by Tigris Eden
Yelling at the end of the hall alerted her to a situation on the other side of the door. She didn’t know when, but she’d gotten closer to the red monstrosity. She could hear Diamond talking to Lindy in his quarters.
“You gonna show the broad in or what, Lins? Fuck! I don’t have all day, I had a bitch try and blow me to pieces, you gotta know I’m not happy. Tell the others who were accepted they are on official lockdown. They go nowhere. Their ass is confined to the fifth floor. And make sure the ones I denied are kept ground level. Tell them we’re reconsidering their contracts. I want the entire building locked up tonight!”
Lindy stuck her head out of the door, motioning Nadya in. Taking a deep breath, she walked inside. This is it. The moment of either stupidity or good sense. There was a couch, some chairs, and even a table and… “Is that a kitchen?” Nadya was in shock. She hadn’t seen a functional kitchen in a very long time. Shiny and unmarred, there were even faucets. She could tell without testing them that they were fully functional. What left her curious, was whether it ran with Wave or Dark Water? If she had to guess, she would say either Dark Water or something in between. There was no way it was pure Wave.
“Yeah, girl, it’s a kitchen. Take off your boots, I don’t want you tracking any dirt inside my space.”
“Take off my boots? I don’t have any socks on my feet.” Not to mention, the boots were half a size smaller than her regular size. Her toes were cramped. If she removed her shoes, the smell alone would send him running. Could be a lot worse. He could ask her to take off her clothes, and then what would she do?
“Don’t make me ask you twice, I’m in a shit mood. Take off the fucking boots. Lindy, search her ass because, obviously, security today was not on point.”
Lindy took offense to his comment and grabbed Nadya by her shoulders, pushing her against the door. It took some effort, but Nadya allowed the manhandling. One of the inner voices inside her head—yes, there was more than one—told her to keep calm. Reminded her why she was here. Her other voice, the one that told her to remove fingers from Lindy’s hand piped up, as well. She weighed the pros and cons. Will you make it out of here alive if you cut off her fingers? That outlook was dim. Lindy made sure Nadya’s face became intimate with the wall but she didn’t struggle or fight. A woman strapped with bombs, or a bomb, had walked in and purposely tried to kill Diamond, killing herself in the process. His apprehension was warranted. Once Lindy felt she was free of harmful objects, she twisted Nadya to face front and removed her top garment, releasing her hair. The mass fell down her back in a thicket of braids. Lindy coughed. Nadya knew she smelled, but she couldn’t do anything about that. Most people nowadays smelled like something, unless they were drowning in excess Dark Water or Wave. Even then, the smell wasn’t guaranteed to leave. Nadya bent to the task of unlacing her boots until she was able to toe them off. She used her cloak to cover her feet.
“Damn, girl. You don’t own a pair of socks?”
No, she didn’t. Nadya glared at Lindy.
“If I owned a pair, I’d wear them.” Lindy was getting on her nerves.
Diamond sat in an overstuffed chair, his face hidden in shadow, his arms crossed.
“Lindy, you can come back in ten minutes. When you do return, it’d better be to tell me the others are on their way, and the shit downstairs has been neutralized.”
Lindy didn’t say another word; she sauntered out of his room, looked over her shoulder, and winked right before she left Nadya alone with Diamond.
“Do you mind if I sit?”
“Yeah, I do. You can stand. Don’t want you destroying my furniture with your filth. Tell me why you’re here?”
“I want to work at the Quarry.”
“Work at the Quarry doing what exactly?”
Fucking men. So literal. Was it necessary? People only came to Diamond for two things—sex and to offer their bodies for organ trade when their organs were no longer needed—in exchange for things for their loved ones. He was enjoying his attempt at making her uncomfortable. She’d bite.
“I wanted to work here, in the Quarry.”
He sat forward, his face creeping out of the shadows like a nightmare. Until he smiled. When he smiled, Nadya almost stopped breathing. No one should look so lethal and refined at the same time. He had sophistication and deadly down to a science.
“So you said.” There was sarcasm in his voice.
Nadya made sure to maintain eye contact as she nodded. Males had it stuck in their heads that females were only good for a handful of things. She may be ignorant when it came to intimate relationships, but if you put a knife in her hand, hell, a piece of wood, she could disembowel a man in thirty seconds or less and not even bat an eye.
“All right, tell me why you want to work at the Quarry.” He held up his hands to stop her from speaking. “No, wait, let me guess, you want a patron? Someone to take care of you because you’re lazy and don’t want to work. Or maybe your man died and left you with a brood of brats?”
Typical.
He thought she was incapable of caring for herself. She wasn’t without means. What she had to offer would take care of her friends. If not for them, this conversation most definitely would have gone differently.
“No, nothing like that. I’d like a patron eventually, but I mostly want to work here because my mother is ill and I don’t want my sister going to work at the salt factory.” Technically, they weren’t family, at least not blood, but he didn’t know that.
“Why don’t you work at the salt factory? Then your problem’s solved.”
Was he serious? Smug bastard. Like he had all the fucking answers to life’s problems.
“No, they’d be compounded. I’d get sick like my mother. It may not happen now, or even five or ten years from now, but if I lived long enough it’d happen. If I got ill, my sister would end up there. A never-ending cycle of sickness and death.” Though she never got sick, he didn’t need to know that. She’d tried the salt mines, but there was something about them that didn’t agree with her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the voice in her head had assured her that working in the mines was the worst possible thing for her.
“One less family member you’d have to be concerned with. People are lucky if they get five or ten years.”
He was a bastard, Nadya decided. A cold-hearted, beautiful, fucking bastard she wanted to castrate. Use his balls for punching bags, then. Don’t stop now, not while you’re ahead. The darker part of her rationalized all the ways she could end his life. Nadya checked her voice and tried to appeal to what she hoped was a merciful side of Diamond. Instead of doing that, she said, “Do you get some kind perverse pleasure from making people feel uncomfortable? Or are you waiting for me to beg? Why are you so cruel?”
“Because, little girl, everything is not happy and fun. Shit’s real outside, the Ragers are real, death is real. Hope is a false prophet who will only fuck you in the ass without the courtesy of lubrication or a reach around. It will leave you high and dry every single time, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get off with just being broken or receive the sublime mercy of death. If you stay the current course, well, I can’t be responsible for the fallout. Which is why I’m a cruel, callous bastard. Don’t look to me as if I’m your savior because I’m not. If your ass comes and works for me, I’m going to use everything you got, to get everything I need, and give you the leftovers I don’t want. Got it?”
All too clearly. But it wasn’t going to stop her. Nika and Anna had taken her in, shown her divine kindness. She would do the same for them. It was either come work for him, or work for Attia.
“Fine, I understand. Now, does that mean I have the job?”
“You still want to work here, girl?” He sounded surprised. Her nerves were frazzled, and trying to keep her anger in check was weighing her down.
“I told you my reasons, either you’re going to accept me or not.”
Diamond looked her up and down, and she knew what he saw. Weakne
ss. That would be his mistake, not hers. She was far from weak. She was strong, resourceful, and once she told him what she had to offer, he wouldn’t refuse. A girl didn’t live in Inwood, she survived it. Every day. If you didn’t get gang-raped by the males—and sometimes women—then you had to worry about the population of Ragers that skulked on the opposite side of the marsh. Inwood was dead trees, and ravenous vines. Every day, there was something to be watchful of. That she’d remained intact and unharmed was a feat in itself. She knew she wasn’t like the others, but couldn’t remember who or possibly even what she was. You’re a survivor. End of story. True. But what had she survived? She’d woken, and the first person there to assist her had been Anna.
She was the first to admit, she was no beauty, but she had one thing to offer most women her age didn’t.
“I don’t think you’re cut out to work here. You can’t fight, what good are you?” Again, his mistake. “Working the Quarry takes gumption. You know what gumption is, girl. It takes brains as well as beauty. You need to be able to work the floor, use what you have to get what I want.”
Well if that were the case, she should be a shoe-in for the brains part because Iland and that other girl were far from smart.
“Yeah, I know what gumption is.” Asshole.
“All right, show me what you got, then. Disrobe.”
Nadya was startled by his request. It was the last thing she’d expected him to ask of her.
“You deaf or something? Take off your fucking clothes. I always see the merchandise before I put it up for sale.”
“So you’re saying I got the job, then?”
“No, I’m saying it’s a try before you buy type of deal.”
“But you didn’t do that with the others.”
“Didn’t have to, I could tell right off whether what they were offering was something my clients would want. You, I don’t know, you’re all covered up, and if your hair and the smell of your feet are anything to go by, I’d be lucky to get a half-ration of Dark Water for you or even a decent trade. I wouldn’t even give up a quarter of my stores to lay down with you.”
Now she was pissed. Once she got this gig, and her family was in the clear, she and Lavarious Diamond would have a heart to heart.
With jerky movements, Nadya went about taking off her garments. The first thing to come off was her top, it was the one she’d made out of curtains and string. Next were her pants. She barely had any breasts to speak of, and the hair on her skin wasn’t groomed. Living in Inwood didn’t afford her the luxury of taking regular showers, and the times she did get to bathe, she was only allotted ninety seconds, there was only so much one could do in such a short amount of time.
“Damn, I was right. Nothing to offer. No one would do much with that, girl. I’d be lucky if I could get you to tend bar and attract attention. You don’t have anything I can sell.”
“I have something.” Her voice was almost too confident. Diamond’s sharp gaze snapped to hers and he waited for her to say more. Almost seemed excited or expectant. Nadya dialed her tone down. She wasn’t going to challenge the male outright with open forcefulness.
“Spit it out, girl. What? I have a meeting that’s about to start in like five minutes.” He looked past her at the door as if it would magically open.
“I am clean.”
Diamond’s eyebrows rose just a bit before he burst into laughter.
“Honey, if you’re clean, then I am downright sanitized. Have you had a chance to look in a mirror? There is dirt caked on you in places I didn’t even know one could get dirty.”
“No, you idiot. I’m fucking clean, as in a virgin!” she roared. Hers hands fisted at her sides as her limbs shook with rage. He really knew how to get under her skin.
His laughter abruptly died, and the look in his eyes said it all. Jackpot. He saw the value. Most girls her age had already given up their virginity to someone for a price. Virgins were rare. Something else she wanted to keep Nika from giving up. Young girls were selling their bodies for far less. Diamond would make their lives comfortable after she was taken by the highest bidder.
“I see. We’ll need to come to some sort of arrangement. But mark my words, girl, you yell at me like that again and your ass is out.” The statement was whispered, and she heard the promise in his verdant chords. Could feel his threat trying to gain entrance into her psyche.
Diamond stood just as the door opened. He glared at the newcomer and yelled, “Get the fuck out! I’ll come and get you when I’m done here.”
“Sure thing, Diamond.”
His gaze zeroed in on her once more, holding her in place. She didn’t know why, but him staring at her made her feel exposed and raw to the bone. More so than standing in front of him without any clothing on. He eyed her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. A sound of disgust rumbled from the back of his throat when he eyed her clothes on the floor before going back to her eyes. He held her immobile with his glare as he spoke.
“You’ll stay here in this room until I come and get you. Don’t open the door, don’t sit on my shit. Matter of fact, you know how to work a shower?”
Nadya nodded.
Of course, she could operate a shower, probably knew a hell of a lot more than he did when it came to the intricacies of plumbing.
“Good, take one. Don’t come out until all that shit is peeled off your body. Use a towel from the closet, and use the robe on the back of the door. Park your ass on the couch and wait for me.”
He turned and walked out, leaving Nadya staring after him; his demeanor a thick cloud of arrogance.
Chapter 3
Diamond walked into the hallway, not giving the woman in his apartment another thought. Stupid broad. He had too much on his plate at the moment to be concerned with a slip of a girl, who had no idea what she was getting into. If she wanted to offer up her pussy to the highest bidder, that was on her. He didn’t force people to work for him. If they saw the benefits of what he could offer, who was he to say no? If what she said were true, she’d bring in a lot of Wave and resources. His city needed resources; he would have lost control a long time ago if he hadn’t had anything viable to sell. He needed to keep things moving forward. Progress was key to their survival. He knew he had enemies outside of the wall. They surrounded him on all sides. As it stood, he had a very tenuous alliance with the other Archials.
Diamond made his way to the meeting room. It was already filled with those closest to him. Amethyst had come in from assignment and sat on top of the wooden table Indian-style with her hands folded in her lap. Her black and purple hair was pulled into a ponytail. She still wore her facemask, but had removed her goggles, the vibrant color of her purple eyes luminous through the dirt caked on her face. Her body was completely covered from the neck down. Some type of leather with ducktails, one side longer than the other to conceal her weapons. Skintight pants with buckles that snapped into place molded to her curves. Her thigh-high boots were outfitted with hidden compartments at the ankle. She completed her outfit with gloves she’d fashioned with eagle claws attached to the knuckles. Thys was always prepared.
Emerald, his healer, stood over by the window, smoking. He was the biggest of all Diamond’s men. Most women were scared of the warrior. Phyr, his stealthy assassin, and Onyx, procurer of all things, were the only two seated in chairs, and they looked ready to go to war. They could very well be headed towards one. Diamond needed all of his people revved up and ready to go. Conflict was something he tried to avoid, but if people were going to start blowing themselves up in hopes of getting a crack at what was his, well then, fuck ‘em. Just as he had the thought, Lip strolled in with Lindy and quietly shut the door.
“All here, Lavarious, floor’s been cleared, and everyone is where you wanted them. You need me to do anything else?” Lip looked to Lindy as if she were a stain on the bottom of his shoe. He didn’t care for her, and in the same respect, Lindy didn’t care for Lip either.
“No, that’s it, bu
t I want you here for this meeting.” Diamond looked to Lindy, who was about to take a seat at the table, but he held her immobile with his stare. “What do you think you’re doing?”
She stood straighter, adjusted the strap on her tank top and grinned. “I thought you’d want me here since I was there when it happened.”
“Exactly why we don’t want you here, Lins,” came Emerald’s rough voice. He turned from looking out the window and eyed her from head to toe, his green eyes flashing and the scar across his face pulling with his sneer. “Don’t care if you were Lavarious’s fuck buddy for a couple of months, you’re a suspect, darlin’. Kindly turn your pale ass around and go do some other shit.”
Lindy looked to Diamond for help, and he offered none. Emerald was right. She’d scouted the product, and because she hadn’t done a good job of it, he’d almost lost his life.
“He’s right, Lindy. I’ll get word to you if I need you,” Diamond said.
“Are you shitting me?”
“No, baby doll, no one’s trying to throw shit at you. We’re simply trying to cover all our bases.” This was said by Phyr. He stood from his chair, approached Lindy, and gently gripped her shoulder in a show of affection. “As soon as we get this sorted, we’ll call you back in. You think you could grab me a bottle of DC-6?”
Diamond had no idea how Phyr drank the stuff. Who would want to drink alcohol tainted Dark Water? Even if the liquor killed the germs and gave you a buzz. Shit was nasty.
Lindy snatched her shoulder away from Phyr’s grip and sneered, “Get your own damn drink,” before turning and storming out.
“That bitch has guilty written all over her face,” Lip tossed out as he sat down in one of the vacant chairs.