Page 47 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

EZRA

O nce Ziora and I found our way out of the maze we walked silently toward the house.

I could tell she had a lot on her mind which I allowed her to process.

The moment I learned she was coming to Easton’s Halloween party I planned my attack.

I got my costume to match hers then waited for the right moment to corner her.

Watching and waiting brought me a wave of excitement I’d never experienced before.

Then chasing her made my dick painfully hard.

I hadn’t expected to fuck her in the maze, but when the opportunity presented itself, I had to take it.

It was a good thing I brought my rope with me.

“Where the hell were you? I thought you left without telling me!” Inaya rushed toward us.

“Sorry, I got distracted.” Ziora rubbed her arms.

Inaya narrowed her eyes and looked her friend over before moving her eyes over to me. She leaned in and studied me for a second before her eyes widened in realization. A sly grin slowly split her face.

“Oh… now I understand. Ezra? I didn’t expect to see you here.” Inaya’s bounced her eyes between me and Ziora. “And you two are matching.”

“I didn’t expect him to be here either,” Ziora mentioned.

“Or matching me. Which leaves the question.” She stepped closer to her friend then turned to face me.

“What made you dress as the Joker? Did you know I was gonna be here? How the hell do you always seem to know where I am? Do you have a tracker or something on me?”

I kept my eyes locked on her, but said nothing.

“Ziora.” Inaya touched her arm, but Ziora pulled away.

“No, I need to know. What made you dress as the Joker and come to this party? Answer me, now!” Her words were rushed and grew louder.

“Bumblebee…” I started.

“Don’t.” She put her hand up. “You’re about to try to patronize me or avoid the question. Tell me the truth or I’m walking away.”

Still, I said nothing. Maybe I should have said something to put her mind at ease, but this wasn’t the place. Ziora was clearly battling her feelings for me and now lashing out.

“You have nothing to say?” She glared at me and poked her lips out.

I finally spoke. “When you calm down we can talk.”

Her nostrils flared. “No. Either tell me now or that’s it.”

I blinked once then twice.

“Fine.” She glanced at her friend. “Let’s go.” Ziora turned and stormed off and I didn’t stop her.

Inaya looked like she wanted to say something, but snapped her mouth shut and rushed after her friend.

I smirked.

Little did Ziora know that fight and drive in her was the one thing I craved the most with her.

The party was still in full swing with no indication of slowing down.

People were walking past me, heading for the trail that led to the haunted houses and maze.

No one cared that it was the middle of fall and cold.

They had heaters on the patio, but they could only do so much.

Everyone was still enjoying themselves. It was like this every year.

The Kents’ Halloween party was one of the most looked forward to social events of the year.

The costume contest would be happening soon.

I stuck around for a little longer before deciding to leave. The reason I was here had left so there was no point in me sticking around anyway.

____

“I looked into the community center’s financial records and the main funding behind them was given anonymously from an offshore account.

Just as I expected, the company that now owns the center is a shell company.

From what I gathered, they took over the center fifteen years ago, when it was at risk of being shut down due to lack of funding.

I checked city records to find out who purchased it, but that led to nothing.

Whoever did it made sure to cover their tracks well,” Emmet explained, then looked across the table at Ziora.

“You said the lady running it has been in charge for the last seventeen years, so she has to know who bought it from the city.”

Two days had passed since the Halloween party.

She had been ignoring me but still allowed me to watch her.

After I left court or the office I would go to my townhouse and wait for her to go into her bedroom.

She never closed the curtains, in fact it was like she purposely undressed in front of them.

She even lifted her blinds to give me a better view.

The photos I’d gotten of her were stunning.

Now we were at the farmhouse. Nazai wanted to know what Emmet found out about the community center and wanted to close the Winston thing. We had two cases back-to-back, one that caused me to leave Ziora’s house and one last night. Having so much on his plate was starting to get to my brother.

Since being here Ziora hadn’t blessed me with her attention and made sure to sit away from me. I chose to sit across from her since that was the game she wanted to play.

“I did a deep dive into her life and still nothing stood out. She was a worker there at first and eventually took over as coordinator when the previous one retired. I spoke with the girl who got away again and asked about Ms. Rubin. She had nothing but good things to say about her. I don’t think she’s aware of the shady business going on, but I plan on speaking to her this week now that the center’s back open. ”

Nazai nodded. “Good. Let me know what she has to say. What about Winston?”

Ziora tapped on her laptop and soon her screen replaced Emmet’s on the wall.

“These are his bank records. You see the highlighted withdrawals. Four times he’s withdrawn the same amount of money, each time within the last year.

I’m sure that’s the money he’s using to get the girls.

He has one house in his name and I found a storage unit he’s renting out.

He withdrew money again yesterday which makes me think he’s ready to get rid of the current girl and get a new one. ”

“My guys saw the girl a couple times,” River cut in. “He keeps her close. When she walks out, her eyes are always facing the ground and hands at her side.” He tossed some pictures on the table.

“Fuck, look at the bruises on her arms.” Lucas grabbed one of the pictures and examined it.

“That’s more than she had when I saw her at the party,” Inaya said.

“This fucker needs to be dealt with ASAP.” Lucas tossed the picture back on the table. Nazai grabbed a few pictures and looked them over.

“I agree. This is enough proof. We can’t allow him to buy another girl either. Do we know who the girl is?”

“I did a search and I think her name is Tiffany Jones. She was reported missing by her mom when she never made it back from spending two weeks with her dad. She’s sixteen and has been missing for five months.” Ziora replied.

“Who the hell knew there were so many sickos in this city?” Lucas commented.

“That’s why we’re here to get rid of them. Ez, you still want this guy?” Nazai glanced at me.

I nodded. “Yeah. Me and Ziora will take care of him tonight.”

That statement finally gained me Ziora’s sharp eyes cut into slits.

“How do you know I’m not busy?”

I chortled. “I thought you wanted to get this guy.”

Her lips thinned. “Is there a problem? River can go with him if—” Nazai started.

“No, it’s fine.” Ziora tapped the keyboard of her laptop. “There’s a camera on Winston’s street I tapped into. He always seems to have his people around, coming and going.”

“My guys will handle that,” River said.

“He’s also been trying to get in touch with Titan.

” Nazai pulled out a phone and set it on the table.

“Winston thinks he ran off with some money. Apparently, they’d just hit some big lick and Titan oversaw it.

He was supposed to meet Winston the day after he was taken.

” Nazai leveled his eyes on me. “Emmet hacked into the phone and didn’t find anything useful.

Did you find anything at his house?” he asked River.

“The guy was into some kinky shit, I’ll say that.

In his safe he had a couple guns, some money, and sketchy looking pictures of him and some girls.

There also were some recordings of him and that Winston guy.

Looks like Titan was keeping dirt on his boss for insurance.

” He put the voice recorder on the table and hit play.

They discussed a shipment of drugs coming in that they were working on hijacking.

“You think they were Major’s?” I asked Nazai.

Major Montgomery owned one of the largest pharmaceutical companies around. He was also the largest drug distributor in the city. Nine times of out of ten, if you sold anything, you got it from him.

“I’ll talk to him and find out.” Nazai pulled his phone out.

“Okay, so you two are going to take out this Winston guy, then what?” Cashlynn asked. “We just sit on our asses?”

“Hopefully Winston can give us some insight that gives us our next move.”

Cashlynn scoffed. “This is why I like being a hired gun. All of this planning and waiting isn’t for me.

” She rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. She was going on five months pregnant and her stomach was starting to be more visible and seemed to be rounder each time I saw her.

“You still have some time to go until you’re a hired gun; so get used to this,” Nazai told her.

“You know I’ve never been in any harm on a job, right? I know what I’m doing and I’m skillful. If I want to take work I can have something in the works right now. All this sitting around isn’t for me.”

“What about your parents?” Ziora spoke up.

Cashlynn’s face fell and she stared at Ziora blankly.

“I mean they were mercenaries right? That’s who we believe The Veil works with, why don’t you try to get in contact with some of their old contacts. You said they never worked with anyone without keeping record for their own benefit, right? What if those files have the answers we need?”

Cashlynn didn’t reply right away.