Page 14 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

ZIORA

I underestimated Ezra and moved too quickly. When I stabbed him, I had a feeling he wouldn’t let me go so easily but I still had to try. My whole life I’d lived in fight or flight due to my upbringing. I never was the one to lay down and take anything and I didn’t plan on starting now.

I was thirteen when I started getting into computers.

Every day after school I would go to the public library and get books on coding, computer software, programming…

you name it. I started experimenting with hacking at fourteen, and by the time I was sixteen, I could easily hack into records, bank accounts, my teacher’s computers, and more.

With my home life not being the greatest, I used to take jobs from students at school who needed grades changed or test answers, whatever they needed to get cash in my hand.

The plan was to save up enough to get me and my sister out of the situation we were in.

When she was killed, instead of giving up, I worked harder.

I started Shadows of Silver Stone , I hacked surveillance cameras in the area, street cams, it was the first time I attempted the police database too.

My dad got over her death quickly, my mom mentally tapped out and became even more useless. All that made me want to fight harder.

I was sure Ezra thought I would bend to his will but he was wrong.

Waking up tied to the bed again caused confusing feelings in me.

On one hand, it pissed me off that he had drugged me and stood over me as if he was some God.

I didn’t like feeling powerless. On the other hand, the way he stared at me caused the hairs on my body to rise, my scalp to tingle, and goosebumps to cover my arms. He stared at me in ways no one ever had.

It was so attentive, like he saw no one in the world but me.

Sighing, I closed the book I had open and rested it on my lap.

My eyes scanned the four walls that had become my home for the past three weeks.

I was going stir crazy in here. Most of the time I isolated myself anyway, so being alone wasn’t the problem, but not having my devices was starting to get to me.

I was a tech girl. I enjoyed staring at my computer screens more than interacting with people face to face.

The door opened, causing my head to snap up. Ezra stepped in the room, dressed in a three-piece suit that looked tailored to his athletic, tall frame. His goatee was freshly cut; he had a small patch of hair under his bottom lip that connected to the hair on his chin.

“Good news, Bumblebee!” He smiled.

Quickly I learned that Ezra’s smile couldn’t be trusted.

Yes it came off as charming, friendly, and it caused him to look more handsome than it should, but it was deceiving.

His eyes always held a mischievous gleam.

Lawyers were known to be shifty in the first place, but Ezra seemed to be more of a personality flaw than a way to dominate the courtroom.

When I didn’t reply, he continued. “Get dressed and meet me downstairs. We’re going to your house.”

That caused me to perk up. It had been almost a month since I’d seen the inside of my house. Once I was there, I had no plans of coming back here.

“I knew that would make you smile.” The smile I didn’t realize formed on my face dropped and I glared at him, making him chuckle.

“Wait, why now though?”

His stare leveled on me. “If you don’t want to go, staying here is an option too.” He went to turn but I stopped him.

“That’s not what I’m saying, this is just sudden.”

“Maybe I’m in a good mood today.” Rolling my eyes and crossing my arms over my chest, I poked my lips out and chose not to respond.

Ezra turned and left the room, but I called out to him again, making him pause. “My phone. Can I have my phone?”

“Don’t get greedy now, Ziora.”

I rolled my eyes. It didn’t matter to me, I would just grab my backup once I got home. Ezra might think he had the advantage over me now, but once we got to my house, the roles would be reversed.

____

The moment I stepped through my front door I took a deep breath and my eyes bounced around my living room.

Everything looked to be in place but it felt stale in here.

Ezra had made himself comfortable on my couch.

Rolling my eyes, I went to the window closest to the door, unlocking and opening it to bring some fresh air in.

Following that I went to the other one on the connecting wall, doing the same.

It was the first week of October and the cool fall air was refreshing.

“Where you going?” Ezra asked when I walked past the couch toward the stairs.

“My office, there’s a lot of things I’m behind on thanks to you.

Not to mention I gotta make sure your brother didn’t fuck up anything while trying to break into my computer.

” My eyes shifted to the side where my table was.

Where I’d opened the present that held James’s hands.

It was gone now, more than likely destroyed to hide evidence of the crime.

Still, a shiver shot through me. I doubted James was still alive but I couldn’t bring myself to ask or try and find out.

“Trust me, Emmet didn’t fuck up anything.”

“Yeah, we’ll see.” Ezra stood and walked toward me. “What are you doing?”

“C’mon, Bumblebee, I have to come with you. Unfortunately I can’t trust you yet not to try something funny.”

Instead of responding, I continued up the steps.

This was the longest I’d gone without posting on my blog page.

I also knew there were a ton of emails I had to catch up on.

Thankfully I had finished my last job before I was taken, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have others inquiring about my services.

Before I started my catch up there was something I needed to check first.

When I stepped into my office, I made sure to examine everything to make sure nothing looked out of place.

I walked across the room to my board. My eyes bounced around, pausing on Dominic Tavarez’s picture.

I studied it for a long second. The brothers were adamant that their dad wouldn’t allow a child predator to get away but I couldn’t just take their word for it.

Turning, I stared at the other white board on the wall. All the names of the missing girls haunted me, starting at the top with my sister. I felt like I was failing them because I was no closer to finding out who oversaw all this. They were like ghosts.

I swallowed hard and twisted my neck to look at Ezra who was standing a few feet away watching me.

“Your brother’s friend that went missing, what was her name?” I walked to the board and grabbed the marker in the tray.

“Adrian Larson.” I wrote her name down, then went to my desk. I booted my computer up and waited for the password screen to pop up.

Once it was unlocked I went to work, pulling up the software I used to find information that wasn’t easily available.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you know her birthday?”

“No, she was the same age as my brother.”

Moving the mouse to my second screen I pulled up the internet browser and entered the girl’s name.

She went missing a couple years before my sister.

The biggest difference between the two was this girl was rich and taken as a causality.

They had to know her death wouldn’t be swept under the rug like all the others, making her more high risk, yet she didn’t turn up dead.

I hadn’t been able to do a deep dive like I wanted when Ezra told me his brothers were here.

It wasn’t clear to me if she was taken by the same people I was looking for but everything lined up besides her family background.

From what I was able to see, she didn’t come from a broken home, her parents had money, she wasn’t an at-risk teen.

Her cousin that had been taken with her, however, was.

Mom strung out on drugs; Dad murdered when she was a baby.

She fit the profile. So why kill the cousin and not Adrian? None of it made sense.

I locked my computer and stood.

“You remind me of my brother when you’re working. You both zone out when it comes to computers.” Ezra chuckled as we left my office. “All that shit is foreign to me but you two seem to be right at home.” When I didn’t reply, he continued. “When you get into all the hacking shit?”

“Thirteen. At sixteen, I upgraded to the major stuff.”

“Impressive and just what I would expect.” He stepped forward. “I’ll grab the door.”

I glared at his back. “You know this isn’t your house. You just can’t open my door!”

“Of course I can. Tu casa es mi casa.”

Ezra walked to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open.

His brothers were already waiting at the door and piled inside.

I was surprised to see Cashlynn among them.

Just like the pictures I’d seen of her, her face was blank and her eyes focused.

I saw on Instagram Nazai had posted he was expecting his first kid.

I didn’t know how far she was, but she had a noticeable baby bump.

It wasn’t huge, she looked bloated more than anything.

No one spoke as they walked past me to where my couch and love seat were.

“Make yourselves comfortable, I guess,” I mumbled. I walked to the dining room table and grabbed a chair from the table, sitting across from the love seat, but next to the couch so I could see everyone.

Ezra joined us and took the seat closest to me on the couch.

“I’ma jump right into it,” Nazai started. “We talked to my dad, and just like we told you, he had nothing to do with anything. The cops fucked up and he had no choice but to dismiss the case and let him go.”

My hands folded on my lap and I stared at him. He and his wife sat in the love seat across from me, looking like a power couple. She stared at me so intensely, hardly even blinking. It was eerie.

“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”