The Shadows
993 Words
The rain had already eased off by the time I was out of the building, but the city still smelled of wet asphalt and diesel. I was halfway down the steps of MCG when a black SUV slid to the curb. It had a government-grade tint and the type of purr under the hood you don’t get from anything sold to the public. Damn!!! Everything about this place was just class, power and luxury
The back door opened.
“Ms. Munroe,” the driver called out to me. He was tall with a military build, his eyes scanning the street even while addressing me. “Mr. Pierce asked me to see you home.”
I hesitated. “Home? How do you know where I live?”
“Hop in, ma’am.”
Wow… just wow.
I climbed in. The leather smelled faintly of something familiar and somehow darker—his cologne. I didn’t even need to ask whose car it was. Everything in it screamed Damian Pierce
The driver pulled away. City lights streaked past us, but a movement in the reflection caught my eye,a sedan, two cars back, keeping pace. My instincts prickled.
“Friend of yours?” I asked casually like I wasn't worried that my past had probably dug its way up, finding me almost immediately
The driver’s eyes flicked to the rearview. “Miss Munroe...Do not turn around.” He ordered
I didn’t, actually I'm not even sure I was going too. I just sat back and watched his gaze shift between the road and the mirror.
“Lose them,” I said.
The SUV surged forward without hesitation , weaving through traffic with controlled aggression. Three turns later, the sedan was gone.
When we stopped in front of my building, he didn’t immediately unlock the doors. He looked around first then went ahead to list“Be ready tomorrow, 7 a.m… and Ms. Munroe…” His eyes met mine in the mirror. “From now on, be at alert,always assume you’re being watched.”
As the door lock clicked open. I took a deep breathe as I stepped out, scanning the shadows before heading inside.
I didn’t sleep well at all, I tried but I just couldn't My brain kept running laps and it was not because of the job, but because of that sedan, I couldn't stop wondering if they were after me or if they were just after the car with the hopes that Damian was in it, and then I also couldn't stop thinking of the way Damian had looked at me, it was like he already knew exactly where I had been and what I had done. What did he even mean by, he knew my secrets
At 6:59 a.m., the SUV was waiting again. I wore black slacks, a fitted turtleneck, and boots practical but passable for an assistant, right?
When I slid in, Damian was already there.
“You’re punctual,” he said, not looking up from his phone. This man makes me feel like a voice from a radio than a human being physically present
“And you’re in my car,” I shot back.
A smirk, just barely. “It’s still my car.”
We drove in silence until the SUV stopped outside a luxury hotel uptown. Inside, the lobby was a cathedral of marble and glass. It was a place where you felt time slow and where people spoke in hushed tones
I could assure you it was possible to be murdered and buried here
Remind me why I took this job again...
“Stay close,” he murmured as we entered a private elevator.
“Am I expecting trouble?” I asked, like I didn’t already know what I had signed up for, like I didn't know moving forward trouble, chaos, fear and bravery were my new companions
“Always,” he said.
The doors opened into a penthouse suite with floor-to-ceiling windows and a man already waiting. He looked older, heavyset, with eyes that missed nothing. He smiled at Damian, but it didn’t touch his face in the slightest.
“Pierce,” he said. “You didn’t say you were bringing company.”
“She’s not company,” Damian replied. “She’s insurance.”
The man’s gaze slid to me. “Pretty insurance.”
I didn’t flinch. “And armed.”
A statement that only came from how irritated I was by the old man but it only earned me a brown raise.
They talked business,mergers, asset transfers, offshore holdings. I listened, storing each and every detail. But I couldn’t shake off how I felt about this man, something in the his tone was…Too rehearsed, too stretched and too smooth
That was when it happened,
a faint vibration against my leg. My phone.
Unknown number.
Deep down, I knew I shouldn’t have answered but I did anyways
“Steph Munroe,” a voice whispered, low and metallic.
“Walk away from him before it’s too late.”
The line went dead.
My heart spiked as I struggled to keep my face blank and unreadable.
When the meeting ended, Damian walked me back to the elevator. As the doors closed, he spoke without looking at me.
“Who was on the phone?”
I froze. “How…did youu..?”
“I told you, Ms. Munroe. I know your secrets. And now, someone else does too and that’s bad,really really bad.”
The elevator chimed, doors sliding open to the lobby. That’s when I saw it, a single white envelope lying directly in our path. My name was written on it in bold black ink.
Damian bent, picked it up, and gave it to me.
“Go ahead,” he said softly. “Open it.”
Inside was a single Polaroid.
It was me from last night, Stepping out of the SUV.
And in the corner, barely visible was the reflection of a man in the glass door.
Watching me
- Writer
