Page 48 of Grand Master

HELL CAGE…

“I never will get used to the smell down here.” Tone complained as we approached the double steel doors.

I hadn’t been down here in months, and I welcomed the smell of decay and death.

“If it’s too much, you can leave. I don’t want to sense uncomfortableness.”

Josie made a low hooting sound in agreement.

I hadn’t been down there in months. The air changed soon as we stepped off the last step since the elevator didn’t come down to this lower level.

Beneath Grand Corp, below the boardroom and past the surveillance and detox cells along with my lab was the Hell Cage.

It was my personal version of a forgotten underworld. No lights, ventilation or mercy was shown in this area, not even feelings.

After this, I will have her violin delivered to her…let her come back to me…no matter how long it takes, she has to place herself back onto my chess board…

I squeezed my eyes shut purposely ridding my mind of Mira.

I placed my hand on the secret panel to scan my prints then waited for the steel doors to open.

Immediately, the heat punched me in the face like a brick wall.

The humidity clung to my skin as I stepped into the room.

It reeked of sweat, rust, and mold. Tone always complained that it smelled like old meat left to rot down here.

The overhead light flickered, it always amazed me how the dying light bulb had never gone completely out over the years.

It flickered on and off whenever it decided to.

Dre was tied to a steel chair in the center of the room.

No clothes or shoes attached to him; his head was slumped forward.

His unkempt hair stuck to his forehead; his entire body was drenched under the weight of the heat.

The air was over a hundred degrees and the box fan in the corner was broken on purpose. I chuckled at the big puddles of sweat around his feet. I stepped toward him; Josie flew off my shoulder and landed on the top of Dre’s head.

“Grand, I’ll tell you whatever man…just please—ahhh!”

He struggled against the chains as Josie dug her claws into his scalp.

She withdrew sharply with blood leaking from her sharp nails then attempted to dig back in but stopped when I clicked my teeth.

I looked over at Tone with a derange smile covering my face.

Tone stood in the corner of the room like he was trying to disappear into the shadows of the room.

He wouldn’t be able to look me or Dre in the eyes.

Dre wasn’t just a worker to Tone like he was me.

He was Tone’s friend, maybe even considered family in a way that the streets made family from shared scars.

It sucked that Dre crossed the board, I felt nothing for him but his fate that was in the palm of my empty hands.

Slowly I unbuttoned my silk black button-up shirt since I made the heat inside of here intentional, just like Dre’s stupid betrayal. I inhaled then exhaled Dre’s fear then willed him to look me in the eyes.

“Grand, please man! Let me at least explain why.” Dre cried out.

I circled Dre purposely, each step was slow and deliberate, my shoes scraped against the concrete as I moved.

His breathing grew ragged, chest heaving, every muscle tensed beneath the harsh glare of the flickering bulb.

I let the silence stretch between us until I was sure that it was thick and suffocating.

I wanted it to gnaw at the edges of his composure.

Josie preened herself on his crown, feathers ruffled in the stagnant air, her eyes glinted with an intelligence that made Dre flinch every time she cocked her head.

I eyed Tone once more and noted him shifting uneasily, his arms were now crossed across his chest with his gaze fixed on the floor.

He wanted no part in what came next, but he wouldn’t leave.

Loyalty chained him here as surely as Dre’s steel bonds.

Finally, I grabbed a metal chair and dragged it across the concrete so I could sit in front of Dre. I laced my fingers in front of me and tilted my head in the same direction as Josie’s head.

Fuck, I wish I could see her…what is she doing right now? My chest tightened as I forced Mira out of my mind for the hundredth time.

“You know what pisses me off?” I asked in a quiet tone as Dre whimpered something under his breath that I didn’t care to make out.

I leaned in closer, my voice dropped.

“It’s not when a plan fails, Dre…it’s not when someone dies either or when someone cost me to lose money.”

I paused to watch a single bead of sweat drip off his chin.

“It’s when my chessboard lies to me.” I smirked angrily.

“When a fuckin’ knight pretends to be a rook or when a bishop tilts sideways. I hate when I map every move, every sacrifice then someone off the board thinks they can outplay the Grand Master.” I spat.

I eyed Dre as he shamefully lifted his head barely an inch. His lip was split, his left eye nearly swollen shut. Tone got him good but even through him cringing out of pain, I saw the guilt locked within his eyes. Too late to be guilty…

“You worked with Smack…I don’t know for how long, but after checking your money stats…I assume it’s been for some time. I don’t need an explanation onto why… It’s the principal behind the greed that you reek of.” I stated flatly.

Dre groaned but didn’t deny anything.

“Tone vouched for you, I partially trusted you because of him and you spit on that.”

“Kenric…” Tone stepped forward.

I turned my head just enough to catch Tone in my peripheral. His expression was tight, jaw clenched with red rimmed eyes. My eyes darkened as I dared Tone to beg for Dre. If he did, he would be good as dead and wouldn’t make it out of the Hell Cage. Tone knew the game; I taught it to him well.

“I’m sorry, bro,” Tone said looking directly at Dre. “I thought he was solid.”

“So did I,” I said focusing back on Dre. “You understand what happens now?”

“I do.” Tone answered firmly.

“Good.” I clicked my teeth.

Josie flew off of Dre’s head and landed on my shoulder.

“This place is called Hell Cage because you will rot here. The smell, the heat mixed with the silence will eat away at your sanity until your fuckin’ mind drips out of your ears.

My men will drag Smack in here to sit right across from you in that chair right there.

” I pointed to the metal chair that I just occupied.

“I don’t kill people for betraying me, I kill them for thinking that they could hide their true intentions. I have no other words for you now, Dre. By the time I lay eyes on your body, it’ll just be bones.” I chuckled walking towards the door.

Soon as the doors slid open, Dre started to cry and beg for forgiveness.

“I don’t need you in the Red Room with me. When I come out, you inform the men to turn the heat up inside of hell cage. I want Dre and Smack alive for forty-eight hours then the end game.” I said to Tone just as the double door closed behind him shutting out Dre’s screams.

“Don’t ever let Mira see this version of you, bro. She got light…don’t make her carry your darkness.” Tone stated lowly.

“She’ll never carry my darkness.” I faced him fully.

“What’s your endgame, Kenric?” Tone asked with a face full of worry.

His question hit me harder than I expected.

“I really want to know,” he continued, voice steady.

“You the only one that see a board better than any of us. I always wonder what’s your final move?

You gone keep cleaning up the streets until you’re the only piece left standing?

Keep locking crackheads down to force them to get clean while losing track of yourself? ” He cocked his head to the side.

My fists tightened as rage seeped into my bones. Tone was in his feelings, and this was the wrong place to enter a feeling zone with me. I locked eyes with him and hated what I saw in them…reflection.

“I’ll always do what needs to be done, Tone…I told you if this was too much for you then it would be best for you to leave.”

“For what though, Kenric?!” he snapped.

“Control? Legacy? Is this justice for you, the Grand fuckin’ Master?” His eyes misted over.

“I don’t want to kill you, Tone.” I stated flatly.

“You won’t need to, but you will hear me as your brother!” He shouted.

My jaw tightened as Josie shifted on my shoulder. Tone walked close into my personal space not blinking his eyes.

“You saved me, pulled me out of shit that most men like me drown in. That’s why I look at you and see a hood Robin hood with a death grip.

You punish people like it’ll make you whole…

I just worry about what will happen when your so-called board is clear and there’s no more pawns left to kill?

What will be left for you then?” His voice cracked with raw emotion.

His words didn’t echo against the walls they landed on me like bricks. I looked down at the ground then back up at Tone.

“If I stop, the noise in my head, will start to get the best of me. I need this, it gives me a purpose that I won’t explain to no one because I understand that only I get it.” I spat out angrily.

“I get it,” he said lips pressed into a line. “Just make sure that you don’t lose yourself while trying to own a kingdom that nobody, but you asked for. You can easily let it all go and focus on chemistry?—”

“I won’t! All these fuckin’ fiends!! I hate them!

! Their families despise them! Their selfish and deserve a fuckin’ cold cell until their forced to their senses!

No one will make them see how their decision affects the people that love them!

I will though Tone! I don’t give a fuck if it makes me look crazy, and if you no longer want to be here you can go because no one will fucking stop me!

Not you, not Mira!! No one will change me or guilt trip me into stopping!

” I yelled, feeling the vein in the center of my forehead pop out.