DAWN IN YOUR SHADOW
1872 Words
CHAPTER TWO
“Hmm ... coffee,” she said
The scent of coffee filled the room…She sat up, sheets sliding to her waist. The room was still dark except for the soft grey light leaking around the blackout curtains. Her phone said 6:47 a.m. Too early for the city to be loud, but not early enough for silence.
She pulled on a silk robe, tied it loose, and padded barefoot down the hallway.
Jax was in the kitchen.
He has changed into a plain black T-shirt and dark jeans nothing fancy but the shirt stretched across his shoulders in a way that made her pause in the doorway. He was pouring coffee from her French press into two mugs. No phone in sight. No gun visible. Just him, moving as he belonged there.
“Morning,” he said without turning.
“You made coffee.”
“You have a machine that costs more than my first car. Seemed rude not to use it.”He said….
She leaned against the door frame, arms crossed and asked: “Did you sleep?”
“Enough” he replied
She didn’t believe him. The couch wasn’t built for someone his size and the shadows under his eyes looked deeper than they had last night.
He slid one mug across the island toward her, Black…No sugar. Exactly how she took it.
She stared at it. “How did you know?”
“Priya’s file”. He replied.
Elena picked up the mug. Warmth seeped into her palms. “You read my file.”
“Every page?”
“Yeah”, he replied
She took a sip. Strong. Perfect. “That’s creepy.”
Setting the mug down, she asked “And the part where you stare at me while I sleep? Also the job?”
He finally looked at her, no smile…Just that steady blue gaze. And respond… “I checked the locks and walked the perimeter. To check the standard.”
“Standard” she echoed.
“Right.” He replied
He leaned back against the counter, arms folded and asked: “Why are you up this early?”
“I could not sleep, I kept thinking about the guy in the crowd last night….The one who got too close.”
Jax’s jaw tightened, just a fraction.
“I got his face on camera and have sent it to my contact at the zone. They’ll run it.”
She nodded slowly. “And if it’s him?”
“Then we deal with it.
Simple and certain, like he already decided how the day would end.
Elena studied him. The scar on his forehead caught the morning light pale and looking against tanned skin.
She wondered…not for the first time, what story it told
Knife? Shrapnel? Or something uglier?
She opened her mouth to ask.
His phone buzzed on the island.
He glanced at the screen, expression unchanging.
Answered on the second ring.
“Harlan.”
A pause. The voice on the other end was low and urgent.
She couldn’t make out words, only shape, tone and clipped.
Jax listened. Then…“When?”
Another pause
.
“Copy. I’m on it.”
He ended the call. Set the phone down carefully.
Elena waited.
His eyes met hers. “We need to move,” he said
“Now?” she asked.
“New intel…The letters aren’t the only thing. There’s a package waiting at your management office. Priya just found it. Same handwriting. Bigger.”
Her stomach dropped. “Bigger how?”
“Photo of you. Taken inside this building. Yesterday.”
The coffee turned sour in her mouth. “Inside!”
“Elevator, Hallway. Someone got past the doorman.”
She felt the room tilt. “That’s impossible.”
“Not if they had help.”
She stared at him. “You think someone is in here”
“I think we can't wait to find out.” He was already moving… grabbing his jacket from the couch, checking his phone again. “Pack essential things only. We’re leaving by 10:00” He said
“Where?”
“Safe house, upstate...Better sightlines and fewer entry points.”
She didn’t move, saying… “I have a shoot tomorrow. Full day. I can’t just…”
“You can’t walk onto a set if someone’s already inside your building.” His voice was calm, but the edge was back sharper now. “This isn’t a discussion, Elena.”
She hated the way he said her name. Like an order wrapped in velvet.
And the fact that he was right.
She turned toward her bedroom, stopped and looked back.
“You’re not telling me everything.”She said
He held her gaze. “I’m telling you what you need to know.”
“That’s not the same thing.”She said
“No. It’s not,” he replied
She exhaled hard. “Fine. Ten minutes.”
She walked away…..
In her room, she threw clothes into a duffel….jeans, sweaters, underwear, the bare minimum. Her hands shook. She hated that too.
When she came back out, Jax was at the window, phone to his ear again.
“...yeah, confirm the perimeter sweep. I want eyes on every camera feed before we roll. And Marc? Tell him to meet us at the secondary location. I need backup I trust.”
He hung up.
Elena dropped the bag by the door. “Marc?”
“Old teammate. He’s solid.”
“You don’t trust your own firm?”
“I trust people. Not companies.”
She nodded slowly. “And me? Do you trust me?”
He looked at her with a “really?” look. Something flickered in his eyes. Not ice this time. Heat.
“I trust you to stay alive,” he said. “The rest… We’ll figure it out.”
She almost laughed.
Instead, she grabbed her coat. “Let’s go.”
They took the service elevator…Jax first, gun drawn low, checking corners like he had done a thousand times. The hallway smelled like bleach and old takeout.
Outside, a different SUV waited, black, tinted, no plates visible. Jax opened the rear door for her, then slid in beside her.
The driver…a guy she didn’t recognise pulled away without a word.
Elena watched the city slide past. “You think it’s someone close?” she asked
“Always is,” Jax said quietly. “That’s why it hurts.”
She turned to him. “You sound like you know.”
“I do,” he replied
She waited but he didn’t elaborate.
The silence stretched until they hit the bridge
Manhattan shrinking in the rearview.
Then Jax’s phone buzzed again.
He glanced at it. Face went still.
Elena leaned over. “What?”
He hesitated...The first time she saw him do it.
“Package just got opened,” he replied
“And?” she asked
“Photo of you…In your robe. This morning. Kitchen.”
Her blood went cold.
He looked at her. “Taken from across the river. High angle. Sniper scope.”
She felt the words land like punches.
Someone had watched her pour coffee, talk to him and even watch her slip off one shoulder when she reached for a mug.
Jax’s hand closed around hers…brief, hard and grounding.
“We’re ending this today,” he said.
She didn’t pull away.
She squeezed back.
And in that small, desperate grip, she realised the real twist wasn’t the photo.
It was that she wasn’t scared of the watcher anymore.
She was scared of how much she wanted Jax to be the one who stayed.
Even if it burned everything down.
The SUV merged onto the highway, heading north.
Elena stared out the window at the blur of concrete and steel giving way to green.
Her mind raced…replaying every face in the lobby yesterday, every delivery guy, every neighbour who’d smiled too long in the elevator.
Jax’s thumb brushed the back of her hand once, almost accidentally. Then he let go.
She missed the contact immediately.
“Tell me something real,” she said.
He glanced at her.
“About you..not the job, not the rules. Something that isn’t in a file.”
He was quiet for a long stretch. The highway hummed under the tyres.
“My last mission,” he said finally. “We lost a guy.
Ramirez is the name. The kid was twenty-three. I was supposed to cover the left flank. I didn’t see the sniper until it was too late.”
“You blame yourself?” Elena asked
“Every day.”He replied
She looked at the scar on his temple again. “Is that where….”
“No. That’s from an earlier training accident. The knife slipped mistakenly.”
“But Ramirez…..”
“Bullet grazed me here.” He touched the scar lightly. “I still feel it sometimes. Like a reminder.”
She reached out without thinking..her fingers brushing the edge of the mark. He didn’t flinch.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be.” His voice was rough.
She pulled her hand back but the air between them had shifted thicker and warmer.
The driver’s phone rang. He answered on speaker without asking.
“Harlan, it’s Marc. Got the prelim on the photo. The shooter used a long lens, probably from the rooftop of the building across the river. The building has twenty-four-hour security. Guess who has access?”
Jax leaned forward. “Who?”
“Victoria.”
Elena’s head snapped toward him. “Your ex?”
Jax’s face hardened. “She’s a silent investor in your father’s production company. Has keys to half the high-rises in Midtown for ‘site scouting.’”
The twist landed harder than the photo.
Victoria wasn’t just suspicious.
She was watching.
And she had the means to do more than watch.
Jax’s hand found hers again….this time deliberate.
Fingers laced tight.
“We’re not going upstate,” he told the driver.
“Change course…Head to the estate in the Hamptons… Production’s relocating tomorrow anyway.
We’ll use the secure perimeter there.”
Elena stared at him. “You think she’ll follow?”
“I think she already has,” he replied
The SUV accelerated.
Outside, the city fell away completely.
Inside, something else began to rise.
Something neither of them could outrun much longer..!
Jax’s hands stayed laced with hers…warm and steady.
Elena let herself lean into it, just enough to breathe.
Then Jax’s phone lit up…silent…no ring.
He glanced down.
His entire body went rigid.
Elena felt the shift before she saw his face.
“What?” she whispered.
He turned the screen toward her.
One new message. One photo.
It was her…right now….head on his shoulder, fingers tangled with his robe slipping off one shoulder in the kitchen light.
This morning
Taken from inside the loft.
From behind them.
Victoria’s name glowed at the top of the thread.
And below the photo, four words:
I’m already in the car.
The driver’s eyes flicked to the rearview.
He smiled…small, cold.
“Change of plans,” he said softly.
And from the shadowed footwell behind the front seats, a gloved hand rose holding a syringe.
Straight toward Elena’s neck.
- Writer
