Two Shadows, One Deadly Fascination!

Chapter 3: Dominic

I should’ve been parked two streets over, watching Rachel. I’d been following her for weeks, waiting for the right moment to move. She was a widow, but that wasn’t by accident. Her husband had died in his sleep—a supposed diabetic coma. Except I knew better. It was an insulin overdose. She’d gotten away with it, clever enough to fool everyone else, but not me. I’d been planning to pay her a visit, to show her that even those who slip through the cracks can’t hide forever. But I wasn’t there tonight.

Instead, I was here, sitting in my car a few blocks from Adam’s house. The guy who’d gotten under my skin in the worst way.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, the memory of that night flashing through my mind. I’d been watching the house down the street when I heard the yelling—her yelling. I didn’t know her name, but I remembered her face, the way she’d screamed for him to stop, her voice hoarse as she called out his name over and over.

Adam! Stop! Please!

It was seared into my brain. I hadn’t been watching them, not at first. I had been focused on my usual routine—Rachel’s routine. But that yelling had caught my attention, pulling me in, forcing me to watch.

I didn’t need to hear much to know what was happening. I could see it from my car, the way Adam’s fists flew, the sickening crack of bone meeting flesh, and the way she crumpled under the force of his blows. It took everything I had not to get out of the car right then and there, walk up to the house, and snap his neck.

But I didn’t. I held back. I had a plan, and I had to stick to it.

That was then. Tonight? Tonight was different. Tonight I wasn’t watching Rachel. Tonight, I was sitting in this car because of something—or someone—I couldn’t shake. Adam had a new target now, a woman with bright red hair and fire in her eyes that made my blood run hot the moment I saw her.

I’d spotted them together yesterday. She wasn’t like the others, the kind of woman who flinches when a man like Adam gets too close. No, she stood her ground, glared up at him like she could burn him to ash with nothing but a look. I watched from a distance, and I hated it—hated that Adam had even gotten close enough to breathe the same air as her. I wanted to rip him apart for it, for touching her.

But I needed to be smart. I couldn’t act on impulse. Not yet.

I leaned back in my seat, my eyes fixed on Adam’s house. The lights were on, but there hadn’t been any movement for a while. Adam was inside, probably nursing a beer like he always did, thinking he was untouchable. I knew his routine now. He thought he was safe because no one had come for him after what he did to his wife. But he didn’t realize that death was sitting outside his door, watching, waiting.

My thoughts drifted back to her. I didn’t even know her name, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t need to know her name to be interested in her. I just needed to know more. The way she moved, the way her eyes had blazed when she stood up to Adam—it made my heart race in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. There was something about her that intrigued me, something that pulled me in. She had a strength most people didn’t. A fire. I could feel it from a distance, and I wanted to get closer.

I liked that. It was rare to find someone who could stand in the face of someone like Adam and not flinch.

But there was something else about her that gnawed at me. It wasn’t just her defiance, though that had certainly caught my attention. No, it was the way she had brushed Adam off, the way she had walked away like she was done with him, like she was ready to be free.

I wondered what her story was. Why she had come to that house. What her connection to Adam was. I didn’t need to know, but the curiosity was like an itch under my skin, a question that demanded to be answered.

I wasn’t used to distractions. I was methodical, focused, always in control. But this woman—she was different. She had gotten under my skin, and that was something I couldn’t ignore.

I tapped my fingers lightly on the steering wheel, a quiet rhythm to match the growing tension inside me. What were the odds she’d come back tonight? What were the odds I’d get to see her again, maybe even follow her, watch her more closely?

I knew Adam’s routine. He never strayed far from it. And that woman—she was an outlier. A break in his routine. That alone made her interesting. She didn’t belong in his world, and yet she had stepped right into it. It made me wonder if she’d come back. If she’d put herself in his orbit again, giving me the chance to see her up close.

I wanted to watch her, study her, understand her. Hell, I wanted to know if there was a chance for something more—a date, maybe. Not the kind of date she was used to, no. Something different. Something that would let me really see her. But first, I needed to get closer.

A shadow passed by the front window of Adam’s house, and I straightened in my seat, my body tense. Was it him? Or was it her?

My pulse quickened, a slow smile tugging at my lips. I didn’t know if she’d come back. I didn’t know if I’d get the chance to follow her tonight, to track her, to watch her. But I was patient. I could wait.

Adam would get what was coming to him. That much was certain. But her? She was the real puzzle. The one I wanted to figure out. Maybe I’d find her tonight, or maybe not. But I would. Eventually.

And when I did, she wouldn’t see me coming.