I wave a hand toward Arlie and Everett. “Everyone. All my friends here. They’ve been telling me for years that you hate me, Luther, but I knew better.”

“Did you also know better than to steal from me?”

Shit, we’re back on that again. What is it with people and not being able to accept an apology? “In my defense, it was a lot of money, and I had a lot of bills, and I was sort of sick of Margot thinking I’m a fuckup all the time.”

“So you thought pretending to kill a man and taking my money was a good way to prove to your sister that you’re not a fuckup.”

I sigh and scrub my hand through my hair. When he puts it like that, it sounds a little ridiculous. “It’s not like I thought it all the way through.”

“No, because if you did, you wouldn’t have ended up here.”

I clear my throat, gaze shooting to the gun and then back to Luther. “And where is … here … exactly? Are we talking physically here? Or metaphorically reaching the end of my life here?”

He tilts his head from one side to the next. “Well, that’s up to you.”

“It is?” Another twinge of hope hits me. If it’s up to me to choose between whether I live or die, it’s a simple decision.

“Of course. You wanted to make things even, so let’s do it.”

See? Doodle dad. He’s a perfectly reasonable guy outside of all this life-of-crime, Walter White business. “Thank you. I know I don’t have it all on me, but I thought we could work out a payment plan or⁠—”

“No payment plan.”

That derails my line of thinking. “Okay, but I don’t have the money right now. But I could get it. I’m sure I could.”

The more I talk, the more Luther shakes his head, and the more my heartbeat is trying to strangle me.

“I don’t care about the money,” he says.

“Really?” I’m waiting for the punchline. “But what about all the stealing and getting out your gun and⁠—”

“Let’s just say I have a very bad man who paid me for a job that wasn’t done. That makes me look bad.” His voice rises to a crack of a whip in the silent, tiny office. “We work with the honesty policy here for a reason. It means no evidence, the people I recruit are people who I know will follow through, and now you’re making me question it all.”

“If you trusted me, how do you know he’s not dead?”

“I’m not new at this. New hires are monitored, and I get the confirmation they’ve completed the jobs they’ve been assigned. I’ve never had a problem. Until now.”

“Wh-what do you want from me?”

“I. Want. Him. Dead.”