“You want her to put a bullet in your brain?” Tommy asked and Eli looked to him.

“She couldn’t do it. But you’d do it for her, all she had to do was ask.”

“You’re right,” Tommy replied.

“And she’d never ask,” Green returned. “And that’s why we’re all totally fuckin’ devoted. Just like you,” Green said to Tommy and looked to me. “But we’re not dumb, Liv. All a’ us gotta eat.”

I said nothing.

“You should put a bullet in my brain,” Green whispered.

That was a warning.

I felt Tommy’s eyes come to me.

But I held Green’s.

“I’ll never do that,” I whispered back, hoping he’d take my meaning that he shouldn’t burn any bridges. Instead, he should disappear.

“That means you need to get far away, Liv. This life’s gonna eat you alive.”

I felt Tommy’s intensity.

But I had only one answer for Eli.

“It already has.”

I watched anger flare in Green’s eyes as his mouth went hard.

Tommy tied the bloody towel to Green’s thigh before he shifted, shoving a broad shoulder under Green’s arm to heft him up.

Green grunted.

I took them in, giving them both a nod before I moved quickly to Dad’s desk and grabbed the receiver from the phone.

I hit a button and turned to watch Tommy and Eli make their slow way to the door.

Gill answered on the second ring.

“Bring the car around, will you, Gill?” I requested. “Tommy and Green are on their way.”

“You got it, Liv,” Gill replied and disconnected.

I put the phone back in the cradle and saw the boys had disappeared out the door.

I took a moment to look around my father’s office, not knowing why because I’d memorized every inch of purple damask-papered wall, every etch in the heavy, dark wood, every swirl in the silk rugs that cost so much entire villages in developing countries could live on it for years.

I did this thinking Green was gone in more ways than one. If he was stupid, which I hoped he wasn’t, he’d go to Valenzuela or Sloan. He’d offer his services. He’d offer information.

If that happened, Dad would make the order.

Georgia would have it carried out.

Gill would do the deed.

If he was smart, he’d get out of Denver and find work elsewhere.

Then Dad would forget him and my sister would offer her sugar pussy to whatever green recruit she’d make promises of living large, drowning in Cristal, fucking on soft beds covered in greenbacks.

It wouldn’t take long before the fresh one would learn.

We had very few soldiers left and all of them were uneasy.

Except Tommy.

Because of me.

And Gill.

Because of Georgia.

Green was right.