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CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

ST. CLARE

The sounds Perry is making have me on high alert. He’s lying squashed across the back seat, wheezing through half a groan and half a weird, dramatic war cry as he sucks in his breaths over and over. My eyes keep pinging between the rearview mirror and the road as I get us away from Lethal Poison as fast as I can.

Then I glimpse something that makes my pulse rate spike.

“Holy fuck, is that blood ? Are you hurt?”

“Not mine.” Perry flings both arms over his face and moans. “Aww … I just shot a guy.”

“You what?”

“Didn’t kill him. But it might have. Luther could be bleeding out on the floor right now for all I know. He isn’t going to be happy with me.”

I study his reflection, making sure he’s not lying, and only once I’m convinced that I don’t see any injuries do I calm down again.

I think someone broke my boyfriend.

“Where’s Arlie?”

“Don’t … know.” He inhales noisily before huffing it all out again. “Left her so Luther wouldn’t know we’re together. She’s smart though. She’ll get away. Luther was chasing me, so he … didn’t give a fuck about her.”

I’ll have to take his word for it. “Did you get the address? ”

He holds a business card up above him. “Swiped it from Arlie.”

“How wonderful.” I hit the Call button on the steering wheel and find Lars’s number. He answers on the second ring.

“How did it go?”

“Perry’s with me.” The relief coursing through me at that is making it hard to drive. “Arlie isn’t.”

“Shit. Is she okay?”

“Perry seems to think so, but we don’t know yet.” Even after what happened with Tommy, I do hope she got out of there. It’s hard to trust them, but I get the feeling that whatever they’re planning is currently aligned with what we’re trying to accomplish.

Perry hits the back of my seat. “Ask him … ask him if Colin’s … if he’s alive.”

I send an alarmed look back at him. “Is Colin okay?” I bark so loud I sound like an old person who’s discovered speakerphone.

“Yeah,” Lars says. “He’s right here.”

Perry’s strangled cry comes from the back seat. “I saw his head shot off,” he gasps dramatically. “I saw chunks fly everywhere.”

Yeah, glad I missed that.

“Could have done without that description,” Lars says.

Then Tommy’s voice follows. “It was some of my best work.”

And thank goodness for that. If Luther suspected it was faked, there’s no way Perry would be with me now.

“What’s the address?” Tommy asks.

Perry blindly nudges the card at my neck, and I swipe it from him, then read it out as I navigate traffic. My boyfriend— still so weird to think that—is still wheezing and moaning and being a complete nuisance.

Lars says something, and I completely miss it.

“Perry, my sweet, incredible man. I love that you’re alive, but I’m struggling to hear the others when you sound like you’re in labor.”

“Tell them I’m going to need some painkillers. I think the adrenaline’s wearing off, and now I’m not so sure I’m not dying.”

I jerk the steering wheel too suddenly as I look back at him and only barely manage to keep us in the lane. “You’re dying ?”

“Shit. No.” He forces himself to sit up, and his face is half obscured in bruising and swelling. “Still fine. Just feels like it. I’m hurting. All over. Maybe later, you can kiss it better for me.”

“Still on the phone, Perry,” Lars points out as Tommy laughs in the background.

“Scare me like that again and I’ll kill you myself,” I grumble.

He rests his head against the side of my headrest, opposite hand reaching around to run his fingers over my neck. Like that, he’s instantly forgiven.

If that’s how our relationship is always going to go, I think I better come to terms with losing every argument now.

“Found you,” Tommy sings.

“Who?”

“The address. I … huh. It’s a super-basic warehouse. Near the docks.”

“How do we know it’s the right place?” Perry asks.

“I … Give me a second.”

There’s the frantic tapping of keys and then more … and more …

Tommy hums. “Yeah, this doesn’t make sense.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve got footage of the place and over the last week, I’m not seeing anyone who I’d think is Carson Alexander.”

“I thought you didn’t know what he looks like,” Perry says.

“I don’t, but I recognize most of the people here, and the few I don’t, I’m running image searches on. Obviously, it could be an alias for one of them, but … how do we know who?”

“Wait. Colin.” His name hits me. “He’s seen Carson before. Colin can point him out.”

“I’ll get him,” Lars says.

He must leave because the tapping goes on for a couple of minutes before he’s back.

“Tommy’s got some footage,” he explains. “It would be a huge help if you could look and point him out. Only if you’re up to it. ”

“I am.” Colin doesn’t even hesitate. “Show me.”

Tommy clicks on something. “Okay, I know all these guys, so I’ll just skip to?—”

“Him.”

There’s dead silence from the other end, and I take a right, keeping an eye out behind us to make sure we’re not being followed.

“Him?” Tommy repeats. “Nah, there’s no way.”

“That’s him. That one. I know it is.”

“How …” Tommy clears his throat. “How sure are you?”

“One hundred percent. He’s the one who signed the contracts with me. Introduced himself when we met.”

My frown feels heavy, and I almost don’t want to ask. Luckily, Perry gets there first.

“Who is it?”

Tommy lets out this disbelieving little heh . “It’s … fuck me. It’s Luther.”