by Ellie Aiden
When I’d first glanced at the portrait I hadn’t thought to look for anyone I knew, but now I see Mateo front and center, wearing the same smile as the one he just gave me. I point to him and he nods, but I don’t notice anyone else. He grasps my hand and moves it back two rows and over a couple people, landing on a young Luke. My eyes widen as I look to him for confirmation.
He nods with a laugh and says, “Luke is a good man. He leads his team in Bonham well, in fact, he may lead Diablo someday.”
I’m surprised by his words; given I didn’t even know Luke was considered a leader. It’s clear I have a lot to learn about him and life inside gangs like Diablo. I have a lot of questions, including some about Mateo’s comment on him being voted in as leader of the gang. In my mind, I imagined something akin to a fight to the death for leadership changes. And I’m curious to confirm woman can lead in their gang as well, given that he said these were all the leaders and there are at least ten woman pictured.
It seems those questions will have to wait though because Mateo directs us to grab a quick bite to eat for dinner before ushering us off to bed.
***
DAVID
Last night Tara had watched as I spent two hours taunting and torturing Ash Booker. Not once did she flinch, and each time I turned to catch her eye, I never saw one ounce of pity. I have to say, it was a total turn on. While Ash hadn’t given up any information on her friends and brother, it had served as a bonding experience for Tara and I. Totally worth it.
It’s after midnight now, as I wait outside the ceremony hall, letting the memories of last night replay over and over. Tara kneels on the other side of this door, and when she emerges she will officially be my intended. I’ll escort her back to her room, and then as practice dictates, we’ll spend the next three months courting before we finally stand before Vater Henry and God to bind our lives together forever.
I can just make out Vater Henry’s voice on the other side of the door, and I hear my name. Good. That means the ceremony is nearly complete. I thumb the small box in my pant pocket, hoping she likes the gift I got her. It isn’t customary to give a gift to your intended on the night of their placement ceremony, but after the gift she gave me the other day, I want to make her happy.
The door to the hall opens and Mutter Vera stands with her arm linked with Tara’s. My wife to be looks absolutely stunning in a white silk dress, her black hair hanging across her shoulders in ringlets. Mutter Vera hands her off to me before stepping back through the door and leaving the two of us alone in the hall. Neither of us says a word as we turn to make our way down the long corridor, but we do exchange a few coy smiles.
I’m supposed to take her back to her familial apartment, but if I do that, I won’t be able to give her the gift. Her parents will both no doubt be waiting up for her on such an important night. So instead of turning down her hall, I continue on to the last hall on the left before sneaking her into my apartment. I nod to Brian, indicating his services are no longer needed, and he stands and leaves.
“You look breathtaking,” I tell her, as the two of us take seats side by side on my chocolate brown couch.
She thanks me for the compliment before asking, “Weren’t you supposed to take me back to my room?” She winks, letting me know she doesn’t mind the change of venue at all.
Reaching in and pulling the box from my pocket, I give it to her, palm up. “Yes well, I wanted to give you a gift.”
She takes it from me, her eyes filled with excitement before she removes the lid setting it gently on the table before us. When her eyes widen and a smile splits her lips, I know I did well. Removing the gold bracelet lined in rubies, she sets the box down on the couch between us.
“Will you put it on me?” She asks.
Taking the bracelet from her and wrapping it around her delicate wrist, I’m immediately glad I went with the rose gold. The color against her skin tone is mesmerizing, and I’m glad I decided to accompany Elder Smith today on his supply run to town. While Emily price gouged me out of several pounds of scrap metal in exchange for this tiny piece of jewelry, it’s worth it to see Tara’s eyes light up as it dangles from her wrist.
I’m surprised when she squeals and throws her arms around my neck, whispering in my ear, “Thank you. I love it.”
She pulls back, but neither of us let go, and while I know it will take every ounce of my strength to stop once we start, I lean in and brush my lips softly across hers before deepening the kiss.
The kiss grows intense, and I know if we go much further, neither one of us will be able to stop. But the decision is taken out of our hands when a loud thud comes from my guest bedroom. The two of us pull apart, eyeing the door before we make our way over hand in hand.
After opening the door, I see Ash has toppled her chair over and lays on her side in the floor, still tied to the chair. The room is really starting to reek of piss, so I should probably do something about that, but I want to enjoy her like this for a few more days.
Ash raises her head, and seeing the two of us, her eyes widen with fear. That’s good, she should be afraid.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh little girl, did you actually think you could get away?” I scold, making my way over and kneeling before her.
A very unladylike growl escapes her lips as she attempts to jerk herself free. Tara lets out a gleeful laugh, and Ash spits in her direction.
“Oh, you are going to regret that very much, little girl”
chapter 7 - You Owe Me Five Bucks, Chica
ANNA
The first two days after arriving at The Castle that serves as Diablo’s headquarters was fairly uneventful. The first morning, we’d met Mateo’s brother, Daniel, who had given us a tour of The Castle as well as the property surrounding it. He’d explained not everyone lives inside The Castle, in fact, while they had converted the basement into four small bedrooms, the main two floors only had a combined total of four additional ones. Luke and I had shared the only unoccupied bedroom on the second floor, reserved for visiting guests, while Cody and Chase had stayed in one of the newly remodeled basement rooms. Luke had mentioned Easton and Tommy had friends who lived elsewhere on the estate, so that’s where they would be staying. So other than us, Mateo and his girlfriend Brea occupy the master suite, Daniel and his wife share a bedroom upstairs with their daughter Kayla who is just two years old, and a guy everyone calls the General who I have yet to meet stays in the only other bedroom upstairs. Then in the other three bedrooms in the basement there are several sets of bunk beds lining the walls where various friends and family stay.
The estate itself actually spans about a thousand acres, surrounded by only a waist high stone wall. Clearly, security hasn’t been much of an issue for them here. Throughout the acreage, at least forty single and multi-family dwellings have been constructed, housing an additional one-hundred and twenty-five people, give or take.
Daniel had explained that not all the members live on the property, many of them live throughout the territory they claim, like Luke. He had said each town or village had its own leader, and those leaders then reported directly to Mateo. I had also found out Luke was the leader over an area that included the town of Bonham.
Daniel seemed like a really nice guy, and I appreciated that he didn’t seem to mind my incessant questioning. He’d even gone into detail about the power system they had on the property, and how they not only had enough to ensure hot water, but they could light their homes, cook, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Once again proving the church is preaching nothing but false propaganda to their members.
After our tour with Daniel, Luke had taken over, escorting us around to various homes, introducing me to all his friends. The whole thing was slightly overwhelming, but Luke seemed to enjoy it, so I would smile and nod before moving on to the next person.
It was kind of mind blowing that there wasn’t a single person Luke didn’t know. I lived in a compound for thirteen years and maybe knew twenty people, with t
he exception of our elders. Granted, there were only slightly more than a hundred people here, but he didn’t just know their names. He knew their family’s names, their hobbies, hell, their life stories. Each time we passed someone he would stop to speak. Shaking hands and kissing babies. Guess Mateo was right; Luke may someday take over as the head of Diablo.
On the third day after arriving at The Castle, our team, along with Mateo and Brea, as well as Daniel and his wife, sat down for what they called family dinner. The food was delicious and the conversation had been light. When dessert was served, and after Mateo had clearly had one too many drinks, he announced he would be throwing a party for us Saturday night. Just something to welcome us to the Diablo family. I smiled and laughed with the rest, but inside I couldn’t help but think how I wasn’t sure I wanted to be part of the Diablo gang. Sure everyone seems awesome so far, but do I really want to leave one compound for another. Maybe that wasn’t how he meant it, perhaps he just intended to celebrate having guests at The Castle. That, I was okay with.
When Saturday afternoon arrived, my nerves were truly shot. I sat on the end of my bed, sliding the hem of my green dress through my thumb and forefinger. There was a lot to be worried about. We hadn’t even remotely discussed saving Ash, or how to put an end to all the horrible things the church was doing. Anytime I or someone else even mentioned either of those things, Mateo would completely shut down. I’m crossing my fingers he gets drunk tonight and I can get him to open up.
On top of all that, once again I find myself in a situation where I don’t fit in. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has been more than nice, especially Mateo’s girlfriend Brea. She has taken it upon herself to take me under her wing the last few days, but that doesn’t change how I feel. I’m the weird girl from a cult, and as much as I love the emerald green dress I have on with the intentions of wearing to the party tonight, it only makes me stand out more. None of the women wear dresses here, well unless they just want to. Most of them wear jeans with t-shirts or sweaters, but I don’t own anything except dresses, and I have to cycle through the same three over and over because that’s all I had room for when we left the compound. It’s not like I can just run to town and buy something, I don’t have anything of value to trade, and I just don’t feel right asking Luke to buy me things. It’s still too new.
I stand, walking to the bathroom before peering at my reflection in the mirror above the sink when there’s knock at the door.
“Come in.” I holler as I turn to leave the bathroom.
The door opens and Brea walks in with a huge smile on her face which I return.
“Hey, Chica!” Brea wraps me up in a hug with fabric held firmly in her hand. “I got you something,” she says, pulling away.
The fabric she’s holding is in fact a pair of light wash jeans with holes in both knees, and a bright green sweater with a wide neckline. I don’t understand wanting holes in your clothes on purpose, Mother would have a field day patching all the girl’s jeans on the estate, but they all seem to like it, including Brea. Despite the holes, I love everything about the outfit, but I only feel comfortable borrowing it.
“Brea, I love it! Can I borrow them?” I ask, reaching down to feel the soft material of the sweater before looking back to her.
The look on her face says she’s confused, but I’m not sure why. She cocks her head to the side, one eyebrow raised, looking me up and down before she speaks. “Um, no?” She’s clearly confused. “You can’t borrow it, I mean.”
My face falls, but I understand. She doesn’t really know me, plus, maybe she was only showing me what she planned to wear tonight.
“You can’t borrow it because it’s yours. I got it for you when I went to town today. I got us matching sweaters actually, only mine is purple. We get to be twinsies tonight. Eek!” She claps her hands with her squeal of glee, and then jumps up and down like a kid.
“Brea, thank you so much, but I can’t except this. I don’t have any way to repay you.” I feel bad, but we are about the same size, so hopefully she can just keep it for herself.
Rolling her eyes and picking up the jeans and sweater, she shoves them against my chest. “Go try them on, loca. I’m gonna go find you some shoes to wear.” Before I can argue she turns and leaves the room.
Looking at the articles of clothing, I’m not sure what to do. It won’t hurt to try them on, right? Right.
After dressing in the jeans and sweater, I stand in front of the dresser mirror. I can’t figure out how to make the neckline lay right. It’s huge and keeps falling off my shoulder. As much as I don’t want Brea to buy me things, I really don’t want her to feel bad that it doesn’t fit.
When I hear her come back in the room, I quickly tug the neckline up once more, and turn to where she stands in the doorway. Smiling, I make my way to the center of the room and do a quick spin so she can see how I look.
“Okay Chica, we have work to do.” She laughs, snatching my hand in hers before dragging me out the door and down the hall.
An hour later, I stand in front of the full length mirror in Brea’s room as she admires her handiwork. After she had roughly drug me into her room, she had explained these types of sweaters were made to hang off one shoulder. It made me a little self-conscious with so much visible skin, but I went along with it anyway. The shoes she had forced on my feet were a matte black with red bottoms, and had at least a four-inch heel. Even standing still I could barely stand upright. There is no doubt I’m going to bust my ass tonight.
She had spent at least thirty minutes applying makeup to my face, including a bright red lipstick topped with cherry gloss. She’d even mentioned I should feel extremely special that she let me borrow the cherry gloss considering Mateo’s men had found it in an old abandoned drug store and she wouldn’t even let Daniel’s wife, Camila, borrow it. From the look of the tube she was almost out, and I kept catching her looking at it sadly as she applied it to my red lips.
After she’d finished my face, she’d spent another twenty minutes fixing my hair. She used something she called a curling wand, and now my hair hangs around my shoulders in beautiful wavy curls. I really want one of those because while my hair is naturally wavy, my waves look nothing like these.
Looking at myself now as Brea looks on, she really did an amazing job. While I’m not used to looking this flashy, I don’t mind it as much as I thought I would. Not to mention, it will keep me from standing out at the party tonight.
“You look muy caliente, chica!” She screeches, clapping her hands together and spinning me around for a quick hug. “Luke is gonna flip”
Wait, what? “Do you think he’ll be mad?” I ask, concern lacing my words.
She steps back a few feet, and then flops backward on the bed letting out the laugh she had clearly been holding in. “Oh God, chica! You crack me up.” She reaches up and wipes a tear away from the corner of her eye before it ruins her perfect plum eye make-up. “Chica, he’s gonna flip because you look hot! Five bucks says his jaw drops the minute he sees you,” she says, as she sits up to face me.
I can’t help the smile that splits my face at that thought, and I decide this party might not be so bad after all.
***
ANNA
After we’d finished admiring Brea’s masterpiece that is me, we had stopped by Daniel’s room to pick up Camila before heading out the back door of The Castle. The party was being thrown on the back side of the property, a good ten-minute walk through a wide open hilly field, and on the way I had fallen no less than three times in these dang heels. Each time one of the girls would catch me and each time Brea would say beauty is pain. Whatever that means.
Before we even reached the party, I could hear loud thumping music, smell the scent of a bonfire, and hear people laughing and talking. When we crested the last hill and the party finally came into view, it was a lot to process. There was a huge elevated stage directly in front of me with a man standing with his back to me at a table surrounded by speakers. To
the right stood at least thirty tables where dozens of people talked and ate, and to the left were tables lined with food and drinks of all kinds. In the center, on the other side of the stage couples danced way to close together. Vater Henry would have a meltdown right now.
With a squeal, Brea linked her arms with me and Camila and began pulling us down the hill toward a group of men standing in a circle holding drinks. “Come on, I see our boys.”
As we approach, Brea drops my arm, bouncing over to Mateo and throwing her arms around his neck. Camila makes her way to Daniel a little more calmly, but the two exchange a pretty heated kiss. When I spot Luke on the far side of the circle, I knew I owed Brea five bucks. His eyes are wide, hands hanging loosely at his side, and his jaw is most definitely dropped.
I smile as I make my way toward him, managing to not trip. Passing Brea on my way, I hear her whisper behind her hand, “You owe me five bucks, chica.”
When I reach Luke’s side, he opens and closes his mouth several times before finally stuttering out a few words. “You…look amazing.” Leaning in, he gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before stepping back and reaching over to the table to grab a drink for me.
Taking the drink, I look at it before looking back to him. “Brea did it. Dressed me, I mean. I’ve tripped three times already in these heels, and I’m probably gonna end up having a boob slip before the night is over with the cut of this sweater. But I like the outfit, and appreciate that she cared enough to try to make me feel included.” When I finish explaining, I look back at my drink, and then back to him without taking a sip.
Luke looks down at my drink, then back at me, and then repeats the process again before speaking. “Well she did an amazing job, but you don’t need to do anything to try to fit in. If it makes you uncomfortable, it’s okay to say no. Brea means well, but sometimes she can be a little much.” And then after seeming to think about it, he adds, “In a good way though. You look amazing no matter what you’re wearing. Although, I must admit, I’m definitely a fan of the red lipstick.”
