on his screen. “That is his whole deal.”

“It’s not him I want to find anyway,” Perry says. “We’re looking for Colin St. Clare, and we might have a lead.”

“ Colin St. Clare ?” Arlie snaps. “You want help finding the guy Luther’s got every person at his disposal trying to find? He’s a ghost at this point.”

Perry’s sweet eyes find mine for a second before moving on. “W-what do you mean?” he asks.

Arlie looks as confused as I feel when she turns to Perry. “I thought you told Luther you weren’t handing him over?”

“Luther wants you to hand my brother over?” I ask him, heart beating faster. “Why?”

“He doesn’t!” Perry looks like he’s been cornered. “He wants me to hand you over. I would never. ”

Arlie eyes me. “Who are you?”

“Reilly,” I say, almost defensively. “St. Clare. Colin’s brother.”

“Oh.” In her defense, there’s a hint of apology in her tone. “Sorry you had to find out like this, I guess. Perry was hired to kill him, botched the job, sent your brother into hiding, and accepted his payday anyway. Now our boss is furious with him and is doing everything he can to find your brother.”

I whirl on Perry, heart thunking along like it’s lost the rhythm it’s always held. “You lied? You said you had nothing to do with his disappearance.”

“No!” Perry shoots to his feet. “I didn’t. I’ve never seen your brother.” His wild eyes fling back to Arlie. “I was hired to kill St. Clare.”

“Yes,” she says, but he’s already shaking his head.

“ Reilly St. Clare. Him.” He thrusts a hand my way like I haven’t just confirmed my name.

Arlie’s expression morphs from its usual disinterest into pure pity. “No, honey. You weren’t.”

The thunking in my chest gets harder and faster. “He wasn’t?”

Tommy breaks out into cackles, and Lars starts forward, but Ever raises his hands and diverts my attention.

“Hold on. Perry, are you meaning to tell me you tried to kill the wrong brother?”

It takes way too long for me to process what’s happening here.

The wrong brother?

It was never me?

Perry goes pale, and I’m not sure I don’t look the same. “I … I …”

Lars turns a glare on Arlie. “How sure are you?”

“Ah … one thousand percent. Reilly hasn’t been mentioned once.”

His wide eyes meet mine. “You’re not in danger?”

“I’m not?” I whip back to Perry’s shell-shocked expression, and I’m smacked in the face with a thought. “You shot my ear off for nothing ?”

“Well …” He looks at the ceiling like it might help him. “Not fo r nothing , exactly. And I still maintain it’s better than, you know, accidentally killing you for nothing, which I didn’t do?—”

“How do you go after someone and not be absolutely certain you have the right person?”

“I was absolutely certain! But I was also, apparently, wrong .”

“Perry …”

He scrambles over the coffee table to get to me. “Mistakes happen sometimes.”

“This is a big mistake.”

“Agreed. Obviously. But hear me out: if it didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have met.”

“At this moment in time, I’m not convinced that wouldn’t be a good thing.” Except then his face falls even more, and the twist in my chest hates it. I want to reassure him. Him. The man who tried to kill me, turned my life upside down, has had me terrified about dying for days , and it was all a fucking misunderstanding.

“If it helps, I feel really bad about this,” he says, voice cracking.

“I promise you that I feel worse.”

“Seems unlikely.”

“Which of us is missing a body part, Perry?”

He sighs. “Okay, I’ll concede that you’re feeling a little worse. Even if I feel downright shitty.”

It’s impossible to hold on to my anger when he reminds me of a kicked puppy. The thing is that while this is definitely the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, I can one hundred percent see how Perry would have made that mistake. He doesn’t exactly think things through, and that can’t be one of the things I like about him if I’m also holding it against him. I sort of feel like I get a pass in this scenario, but the more pathetic Perry looks, the more I soften to him.

“Don’t.”

He steps closer. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t make me feel bad for you. If I get the sympathy in any situation, it’s this one.”

“Right. Yes. Sympathy.” He cups the side of my jaw with my ruined ear. “I just want to point out though, that everyone loves battle scars.”

“Not the person with them.”

“They’re sexy. Interesting.” He releases my jaw to touch his own bullet wound. “And now we match.”

“We match. What a relief.”

He misses my sarcasm. “And when we’re old and married, we’ll be able to tell everyone the story of how we met. Of our … meet shoot .”

I blink at him. “Don’t try and turn this into a sweet moment.”

“How I knew instantly that I couldn’t kill you.”

“Ah. So we’re going to turn our how we met moment into a story of how you committed a crime and got away with it.”

“ Almost committed a crime.”

“Sorry, do you somehow think shooting a man in the ear isn’t illegal?”

“Well … only if you’re … caught.”

I give him a blank look, and the hopeful one I get back is too much. “You’re making this up to me,” I say, hating how easily I’m folding over something I should be holding against him for all time. “Later. For the rest of our lives, probably.”

His grin springs to life. “That almost sounds like a proposal.”

“Yeah, well, now we know that I’m actually okay and not at all being hunted, I guess we’re fifty percent closer to that being a possibility.” Because, what the actual fuck? This is … this is so beyond the realm of fucking anything that I really don’t know what else to say. All week, I’ve been running and hiding and stressed for my life … for no goddamn reason .

“I need to sit down.” I’m almost numb with relief as I sink into the nearest armchair.

“I need a drink,” Lars says. “A big, strong drink.”

“Hold on there, handsome,” Arlie says. “This guy might be okay, but we haven’t solved the Colin issue.”

Shit. Colin. I’d forgotten about him for all of a few seconds, and the relief that washed over me completely disappears again. I might not currently be in danger, but Perry’s still facing the threat to either turn in Colin or be offed instead, and I don’t like either of those options.

“Where do we start?”

Tommy cracks his knuckles. “Give me what you know, a strong coffee, and about fifteen minutes. I’ve got this.”