Page 50 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

ZIORA

E zra placed his hand on my bouncing leg. My eyes shifted to him and I gave him a shaky toothless grin.

“She’s safe now,” he assured me. “Lucas said the doctor he called is good and I trust him. She’s in good hands.”

I nodded. Reaching up, I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and raked my hand through it.

After leaving Winston’s house Ezra drove us to Lucas’s clinic to get Tiffany checked out.

The whole way here she looked like she was about to jump out her skin.

Lucas was waiting for us when we arrived.

The moment he tried to touch Tiffany so he could examine her she started screaming and wildly swinging at him.

Her body tensed when Ezra was close and talking to her too and I realized she freaked out when men got close to her.

It made sense, who knows exactly what she went through in that house.

When I voiced it, Lucas let me know he knew a female doctor that could come and look her over. He said she could be trusted and had dealt with trauma victims before since she worked in the ER for years before starting her own practice.

After making the call he had a couple guys rush in.

One of them was bleeding profusely from the chest and looked like he was seconds from keeling over.

If I wasn’t so pissed off after what I saw tonight I would be more impressed by Lucas’s clinic.

I knew he ran an underground clinic, but I never knew where it was or had been inside.

It was set up like a mini hospital. With exam rooms, staff members, a waiting room, and, from what Ezra told me, an OR too.

His top patients were organized crime members, which the world was probably better off without most of them, but they seemed to keep Lucas busy.

“How are we gonna get her home without people asking questions?” Once she was returned to her mom I was sure she would have questions, along with the cops. Tiffany wasn’t even from Silver Stone and it was still a mystery how she’d ended up here.

“I’ll take care of that. Don’t worry.”

“Ma’am.” The female doctor walked into the room where me and Ezra were waiting.

My head popped up. “She won’t let me examine her until you come into the room.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Can you come with me please?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” I glanced at Ezra and he nodded.

“Go ahead, I need to call Nazai anyway and River.”

Standing, I followed the doctor. Tiffany was hugging the blanket Lucas had given her tightly against her chest. Her eyes bounced around the room.

My heart went out to her. I couldn’t imagine everything she went through or how this would affect her going forward.

My chest tightened. I pictured my sister in this position if she would have lived—scared, battered, confused.

A small, morbid part of me was relieved she wasn’t here to deal with the lasting scars something like this would cause.

Things like this were enough to break the strongest person.

I forced a smile on my face. I couldn’t help Charlie but I would be here for Tiffany. Walking to the bed, I held my hand out. She looked down at it cautiously then shakily reached for it. I gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“All she wants to do is check you out, okay? I’ll be here the entire time.”

“Promise?”

Another squeeze. “Promise.” My words cracked, but I had to keep it together. Winston was gone and hopefully the people behind this would be next.

For the next hour, the doctor examined and probed Tiffany.

Her hand tightened around mine every so often and tears pooled in her eyes at times but she never let them fall.

It was tough, but I had to keep my composure when she got to the pelvic exam.

The amount of bruising and wounds made me want to vomit. Winston was truly sick.

“Can we talk?” the doctor asked me.

I bobbed my head. “Hey, I’ll be right back.” Fear bloomed in her eyes. “I’ll be right outside that door, okay? I’m not leaving.”

“I want my mom! Is she on the way?”

I swallowed thickly. “I’ll check okay?” Tiffany had given us her mom’s number but Lucas held off on calling her until we got everything in order. There was a small background check being done on her before we turned Tiffany over, just to make sure she was safe.

She hesitated then nodded. “Okay.”

“Are you hungry? How about I grab you something to eat while we wait, okay?”

A shaky smile formed on her face for the first time since we saved her. “Okay.”

I left the room with the doctor. Ezra was waiting outside the door and I waved him over when he noticed us.

“Lucas has a lab tech here. I’m going to take this bloodwork to her to look at.

I also want to take her to his x-ray room to get some scans.

But what I can gather, she has a few bruised ribs, her rape kit was positive, and she has tears in the anus as well.

There was semen found in both holes. Her body has suffered a lot.

She had multiple wounds, fresh and previously healed.

Her pregnancy test came back negative and I did provide her with pain medication, a Plan B, and antibiotics.

Lucas told me a little when he called, so I only brought the basics to start her off, but I highly suggest she goes to a hospital where she’ll get a full panel and care. ”

“I have someone that can check the semen out. Preserve it for me,” Ezra told her.

“Will do. I’ll let you know the results of the blood test and STD panel, shortly.” She turned and walked off.

“Shit.” I fell against the wall and sighed, lowering my head. “That poor girl.”

By looking at her it was clear she had been through hell but hearing it all was something completely different.

Lifting my head, I focused on Ezra who was watching me. “I just keep picturing my sister, you know. That girl almost suffered her fate if we didn’t save her, but she’ll have to live and remember all this for the rest of her life. I hate that we didn’t save her sooner.”

He grabbed me and pulled me into him, hugging me securely. “All that matters is that we have her now.”

Slowly, I circled my arms around him and dug my face into his chest. “Tonight gave me a whole new level of respect for you and your brothers.” Ezra rubbed my back. “What did Nazai say?”

“He’s finishing up at his club, then he’s gonna meet us here. River and his team cleaned the scene and transported Winston’s car to a secure location.”

“Good. Good.” I sighed. “She wants her mom. Can we call her now?”

“Soon as Nazai gets here. We gotta do this the right way.”

I lifted my head and looked him in the eye. “Can we at least get her something to eat?”

“That we can do.” My heart swelled. For the first time I didn’t feel the urge to push Ezra away.

Everything that happened tonight gave me clarity.

Ezra could easily be a serial killer but he used his urges for good, to help people.

Part of me wished he would have taken Winston to The Barn and tortured him; so what did that say about me?

“I spoke with Rita. She gave me the run down on the girl.” Lucas approached us. He had blood on his scrubs. “I’m used to dealing with open wounds and bullet holes, but the shit in there makes me happy I’m not in primary care anymore. Next time go to a hospital.”

“You know that wasn’t an option right away,” Ezra said.

“This clinic is set up for surgeries.”

“Good thing you know people then.”

I pulled away from Ezra and ran my hand through my hair again. “We got her taken care of, that’s all that matters,” I mentioned and glanced back at the door.

Exhaustion was creeping up on me but I doubted rest would come anytime soon. I wished I had my Xanax right now to relax my jittery mind and ease the anxious feeling building inside of me.

____

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, the weight of this thing was beginning to show, exhaustion rested in the pockets of my eyes.

I wasn’t expecting rescuing Tiffany to hit me so hard, but it had.

I felt like I was transported back to when my sister was found.

The helplessness, anger, chest tightness, skin feeling too tight, it all was returning and slamming into me like a freight truck.

I pushed out a staggered breath and lowered my head then cuffed cold water from the running faucet into my hands and splashed some on my face.

“Get it together, Ziora,” I coached myself, staring into the mirror again.

Over the years I had built a wall around myself to help prevent feelings like this.

After my last stay at the psych ward I promised myself I would never have to go back.

Now wasn’t the time to fold or go back on that promise.

After a few more minutes I finally left the bathroom and headed to where everyone was outside of Tiffany’s room. Nazai had shown up by now.

“I thought I was gonna have to come rescue you,” Ezra said with a playful, tired grin on his face.

“As you can see I’m fine.” I straighten my spine. “So what’s next?” My hands went through my nest of curls.

“Ezra updated me on what you learned at Winston’s house. He gave me the keys too. River and Lucas are gonna go check the storage unit out tomorrow. Where’s his phone?”

“I have it. When I get home, I’m going to go through it.”

He nodded. “Okay. Let’s go into the room and find out how she ended up with Winston in the first place, then we’ll get her to the hospital. Where’s her mom?”

“She was an hour away last time I checked.”

“Okay.” His hand ran down his face and he looked at the door. “Let’s go talk to her.”

“Hold on.” I held my hand out. “Let me do the talking, okay? She’s not comfortable with guys right now.” I felt protective over Tiffany. Maybe it was me projecting, but I didn’t want to do anything that made her even more uncomfortable.

Nazai encouraged me to go ahead. Lucas opened the door and allowed me to walk in first and the three brothers followed.

Tiffany cautiously watched us from the bed.

“Hey, Tiffany.”

“Is my mom here yet?” She asked.