Page 181 of Shâhzâdeh

“Vhy do you care? You’re going to die.” Bâbâ’s patience was done as he snapped at his father and I could see the over fifty year wait for his revenge had him ready to act.

I pressed the button to start the motor back up before I turned to my uncle. “Ibriham, I’m sure it was you who encouraged the shah to remove my father from the line of succession. Just like I’m sure he knows that those brothers between you and my father were met with accidents caused by you.”

“Vhat does he mean?” Mohammed turned to look at his heir like he was truly surprised at this news.

“You raised zhis man to be selfish and you wonder why he hasn’t turned out better. You had son after son met fatal ends so young. Zhat never bozered you? You never questioned why you were so unlucky wiz your sons for so long? Blame your heir for zhe blood of the Mahdavis zhat has been lost.”

“Ibriham, tell me zhat isn’t true.” The look of betrayal on my grandfather’s face at hearing my father’s information would’ve been sad if he wasn’t such a terrible human being. My grandfather was pulling at the ties on his hands as though he wanted to get at his son.

I wasn’t going to waste anymore time because this had lingered too long already. “Tell me,amu. The story of Xerxes, what is the one thing he is famous for?”

Ibriham smirked before he gave me his answer. “Being a loser.”

I wagged my finger at him and chuckled at his weak joke. “Zhat’s funny. If I weren’t going to kill you zhat would’ve been enough of an insult. But no, zhe greatXšayaršahad something even better. When a man begged for his eldest son, his favorite, to be excused, what did Xerxes do, bâbâ?”

“He cut him in half, placed him on each side of the road and marched his army through the halves.” I looked back at Ahmad who’d answered before my father completely impressed and he just smirked. “My nigga, your name is Xerxes, you think I wasn’t about to look that shit up?”

“Oh, these muthafuckas gone be fun to hang with.” Nate was rubbing his hands together and I saw the looks on my cousin, my friends’ and family’s faces at my words.

“Since you have always zhought to lift one child on zhe backs of zhe others. It seems only fitting he should be waiting for you on zhe ozer side first.”

Ibriham stepped back as I walked to stand in front of him and hooked the chain to him. “Xerxes, you cannot mean—”

“Cannot mean what? Are you not zhe man who grinned at zhe zhought of my agony had your men taken zhe woman I love? Found joy in zhe zhought of terrorizing her. Raping her and passing her around for your pleasure and calling her a consolation prize! Zhose were your words weren’t zhey?” I spat my words angrily at him, my composure no longer necessary.

“Nephew—”

I hooked off on him then unable to keep my anger at bay at the way he’d spoken about and fantasized about hurting my Vanya. His head snapped back from the blow and I grabbed him up to ensure that he heard every word I said.

My teeth were clenched and I stared at the fear in his eyes, allowing it to feed me and the madness I was getting ready to unleash. “Fuck you, you son of a bitch! Your mozer should’ve choked on you before swallowing you into her stomach and saved me zhe trouble. Sampson, handle zhat bitch zhe way you see fit. Let zhe favorite son watch his favorite son die before he meets zhe same fate.”

“Bet.”

I doubled checked the hook of the machine to ensure he couldn’t unlatch it. There was a locking mechanism installed on the front so that the rope wouldn’t slip off.

“What are you doing?” My uncle’s panicked eyes watched me as I checked his restraints.

The sound of boots on the ground caused me to grin as the opening shots of the war were fired. “Me? I’m giving you zhe view you deserve before you die.”

I turned and pressed the button on the controller I had in my hand so I could watch the work that the Chisholm-Loves were putting in. Inch by inch, my uncle’s arms begin to raise in the air. He tried to fight, but I didn’t stop the machine until he was several inches off the ground.

Sampson led the attack grabbing Kamran by his throat and squeezing his neck. Kamran tried to push him off of him with his cuffed hands, but it didn’t do any good. Sampson was a man who spent his time wrangling multi-hundred pound animals. If he wasn’t roping steer or riding horses, he helped his cousin who ran this part of the business in moving cattle in and out for processing. My cousin, whose only exercise was using his voice to order people around and his thumbs to scroll social media, wasn’t going to fend off a man with that kind of grip strength. Sampson was smiling as he choked the life out of Kamran and my uncle was kicking and screaming about his son. My brothers had eyes on my cousins watching them to ensure they didn’t make a wrong move. My father’s eyes were glued to the king’s relishing in his pain.

“You thought that a man like me was going to let somebody come on his land and try to take his woman?”

Sampson released Kamran who doubled over trying to catch his breath only to be kicked in the face by Nate’s boot.

“Stand up, bitch! Die like a fuckin’ man. Talkin’ all dat shit.” Nate’s Texas accent was thick despite how deep his voice was and I wanted to laugh at the way they were taunting Kamran.

“Nate, you know bitches like him do what they do cause they ain’t got shit else goin’ for ‘em. Stealin’ women cause they couldn’t pull one without it. Especially not my Black.” Sampson grabbed Kamran by the back of his neck like a lion would his cub and shook him to rouse him.

“Do somezing! Surely you cannot stand by and watch zhem brutalize him like zhis, Xerxes! Ve are your blood!” Ibriham was shaking trying to get himself off of the hook but all he would do was dislocate his shoulders.

Mir didn’t bother to look up at my uncle and was instead still engaged in watching the Chisholm-Loves beat Kamran’s ass. “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. The bonds that are formed when you make a pledge to God are far stronger because it is done of your own free will. You tried to disrupt that. For multiple generations. Take your penance in peace.”

“Zhank you, Mir. Always good to have a word.”

I turned back to my uncle as I heard an almost wet whack echo in the room. I turned to the only action and saw how bloody Kamran’s face was now that the brothers were taking turns using him as a punching bag. I’d seen the damage that Sampson could do and although he was less broad than his brother, Nate was no slouch. Blood poured from Kamran’s mouth as Nate uppercut him and several teeth dislodged.

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