The Diamond Empire--A Novel

by K'wan

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  LOUISIANA, 2003

  Diamonds was awakened by the feeling of soft kisses being planted on his chest. He cracked one tired eye open and found himself looking down at a mop of beautiful black hair. The kisses went lower and lower, over his stomach and finally tickling the line of hair just above his penis.

  “Girl, best not start something you can’t finish,” Diamonds warned her.

  She turned her face to him. She looked almost angelic with her alabaster skin, and full red lips. “Do I ever?” she asked before placing him in her mouth.

  His whole body went hard as she began sucking, slowly at first and then faster. Every so often she would pop him out of her mouth, only long enough to explore the thin skin between his nuts and his asshole with her tongue. If Diamonds could bottle and sell the things she did with her mouth he’d be a rich man. Waves of pleasure rocked his body as he felt himself about to explode, but he would have no such release, at least not yet.

  “Not so fast.” She stopped, and gripped the head of his dick, keeping him from ejaculating. “You don’t get to get yours until I get mine,” she said and mounted Diamonds.

  At that moment there was a heated debate going on in his head over which felt better, her pussy or her mouth. She rocked back and forth on his dick, finding her rhythm. He reached for her, but she pushed his hands away and pinned him to the bed by his wrists. As she rode him, Diamonds found himself lost in her twinkling green eyes. He could stare into them forever and never get tired. She began to ride him faster, her juices beginning to run down over his balls and onto the sheets. She was reaching her climax, as was he.

  “Tell me that you love me!” she demanded.

  “I love you,” he rasped.

  “I don’t believe you.” She slapped him across the face. “Say it like you mean it!” She bucked harder.

  “I love you! Sweet Jesus, I love you, Bleu!” Diamonds howled as he exploded inside her. She came at nearly the same time. After she had released herself, Bleu collapsed onto his chest, listening to his heart beating. “You know I really do love you, right?”

  Bleu rolled off of him and lay on her side. “Silly boy, don’t say things you don’t mean. That’s just the sex talking.”

  “I do.” Diamonds propped himself up on his elbow. “You think I go around killing men for women who I’m just trying to bed? This thing I feel for you is real, baby. Every time I’m away from you it’s like a sickness, eating me up on the inside. You know Auntie thinks you worked some kind of hex on me.”

  “That old woman always up in my shit.” Bleu snorted. “Only reason she always muddying my name is probably because she got designs on you herself. And maybe you got designs on her?”

  “Nah, I like ’em old, but not as old as Auntie. She like a second mother to me. She raised me and Goldie up from nothing, and gave me power.” He stroked the pouch around his neck.

  Bleu laughed as if it were the most amusing thing she had ever heard. “Them parlor tricks that woman teaching you out there in the swamp ain’t no real power.” She ran her hand along his jawline and he felt a spark of electricity. “I could teach you a few things, but I don’t think you ready. Maybe when you finally grow to become a man.”

  Diamonds pushed her hand away and sat up on the bed. “I’m more of a man than that nigga I freed you from. What he done for you besides kick your ass and keep you caged like some bird?”

  “He give me all this finery.” Bleu motioned around to the large master bedroom. “Mo wasn’t the best man I had, but he wasn’t the worst either.”

  “You say it like you miss that nigga! You want I should go out to where I buried him and raise him up again?” Diamonds asked angrily.

  “Hush with that foolishness.” Bleu pulled him back down on top of her. “You know these eyes don’t see nothing but you. So long as you loyal to me, I’ll always be yours, Diamonds.”

  “And I, yours, Bleu,” he said sincerely. Diamonds hadn’t known Bleu long, but in that short time he had come to love her more than he had ever loved anyone or anything in his life.

  “Then prove it to me.” She grabbed a fistful of his dreads and tugged hard enough to send pain through his scalp. “Make love to me with your mouth like I taught you.”

  “It would be an honor.” Diamonds beamed before crawling down between her legs. He had just begun exploring her insides with his tongue when a pair of strong hands grabbed him by his ankles and yanked him off the bed. Diamonds hit his chin on the bedpost before being bounced off the floor. In a daze he looked up and saw several men standing over him, holding guns. “What the fuck is this?” he asked; he had never seen them before.

  The lead man, who was tall and sported a beard almost as thick as Buda’s, addressed him. “This is about a conniving whore and the games she likes to play. Get that bitch!” he ordered his accomplices. The men moved forward and dragged Bleu kicking and screaming from the bed.

  “No! Get your hands off me!” Bleu fought against them.

  “Shut up, bitch!” one of them roared before socking Bleu in the gut and taking the fight out of her.

  “I’ll kill you!” Diamonds sprang to his feet and charged the man who had just hit Bleu. A rifle butt to the head knocked him back to the floor before he could reach his target.

  The bearded man grabbed a handful of Bleu’s hair and yanked her head back. “You must’ve worked the same trick on this fool lil nigga that you worked on my uncle to have his nose open enough to die over you,” the bearded man said. “You tell your little boyfriend that you make it a habit of bewitching young and dumb niggas into doing your dirty work?”

  “That’s a lie! I love her and she loves me!” Diamonds declared.

  “Lil nigga, she got your head good and screwed up, yeah?” The bearded man gave Diamonds a sad look. “Don’t worry, shorty. In time it’ll pass. As for this bitch,” he banged Bleu’s head against the wall, “when I’m done she won’t be working any more of her juju on anybody else. I can promise you that.” He began dragging her out of the bedroom.

  “No, you can’t take her!” Diamonds tried to get up, but two of the men had jumped on him and were holding him down.

  “Diamonds, help me!” Bleu pleaded, but there was nothing he could do. The men holding him down were far stronger than he was.

  “Don’t leave me, Bleu!” he cried. “Bleu! Bleu!” he screamed over and over, watching helplessly as the bearded man dragged his true love from his life.

  PRESENT DAY, LIBERTY ISLAND

  “Diamonds? Diamonds, can you hear me?” A pair of hands were shaking him.

  Slowly the fog began to roll back from Diamonds’ brain as he came back to consciousness. He looked around and found that he wasn’t in the bedroom, trying to fight to save Bleu, but back in the cell Big Slim had tossed him in. Minister was staring down at him with a worried expression on his face.

  “That must’ve been some nightmare you were having,” Minister said, retaking his seat in the chair near the bed.

  “I guess,” Diamonds said, trying to sit up but realized he couldn’t. His wrists were now cuffed to the bedrail.

  “After that last stunt you pulled, Slim figured it would be best not to take any unnecessary risks.”

  “Smart man,” Diamonds agreed.

  “Who is Bleu?” Minister asked, to which Diamonds gave him a questioning look. “You were screaming her name in your sleep.”

  “Nobody for you to be concerned about,” Diamonds said flatly.

  “I get it, you don’t want to talk about it. We can talk about something else. I heard about your little failed escape attempt. Did you really think you could get out of here with a bedspring being your only weapon?” Minister asked with an amused look.

  “I’d have much rather had a pistol, but whatever works.” Diamonds laughed.

  “I’m glad you think it’s funny, because Blue sure didn’t. He’s going to need a couple of stitches in his neck,” Minister told him.

  “If I
had it to do over again I’d have slit his fucking throat.”

  “I’d be careful with that one if I were you. Blue ain’t nothing to play with,” Minister warned. “The only reason you’re still alive and not floating around in that water out there with your skull cracked is because Big Slim still wants you alive.”

  “Fuck Slim and his games. Why don’t he just kill me already?”

  “That, I can’t say for sure. It’s above my pay grade. Best advice I can give you is to play nice until this is all over.”

  “Minister, you’ve been in here picking my brain long enough to know that ain’t even in my nature. Big Slim letting me live is going to come back to bite him in the ass before long. I’m either gonna bust out of here on my own, or my crew is gonna find me. Buda probably got them out there on the trail as we speak, and when they finally track me down it’s over for that fat muthafucka,” Diamonds said confidently.

  “I wouldn’t hold my breath on that last outcome. I get the impression that right now the only one concerned about you staying alive is Big Slim,” Minister told him, reflecting on his meeting with Buda. It saddened him that Diamonds had so much faith in a man who didn’t give a shit about him.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?” Diamonds asked. Before he could receive an answer, a searing pain shot through his gut, causing his body to seize. It only lasted for a few seconds but it felt like it went on for hours. When it finally passed he felt spent.

  “When I got back I checked the stitches you busted. That infection looks like it’s getting worse. I fear if you don’t get proper medical help soon you won’t have to worry about Big Slim killing you anymore.”

  “You don’t know the half,” Diamonds wheezed. “So, where’d you get off to earlier?” he asked, changing the subject to take his mind off the poison that was ravaging his system.

  “Had to run into New York to handle some business.”

  “I noticed something while talking to you, Minister. You got an accent that kinda comes and goes as it pleases. Where about you from, the Carolinas, maybe Georgia?”

  “Close, but no. I’m actually from Florida. Born and raised in Jacksonville. I moved to Miami a few years ago to start a personal security company with my brother.”

  “I take it that didn’t go so well, seeing how you’re up here doing dirty work for a piece of shit like Slim.”

  “Actually, we were pretty successful with it. Everybody from rappers to athletes paid us top dollar to keep them safe when while they were in Florida. I closed the business down and started freelancing about a year ago.”

  “If you were doing so well with the company, why shut it down?” Diamonds asked.

  “I don’t know, I guess after my brother was killed my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, truly.”

  “Thank you, Diamonds. I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming, though. See, my brother was a man who liked to dance between two worlds,” Minister began. “We were making legitimate money hand over fist, but he just couldn’t seem to let go of his street ties. I was in Atlanta for about a month doing some extended work for a rich client we had just taken on when I got the news. While I was away my brother had hooked in with some gangsters in Miami. He was always out and about partying with them in places he knew he had no business being in. I’d warned him against it, but my brother was hardheaded that way. Seems he had become really close with some of them. One night they were at this club called Onyx and some guys got into a shootout. My brother wasn’t involved, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Diamonds searched his memory bank. “I remember that shootout, happened a few summers back.”

  “Everybody heard about it. The damn thing made all the newspapers.”

  “Nah, I didn’t hear about it. I was there,” Diamonds corrected him. “I lost a good friend that night too, but he wasn’t no security guard. My buddy was a stone-cold gangster. I met him not long after me and mine touched down there and started doing our thing. He was kind of a liaison for us while we were down there. Knew all the ins and outs. He was no slouch when it came to putting in work either. Boy saved my ass more than a few times. He was the closest thing I had to a friend that wasn’t born in New Orleans. The night he was killed we were at Onyx celebrating his initiation into our crew. I eventually tracked down the nigga who shot him and took my time bleeding that boy before I dumped his ass in the swamp and left him for the hungry things that lived out there.”

  “Bet that made you feel better, being able to avenge his death,” Minister said, wishing he had been able to lay hands on the ones who had killed his brother. By the time he had arrived back in Florida the culprit had vanished.

  “For a time, I guess it did. But between me, you, and these walls I’d rather have my partner back. Friends like Rasul ain’t easy to come by these days.” Diamonds reflected on his old running buddy. The next thing he knew Minister was out of the chair and hovering over him.

  “What did you just say?” Minster asked in a tone that made Diamonds uneasy. He was now almost nose to nose with Diamonds.

  “Listen, friend, I don’t know how comfortable I am with a muthafucka this far in my space unless it’s a pretty girl. Why don’t you back up just a taste so I can make sense of what you getting at?” Diamonds said coolly.

  Minister grabbed Diamonds by the hair and slammed his head against the cot twice, before drawing his gun and shoving it under his chin. “On everything I love, if you don’t shoot straight with me, I’m gonna say fuck what Slim wants and blow your damn brains out!” He rained spittle over Diamonds’ face. “Where’d you get that name?”

  “Minister!” Blue called from the doorway. Minister had been so focused on Diamonds that he hadn’t even heard the door open. “Why don’t you take it easy. Big Slim wants to see him.”

  “Fuck you and fuck Slim. Me and this one ain’t done talking!” Minister said over his shoulder.

  “Oh, but I think you are.” Tariq eased up behind Minister and put his gun to the back of his skull.

  “Minister,” Blue began in an even tone, “I really like you, kid. So please don’t make me let Tariq end you. Take a walk and cool off.”

  Minister weighed his options. He could probably take Diamonds out and still stand a pretty good chance of finishing Tariq, but Blue would cut him down before he made it across the room. Dying wouldn’t get him the answers he still needed. “We’ll finish this conversation another time.” He gave Diamonds a gentle slap before holstering his gun and backing off. “He’s all yours,” he said to Blue as he passed him on the way out.

  Blue had Tariq cover Diamonds while he unlocked his cuffs and pulled him to his feet. “I’ve never seen Minister lose his cool like that. What did you say to piss him off?”

  “I’m still trying to figure it out myself,” Diamonds said before allowing himself to be escorted from the cell.

  * * *

  Diamonds felt like every bit the prisoner he was, being shuffled through the hallway with his hands and feet shackled. Minister wasn’t joking when he said they weren’t taking any more chances. Now that he wasn’t fleeing for his life he could take better stock of his surroundings. He was somewhere on Liberty Island, this much he could tell from spotting the statue during his escape attempt. Instead of a road to freedom, Diamonds had found himself standing in the shadow of Lady Liberty. Vita had made him take her to see the statue when they had first gotten to New York. It was one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state and was always bustling with people, and security, so how Big Slim had managed to hold him there without their being noticed was yet another of the great mysteries in his life. As he thought on it, he did recall from his trip with Vita seeing some buildings that were closed due to the fact that they were under construction, so it stood to reason that he was somewhere in that area. Now that he had figured out where he was, his next move would be to get word to his people so they could bust him out.

  Blue and Tariq
led him up a winding stairwell to an open room. The windows were covered in plastic as the glass hadn’t been installed yet so there was a bit of a draft. Through the plastic covers he could see the Manhattan skyline. So close, yet so far, he thought to himself. In the center of the room, speaking to several men whom Diamonds had never seen before, stood his one-time boss and now archnemesis, Big Slim. What felt like a lifetime ago, Diamonds and his crew had worked as muscle for Slim’s heroin cartel in New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina, Diamonds had given Slim his two weeks’ notice by way of putting several bullets in him and stealing his drugs before fleeing New Orleans. It had seemed a foolproof plan, but the one thing Diamonds hadn’t accounted for was Slim surviving the assassination attempt.

  “If it isn’t the Prince of Thieves.” Big Slim smiled when he saw Blue and Tariq walk in with a shackled Diamonds between them. He made a dismissive gesture and the minions he had been talking to left the room. “You know, for a time I never thought I’d live to see this day, Big Chief Diamonds bound and at my mercy.”

  “Don’t get too caught up in the moment, Slim. It ain’t gonna last,” Diamonds said defiantly.

  “And why is that? You expecting that gang of backwater bumpkins you run with to storm this place and rescue you like in some action movie?” Big Slim laughed. “I doubt that. They’ve got their hands full at the moment, but we can talk about that later. Take a seat.” He motioned to an empty chair in the center of the room. When Diamonds didn’t move, Slim motioned to Tariq, who swept Diamonds’ legs out from under him and sent him crashing to the floor.

  Diamonds tried to get up but was overcome with vertigo so he only made it as far as a kneeling position. His condition was getting steadily worse.

  “You don’t look so good, bruh,” Big Slim taunted him.

  “Got a touch of the flu, is all,” Diamonds lied. “I’ll be plenty fine when it comes time for me to cut your heart out, fat man.”