Page 169 of Shâhzâdeh

Instead of it being a moment, Ahmad sat forward and smiled. “Already looked into me I see.” Chuckles went up around the dining table a sure sign that he was right.

“We have. You’re more zhan welcome to stay and I distinctly remember you saying you wanted to help.”

His nod of confirmation was quick. “I do.”

“Vanya we will be taking care of a few issues zhat your past has tried to bring to the present.”

“You’re going to kill them tomorrow?”

A smile danced on his lips before he gave me an unexpected answer. “No. Not yet. Tomorrow is for fun. We will snatch them up and zhey will be held somewhere but zhere is no deaz tomorrow.” Xerxes’ words irritated me slightly because what kind of fun were zhey going to have?

“But soon.” We were clearly family because even Ahmad seemed eager to get these people out of the way by the way he pointed at me like we were in agreement.

Xerxes looked down at me curiously. “Is zhat hope I hear in your voice?”

“Maybe.”

“And vhat has you so savage right now?”

“I realize that the grace that I was extending to them is something they taught me I had to have for them. The entire time I’ve felt that I needed to take the high road hasn’t given me anything but stress about when they’re going to pop back out. Ever since my ex saw me last year he’s been driving me crazy.” I toyed with the few bites of food leftover on my plate trying not to be frustrated.

“I’m sure I’m partially to blame for zhat. Your ignoring him was one zhing. But you having someone zhat could protect you and would protect you probably pissed him off. You were good as long as you were alone. He could feel superior zhat you were still not doing as well as him. But zhen he saw you surpassing him in every way and his ego couldn’t handle zhat. His reasons and his actions weren’t acceptable but I could understand the magnetism about you. Vanya, I had an intense desire to know everyzing about you zhere was. Nozing, not even you were going to stand in my way of loving you zhe way I knew I was meant to.”

A chuckle was heard from the end of the table and all eyes went to Navi who was twirling more grilled onions and steak onto her fork. “He really just made stalking her ass sound normal.”

Priest sat with his chin propped up on his hand as he observed us all. “You see she not running away screaming so I guess she likes that.”

I squeezed Xerxes’ hand that was now hanging around my shoulder. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. For any one of you to get in trouble. Make sure you all make it back to the women who love you. The ones who don’t depend on you but would lost without you.” I looked at each of them but let my eyes linger on Ori the longest. He seemed indifferent, but even from where I sat I could feel how his energy shifted slightly at my words.

“Not to worry you, but we are professionals at this. Life had been calm for a while, but there are always family issues that make it necessary for us to act. When it is all resolved we will go back to living our boring business lives and only come out to play once in a while.” Ori tried to be reassuring, but that was just a reminder that this wasn’t going to be the first or last time any of them ran head first into danger. The idea of them doing it because of me made me anxious.

“I’m not trying to change you. Any of you. None of us are. But you can’t love us as deeply as you have, show us that the world can be this beautiful and then leave us in it alone. I’ve been alone. Nyima has. Jerica and Jasmine and Jada always had each other, and Frankie has had Liam most of her life but even she knows loneliness. Navi and Asha have had their twins but they’ve known loss and hard situations. We never want to return to that. Just like you all have said that we make your lives better, you do the same with ours. So have whatever fun you want to, but remember that there are women and babies who are counting on you to come back.” The mood went slightly solemn but I needed them to know the severity of what was at stake. Fun was one thing, but they were far more important than anything.

“You got me choking up and shit. I need to call Jazzy baby and tell her and my son I love them.” Yacouba was already pulling out his phone and I felt like I’d done too much.

“I didn’t mean to mess anything up—”

“You did not. It is beautiful when you express zhe depzs of your love for me. We know zhe women we have married. Many of you had to be hard and zhe ability to have all of you living in your softness is not a task zhat any of us take lightly. We wouldn’t be so egotistical as to be careless and let you all fall.” His tone was soothing and I knew it was so that I stopped feeling guilty about the mood change.”

I kissed hmm softly but kept my face close to his so he could see how serious my next words were. “Good. Just make sure that whatever y’all do, it makes them hurt.”

XERXES

“MY ASS WAS pissed about getting ready to get married but y’all are giving me the best presents. Shit might not be so bad after all.”

Ori was grinning as he strapped up in full tactical gear. He’d been in the field office for a long time, but his ass had been a member of so many government agencies because everyone wanted him on their team. He was pissed at first that they only saw his size and not his brain, but he used it to get all the accolades he could and then went on the brain side of the FBI. Shit like this got him hype as hell and judging by the grin on his face, we were going to need to keep his big ass under wraps.

Between him and Cou, I wasn’t sure who was going to be worse.

Last night’s dinner had been good with our friends taking over the guest bedrooms in the house or laying out in the queen bed sized movie chairs Vanya had gotten for the theatre room. I wasn’t doing any of that shit. I was face and balls deep inside of my wife until I’d more than filled her up and drained myself. She felt even more perfect and I made love to her slowly and deeply because emotions were so high.

The chef had prepared food for all of us and was out of sight before Vanya had gotten up. We were already dressed and ready to head out before she came down the steps. I didn’t like the look of worry on her face, but she said she was going to hang out with Navi at the apartment complex. Quentin had already told his team that they were to be on high alert so besides Navi, the entire area was ready for whatever.

The birds were chirping, unaware of the danger that lurked in their midsts. The air was still and the area quiet, but we were about to change all that.

We were standing under a grouping of tents and cases upon cases of my personal arsenal were laid out on tables around us. I’d given them a tour of the fallout shelter as we went to retrieve the cases and Liam was already talking about having Jasmine design one for them. The fellas were going through each case, selecting what it was they needed and would probably keep after this was done. We had multiple targets for today and I had to make sure each job was done right. I had no issue with gifting them the guns because it was my way of saying thanks despite knowing they lived for this shit. Whenever we could get out of the suit and tie side of life, we did so without hesitation. Today was going to be fun because it was more of a group project than the last time we gathered. Priest was the only one that had fun that day but he was owed. That reckoning was long overdue.

We’d all shown up in black, not because it was dark, but because we had no issues looking like what we were: darkness and destruction seeking a target.

---