Page 38 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

Narrowing my eyes, I stood and sent my fist his way. His head snapped to the side. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

He spit on the ground near my feet as his breathing picked up. “Fuck you, man. I don’t even know why I’m here. Is it money you want? Take everything; it’s worth a nice amount.”

I chuckled. “No one wants your tacky ass jewelry.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I told you, information on your boss.”

His face dropped. “I don’t got anything for you.”

“You’re lying!” Ziora stepped forward.

Titan shot a hard glare her way. I reached my hand out for Ziora and pulled her into me. “Now, now, Bumblebee, don’t worry. They always act tough in the beginning.”

“What the hell is so important that I had to climb out of my bed at almost four in the morning. I’ve been in surgery all day,” Lucas complained.

I grinned. On the way here I called him, asking him to meet me. Something told me Titan would need to be worked out.

“We’re in need of your services. Titan, you see that man over there? He’s a doctor. He can torture you a million different ways and keep you alive for as long as he wants until you decide to talk.”

Titan shifted his eyes to Lucas who was now at our side.

“Fuck you.” He spat at my feet. “I ain’t got shit for y’all.”

I shook my head. “Well then I guess your fate is sealed.” I shrugged. “Luke, you got us?”

The tiredness once in Lucas’ eyes was replaced with interest. “It’s been a while since I got to use my expertise in something other than saving a life.” He grinned. “What he do?”

“We think he might be able to help with The Veil,” Ziora said. It was subtle but Titan flinched at the name.

“Oh.” Lucas’s tone darkened. “Then I’m really gonna enjoy this. Riv?” He looked toward River who already knew what to do. We had a medical room set up in the back. It was used for when Lucas wanted to have fun with a target and draw things out.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Titan yelled and began to struggle again.

“You two better be right about this,” Nazai said, stepping forward with eyes trained on Titan.

I tightened my arm around Ziora but said nothing.

I wasn’t sure if she was aware but her body sank closer to mine, ever so slightly.

I knew Nazai was just trying to look out for all of us, but he needed to trust me on this.

It might have been irrational to him, but even if Titan had no connection to The Veil, his boss was obviously a sick dog that needed to be put down either way.

“Okay, okay please,” Titan begged, panting roughly.

He was spread out on the medical table. He had tabs on his chest to measure his heart rate.

Lucas had made clean and precise cuts across Titan’s chest and stomach.

He then used alcohol to “clean the wounds”.

I wasn’t sure what drug he used but Lucas had injected Titan with something that caused his heart to stop and act as if he was having a heart attack then he would revive him.

The final straw for Titan was when he used a stun baton at his sides.

It took him an hour and half to break Titan.

“I’m going to have to invest in one of those batons,” Cashlynn commented.

Ziora was working on Titan’s phone. She was going through it looking for more clues about Titan’s boss.

She paused from her search and side eyed Cashlynn with a look of concern on her face while the rest of us hardly batted an eye.

Ziora didn’t know Cashlynn was the Queen of Hearts, one of the most well-known hit women in the city.

Her parents groomed her to kill before she even learned her ABCs.

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 of what 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.”

“Kids and women, most of the time, are off limits for the family.” There was a double meaning to Nazai’s words. As a kill for hire, sometimes his marks were women, but he didn’t take all the cases against them. Kids were never on the table, however.

Ziora wet her lips and wiped her eyes. It was almost six in the morning and I knew all of us were ready to call it a night. I had a meeting with the governor’s son in a few hours and needed to get ready for that.

“Tell me exactly what I need to do.” Determination bled from Ziora’s eyes.

One corner of my mouth rose. I glanced at Nazai and his mouth twitched.

“Emmet is our investigator, which you know. He also runs his own PI business which at times keeps him busy. Bringing you in will help take some of the work off his shoulders. Right now, I need to see what you’re capable of when it comes to family business.

I know you’re good, considering all the research you’ve put in before we found you, and you’re able to hide your tracks perfectly.

Look into Winston and see what you can find out.

Whatever girl he has is running out of time and we need to get her before it’s too late.

We don’t know if he gets his girls from The Veil, but if he doesn’t, that girl still needs help.

This is why The Bloodline was formed. We help those who can’t help themselves. ” Nazai turned to me.

“Neither of you move before I say so. Once Ziora gets the information needed then?—”

“Then me and Ziora will handle him.”

We stood in a stare off. Nazai narrowed his eyes before he nodded. “A’right, I’ll leave him for you two. River,” he called out.

River stepped forward.