See? This is why I don’t like planning things.

“Yeah?” she asks.

Luther gestures at me. “You shoot him.”

My shock all but flies off my face.

“What?”

I echo her. “Air ut?”

“I’ll match what was paid for Colin St. Clare. I’m over this whole ordeal. End it.”

She holds up the business card between two fingers. “I’ve actually got plans.”

“I promise it’ll only take a second.” There’s a warning in those simple words. “I won’t even make you clean up your mess.”

Arlie’s hesitation lasts too long, but what the hell else is she supposed to do? Shoot me? Not an option I’m comfortable with.

“Unless you’re more friendly with Perry than you made out?”

Arlie rolls her eyes, pulls out the gun, and stalks toward me instead.

It happens so fast I don’t have time to think beyond fuck, she’s throwing a Tommy. Whether Arlie actually would do it or not is way too uncertain grounds for me to rely on, so instead of waiting to see what she has in mind, I let my instincts take over.

With Luther’s attention on Arlie, he doesn’t see me coming. I push from my chair, set my heavy boot on the edge of Luther’s table, and flip that fucker onto him. It hits Luther somewhere in the midsection before his chair flips, and he goes down under it.

There’s a huge crash as everything slides off onto him, and before Arlie can react, I snap the fake cuffs and tackle her into the ground.

“Perry, what are you⁠—”

With one hand, I yank down the gag and hiss into her ear, “Pretend to be knocked out.”

Her eyes immediately close.

I’d bet anything Luther has security cameras in here, and it’s still better for us that he doesn’t know we’re in cahoots and are secretly the ones after Carson. Without a second thought, I fish the business card from her pocket and climb to my feet.

There’s a grunt and heavy shifting, but before I can leave, the office door flies open.

The man who’d tried to intimidate me last time barrels through the door, gun out, ready to take me down. I yelp at the sight of him, but my brain is still offline, and before he can turn in my direction, I bulldoze him.