Page 75 of Merciless Obsession

Lucas’ eyes went to the beeping monitor that showed Titan’s heart rate. The lines were all over the place. He pressed the button, elevating his head.

“Water, can I get water first?”

I stepped forward. “No. You can tell us about your boss though. Winston Porter is his name, right?”

Titan coughed roughly. Blood splattered from his mouth. His body and face were both battered and bruised. Blood seeped from his busted lip. “What do you want to kn-know?”

Ziora stepped closer to me. She pulled the sucker out her mouth and glared at Titan. “He buys young girls, doesn’t he?”

This time Titan stayed quiet. Ziora shocked me when she went to the metal cart close to us and snatched a scalpel off and approached Titan. She lifted it and shoved it in his ribs. Titan yelled out in pain. His heart monitor went into a frenzy.

“I said does he buy underage girls?”

“Yes, fuck yes,” he cried. His body tensed and his eyes squeezed shut.

“From who?”

“I-I don’t know.” Ziora pushed harder on the scalpel. “I swear to God I don’t know. Please.” His words came more spaced out and breathlessly.

“Your boss texted you this morning saying he was ordering a package and that he needed you to pick up the current one and return it to sender. What does that mean?”

His skin went deadly pale. Lucas had a bag of saline running into him but it wasn’t doing much anymore.

Titan could barely keep his eyes open. Through strained eyes he gave Ziora his attention. He blinked rapidly and a wheezing sound escaped his mouth as he started speaking again.

“Th-the current g-g-girl he has.” He went into a fit of coughs before continuing. “He’s ready to get rid of the current girl and has a-another one c-com—” Before he could finish, his body started to convulse and his monitor went off again. Ziora rushed back, bumping into me. My arm naturally wrapped around her waist.

“What’s happening?” Nazai asked, stepping closer. He had been off to the side observing everything.

“His body is starting to succumb to his injuries. He’s going into shock,” Lucas stated.

“We got all we need from him. You can end him.” I crossed my arms and eyed Titan’s stilled body.

Ziora whipped around to face me. “What, no! I have more questions.”

My grip on her tightened. “He doesn’t know anything else,” Nazai cut in.

“Nazai’s right. You need to go to the main source if you need anything else,” Cashlynn agreed.

“Which we’ll do. Don’t worry, Bumblebee, this is far from over.”

She looked conflicted. Her lips tucked into her mouth and her eyes shifted to Nazai and Cashlynn then back to me.

“I want me and you to handle him,” she expressed.

“And we will.”

I lifted my attention back to Titan. Lucas was inserting something into his IV. His body twitched again and he took a struggling breath before going still. The monitor soon flatlined and beeped.

“He’s gone,” Lucas mentioned, removing the latex gloves. He pushed his glasses up on his nose.

Ziora turned to face him. “Now what?”

Nazai spoke up. “Now you do your part. You dig into this Winston guy and find out all you can about him. Regardless ofwhat happened here tonight, we don’t move like this. We first research our targets so we’re not going into anything blind. If there’s ever a need for a hasty move like tonight then it’s handled accordingly but tonight was a risky move. I don’t like risky.” Nazai paused and set a hard stare on me. “If you want to be a part of this you have to be all in, Ziora. Not everything we do is pretty, as you saw tonight. There is no half ass anything with us. There is no reporting what we do or bringing attention to us. We move in silence and get things done then move on. If you’re unable to do that then you need to say it now because we can’t afford to have any weak links in this family. They become liabilities and liabilities are something I refuse to leave around.”

Ziora shifted the sucker resting in the pocket of her cheek to the other side of her mouth. She turned and looked at me. I stayed quiet though. Nazai was right. While I knew Ziora wouldn’t be a problem going forward, she had to understand exactly what she was getting into. This wasn’t her just exposing people online and bringing awareness. This was us murdering people, and no matter how justified it might be, it was a risky business that could end with all of us behind bars or with needles in our arms regardless of how good I was at my job or how many connections the family had. That was something we couldn’t chance.

“I’m in. You don’t have to threaten me again. I get it. As long as kids are off limits then you won’t have to worry about me.”