BOUND BY HIS SHADOW

Ethan’s Calculations

Ethan never trusted chance.

Everything in his empire was built on control—numbers, contracts, negotiations, people. If something couldn’t be controlled, it was eliminated.

Which was why Grace’s stalker was already as good as dead.

He stood in his office, floor-to-ceiling windows spilling the city skyline beneath him. The evening stretched dark and glittering, but his focus was locked on the thin file spread across his desk.

A license plate. A name. Old police reports that had been quietly buried. A record of harassment complaints from college campuses, discarded when Grace stopped pursuing legal action.

Ethan’s jaw flexed. She ran from it. That explained everything—the way she stiffened when she caught someone staring too long, the layers of armor she wore in the form of stubbornness and sharp words. She had learned to survive by pretending she didn’t need anyone.

But she did. She needed him.

He picked up the phone. “Mason,” he said, voice clipped.

“Sir.” His head of security never wasted words.

“Double the watch on her building. I want eyes on her twenty-four hours. If anyone even breathes in her direction without clearance, I want to know.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ethan hung up, his hand tightening around the receiver before setting it down. He should feel satisfied. Plans were moving. The problem would be contained.

But he wasn’t satisfied. He was… restless.

Because when he’d seen Grace outside her office, her face pale as she noticed that car, she hadn’t looked at him like a savior. She’d looked at him like a captor.

The memory clawed at him.

She thought he was just another shadow pressing her down. She didn’t understand that his shadow was the only thing keeping hers at bay.

His phone buzzed. A message from one of his informants: Target confirmed. Staying mobile. Waiting for orders.

Ethan stared at the words, a slow burn of rage lighting in his chest.

Orders. He could end this tonight if he wanted. One call, one slip of cash into the right hands, and the man who had haunted her would vanish from the streets.

But Grace wasn’t ready to see that side of him. Not yet.

No, he would wait. He would let the threat press closer—just enough for her to feel it. Just enough for her to finally see him not as an enemy, not as a manipulator, but as the only shield that stood between her and the dark.

Patience, he told himself. She’ll come to you.

And when she does… she won’t leave again.

He leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing against the skyline. His empire had taught him one thing: everything and everyone could be bound, one way or another.

Grace might hate the way his shadow stretched over her now. But soon enough, she would learn to live inside it.

Because Ethan Cross didn’t share what belonged to him.