Page 34

“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice shrill and angry. “I’ve made several!”

“Calm down,” Sheriff Walters says, splaying his hands out in a gesture that matches his words. “I’ll take a deeper look when I get back to the precinct. Can you tell me now what’s been going on?”

Forcing my heart to slow, I relay everything that’s been happening. With the random glasses of alcohol being drunk while I was home alone. The roses. And the notecard with the ominous threat.

Sheriff Walters listens tentatively, pulling out a notepad and taking notes as I speak. When I’m finished, I feel even more exhausted than before.

“I’ll look into it. But Adeline? You understand that if the Talaverra’s find out you have a stalker, they might place blame?”

I rear back, completely baffled that a cop is warning me that a criminal family could come after me. But he’s never been one to sugarcoat or hide truths. On several occasions, my dad would ask details about certain things, and the sheriff would always divulge whatever he was allowed to.

There were a few times Mom had to snap at the two men for grisly conversations at the dinner table—in front of a child, no less. Sheriff Walters would apologize, but he never actually looked sorry.

“I’ll do everything in my power to stop that from happening,” he assures. Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better in the slightest.

Sighing, I turn away and stare out into the dense trees, the red and blue lights flickering and creating a shadow dance party.

I nod my head, accepting his help for what it is. This man isn’t going to be able to do a damn thing to stop a criminal from walking up to my doorstep.

Whether it’s a crime family or a fucking stalker.

Chapter 9

The Shadow

I ’ve committed homicide. Cold-blooded murder. On many men who have worn different faces of the devil. And I’ve done it for various reasons. Whether they raped a child, killed an innocent, or destroyed someone’s life that didn’t deserve it.

But I’ve never killed someone out of jealousy.

First time for everything, I guess.

Archibald Talaverra has his lips on my girl and his hands down her pants. He’s touching her. Fucking her with his fingers. Saying dirty things to her that elicits a pretty little blush of color to her cheeks.

And at that moment, I decided he wasn’t going to live tonight.

The second I saw them together it took all of my control not to storm into that club and drag her ass out of there.

Because not only was another man trying to lay claim to my girl, but Archibald Talaverra is a fucking psychopath.

A real one.

He beat his ex-wife to a bloody pulp on several occasions and made her life a living hell when she finally decided to divorce his ass.

The woman is still in a psychiatric hospital receiving treatment for severe PTSD. He literally broke the woman, and while she spends her days trying to heal from his abuse, he spends his nights in clubs and picking out a different woman to take home and fuck.

Last I heard, he’s not a nice fuck either. His form of rough play isn’t pleasurable by any means when the woman walks away with a bloody nose and a busted lip.

The asshole deserves to die. And I’m happy to get the fucking honor.

This man and his family’s crimes were small crumbs in the grand scheme of things. His family gets involved in petty crimes and sees themselves as Seattle’s mafia. But they’re ants compared to the fucking dinosaurs walking around in this city.

I’ve left them alone because there are much bigger fish to fry than low-life criminals who think they’re crime lords. Their threat to humanity is minuscule compared to the people I track and kill, and until they start trading in more than just powder, they’ve never been on my radar.

Until now, that is.

There’s no stopping Addie from opening her mouth and telling the cops she has a stalker. Doesn’t matter that I’ve destroyed all evidence of her police reports.

And if the Talaverra’s get wind of that, they’ll kill Addie for something way out of her control. It doesn’t matter that the family has enemies. Any possibility will be eliminated when they find that the heir of the Talaverra empire has been murdered.