Prologue
“Mydickishardfrom me thinking about how I’m going to kill you.”
A whimper passed through the other end of the line, and a devious smirk crawled over Jediah’s face.“J-Jed,” she stuttered.“You have this all wrong!I didn’t betray you.”
“I trust no one,” Jediah replied.He glanced at the man a few feet before him, who was heaving and coughing up blood.“Be at the ball tonight at eight p.m.sharp.Maybe I’ll make your death less painful.”
Jediah ended the call while moving the cigar he held between the index finger and thumb of his left hand to his mouth.He took a big puff, then held it away from him.Ash fell from its end, landing on the pristine wooden flooring.Thin lines of its embers raised from the small hill created by the fallen ash.
Cameron Reeves took the cigar from Jediah and placed it in the ashtray on the table.
Jediah grabbed a chess piece from the board on the table.He rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and strode towards his target.Strong gusts of salty wind hit his nose with each step forward.Jediah stooped before the shell door.He clasped his hands between his thighs as he looked at the man in front of him.Blood poured from the man’s crooked nose.One of his eyes was swollen shut, and his lip was busted.
“That looks like it hurts,” Jediah mused, giving the man another once over before meeting his eyes again.“Does it hurt, Tyre?”
Tyre didn’t answer.
Jediah’s eyes narrowed while his voice came out in a cold command, “Answer.”
Tyre nodded his trembling head.He forced the word out in a labored breath, “Yes.”
“Does it hurt as much as knowing you only have a minute left to live?”Jediah asked, not waiting for an answer before he flicked a hand behind him.
Cameron approached from behind.He rested the cigar between Jediah’s fingers.After taking a big puff, Jediah blew the fumes toward Tyre’s face.Tyre choked as the smoke passed over him, then his eyes darted from the cigar to Jediah’s eyes.
“Do you know what I hate more than liars?People who steal from me.It never works out in their favor in the end.Was it worth it, Tyre?Never mind.Don’t answer that.But consider this my generosity.”Jediah moved the cigar toward Tyre’s mouth.
Cameron ran a hand over his head of smooth, blond-bleached waves.“Come on, Jediah.Yu don’ have fi mek the rookie—”
Tyre parted his trembling lips, silencing Cameron’s words.Jediah briefly smirked before settling the cigar between Tyre’s bloody lips.Tyre took a long pull, choking as he pulled away and blew fumes to the side.Jediah chuckled.Not everyone was a connoisseur of the art of cigar smoking.He rolled the pawn between his fingertips.He was about to put it between Tyre’s lips when a voice halted him
“Despite the circumstances, the family’s name can’t be on this,” Elias Swaby advised, then straightened his purple tie with orange triangles on it.
Jediah retracted his hand with the pawn cradled in his palm, then he stood and turned his back to Tyre.“Kill him,” he said, trading the cigar for a new one.As he lit it, he heard the unmistakable sound of a plastic bag covering Tyre’s face.
Tyre flailing.
Fighting for air.
Until, finally, stillness.
Followed by a loudsplash.
A faintsqueakrang out as the yacht’s shell door closed.
“Done,” came a voice from behind Jediah.
Jediah nodded before returning to his seat and looking at the man who spoke to him.“Everybody out.”
Of the three other men in the room, two didn’t move.
“I said everybody,” Jediah said through clenched teeth.
“Jed—”
Jediah swung his head in the direction of the voice and snapped, “Elias, leave.I don’t need advice right now!”
Elias stroked his salt-and-pepper beard once, eyed Jediah warily, then nodded and walked out of the room.