Page 35 of Falcon's Prey

“The whole deal with the board?” I asked in a docile tone. My body was relaxed, or as relaxed as I could make it appear to be. “If you don’t mind me asking, how does that work?”

“Checks and balances. Back when the depression hit, we struggled. Jewelry was a luxury, one not many could afford. My great-grandfather managed to secure connections, some through marriage, most through his cunning. Remington Diamonds stopped being family-owned and instead became incorporated. Fast-forward through a lot of bullshit and a few losses, Remington Diamonds own fifty-eight percent, the board forty-two.”

Ember took another hit, and I waited for her before asking more questions.

“My great-great-grandfather was on some Costa Nostra bullshit.” She shrugged, and I snorted. “We get our trust funds when we turn twenty-five.”

“How old are you?” I interrupted her.

“Twenty-five.”

“Then why are they still cutting you off?”

“Let me finish. We get our trust funds at twenty-five unless you are a liability.”

Which she was, but that still wasn’t fair to her.

“That’s not even the part that makes me angry. I’ll wait five more years, whatever; I’m sure Mattias will find a way to not give me my money.”

“Is he in charge of your money?”

Because if he was, he just got to the top of my shit list. Ember licked her bottom lip and tried to bite it, but winced. The action had my dick getting hard.

“Yep.” She laid down and stopped looking at me. “As I said, my great-great-grandfather was on some mafia shit. The president position goes to the firstborn of the family and gets passed down.”

“You should be president right now, shouldn’t you?”

“Should, could, but won’t because between my legs is a pussy and not a dick, so moot fucking point.”

“You like it, don’t you? The diamonds and all that shit?”

“Do you know anything about diamonds?”

I shook my head.

“Let me enlighten you, bodyguard. Colored diamonds are expensive, as long as they’re not artificially dyed. Whenever we run across them, they are sold before we get them processed. Yellow diamonds are your basic bitches more commonly found, but also more in demand, since they cost less. Green and orange diamonds are at the bottom of the rare pool. Pink diamonds are in high demand and the ones that get the most invested on, which brings me to number two on the rarity scale—the blue diamonds. It’s always a battle between pink and blue, but pink is a little more basic.”

I smiled as I watched her speak with a passion I didn’t know she possessed. “And the rarest diamond?”

Ember yawned. “The red diamonds. Once upon a time, people believed that red diamonds didn’t exist.”

“There are red diamonds, darling.”

She shook her head. “You’re such a commoner; you’re probably confusing them with rubies.”

I shook my head, so she went on.

“Those are a purple red or brownish red; the rest are man-made. There is only one red and two that come close. The Moussaieff Red, and the Hancock Red, which looks reddish to the naked eye.”

My body stilled as I waited for the next part.

“The Remington Ember, or more commonly known as the Ember, is the only dark red there is. The color is dark, but the cuts shine, making it appear lighter from where the sunlight hits, giving it a burning look.”

“Your parents named you after your own diamond?” I laughed it off to change the subject.

Ember gave me a sleepy glare. “My family is on some old-school bull. When my great-grandfather discovered the Ember, he put a stipulation clause so only our family line could use it as a first name. The right belonging to a male firstborn…so here I am.”

I gave her a nod and waited a few more minutes so she could fall asleep. “Why are you nice to me?”

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