Page 48 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

“Your parents’ house was released back to you after the investigation was closed, right?” Lucas started. “Could they have kept something useful in the house?”

“I haven’t been back to that house since…the robbery.” She smirked. “I have no plans of going back either.”

“But it might hold some information,” Ziora pushed.

“Then you go look in it but I refuse to step into that hellhole again!” Cashlynn’s face reddened and her voice raised an octave.

Nazai put his hand on her arm. “We’ll have the house checked out. I never thought to go look there, that’s a good call, Ziora.” He glanced at his wife who rolled her eyes, that murderous look starting to form in them.

“E, can you check and see if you missed anything concerning her parents when you first looked them up?” Emmet narrowed his eyes at our big brother.

He didn’t like his work being questioned.

“Now that we know what we’re looking for, maybe there’s something you didn’t think was important the first time around. ”

He blinked and gave Nazai a stiff nod.

“Maybe I can help you,” Inaya said. “I can be the Watson to your Sherlock.” She batted her lashes.

I snorted.

“All I’ma say is there’s a reason my parents were able to move around as long as they did without ever getting caught.

They weren’t dumb and they were known for blackmailing a lot of their ‘clients’.

They were narcissists who only cared about themselves.

I doubt they even loved each other, they just worked well together and were both shit people.

Whatever you think there is to find isn’t going to be on the internet.

My parents were old school and paranoid when it came to technology.

” We all grew quiet and she exhaled a long, deep breath.

“Me and Nazai will go search the house this week. If they had anything there, I’m sure we’ll find it. ”

“The site. Whatever happened to that?” Nazai asked.

Emmet shook his head. “Dead end at least for now. Whoever’s running it rewires it every month for security measures. I’m keeping my eye on it and still working on finding where it’s being ran at.”

“Fuck, okay. Just keep me updated if you find out anything. While at Winston’s Ez, look for the key to the storage locker. River and Lucas, I’ma put you two on that once we get it. I got a job tonight, so I’ma be out of commission for a few hours, be careful.” His eyes went around the table.

We stuck around a little longer before going our separate ways.

“Be ready at nine o clock,” I told Ziora, catching her arm. “Be dressed for a stakeout.”

She snatched away from me and kept walking with Inaya at her side.

“You sure pissed her off.” Lucas laughed.

One corner of my mouth lifted and my arms crossed over my chest. “Nah, this is just our love language. She runs and I chase. It’s all part of the game.”

Hearing a grunt made me look to the side and River was there looking at me with a dissatisfied expression on his face. I nodded at him with a grin.

“Ezra.” Emmet approached me. “I emailed you the information you asked me to find.”

“I knew I could count on you.” I slapped his shoulders.

He frowned and yanked out of my touch.

“You know he hates when you do that,” Lucas mentioned.

I waved him off. “Emmet needs to loosen up some. A little more human interaction will be good for him.”

Lucas stifled a laugh. “He’s gonna shoot you one day.”

“Eh, maybe.” I shrugged.

I went into my pocket and pulled my phone out as I started up the steps of the basement.

I couldn’t wait to read what Emmet found.

It would give me a clearer understanding of my Bumblebee and give me an idea of how to break her out of that fight or flight instinct she always had when things with us grew intense.

____

“How long do we have to wait out here?” Ziora asked while we sat in the car across from the street from Winston’s house. Instead of using Emmet’s car he used for stakeouts, I used one of River’s trucks. It had dummy plates for times like this, it was all black with blacked out tint.

“Until those guys leave. I have no problem taking them all out, but it’s a bitch to clean up that many bodies. Plus I don’t know if you’re ready for that.” I tilted my head back and looked over at her with a small grin.

She rolled her eyes and shifted her eyes back to the house. It was large, two stories, and had enough distance between it and his neighbors to give privacy.

From what River reported, Winston’s house was like one large party all the time, until two or three in the morning normally.

“No wonder he’s gotten so many noise complaints,” Ziora said. “Listen to how loud the music is and all that foot traffic. I would go crazy if he was my neighbor.”

“Good thing we’re about to be doing his neighbors a favor then.”

Her head faced me. “Do you enjoy killing?”

I searched her face to see if it was a trick question, but I quickly realized she was serious.

“What if I say I do?” I leaned back in the leather seat.

“I wouldn’t be shocked.”

“No?” I raised a brow.

“No. I saw how your eyes lit up at that barn when you killed those guys. Even when you were trying to get information out of Titan. You never flinched.”

“The first time I held a gun I felt an indescribable rush. The first time I shot someone and saw the life bleed from their eyes I felt like I was high. Then when I got Wilma and used her for the first time, I think I nutted. The moment she connected with flesh, and hearing the bones crack…” My smile grew.

“I knew I found my weapon of choice. It was exhilarating. So it’s not that I do or don’t enjoy killing, I just find it entertaining. ”

“So do you have the urge to kill all the time?”

My eyes bounced around her face. “No. I learned long ago how to control my violent urges. Do I feel anything when I kill? No. Do I feel guilty because I can take a life without a bit of remorse? No. I like who and how I am. Keeps life interesting.”

There was no need to lie to Ziora. She already knew what I did and was capable of.

“I—” The sound of obnoxious laughing and talking caused her words to halt. We looked forward and saw two guys and two girls walking away from the house. It was clear they all were drunk and maybe even high. The four stumbled to a parked car a couple feet in front of the truck.

I checked the time; it was almost one in the morning.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to even say about that,” Ziora said, circling back to our conversation.

“Does it make you scared of me?”

“I’m not scared of anything.”

I smirked. “Does it make you want to keep running from me?” I reached over and pulled one of her curls that was in a ponytail. “Because we’ve already established I’ll hurt someone for you. I’ll hurt someone over you. But I won’t harm you, you just have to stop pushing me away.”

“I don’t let people get close to me for a reason. And then you’re so intense . When I’m around you I lose focus on what’s important.”

“And what’s important?”

“Avenging my sister’s death.”

“That’s what we’re doing. What’s the problem with doing it together?”

Her lips tucked into her mouth. “How did you know I was at the party and to dress like the Joker?”

I licked my lips and surveyed the area before focusing on the house. Movement behind the blinds showed everyone was still lively in the house.

“If you answer a question for me, I’ll tell you.”

Out the corner of my eyes I watched her cut her eyes at me. “What question?”

“Why did you spend two weeks in a psych ward two different times?”

“How did you learn about that? Wait! Did you have Emmet hack my fucking medical records?”

I faced her and she did not look happy. “I saw the pills in your medicine cabinet and on your nightstand the night I popped up. I was curious.”

“So instead of asking me you invaded my privacy?”

“Would you have told me the truth?”

She stayed quiet, but her eyes narrowed and her mouth pinched together.

The email Emmet sent me showed she had spent two weeks in a psych ward when she was seventeen and when she was twenty-two. From there she’d been on anxiety meds, sleeping meds, and, at one point, anti-depressants.

Ziora pushed out an exasperated breath and faced forward. She nibbled on her bottom lip and ran her hands over her thighs.

“I had a mental breakdown after my sister was killed. Things at home with my parents got worse and I didn’t cope well with everything.

” She grew quiet and rubbed the center of her chest. “I tried to kill myself, pills. Ironically, my mom found me and called 911. It was the first time I think she showed she gave a damn about me. Then, when I was twenty-two, I had another meltdown on my sister’s birthday, knowing she should be turning eighteen and would never get to see it.

I didn’t try to kill myself that time, but I wasn’t well either.

I was fucked up, got put on different meds until they found some that helped.

Sometimes I still suffer from anxiety and panic attacks and those meds you found help.

” She pushed out a heavy breath. “Only Inaya knows and now you. So yeah, there you go.”

Ziora turned back to me. “Your turn. Tell me and I want the truth.”

“I cloned your phone. Well, I had someone clone your phone.”

Ziora’s mouth dropped. “Excuse me? You did what?”

I shrugged. “It was either that or implant a tracker in you. I figured you would appreciate this way more.”

“A tracker? In me… What the fuck.”

My mouth curled into a grin. “I told you, you’re mine and I wanted to make sure you were always protected and I always had access to you. I’m selfish with my things, Bumblebee, and I couldn’t trust you yet. So certain measures had to be taken.”

“How long?”

“Since I first took you.”

Again, her mouth dropped. “You’ve been tracking me, reading my texts, and…wait, the night I went to the hotel…Are you the reason the guy never showed up?”

“Hotel? Guy?”