Page 67 of Merciless Obsession (The Bloodline #2)

“My sister. The scar on her side, she didn’t have it before she was taken and it looks fresh too.”

Ezra approached the bed and took a seat on the edge. “Let me see.”

I handed the picture over and he examined it. “You sure?”

I cut my eyes at him. “I think I would know if my sister had her stomach cut open. Look, she has two of them. Those aren’t just regular scars either. Look how clean they look compared to the rest of her body.”

My sister was bruised and battered, but the scars were clean cut, neat. Even if the photo was old, I could tell someone who knew what they were doing cut and stitched her up.

“Hold on.” Ezra pulled his phone out and took a picture. He tapped the phone a couple times then set it on his lap. Lifting his head, he stared at me with intensity.

“Are there any more threats I should know about?” Taking the picture back from him, I studied it again. My chest felt like someone dropped cement blocks on it. My stomach constricted.

“No. Just these three,” I mumbled, taking a couple small breaths.

My breathing was already unstable due to my lung and this tube but staring at the picture made me feel like I was on the verge of a panic attack.

I went back to the night we were told about my sister and had to identify her body.

The hardest thing I ever experienced was seeing her on that metal table.

“Lucas said it looks like her kidneys were removed.” My eyes bulged and this time I became lightheaded. My breaths came quicker. Pain shot through my chest as my heart tripled in speed.

“Bumblebee,” Ezra called out but his voice was muffled. I had been doing so good when it came to my attacks but seeing the picture and hearing the new information had me struggling to breathe. Pressure built behind my eyes.

Ezra caught me off guard when he gripped the bottom of my face and slammed his mouth into mine, his kiss hard and demanding. I melted into it, squeezing my eyes shut and gripping his thigh. The noise in my head slowly started to quiet.

When he pulled back, I was panting heavily. My vision slowly started to come back into focus.

Ezra grabbed the back of my head and laid his forehead on me. “In and out, baby. In and out.” Blinking a couple times, I followed his breathing.

“Now, are you calm?”

“Yes,” I rasped, clearing my throat.

Heat bloomed through my body. The last thing I wanted was for Ezra to see me having one of my panic attacks. It had been some weeks since I took my Xanax since I didn’t want to become too dependent on them again. Right now I was craving one.

“Good.” His eyes bounced around my face a couple more seconds before pulling back.

“Now I need to get back to the courthouse, but we’re not done with this conversation.

If someone is threatening to cause you harm, that’s something you need to tell me!

I won’t accept someone trying to take you away from me and hurt you. Do you understand me?”

My pulse pounded in my throat. It was still foreign for me to have someone care about me in the capacity that he did. Sometimes it was suffocating but I was starting to appreciate it and gave him a nod in response.

He pecked my lips. “Good.”

“What does it mean? Those people took her kidneys? Why weren’t we aware of this sooner?”

Ezra peeked down at the picture then back at me. “I don’t know, Bumblebee, but we’ll figure it out.”

He checked his phone screen and his shoulders fell forward. “I gotta head back to the courthouse. I’m going to let Cashlynn know to come back in here.”

I groaned. “Ezra, she’s pregnant and probably wants to go home. I don’t need to be watched; you already have those guards standing outside the room.”

He swiped his bottom lip with his tongue. “A’right. I’ll send her home, but the guards are staying.”

I rolled my eyes.

He grinned and pecked my mouth again, keeping his lips on mine for a long minute before pulling back and standing up.

“Ezra,” I called out before he got to the door. I opened my mouth to speak but my words got lodged in my throat. “Good luck in court.”

He grinned wider and winked.

My feelings for Ezra were growing more serious each day. I wasn’t sure what scared me more right now, the fact that I was falling for him or learning there might be more to my sister’s death than I originally thought.

____

“Feels good to be home,” I mentioned as I waited outside my front door while Inaya unlocked it.

I balanced on my crutches, feeling a bit winded, but happy to finally be out of the hospital.

It wasn’t easy being on crutches and trying to recover from a collapsed lung.

There was also the pain in my lower abdomen from my spleen removal.

Every time I coughed and moved my neck a certain way, a dull ache formed where the glass stabbed me.

In theory I probably should have stayed in the hospital a little longer but I was tired of being immobilized and the sterile scent invading my nose.

Not to mention, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since the accident with the nurses and doctors constantly coming in and out of the room.

Since Lucas was the surgeon on my case and Ezra’s brother, I figured I could still get care, but it wouldn’t be in the hospital.

The events of the accident were still foggy to me.

I could remember the faint smell of gasoline and smoke.

The excruciating pain that shot through my body at the time would hit me sometimes, as if I could feel it all over again.

My anxiety was starting to spike again, but I was trying to keep it under wraps.

I didn’t want any more fuss over me than what was already happening.

“Oh shit,” Inaya mumbled once she was in the house.

“What?” My face balled and I slowly limped into the house.

“Ziora—”

My mouth dropped as I stood in the entryway of my now empty living room. “What the hell? Where the hell are all my things?” My eyes bounced around my living room. Everything was gone, as if I never lived here. I hobbled forward and even my dining room had been cleared.

“Inaya! Where are my things?” I turned around as quickly as I could.

This didn’t make any sense.

My eyes went to the guys Ezra hired to guard me. Apparently they worked for River.

“I need one of you to carry me upstairs!”

They shared a look. “I don’t think Ezra would like that,” the one named Marcus mentioned.

Glaring at him I winced as I straightened myself. “If I try to go up those stairs alone and fall, hurting myself would make Ezra even more mad than you carrying me. Do you think he’ll be happy knowing you two allowed that to happen?”

Inaya snickered.

The two shared another look.

I hobbled over to the steps. Marcus was the one to approach me. I held my crutches out. Brady, the other guard, grabbed them.

“Be careful!” I complained when Marcus kneeled to pick me up. One of his arms went behind my legs and the other around my shoulders. He lifted me easily then started upstairs with Inaya and Brady following.

“Crutches.” I held my hands out when we got to the top. I didn’t even have to check my room to know it was empty. Going straight to my office door, I could already feel my anger boiling before using my crutch to push the half open door all the way open.

“That muthafucker!” I yelled, going into my empty office.

“Shit. Looks like you got evicted, friend.”

My nostrils flared as a heavy puff of air pushed out. My jaw clenched painfully hard and my eyes cut into tight slits.

“I know this was Ezra! He’s the only one bold enough to try something like this.” My blood buzzed beneath my skin.

Ezra had mentioned me moving and I told him I didn’t think it was that serious.

I planned on upgrading my security system and adding more cameras to help keep me safe.

I loved my house. I purchased it when the money from my hacking jobs started increasing and my blog began making more noise.

Going from a shoebox apartment to my townhouse was a major accomplishment for me.

The last thing I wanted was to be forced out of it.

“He’s worried about you. What’s wrong with that?”

I faced Inaya, staring at her like she was crazy. “Just because you’re worried about someone doesn’t mean you just pack up and force them to move without talking to them first.”

“Maybe he knew you would say no if he suggested.”

My eyes bucked. “Of course I would. This is crazy, Inaya. All of this is crazy.”

“I don’t know… I think it’s romantic.” I rolled my eyes.

“Look, you might think shit like this is fun and exciting, but I don’t. I like order. I like having a plan. I?—”

“Have control issues.”

“Excuse me?” My head cocked back.

“For once, just willingly accept that someone cares about you and you don’t have to be the strong one all the time.”

My head dropped with a slight shake. “Inaya, it’s not that easy.” My body felt heavy. The past week’s events were starting to catch up to me. Suddenly I felt exhausted. My mind was foggy and my temples pounded.

Inaya’s face turned sympathetic. “Look, babe, I’ve known you damn near all our lives and in all that time you’ve never once released control.

As a kid you were forced to grow up early to protect and take care of your little sister.

Then, instead of enjoying your teenage years, you dedicated all your time to tracking her killers down and overworking and stressing yourself out to the point where you had to be admitted into a damn mental intuition.

I get it, you’ve always only had yourself to lean on, outside of me of course.

” She paused and grinned proudly. “But if Ezra is taking the initiative to make sure you’re safe and protected, then I’m not mad at that. ”

Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes, squeezing them tightly. One of my crutches dropped when my hand went to my chest. My airwaves felt blocked, my chest too taut. It felt like barbed wire was wrapped around my heart, squeezing for dear life.

Inaya was right, I knew it. My therapist in the past had told me I had trouble allowing others to take the lead and not being in control. It was a trauma response and my way to protect myself. Years of conditioning my brain to react a certain way was hard to just reprogram.

“Just breathe, babe. Just breathe,” Inaya encouraged softly.

She rubbed my back soothingly. “All jokes aside, I get it. This is all new. Ezra came storming into your life like a damn tsunami, shaking up everything and knocking down all the walls you built around yourself. It was fast, and it might be scary, but maybe this is a good thing. I mean, look at all that’s happened since connecting with Ezra and his brothers.

We finally found answers you’ve been looking for and once we find those creeps they’ll be brought down and your sister and all those other girls can finally rest in peace. ”

Not responding right away, I tried to get my breathing under control. Slowly, I inhaled deep breaths, releasing them slowly as my heart pounded rapidly inside me.

It took a couple minutes but once I was more relaxed and the haze started to clear, I fluttered my eyes back open and stared at my friend who was watching me closely with concern beaming in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” I croaked. “And I hear you.” My eyes circled the empty space. I still wasn’t happy about what Ezra did, but I could respect what Inaya was saying.

“Maybe if I get in an accident Emmet will rescue me and move me into his house.” She grinned and nudged me with her arm.

I choked out a laugh. “You’ll fit right into that family. All you guys are nuts.”

Inaya snickered.

A heavy sigh fell from my mouth. “I don’t even know what he did with my stuff.”

There was no reason for me to linger in my house.

I didn’t have my phone so I couldn’t call Ezra to see if he was out of court.

Truthfully, I didn’t even want to speak to him right now.

Not before I processed all of this. It annoyed me that he hadn’t mentioned anything about moving my stuff at the hospital earlier, but it made sense how he got the warnings I received.

My eyes went to the window. The sun was starting to set. I was tired and hungry. My plan was to come home and lay in my bed. After realizing that wasn’t going to happen here, I dropped my shoulders in defeat.

“Can you take me to Ezra’s?”

Inaya nodded, kneeling and picking my crutch up. I thanked her and gave the room one last look before hobbling to the door.