Page 137 of Merciless Obsession
Lucas nodded. “It’ll be better for her to stay here. With all the trauma her body experienced, I don’t want to move her too soon.”
I didn’t want to take any chances. Now that there had been a threat on her life, it was up to me to make sure she stayed safe and was protected going forward.
CHAPTER 28
ZIORA
“God I’m so glad I can go home today,” I groaned.
After spending a week in the hospital I was finally being discharged to go home. I had just come back to my room after getting the cast for my foot. It was annoying that I would be on crutches for the next few weeks. The symptoms from the concussion I had suffered were less intense than they were last week. I still had headaches and some fuzziness. Good news was I wasn’t nauseated anymore, or dizzy. I had seen the video of my accident but still couldn’t recall it. They wouldn’t allow me to have any screens outside of watching the video on Ezra’s phone.
There was still a tube in my chest due to my lung collapsing and I was still receiving oxygen therapy. I had minor trouble breathing too. The swelling in my nose had gone down. Thankfully, it wasn’t broken but it was still discolored and sore.
Lucas told me it would be a few months before I fully recovered from all of my injuries. My body was still achy.
“You’re better than me because there’s no way I would’ve been sitting on my ass this long knowing someone was coming after me,” Cashlynn said.
Ezra’s protectiveness was now on steroids. He had two bodyguards standing outside my hospital room twenty-four-seven. Then he always made sure someone was here with me when he couldn’t be. He had court today and Inaya had to work. Somehow he had convinced Cashlynn to sit with me.
I looked over at her. “Sorry I’ve barely been able to go to the bathroom without feeling like I was about to pass out.”
She rolled her eyes and rubbed her stomach.
I eyed her belly. “Do you know what you’re having?”
Her hand paused for a second. She lifted her eyes and peered into me with an unsettling intensity. “A girl.”
One corner of my mouth rose. “You don’t sound excited.”
She shrugged. “Having a boy would be easier, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Easier? Doesn’t every girl want their own mini me?”
Cashlynn stared at me blankly. “I’m a killer. From the moment I was able to walk I was taught to shoot and kill. My childhood wasn’t filled with cartoons, family dinners, parks, and laughs. It was survival mode, psychological torment, shooting ranges, and learning how to end a life before you could blink. Why would I want my daughter to have that too?” Her head cocked to the side.
My brows shot up. From who her parents were I shouldn’t have been shocked by how she was raised, but still, her childhood made mine look like sunshine and rainbows.
“How did you deal with it? It couldn’t have been easy.”
Cashlynn blinked slowly and one of her eyebrows hiked up. “You don’t learn to deal with something when it’s all you know. My parents homeschooled me until I was in the seventh grade. Until then I didn’t have a lot of social interactions with people. The way I grew up was all I ever knew at that point.”
I tried to keep my face emotionless. Cashlynn didn’t seem like the type to need or want sympathy, however, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She never got to experience childhood.Even with my shitty parents I still got to be around other kids and learn that there was more than the toxicity I grew up in.
“What changed then?”
Her head cocked to the side. “Changed?”
My head bobbed slowly. “I mean you’re married and about to have a kid.”
She snorted. “Not by choice. Believe it or not, killing doesn’t bother me. I’m good at it too. Me being married and a soon-to-be mother isn’t going to change that.”
Rolling my lips into my mouth, I eyed Cashlynn carefully. The impassive expression on her face reminded me of the one I’d seen on Ezra one too many times. To them, taking a life was like breathing. They could do it without blinking and go home and sleep easily at night. Unlike Ezra, I suspected Cashlynn was more of a sociopath.
My eyes fell to the foot of the bed, locking on the pink cast on my foot.
“I read about your parents, they had a lot of enemies. Did they ever find out who killed them?”
For a second Cashlynn didn’t speak, which caused me to turn my attention back to her. The smile on her face sent a chill down my spine.
