Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Alex sat with his head pressed against the window. The cuffs around his wrist was looser, now. Perhaps the resignation to reality he’d suffered made him feel a little less restricted, but the other one lay closed on his lap. He stared out of the window as the countryside outside London passed him by. A countryside he’d grown up in, running around without a care in the world.

Beside him, Poppy sat in the driver’s seat, eating a strawberry lace. Alex couldn’t reconcile the vision of this Poppy, with the one he’d known previously. This Poppy, relaxed and laid-back, in control and sure of herself, versus the timid shy thing in her little Fiat-500, terrified of Big Roundabouts. No, this girl knew how to drive, and she was scarily good at it.

It occurred to Alex that, aside from the shocking revelation he’d just gone through, he knew so little about Poppy Snowden that she might as well have been a complete stranger.

“Strawberry lace?” Poppy said, breaking the car’s silence. Alex looked over, shaking his head. “Fizzy stuff, then? I’ve got cola bottles there, or them bubblegum ones.” Another shake of the head. “Alright, cocker. We can stop for a Maccies in a bit, if you want?”

“I’m not hungry, Poppy.”

“Aye, not right now. But you will be if you don’t eat soon.”

“I don’t think I want anything off you ever again.”

“This again?!”

“This forever.”

“Come on! You enjoyed what we had. Nothing’s changed, really. You’re just not in control like you thought you was.” She smiled at him, patting his thigh. “Not a bad thing. About time you let go a bit, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t want it like this!” Alex snapped, pulling away from her. “And keep your fucking eyes on the road!” Poppy looked at him, then to the road, then back to him. She was weaving in and out of traffic like a madwoman, but it didn’t seem to faze her one bit that people were beeping her.

“I think you’re forgetting your place, Alex.” Poppy’s jaw worked. “Keep this up, and I’ll have to rethink keeping you around like this.”

“What, you’re going to kill me?”

“No. Just… disappear quietly.” Poppy glared at him, taking the off ramp up to a larger roundabout that would take them towards the Eurotunnel terminal. “I don’t want to kill you, love. I do love you. That part wasn’t a lie.”

“Funny fucking way of showing it.”

“I did what I needed to do. Just like you did. I can’t help it if you saw me as a fucking subordinate, Alex. That’s on you. You underestimated me.” She shrugged, eating another lace. “I need you like you need me. You’re too good to be sitting on a tiny detective team in Liverpool. That’s a nice nest for us to go back to, but you’re better than that.”

“I don’t want to be a criminal.” Alex sat up straighter. “I don’t want to be in crime rings. I took two down –“

“You took one down.”

“I cracked yours. You can’t deny I got close.”

“You paused my North West operations, love. You didn’t stop them. William will regroup and will start up again soon.” Poppy smiled across at him. “You’re just too good for me to waste. And I do love you. And I know once you get a taste for this side of things, you’ll come back to me.”

Alex closed his eyes and rested his head back. His stomach started to churn, his mouth watering as the wave of guilt and shame over his situation crashed over him again.

“Pull over.”

“What?”

“Pull over.”

Poppy looked at Alex and sighed, pulling onto the hard shoulder. She rolled to a stop, flicked on the hazards, palming her face as Alex tumbled from the car and threw up violently onto the side of the road. She watched him, the car wobbling as other cars shot past at speed. Alex, on his hands and knees, going through hell. Most of her thought it was kind of hot  (especially since she knew he hit the gym often and worked for the ass he was currently showing off in those pants), but a small part of her felt a twinge of guilt. So much so that she climbed out of the car, and walked around it to him.

“I’m sorry it’s doing this to you, Al.”

“You’re not.” His voice was hoarse. He leaned on his forearms, curling up. Poppy crouched down and caught his head before his hair landed in the pile of vomit that trickled off the grassy verge. “If you were, you’d let me go.”

“Sweetheart, I can’t let you go. Remember what I told you when you had the big reveal?” She gazed down at him, stroking his hair back.

“I remember…”

“Good. I can’t let you go. You know too much. And I won’t let you go, because I love you too much. And I saw how well you could keep up with The Family… you lit up. You were alive…”

“I remember.”

“Then embrace this. It’s more fun, being on this side of things. And you know we don’t fuck with kids, animals, or people trafficking.”

“But we’ll still be hurting people.” Alex kneeled up, sitting back on his heels. “Drugs. Guns. All the other stuff still hurts people Poppy.”

“I know… but that’s just because your precious government hasn’t figured out how to police it properly yet. Or tax it. Imagine if they treated it like alcohol, or tobacco? Imagine the money they could make off it, and how much cleaner it would be.” She stood up again, fixing her shirt. “And besides, our government sells weapons every single fucking day. We’re just making sure we get a little slice of the pie.” She held out a hand to him, and he took it, standing. “How do you feel?”

“Like walking out into the traffic.”

“If you want to kill yourself, I’d rather you blow your brains out in a field,” Poppy said softly. “Don’t put your death on someone else.” Alex looked at her, distraught. “I know, love. I know. But I’m not going to kill you. Or give you a gun, for that matter. And if I have to put you on suicide watch, then so be it.” She took both his hands, and then undid the cuff on him, pocketing both the cuffs and the small key. “You’re going to like being on this side of it, Alex.” She put him back into the car, rounding to the driver’s side and climbing in herself.

“I became a police officer to help people,” Alex whispered, accepting the bottle of water and the mints Poppy handed him. “Not to hurt people.”

“What better way to ensure people aren’t sticking flour and brick dust up their noses than to verify the quality of our own coke before it hits the streets?” Poppy smiled. “Besides, I’m not going to put you on drugs or weapons. There’s another man I want you to meet with in my stead. He doesn’t do business with women, and I can’t risk Sherling fucking this up for me.” Alex closed his eyes, sighing. The water soothed his stomach a little bit, but not much. The white-hot ball of anxiety still sat there as she pulled back out into the traffic.

“Who am I meeting?”

“A guy named Lucas Raes. Belgian guy, from Flanders, goes by the name Cas. We’re meeting him in Antwerp.”

“And what does he sell?” Alex asked faintly.

“Diamonds.” Poppy grinned at him, a twinkle in her eye. She winked at him.

“Why do I get the feeling it’s not just diamonds?”

“Because you can already see the heart of it,” Poppy chuckled. “And that’s why I love you so much. I just hope you’re not squeamish.” Alex felt a fear grip him again, as Poppy wrangled the last strawberry lace out of the packet. “Cas is the brains of the organ-isation.” Her grin was indelible.

“Fucking hell, Poppy,” Alex breathed. “Organ trafficking?!”

“Nah, I’m just fucking with you. But Cas has a reputation, see. Garnered from his dad, who was rumoured to be in the Belgian colonial organ trafficking trade. If you fucked with him, you got the nick – so they say. Many of his men turned up dead and missing their kidneys if they’d crossed him. I’m literally there ‘cause I want into the diamond market.” Poppy smiled across at him. “But the organ trade is usually imports. Not exports.”

“Right,” Alex said faintly. He leaned back in his seat, letting the fear take him completely.