Page 26 of Merciless Obsession

I hated that he was right. If I had to call a temporary truce with the Tavarezes to get the answers I needed, then so be it.

“Okay. Fine. We can join forces for now. But I want to meet with your dad. I have questions for him.”

Nazai nodded. “We can arrange that. You and Emmet can get together and do whatever tech shit you two do, then?—”

“I work alone,” Emmet piped up.

“E, not now, a’right. I know you’d rather not have a partner, but for now it’s necessary.” I couldn’t read Emmet, but I was curious why his eyes were burning into the side of my friend’s face.

“Is there a reason you’re staring at me?” Inaya asked, whipping her head in his direction.

“Does it bother you?” he asked calmly.

“I mean, if a random stranger was staring at you like a creep, wouldn’t it bother you? You act like we know each other or something.”

“I do know you.”

Inaya snorted. “How do you know me when this is the first time we’ve met?”

Emmet blinked. “Inaya Scott. Twenty-five years old, born August thirteenth two thousand. Raised as an only child by a single mother who passed away four years ago. You work at Ace of Diamonds Casino owned by Wise Bennet. You?—”

“Okay, what the hell? Are you some kind of stalker? How do you know all that?”

Emmet didn’t respond, he just continued to stare.

“My brother’s thorough. When he looked Ziora up, that included everyone connected to her,” Lucas explained.

“Mhm,” Inaya hummed, tilting her head to the side. “That’s creepy, but also kind of hot.” She grinned. “Emmet, you’re the smart brother, right? The one good with computers like Zee? A private investigator too. Sounds exciting.”

Inaya was fascinated with danger. Her taking interest in Emmet didn’t surprise me. His quiet nature was slightly wary to me. While it seemed like he wasn’t paying attention, he wasalways listening, only talking when he had something to say he deemed important.

The meeting didn’t last too much longer after that. The alliance was set in place and hopefully it wasn’t one that would come back and bite me in the ass.

“You owe me answers and a lot of guacamole and queso!” Inaya expressed, pointing her finger at me.

I snickered. “I know, I know.”

Her face turned serious. “I also got some info for you.”

My lips tucked in my mouth and I nodded. “Anything I need to be worried about?”

She shrugged. “Not necessarily, but you’ll be interested in it for sure.”

My tongue swiped across my lips. “Let’s meet up in a couple days. Since I’ve been away I got some things to catch up on so I’ll probably be off the grid for the next couple days.”

Her eyes shifted behind me to where Ezra was still comfortably seated on my couch. He made no attempts to leave when his brothers did. “You gonna be okay? I don’t mind staying longer.”

Ezra chuckled behind us.

I shook my head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, call me if you need me.” She looked around me again. “Hey, Ezra, right?”

I stared at her curiously. I inhaled a sharp breath when Ezra’s body pressed against my back.

“This is my best friend, my sister. I don’t care what you and your family have going on or what you’re capable of. You better not be on any funny shit because I know people too!”

Ezra’s chest vibrated against me as he guffawed. His hand fell on my side and he cuffed it securely.