Chapter 25
Court had been postponed again, paperwork, motions, all delayed. A week had passed, then two, Diamond was sick.
The county didn’t sleep, those bitches talked, cried, laughed, rapped, fought, and fucked all day, every day.
Diamond stood in the middle of the dayroom, orange uniform clinging to her like a warning label.
Whispers followed her everywhere she went because everyone knew what she was in for.
Little Miss Kilo. She thinks she too good to talk.
She looks soft, I’ll make her lil’ pretty ass my bitch.
The comments were endless, and Diamond ignored them, she stayed to herself at all times.
Something in her spirit wasn’t right that day, she felt it before it happened. The tension in the large room was thick and too many bodies were moving wrong at once. She read body language very well, and something told her that her card was about to be pulled.
“Now,” someone muttered before they rushed her.
Two girls at first, then two more. Her instinct kicked in instantly.
Her father’s voice echoed in her head. Hands up, chin tucked, don’t panic, calculate, and execute.
The first girl swung wild, Diamond slid to the right and cracked her clean in the jaw.
Her bone cracked under Diamond’s knuckles; Diamond knew she had broken it.
The second girl came from behind, Diamond pivoted, using her elbow to crash into her ribs, then a sharp ass left hook to follow, they couldn’t fuck with her. Diamond had the room in an uproar as she put belt to ass on any bitch that ran up.
The COs came running and Diamond was the only one standing, still in a fighting stance. Blood and bodies were on the floor, some were moving, and some weren’t.
“Put your hands behind your back!” a female officer demanded while handling Diamond roughly.
“Jones.”
“Marcelo,” the officer shot back.
“Let her go,” a voice came from the top tier and to Diamond’s surprise, the inmate told the officer what to do and she did it.
Casually leaning against the rail stood Montana “Tana” Marcelo. Diamond had heard others speak of her, but that was her first time seeing her. She was a pretty, tattooed, slim, stud-looking Puerto Rican. Her eyes were cold, intrigued, and on Diamond.
Diamond didn’t stare or stall; once she was released, she walked to her cell and finally exhaled. She had survived her first jail fight, but she couldn’t lie, she feared the repercussions. She didn’t want to be stabbed or no shit like that, she wanted to go home.
“Damn,” Tana said softly, a smile tugging at her lips.
Her girls looked at her.
“You saw that shit? She went straight Mayweather on their asses,” one girl said as Tana nodded.
“As she should have. She’s a baby, but this ain’t the place for that shit. I like her, she’s a weapon and don’t even know it.”
Later that night, as Diamond sat on her bunk with an ice pack on her knuckles, shadows came across her walls. Three girls appeared and Diamond stood to her feet, ready, hands up, chin down.
“Relax, we come in peace. Montana wants to see you,” one said.
Diamond didn’t ask why, she just followed them; for some reason, she felt safe with them, and she didn’t even know them. Down the tier, in a private corner, the guards pretended not to see as Tana waited.
“Diamond Hayes.”
Tana studied her like she was seeing a reflection, something familiar, someone she once knew. Their eyes met, unlike most, Diamond didn’t look away, something passed between them. Recognition and power was what it was.
“Who taught you to fight like that?” Tana asked, reaching out and grabbing Diamond’s hand to inspect her bruised knuckles.
“My daddy,” Diamond answered as Tana released her hand.
She chuckled, “I can believe that.”
She looked Diamond in the eyes for a second time, “You remind me of me before the world hardened me all the way. How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
Tana’s eyes softened, “A baby. I was your age when I did my first bid.”
Before Diamond knew it, she blurted out, “Your first? How many you did?”
Tana and her girls laughed, “Quite a few, but this is my last one and yours, too. I understand that you’re young, but in here, age means nothing, protection does. From now on, you sit with us. You eat with us, you move with us, any problem of yours is a problem of mine and no one wants that.”
Diamond’s chest tightened, she didn’t know if she was being jumped in a gang or what, but if it meant protection, she was all in.
“You’re my little sister now and I’m going to show you how to move inside and prepare for outside. When you leave here, you’ll be sharper, smarter, and one dangerous bitch, no offensive.”
“You run a gang or something?”
“No. I’m the heir to the Marcelo Cartel and you are now my protégé.”
For the first time since the cuffs clicked close, Diamond felt safe and slept the whole night through.
Diamond had no idea she had just been claimed by something and someone far bigger than Chicago.
A demon in the making, her father raised her, but the Marcelo Cartel crowned her.
Little Diamond Hayes was about to be a big fuckin’ problem.