Page 163 of Merciless Obsession

The flash grenade River more than likely used gave us leverage. Nazai and I rushed in with our guns out. River was already on Handly. They fought over the gun in his hand.

“River!” Nazai called.

A grunt sounded.

“I got him. Lucas went that way!” He nodded toward the open door before cocking back and sending his fist into Handly’s face.

“Fuck!” Handly cried.

“Lucas!” Nazai called into the earpiece.

“In the basement,” he responded. “Ziora’s down here and…”

I didn’t hear anything else. I rushed to the door and down the steps.

My feet stuttered to a stop seeing Ziora crying, chained, lip busted, nose bloody, with a gun pointed at her head. Her face pale and breathing heavy. My blood boiled and the grip on my gun tightened.

“Get that gun away from her!” I uttered, my voice low.

“One step and I’ll end her life here.”

Ziora’s body shook. She made eye contact with me and seeing the fear in her irises made my rage escalate.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Bumblebee,” I assured her.

She whimpered and her head yanked backwards. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“You’re surrounded. Either way you’re not making it out of here,” Lucas said. A few seconds later Nazai came downstairs with his hand now pointed toward the man with the gun as well.

The guy’s eyes bulged wildly and bounced between us. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He licked his lips and shifted his eyes to Ziora. His hand shook.

I stepped forward.

“I said stay back!” he shouted, focused on me. The light sound of a gun going off bounced off the walls and the guy grunted and cried out. The gun fell from his hand. I rushed him, tackling him to the ground.

All I saw was red as my hand slammed into his face over and over. My pulse raced through me. I could feel his bones crushing under my fist each time it slammed into his face but it wasn’t enough.

“Ezra!” Someone shouted my name in the distance. The air in the room felt stale and burning. “Enough, Ezra! Enough!” I was finally pulled back and fought against it. I wasn’t satisfied. He had hurt Ziora, and for that, he needed to pay.

“Ezra.” Ziora crying out caused the red haze over me to slowly lift. My head whipped to her. She was crying with snot and blood dripping from her nose. Her body shook violently.

“Bumblebee,” I mumbled.

She sniffled and looked over. I followed her vision and saw the man was unrecognizable. His face was a bloody mess. Glancing down, I saw my gloves full of his blood.

Snatching away from whoever was holding me, I stalked toward Ziora.

“I’m here, baby,” I assured her, snatching the gloves off and tossing them to the side. Pulling her into me, I held her tightly as her face dug into my hoodie and she cried harder.

Anger began to build inside me again.

“We need to get out of here,” Nazai claimed. “Emmet, the scanner clean?”

“You’re good for now.”

It was a good thing the neighborhood we were in was abandoned.

“We need to get these chains off.”