Chapter 22 Zainab
ZAINAB
When I saw Mehar, I wanted to commit murder. I was so tired of these men thinking that they could do whatever to us. That night I killed Larry, something broke in me. That old scared little girl was gone. I wanted revenge on everyone who had done me wrong.
There she was huddled on a bench inside Union Station, her hijab pulled low over her face, her body curled in on itself like she was trying to disappear. A few people walked past, glancing at her with that look—the one that said they knew something was wrong but didn’t want to get involved.
“Mehar.” I rushed toward her, Prime right behind me. “Mehar, I’m here. I’m—”
She looked up.
And my heart stopped.
Her face was destroyed. Swollen eye, already turning purple-black. Busted lip, crusted with dried blood. Bruises on her cheekbone, her jaw, her neck. Like someone had used her as a punching bag.
Because someone had.
“Oh my God.” I dropped to my knees in front of her, my hands hovering over her face, afraid to touch her. Afraid I’d hurt her more. “Mehar. What did he do to you?”
She just shook her head, fresh tears spilling down her battered cheeks. Couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe through the sobs.
“I’m going to kill him.” The words came out low. Cold. A promise, not a threat. “I’m going to find that sorry excuse for a man and I’m going to kill him with my bare hands.”
“Zainab—” Mehar’s voice was barely a whisper.
“No.” I grabbed her hands, squeezing tight. “You’re not going back there. Ever. Do you hear me? EVER. That part of your life is over. I don’t care what I have to do—you’re never seeing that man again.”
Prime crouched down beside us, his presence solid and steady. When he spoke, his voice was calm but firm.
“I have a beach house out in North Beach. Right on the shore. It’s quiet. Private. Nobody knows about it except my brothers.” He met Mehar’s swollen eyes. “You can stay there as long as you need. Until you’re ready to figure out your next move. I’ll cover everything.”
Mehar looked at him, then at me, confusion mixing with the pain on her face. She didn’t understand why a stranger would offer her so much. Didn’t understand that this man would move heaven and earth for anyone I loved, simply because I loved them.
“It’s okay,” I told her softly. “He’s family. You can trust him.”
She nodded weakly, and Prime helped me get her to her feet.
We walked out of Union Station together, my arm around my sister’s waist, holding her up when her legs threatened to give out.
Ahmad was a dead man. He just didn’t know it yet.
The drive to North Beach took about an hour.
Mehar slept most of the way, her head against the window, her breathing shallow and pained. Every few minutes, she’d whimper in her sleep, and I’d reach back and squeeze her hand, letting her know she wasn’t alone.
The beach house was stunning. A sprawling modern mansion, all glass and white wood, sitting right on the shore like something out of Architectural Digest. Six bedrooms, a wraparound deck, and a view of the Chesapeake that went on forever.
Prime carried Mehar inside while I grabbed the first aid supplies from his car. By the time I got to the bedroom, he’d laid her on the bed and was pulling off her shoes.
“I got her,” I said. “Can you get some ice?”
He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.
I sat on the edge of the bed and started cleaning Mehar’s face as gently as I could. She winced at every touch, but she didn’t pull away. Just lay there, staring at the ceiling, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.
“What happened?” I asked quietly. “What set him off this time?”
For a long moment, she didn’t answer. Then, in a voice so small I had to lean in to hear it:
“He found the pills.”
My stomach dropped. The birth control. The secret she’d trusted me with at the hospital.
“Mehar…”
“He went through my things. Found where I hid them.” Her voice cracked. “He called me a deceiver. A liar. And of course, a whore. Accused me of cheating on him and that’s why I was taking birth control. Said I was denying him his right as a husband. And then he just… he wouldn’t stop hitting me.”
The rage that surged through me was so intense I had to close my eyes and breathe through it. This man had been trying to impregnate my sister against her will. And when he discovered she’d been protecting herself, he’d beaten her half to death.
“You did the right thing,” I said, my voice shaking. “You hear me? You did the RIGHT thing. Don’t ever feel guilty for protecting yourself.”
Prime appeared in the doorway with ice wrapped in a towel. He also had a pill bottle in his hand.
“Valium,” he said, handing it to me along with a glass of water. “And these are painkillers. They’ll help her sleep.”
I gave Mehar one of each and held the water while she swallowed them down. Then I pressed the ice gently to her swollen eye and held it there.
“Rest,” I told her. “We’ll figure everything out tomorrow. Right now, you just need to sleep.”
The pills kicked in fast. Within twenty minutes, her breathing had evened out and her body had relaxed into the mattress. I pulled a blanket over her and sat there for a while, watching her sleep, my mind racing with all the ways I wanted to make Ahmad suffer.
Prime touched my shoulder. “Come outside. She’ll be out for hours.”
I didn’t want to leave her. But I also needed air. Needed space to process everything that was happening.
So I followed him out onto the beach.
The shore was empty.
December in Maryland meant nobody was out here except us. The water was gray and choppy, the wind cold enough to bite, but we’d bundled up in jackets from Prime’s closet before coming out. We walked along the sand in silence for a while, the waves crashing beside us, the sky heavy with clouds.
“Everything is falling apart,” I finally said.
“Yusef is God knows where. My sister just showed up looking like she went ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I slapped the mayor of DC at a gala. And somewhere out there, Zoo is probably still trying to figure out who killed his son.” I laughed, but there was no humor in it.
“When is it going to stop, Prime? When do we get to just… be normal?”
He was quiet for a moment. Then he chuckled—a low, rumbling sound that I felt more than heard.
“Normal.” He shook his head. “You know, when I walked away from that life—when I quit that previous life. I thought I’d run Banks Reserve with my brothers. Build something legitimate. Maybe find a woman. Settle down. Be boring.”
“And then I came along.”
“And then you came along.” He stopped walking and turned to face me.
“You brought more chaos into my life in six months than I’d seen in the six years before.
Bodies. Cover-ups. Family drama. Identity secrets.
A nephew who could catch a case.” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “And I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
“You’re insane.”
“Maybe.” His hand cupped my face, thumb tracing my cheekbone. “But I’m your kind of insane. And you’re mine.” His eyes were intense, holding me in place. “We were never meant to be normal, Goddess. We were meant to be this. Messy. Complicated. Fighting the world together.”
“That’s toxic as hell.”
“Probably.” He smirked. “But tell me you don’t love it.”
I couldn’t. Because I did.
He kissed me then—slow and deep, his arms wrapping around me, pulling me against his chest. The wind whipped around us, the waves crashed, and for just a moment, everything else disappeared. Yusef. Mehar. Rashid. Zoo. All of it faded into the background, and there was only this. Only him. Only us.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead resting against mine, I was breathless.
“Take me inside,” I whispered.
He didn’t need to be told twice.
The beach house had a fireplace.
Prime lit it while I checked on Mehar—still sleeping, the pills doing their job—and when I came back to the living room, he’d laid out blankets on the floor in front of the flames.
“Lie down,” he said. “On your stomach.”
I raised an eyebrow but did as I was told. The blankets were soft beneath me, the fire warm against my skin. I heard him moving behind me, then felt his hands on my shoulders.
He started with a massage. Deep, slow pressure working out the knots I’d been carrying for days. His thumbs dug into the tension along my spine, and I groaned into the blanket.
“You carry everything here,” he murmured, working a particularly stubborn spot. “All that stress. All that worry. You hold it in your body.”
“Hard not to when the world keeps trying to kill me.”
“That’s why you’ve got me.” He leaned down, pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “To carry it for you.”
His hands moved lower. Down my back. Over my hips. Slowly, deliberately, he pulled my leggings down and off.
“Prime—”
“Shh.” His breath was hot against my lower back. “Let me take care of you.”
He spread my thighs apart, and then his mouth was on me.
I gasped, my fingers gripping the blanket beneath me. He ate me from behind like he was starving for it—tongue sliding through my folds, lips sucking at my clit, hands gripping my hips to hold me in place when I tried to squirm away from the intensity.
“Prime—oh God—”
He didn’t let up. Just kept going, relentless, pushing me higher and higher until I was shaking, moaning into the blanket, my whole body on fire.
When I came, I screamed his name loud enough that I was grateful Mehar was sedated three rooms away.
He kissed his way up my spine, settling his body over mine, his lips finding my ear.
“I’m going to get Yusef back,” he said quietly. “And I’m going to handle your sister’s husband. Both of them. I promise you.”
I turned my head to look at him. “Mehar’s husband is mine.”
His eyebrow rose. “Yours?”
“I want to be the one who does it.” My voice was steady. Certain. “She’s my sister. He hurt her. I want him to know it was me.”
For a long moment, Prime just looked at me. Searching my face. Seeing something there that must have satisfied him, because finally he nodded.
“Okay.” He kissed my temple. “Then he’s yours.”
We lay there in front of the fire, tangled together, the flames casting dancing shadows across the walls.
Tomorrow, we’d go back to war. Tomorrow, we’d face Rashid and Zoo and Vivica and everyone else trying to tear our lives apart.
But tonight, we had this.
And for now, that was enough.