Her Redemption

Chapter.One

“Tessa, you need to come here now.”

I lifted my gaze from the files I was arranging into my computer to see Eli, his scarred but still handsome face turned up in a frown, standing at the door to my office.

I knew that look so I didn’t delay in rolling my chair backwards, standing to my feet and moving swiftly across the floor to him.

I wanted to smile at him but decided against it. I only allowed the minutest reaction to show on my face, to leak from my eyes.

So my voice was soft as it always was whenever I talked to Eli and without inflection, when I asked, “what’s going on?”

“Red and your dad” Eli answered as we moved quickly down the hall.

Red

My sister.

Red was not her name. It was a nickname my father had given to her because she did his dirty work whenever he asked and didn’t mind making a mess while at it.

She was his favorite for a reason.

And them arguing means there was a huge problem.

I walked down the hall, my strides fast but restricted due to the tight skirt I was in.

As I did, my mind was moving from annoyance at what I was certain was happening in my father’s office, to wondering for perhaps the hundredth time why my father insists on us staying in this foul, possibly mice-infested warehouse when there wasn’t even any work for us to do.

It was a sunny day and the halls were poorly-lit, there was no ventilation coming in, the walls were filthy and the walls grubby.

The offices were the only places that were clean and decorated. Mine like I’d insisted was elegant and feminine — Becca’s was modern and cold while dad’s was lavish and obnoxious while the windows were filthy on the outside.

My father’s father started the business and my father was proud of it. He was convinced the place being filthy made people fear and take him seriously.

He also felt it was our root.

He was right.

My father’s father was a lowlife thug who would do anything for money and power.

And he did. He built an empire.

My father was also a lowlife thug with the same mission.

He wasn’t as successful, and although he was left a fortune he somehow squandered it and was now back to square zero.

I saw the double doors at the end of the hall. Abel standing outside it. He is my father’s right hand man.

I had very little hope of calming my father down. There was a slim chance, but it wasn’t much.

I had a better chance of earring his anger though. His temper was quick, unpredictable and disastrous.

And it seemed he was more in control of it around Becca.

We got close to the door and Abel moved towards it and knocked twice, loudly, put his hand to the handle then pushed it open.

Their shouting didn’t cease throughout all this.

Abel moved out of the way and Eli and I moved into the room. A room that screamed ridiculousness. It had been ridiculous when my father’s father sat behind the massive, silly desk. It was even more ridiculous when my father occupied that space.

I had no time to think about this as I had thousands of times before.

My father was shouting. Becca’s voice wasn’t as loud as his, but it was still strong and firm.

And he had a gun, a gun that was aimed at Rush.

In other words, the situation was critical.

“Father—” I called, moving closer into the room, but abruptly stopping unable to prevent the frown and turn of my head as the gun went off, the loud sound echoing through the room.

Rush shouted in agony and fell on one knee.

Father rounded the desk and advanced toward Rush, the gun still aimed at him.

“You talk to your Lord that way?”

God, I hated this Lord s**t.

My father’s father started that too.

“Geez, f**k, Jesus, f**k,” Rush chanted, still down on a knee, his hand covering his wound, blood oozing between his fingers. He tilted his head back and scowled at my father.

“What the f**k is the matter with you?” Becca shrieked.

“You f*****g shot him!”

“He f*****g called it, Red!” Father shouted. “No one f*****g talks to me that way.”

I turned to Abel who was standing by the door.

“Call the doctor,” I ordered.

“Tess, he doesn’t like us.” Eli muttered under his breath.

I nodded slightly, still looking at Abel, knowing but forgetting at this dramatic moment that my father had earned

his anger too. “Tell him I requested his attention personally.”

Abel nodded back and disappeared.

I turned back to Eli. “Get some towels.”

“Tessa, you do not need to be here.” Father stated, and I looked at him.

“Father—, I started.

He swung the gun my way.

Eli, who had been moving towards my father’s bathroom, stopped and moved back, positioning in front of me in a way that I could still see my father, but Eli’s body was mostly shielding mine.

God. Eli.

I watched my father’s eyes shift towards Eli before his mouth curled in disgust.

“Take a bullet for her, yeah.” Father asked in mock disgust.

He hated when anyone tried to protect me, and Eli had known him for a long time. And he’d also been taught a lesson he had no choice but to learn.

So he knew the right answer.

“She’s yours, so yeah.”

Father stuck his nose up in the air, nodded his approval at that response, then lowered the gun.

He glared at Eli. He glared at me. Finally he turned to Rush.

I stilled.

“I f*****g see you again, and you still aren’t doing your f*****g job. I won’t aim at your leg. You hear me.”

I bit back a sigh.

I saw Rush’s jaw clench and knew exactly what he intended to say. I was glad he somehow managed to bite back the urge and instead sat properly to put both hands to his wound.

My father moved my way. “Get his stupid ass outta my office, Tessa. Get him to start working. And clean this place up.”

With that, he stalked out the door.