Oh boy.
Donny’s head tilted back down to his wife. His eyes had been simmering with rage since he stepped through the door; at that comment, they began to burn.
“Listen, I know this isn’t what you want to hear,” Gigi strived to calm her tone, perhaps sensing the scary shift in energy. “But the court order says?—”
“So help me god, G, you throw that fuckin’ piece of paper in my face one more time, I’ll shove it so far down your throat you can’t breathe.”
Gigi flinched.
My lungs spasmed, then ceased working altogether.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought.” Donny’s lip curled; he was pleased with himself, the smug bastard. “Now, go on. I don’t have all night.”
Gigi didn’t move a muscle.
“Thought you cared about the boys getting a good night of sleep.”
“Donny, please?—”
“Don’t youDonny, pleaseme. And don’t you fuckin’ turn those puppy dog eyes my way, Georgia. Spent years lettin’ you lead me around by my dick. Not doin’ it anymore. You’re not gonna tell me where I can be, who I can see, how I can live.” He leaned even farther over the desk, his eyes locked on his wife’s. The look in their depths sent a chill straight down my spine. “So, you get your fat ass off that stool and go get my boys. They’re coming home with me tonight and they’re not coming back here. Not ever. I promise you that. I’ll make sure they’re raised right. Not with feather boas and sequins and a mother who can’t afford to put food on the table, or a real roof over their heads.”
Gigi quailed. She didn’t make a sound, but I felt the lash of his threat move through her like a physical blow. She recoiled as though he’d struck her.
Take her boys.
He was threatening to take her boys.
That’s when I finally decided enough was enough. Someone had to jump in here and, seeing as I was the only living soul around, that someone was going to be me.
“Get out.”
Donny’s eyes moved to me. He seemed surprised to find me standing there, as though he hadn’t even noticed they had an audience until I spoke.
“What did you say?” he thundered.
“You heard me.” Shoving my phone into my sweatshirt pocket, I took a deep breath and rounded the desk. My socks moved soundlessly across the thick rug as I approached Donny. Miraculously, my hand wasn’t shaking as I lifted it to point at the door. “It’s time for you to leave, now.”
“Who the hell are you to tell me to leave?”
My chin jerked higher. “I’m Gigi’s friend.”
“Well,Gigi’s friend, this is none of your fuckin’ business, so why don’t you just piss off back to wherever it is you came from and let me finish this conversation with my wife?”
“She wouldn’t be your wife anymore if you’d sign the divorce papers,” I reminded him, perhaps unwisely. “And as far as I can tell, you lost the right to a conversation with her when you started shouting in her face and tossing insults.”
His smirk was dark with amusement and anger. “Do you have any idea who the fuck you’re talkin’ to?”
I didn’t, as it turned out. But he didn’t need to know that. “Georgia asked you to go, and she did it nicely. I’ve also asked you nicely. Next up will be the police — and I don’t think they’ll be asking, so much as telling you to go. And I really doubt they’ll do it nicely, seeing as you’re in direct violation of the protection order just being here right now.”
Two ham-sized hands curled into fists with menacing slowness. “You threatenin’ me?”
“No. I’m telling you plainly what’s going to happen.” My heart was pounding hard, but my voice was remarkably calm as I pointed again to the exit. “You’re going to walk out that door. You’re not going to come back. Not tonight, not any night. If you don’t, the only time you’ll be seeing your boys will be through a sheet of prison-grade plexiglass when they come for weekend visitation.”
My words hung in the air for a few stagnant seconds. No one moved. No one said a word. For a moment, I thought Donny was actually going to see reason. That he would listen to me and leave the premises without any more escalation.
Boy, was I wrong.
He lunged with surprising swiftness for such a large man. His mammoth hands closed over my upper arms so fast, I couldn’t even begin to struggle. One minute my feet were planted on the rug, the next they were windmilling the air.