Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [53]
Mahmud stared at her profile. ‘Is that all that matters to you?’
She looked towards the sunset. A slither of orange was beginning to stretch across the evening sky. She looked everywhere but at Mahmud. ‘Pretty much. I want to get out of this place. I want to have nice things.’
‘Is that why you joined the Outcasts?’
‘Yes.’ She looked down at her lap again. ‘It’s all right for you, Mahmud; your father will find the money to pay for you to go to college. You are smart. You can achieve anything you want to. You will be able to afford to escape from here.’
‘But I’ll never be rich enough to have a house on the Peak. I might become a doctor and travel. I might have a good living, enough to support a wife, a family, but I will never be rich, Lilly. It’s not important to me.’
Lilly turned and looked at him, her eyes catching the light from the sky, her face glowing. ‘I will, Mahmud. It’s everything to me.’
‘What about love?’
She turned away. ‘I don’t care about love. My mother loves Rizal, what good is love?’
‘The Outcasts are dangerous, Lilly; they could turn on you just as quick as anyone else. They don’t answer to anyone any more, they’re out of control. Victoria Chan is a terrible person. Ever since she came into our lives things have just got worse.’
Lilly was angry. ‘Victoria Chan is smart and beautiful. She’s everything I want to be.’ But she couldn’t stay cross at Mahmud. She knew he was only worried for her. She knew he had always loved her. ‘Listen to me, Mahmud. I know what you’re saying,’ she smiled sadly and looked at him, ‘but she can give me things, things I could never get on my own. She can get me out of this place. You are so clever. You will get where you want to go without people like Victoria Chan.’
‘I thought we could make it, you and I. I was hoping, you know? I always thought we’d stay together.’
She turned and looked him in the face, her eyes searching his. She reached over and kissed his cheek. ‘Save your hopes for someone else, Mahmud. You are too good for me. I am not the girl you kissed when we were ten. I am not the girl I was.’ Lilly slid her legs back around and stood to leave. ‘Forget me, Mahmud. You and I could never be and I am in too deep now to get out.’
Chapter 36
Victoria moved to her bedroom to answer her phone; it was too noisy to talk in her lounge. She lived in a luxury penthouse apartment on the road to Stanley. She was giving seven of her top lieutenants a special treat – she had provided her men with the entertainment. They were simple creatures; easy to read, easy to please. Tonight was a victory celebration of sorts. It was to celebrate the beginning of the end. The beginning of a fight that would take her all the way. There was no stopping her now. She would court the best of the lieutenants in the Wo Shing Shing. As each of her pieces slotted into their roles she controlled them like a conductor played an orchestra. They were the new breed. They were loyal to her father, loyal to the organization but they would want a new Dragon Head when she showed them her power. Victoria sat on the chair in her bedroom in the semi-darkness. Her black leather cat suit traced her strong curves like a second skin, her diamond earrings caught the flash of lightning as she turned her head towards the window and watched the storm coming in.
‘You have done well, my daughter. But we need him broken before he can be rebuilt. Push for the prize now. Use every weapon you have. The Mansions are proving a suitable testing ground for you. You have been courting the right people. You have turned them on one another.’
‘They all want the same thing. They want money, power. They want bigger, better. They don’t think of the consequences. They don’t think of tomorrow. The Outcasts are unique, fearless. They are easy to please. There is one amongst them who is the most talented and most ruthless I have ever known; she will stop at nothing and yet she wants nothing in return except to be allowed to serve. I only have to suggest