I pushed that thought away. There was still work to be done. A legacy to secure. Whatever was happening inside my body, I would not let it stop me from ensuring my bloodline continued properly. Demetrius had failed. Prime had been compromised. This boy was my last chance to get it right.
“Please.” Yusef’s voice was barely a whisper now. His arms were shaking badly, dipping lower with each passing second. “Please, I just want to go home.”
“This is your home now.” I turned back to face him. “The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be. Fight it, and things will get considerably worse before they get better. Do you understand?”
He didn’t answer. Just knelt there in the rice, crying silently, his arms trembling at the edge of collapse.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out. Looked at the screen.
Prime.
I stared at the name for a long moment. Watched it ring. Imagined him on the other end—frantic, furious, ready to tear the world apart looking for this boy.
Let him wait. Let him stew in his helplessness. Let him remember what it felt like to be powerless, the way he’d been when I first found him.
The phone kept ringing.
I slid it back into my pocket without answering.
“Keep your arms up,” I said to Yusef without looking at him. “We’re just getting started.”
21
PRIME
I hadn’t slept in the twenty-four hours since we walked into that penthouse and found it empty. Twenty-four hours since I pulled up the security footage and watched Rashid walk through my front door like this was his shit, two of his soldiers flanking him, Yusef struggling between them until one of them pressed something to his neck and he went limp.
Twenty-four hours of watching Zainab fall apart.
She’d thrown up three times since last night. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sit still. Just paced the floor of my penthouse like a caged animal, her eyes red and swollen, her voice hoarse from crying.
I’d never felt more useless in my life.
“Have you figured out where he’s staying yet?”
Zainab’s voice cut through my thoughts. She was standing by the windows, arms wrapped around herself, staring out at the Potomac like it might give her answers.
“Still working on it.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Rashid’s got properties everywhere. Houses under shell companies. Apartments under fake names. The man’s been hiding assets since before I was born. He knows how to disappear when he wants to.”
“So what do we DO?” She spun around, and the desperation in her eyes hit me like a fist to the chest. “We just sit here? Wait? Hope he decides to give Yusef back out of the goodness of his heart?”
“No.” I stood up from the couch, my body stiff from hours of sitting in the same position, running scenarios, making calls, hitting dead ends. “I’ve been thinking. Rashid’s careful, but Farah isn’t. She’s sloppy. Emotional. If I follow her, she might lead me right to him.”
Something flickered in Zainab’s eyes. “You think she knows where he is?”
“She’s his daughter. She knows.” I paused, letting the next thought form fully before I said it out loud. “Or… fuck following her. I could take her.”
Zainab went still. “Take her?”
“Snatch her up. Use her as leverage. Rashid wants to play games with my family? I’ll play games with his.” The words came out cold. Calculated. The way Rashid had taught me to think. “He gives me back Yusef, I give him back Farah. Simple exchange.”
For a moment, Zainab’s whole face transformed. Hope. Relief. Like I’d just offered her a lifeline.
“You would do that? For me?”
“I would do anything for you. You know that.” I crossed the room and took her hands in mine. They were ice cold. Trembling. “Rashid crossed a line. He came into MY home. Took that boy out of MY spot. He thinks because he made me, he can control me. He’s wrong.”
