Page 17 of Grand Master

My gaze shifted to the corners of the room.

Men whom my father called his personal shooters leaned casually against the walls.

Their bodies were still but their eyes constantly moved.

They watched everyone in the center of the room, each one of them had a gun in their hand.

By the front door, two more men stood stiffly their hands rested on their waist. Their presence made my skin crawl; I’ve watched them in action commit deadly crimes at my Pops demand.

My Pops stepped closer to the table like he owned the oxygen that circulated inside.

I saw crackheads that looked weak, and needy.

My father was the total opposite. His presence alone was a reminder that everyone had the ability to breathe because of him.

They feared him in so many ways, and it wasn’t his height, or black eyes.

It was the fear of not knowing his sudden movements, they never knew his next move.

The fear of him having the ability to stop the food that fed their families enforced their loyalty to him.

His heavy boots thudded heavily against the floorboards, each step he took was with purpose. I saw his men straighten their posture; they counted the money with more precision. Pops eyes landed on Benny.

Benny was big and sloppy. His dark skin was scarred with acne; he never cared about his appearance or his body odor either. Benny didn’t look up from the pile of money in front of him. His eyes gleamed with greed as he ran his hands over a stack before picking it up.

Pops dragged his chair out slowly, the noise of it scraping against the worn wooden floor got Benny’s attention.

“What’s good Kendrick?!” Benny spoke like he just realized that Pops was in the room.

That gesture alone fired me up. I kept my eyes on pops to wait for a sign. I blinked my eyes and imagined Benny’s big body. Where would I start? His face? I wondered what would make him buckle and surrender to my fist the fastest without having to struggle against fighting him.

Pops didn’t speak to Benny; he just kept his eyes on him as he sat down in his seat and leaned back. Pops looked at me and jerked his chin at the chair beside him. My legs finally moved, I took a seat and watched the men count up.

“You see this?” He finally spoke; his hand swept over the table like it was a map.

“This is power. Every dollar on this table means control. It means somebody out there worked, bled, or begged for me. For us. And they’ll keep doing it cause they know better than to cross me.”

His words rolled through me, as heavy as the smoke that filled my lungs from breathing in the room. My hands rested on the edge of the table close enough to reach out and touch the stacks of money.

“I don’t need to touch or count my money. I can eye it and know the amount. Rosco got the right amount, J-Hawk amount is right too, the other three amount is right, but Benny’s…” He paused and shook his head.

“Benny’s amount is off; it’s been off for two weeks now.” Pops said the words lowly, more so to himself.

He lifted his hand and looked at the dirt underneath his nails. Using his thumb, he picked at his dirty nail bed.

“Why is that, Benny?” Pops asked calmly.

I wouldn’t dare look over at Benny to see his expression. Now was the time to keep my eyes on pops.

“I had to get on my men for slacking last week, shit been moving slow on my blocks.” Benny answered confidently.

“Oh, okay.” Pops smiled never looking away from his hand that he kept picking at.

“I heard ya ol’ lady just went on vacation with a couple of her friends ? —”

“That ain’t got nothing to do with the money being short Ken ? —”

“You cutting me off when I speak now?” Pops gritted out.

He switched hands and focused on picking the dirt from his index finger.

“N—nah man. I just don’t want you getting the wrong idea.” Benny’s words trailed off.

Pops laughed; my heart stuttered when his bushy brows rose up. I stood from my seat abruptly and almost trembled over my own two feet from the adrenaline that pumped through me. I felt my Pops rage, felt my own rage. I was the caged bird that finally got released into a world full of darkness.

“Patience son. You’re too loud. Benny is a dead man sitting, this is just the appetizer.” Pops said. He stopped picking at his nails and locked eyes with Benny.

“Come on Kendrick. I would never steal from you.” He pleaded with shaky hands.

“Get to your feet, pussy.” Pops ignored his pleas.

Benny took his eyes off Pops and turned his head to me. His eyes narrowed, locking with mine as I took hurried steps his way.

“Lil man…” He started; voice low…he sounded nervous which threw me off a little.

“This ain’t ? —”

I didn’t let him finish. I used Pops words earlier to fuel me.

My knuckles cracked against his gut. It barely moved him, that angered me as I swung hard again.

The second time my fist connected, pain surged through my knuckle.

The sting of the blow traveled up my arm.

I bit back the urge to cry. I tried to swing again and felt relief when he caught my wrist midair.

“Kenric—”

Something in me snapped, I ignored the pain as I yanked free.

I had something to prove, and I refused to let Benny little boy me in front of the one man that I wanted to prove myself to.

I stepped back a couple of inches then charged Benny.

My fists flew wildly, I hit his chest, arm, and anywhere I could reach since he was tall in height.

“Don’t you dare hold back, beat his ass!” I heard Pops voice behind me.

Benny cursed under his breath; he blocked some of my blows. I could tell he was torn, my fists connected whenever he looked over at Pops.

“Kendrick, come on man. He’s just a fucking kid, I—ahhh!”

I jumped up and socked him in the jaw. Rage burned hotter than my fear. I jumped again, slamming my fist into Benny’s face again.

“Benny! You better fight the fuck back, now!” Pops voice boomed.

My next hit split Benny’s bottom lip. He shoved me back hard, using all of his strength. I stumbled and fell on my ass; my shoulder knocked hard into something that felt solid. Pain shot through my body, but the fire inside screamed louder. I jumped to my feet and lunged again.

In a blur, my fists connected wherever they could land.

Benny groaned, his skin was slick with sweat.

He tried his hardest to pull me off of him, but all of his attempts failed.

Seconds later, he stopped resisting and let me wail on him.

I kept swinging until my arms went numb, and I couldn’t tell if I was hitting him or just swinging at the air.

My chest burned, my knuckles felt raw and was bloody.

I gave up and stumbled backwards, collapsing on the floor.

Benny’s face was bruised, his lip split.

He held his head down, breathing hard but didn’t charge.

He wasn’t just scared of Pops, it was his death sentence that was promised to him at the start of this fight.

“Stand over my son, Benny. Kenric, stay right where you are.” Pops said.

I turned my head towards Pops and saw him standing in front with his hands resting on the table.

“You did okay, next time will be better. See? Fear tried to hold you, but you broke it. Never wait to be respected, you take it.” He said with pride dripping in his tone.

I nodded, my stomach churned. My fists felt like they were broken, my chest hurt, and deep down, something inside of me felt broken.

All of what I felt, I overlooked because of the approval in Pops dark orbs, it made me want to stand tall with my chin up to the ceiling.

A part of me didn’t want to be apart of what my father was about.

While another part of me wanted to do whatever, just to get that look of approval from Pops over and over.

POW!

POW!

POW!

In a blur, Pops shot Benny in the stomach, his chest, and in the center of his forehead.

Benny eyes was popped out its sockets. Seconds felt like hours as he rocked back and forth, eyes locked on mine.

He fell forward, instead of me moving out of the way, his big three-hundred-pound body landed on top of me.

I couldn’t breathe or even think straight.

I laid there suffocating; panic overtook me as I struggled against his dead weight.

“Finish counting all this mutha fuckin money.” Pops voice sounded muffled.

“Pops!” I screamed out in agony.

I didn’t know what was worse, Benny’s pungent body and the odor that suffocated me or the heaviness of him on top of me.

“You must like the feel of blood all over you. I don’t know what the fuck you waiting for, you better get his funky ass off of you so they can clean up the mess.” Pops spat out.

I struggled for what felt like hours getting Benny off of me.

Anger consumed me all over again. The sound of money being counted, crack being smoked, everybody in the room laughing and joking all while I was stuck under Benny’s body.

By the time I got Benny off of me, money was being bagged up, and half of the men was gone.

Rosco and pops sat at the table talking, they never glanced my way once.

“Why didn’t you help me?” I asked.

Pops stopped what he was saying to Rosco and looked over at me with dilated pupils.

“I killed him for you, now you got the nerves to tell me you was underneath his big ass waiting for me to help you?” He cocked his head to the side as Rosco laughed.

“Fuck is so funny pussy?” I directed my anger towards Rosco instead of Pops.

“Nothing at all Little Kenny.” He held his hands up in mocked surrender.

“It’s a part of the game, a deadly debt that had to be collected. Moral of the story is never wait for no one to help you gain respect.”