Page 1 of Merciless Obsession
CHAPTER 1
EZRA TAVAREZ
Iignored another call from my brother as I watched my prey from afar. My blood hummed and my ears rang as I grabbed my camera from my lap. Bringing it to my face, a crude grin formed on my mouth as I looked at my target through the pinhole then pressed down to capture the picture. My blood raced as I hit the button a couple more times as the sound of the shutters clicking sounded in the car.
“What do we have planned today, my busy bee?” I mumbled, pulling the camera away from my face. I sat in my Benz knowing I couldn’t be seen behind my dark tint, watching Ziora as she headed down to where her car was parked on the street in front of her townhouse.
The moment my younger brother Emmet exposed her as the girl who ran the anonymous blogShadows of Silver Stone, I felt an attraction to her. Her light-skinned, freckled face was distinctive to me. The way they perfectly crossed from cheek to cheek over her medium-sized nose made her stand out. She had a nice pear shape to her. Her legs were long with nice shapely thighs that ran into her full hips.
Not only that, but from what Emmet could gather, she was just as smart as him and skilled too. A woman who was more than just her looks was my weakness.
I was supposed to just find her and threaten her to stop reporting information about my family, but instead I decided to watch her. It made me feel high as I stalked her, as if I was a lion and she was an unknowing gazelle.
The Tavarez family was well-known and respected around Silver Stone. My dad, Dominic Tavarez, was a newly-retired judge, who’d also published a ton of articles used in different case law studies and universities. In the public eye he’d raised well-rounded sons, all with respectable and honorable jobs. Each of my brothers, including me, played a key role in our family’s organization to make sure it ran effectively. My job as the family lawyer was to make sure if any error ever happened, none of us saw the inside of a jail cell. Nazai had taken over a few months ago, after our dad retired, and he now ran The Bloodline, where his job was to make sure everything ran accordingly and he picked what jobs we took on. He also did independent kills too. Lucas fell right under Nazai and was a trauma surgeon. If we ever were hurt on a job, he took care of us. He also ran an off the books clinic for people who needed help but needed to stay off the radar. Lastly, Emmet, the youngest, was the family hacker. Any information we needed for a job or anything else, he could find out. He also owned his own PI firm where he outsourced clients.
While a small group of people knew everything we did wasn’t always by the books, no one outside of The Bloodline knew who we were behind the scenes, which was a group of merciless killers who took jobs from the encrypted Bloodline portal Emmet set up. The Bloodline wasn’t a secret. There were whispers and rumors about “the cleaners”, the ones who solved problems for others and cleaned the streets of predators, butit was unclear to anyone outside of the organization the faces behind it.
Ziora was starting to ruffle the wrong feathers. Nazai wanted her taken care of before questions started being asked. I didn’t know her motive for targeting my family or how she learned some of the things she did, but I knew I had to handle her before Nazai stepped in and fixed things permanently.
Once I knew the coast was clear, I pulled my hood over my head, grabbed the rose with the note attached, and climbed out of my car. Pulling the half mask over the bottom of my face, I swiftly walked over to the door of the townhouse and taped the rose to it. This wasn’t the first time I’d left a gift for my busy bee and it wouldn’t be the last. If my brother knew I was being this reckless, he would have something to say about it, but if I couldn’t physically have Ziora, this was the next best thing. I glanced at the camera I knew to be in the corner before turning and slowly making my way back to my car.
My hand went to the gearshift and I threw it in drive as soon as I was secured in the car. The area she lived in was close to downtown and full of foot traffic. It was a mix of high-rise apartments, townhouses, and a few commercial businesses. It was an up and coming part of town that was growing more popular by the day. I knew I couldn’t bring much attention to myself unless I wanted to hear Nazai’s mouth.
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My tongue swiped over my lips as I waited for the image to form on the photo paper in the liquid. My mind traveled to earlier, watching Ziora as she ran around town. Her routine was never anything over the top so I didn’t expect anything different today. Eventually I had to end my tailing and head downtown tomy law firm. Since my dad had officially retired, it was up to me to keep things running smoothly. After he retired from being a judge, he kept his licensing active and started his own law firm. While he didn’t do any in courtroom things, he still offered legal advice while the people under him handled the legwork. Now he’d officially stepped down and handed the torch to me. I didn’t plan on taking it lightly. Not only did I make sure my family stayed out of trouble, but I handled cases for a lot of organized crime members who paid me a hefty amount to do the same for them.
The case I was currently preparing for would be a headache. The guy I was representing was an arrogant dumbass who was going to make me work for the payment his brother was handling.
Now that I was home, all that went to the back of my mind. Currently, I was in my darkroom, working on developing the pictures of my busy bee. She had a light day today, going to her kickboxing class and meeting her friend for lunch. It’d been two weeks since I’d been following her and I noticed she kept to herself outside of meeting with her friend whose name I learned was Inaya. Emmet had done a deep dive into Ziora’s life and she’d done a good job making herself practically a ghost. The information my brother was able to find wasn’t enough for me.
With my tongs I carefully pulled the last picture out the liquid and turned to clip it on the rope hanging on the wall. Stepping back I looked around the room at my art. My developing room had been filled with Ziora. It had been a minute since I brought my camera out, but as soon as I laid eyes on Ziora on that screen, I knew it was time.
An alarm went off, indicating the photos were finished. Carefully reaching up, I grabbed one off the rope and examined it. Ziora had just stepped out of her kickboxing gym, drinking from her water bottle. Her eyes were closed and her chin tiltedupward as she drank. One corner of my mouth rose as I lifted my hand and brushed it along the delicate curve of her jaw. My heart beat faster and blood raced down to dick just taking in her natural beauty. I liked girls who didn’t have to do too much to still stand out. The more I stared at the picture, the more the urge to move up phase two of my plan increased.
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After developing my photos, I got a text from Nazai to head to The Barn. Standing in front of Morris, the target for tonight, I grinned as I watched him tremble in fear. I lifted Wilma, my custom steel head hammer, and sent it down on his hand, causing him to wail out a gut-wrenching scream.
“I bet you wished you kept your hands to yourself, huh?” River taunted, standing next to me.
The guy panted roughly, his breathing ragged as he sweated profusely. I didn’t always take solo kill jobs. Typically, unless it required more than one person, Nazai handled it, along with River, his best friend, head of security, and enforcer. Nazai was more trained in kills and enjoyed them, but he was currently healing from getting shot and the job needed to be done. Apparently the guy in front of us was just found not guilty of beating his wife and kid. His case was a big deal being who his family was. Unfortunately for him, someone wasn’t happy with the verdict and put a hit out on him. It had been a minute since I took a job; so I agreed once Nazai called me.
When the guy didn’t answer, River cocked his fist back and sent it across the man’s face. It went flying to the side, spit and blood splattered out his mouth. His face was already swollen and bruised from the few hits River had doled out. He coughed out blood and made a choking sound that caused me to smile.
“I was found innocent,” he struggled to get out between gasps.
My mouth turned upside down and my lips pinched together. I lifted my hand and looked Wilma over. “You heard that, Wilma, he was found innocent; even after the photos of his wife and son were shown.” My leather gloved hand rubbed over the steel head.
“Too bad for you Wilma doesn’t believe you.” Focusing back on the target I lifted Wilma and sent her down on his hand again. The sounds of his bones crunching under the steel was like music to my ears.
“I think we can end this? What you think, Riv?” I glanced over at River who looked bored at this point. With his arms across his chest he nodded, staring at the target with a tight expression.
Spinning around I walked over to my bag and kneeled, first grabbing a rag to wipe the blood off Wilma. Setting it to the side, I went deeper into the bag and grabbed the wire rope. From what I read about the case, the husband tried to strangle the wife after she had enough and tried to leave. So I figured it would be fitting to take him out the same way he tried to do her.
Pulling the wire out, I wrapped it around my hands a couple times and stood. As I walked closer to the man tied to the chair, he attempted to lift his sagging head. Wheezing sounds came from his mouth. His eyes were swollen shut but grew when he noticed me.
He struggled against the ties bonding him to the chair. “Please, please,” he cried, but it fell on deaf ears.
