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but there was something about them that didn’t agree with her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the voice in her head had assured her that working in the mines was the worst possible thing for her.
    “One less family member you’d have to be concerned with. People are lucky if they get five or ten years.”
    He was a bastard, Nadya decided. A cold-hearted, beautiful, fucking bastard she wanted to castrate. Use his balls for punching bags, then. Don’t stop now, not while you’re ahead. The darker part of her rationalized all the ways she could end his life. Nadya checked her voice and tried to appeal to what she hoped was a merciful side of Diamond. Instead of doing that, she said, “Do you get some kind perverse pleasure from making people feel uncomfortable? Or are you waiting for me to beg? Why are you so cruel?”
    “Because, little girl, everything is not happy and fun. Shit’s real outside, the Ragers are real, death is real. Hope is a false prophet who will only fuck you in the ass without the courtesy of lubrication or a reach around. It will leave you high and dry every single time, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get off with just being broken or receive the sublime mercy of death. If you stay the current course, well, I can’t be responsible for the fallout. Which is why I’m a cruel, callous bastard. Don’t look to me as if I’m your savior because I’m not. If your ass comes and works for me, I’m going to use everything you got, to get everything I need, and give you the leftovers I don’t want. Got it?”
    All too clearly. But it wasn’t going to stop her. Nika and Anna had taken her in, shown her divine kindness. She would do the same for them. It was either come work for him, or work for Attia.
    “Fine, I understand. Now, does that mean I have the job?”
    “You still want to work here, girl?” He sounded surprised. Her nerves were frazzled, and trying to keep her anger in check was weighing her down.
    “I told you my reasons, either you’re going to accept me or not.”
    Diamond looked her up and down, and she knew what he saw. Weakness. That would be his mistake, not hers. She was far from weak. She was strong, resourceful, and once she told him what she had to offer, he wouldn’t refuse. A girl didn’t live in Inwood, she survived it. Every day. If you didn’t get gang-raped by the males—and sometimes women—then you had to worry about the population of Ragers that skulked on the opposite side of the marsh. Inwood was dead trees, and ravenous vines. Every day, there was something to be watchful of. That she’d remained intact and unharmed was a feat in itself. She knew she wasn’t like the others, but couldn’t remember who or possibly even what she was. You’re a survivor. End of story. True. But what had she survived? She’d woken, and the first person there to assist her had been Anna.
    She was the first to admit, she was no beauty, but she had one thing to offer most women her age didn’t.
    “I don’t think you’re cut out to work here. You can’t fight, what good are you?” Again, his mistake. “Working the Quarry takes gumption. You know what gumption is, girl. It takes brains as well as beauty. You need to be able to work the floor, use what you have to get what I want.”
    Well if that were the case, she should be a shoe-in for the brains part because Iland and that other girl were far from smart.
    “Yeah, I know what gumption is.” Asshole.
    “All right, show me what you got, then. Disrobe.”
    Nadya was startled by his request. It was the last thing she’d expected him to ask of her.
    “You deaf or something? Take off your fucking clothes. I always see the merchandise before I put it up for sale.”
    “So you’re saying I got the job, then?”
    “No, I’m saying it’s a try before you buy type of deal.”
    “But you didn’t do that with the others.”
    “Didn’t have to, I could tell right off whether what they were offering was