Page 172 of Shâhzâdeh

“You making too much sense, Mad, let’s get this shit blown up so we can move on. I’m ready to go meet Liam and fuck up these people’s business.” Ori’s big ass was swinging his feet like a kid eager to get to the next ride at the fair.

“Top, bottom, left or right?” Mir was making the sign of the cross as he pointed toward the front of the building. As he posed the question, the launcher was hoisted on his shoulder as his body braced against the frame of the car. I looked at the building and took the side that seemed the most sturdy.

“I call left.”

“I’ll take right.”

We picked our spots firing off both weapons simultaneously both having aimed for the interior walls that braced the roof. They hit their targets within milliseconds of each other, Priest’s striking just before mine.

“‘The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrow and scattered the enemy with great bottles of lightening He routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke’. Psalm 18 versus 13-15.”

Priest recited the verse as we watched the building collapse like bombs had exploded throughout the foundation. The cloud of dust and debris was growing and I was thankful for the masks that would keep us from being affected by it.

“Good shit! Where to next?” Ori hopped down off the top of the car before the roof had finished falling through. I could only shake my head and laugh because I was sure he would’ve been pissed he ain’t get to handle the mini launchers. If he really was going to step fully into his role, we were going to have a hard time keeping him from blowing shit up whenever someone got on his nerves. I prayed his wife would have a calming effect on him.

“Liam is there finishing the scouting of their compound with Bhal, Lucky, Smoke and Angel. They’re just waiting on us to join the party.” I loaded the launcher back into the trunk switching out the cases so the used weapons were on bottom and the fully stocked ones were on top. Just like they’d fucked with Vanya’s business and attempted to locate her home, I was doing the same. The other half of the crew had called in a bomb threat to the office building they worked in. It was a freestanding facility only it wasn’t a false alarm. As soon as the last person exited and before police could arrive, the building went up in a blaze. By the time they got it all sorted out, they’d come home to the place they’d kept my wife a virtual prisoner and find it in shambles as well. Brick by brick, they would watch the wealth they built off the back of my wife’s suffering crumble and she would use their rubble as the stepping stones to continue to advance.

They desired to harm what was mine. So I destroyed what was theirs. A more than fair trade.

Shoaib slammed the back of the SUV we were in closed once we made sure everything was ready to go just as Quentin did with the second SUV.

I turned to my family with a smile they couldn’t see beneath my mask. “Let’s not keep our brozers waiting. I want zhis done so zhat we can move on to the last part of zhis puzzle.”

VANYA

“YOU SURE YOU want to be here?”

I watched my brother as he looked around at the people that were part of our extended family. He went and raised a lot of hell with them yesterday and from the way he was grinning when he got back and the way Xerxes seemed at peace, they’d obviously bonded over mayhem.

Ahmad requested a trade because he was tired of losing in New York and wanted to establish himself back in the south. He said if he was going to lose, he’d at least do it somewhere that didn’t drain his pockets. To their credit, the organization seemed to be pulling out all the stops to get him the pieces he needed in order to succeed. Ahmad played the two, according to Xerxes, which meant they needed him to be happy to win.

Xerxes had already gotten floor seats and a suite for the corporation. We supported our people no matter what they did. The Charlotte Copperheads were making big moves to ensure they had a chance at a ring. They’d gotten Ahmad who was a veteran but at almost thirty-three was still doing it better than the rookies coming in and had the first pick of the draft. Nobody expected a miracle, but with a few more good trades and the current players elevating their game, they might actually make a run. I hated that he’d started the beginning of his stay here running into this situation but when I voiced that he just smiled and said he had over twenty years of making up to do and didn’t mind pulling his weight.

We’d been hanging out far more since I was showing him homes and just like Xerxes, he wanted me to pick one that I thought was sufficient. I didn’t want to be cliché, but the home that I thought he would like best was one that had an indoor basketball court and a sport court. I knew he wouldn’t want to play all the time, but even in retirement I didn’t think he would stray far from what he loved. He’d told me that he felt like basketball kept him connected to our parents and that he played for the love of the game and to honor them.

I felt so awkward around Ahmad because the idea of not being good enough weighed heavily on my mind. But when I just relaxed with him the way I did with Vanya or Navi I didn’t feel so out of place. Xerxes said he wasn’t going to micromanage my relationship with my brother because he knew he was a good man. He would only step in if Ahmad would’ve been a danger to me but if that had been the case, I knew he would’ve killed him before I ever got the chance to meet him.

Ahmad had warned me that there were fans that might come up and paparazzi might pop up out of nowhere. I suggested we bring Navi along and he was all over that. Despite how he obviously liked her, he had no issue with being respectful and giving her space. When we toured homes or had lunch, I tried to ensure she was in the conversation. Was it ridiculous that I was now the one playing matchmaker when I had given Frankie so much shit last year for doing the same thing? Yes, but this was going to be my moment of hypocrisy. Besides, Ahmad already knew aboutFight Cluband had been vetted so in my mind it was just one step out of the way.

“I’m good. Xerxes wouldn’t let me be here if it was a problem.” I was nervous despite meaning every word I’d just said. There was something about this that I needed to do. Facing off with these people for the last time seemed to be the last step to purge them out of my system. I hadn’t worn anything bright or anything floral today. I’d kept it dark but I had my hair out as a final fuck you.

“No offense, sis, but I saw how your man gets down. You sure you good?”

“I’m Tony and Valencia’s daughter, right?” He’d spoken so much about our mother’s gentle spirt but how she would fight when necessary. And that our father had the same thirst for knowledge that I displayed. Being connected to people who gave me life was a security that I didn’t realize I was lacking.

He smirked at me and looked like he was extremely proud of my confidence. “You damn right.”

For my husband to not have lived in Charlotte, he had many people and items at his disposal. We were back in Uptown at the building theConsortiumowned, but we were currently underground. I didn’t even know you could build underground in Uptown, but I had to reset my mind when it came to the men that were in my life now.

We were standing in front of a room that had the Persian words for prince scrawled on the front of it. My lessons were slow going as I preferred to learn more organically than by learning things on the computer so I knew phrases but not how to string words together well. I knew I would eventually get it and I felt happy that I could read the words successfully.

It was like a logo almost on the large metal door and Xerxes pressed his finger to the keypad and the door opened. The three of us walked into what seemed to be a holding room and Xerxes led us through it and into a large concrete space.

And we weren’t alone.

Sitting strapped to what looked like three medical beds were my ex and my kidnappers. I switched the thought of them in my brain the more I talked to Ahmad. Xerxes still had people investigating but I didn’t need anyone to tell me that they were responsible for what happened to our parents. I wanted to get to know this information as quickly as possible, which was the only reason I was here. They had tubes connected to the medical beds and looked far too comfortable for what I expected them to be suffering. I looked at my husband who could only smile like he could read my thoughts.

“Trust me, mon amour.”

---