Page 108 of Merciless Obsession

Dominic shook his head. He muttered something in Spanish then cut his eyes at me. “Foolish girl, are you not understanding what I’m telling you? The deeper this thing gets, the more invested my son will get, the less likely he’ll be to let you go in the end.”

I blinked once, then twice, then stepped forward, holding the folder out. “Who said I want this to end?”

“Do you get that he’s incapable of loving you? He’ll never be able to feel remorse and you’ll never have a normal relationship. What he feels for you will never be love, it will only be a sense of possession. He can feel deeply about you, but it will never be love. He’ll forever see you as an object and not a person. Are you able to accept that part too?”

I swallowed hard. “I never said I was looking for love.”

He didn’t look satisfied with my answer but he didn’t keep trying to convince me to turn back either.

“I hope you know what you’re signing up for,” he grumbled as I turned to leave.

When I stepped out of the office, I jumped seeing Ezra waiting outside the door. “You okay?”

His eyes darted behind me to his dad. “I’m fine.”

“She doesn’t need you being her guard dog, Ezra. I had no intention of hurting the girl.”

“What did you talk to her about?”

“I needed her to understandeverythingwhen it comes to you and this family.”

Ezra’s eyes became vacant and distant, almost as if a switch was flipped. It made me freeze briefly. The switch was alarming.

“And what do you have to say about what he told you?” Ezra stared at me with a void look. The hairs on the nape of my neck rose.

Swallowing hard, I stepped forward, ignoring the uncomfortable pounding of my heart and wrapped my armsaround his neck. I pushed up on my tip toes and pressed my lips into his. “I told him I understand and I’m a big girl that can take care of myself.”

A crude, self-assured grin formed on his face. The switch in his eyes flipped again and came back alive.

“Thatta girl.” He kissed me again then pulled back.

Dominic was speaking behind us, but in Spanish. Ezra replied to him and the conversation continued for a few minutes before they came back to English.

“Let’s go find your mother,” Dominic said, stepping past us.

All of this was a lot to digest. Even though I was putting on a brave front on the outside, internally I was wondering if I was honestly built for the kind of man Ezra was behind the self-assured, swoon worthy, charismatic smile.

CHAPTER 23

EZRA

“Fuck!” I exclaimed, stretching my arms above me before running my hands down my face. This week had been a clusterfuck. Court had been brutal and neither of my clients were making my job easier. Felix’s trial was looking more promising for us. I had managed to discredit a few of their witnesses and it helped that Wise contributed to charities often through fundraisers he held once a month at his casinos. Now if Felix would just tone down the cocky attitude, then the jury might be sold more.

“Did you manage to track down the bartender from that bar?” I asked my investigator, searching through the files on my desk. The night before the night in question, Orlando and his girlfriend were at a bar where the fight the two of them got into later on first started. Apparently, the girlfriend was the aggressor and it wasn’t the first time the pair had been to that specific bar and had an altercation.

“I did,” Henry, my investigator, said. “He knew them well too. Says the only reason they haven’t been banned is because the owner and Orlando are friends. He also said the victim couldn’t handle her liquor and whenever she got drunk shealways turned paranoid and started screaming about Orlando cheating or looking at other girls.”

“The landlord of her apartment building said he got complaints from neighbors about their frequent fights too, right?” The victim, Jennifer, lived in a high-end high rise in the middle of downtown. They had a doorman, valet parking, and a ton of amenities accessible to tenants. From what the landlord said, the other tenants complained about paying too much money for rent for the constant fighting and arguing. Jennifer was on the verge of getting evicted if she didn’t get her act together.

“I’m not gon’ lie, man, this Orlando kid seems like a typical, entitled brat. He thinks the law doesn’t apply to him because of who his dad is. But that girlfriend, she was a hot mess in herself. They had no reason being together.”

“I agree. Orlando’s used to Daddy cleaning up his messes. Too bad murder is a hard one to cover up when you’re so high profile.” I scanned through the crime scene photos from the night in question.

It was a clean kill for both Jennifer and the man found with her, a bullet between the eyes. She was nearly naked, only in her panties, and the guy was naked. It was clear what was about to go down between them. Drugs were found on the table. What was hurting our client was the fact that he was the one found with the bodies and had blood on him. He said it was because he rushed to his girlfriend when he noticed her. It didn’t help that Orlando was required to take anger management class before either. A plus for us though was that there was no murder weapon found so far. Orlando did have access to guns, but they weren’t identified as the weapon used.

This case had been taking up so much time I almost forgot my birthday was next week. It, along with everything going on with The Bloodline, had kept me occupied. I hadn’t even beenable to breathe in Ziora’s direction this week. I had been falling asleep at the office, thankfully I kept clothes here. All I’d been doing was going home, showering, and coming back to the office.

“Mr. Tavarez, there’s a call for you on line one,” my secretary said through the PA system.