But my pregnant Goddess, being back behind bars, made me sick. And I would do anything to make people suffer who harmed her. I should’ve dealt with Farah as soon as I found out Rashid died, but I let her slip, hoping she would just move on. That was a mistake. There wouldn’t be another.
The warehouse wascold and industrial. I liked spots like this because bad things can happen and nobody asks questions.
I’d rentedit from an old colleague who owed me a favor. So there was no names, no paperwork, no cameras. Just four concrete walls, a drain in the floor, and enough privacy to do whatever needed to be done.
Farah had been awake for three hours now.
I sat in a metal folding chair about ten feet away from her, my arms crossed over my chest, just watching. Hadn’t said a word since she came to. Hadn’t moved. Hadn’t even blinked, far as she could tell.
She was tied to a chair with zip ties. Her wrists behind her back, ankles to the legs, duct tape over her mouth. Her mascara had run down her face in black rivers, mixing with the snot and tears until she looked like something out of a horror movie. Every few minutes she’d try to scream through the gag, but it just came out as muffled sobs that echoed off the concrete walls and died somewhere in the rafters.
Three hours of that. Three hours of her crying, begging, pleading with her eyes for me to say something, do something, anything.
I just sat there and let her marinate in her own fear.
This was the woman who’d sent my pregnant fiancée back to jail. Who’d stalked my nephew through a mall and used him as bait. Who’d been willing to destroy everything I loved because she couldn’t accept that her father’s empire was gone.
Part of me wanted to end her right here. Put a bullet in her skull and dump her body somewhere it would never be found. Clean. Simple. Final.
But another part of me—the part that still remembered Rashid’s hand on my shoulder, his voice in my ear, teaching me everything I knew about power and survival. And that part couldn’t do it.
I’d made a promise.
Years ago, when Rashid pulled me aside and asked me to look after Farah if anything ever happened to him. Said she was his heart. His weakness. The only soft thing in his life, and he needed to know she’d be protected.
I’d said yes. Because that’s what you did for the man who saved your life. The man who made you who you are.
And now here I was, staring at his daughter tied to a chair, trying to figure out if I was going to keep that promise or break it.
Finally, I stood up.
Farah’s eyes went wide. She started thrashing against the restraints, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks, her muffled screams getting louder. She thought this was it. Thought I was coming to kill her.
I walked over slowly. Stood in front of her for a long moment, looking down at the mess she’d become. Then I reached down and ripped the tape off her mouth.
She gasped, coughed, sucked in air like she’d been drowning.
“Why?”
One word. That’s all I gave her.
She blinked up at me, her voice raw and hoarse from hours of crying. “What?”
“Why did you do it? Why did you come after my family?”
“Because you took everything from me!” The words exploded out of her, all that pent-up rage finally finding an outlet. “My father is dead because of you! Kasim is dead because of you! The money, the compound, the empire—all of it, GONE. And you just walked away like none of it mattered. Like WE didn’t matter.”
“Your father made his choices, Farah. He was going to weaponize Kasim against me and my family.” I shook my head slowly. “I played by Rashid’s rules. The same rules he taught me. Don’t be mad at me for being a good student.”
“He LOVED you!” She was sobbing now, ugly and raw. “He treated you like a son. Better than a son. And you repaid him by destroying everything he built.”
“He tried to take what was mine. I responded. That’s how this game works.” I crouched down so we were eye level. “But you?You weren’t supposed to be part of this. You were supposed to take what was left and build a new life. Instead you came after my woman. My family. My nephew.”
“I wanted you to feel what I felt!” Her voice cracked. “I wanted you to lose everything the way I lost everything!”
“And how’d that work out for you?”
She didn’t answer. Just sat there, chest heaving, tears streaming, looking like a broken doll.
