I had very little hope of calming my father down. There was a slim chance, but it wasn’t much. I had more chance of earning his ire. His temper was quick, unpredictable and volatile. Although he seemed more in control of it around Georgia, otherwise, he didn’t discriminate.
But without Georgia at my side, or better, taking the lead, the highest likelihood was that whatever this was was not going to go well.
We got close to the door and Gill turned to it, knocked twice, loudly, put his hand to the handle and pushed it open.
My father’s shouting didn’t cease throughout all this.
Gill got out of our way and Tommy and I moved into the room. A room that was ridiculous. It had been ridiculous when my grandfather sat behind the massive, ostentatious desk. My father had just made it more ridiculous.
I had no time to ponder this oft-pondered thought.
Dad was shouting.
And he had a gun. A gun he was aiming at Green.
In other words, the situation was critical.
“Dad—” I called, moving into the room, but abruptly stopping and unable to fight back the wince and twist of my head when the gun went off, the loud sound cracking through the room.
Green shouted in agony and dropped to one knee.
Dad rounded the desk and advanced on his soldier, gun still raised.
“You tell me that shit?” he screamed. “You talk to your king that way?”
God, I hated that king business.
My grandfather started that too.
“Jesus, fuck, Jesus, fuck,” Green chanted, still down on a knee, one hand to his wound, blood oozing between his fingers. He tilted his head back and scowled at my father. “What the fuck’s the matter with you? You shot me!”
“You fuckin’ turd! You do!” Dad shouted. “You talk to your king that way!”
I turned to Gill who was standing in the door.
“Call Dr. Baldwin,” I ordered.
“Liv, Baldy’s not our biggest fan,” Tommy muttered under his breath behind me.
I nodded slightly, eyes still on Gill, knowing that but forgetting at this dramatic juncture that my father had alienated Baldwin some months ago. “Tell him I requested his attention personally.”
Gill nodded back and disappeared.
I cast my gaze over my shoulder to Tommy. “Get some towels.”
“Olivia, you do not need to be here,” Dad stated, and I looked to him.
“Dad—” I started.
He swung the gun my way.
Tommy, who had been moving toward my father’s bathroom, stopped and moved back, positioning in front of me so I still could see my father but Tommy’s body was mostly shielding mine.
God. Tommy.
I watched Dad’s eyes shift to Tommy before I watched his mouth curl.
“Take a bullet for her, yeah?” Dad asked derisively.
Tommy had been playing the game a long time. But he’d also been taught a lesson he had no choice but to learn.
He knew the right answer.
“She’s yours, so yeah.”
Dad stuck his nose up in the air, sniffed his approval at that response, then lowered the gun.
He glared at Tommy. He glared at me. Finally, he turned to Green.
I tensed.
“I fuckin’ see you again and you still aren’t doin’ your job, I won’t aim at your leg. You hear me?”
I fought a sigh.
I saw Green’s teeth go to his lip and I knew exactly what he intended to say. I was pleased he managed to beat back the urge and instead fell to his hip and put both hands to his wound.
Dad stalked my way. “Get his ass outta here, Olivia. Get him producing.” He indicated Green behind him with a swing of his gun. “And clean this shit up.”
With that, he walked out the door.
“Towels, Tommy,” I reminded him quietly.
He jerked his head and moved to Dad’s bathroom.
I moved quickly to Green, crouched and dropped forward on my knees.
“We’ll get you to Dr. Baldwin. He’ll sort you out,” I murmured.
“I’m done, Liv,” Green clipped.
I drew in a careful breath and looked in his eyes.
“Fuckin’ asshole’s lost his goddamned mind,” Green went on. “Knew it already. He didn’t have to shoot me in the fuckin’ leg to know it. But definitely know it now.”
“Eli,” I called him the name only I called him occasionally after Georgia christened him Green.
“Stuck it out for you, babe. Did what I could. But I gotta fuckin’ eat,” he bit out.
“Georgia is working on—” I started, knowing it was a waste of breath.
Green was done and I didn’t blame him and not simply because my father had shot him in the leg.
“He calls me here to kneel before him and explain why I’m not moving product?” he cut me off to ask incredulously. “Then he loses his mind when I remind him I got no product to move because all his shit has dried up because he’s a fuckin’ lunatic and no one wants to do business with him? And Liv, you gotta be a serious fuckin’ lunatic for the lunatics in this business not to want to do business with you.”