Page 192 of Shâhzâdeh

“I hate to interrupt since I’m such a firm lover of love, but we need to get moving. This was such a lovely family outing, Xerxes. I am thankful however that we do not need to ever do this again. Unless my fearless daughter-in-law would like to. You handled yourself beautifully,papillon.” My mother kissed Vanya on both of her cheeks happily.

Vanya glanced behind my mother at the table, and I saw her concern. “What will happen to him? Not like I’m suddenly blood thirsty—”

“You have a little Mahdavi-Cannon baking. It vouldn’t be unheard of.” My father was grinning proudly and I could see the joy the present and the future were bringing him.

“They are going to have a gas leak while having a lovely family dinner. The entire house will be blown to bits and no one will detect what went on with them. The house in between theirs and ours is for sale so no one will be hurt but they’ll receive a nice insurance payout that will more than cover the damage and what they could get for it in this market. Ours will be as well but it is a small price to pay even if we weren’t getting insurance for it. No one will pinpoint it as foul play but many will suspect it because of the news the good doctor got. It’s truly the best ending to a very ugly chapter. And the start of a beautiful one.”

Vanya bit her lip and eyed my mother nervously. I squeezed her to me to give her the confidence she needed. “I hope it won’t be too painful for you, but I’m going to need your help. I understand I have a lot of mother figures, but only one I would want with me through all of this.”

Maman was wiping her eyes and smiling gratefully. “It would be an honor. I should be happy we got the house when we did. It looks like the trip to Tennessee is going to be one to move permanently.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Bijan missed working with his horses everyday and between the two of us, I’m happy for him to take a step back. He has worked hard for so long he should be able to truly enjoy all of his hard work. Same as Xerxes. And I cannot lie, the idea of you allowing me time to bond with my grandchild is something I can’t pass up.”

“Zhen it’s settled.” Bâbâ kissed maman on the side of the face both looking much lighter than they had before.

“It is. But let us go. I’m happy to blow this place up and move on with our lives.”

My mother looked around the once nice dining room that now held a sobbing patriarch that was being tied down to his chair as his family’s corpses deteriorated around him. He was being confronted with the weight of his choices, and now he was going to die with their blood on his hands. But the Mahdavi-Cannons were walking away and would let the fire that was soon to come raze the fields of the past in our wake.

We made our way back home with my mother doting over my wife the entire way to the airfield. I knew the way my mother fluttered over her was new and some people might have found it too much. But with Vanya she had craved connection for so long she welcomed that my mother not only loved her but genuinely liked her. It was just further validation for her that the Kennedys had been terrible people. She wasn’t wasting a moment to get her essentials packed up in Tennessee so she could join us in Charlotte.

By the time we got home, I’d had to carry Vanya to bed. She’d wanted me to lie down with her just for a little while. As always, she was the physical embodiment of melatonin and my ass easily fell asleep. I was only awoken when a special vibration on my phone roused me; the pattern signaling it was an emergency and something was seriously wrong.

I sat up quickly, the movement disturbing Vanya, who grumped slightly at me but rolled over. I kissed her shoulder and grabbed my phone.

“Ori.”

I was moving toward my closet on the other side of the bedroom to get dressed. It didn’t matter how tired I was, I was going to my brother when he called. Ori had never used his distress message, that’s how we knew something was wrong.

“Bruh—” he seemed to be at a loss for words and I put him on speaker while I gave him a minute to gather his thoughts. I was only dressed in boxer briefs to go to bed so I had to pull on a shirt and grab some basketball shorts. If I needed to leave the house I was going to call Ahmad and Navi to come with be with my wife because I would need Shoaib and Quentin with me. There would be no telling what I was walking into. Despite how she handled herself when we were with the good doctor, I would always ensure she had an extra layer of protection. Shit, I might need to ask her to go to the bomb shelter.

“Xerx, I know it’s late but you gotta come up here. Everything is fucked up.”

He sounded panicked and one thing Ori didn’t do was panic. Despite him being a hothead, he didn’t move until he knew he could act up how he wanted to. Ori’s voice being deeper and me still able to hear the anxiety in it had me moving faster.

“What is wrong? Are you in danger?”

“Shit, I might be.”

He chuckled and I could hear the sounds of the city behind him, which meant he had to be on the roof deck of his place or on the deck at our place in the city.

I stopped moving as frantically as I had been because I needed him to elaborate before I left my Vanya. This big overgrown muthafucka wasn’t making sense and I could still be snuggled up around my wife or inside of her. I was always there for my brothers, but I needed Ori’s ass to elaborate before I hung the damn phone up.

“You sound way too calm for zhis shit to be an emergency.”

“It is an emergency.” His voice went back to sounding tense and I needed to know if he was drinking or smoking. If he wasn’t going to clear this up, I was about to take my Black ass back to sleep.

I sighed trying not to lose my patience just because I wanted to slide back in bed with my wife. “So tell me what’s wrong?”

“I think my fiancée is a serial killer.”

The End

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