Page 171 of Shâhzâdeh

“What is he doing?” Ahmad was looking around at all of us completely confused. We’d stopped by the penthouse at our complex that he was staying in temporarily to pick him up on the way up here. My brothers trusted me, but I still respected them enough to clue them in once we got the DNA test results back. They were shocked and Midas was pissed at what had happened and immediately started texting Dom’s ass, asking him and Messiah to go digging into their past. I knew it wouldn’t be long and it was necessary for us to find out because, after today, the Kennedys wouldn’t be around. “He’s praying isn’t he?”

I laughed at how Ahmad seemed truly shocked when he met Priest. Apparently, he watched Pastor Jahmir Sutton’s sermons online since he traveled so much for work. Seeing him here ready to put in a different type of work was jarring to him. But he handled that shit and appreciated how he was going to war with us to vindicate Vanya.

“He’s doing something. As long as we roll out this bitch without issue, I don’t care what he does.” Ori pulled his hair up in a bun and I knew he was eager to get started.

“Facts. Well, come on. Let’s ruin our good name by letting some sorry muthafuckas live,Shâhzâdeh.” Yacouba said that shit with such annoyance that none of us could keep a straight face. We handled business, but this slow progression to murder was driving Yacouba crazy. He’d at least get a chance to blow off some steam.

“Yacouba, we are not mere thugs. Not just dealers of death. We are cold, calculating and vengeful agents of chaos. We right the wrongs in the world by any means necessary. Doing something as mundane as a drive by doesn’t send the right type of message. It can be too easily written off a senseless tragedy. But slowly and surely interrupting their business? Ruining their chances of ever being able to salvage their legacy in the community? That right there is something they can’t brush off. It will be seen as their rightful penance for dishonoring God.” Mir opened his eyes just in time to deliver that word.

Ahmad smirked before he tucked the gun I’d given him in the small of his back. “Damn, that’s biblical.”

Quentin had said Ahmad was a lot more than met the eye and he was right. Ahmad was no stranger to the streets because of how he’d had to grow up and he didn’t shy away from street shit now.

“So, plagues of Egypt?” Midas was looking around as though he were waiting on me to confirm and I did so with a nod.

My cousin’s words made me smile because it definitely felt like we were going to be unleashing the wrath of God on them. “Since zhey decided zhat zhey would allow wickedness to exist wizin zheir walls, zhe temple is where we start.”

“Priest, anything to say to that?” Ori had his thumbs hooked through the bullet-proof vest he wore and he had at least eight guns on him that I could see including one that was strapped around his back. He hadn’t said much about the situation with Asha, but Vanya said Asha seemed at peace with how things were going.

“Teachings are more than clear that if you are worshiping false gods, allowing sin and promoting wickedness then it is no longer a place of God. Helping to destroy a place that uses the Lord’s name as a means to harm others is what we are charged to do.” He pulled out one of two of the toys I’d had Quentin bring from the bunker at home and I grinned. Priest held out one for me and kept the other for himself.

Yacouba was laughing as he shook his head. “Y’all bout to wil’ out for real with those. But Priests says we’re good with God and that’s good enough for me. Let’s roll out.”

We were in the parking lot of the temple within minutes, the vacant lot that I’d purchased was only a few miles away. Vanya didn’t question me when I asked her to make the purchase. It was lovely helping my wife stack her bank account, exceed her personal goals and get her vengeance all with something as easy as a business transaction. If our brotherhood had taught me nothing else, it was how to be efficient.

The cars we were in weren’t ones that were allowed in the United States. The idea of free market capitalism was only true when white people still had the advantage. Let someone that wasn’t a descendant of the children of the chalk out innovate them and they were constantly rigging in the system. Claiming to be the superior race but unable to actually be superior?Lamest shit ever.

These cars would never be identified and since they’d be in the back of shipping containers heading down 95 to catch a ride back to our home in Bermuda on one of Ori’s ships I wasn’t worried they’d ever be located.

I asked Vanya to cornrow my hair off my face so she could get her practice in, but my dick had other plans. Ever since she saw Skye with her hair braided the last time Frankie and Li were at the house, she’d looked up how to do it online and used me to practice. I had no issue with having the woman I loved have her hands in my hair and my head resting on her thighs. I’d be her real life mannequin anytime she wanted me to. And since she was getting better I didn’t have to walk around with my braids looking janky. That was always a win-win.

I understood that Dom had conducted a power outage for the entire area, but I’d much rather be safe than sorry. The custom shiesty we were now developing for our people was pulled down my face ensuring that no part of my skin could be seen. Shoaib, Quentin, Midas, Yacouba, Vince, Priest and Ori did the same. There was protective armor in the material that completely obscured our facial features. It was reinforced to handle a bullet at pointblank range.

“This shit got me feeling likeBlack Pantherfor real.”

Yacouba’s already deep voice was even deeper behind the masks and he hit theWakanda Foreversalute still holding his Tec-9. I could only laugh as the car came to a stop and we got into position.

I held up the new gun as I stood out of the side of the car on the running board. Yacouba went straight up through the moon roof and even Sho and Quentin were on go. Jahmir let out the opening shots like a preacher would bless a meal before everyone joined in. The temple was a large building made of glass with a central spire that was at least fifteen feet high. I wondered how so few Mormons in the area had gathered together to build something so unnecessarily large, but I was sure money laundering was going on. The Mormon population was small, but clearly they were attempting to draw others into the fold with all this opulence. That grandeur was soon to be a distant memory.

I raised the rifle that had an extra drum magazine attached and another clipped to my side, leaving the new toy for later on and began to take shots at the glass and stone. The armor-piercing rounds we were all shooting made me grateful for the ear protection I had built into these masks. Even muffled the sound was loud. Despite my familiarity with the gun, the kickback was still powerful enough for me to brace myself against the door. The joy that inflicting mayhem brought me was driving adrenaline into my veins. This was a high that would never get old. I wanted to stay healthy enough so that I could be rolling out with my grandkids putting in work.

Over the gunfire, you could hear Ori’s celebratoryCHEE-HOOechoing throughout the empty parking lot. He was happy to be causing havoc for the first time in a minute. The news he got from his grandfather must’ve been good.

Our two SUVs had parked at the back of the parking lot because each weapon had the range to shoot through the entire building. We’d used a thermal imaging drone to ensure no one was inside and kept the place monitored all morning. A supposed gas leak in the area kept everyone away, but this carnage would let them know they’d been targeted. And I wanted them to feel the fear of being chased by an unknown predator who had far more power than they ever could.

Each bullet I fired was a warning. To the men who’d stood by and watched two psychos, one of them a sick bastard who took too much interest in my wife, toe the line for years. The woman who tried to make my wife hate herself and damaged her psyche. The member who stole money from her, the ones who were complicit in upholding white supremacist ideologies that had her doubting her ability to connect to our people even to this day. The ones who were so fucking intimidated by her natural intelligence that they attempted to murder her thirst for knowledge. But they couldn’t keep her down.

I was happy that Ahmad hadn’t asked too many questions. He was hanging out the widow of the second SUV lighting this shit up as effortlessly as the rest of us. Having someone besides Midas, Sho and Quentin that would be nearby when business needed to be handled was going to be a luxury even all my substantial wealth couldn’t buy. And his ass was as completely obsessed about ensuring Vanya was good as I was.

Since we knew no one was coming out we got every feeling out we had. Pretty soon, the front of the church didn’t look as though it could support the roof. The glass front was in shards all along the front pavilion of the temple. The columns were falling apart and the structure listed to one side. The interior walls were exposed to the outside and the light fixtures were on the ground. I put down the rifle and reached for the final nail in the coffin of their superiority.

“Mir, you sure you know how to handle zhis?” I was laughing behind my mask as Yacouba sat on the roof of the truck like he was about to watch fireworks. Ori climbed his ass up on top of the other wanting to have a front-row seat as Priest swapped out his gun for the rocket launcher that matched mine.

“Y’all niggas wild.” Ahmad was laughing as he said it but hopped his ass up on the hood of the car like we were at a drive in.

“Put something on it. Whoever does the most damage owes the other a favor.” Yacouba was really looking at placing bets like we were at the track but it would make shit interesting. Even when we were being destructive, he couldn’t help but be the money man.

“The damn building about to collapse, how will you determine who wins?” Ahmad was looking between us and the building that was teetering already.

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