*“Diamond, I fucked up!” Carmel wailed sitting on her friend’s chaise, black mascara running down her face.

The couch, like the townhouse and her friend were cool and elegant with a dash of sexy attitude thrown in.

Compared to her Carmel felt like a mess in her sloppy red sweatshirt, ripped jeans and baseball cap.

“What do you mean you fucked up?” the other woman asked glancing at her friend.

Carmel was definitely not looking her usual fly self and due to their crazy work schedules and the men in their lives they hadn’t seen each other lately.

She and Carmel had been friends from about the third grade and they could drift apart for years and come back together like no time had passed at all.

Di was also DJ’s godmother.

“I love him so much it hurts!” Carmel replied crying harder.

Diamond’s perfectly arched eyebrows raised as she snatched a decorative box of tissue from her vanity and thrust it at her girl. This was starting to sound serious.

“Bitch please, that is just the pain from that big dick he’s been giving you. You know you ain’t had none like that in your life and Darren that asshole loser was a lifetime ago.” The beautiful woman said sarcastically.

But Carmel shook her head emphatically.

“I made that sound Di! That sound that Eddie Murphy talked about in Raw.” She admitted.

She wiped fiercely at her eyes knowing that Diamond Long would kill her if she messed up her furniture and nearly missed the shocked expression on her friends face as she blew her nose noisily.

Carmel would have laughed but it wasn’t funny and she watched Di take a sip of her white wine before she put the glass on the granite countertop in her walk in closet.

The other woman was getting ready to go out on a date but Carmel had called her up after months of being out of touch and Di had said come over.

Carmel had up till then been spending every moment she wasn't with her son or at work with Rod and she hadn't been able to take it any longer.

She had called Di knowing she couldn’t talk to her mother.

“Well damn Mel what are you going to do?” Di asked quietly.

She had slept with a few married men herself, but that was business not pleasure. Carmel despite her sexy wardrobe had been fairly conservative in the bedroom department and Darren had been her third serious boyfriend.

“I don’t know! Rod gave me this anklet and I can’t get it off and he won’t take it off. If Darren sees it he’ll want to act like he's got rights over me or some shit!" Carmel told her angrily showing her the gold chain.

Di snorted as she eyed it with a nod, she knew that men didn't give their sidepieces jewelry somethng was going on here.

"I only went to see him once in jail to tell him I didn’t want anything to do with his trifling ass. But you know how hard headed that boy is and Rod told me already he doesn’t want another man touching me.” Carmel said shredding the messy tissues in her fingers.

Di shook her head at the balls of the man. Possessive and demanding as hell, she was beginning to wonder about this guy!

$$$

Diamond grabbed a small silver wastebasket and indicated her friend should discard the paper in it.

She understood what it was to have someone doing time and she rifled through her closet looking for an outfit before deciding on a white Chanel pantsuit and pink camisole that showed off her firm breasts and sexy figure.

“I never will understand how a man can expect a woman to wait for him to come out of prison when you know a lot of them are getting their salads tossed in there.” Diamond said dropping the white silk robe.

Carmel absently watched her thinking she looked like a video vixen with that body not a professional working woman in her beige La Perla underwear.

“Girl you know D’lishus would kill the man who looked at him wrong.” Carmel said not wanting to imagine DJ’s daddy being somebody’s bitch.

Diamond turned away quickly and put on the camisole hiding her face from her girl.

She knew people did what they had to do to make it in the system. She and Carmel were tight but there was one thing the other woman didn't know about her.

“Hon my date is gonna be here any minute and you are distracting me, but I have someone I can talk to about what’s going on at least with Darren. The stud and his wife? I’m not sure what I can do about that.” She admitted as she put on the pants over her g-string and slid the side zip up.

“I don’t want him hurt Di for DJ’s sake, but I want Darren out of my life. I love Rod and I feel guilty about his wife but I won’t try to break them up.” She said firmly looking up at her friend as she slipped on the fitted white jacket.

“Girl please stop lying you'd try to break them up in a heartbeat, but we both know it would be better if Mr. Hot Rod left wife on his own and I hate violence no one is gonna get hurt - much. " Di replied calling a spade a spade.

The women exchanged a look and then started laughing because they had it like that. The closeness had come from both of them also not being well liked by the other girls and they had gravitated to each other in school.

"So are you going to be able to get some vacation time to come to the island with me?” Di asked slipping into gold Jimmy Choo platform pumps that matched her purse.

“I’ll try.” She replied, thinking a get away might be just the thing especially with D'lishus getting out soon.

They went downstairs arm in arm talking about what to wear on the trip and the doorbell pealed.

“He’s right on time as usual. I like that about him unlike some of the other men I’ve dated.” Diamond said with a smile as she went to open the door.

She raised her face and Carmel turned away to grab her bag and coat as the couple kissed.

The man was hidden by the door but then she heard a familiar voice say.

“I missed you D.”

She turned back in surprise and saw the tall, handsome man with sexy creases in his cheeks who looked equally shocked at seeing her.

“Come meet my friend baby.” Di said, with an inviting smile.

$$$

Every time she came here it was a reminder of the time that they had lost and could never get back.

He had been incarcerated for most of the time that she had known him and as Diamond walked to where he waited behind the class, as anger and sadness swept through her that such a great person would end up in a place like this.

People saw what they wanted to see when they looked at him and most couldn’t get past his tattoos, piercings or hair but she saw the piece of his heart that belonged to her and always would.

She walked with her head high, despite the fact that the new guards had tried to bring her down with their degrading, invasive body search.

She was sure they would pay for that once he found out about it and she would make sure he knew.

Di wore a simple white Gap blouse and grey Donna Karan wool trousers with a black and white tweed jacket and black leather Louboutin boots, everything designer.

She could feel eyes on them prisoners, other visitors and guards as she smiled warmly and she ignored it all keeping her focus on him.

She had a favor to ask and hoped that he would be able to help her with this problem.

“How’s my baby girl doing?” he asked in a deep voice watching her with heavy lidded eyes as she sat down.

An inmate in the next cubicle heard him speak and did a double take. Bushman didn't sound like that, maybe he was trying to put some bass in his voice for the banging honey who came to visit him.

$$$

He had taken Diamond from her mother’s lifeless body and held the newborn in his hands before blowing sacred smoke over her tiny flailing limbs.

He was proud of the woman she had become, as hard, polished, coveted and beautiful as her name just as he had wanted her to be even though he hadn’t been able to raise her.

He had always made sure that she had everything she wanted until she could do for herself and she had done well.

She visited him several times a year but he had told her that because of her position as secretary to one of the top executives at Delacroix and Pearson she needed to stop coming to see him, something that she refused to do.

“Hi daddy, I’m really good. How are you?” Diamond said to her father.

Jean Claude looked at his daughter, Diamond seemed happy but there was a shadow in her eyes and if there was one thing he knew it was shadows.

“I am as I always am.” He said formally and then smiled showing off white teeth.

“So what is new with you?” he asked and waited.

The smile she bestowed on him lightened his heart.

“I’ve met someone and we’ve actually been dating for a couple of months. He’s a nice guy. I even told him about you being in the joint and he was still cool.” She told him looking down at her short French manicured nails.

“That is good, then tell me what is still troubling you?” he asked patiently.

She looked around seeing the other occupants of the institutional gray room in their white t-shirts and orange pants before her gaze landed back on her father.

“You remember my friend Carmel? Her son’s father is about to get out of here in a few months.” She began and soon she had told him everything.

“You cannot blame a father for wanting to know their child.” Jean Claude replied watching her face harden.

“He fucked up her life the first time and she doesn’t want the same for DJ and I don’t want it either. My godson is the smartest kid and he deserves the best just like I had.” Diamond replied fiercely.

She subsided when one of several guards moved closer.

“We don’t have much time left. What is the name of this man?” he asked quickly.

“Darren, Darren Jones. He goes by D’lishus and he’s in for drug and gun possession charges.” Diamond whispered, realizing he was right as the head guard advanced on them.

“I’ll see what the big man can do baby girl.” He told her his voice changing back to his natural register.

$$$

Narrowed eyes watched as Diamond got up, gave him a smile and left as a throbbing began in his head. Ernie “Baby Doc” Bush could feel the familiar headache coming on.

It always happened and he would need to spend an hour in the dark before the effects would wear off and he allowed the guard to shackle him as he shuffled off to his cell.

His family had long washed their hands of him preferring to work at Burger King and Taco Bell while going to school and studying to become successful in their chosen professions.

His parents didn’t understand why Ernest couldn’t do like his siblings had but as a child he’d had been strongly influenced by BET, Scarface, and his wayward friends.

It was no real surprise that he wanted to get rich or die trying and lack of height made him even more determined to do so.

He had been running the streets since he was thirteen gaining street cred, unfortunately he also liked to smoke his own product and the Kush made him fearless and paranoid.

Ernie was in for narcotics distribution and gun charges and he had been transferred from Sing Sing to Cooke because he had stabbed another inmate who had tried to rape him in the shower.

He had already served ten of his thirty years and gotten in good with a couple of the guards when he heard about the prisoner that was being transferred to from out of state.

Cooke was a high level facility for repeat offenders with about four hundred inmates.

Ernie had learned that this was a mass murderer who had killed his victims by burying them alive and his name was whispered even by the guards in awe.

“The Bushman” as he had been known then had been curious to see who this cold blooded murderer was. Anyone who commanded such respect was someone he wanted to meet.

They had brought him in at night with nearly a full shift of guards and Ernie had caught a glimpse of a very tall, well built white haired black man being wheeled in on a gurney like Hannibal Lecter.

He hadn’t been among the prisoners who scoffed wondering what the big deal was when he had not been allowed in the general population right away.

The new prisoner was not seen for a week and then he appeared one day out of the blue flanked by six guards.

"Who the fuck is that?" he heard one of the guys sitting on the bleachers ask.

Bushman had gotten his first tattoo at fourteen and had them everywhere but this big nigger had him beat. And somehow he was allowed to have his piercings not just in his ears but nose and lips and the hair that he had thought was white was actually yellow.

Bushman who was watching the action saw the guy head turn slowly as his gaze swept the yard before it halted on the basketball court.

He had watched the way he moved and the crowd parted like the sea before Moses as the prisoners that had been playing one by one stilled on the court.

The guy holding the ball only answered to Kobe and was a ball hog too. Ernie felt a smile cover his face as the Kobe wannabe was made sorry for that tendency when the tall nigger zeroed in on him.

Kobe looked like he was going to shit himself when the new prisoner reached out for the ball and it seemed to float towards him like magic.

For an old guy he had game and moved around the court like the wind before pulling up, sinking a three pointer and somehow managed to get his own rebound before any of the other prisoners could move.

He had walked off the court and lobbed the ball behind his back and they had all watched as it went into the basket with a swish before it bounced back to the faux Kobe.

$$$

Ernie had watched it all, seen the power in the other man and wanted whatever that was. From that day forward he had made it his business to find out what he could about the new prisoner.

He had pledged his allegiance to the witch doctor and literally sold his soul to the devil in exchange for being feared by the other inmates and respected by the guards as Baby Doc.

Ernie also allowed Papa Doc to use his body when the other man's daughter came to visit. The beautiful Diamond came as often as she could and while Baby Doc knew she wasn’t interested in him he sometimes wondered what could have happened if he had taken a different path.

$$$

It had been good to see Diamond again. Solitary confinement was a joke to one who could transcend the physical and walk in the metaphysical and Jean Claude Bertrand to give him his government name had sacrificed much a long time ago to attain this skill.

He had been incarcerated for nearly thirty years and every year he had confounded the prison doctors because he had the body of an athletic young man, but he was purportedly sixty-five.

A smirk would always cross his lips while they marveled because he was twice as old as that and would outlive all of these jokers.

Jean Claude had moved around the country, staying close to Diamond his only child until he had ended up back in Virginia where his Haitian born parents had come to after they had been freed as slaves a century and a half ago.

He was serving five concurrent lifetime sentences for murder and only because they couldn’t find the bodies had the penal system not given him the death penalty.

Little did the authorities know that his victims were walking around very much above ground and waiting to do his bidding.

"And now I have a job for them to do, but first I have something to do." he said in a deep, dark voice.

Papa Doc lay down on the hard cot and closed his eyes as the smoke rose around his body hiding him from view and filling the room before it seeped under the metal door.