Diamonds and Pearl Read online

  After a few blissful moments, he was able to break the hold the dagger was trying to get over him, and he remembered why he had come. He moved toward the rear of the hut, boots making a wet sound on the rickety floor as he drew near the fire burning inside the small pit. In a shadowed corner, the red ember of a cigarette burned in the darkness. Diamonds wasn’t alone, but of course he hadn’t expected to be.

  After a few dramatic seconds, he heard movement, followed by the squeaky sounds of wheels that hadn’t been oiled in a while. An old woman in a wheelchair rolled out into view. The skin of her sagging jowls was the color of midnight and seemed to be one sharp movement away from falling completely from her bones. A patchwork blanket was slung over her gnarled legs, dragging slightly on the floor when the chair moved. Milk-white eyes that had long ago failed her scanned the room before coming to rest on where Diamonds was standing. A smile spread across her thin lips, showing off the four remaining teeth in her mouth. “So, the conquering hero returns.” She lifted her bony hands in his direction.

  Diamonds took her hands and kissed the back of each lovingly. “Hello, Auntie. How are you?”

  “As well as can be expected, considering these dark times we’ve fallen into. ‘For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.’ Genesis told it, and if they’d listened, they’d have been better prepared,” Auntie preached.

  “These ain’t the end of days for the world, Auntie—just New Orleans,” Diamonds told her.

  Auntie shrugged her frail shoulders. “Same difference, depending on who you ask. New Orleans is the only world some of us have ever known. What care we got for anything going on anywhere else? You being a child of these lands, I’d expect you to understand better than most.”

  “I do understand, Auntie, but I also know there’s a great big world out there just waiting to be conquered.”

  “And you plan to take it all for yourself, huh?”

  “As much of it as I can,” Diamonds said honestly.

  Auntie shook her head. “Your eyes always were bigger than you belly. Even as a kid, when the others were done eating, you would sit and keep going until you damn near popped. You have always been a glutton.”

  “Not a glutton, just not as easily satisfied as some. I believe children born with nothing are owed a debt by the world, and I intend to collect what I got coming,” Diamonds said.

  “Be mindful that in your pursuit of what you feel you’re owed, you don’t end up with what you got coming. You can’t keep taking from the cycle of life without giving something back. Nothing is without a price, and you, my little glutton, are racking up quite a tab.”

  “Fuck the cycle! Tonight I paid a debt so heavy that me and the cycle should be square for a while,” he said, thinking of John-Boy.

  “My arrogant little prince. After all these years you still think you’re above the laws of nature?”

  “The only law I know is that of the jungle: the strong live and the weak die,” Diamonds said arrogantly. “Me and my team got big plans, and we intend to execute them by any means necessary.”

  “Is that what you’re calling them? Your team?” Auntie asked in amusement. “Poor fools bound to your insane quests by love, enchantment, and plain stupidity. What happens when the mask slips and they see you for who you really are?”

  “By the time I have to worry about that, I’ll have already set myself and those around me up with nice enough lives that it won’t matter. And what does any of that matter to someone who, by your own power, has been made immortal?” He removed a braided piece of leather from around his neck and brandished the pouch hanging from the end of it.

  Auntie’s hands reached out for the pouch as if drawn to it by whatever power was emitting from it. She ran her fingers along the finely stitched edges and recalled the day she had sewn it together and filled it with soil from her private garden.

  “‘For so long as I keep home close to my heart, no harm will ever befall me,’” Diamonds said, reminding Auntie of her words on the day she’d given it to him.

  Auntie laughed, and it sounded like a small car sputtering to life. “There’s a difference between immortality and being harder to kill than most, and you’re determined to find that out the hard way. Diamonds, I love you too much to watch you go down this road. I wish you well in your travels, but I’m afraid there’s no more help I can offer you.”

  Now it was Diamonds’s turn to laugh. “Auntie, I haven’t come here for your help. I’ve come for your blessings.” He snatched the blanket from her lap and used it to tie her arms to the wheelchair.

  “What are you doing?” Auntie struggled feebly against her restraints.

  “Using the past to ensure my future,” Diamonds told her, drawing the black dagger.

  Auntie didn’t have to be able to see the dagger to know it was near. She could feel its sinister presence taunting her. “Dirty dog! I invite you into my home and teach you my secrets, and this is how you do me?”

  “Yes, Auntie. You did teach me all your secrets, and this is why I know I’ll need more than a few loyal souls and some bullets to accomplish what I’m setting out to do. If I am to conquer this world, then I’ll need a blessing from the other side.” He moved behind her, placing the knife under her chin. “Trust me, I take no pleasure in this, Auntie. If there was some other way, I’d gladly explore it, but there’s too much at stake. What you got ain’t gonna do the world no good, festering out here in this swamp.”

  “Thieving bastard!” she hissed. “You always look to take what don’t belong, and that is gonna be the thing that lays you low! You think you can snatch my power and bury me in the swamp like you do all your secrets, but some things ain’t meant to stay buried. The same power you crave so desperately is going to rise up and swallow everything you hold dear to your heart before dragging your wicked ass to where it needs to be. And when that time comes, old Auntie will be waiting for you. Be it in heaven, hell, or the between, I will have my revenge!” she vowed.

  “Of this I have no doubt, but by then I’ll have lived like a king in this life, so I could give a shit about what happens to me in the next,” Diamonds said before slitting the old woman’s throat.

  PART

  II

  KINGDOM OF STONE

  CHAPTER FIVE

  NEW YORK, NEW YORK / MAY 2008

  Devonte could feel his eyes involuntarily rolling back in his head. He’d kept his game face on for as long as he could, but eventually he succumbed to the waves of pleasure that were rolling over his body. He was traveling through a beautiful place, the young thing riding his stiff cock like she was his tour guide.

  The first rays of the rising sun were just crawling through the window of the hotel room, painting her brown body in a soft orange glow. She had a near perfect shape, slim waist, plump rear, and slightly over a handful of breasts. She ran her fingers through her long black hair, letting it rise and fall playfully. Soft-brown eyes looked down at him from under hooded lids as she bit her lip, letting Devonte know he was hitting her sweet spot. It was such a perfect picture that he almost shed a tear, but he was too much of a G to let her see him cry.

  “Right there, baby … right there,” she said, panting, and gyrated her hips to push him deeper inside her.

  Devonte felt himself about to cum, so he decided to change positions. “Let me hit it from the back,” he suggested, gently sliding her off him. She was only too happy to oblige, getting on her knees and resting on her elbows, giving him a full view of her shaved, dripping box. He smacked his lips like a starved man about to sit down to a meal. Unable to help himself, he leaned in and lapped at her moist pussy. He had never been a fan of going down on women, because some tasted sour or carried a hint of sweat, but she always tasted like honeysuckle. Munching her box made his dick swell. He was ready to enter her again. As he stared at her heart-shaped ass, hiked up and ready for him, he couldn’
t help but imagine how much better her pussy would feel if the layer of rubber from the condom wasn’t between them. Taking a quick peek to make sure she wasn’t paying attention, he used his thumb to pop off the rubber. When he stuck his dick back inside her, it was like a whole different experience. She was so wet and so warm that he lasted all of ten strokes before exploding inside her womb.

  “No, the fuck you didn’t!” she cursed, sliding off of his dick. Thick cum ran down her inner thigh and dripped onto the bed. She grabbed the sheet and began wiping the semen from her vagina and legs.

  “My fault, baby. It must’ve broke and I didn’t feel it,” Devonte lied.

  When she looked up at him, the passion was gone from her eyes and had been replaced by rage. “That’s bullshit and you know it! This was some real lame shit, Devonte.” She got up and stormed into the bathroom to clean herself up properly.

  Devonte leaned against the bathroom door for a long while, thinking about what he’d just done and listening to the shower running on the other side. He knew he had fucked up. He had been seeing the girl for a few months now, and from the first time they’d had sex, he had been dreaming about what hitting it raw would feel like. It was a thirsty move and a lapse in judgment on his part. “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “Look, I know you’re worried about getting pregnant and all, but don’t be. It was only one time. Even if you did end up getting pregnant, I’d step up and handle my business.”

  She snatched the door open and came out wrapped in a towel. She wasn’t as mad as she had been when she went in, but anger still lingered in her eyes. “First of all, it only takes one time … or didn’t you learn that in school like everyone else? And pregnancy isn’t my only concern. I’m more worried about my life than anything.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Devonte didn’t understand.

  “I mean STDs,” she explained while putting her bra back on. “A wayward dick is just as dangerous as a loaded gun.” She slipped her white shirt on and began buttoning it.

  “You ain’t gotta worry about that. I’m clean,” Devonte assured her.

  She paused her buttoning and gave him a serious look. “And how do I know that? Because you told me? Let’s keep it real, Devonte. I know you’re out there sticking your dick in all these hood bitches, and I’m okay with that because we’re not exclusive. But the minute your dick puts my life in jeopardy, it’s a problem.”

  He wanted to argue, but she had a valid point. Devonte had a roster of chicks he was sleeping with, and he didn’t use protection with all of them. “Listen, I feel fucked up about this. Let me make it up to you.”

  “You should feel fucked up, because it was a greasy move. The only thing you can do for me right now is drop me off so I’m not late,” she told him while wiggling into her plaid skirt and mumbling obscenities to herself.

  Devonte had seen her upset before, but never like this. He suddenly started thinking of all the bad things that could come of falling out of her good graces. Before they left that room, he needed to know where her head was at. “I know you’re pissed and all, but I hope this ain’t gonna create a problem between us.”

  She turned to him with a look that was somewhere between playful and dangerous. “What kind of problems? You mean like my father finding out you tried to knock up his only daughter and killing you, or the fact that you’ve been fucking a seventeen-year-old girl?” When she saw him bristle uncomfortably, she cracked a smile. “Don’t worry, Devonte. I’m not the type to kiss and tell. Besides, our little secret going public would probably hurt my reputation more than yours.” She moved closer to him and ran her hand tenderly down the side of his face. “The daughter of a boss sleeping with the help would make me look like a woman of small principles, and we can’t have that.” She patted his cheek playfully before sashaying toward the door.

  Devonte stood there, still in his birthday suit, trying to decide if he was angrier at her insult or turned on by the audacity of the young girl. “You’re a cold piece of work, Pearl Stone.”

  “Not cold enough to keep your thirsty ass away,” she shot back. “Now, hurry and put your clothes on. I’ve got homeroom in an hour, and I don’t want to be late.”

  * * *

  Pearl sat in the back of her global studies class, trying her best to stay awake. Her eyelids felt like they had sandbags tied to them, and it was a struggle to keep them open. Devonte had kept her awake half the night, plowing into her like he was trying to use his dick to dig his way to China. He wasn’t the most savory fella she’d ever met, but he fucked like a rock star and could reach places inside her that Pearl had only recently discovered existed. She had always enjoyed her escapades with Devonte until recently. Over the last couple of weeks had had started to become clingy, and the stunt he’d pulled with the condom confirmed what she had already been thinking: it was time to put some space between them. Being the baby mama of a drug dealer was not something she saw in her future. Pearl had bigger plans for her life.

  At the front of the class her teacher, Mr. Gaines, continued to talk. He was going on and on about the trouble down South as a result of the hurricane and the government’s mishandling of the aftermath. The storm and the havoc it wreaked were more than three years old by then, but Mr. Gaines continued to speak about the events as if they had just happened. He was new to New York, originally from Baton Rouge. When Katrina had hit, he’d gotten to witness her fury firsthand. When he spoke about the people and things that he’d lost, it was in a tone so passionate that there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, except Pearl’s. Her mind was elsewhere.

  To Pearl, school was a necessary evil that she endured for the sole purpose of appeasing her father. Pearl was by no means a bad student. In fact, she was in the top tenth percentile of her school and had made the honor roll every year since the seventh grade. She was good in school, just not very motivated by it. Other than math and reading, you never used the things you learned, so she figured if she just focused on those two areas, the rest would be a breeze. Pearl had learned to add, subtract, and multiply before she got to kindergarten, and those were the only life skills she would ever need as far as she was concerned. The only reason she was so hell-bent on graduating was because her dad had promised to buy her a Mercedes. Daddy always knew how to motivate her.

  Her father was somewhat of a local celebrity, which made Pearl famous in her own right. Wherever she went, people treated her with respect. That was one of the perks of being the daughter of one of the most feared men in the city. Having a father who was a boss is what often got Pearl noticed, but it was her beauty that kept all eyes on her. She stood at a statuesque five nine with a body that curved in all the right places. In addition to being physically beautiful, she exuded a confidence that you couldn’t help but notice when she walked into a room. With money, looks, and charisma … Pearl had it all but still wanted more.

  The bell finally rang, signaling the end of the class and the beginning of social hour, as she liked to call it. It was lunch, which meant it was time to meet up with her girls. They mostly congregated in the lunch room, where they played cards and exchanged gossip, but every so often they would sneak off school grounds and walk the five blocks to the pizza shop near Bowman High. Bowman was an alternative school that catered mostly to teenage parents and knuckleheads who’d gotten booted from other schools and were on their last chances. But there were also students who were victims of various circumstances that wouldn’t allow them to attended regular high schools, and they were determined to finish their educations. Most of the girls at St. Francis shied away from the hard-nosed guys at Bowman, but Pearl and her crew embraced them. They loved dancing on the razor’s edge.

  When Pearl stepped out of Mr. Gaines’s class, she was met by her friend Marisa. Marisa was a Cuban girl with rich chocolate skin, pink lips, and thick black hair that she sometimes wore in a puffy Afro. At first glance most people assumed Marisa was Black, but when she got to rattling off in Spanish, her true colors came out. She was pret
ty fly and down for whatever, same as Pearl. The two of them were as thick as thieves.

  “What’s popping, mommy?” Marisa greeted Pearl with a high-five.

  “Chilling, glad to finally be outta that boring class. Who gives a fuck what’s going on in Louisiana when we live all the way up in New York? That shit ain’t got nothing to do with us,” Pearl said, dismissing the tragedy.

  Marisa shook her head. “It would be a coldhearted bitch to say something like that. You know a lot of people lost their lives and their homes in that storm. New Orleans looks like a disaster area, and to make things worse, Uncle Sam is taking his sweet fucking time in trying to help them clean it up. It’s been almost three years since it happened, and I hear that families are still displaced. That’s no joke, Pearl.”

  “You’re right—it’s not funny. It’s fucked up, but that doesn’t mean I wanna listen to Mr. Gaines talk about it for forty-five minutes.”

  “If you’re that sour on it, why don’t you just ditch the stupid class?” Marisa asked.

  Pearl gave her a serious look. “And have my father break my neck when the school calls about me cutting?”

  “Stop acting like that. It’s the last day of school before spring break. I don’t think anybody will even notice if we cut out early.”

  “Big Stone would know,” she assured her. Her father seemed to have a crystal ball that gave him a glimpse at anything and everything that went on with his family.

  The two girls headed down the hall together, exchanging gossip and ignoring the envious glances they were getting from some of the other girls as they passed. Marisa wasn’t on anyone’s Christmas list, but most of the shade was directed toward Pearl. The girls who attended St. Francis either hated Pearl and her crew or wanted to be down with them. Either way, they were usually the topic of conversation.

  About halfway to the lunch room, they were joined by Ruby. She was the oddball of their crew. Ruby was a short, plump Jewish girl with fiery red hair and a pointed nose. She was kind of on the weird side, but nobody fucked with her because she was Pearl’s friend. For a white girl, Ruby had a lot of soul and was cool people. She also served as the minister of information for their gang. There wasn’t much that went on at St. Francis that Ruby didn’t get the scoop on first. From the mischievous look on her face, Pearl knew she had something juicy to spill.