Collateral Hearts

Chapter 2: Dangerous Connections

Some ties can’t be cut—no matter how dangerous they are.

Dominic Veronesi didn’t believe in coincidences. Life had taught him that every encounter, every twist of fate, had a reason. And Elena Rodriguez was no exception.

She had crashed into his world—both literally and figuratively—and something about her unsettled him. She wasn’t like the people he dealt with daily, those who either feared him or sought to use him. She was something else entirely: unpredictable.

That alone made her a problem.

From the tinted windows of his car, Dominic watched Elena enter the towering glass building where she worked. He wasn’t stalking her—he preferred to think of it as monitoring. After all, she had seen something she shouldn’t have the day before, and that put her at risk.

From whom? That was the question.

He wasn’t the only man in the city with enemies.

Elena’s POV

I could still feel his eyes on me long after I stepped into the elevator. Maybe it was paranoia, or maybe it was just the unsettling realization that a man like Dominic Veronesi didn’t just let things go.

I pushed the thought away and focused on work. Numbers made sense. Spreadsheets, transactions, risk assessments—those were things I could control. But the email sitting in my inbox threatened to unravel that control.

Subject: URGENT – Internal Investigation

My stomach twisted as I read the message. A major client of ours was under federal investigation for suspected money laundering. Worse? The transactions in question had been processed through my department.

I quickly pulled up the files, my fingers moving instinctively across the keyboard. The numbers didn’t lie—there was something off. Layered transactions, offshore accounts, shell companies.

I exhaled sharply. Someone had been using our bank to move dirty money, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d be caught in the fallout.

Dominic’s POV

She was smart. He could see it in the way her expression shifted as she scrolled through her computer screen—calculating, putting pieces together. Whatever she had found, it wasn’t good.

Dominic already knew what the investigation was about. It wasn’t his operation, but he knew the people behind it. And he also knew that if Elena kept digging, she’d be in deeper than she could handle.

Which meant she was his problem now.

Elena didn’t notice the dark sedan parked across from her apartment that night. But Dominic did.

His grip tightened around the steering wheel as he watched a figure slip into the alley beside her building. He had suspected someone else was watching her, but now he had proof.

Elena Rodriguez was in danger. And whether she liked it or not, Dominic wasn’t going to let her face it alone.

The sound of shattering glass jolted Elena awake.

Her breath hitched as she sat up, heart hammering in her chest. Someone was inside her apartment.

A shadow moved in the darkness.

And she wasn’t alone.