I sucked in a breath, my lips tingling from the contact.
"Go," I urged. "Your dad isn't gonna murder me in his office. No one wants that clean up to deal with in their workspace."
Luther smirked and Fox groaned, shooting his dad a warning look before jogging back downstairs to wait for the cartel.
I followed Luther along a short corridor to a door with two members of the Crew standing guard outside it, fully armed and looking all menacing and shit. What I wouldn't do for a sharpie to draw fake moustaches on their faces and give one of them a monocle too. He looks like he'd suit monocle life.
The door clipped shut behind me and I looked around at the fancy office. It was all light and airy, the huge, driftwood desk dominating the space with pale wood bookshelves lining either wall and a long window with a view of the cliffs letting in plenty of light.
Luther sadly blocked off that view by dropping a blind over it before flicking an overhead light on and dropping down behind the desk.
"The cartel don't like us talking near open windows in case the FBI or someone equally irritating may be watching," he explained and I nodded.
Serious law enforcement always seemed so far away from my criminal lifestyle somehow. I knew technically that the things I did to survive weren't legal, but in my reality the cops didn't care about shit like that. I guessed when you were running a multimillion dollar drug ring like the cartel were then you had bigger fish to deal with.
"I was just hoping for an update on the Maverick situation," Luther explained as I headed over to the bookshelves and started looking at the random things he had sitting there aside from books. There were trinkets and nautical accessories, an old compass catching my eye for a moment before I moved on.
"Well he's receptive to spending time with me," I hedged. "Though that has been a little difficult with Fox being so protective that he refuses to let me out of his sight, but now that he's backed off a little, I did manage to go see Rick again."
"And? Is he coming around to the idea of spending some time with the family?"
"Err." I picked up a weird looking rock thing which had orange crystals inside it and turned it over in my hands. "He is still quite resistant."
Luther huffed irritably. "If you're not capable of fixing this mess then maybe I need to rethink our deal."
I placed the rock down with tension prickling along my spine then turned back to face him, raising my chin as I held his gaze. "I didn't say I've made no progress. He let JJ come and visit him on Dead Man's Isle the other day."
"Really?" Luther asked, perking up. "And what did he and Johnny James get up to?"
"It was still pretty tense," I admitted. "But I managed to convince them to find some common ground with me so I would call that progress."
"So they're coming together over you?" Luther asked, looking all smug and shit like his little plan was working out so brilliantly.
"Yep. They definitely came together," I agreed. I didn't need to mention the fact that I meant that literally or that they'd still been pretty hostile towards each other aside from all the fucking, because that didn't seem too relevant.
"Perfect. I'll expect another update from you soon. Make sure you keep doing what you're doing with them and hopefully you can get Fox to join in soon too."
"That would be the dream," I replied, biting my lip and looking away again because fuck yeah, that would be hot as hell. But also, sad times, I just couldn't see Fox being up for it.
There was a low knock on the door and Luther beckoned me over to him so I strode around the desk to stand on his left then tried to figure out if I was supposed to look relaxed or intimidating.
The door swung open before I could figure it out and Fox strode in with a woman right behind him who demanded all of the attention in the room.
She was tall and so well put together that it made me feel like a bug who had rolled through a bag of trash on my way in here. Her cream dress was all sophisticated and shit, hugging her curves and stopping at the neck and knee so that she was at once covered up and sexy.