Final Debt

Daniel chuckled, his teeth white in the dark. “Who are you calling one-dimensional? I’ve got lots of tricks up my sleeve, bitch. Just wait till we get to the mine.” Letting me go, he sniffed his fingers obnoxiously loud. “Can’t wait to taste you. Can’t wait to claim you. I’ll obey my father, for now. But you keep pushing me and you’ll see who’s fucking sorry.”

The Jeep lurched forward.

And for the first time in my life, I prayed.

MY PHONE RANG.

A few birds took flight, their feathers rustling in the leaves of leering trees. My empathetic illness throbbed in my blood, fanning out, searching for signs that Nila wasn’t far from me. That I had time to do what I needed. That all of this would be over.

Shutting the top of the laptop, ceasing the email chain of instructions I’d been sharing with Kill, the Pure Corruption president in Florida, I swiped on my phone and pressed answer.

The number signalled the caller was at Hawksridge.

Nila?

My heart thundered. Please, be okay. “Jet speaking.”

“Kite, it’s me.” Jasmine’s worried voice came down the line, scattering fear in an instant.

Shit.

I loved my sister, but her call wasn’t good news. Even though she wasn’t close by, and our only connection was the phone, I sensed her panic and horror. My condition amplified her terror, injecting it directly into my bloodstream.

My hands curled tighter around the device. “What happened? Where’s Nila?”

My heart raced as Jaz swallowed a sob. “They took her!”

What?

My legs shot me upright. “Who took her?” I winced, gripping my healing side as agony flared. Stupid fucking question. Not waiting for an answer, I growled, “Where did they take her? Where, Jasmine?”

Tears tainted her voice. “Bonnie was secretive all morning, not letting me leave my room, saying we had important things to go over. She wouldn’t let me go downstairs. She wouldn’t let me go to Nila’s quarters.”

My fingers clutched the phone like a mortal enemy. “Get to the point. Spit it out, Jaz! Where did they take her?”

Jasmine cried louder, wrapped up in her own grief. “I can’t believe I did it, Kite. I grabbed a pair of her flower cutting scissors and demanded the truth.” Disbelief and horror lurked in her tone. “I wheeled up to our grandmother and threatened to kill her if she didn’t tell me. I’ve become as bad as they have. I’m the same as Cut!” Her sobs came louder. “I’ve become them.”

Shit, I don’t have time for this.

Rage at her timewasting battled with my need to calm her. All her life, that’d been her ultimate fear: turning into Cut. Forgetting her humanity and being swept up in the evil romanticism of debts and death and blood.

Lowering my voice, I forced myself to remain calm. This was my sister. My blood. My fear for Nila was equal measure to my loyalty to Jasmine. “You’re not the same.”

Dashing into the tent, I grabbed the backpack with already packed essentials. “You did what we both should’ve done years ago. So what you threatened her? We should’ve killed her for the things she’s done. She’s the catalyst in all of this, Jaz. Not me, not you, not Kes. Not anyone. Her.”

Breathing hard, I stuffed last-minute necessities into my jean’s pocket and plotted a new plan. “We’re putting things right. If we have to kill to do that, we will.”

Jaz hiccupped, tears still clogging the line. “I just—I’ve let you down. She knows I’m on your side now. The way she looked at me, Jet. All this time she let me get away with things I know you would never have been permitted to. She indulged me as I’m the only girl. But she knows now. She knows what I truly think of her. I’ve ruined the trust you told me to gain.”

Her voice broke. “You asked me to keep Nila safe. You gave me a task. And because I’m stuck in this fucking chair, I let you down.”

I slammed to a halt.

My stomach twisted; it took everything inside to keep my voice level and not wobble with guilt. “Jaz…you’re in that chair because of me. It was selfish of me to put so much on you. You did keep her safe. You dealt with Bonnie all these years. You got Cut to change the Debt Inheritance. That’s fucking huge. The rest is on me.”

“No, no it’s not.”

Sudden wrath hijacked my hand—I pummelled a fist into a sapling. “Yes, it is. I had her in my arms a few hours ago. I thought I knew best. I stupidly thought I had time. I’m a fucking idiot. I’m to blame. Not you. Never you. Understand?”

Jasmine didn’t reply.

My time had run out. My voice lowered to a soothing whisper. “I can’t comfort you. Not yet. It fucking kills me that you’re dealing with this on your own but, Jasmine, I need you to spit it out. Where did they take her?”

Diamond Alley?

The integration house in Devon?

Where?

Jaz sniffed loudly, shoving aside her grief. “They’ve taken her to Almasi Kipanga.”

“Fuck!”

My mind swam with images of our mine. The cavernous caves and labyrinth of chiselled pathways. Our fortune had come from there. Our name. Our titles. Everything we had came from the dirt.

Almasi Kipanga.

Swahili for Diamond Hawk.

“When? How?”

“I don’t know. But they took her. They left hours ago. I checked with air traffic control. The plane left on route to Chad then to Botswana. You’ll never make it in time.”