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.