We’d gone straight from the airport, straight from an 18-hour flight to Pauly’s offices down near the shipping yards. Ryan had wanted to go home, change, and get freshened up. But carrying around millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds wasn’t something you wanted to do any longer than you had to.

We’d gone straight to the old building that looked ramshackle from the front. And even once we went inside, it wasn’t great shakes. White walls, concrete floors, a waiting area with a potted plant, and decorations reminiscent of hotels where you paid by the hour. But, once we were ushered inside Pauly’s office, it was nicer. The walls were something done by a decorator, a bright yellowy orange that felt sunny, a sleek black desk with a tall, imposing chair behind it. In front of the desk were two chairs that looked comfortable, but not too comfortable, because this office was for Pauly, and Pauly was the only person who deserved maximum comfort. The floors were a sleek Italian ceramic tile. It was attractive and inviting.

I gave the skirt directly to Pauly, who thanked me and told us to wait for him to come back. We’d been in this office for an hour now, alternating between the chairs and pacing the floors, staring at Pauly’s things. As I looked around at the couple of pictures on the walls, random prints, I realized that this wasn’t Pauly’s actual office. This was his office for visitors. I suspected, he had another office in the back. Something more his style, something with a thick wooden desk, a few pictures of his children, Gina, Tony and Salvador, and of course a filing cabinet with important things in it. This office had none of that, which is why he felt so comfortable leaving us here.

Ryan was clearly climbing the walls. “How much longer do you think he’ll be?” Ryan asked me for what must have been the tenth time.

“He just needs time to get the diamonds out and accounted for. He’s got appraisers, people to make sure everything matches up to what the people in Surat told him was coming.”

He nodded yet again, and we waited. Another 15 minutes.

For Ryan, this was about owing his bookie a million dollars and getting more time. He was frightened of what Pauly would do to him if he failed. And he rightfully should be. I reached out and squeezed his hand. “It’s going to be fine. The diamonds are great,” I said.

“Did you even see them all?” he asked.

I shook my head. I hadn’t. It would have been nice to get a chance to look at them all, most of them were already in the skirt by the time I got there. “The ones I saw were high quality. The cutters did a great job on the ones I got a look at, but I only saw the last few before they went into the skirt. Still, you don’t do that quality on the last few and flub the rest.”

Ryan nodded his head, as if what I was saying made sense, but his face still had no color and he looked like he might puke at any minute.

Just then, the door opened, and Pauly walked in. He didn’t look happy. He sat down behind his desk and stared at us. I was already seated and Ryan, who had been standing, sat down beside me. I thought that Pauly was going to send Ryan home, tell him something to the effect of “Thanks, now get the hell outta here.” But that wasn’t happening. Instead, Ryan and I were both sitting there staring at Pauly. I was a bit nervous but hoped I didn’t look it. Ryan’s hairline was covered in sweat. As cool as he’d been at the textile factory and again at the airport, he was now the opposite. Pauly scared him.

Mafioso were hard. You had to show a certain amount of strength with them, because they respected strength. Too much, however, appeared as a challenge, and you didn’t want to challenge Pauly. For me, this job was about money, and about Lynx’s care, but ultimately it was just a job. If it didn’t work out, I’d figure out another way. I’d get it done for Lynx. For Ryan, this job was his own health and wellbeing, so I understood his anxiety.

Pauly turned to Ryan. “You’re a piece of work, kid,” he said to him, and half grinned.

“Excuse me?” Ryan said.

Pauly offered up one of his hearty laughs. “If I’d have figured anyone could run a con, I would have placed my money on her, not you. But I’d have been wrong.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what Pauly was suggesting, but I was afraid it was the thing I wasn’t interested in talking about.

“Pauly,” I said. “Are the diamonds appraising at what I said, or not?”

He nodded. “Of course, they are, Onyx. You are number one.”

“Then, I’ll take my cut and get out of here,” I said.

He shook his head. “Not so fast.” Then he looked at me and said, “You don’t do what you did to me in Surat without repercussions.”

Ryan stared at him, his confusion obvious. I couldn’t feign ignorance. I knew exactly what was going on. “Pauly, can you and I talk privately?”

He eyed me only for a moment before saying, “No.”

Ryan turned to me. “What’s going on, Onyx?”

“It doesn’t’ concern you, Ryan,” I said, then turned back to Pauly. “I changed the plan. Ryan didn’t know, alright? You and I can work this out.”

Pauly watched me for a moment, scrutinizing me, and then smiled. He sighed. “Eh, I don’t know. I always thought you had the best qualities of both Raj and Akilah. But now I wonder if you picked up some of your father’s more foolish traits.” He sucked in a breath. “No, it’s your mother who was the crusader. Perhaps it’s her foolishness you’ve taken after. Only, I thought you would have learned from her untimely death just how foolhardy crusading is.”

My mouth popped open in shock and before I could speak, Ryan had stood up and said. “That’s not necessary.” And he looked determined and strong as he spoke. “To speak about her mother’s death that way

I put my hand on his, and inclined my head, hoping he understood he needed to sit down. I appreciated his attempts, but I couldn’t tell if Pauly would see that as strength or defiance. The former was good. The latter was not.

Pauly gave Ryan a harsh glare. “It’s admirable for you to want to defend Onyx. But I don’t think you fully appreciate what she did.”

I didn’t want this to go further. I leaned forward in the chair and looked across the sleek desk. “Pauly, you have the value of diamonds you requested, and no one was caught,” I said. “I’m not sure what more you want from a successful operation.”

He leaned forward, too, setting his meaty hands on his desk, and raising an eyebrow at me. “Onyx, what I wanted was for the operation to go as planned,” he said. “Only, my cutters had to deal with roughly a million dollars in extra diamonds. The plan almost failed because you overloaded them. Everything almost went to hell because they weren’t equipped for what you brought them.”

I shrugged, trying not to show my nervousness. “I’ve never had someone upset with me for bringing them more money.”

“Cojones,” he said, nodding his head. “You’ve never lacked in cojones Onyx. But you’re not bringing me more money. Because you asked me to use the extra million to forgive Ryan here’s debt.”

Ryan’s head slowly turned toward me, his mouth popping open, his eyes asking if it were true.

I looked at Pauly. “Are you going to do it?”

Pauly chuckled. “Let’s see, you want me to take my hard work on this plan and instead of me getting some extra scratch when you bring it to me, allow that extra cash to pay off his debt? Do you really think I’m going to do that?”

“I think it would be the right thing to do,” I told him.

“My workers cut those stones to get the value out of them. In the rough, they weren’t worth anywhere near what he owed me. Plus, Onyx, your little stunt almost cost the entire operation, and you seem to want me to reward you and him for that.”

I didn’t speak. He didn’t want a response. He wanted to let me know I’d done wrong. I knew there was a decent chance he wouldn’t do what I wanted, but I’d thought my odds were better than 50-50.

Pauly leaned back in his chair. “I appreciate the extra, Onyx, but not at the cost of the whole operation. I can’t have disobedience like this. I’m docking your share.”

I grimaced. I didn’t appreciate that, but I’d requested double, so it wouldn’t matter. “How much,” I asked through clenched teeth, as if I was irritated.

“I’m docking you a 100k, but you probably don’t care since you only wanted half of that, initially. But, losing 100k has to hurt.”

I nodded. “Of course, it does.”

He turned to Ryan. “And you, my friend. You still owe me. Though, I will cut you a break. I got an extra million and since it didn’t kill the operation all together, I’ll cut your debt in half, down to 500k.”

I wanted to smile. That was something. Not perfect, but something. I know Ryan said his parents had cut him off, so having to come up with 500k rather than a million, would be better.

“However, since the only reason you’re in this position is because of Onyx, I think you ought to pay her expenses, so I’m adding her $200k salary to what you owe.”

“That’s not right,” I protested.

Pauly put up a hand. “Onyx, you’re the one who changed the rules midway through the game. You can’t argue it now.”

I opened my mouth to speak again, but Ryan beat me to it.

“Alright,” he said.

I turned to him, stared. “No, it’s not alright.”

“Pauly,” he said. “I’d like to speak to you alone, so we can work out the details.”

Pauly nodded.

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving,” I said.

Ryan turned to me, looked me square in the eye, and said my name softly. “Onyx.” I stared at him, a moment, and then he continued. “This is my problem. I’ll deal with it. Remember what you told me about choices. I’m making some now. Let me.”

Let him. I swallowed. Sometimes that was hard to do. I wanted to tell him I could think of a plan, that I could figure out a way to help him, but it occurred to me that the advice I’d given him was right. He did have to make a choice. And he was. He was figuring out his own way.

I stood and walked out of the office.