21. Four #3
Trey smirked then shook his head. “No matter how many years it’s been, I’ll never forget the setup. The cages, torture wall.” He wiped his hand over his mouth. “And I saw pictures of him and Logan,” he answered, then exhaled. “I already talked to Gentle; we have our in.”
“You were doing this no matter what I said?” I asked him as I stood. “You were going back in?”
“Yeah,” Trey answered. “I was.”
“Why?” I asked. My watch beeped, and I ignored the sound. “Why the fuck would you willingly walk back into that shit? Why would Gentle?” Without thinking, I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. “Why would you go back knowing what they did t-t-t-t-to…”
“Because of that look in your eyes right now,” he answered, grabbing my wrist. The only reason I knew he touched me was because of the pressure.
My heart slammed against my chest, and my watch beeped louder.
“Because we both know that hatred has nothing to do with you and me. As soon as you see Robert, you’ll want to kill him, and I understand why, but killing him won't stop shit.”
“We can figure something else out,” I told him, shaking my head.
“I’ll go back in. I can handle it. You and Gentle though?
Nah, I can't let that happen.” What Robert did to us was hell, but the torture that Eight went through with Logan was beyond that.
We didn’t even know the full extent of what he’d gone through, even now.
Eight kept everything close to his chest. “Plus, Nine isn’t going to let his brother go back. ”
“That’s the beauty of all this,” Trey chuckled. “We aren’t asking. I already planned to bring this to Uncle Bradon, but with everything with Robert taking over SP, it sounds like the perfect opportunity. This is happening no matter what you say.”
“Uncle Bradon?” I called his name but didn’t take my eyes off my brother. Kenbral sacrificing his mental health for me would never be okay with me. I knew that, for Robert to trust him, he would have to do the unthinkable. “Unc, tell him no.”
“I can't,” Uncle Bradon said. I broke eye contact with Trey but didn’t let him go.
“You can't?” My voice cracked. “What do you mean you can’t?”
“This has to happen,” he replied. “To stop Robert and Logan. Someone is going to have to gain their trust. Your brother is right. Him and Eight going would make the most sense. You are too unstable; Nine is the unknown, and Zero is unpredictable. His mama did a number on him but never subjected him to this. To stop him, we have to put someone in there that makes sense. Trey and Eight make sense.”
“That ain’t a fair thing to ask of them,” I reminded him.
“Life ain’t fair, but he’s the best equipped to handle shit mentally.
” When we came to live with Uncle Bradon, he’d put us in therapy.
He said there was something cold in our eyes that we wouldn’t be able to shake without professional help.
After graduating from high school, Gentle went to college to study behavioral health and worked with kids.
He said that if he could help save at least one kid from what he went through, his pain would be worth it.
“He just started coming around, and now you’re about to ask him to forget everything he’s worked so hard to overcome? ”
“It was his idea,” Trey said. “He said that if I was going in, then so was he. We can be each other's reminder that we aren’t alone.”
“And what did Nine say about his brother going back in?”
“He won't know,” Trey answered. “For this to work, he can’t know. The only people that can know are the people in this room. No one else.”
“I can't let you do this,” I said, shaking my head. “I will figure something else out.”
“It’s already decided,” Trey chuckled. “Shit’s already in motion. Moves are being made. I need you to trust me when I say I got it. And fight me one last time.”
***
“Now you sure this is what you want to do?” Nine asked, and I nodded. We walked through the small hallway, then down a flight of stairs. The smell of metal and sweat hit my nose, and I scrunched my face. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t stop moving my feet.
“I just need an outlet right now,” I told him.
He looked at me, and I shrugged. The only person who knew that I was still fighting was Nine.
He’d caught me when I was in college and introduced me to his friend Citrine, who ran an underground boxing ring.
He said that if I was going to fight, it needed to be with someone he trusted.
When Citrine asked why I was fighting, I told him it was for money; that was a lie.
I was fighting because as much as I wanted to deny that itch, that fight always sat in the back of my mind, nagging at me.
The adrenaline rush I got from hitting someone was an addiction I doubted I would ever be able to break.
“I got anger issues; this shit seems like a good way to get it out without killing a nigga.”
Nine stopped walking and shook his head.
“Listen, I know it’s some stuff about your past that we’ve never talked about, but I know Robert had you in some fucked up shit.
If this is how you gotta deal with that, then fine.
” He looked at me. “But if this shit gets to being too much, I need you to tell me. So, I can help you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him, patting his arm. “I’m good.”
“Nah man,” he said, shaking his head. “We need to have an understanding.”
“And we do,” I laughed to try and dead the conversation. “We are good. Move on, Nine. Let me see how much my brother and I are about to take these niggas for.”
Nine stood there, looking like he wanted to say more, then sighed and stepped back. “Alright, so from what Citrine told me. It's always one-on-one fighting. No death matches, just straight boxing.”
Citrine Stone ran the underground boxing ring in Arizona.
Going to Oklahoma or boxing at home in KC would’ve been too obvious that we were trying to get Robert’s attention.
We needed to make it seem like this was just a random moment to let off some steam.
Uncle Bradon was still fighting the takeover, even though he knew it was a lost cause.
That was just a show so they wouldn’t realize we were up to something.
Over the past few days, Trey and I had a public falling out, and so did he and Uncle Bradon.
Everyone thought we were butting heads, which was all a part of our plan.
We got to Citrine’s office, knocked, then waited for the soft buzzing sound of the locks disengaging so we could walk in.
“He ain’t in there,” a soft voice said from behind us.
We turned around to see a woman standing there with a smile on her face.
She looked familiar with her honey brown skin and dark eyes, but I couldn’t place her face.
It wasn’t surprising to see women here; Citrine allowed anyone over the age of twenty to fight.
I’d heard him mention that he had a few women fighters, but this woman didn’t look like a fighter.
She looked soft, like she was trying to be sexy but in a subtle way.
“He's ringside, trying to keep Marus from getting knocked out.”
“I doubt it,” Nine chuckled, and we went to the ring. Citrine stood leaning against the ring, arms crossed and a bored look on his face. Nine’s other friend, Marus, stood in the middle of the ring, looking like he was about to fall over any second. “This nigga.”
“I don’t know why he steps into the ring,” I said, shaking my head as we approached. “He can't fight.”
“At all,” Nine agreed with a laugh. He dapped up Citrine then stepped back. “You letting this slide?”
“He runs his mouth too much,” Citrine said with a shrug. “He's trying to impress a new shorty and thinks that running his mouth is going to prove that he’s about something. Yeti could’ve ended this shit a while ago, but you know that nigga likes to play games.”
Yeti was, in fact, playing with Marus. He was pulling his punches, overstepping and leaving himself open for a hit, but Marus wasn’t a boxer. He didn’t know what he was doing. He thought that just because he could street-fight, he could step into a ring and automatically win.
Nine looked around. “She short and curvy? If so, she told us you were over here.”
“Nah, a fighter,” Citrine said, shaking his head. “She ain’t looked twice at that nigga, but he swears she has.”
“He gonna get with a woman that can whoop his ass?” I laughed and shook my head. “He’d be better sitting this one out.”
“Not my problem,” Citrine said. He knocked against the ring. “Yeti, end this shit so we can discuss some important shit.” Yeti nodded, then hit Marus so hard he did a complete spin, then dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
“Oh, that nigga gonna feel that for a few days,” Citrine chuckled. Yeti shrugged then climbed out of the ring. He turned back to Nine and me. “Now this fight, what do I need to know that ain’t been said?”
“Nothing,” Nine answered, shaking his head.
“This is just them blowing off some steam.” Uncle Bradon asked us to keep it close to the vest because we didn’t know exactly what we were walking into.
Nine trusted Citrine, but he’d been running his underground boxing ring for a while, and there was a chance he was linked to Robert and Logan in some way.
“Alright, let’s talk money.” Citrine pointed towards the back of the building where his office was, and we walked away from the ring.
Marus was still lying in the middle of it, blood leaking from his mouth and nose.
Citrine had a younger brother who moonlighted as the ring's doctor, but he wasn’t in town, which meant Marus was on his own.