The room exhaled.

But somehow, I felt even more afraid.

Because predators only spare prey for one reason.

They plan to return later.

## Part 2 – The Devil Who Started Watching Me

After that night, Luca DeMarco began appearing at The Onyx Club almost every evening.

And every evening, he requested my section.

At first, I convinced myself it was coincidence.

Rich men liked power games.

Maybe humiliating a nervous waitress amused him.

But then he started noticing things.

“You limp after midnight,” he said one evening without looking up from his whiskey.

My stomach tightened.

“Excuse me?”

“The shoes,” he replied calmly.

“They’re one size too small.”

I stared at him speechless.

Nobody noticed waitresses.

Nobody cared enough to observe details like that.

Yet Luca noticed everything.

The worst part was how confusing he became.

One night he terrified a man twice his size with a single quiet sentence.

The next night he handed me a folded envelope containing cash after overhearing me worry about my rent.

“I can’t accept this,” I whispered.

“Yes, you can.”

“I don’t want charity.”

His eyes darkened slightly.

“Good. Because I don’t give charity.”

Then there were the questions.

“Who are you hiding from, Elena?”

Every muscle in my body froze.

“I’m not hiding.”

“Everybody in this city hides from something.”

His tone remained calm, but I felt stripped bare beneath his gaze.

Luca DeMarco looked at people the way surgeons looked at open wounds.

Carefully.

Precisely.

Fatally.

The attention should have terrified me completely.

Instead, it became dangerously intoxicating.

That was the problem with powerful men.

Sometimes their darkness looked too much like safety.

Three weeks later, I learned exactly how dangerous my situation truly was.

I finished my shift around two in the morning and stepped into the freezing alley behind the club.

Before I reached the street, two men emerged from the shadows.

One grabbed my arm instantly.

“Well, well,” he sneered.

“Looks like we finally found you, Claire.”

Ice flooded my veins.

They knew my real name.

I tried to scream, but another hand clamped over my mouth.

Panic exploded through me as they dragged me toward a black SUV waiting nearby.

Then suddenly—

A gunshot cracked through the alley.

The man holding me collapsed instantly.

The second attacker barely had time to turn before another shot hit him squarely in the chest.

I stumbled backward trembling violently.

Luca DeMarco stepped from the darkness holding a pistol.

His face looked terrifyingly calm.

One of his bodyguards rushed toward me.

“Boss, are you alright?”

Boss.

The word echoed strangely because Luca wasn’t looking at the dead men.

He was looking at me.

“Get her inside,” he ordered quietly.

My legs nearly gave out.

Because in that moment, I realized something horrifying.

Luca hadn’t followed me accidentally.

He had been watching me.