Twisted Chapter 17

Today was moving day. After Zahirah got over her mortification about us having sex and her forgetting to pick up the kids from school, they reassured her several times they were perfectly fine walking home. We'd settled down to have dinner and then talk. After what she had told me about Faheem and her so-called boss, I pressed her about moving to the compound. I was shocked it didn't take much to have her say yes.

Luckily, she'd been packing things before and since last weekend, so there wasn't a lot remaining other than everyday things and some of their kitchen stuff. Wanting to do it before she changed her mind, the next day, I stayed home from work, and we finished packing. That was yesterday. Today was Saturday, and we had most of the club at our disposal to help us move, although it wouldn't take all of us.

In preparation, I had a cleaning service come in and thoroughly clean my place from top to bottom yesterday. It cost extra to do it at the last minute, but I didn't care. Nothing would delay this move. It wasn't as if it was horribly dirty anyway. And I had a surprise for her. After last weekend, I had the prospects working overtime. They'd taken the paint samples she and the kids had chosen before and painted the rooms. My once entirely white walls were a combination of colors. They were mainly neutral, warm tones of cream, amber, and other browns, but they instantly made it warmer and cozier. When we added the decorations and fabrics from her house, it would be amazing.

I was nervous as she entered the house for the first time and saw what I'd done. Her mouth gaped open as she took in the living room. She whirled to face me. "When did you have time to do this?"

"I didn't. The prospects did it. I wanted it all ready for your stuff when the time came. They finished it on Thursday. The cleaners came in yesterday. You literally only have to unpack. If you want to add anything, just tell me."

Her answer was to throw herself in my arms and kiss me. I was returning it when a throat was cleared, and then Mace smarted off. "Enough of that. Help us get this stuff in here. You can maul her later."

He was carrying three boxes stacked on top of each other, and behind him were more of my brothers. All of them were smirking. I gave him the finger and then gave her another kiss before getting to work. As time flew by, we razzed each other, at least us guys. Joli and Natalya helped Zahirah while Tana and Eliana kept an eye on all the little kids.

With so much help, it didn't take long for us to have everything we brought moved into the house. We didn't plan on unpacking it all at once. For today, we got the kids' beds put up with sheets on them and the bulk of their clothing unpacked. Once those were out of the way, we all headed over to the clubhouse. We agreed to bring in pizza for dinner. That way, we could all enjoy it together and leave the mess for the prospects to clean up.

After we were done eating, we kicked back to relax. It was hours before the adult entertainment would start. I was more than thankful we'd be home before it happened. Since the other night, I hadn't been here to see if Fiona had learned her lesson or not. My single brothers said she'd been coming to the clubhouse every night, and she appeared to be on the lookout for something, but they had no idea if it was to bug me or to stay clear of my woman. I told Agony that if she made one more move on me, I was done, and she had to go. He didn't object, and neither did any of my brothers, thank God.

I had Arif at the pool table. H e expressed interest in learning to play, and I loved playing pool. I was pretty damn good at it too. I'd won more than my fair share of money from games over the years. While I was working with him, Zahirah chatted with the ladies, and Aliya helped keep an eye on Zavian and Zoe. They were mobile and all over the common room. She wasn't alone. Vixen was playing with Cara but keeping an eye on the younger ones. If they tried to go for something they shouldn't, she would corral them.

Zahirah had mentioned how Arif and Aliya had wanted a dog for a long time and how she hadn't known what to get until she met Vixen. She asked me if I ever thought of having a pet. I liked animals, especially dogs and cats, so it was no hardship telling her yes. That conversation led to us being in the beginning stages of talking about getting one. I wanted one like Vixen, but we'd have to see. As a trained guard dog, one wouldn't come cheap, and we'd have to wait a while. Natalya and Knight got lucky with Vixen. We decided not to say anything to the kids until we knew more.

Arif and I had just finished a game when Mace joined us. He motioned for me to come with him. Wondering what was up, I left Arif talking to Atticus, who was helping me show him how to play.

"Is something wrong?" I asked softly.

"No, not wrong, but I thought you might want to know. Wire found out a certain pain-in-the-ass man who wants your woman is home alone tonight, and it wouldn't take much to pay him a visit. Seems to me, a good man-to-man chat wouldn't hurt," he said with a huge grin.

I'd told him what the bastard did the other day. Zahirah assured me she had no feelings for him, and other than her worry that he'd make trouble if I paid him a visit, she didn't care what happened to him. Her tolerance until recently had only been out of respect for his dad, but he'd used all of it up.

I knew living here would keep him from making any more of those surprise visits to their house, but it wouldn't guarantee he wouldn't accost them on the street. There was no damn way I wanted that to happen. And he sounded mentally off enough to do it. Why he was so determined to push his ideas on her and insist they marry out of family duty was beyond me, other than his desire for her, which I understood.

Glancing over at her, I saw she was caught up in whatever they were talking about. She was smiling and laughing. I didn't want to spoil our first night in the house, but I didn't want to wait either. Mace saw I was wrestling with what to do.

"If we go early enough, it won't affect your night. I think you should do it, but it's your call. If you decide not to do it at all or to wait, then so be it. If you decide to go, I'd like to go along. We can tell them we had to run an errand. You're coming to help me with something. When we get back, you can tell her or not."

"I won't keep it a secret, but I don't want her to worry either, so if we go, we'll use your excuse. Shit, I want this done. Damn it, okay, let's tell her we have to run out, then go get this done and get back. Let's not tell the others."

At his nod, I went to Arif first. "Hey, I need to go with Mace for a little bit. When I get back, we can play more."

"Sure. Atticus is showing me some other things. I'll be fine," he assured me. He didn't appear upset, so I squeezed him on the shoulder and went to speak to my woman.

"Babe, I need to run out for a bit. Mace needs help with something. We shouldn't be long. When I get back, we can do whatever you want. If you're ready to go to the house, we can. I hate to do this, but he says it can't wait."

"I won't keep him long," Mace promised.

" Aziz , I'm fine, and so are the kids. You go help your brother. I'm arranging lessons with the ladies," she said with a smile.

"Lessons?" Mace asked.

"Yeah, we want her to teach us how to dance like she does," Joli piped up to say.

"If you do, there's only one caveat. You can't do it where anyone can see you. That shit is too potent," I warned Zahirah.

This earned giggles from the women and nods of agreement from the men. When the ladies were done laughing, I gave her a kiss, then stopped to give Aliya a kiss on the forehead before walking out. When I got to my bike, Wire was standing there. How the hell did he know we decided to go? He hadn't been in the common room.

"Are you a mind reader?" I asked as I got on my bike.

"I'd love to lie and say yes, but I won't. Mace texted me. I'm sending you the address. Not sure if he has an alarm or not. If he does, it's not registered with the alarm companies. If you get there and need help, let me know. Have fun."

Giving him a fist bump, I started my bike, and we took off. It wasn't super late, only about nine. Depending on where he lived, we'd be back in two hours max, I figured. I had my phone tucked under my leg so I would be able to see when Wire sent the address, which he did a couple of minutes into our ride. I knew the area, and I noted the street and house number before tucking it in my cut. A thumbs-up from Mace told me he'd gotten it, too. Faheem lived out toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. There were houses scattered out there, which meant he shouldn't have any neighbors right on top of him.

It took a little time in the dark to pinpoint his exact address, but when we did, I was happy to note that I'd been right. He had a house tucked back from the road without a neighbor in sight. Not wanting to announce ourselves, I kept going. We parked a ways down the road and back out of sight. We'd make our way to his place and then return to get our bikes when we were done.

As we made our way to the house, I was expecting him to still be awake as early as it was. It was true. We might've waited and come after he was asleep, but why wait? Besides, I'd rather be at home with my family and in bed with my old lady than messing with him all night. There was a light on downstairs. It wasn't a bright one. Sneaking around to the window it shone from, I peeked inside. Lucky for us, he didn't care if someone was able to see into his house, although the fact no one lived right next door might have something to do with it.

The light was coming from a television, and he was intently staring at it. He was dressed in his underwear, which I didn't prefer, but it wouldn't stop us from having this conversation. Lowering down, I whispered to Mace.

"He's in there watching TV. Do we go in the front or see if he has a back door?"

"Let's come in the back if we can."

Making our way to the back of the house, we were glad to note that he did have one. These days, it would be strange if a house didn't, but you never knew. Halting, I took out my phone and sent off a text to Wire. I needed to check one more time if we were still okay to go.

Me: Ready to enter.

Wire: It's a go. Still no monitoring. Good luck. Will keep my ears open.

I sent him a thumbs-up. I knew he meant by the ear comment he'd be listening to the police scanner to see if the cops were dispatched to this address or not. Giving Mace a nod, we moved to the door. While I held a small flashlight, he used his lock picks to undo the lock. He was much faster at it than I was. His smile a minute later told me he'd gotten it.

I watched as he inched it open and paused. There was no alarm blaring, although it might mean he had a silent one, though it was doubtful. Creeping inside, we shut the door and headed down a hallway. We went toward the light. As we got closer, we were able to hear it. I grimaced when we did.

Jesus Christ, just our luck. We had to come when the bastard was watching porn. Now, I wasn't a prude or anything. I just didn't want to have it in the background as I beat his ass. Mace rolled his eyes at me. We paused in the darkness right before entering the living room. I scowled. Since the time I checked the window, and until now, he had moved to have his hand down in his underwear, and he was tugging on himself—enough of that.

Rushing into the room, we were on him before he knew we were there. His girly shriek was enough to almost make me smile. I slapped the phone by his side to the floor while Mace snapped on a light.

"Get your fucking hand out of your underwear, you fuck," I snarled. He jerked it out and stared up at us in horror. I saw him swallow hard.

"W-w-what're you doing in my house?" he stuttered.

"I thought it was time we had a talk. Surely, you didn't think I'd just let you keep bothering my family and not do something about it. If you did, you're dumber than I thought," I told him.

"You can't be here. You have no right."

"You have no right to keep coming to Zahirah's house and bugging her, but you still do it. I thought I'd repay you. Brother, turn that shit off!" I demanded. The sound of some chick moaning wasn't what I wanted to hear.

"Uh, brother, I think you need to see this," Mace said cautiously.

"Why the hell would I?" I sharply asked as I glanced at the television. When I did, I froze.

The sound was coming from that direction, but the picture on it didn't match. Instead of seeing a woman being fucked, I saw a different video. It was of Zahirah. Thank God it was of her fully clothed, but it was clear it was taken without her knowledge. She was working in her yard and was bent over the flower beds. Her ass was waving in the air as she dug and pulled weeds. Now, nothing was hanging out, but as I watched, it dawned on me he'd been touching his cock while looking at my woman and listening to some woman get fucked. It didn't take a genius to figure out he'd been fantasizing it was her, and he was the guy doing it.

I let out a roar, then grabbed him by the neck and hauled his ass out of his chair. His squeal was choked off. He struggled, not that it would do him any good. I shook him like a rag doll.

"You tape her without her knowledge, then use it to get off! You sick motherfucker, I should tear your cock off and shove it so far up your ass it comes out your mouth. That's it. Change of plan, Mace. I'm killing the bastard."

The television went blank, and the moaning stopped. Mace held up the remote. He shrugged. "Hey, I'm here to do whatever you want. Talk, beat, torture, maim, kill, or all the above. I've got nowhere to be," he said nonchalantly.

"Good."

"Please, don't," Faheem wheezed out.

"Don't you dare beg me for shit, you fucker. You've been after my woman for long enough. I want answers, and I want them now. Maybe I'll let you keep breathing if you give them to me," I told him before flinging him back down in the chair. It rocked back and hit the wall. He gasped and rubbed his throat as he gave me a terrified look.

I paced the room, trying to get myself under control. Mace stood guard next to him. It took me a minute or more to stop seeing anything but red. When I wasn't, I went back to stand over Faheem. He flinched and cowered away from me.

"You're gonna tell me when you took this, how many others you have and where they are, and why you refuse to stop pushing her to marry you. Start talking!" I barked.

"I took this last summer. It's the only one I have, I swear."

"I don't fucking believe you. Where's your computer?"

It took me threatening to punch him to get him to tell us. As it would happen, he had a laptop. Mace went to grab it and bring it to the living room. While he did, I stared at Faheem. He was shaking and sweating up a storm. He'd better pray he didn't have more videos of her on it. If he did, I wasn't sure I'd be able to let him walk away from this encounter breathing.

Some may think I was overreacting to what he did, but I didn't. I knew this was, most times, the beginning of truly deviant and stalkerish behavior when you combined it with the other things he'd done. Many times, it ended badly for the person targeted. Mace came back and sat down on the couch to turn it on. As it booted up, I went back to questioning Faheem.

"You haven't told me why you refuse to drop the whole marriage thing. She's told you time and time again, no."

"I have told you. It's a matter of family honor and doing as her father and brother wanted. Long before he died, her father and mine had arranged a marriage between us. I wasn't thrilled to wait, but Zayyir insisted his daughter be allowed to finish her education, so I agreed. He said it would be best to wait to talk to her about it until she was eighteen."

He paused. I waited for him to continue. He finally resumed talking. "However, he ended up dying before he told her or she finished high school. In deference to her grief, Father and I agreed to wait, but we did talk to Zafir about it. He knew, and he didn't have a problem with it, he said. Only when the time came to tell her he kept putting it off. The agreement was that she would be told the moment she graduated from college. Again, I let my feelings for her be used to hold off. Unfortunately, Zafir and Nova were killed in the plane crash before he told her. My father also died, and it was left to me to explain to her the whole thing. She refuses to do it."

"And who can blame her? If this is true, why wouldn't they have told her or, at the very least, left her a note explaining it in case something happened?" I snapped.

Before he could answer, Mace interrupted. "Twisted, there's a file on here with her name on it, but I can't open it. It's password protected."

My whole body tensed hearing it. I glared at Faheem. "Give us the password."

He gulped and shook his head. His reaction told me he was more worried about what I'd find than he was of me at this second. I had no doubt I could get it out of him, but I wasn't sure how long it would take, so I went with option two, the quicker one. I took out my phone and placed a call. Wire answered it after two rings.

"What do ya need?"

"You're on speaker. He seems to have a file on his laptop, which he won't give me the password for. It has Zari's name on it. He's been spying on her, and I know of at least one video he took of her without her knowledge. I want to see what's in that file, and I don't want to wait until after I beat it out of him," I said gruffly.

"Got it. Stupid fucker. Is the laptop hard-wired into a data line or wireless right now?"

"It's wireless," Mace answered.

"Find the landline. You know what it looks like. You have your main one on it at your house. Plug the laptop in, and then give me a few minutes. I can remote access it and then see what I can do. It might take me a while to figure it out if he's savvy. If not, I have a program that will break it. Do you want to hang on or have me call back once I have access?"

"See what you can do. If it looks like it'll take a while, we'll have to go with Plan B."

"Does Plan B include him taking a trip?" Wire asked casually.

"It does."

His chuckle was evil. While Mace carried the laptop and my phone, which I handed him, I jerked Faheem up and marched him to the office, as he called it, where he'd sent Mace to get the laptop earlier. It took moments for my brother to have it hooked up to the hardline. As we waited for Wire to do his thing, I checked out the office. Hanging on the walls were pictures of Faheem, an older man who looked somewhat similar, and other documents in Arabic. Along with them was a diploma from college. It appeared he had a finance degree.

"You can't do this! I've done nothing wrong. Just because I don't want you in my personal files doesn't mean I have anything to hide," he rambled anxiously. He kept watching Mace. I swear I saw terror in his eyes. Whatever was in there, he didn't want us to see it. After about ten minutes, I was ready to move to Plan B.

"Wire, you keep working, and we'll take him to the cabin. Is Agony or Dare close by? I need to ask them to have one of the prospects bring out a vehicle so we can transport him there. We'll keep it on the down low."

"Sorry, there are millions of possibilities to consider. I'm narrowing it down based on keywords I know from his other files and background."

"No need to apologize," I assured him.

"Let me get one of them, and I'll make sure no one hears, and I'll let you know who's coming. I'll call you back if I find the password. Otherwise, I'll just text who and the ETA."

"Thanks, man," I said.

I barely hung up, and Faheem was back to his pleading and asserting he was innocent. When those didn't move me, he was silently thinking. However, before he could come up with anything new, I received the text telling us Hulk and Rune were on their way and to expect them in fifteen minutes.

"Hulk and Rune will be here in fifteen. Let's get him ready to go. The laptop comes with us," I informed Mace.

"If you leave now, I won't tell anyone what you did. Surely, you don't want to go to jail. This is unlawful detainment. I know my rights. You can't do this. What your friend is doing is hacking. It's illegal, too. Your whole gang can get in trouble for this," Faheem threw out.

I laughed. "Does it strike you that I'm scared? If so, let me assure you, I'm not. Now shut the fuck up. I'm tired of hearing you say nothing I wanna hear." As I said it, I took a roll of duct tape and a large zip tie out of my pocket. It was true. We came to originally just talk and possibly give him a beating, but you never knew if it would require more, so I believed in being prepared. I tore off a piece of tape and slapped it over his mouth. Then I stood him up so I was able to secure his wrists together behind his back. When I was done, I shoved him back into the chair.

Mace left the laptop plugged in while he walked through the house. When he came back, he had a wallet with him. We could've used Faheem's car to transport him, but I didn't want anyone to recall seeing his car if it got ugly. I knew that no one would think twice about whatever one Rune and Hulk brought.

By the time they arrived, I was beyond ready to get him out of here. And it meant I'd have to call and talk to Zahirah and let her know I'd be gone longer. Damn it, why did I pick tonight to do this? While they manhandled him outside to the SUV, I took a moment to call her. When she answered, it was quiet in the background.

"Hey, Storm, I'm sorry, this is taking longer than expected. I swear I'll be home as soon as I can."

"Brody, I don't know what's going on, but I know whatever it is, it's more than an errand with Mace. I'm not stupid. I saw the way Wire was whispering with Agony, and then, not long afterward, Hulk and Rune disappeared. You don't need to tell me, but be careful. Eliana and the others explained what club business means."

I cringed and hated the fact I had lied, and she knew it. "Babe, I swear when I get done with this, I'll tell you everything. I'm being careful, and it's something that needs to be handled. I just didn't want you worrying."

"Okay. I love you. See you soon."

"I love you too. Tell the kids I'm sorry I didn't get back like I planned. Good night."

"I will. Remember, be careful," she said before she hung up. Damn. I marched outside, ready to have this done with, and I was pissed his refusal to cooperate was holding me up. Rune gave us a ride back to our bikes, and then we headed out.

The cabin was about ten miles outside of town. What made it ideal was that it was owned by a shell company under layers of protection, so no one knew it belonged to the club. In addition, it was private, and there was a well-hidden trap door in the floor that led to cells below. It was the place we used when we needed privacy for our less-than-legal stuff.

When we got there, we didn't waste time getting him inside and below. He was staring around in abject horror when he saw the cells. Good. Maybe it would loosen his tongue. I was about to remove the tape when Hulk's cell rang. He answered it. He was talking low but urgently. Wondering what was up, I was stunned when he hung up and met my gaze. I knew right away it had to do with me.

"What's going on? Who was that?" I asked.

"It was Agony. He said for us to wait until he gets here. There's something he wants to talk to you about. He'll be here soon."

"What the hell? Come on, he had to tell you more than that," I demanded.

"He didn't. All he told me was to be sure you waited for him."

I didn't bother to grill him more. He either didn't know or wouldn't say, so I tried the source, only Agony didn't answer. Next, I tried Wire to see if he'd gotten anywhere with the file. He didn't answer either. I was growing pissed and impatient. Hulk stood guard, not letting me touch Faheem, which bothered me. Why would he care? It was close to twenty minutes before I heard a knock on the trap door, and then it was opened. Down the steps came Agony, but he wasn't alone. Behind him came the rest of my brothers. What the fuck?