Obsessed already?2
835 Words
He leaned forward and set his glass down with a soft clink, ignoring the questioning glances around him. The music seemed to dull to a distant hum as his focus sharpened, all casual amusement draining from his features, replaced by cold intent.
“Out,” he said quietly.
The women blinked. “What?” the brunette asked, laughing nervously. “You’re joking, right?”
Lorenzo’s eyes met hers, and the joke died instantly.
“I said out,” he repeated, enunciating each word with calm finality. “I’m done for tonight.”
The blonde slid away first, suddenly unsure. The other two followed, gathering their purses, murmuring soft goodnights that he didn’t bother answering. None of them dared complain. No one argued with him. They left in a small flurry of perfume and disappointed silence, glancing back only when they thought he wasn’t looking.
He never looked at them.
He was already somewhere else.
Alone in the sudden quiet of the lounge, Lorenzo rolled his shoulders back, shifting from relaxed predator to something sharper. More dangerous. He checked his watch, then picked up his phone and scrolled to a contact that never appeared under a real name.
He pressed a call.
It rang once.
“Yes, sir?” The voice on the other end was crisp, efficient. One of his best.
“Pull up the alley footage from earlier,” Lorenzo said. “The camera that caught the girl.”
There was no confusion. No questions. He surrounded himself with men who understood that curiosity from him wasn’t harmless.
“Yes, sir. On screen three?”
“Here,” Lorenzo said. “Now.”
He walked through a side door into a private back room...no music here, just quiet and control. Multiple monitors lit up the wall, casting a bluish glow over polished floors and leather chairs. The club cameras cycled through different angles: the entrance, the bar, the back corridor, the street.
Screen three froze on the frame he’d asked for.
There she was.
The girl. Mid-run, hair flying behind her, eyes wide, mouth parted. The image was a little blurry, but it didn’t matter. He’d seen enough the first time to fill in the gaps.
“Pause,” he ordered.
The image locked on her face as she glanced back. Fear lived there, raw and unfiltered. But something else did too...something that hooked beneath his skin and refused to let go.
Stupid, he told himself.
Dangerous.
He should have already sent someone to make sure she’d never speak a word. He should have treated her like any other threat: identify, locate, remove. Clean. Simple.
Instead, he had done nothing.
He had let her walk back into her life as if she hadn’t watched a man die.
“Sir?” the voice asked through the speaker. “Do you want us to track her down for disposal?”
He stared at the frozen frame.
His chest rose slightly, the only sign of the war going on in his head.
Killing her would solve the problem before it even started.
Letting her live had already caused one.
His lips curved, but there was nothing warm in it. “No,” he said slowly. “Not yet.”
A beat of silence.
“Then… what are your instructions, sir?”
Lorenzo stepped closer to the screen, eyes tracing every line of her face as if committing it to memory. Beautiful. Fragile. Terrified. A civilian pulled into a world she knew nothing about.
And for some reason, his world felt different now that she was in it.
“Zoom in,” he said. “Enhance what you can.”
The image sharpened as much as the grainy footage allowed. A small scar near her left eyebrow, faint but there. The shape of her jaw. The style of her bag. Even the brand of her shoes.
Pieces of her.
He straightened, decision solidifying into something sharp and deliberate.
“I want everything on her,” he said finally. “Name. Address. Family. Where she goes. Who she talks to. Every place she’s set foot in the last week. Every habit. Every weakness.”
“Yes, sir,” the voice answered, all business now.
“And listen carefully,” Lorenzo added, eyes locked on the girl’s frozen expression. “Do it quiet. No mistakes. No contact. She doesn’t know we’re looking at her, and she’s not going to.”
Under his calm tone, something darker pulsed.
Obsession.
Curiosity.
Something that felt dangerously close to interest.
“Yes, sir. We’ll start the background check immediately.”
The line cut.
Alone with the glow of the screens, Lorenzo watched the girl run again as the footage resumed. Frame after frame, step after step, disappearing into the world that thought it operated without his influence.
That world was wrong.
He slipped his hands into his pockets, head tilting slightly as the screen went dark.
“Let’s see who you are,” he murmured under his breath.
And how much trouble you’re worth.
- Writer
