The Diamond Empire--A Novel Read online

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  PROLOGUE

  Domo was awakened by the soft sound of music playing. He cracked one tired eye and looked for the radio to turn it off, but to his surprise it wasn’t on. Curious, he sat up on the bed and looked around.

  Near the window, he found Vita sitting on a stool in front of the bedroom window. The rising sun painted her naked brown body in a soft glow that made her look radiant. Pressed to her lips was her ever-faithful brass horn. Her petite fingers moved up and down the buttons, changing the pitch. Domo had become accustomed to her playing the instrument and was familiar with some of the tunes, but this one he had never heard. Something about it made his heart heavy, though he wasn’t sure why.

  He slid out of bed and approached Vita. Her eyes shifting was the only acknowledgment that she knew he now was standing behind her. When he draped his arms around her, the pitch changed again … deeper, darker. Domo could almost feel her pain pushing through the wide bell. He hugged her a little tighter and nestled his cheek to hers. “You okay, ma?”

  Vita removed the horn from her lips. “I’m fine,” she said, patting his cheek affectionately.

  “Then why were you playing that sad-ass song?” Domo asked. It was then he noticed a tear sparkling in the corner of her eye. “What’s the matter, V? Didn’t I hit it good enough?”

  Vita smiled. “Nah, you hit it too good. You’re a quick study.”

  “I got a great teacher,” Domo replied. “So, if it ain’t the sex, what’s eating at you? It’s Diamonds, isn’t it?”

  Vita was silent.

  “I should have known.” Domo walked back toward the bed and snatched his boxers from the pile of clothes on the floor.

  “Where are you going?” Vita slid off the stool.

  “I’m out, yo. I ain’t for this shit.” He slipped one leg into his jeans.

  “Knock it off, Domonique,” Vita told him.

  “No, you knock it off, LaVita,” Domo shot back. “Shorty, I like you a lot, but ain’t no way this shit is gonna work if I gotta keep competing with a ghost.”

  “You ain’t gotta compete with nobody, Domo. It’s just that … I don’t know. I’d be lying if I said Diamonds’ disappearance wasn’t part of it, but that ain’t the only thing troubling me. Maybe I’m just having a hard time adjusting to the new order of things with Buda in charge,” she admitted. It had been the elephant in the room among all of them since he had assumed control.

  “You ain’t the only one, ma. I hated working with Diamonds, but I think I hate working for Buda even more. Diamonds was a dick, but he wore his bullshit on his sleeve. At least I knew what to expect with him, but this Buda character…” Domo shook his head. “I don’t like him and I don’t trust him.”

  “Then why do you stay? You ain’t took the oath yet, so you ain’t bound by the code.”

  “Because of you!” Domo said as if the answer to the question should’ve been obvious.

  Vita raised an eyebrow. “Don’t bullshit me, Domo. You seen more money on the few jobs you’ve done with this crew than you would’ve stealing cars in Newark for an entire year.”

  “I can’t front, y’all done put hella paper in my pocket, but money ain’t never moved a nigga like me. I been broke most my life so I’m used to living without. Still, money comes a close second to what I feel when I’m around you. It almost feels like your pussy got me under some kind of spell,” he joked.

  “Maybe it does.” Vita kissed him playfully. She was about to suggest they go another round when her cell phone rang. As Vita stood in the corner speaking in hushed tones to someone on the other end, Domo glared at her, wondering who the hell would be calling at that hour. When she ended the call, Vita answered the question on his face. “Get your gear, pretty boy. It’s time to go to work.”

  The two lovers dressed hurriedly and started for the door. Vita felt bad about lying to Domo, but it was a necessary evil. Diamonds had been on her mind since he up and vanished. She was with Domo now, and planned to stay true to him, but it didn’t stop her from wondering about her former lover. Honesty would’ve probably been best, but she knew a boy as young as Domo would never be able to understand the bond she and Diamonds shared and why it was so hard to purge him from her system completely. Maybe Buda was right in suggesting that Diamonds had been killed by the Stone family, but until she saw a corpse with her own eyes she knew her heart would never have closure.

  PART

  I

  BORN ON THE BAYOU

  LOUISIANA, 1998

  BOOM! The retort of a shotgun cut through the quiet afternoon. A small flock of herons that had been sunning themselves on a path of damp mud flapped off on nervous wings a split second before two young boys came spilling from the bushes. One was a tall, lean youth of about eleven, whose thick Afro was so nappy that it had started to lock up due to neglect. His bare feet left smeared prints in the mud as he pulled the second boy along behind him. This one was shorter and on the chunky side, with a face that bore a striking resemblance to that of the first boy, only his skin was lighter.

  “Prese, Goldie!” The taller boy urged his younger brother, trying to help him keep pace without losing his own balance.

  “I can’t, Diamonds.” Goldie collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily from exhaustion. His legs were cramping and his heart thudded in his chest so hard that he feared it would leap clean from his body. “Maybe if we just explain to them why we did it they’ll give us a break and let us go.”

  Diamonds spared a nervous glance back in the direction they had just come. There was no sign of their pursuers, but he could still hear the baying of the bloodhounds drawing ever closer. It was only a matter of time before they were overrun. “Boy,” he gave Goldie a serious look, “the only thing gonna break today is our necks if them crackers catch us! I’d gladly die for you, baby brother, but not if I don’t have to. So, get your ass up and move!”

  The sharp edge of fear in his brother’s tone was enough to get Goldie back on his feet and moving.

  They hadn’t made it very far before the hounds came charging out of the bushes. They were massive brown creatures with sagging jowls and drooping, bloodshot eyes. Trailing them were three men dressed in fatigues and brandishing weapons. One of them twirled rope over his head like a cowboy. Diamonds held no illusions as to what the man planned to do with the noose if they were caught. When the hounds spotted the two boys they howled triumphantly, knowing that the game was almost over.

  “This way.” Diamonds pulled Goldie, leading him toward a stand of old willow trees a few yards away. They were withered and hunched over each other, forming a dome over the small dirt path that stretched between their rotting branches.

  The moment the brothers crossed into the trees it seemed to go from day to night. The branches that hung overhead almost completely blocked out the sun, casting the path in heavy shadows and silence. With the near-complete absence of any outside noises
, it was like the path existed in a world beyond the rest of the swamp.

  Goldie tensed as a phantom wind crept across his neck. He looked around nervously and when his eyes landed on the glyphs carved into the bark of several of the trees he realized why his stomach was doing cartwheels. “Do you know where we are, Diamonds?” he asked, louder than he needed to.

  “Yes, and so will they if you don’t shut that mouth of yours!” Diamonds hissed.

  They had crossed into a small patch of the swamp that the locals called Tit du Diable—“the Devil’s Tit.” According to local lore the Tit served as the Louisiana Bayou and the world of the unexplained. It was one of the most widely spread myths of the bayou. No one could say for sure if there was any truth to the stories about the magic and the monsters that dwelled beyond the Tit because only the foolish or the desperate ventured that deep into the swamp. Diamonds fell into the latter category.

  “Baby brother,” Diamonds softened his tone. “You know I’d lay down my life before I let anything touch you, be it a man or a monster. I need you to get your head off them ghost stories and your ass up this tree, unless we find ourselves swinging from one of them.” He bent down, locking his fingers to form a step to help Goldie reach one of the branches.

  Getting Goldie into the tree was a struggle, to say the least. It took his chubby fingers several tries before they were able to grip a branch that would hold his weight. He smiled proudly, and when he turned to tell his brother of his accomplishment the smile melted from his face. He opened his mouth to shout a warning to Diamonds, but the hound was already lunging.

  When the dog collided with Diamonds, he lost his grip on his brother’s foot and sent the boy swaying helplessly on the branch. Diamonds raised his arm just in time to receive the hound’s teeth, which were aimed at his throat. Pain shot threw his forearm as the canine clamped down and began shaking its head violently from side to side.

  “Get him, boy! You cripple that coon!” One of the fatigue-clad white men cheered the dog as it mauled Diamonds’ arm.

  The hound had managed to wrestle Diamonds to the ground. His arm had gone numb, and he was having a hard time moving his fingers. He was putting up a good fight, but the dog would soon win out. A shriek a few feet away drew Diamonds’ attention from the dog snacking on his limb. Goldie had fallen out of the tree and was now at the mercy of the other two hounds. One was shaking his leg, while the other was trying to circle around to get at his face. Goldie fought as long as he could, but the hound was eventually successful in breaching his defenses. Diamonds looked on in horror as the canine sank its fangs into his little brother’s throat.

  “No!” Diamonds cried out. He grunted, and managed to squirm from under the dog and come up with his free arm around its neck. Twisting with everything he had, he snapped the dog’s vertebrae. The hound was still and Diamonds was free. He made a dash for his brother to get the dogs off him, but he was tackled by two of the white men.

  “Oh no, you gonna watch this here, boy!” One of the men snickered. He forced Diamonds’ head into the dirt and made him watch while the hound ravaged his brother’s throat. Goldie’s leg flapped like a fish out of water for a few seconds and eventually went still.

  Watching his baby brother’s still body filled Diamonds with something so deep and heavy that grief didn’t even come close to summing it up. In all his life he had never broken a promise to his baby brother until that moment, and it was the most important promise of all: never to let harm befall him. Diamonds felt so defeated that he didn’t even fight when the hunters pulled him to his feet and dragged him over to a nearby tree. He never even batted an eye when they threw one end of a rope over the tree branch and secured the other around his neck. All he could do was stare at his brother’s prone body in disbelief.

  “Don’t worry, you’re gonna join your friend soon enough.” The lead hunter, and probably the cruelest of the lot, tightened the noose around Diamonds’ neck. “We gonna show you how we do thieves in this parish.”

  Diamonds gasped when the rope tightened around his neck and he felt them begin to pull him off the ground. They raised him just enough so that his tiptoes could scrape the ground, but he couldn’t plant his feet to save himself. Diamonds clawed at the constricting rope around his neck, but couldn’t get his fingers between his throat and the noose. It was over for him and he knew it. As he swung from the rope taking what was sure to be his last breaths, he looked around at the faces of the assembled white men and buried them into his brain. In that life or the next he would settle up with them.

  Suddenly the wind picked up. It started as a breeze but quickly turned into a strong gust. It was like a storm had magically appeared within the stand of trees. Diamonds’ body swung back and forth until it finally became too much and the branch holding him snapped, dropping him to the dirt and dazing him.

  In the center of the clearing, not far from where Diamonds fell, a woman appeared. She was older, with deeply dark skin and silver hair poking from beneath the multicolored head scarf she sported. She leaned heavily on a wooden walking stick and glared at the men with cloudy gray eyes. When she spoke, her voice seemed to resonate throughout the stand of trees.

  “I don’t recall inviting any of you onto my property, so I’d thank you to take your asses and whatever your squabbles are off it.”

  Some of the hunters took a cautious step back, but the leader stood tall and defiant. “Old crone, I’d advise you to get your black ass back to where you came from before you get a taste of what this boy’ gonna get.”

  The old woman laughed and when she did the wind picked up again. She took patient steps toward them, leaving small holes in the damp earth wherever her walking stick planted itself. “You think you some kinda big man out here hunting down children for sport. Maybe it’s you who needs to get a taste of what you’re dishing out.”

  The lead hunter sucked his teeth. “I’ve had about enough of this shit. Go get her, boys!” he ordered the hounds, but to his surprise they didn’t move. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Get that bitch!” The hounds still refused to move.

  “If you want somebody, even an animal to do something for you, then you should try asking them nicely.” The old woman cackled. She knelt in the mud and whispered something that only the hounds seemed to be able to hear because they became very agitated.

  The hunters looked on in shock as the dogs began to howl loudly, running around in circles chasing their own tales. When the lead hunter reached in to try and rein in the hound closest to him, it turned and snapped at him.

  “What the fuck?” He recoiled, examining his fingers to make sure they were all still accounted for.

  “A taste of your own madness.” The old woman sneered, revealing two gold teeth in the top of her mouth. “Let’s see how the hunter likes becoming the hunted.” She pointed her walking stick at the lead hunter.

  All three of the hounds responded to the old woman’s silent command and jumped on the lead hunter. They ripped him to pieces while his friends looked on helplessly. When the hounds turned their maddened eyes to the rest of the hunting party, the men wisely took off running, with the dogs on their heels.

  “Get your cowardly assess out of my swamp!” the old woman called after them. “And you let it be known far and wide that there will be no hunting of little black boys on Auntie’s land! Not now, and not ever!”

  Auntie stood there for a time, waiting until the hunters were out of sight before turning her attention back to the boy who she had saved from hanging. She found him hunched over the body of a chubbier boy, sobbing heavily.

  “Réveille-toi, petit frère, réveille-toi.” Diamonds nudged his brother, pleading for him to wake up. Goldie remained still, save for his chest rising and falling slowly. He was near the end.

  Auntie approached them and shook her head sadly. “A shame when one so young is taken from the world before his time.”

  “Don’t say that, he ain’t dead!” Diamonds snapped. He was beside himself
with grief.

  Auntie eyed Goldie. “Maybe not yet, but he ain’t long for this world, sugah. Best you can do is get him to higher ground so the scavengers can’t have their way with his remains. At least he can pass into the afterlife whole.” She turned to walk away, but Diamonds’ voice stopped her.

  “I know who you are,” he called after her. “You’re the Blood Witch of the Bayou, the one they call Auntie.” He had heard tales of the old woman who lived at the edge of the Tit, and sometimes helped those in need, but had thought her just another myth.

  Auntie chuckled, causing the leaves on the trees to sway slightly. “I whip up herbal potions for the sick and solutions for those who been wronged and can’t help themselves, but that hardly qualifies me as a witch. Best I can do is brew you up some poppy for his pain so that transition isn’t so bad, but outside of that I ain’t sure what you want from me.”

  “That ain’t my friend, he’s my little brother and I want you to save him,” Diamonds shot back. His voice was as desperate as his eyes when he looked at her. He stood and brushed the mud free of his knees before approaching her.

  Auntie raised her walking stick and pointed it menacingly at Diamonds. “Tread lightly, child.”

  Diamonds paused and raised his hands submissively. “I mean you no disrespect or harm, madame.” He had taken some of the bass out of his voice. “They say that your words carry enough favor with the Horseman to where you can persuade him to turn back from a soul he comes to collect. I’d do anything if you can see fit to have him give my little brother a pass,” he pleaded.

  Auntie snorted. “Them tales are just old backwater foolishness. Even if I did have say in such things, brokering with the Horseman can be messy business and ain’t no guarantee your brother will come back the same way you remembered him when he passed. Crossing that veil changes the best of us. Sometimes they come back men and sometimes monsters.” She shrugged her frail shoulders. “No matter the outcome, the retainer still has to be paid. Now that you know what’s at stake, you still wanna play this game?” She eyed him.