PROLOGUE
Before he became Detective Colin Donaldson, he lived another life, one built in shadows, whispered by men who never lasted long enough to repeat his name. He had been a hitman once, precise and efficient, the kind of ghost who left no stories behind.
But he walked away from that world, burying his past beneath a badge and a promise that he would build something cleaner, something steady, something he controlled. For a time, it worked. He solved cases. He kept his head down. He convinced himself he’d outrun the darkness.
Then Stewart Anderson stepped into his life.
Stewart belonged to a classified fragment of the U.S. government that operated beneath even the deepest layers of official secrecy.
In reality, he behaved as though he ruled a private kingdom, untouchable, unchallenged, and armed with the quiet certainty that everything around him could be bent to his will.
He didn’t need force to control others; he only needed patience. When Stewart wanted something, it wasn’t a negotiation. It was an outcome waiting to happen.
And what he wanted was Colin.
Stewart saw through him instantly. He recognized the old wiring beneath the detective’s calm exterior, the precision, the silence, the capacity for violence Colin had spent years trying to erase.
Stewart didn’t demand; he maneuvered. When Colin refused to be part of his operations, Stewart didn’t lash out. He simply adjusted the world around him. Cases collapsed without reason.
Opportunities vanished before they began. Someone Colin cared about suddenly found themselves at the edge of danger with no clear explanation why.
Nothing ever pointed back to Stewart, yet every road led straight to him.
Colin understood the message long before Stewart ever said a word. Serve me, or watch everything you’ve rebuilt fall apart.
And so he obeyed, not out of fear or loyalty, but because he couldn’t bear to see the fragile life he’d pieced together crumble again.
Each assignment pulled him deeper into a role he never wanted to relive. Each demand blurred the line between the detective he tried to be and the assassin he once was.
He felt himself bending, reshaped by a man who treated him like a tool he had every right to use.
Colin had once believed he couldn’t be broken. But Stewart Anderson wasn’t trying to break him.
He was trying to remake him.
And somewhere in the tightening grip of obligations he never agreed to,
Colin realized that the moment was coming when he would have to choose between surrendering to Stewart’s silent empire or destroying the chains that bound him, no matter the cost.
This is the story of the man who wasn’t supposed to break, and what happened when he finally did.
STAND ALONE.
Produced By: R. Asiao. & J.A. Platino.
Pages: 444 Chapters: 13 Words: 159,342
Crime Thriller, Action, Psychological Noir, Dark Mystery, Suspense, Disturbing.
First Edition.
Self-Published, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 jfchaveznovels.
All rights reserved.
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