Page 78 of Conflict Diamond

I hear the meaning. She’s giving me a choice.

I can rewrite our story. I can change the rules. Makeareintowere.Shewasmy partner. Now she’s my slave.

“No,” I say, like she asked me a question.

“Please?” she asks, as if it’s that simple.

I bend my head. I kiss her wrists, both of them, just above where my grip has left a red mark. Her skin is raw from Jonas and Ansel’s fucking jute rope. “Let’s go home,” I say.

She shakes her head slowly. “I’m staying.”

“You can’t do that.” I don’t bother shouting. She’s talking about doing the impossible.

“I can. There’s food. Water. The roof doesn’t leak.” Her lips actually quirk into something that resembles a smile. “Ursula’s here.”

“What the fuck are you going to do here?”

“Live.”

I start to tell her everything she’ll miss, but the list is so long, I don’t know where to begin. It doesn’t matter, though. None of it does.

Herzog broke her more than I ever imagined.

“I have to go,” I say, praying she’ll change her mind. Knowing she won’t.

“I’ll miss you.” She takes my hand. Turns it over. Brushes her lips over my knuckles, the ones I split fighting to free her from Jonas and Ansel.

I push myself to my knees, to my feet. I cross to the door. I try one more time. “It isn’t safe.”

“Nothing ever is,” she says, from her place on the hearth. She closes her fingers around the poker that lies on the floor before she meets my eyes with perfect deliberation. “Master.”

She offers me the metal rod. It’s her final bid.

I leave, because that’s the only choice I have.

35

ALIX

* * *

Istay in the study long after the front door closes. I imagine Trap walking down the winding driveway. I picture him getting into the Mercedes. I hear him telling Charles to drive him home, to the freeport.

I miss Trap already.

But I’ve never been good at holding on to the people I love.

I loved my mother, but she got sick and died.

I loved my brother, but he sold me to Master and died.

Did I love Master? Do I still?

I feared him. I fought him—at least for the first year. I hated the way he hurt me, the physical pain he caused my body.

But Master gave me strength I never knew I had. Because of him, I outlasted every woman on the second floor, every pawn.

I became the queen.

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