Xerxes
XERXES
“MY ASS WAS pissed about getting ready to get married but y’all are giving me the best presents. Shit might not be so bad after all.”
Ori was grinning as he strapped up in full tactical gear. He’d been in the field office for a long time, but his ass had been a member of so many government agencies because everyone wanted him on their team. He was pissed at first that they only saw his size and not his brain, but he used it to get all the accolades he could and then went on the brain side of the FBI. Shit like this got him hype as hell and judging by the grin on his face, we were going to need to keep his big ass under wraps.
Between him and Cou, I wasn’t sure who was going to be worse.
Last night’s dinner had been good with our friends taking over the guest bedrooms in the house or laying out in the queen bed sized movie chairs Vanya had gotten for the theatre room. I wasn’t doing any of that shit. I was face and balls deep inside of my wife until I’d more than filled her up and drained myself. She felt even more perfect and I made love to her slowly and deeply because emotions were so high.
The chef had prepared food for all of us and was out of sight before Vanya had gotten up. We were already dressed and ready to head out before she came down the steps. I didn’t like the look of worry on her face, but she said she was going to hang out with Navi at the apartment complex. Quentin had already told his team that they were to be on high alert so besides Navi, the entire area was ready for whatever.
The birds were chirping, unaware of the danger that lurked in their midsts. The air was still and the area quiet, but we were about to change all that.
We were standing under a grouping of tents and cases upon cases of my personal arsenal were laid out on tables around us. I’d given them a tour of the fallout shelter as we went to retrieve the cases and Liam was already talking about having Jasmine design one for them. The fellas were going through each case, selecting what it was they needed and would probably keep after this was done. We had multiple targets for today and I had to make sure each job was done right. I had no issue with gifting them the guns because it was my way of saying thanks despite knowing they lived for this shit. Whenever we could get out of the suit and tie side of life, we did so without hesitation. Today was going to be fun because it was more of a group project than the last time we gathered. Priest was the only one that had fun that day but he was owed. That reckoning was long overdue.
We’d all shown up in black, not because it was dark, but because we had no issues looking like what we were: darkness and destruction seeking a target.
“What is this?” Couba was looking into a case curiously while Midas just smiled.
“New prototype Midas and I had designed and handcrafted. Impressive, yes?”
I ran my hand over the steel and carbon handle of the gun that was a replica of the one that Yacouba was admiring. Nev might design beautiful jewelry, but she also had an affinity for weaponry. She’d be around them her entire life because of her father’s wealth and had no issue discussing with us how weapons helped or hindered women when they were designed.
“Shit is fire. How well does it breakdown?” I could already tell he was going to want one but little did he know it was already in the works.
“Four pieces and can be reassembled within seconds once you get the hang of how the components interlock.” Midas was showing him how they could breakdown and put together quickly and Yacouba was more than impressed.
“Of course your ass was gonna make a weapon that would break down quickly.”
“I was zhinking of Priest and zhe Order . Zhey need efficiency.”
Yacouba was looking at the gun and picked up the extra clip like he wanted to practice with it. “But not this capacity. They might think you are questioning their proficiency.”
Jahmir handled the gun with ease, far removed from the eloquent man of the cloth that sat on the pulpit. The subject of today’s wrath was one that was close to his heart so both sides of him were working hand in hand. Besides the affront they’d made against my wife, our target had been someone that was abusing the word of God to harm others. That was a big no-no in his eyes.
“I might need to get this shit for Jazzy baby. It’s light enough and if it can break down she can keep it in Yassar’s diaper bag.”
Couba was talking like having a gun like this in his wife’s diaper bag wasn’t some outlandish shit. I might have been the only one who didn’t hide it, but every member of the Consortium had someone watching their wives’ backs. Some had to be more covert about it like Yacouba because Jasmine was not about being trailed. Others, like Mir kept his wife close enough so that it wasn’t a big deal. Since Angel looked like he was finally going to reach out to his sister, Mir’s cousin Lika had stepped in to provide protection. Ny was soft on the outside but had the same fire that I had seen expressed in Vanya. I didn’t think it was necessary for Vanya to be a part of this reckoning. She’d gotten her retribution by breaking free from the people in the past who’d wanted to hurt her. She’d reclaimed her power all on her own. She didn’t need this. This was for me. She’d gotten her justice and now it was time for me to give her revenge.
“My favorite part of it is that the gun won’t fire without the fingerprint of the person who’s been keyed to use it. If it’s not your gun, you can’t shoot.” Midas picked up the gun that Couba had been admiring before putting his finger on the trigger. The light went from red to green meaning it would now engage and Yacouba was rubbing his hands together excitedly.
“Xerx, I need about a hundred of these. I like that this shit means people can’t be framed on some bullshit and being able to get ballistics to match in case it fell into the Fed’s hands would be impossible. Unless there was a way to hack it.” He glanced up at me questioningly and I hoped he was ready for all his accounts to be offline with that insult. Adam wasn’t about to let that slide.
“I’ll tell Dom you’re doubting his contribution to its creation. Hope zhat firewall can wizstand cyber attacks.” Couba narrowed his eyes like he wanted me to backtrack my threat but he knew Dom’s ass was temperamental.
“Not you partnering with the Blerd to make advanced weaponry tech.” Priest was laughing but the Blerd had come in clutch to where we’d tossed around expanding the Consortium to include him. But since all the illegal shit he ever did was on our behalf, he didn’t see a need for it. Unless you count those few murders he did.
“Gotta step into zhe new millennia sometime. Besides, you act as zhough we have any shortage of enemies. Keeping one step ahead of zhem assures we are alive to fight anozer day.” Heads were nodding around the tent because they fully understood what was at stake.
“Facts, is this—” Midas was pointing to the gun like he needed my permission to touch it.
I smirked because I knew my cousin would’ve wanted it so Adam was already on it. If his ass wasn’t out in Cali having a playdate with Nick and his people, he’d probably be here in person instead of working remote. “Already been coded for you. I knew Couba wouldn’t be up for trying something zhat wasn’t his old faithfuls and Ori’s ass would get out of hand.”
Midas smiled picking up the gun while Yacouba looked at me like he had his favorite toy stolen. “Glad you know me.”
Instead of being pissed he couldn’t play, Couba finished getting ready and looked at me. “What’s the play?”
I worked my neck wanting the anxiety settle so I could remain as focused as possible. “Remember zhe police station in Georgia?”
Yacouba’s eyes lit up with joy, and a slow smile spread across his face. “Swiss cheese?”
“Yep. No casualties, zhough. Zhe place is empty.” Priest chuckled at my revelation but I knew he could appreciate no unnecessary loss of life like we all could.
Yacouba looked annoyed as hell when I said the place was empty. “The fuck? They get tipped off?”
I shook my head and pat him on the back, which only caused him to frown and me to smile. “I have somezing far worse in mind for zhem. Don’t ruin my fun, Yacouba. Did Liam when you had your people dig ol’ buddy up?”
Priest was chuckling as he palmed the gun that I’d given him. “He’s got a point, Cou.”
“Shut up, Mir. Nobody asked you.”
Priest pushed him barely moving his big ass at all. “Your big ass is really poutin’? Damn, maybe I should feel cheated, since I wasn’t around for that one. Let me cut up some, too.”
“You was the one with the crisis of faith . And I think your lil therapy session last fall more than made up of it.”
“So glad all of that is behind me now. Now I understand that I’m an armor bearer for the Lord.” He held up the weapons that he had in both of his hands and smiled contently. His waves were deep, edge up crisp and besides the weapons you wouldn’t know he was anything but the good pastor. When his eyes closed, I knew we needed to leave him be.
“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, Shahzadeh .” 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 like Black Panther for real.”
Yacouba’s already deep voice was even deeper behind the masks and he hit the Wakanda Forever salute 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 celebratory CHEE-HOO echoing 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.
“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.”