Sweetie's Diamonds (41 page)

Diane didn't see Gilliam but with that many people to scan he was a needle in a haystack.
 
Perhaps he was inside the house.
 

“Where do we go, mom?” David asked.

“I'm looking for someone,” she answered but she knew they couldn't dawdle.
 
They should stick to the plan and just head to the front of the house and try to get out the gate as soon as possible.
 
Gilliam could make it on his own.
 

“Come on, let's go this way,” she said.
 
They turned around, went past the portable latrines and the guests waiting to use them, and walked quickly to the edge of the house.
 
Diane stopped and carefully looked around the corner.
 

Emo Tuff and two men were standing not ten feet away.
 
One guard was pointing toward the parking lawn and Tuff appeared angry.
 
As she watched, a black limousine drove into the circular drive in front of the house and stopped.
 
She wasn't able to see the front door but she had a full view of the drive.
 
After a moment, Tuff broke away from the two guards and went to the limousine.
 
He opened the back door and looked toward the house.
 

Diane gasped when she saw the three guards hoisting Gilliam down the walkway and into the limo.
 
He appeared to be badly hurt.
 
She heard him yell in pain when the men shoved him into the car.
 
The three guards got in with him and then Tuff slammed the door shut.
 
The limousine pulled away from the house and drove toward the front gate.
 

Where were they taking him?
 

Then Emo Tuff strode in their direction.
 
She heard him call to the two guards he had left standing near the corner, “We're going to circle the grounds, starting with this side.”

Damn!
 
They were coming!
 

“Come on, David,” she whispered.
 
She took his hand and they ran along the side of the house toward the back yard once again.
 
They emerged in the midst of the party, just on the edge of the dance floor.
 
Men and women occupied every inch of space, gyrating to the pounding rhythms blasting from gigantic speakers set up near the DJ.
 
Diane looked back and saw Tuff and the two guards come around the side of the house.

His eyes met hers.
 
Tuff said something and pointed to them.

“David!” she urged as she tugged him onto the dance floor.
 
David followed her as she slithered through the dense crowd.
 
At one point a man attempted to engage Diane in a dance but she pushed him away.
 
They eventually got to the other side of the dance floor and broke out of the crowd.
 

“Can you run, David?” she asked, speaking into his ear.
 
The music was so loud that he wouldn't have been able to hear her any other way.
 

He nodded, so she took his hand and they ran toward the big tent.
 
It was the opposite direction from where they needed to go but Diane had no other choice.
 
Two couples carrying plates of food and drinks walked into their path without seeing them and David charged right into them.
 
The people dropped their plates and yelled, “Hey!”

“Sorry!” David called back as he and his mother kept running.
 
They entered the tent where guests were dining at tables.
 
The place was standing room only so they had to decrease speed and carefully navigate a course through people once again.
 
But two guards stood waiting for them on the other side of the tent.
 
Tuff had apparently signaled them through his headset.
 
One of them spoke into his mike and pointed at them.
 
The entire security force was looking for Diane and her son.

“Damn, not that way,” she said.
 
She doubled back with David in tow.
 

“Mom!”
 
He pointed to the front of the tent, where Emo Tuff and his two men had entered.
 
They were trapped.

The buffet was laid out on tables to their right.
 
An unguarded side of the tent was beyond that.
 
Diane pulled David to the ground and they crawled underneath the food tables.
 
Servers on the other side of the buffet looked at them with confusion when the mother and son emerged.
 

“Excuse us,” Diane said breathlessly.
 
Then they took off out of the tent.
 

Tuff saw what they had done and spoke into his headset.
 
He left, ran around the tent, and held his hand out to one of the armed guards.

“Let me have your gun,” he said.
 
The man gave it to him and Tuff pointed it toward the running couple.
 
He fired once, kicking up the grass at their feet.

Female guests in the vicinity screamed.
 
Couples pulled back and cowered, wondering what was going on.
 
Tuff paid no attention to them; instead he chased after Diane and David.
 

Diane pointed to the smaller tent that had no visible openings in the flaps.
 
She could see that there were people inside because of the silhouettes darting about the sides of the tent, projected by the light inside.
 
She steered David toward it but he stumbled and fell to the ground.
 

“David!”
 
She stopped to help him up.
 
He was hyperventilating.
 
“Are you all right?”

He nodded but she knew he wasn't.
 
He couldn't take much more running.
 
“Come on, honey, you can do it.
 
We have to get out of here!”

He got to his knees and stood up.
 
His face was full of pain.
 
“Okay,” he gasped.
 
She squeezed his hand, pulled him to the tent, and grappled with the sides until she found a flap that opened.
 

David had never seen an orgy before.
 
The sight of two dozen naked men and women writhing and cavorting on cushions nearly stopped his heart then and there.
 
Diane shuddered in embarrassment and said, “Don't look, David!”
 
He paid no attention; he was wide-eyed as she pulled him along the sides of the tent.
 
The revelers were too busy to notice them.
 

They exited on the other side of the tent and saw a clear path to the swimming pool.
 
They were now closer to the house and thus nearer to the front.

“Run, David!” she said.
 

They sprinted across the lawn, dodging guests and a body-painted hostess.
 
Diane was aware that David was wheezing and fighting for air.
 

We're going to make it, David, just hang on!

He fell again, clutching his torso.
 
Tears ran down his face and she knew that he was in agony.
 
“Come on, sweetheart, just a little farther!
 
You can do it!” she pleaded.
 
Diane looked back and saw Tuff and his goons running toward them.
 

Diane summoned as much strength as she could and picked up her tall, dangly boy.
 
Holding him in her arms, she moved the twenty yards to the pool where dozens of guests were swimming and lounging.
 
She collapsed at the edge of the pool, releasing David onto an empty lounge chair next to a round patio table with a closed umbrella jutting out of the center.
 
David moaned and gasped for breath as she turned to face their pursuers.
 

Tuff and the two men were fifteen feet away.
 
He grinned and gestured with a curled index finger for her to come, and then the men walked slowly toward her.
 
Suddenly, a very large guest jumped off the diving board and hit the water, creating an enormous splash that doused everyone on the perimeter of the pool.
 
The torrent hit Diane and David, as well as Tuff and the men.
 
Using the surprise to her advantage, Diane turned to her left and took hold of the umbrella.
 
She lifted it out by the pole and then swung it at the three men with all her might.
 
The umbrella slammed into their sides and knocked them into the pool.
 

“David!
 
Now!” she cried, pulling him off the lounge chair.
 
He was barely able to move with her as they limped toward the house.
 
Tuff screamed at them from the water as guests looked on, horrified and fascinated by the spectacle.

Diane and David trotted along the side of the house where David's room had been and made it to the front without a problem.
 
The lights were bright on the circular drive as several limos and taxicabs either dropped off guests or picked them up.
 
The mother and son scooted between two limousines and walked quickly up the paved road to the gate.
 

“We're almost there, David!” Diane panted.
 
Her son was fighting for oxygen, weakly keeping up with her.
 

The gate was opening to let a white stretch limousine inside.
 
Perfect timing.
 

Diane grabbed David's hand as they ran out of the property and into the street.
 
A line of cars was backed up on the road, waiting to get inside the gate.
 

Where was Nick
?
 

Diane looked around frantically.
 
Should they hail a taxi?
 

“Diane!”
 
The voice came from across and down the road, where it was dark.
 
She could just make out a hand waving from a car window.
 
The headlights flashed twice.
 
She waved in return and the car pulled out of its hiding place.
 
The silver Lexus screeched to a stop beside them.
 

“Get in,” Belgrad said, opening the passenger door.
 
Diane took David, ran around the car, and helped her son get into the back seat.
 
After she got in on the passenger side and shut the door, Belgrad stepped on the gas and they were away.
 

T
he Lexus sped down the hill but Belgrad had a difficult time controlling it.
 
The road was narrow and the line of ascending cars was lengthy.
 
Belgrad couldn't go as fast as he needed to without risking the dissection of another automobile.
 

“Is there another way down?” Diane asked.

“No,” Belgrad replied.
 
“How's David?”

Diane turned to her son in the back seat.
 
“How are you feeling, David?” she asked.
 
The boy was lying down but he was so tall that he had to bend his legs in a fetal position.
 
His breathing was shallow and his eyes were closed.
 
Diane reached back and felt his head.
 
His skin was cold and clammy.
 

“David?”

His eyes fluttered open but they were blank.
 

“Can you say something, David?”
 
She became frantic, as she had never seen him in this condition, and shook him hard.
 
“David!
 
Please say something!”

David whispered, “Can't… breathe… good…” The escape from Valentine's party had taken its toll on him.
 

“Nick, we have to get him to a hospital,” she said.
 
“He's got a bad heart.”

“I'll do my best,” Belgrad said, “but now we've got company.”