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“Yes, sir?” he spoke from the driver’s seat

“Greyson has been fired, which o tonight”

“Y…Yes, sir,” he sta fired meant

It only took a few minutes after we started to drive off for me to hear what sounded like an avalanche of police sirens It took another three minutes fordown the street one after the other

“Greyson was fired because of his mouth,” I told Monk as he pulled off the shoulder and back onto the road “No one gossips aboutwork for me Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir”

CALLIOPE

They all stood in a line in front of the stairs, all of them not sure where to look They were scared They had a reason to be I had just fired almost half of them

“You all have been through a lot this year,” I said, leaning back in s Still, none of them looked at me “If you’re here, that means you have my trust It means you areI let theot the better end of the deal, but they didn’t; you all did”

I nodded to O’Phelan, and he waved for the guards who ca them all boxes One by one, I watched as they opened them

“Oh my…” All of their eyes looked at me

“I love diamonds and not just because they last forever,” I said to the out of my chair, “but because they are symbolic They are made from pressure Most natural diamonds are anywhere from 1 billion to 35 billion years old Formed under a pressure of 725,000 pounds per square inch, in three-thousand-degree heat Can you iht of the world, then carried to the earth’s surface in volcanic eruptions, deposited in igneous rocks, just so some person, most likely someone in a third-world country, could ift The beauty of a diamond is ironic and cruel It says a lot about us as people It’s natural to want things that survive, that are hard to get It’s just a shiny rock…and yet people have killed and died for them”

Stepping in front of them all, I looked down the line, and this ti me in the eye It made me smile

“You survive my pressure, you survive the heat that I undoubtedly unleash on you…and in the end, you will be worth et near you because you aren’t just uards—you aren’t just the help You areyou If you need anything, let O’Phelan know He will lethe hears, he will report to me Do not disappoint me”

“Yes, Mrs Callahan,” they all answered