Page 42 of Shâhzâdeh

My hand went up to get him to halt his speaking because the sound of his voice disturbed my soul. “I did not say we, I said you.” I pointed to Vanya’s ex completely ignoring the other man. “I do not work wiz men like Mr. Kennedy. He was not zhe one invited.”

Immediately, his privilege wouldn’t allow him to be ignored. “How are you going to tell me that I’m not allowed to sit in on something when I own the company?” Chest puffed up, feelings of anger worn on his face as though he were going to bully me.

My eyes narrowed at the thought of him thinking he could tell me what the fuck to do. “By using the words I just did to tell you zhat your presence is not wanted here. Zhe stench of you makes me ill.”

“How dare some Arab—”

“First off, I’m Black, Persian and Arab. Get my shit right. Second, no matter who or what I am, I’m better zhan you could ever hope to be. Sho!”

Sho immediately stepped from behind me and snatched the elder Kennedy up by the arm, halting the hatred he was about to spew.

“What is this? Get off of me. You can’t do this to me.” He tried to shake himself free but Shoaib wasn’t about to let him go. The smile on Sho’s face meant he hoped that the elder Kennedy kept acting up so he could fuck him up.

“I can when I have an ownership stake in zhis business. Zhis is a private room and you were not granted admission by my invitation. Your son’s doesn’t count. Now, if he wants to join you...” I turned to him, waiting to see if his loyalty or his greed would win out.

The younger Kennedy hesitated before he stayed quiet as his adoptive father was drug away.

I would’ve said there was some hope for him yet, but with the way he had treated my Vanya, his showing a backbone only angered me more. He could have shown it in the defense of someone else instead of simply for his own vanity. So really, it was only another strike against him.

“Mr. Cannon—”

“Who do you zhink you are inviting hangers on to a meeting I requested wiz you and only because of extenuating circumstances?” He looked surprised, as though my ire was only going to be directed toward his father.

“I’m sorry, what?” His surprise was comical and I saw Vanya even roll her eyes.

“Who do you zhink you are?” That question was loaded. I wanted to take the measure of the person who had been so intimately involved with my future wife’s pain. His answer would reveal how to devastate him, because it would show what he valued the most.

His face was a teak color, his hair cut low and his suit decent quality. Compared to his father, I could tell they were still cheating him out of commissions. “Well, my father is my broker and I wanted to ensure we had all areas of your business covered when we spoke to you about our proposal. Any facilities that you recommend looking to build wouldn’t be in the Charlotte proper area that Vanya specializes in. Our family goes to church with and does business with a lot of the families that still own larger parcels of land throughout the more rural areas. You wouldn’t want to have someone like Vanya representing your name or your brand around Charlotte, anyway.”

My eyes darted to hers noting the revulsion on her face before they went back to him. “Someone like Vanya?”

I saw her flinch at my words and now my interest was piqued.

He stepped closer nodding his unnaturally textured hair. “You think she got all those clients by being good at her business? She did them by using her feminine wiles to land clients. Sexual favors in return for contracts. It’s disgusting behavior.” His teak colored face was tight, eyes narrowed as he loudly admonished this woman like he expected her to ask for forgiveness.

“And what do you do to gain business?”

His eyes left her and focused back on me. The confusion at my not immediately ganging up on Vanya or attempting to proposition her was clear. “Excuse me?”

“What do you do?” I sat forward because it was about to get extremely difficult for Mr. Kennedy.

“I don’t think I understand what you’re trying to imply.” He had the nerve to look angry at what he thought I was implying when he’d just said it blatantly about Vanya. “I’m not like that.”

“And neither am I. But you say zhat Vanya’s bedroom skill was so miraculously better zhan anyzing zhe two of you could offer zhat you had nozing zhat could match it. Not lowering the percentage or getting zhem a property at a lower price since you have so many rural and urban connections? No, it was simply Vanya and her magical…bedroom skillszhat have made her so successful.”

He smirked at me eyeing slyly before he sealed his fate. “They’re rather impressive if you haven’t already sampled them. I’m the one who fucked her first—”

My body launched across the table, and my hands were around his throat before he could back up. Vanya gasped but didn’t say another word as I sunk the pads of my fingers into his neck. Quentin was chuckling behind us and Sho walked back inside unconcerned about why I had this man hemmed up. He was probably wondering what the hell took this long.

“Now, I invited you here as a courtesy. Well, zhat’s a lie. I wanted to prove a point in a very gentlemanly manner. But your filthy mouth has made zhat impossible. Did I not warn you before about speaking with zhat foul language in front of asayyida? And zhen to speak zhat wayabouther? You should lose your tongue.” I was speaking through clenched teeth and I was trying not to kill this man as my fingers sunk deeper into the flesh of his neck.

I felt the movement beside me and glanced over to see that Quentin held a hunting knife for me to use in enacting my words. His efficiency was more than appreciated and I was glad he was just as annoyed by this man as I was. The younger Kennedy started to speak some gibberish that almost sounded like an apology but I wasn’t in the mood to hear it. Nothing he had to say was important to me. His death would occur today, tomorrow, or a year from now. The end was a guarantee; the method was still up for debate.

The most interesting thing to me was that Vanya did not say a word. There were no protests as before. No wanting me to show mercy. No crying out as though she viewed me as a madman. Her silence intrigued me and as I faced her past, I had to ask her a few questions.

“What should we do with this man, ziba?” I knocked his head against the wood paneling watching the panic continue to mount in his eyes. Asshole had the nerve to be wearing blue contact lenses.

“You’ve already beaten him up once. I guess it didn’t take.” I turned to her and she look so casual at the idea of violence now that I could only hope we would continue along with the trajectory of our relationship positively. I took her in proudly. The way she crossed her legs to the unbothered look on her face as she sipped from her martini glass.

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