“Pot went legal, we got even more fucked, ’cause that’s all Valenzuela let us have. He’s got the rest of the dope. He’s got the whores. He’s got the film sets. He’s got the protection racket. He’s got state senators eatin’ at his table. He’s got that prosecutor bitch lubed and beggin’ to take more of him up her ass. He’s got it all. Your soldiers been existing on dregs for you, whatever Georgia can drum up for us to put on the street, which isn’t much and it sure as fuck ain’t quality, and I’m not the only one who’s done.”

This didn’t surprise me.

It concerned me, but it didn’t surprise me.

I was, of course, their team leader, as it were. They were all my soldiers. They answered to me. They also communicated with me. So I knew this all too well.

“Eli, Georgia has had a series of meetings with Valenzuela in an effort to—”

“He wants her to suck his cock,” Green declared. “After she gets on her knees, he wants her bent over his desk. He does not take her seriously, Liv, and please God, tell me one of you Shades are smart enough to know that’s the motherfuckin’ truth.”

I made no reply because I was the one Shade who did know that.

“You know,” Green whispered, eyeing me closely. “Only one with a goddamned brain in your head, you fuckin’ know. Your dad is done, Liv. He’s so fucked in the head, it’s not fuckin’ funny. Livin’ in the past, thinkin’ he’s still coastin’ on the legacy his father left him. This shit…” He indicated his leg. “Him still thinkin’ he’s king of the scene when no player acknowledges him, suppliers from here to Colombia to fuckin’ Afghanistan knowin’ he’s a joke, that shit he pulled four—”

All of a sudden his eyes jerked to Tommy’s hands on his wound then to Tommy’s face.

“Fuck, man, what the fuck?” he clipped.

“We need to get you to Baldy,” Tommy stated.

“Yeah, only reason Baldy will look at me is ’cause he’s sweet on Liv, but you get that, don’t you, Tom?” Green asked.

Tommy’s eyes flashed.

I quickly shifted closer to Green.

“How about we focus on sorting out your injury?” I suggested.

Green turned his attention back to me and the look in his eyes held pain but also intensity.

“Get out, Liv,” he urged, his tone intense too. “Get the fuck out, gorgeous. He will drag you down. Georgia’s blinded by bullshit, thinkin’ she can resurrect her legacy. She’ll go down with him and she don’t fuckin’ care, so loyal to a whackjob, she’s totally fuckin’ lost. But you know better. So get…the fuck…out.”

I held his gaze before I rolled back to my feet and straightened to standing.