Prologue
September 4th, 2004 - 03:00am
Ten-year-old Damien sat staring at the green neon numbers blinking on his bedside table. A crash and muffled sounds cause him to jump, startled from his sleep moments ago. He slowly slides off his bed, moves over to the door, and presses his ear to it, straining to hear the muffled noises on the other side.
"Who is coming, Adrian?" He hears Emilie, his mother's panic-stricken voice behind the door. "What have you done?" She questions, watching him as he rushes around the bedroom, picking up everything he could find and shoving them into bags.
"Em, I will explain it all later. Get the kids up and pack some shit up. We have to go." Adrian snaps, looking at her, and she shakes her head.
"Where are we going to go, Adrian? This is our home?"
"Goddamn it, Em, stop asking questions and do as I ask!" Adrian growls, glaring at her, his gray eyes piercing through her soft brown orbs. "Get the kids now."
Damien runs over to his bed when he hears footsteps approaching and tugs the covers up over himself. He was worried he would get a telling off for being up so late; he feigned sleeping until he felt his mother shaking him.
"Damien, sweetie, wake up," Emilie whispers, brushing her fingers through his dark tousled hair. Damien opens his big gray eyes, peering up at her curiously. "We have to go, sweetie. Come on." She takes his hand, and they hurriedly walk to the nursery where his two-year-old sister Aria was soundly asleep. His mother scoops her up into her arms, brushing her shoulder-length dark curls out of her face as they rush toward the living room where Adrian was looking out of the window.
"Oh shit," He curses, closing the curtains and pacing up and down. "They're here. It's too late." Adrian stammers, stopping to look at his wife and two kids.
"Who’s here? What are you talking about, Adrian?” Emilie questions pulling Damien closer to her side as she glares at her husband.
“I’ve messed up Em. I stole from the wrong people. I didn’t think they would notice, and they found out somehow, and now…” He stops pacing and looks at her fear evident in his eyes. “They’re here to settle.”
“You’re a mechanic. What the hell have you gotten yourself involved in, Adrian?” Emilie glares at him had before she glances down at Damien. “How—how much?”
Adrian shakes his head, “Two hundred and fifty-thousand…give or take.”
“Well, give them the money back. Where is it?”
“An offshore account. It was supposed to be a nest egg for our future. I did it for us, Emilie! For our kids. We were barely making ends meet, and it was supposed to be one job for a quick payout, but…” Adrian trails off, his eyes downcast. “I made a mistake. I stole from them. God, they don’t care about the money. It’s the principle. They’re not the type of people you steal from and get away with it unscathed.” Adrian tells her, running his fingers through his short black hair.
“They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?” Questions Emilie and watches as her husband nods slowly. She exhales slowly and looks down at her son and daughter in her arms.
Taking his hand, she presses a kiss to his forehead. “Damien, sweetie, you remember when we play hide and seek, and you hide in that spot where mommy and daddy can never find you?” Damien nods, lifting his big gray eyes to look at his mother. “I want you to go hide in that spot, and no matter what you hear or whatever happens, you stay in there and don’t make a sound, do not come out until the apartment is empty. Do you understand me, sweetheart? I’m going to hide your sister in the closet in our bedroom. When you’re alone, I want you to take her, and you call 911.”
Damien nods, and she kisses his forehead, running her fingers through his dark tresses. “I love you, sweetie, so much. You take care of your sister, okay. Now go,” Damien looks up into his mother’s tear-filled gaze once more before he runs off to hide in his secret spot, a spot he found one day while he was playing. Hollow storage space by the window with a wooden sliding door with just enough room for him to hideout without being seen.
Damien crawls in and slides the wooden door shut, leaving only open enough to get some air so he wouldn’t suffocate. From where he was, he could see into the living room. His father, Adrian, was pacing the living room. Emilie hid Aria away in their closet, brushing her fingers through her hair before pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I love you, my sweet angel.” She whispers before pulling away, locking the door behind her before she hurried back to the living room to her husband.
“Em,” Adrian walks over to his sobbing wife and lifts her gaze to meet his. “Go hide. This is my mess, and I’m not dragging you down with me.”
Emile shakes her head. “It’s too late for that now. You should have considered that before you got mixed up with the wrong people Adrian. Now we’re all paying for your mistake.”
A loud thud caused Emilie and Adrian to jump startled, and the front door swung open. Emilie straightened from her position and moved over to her husband just as two men strolled in, one well over 6-foot-tall and the other slightly but not much shorter, both dressed impeccably in expensive suits.
“Adrian, so very nice to see you, brother.” The tallest one drawled, emphasizing the word brother as though he was ridiculing him.
“Zane. Listen, I’ll get the money back. Please, just—”
“Adrian, Adrian, we already have the money, brother. Did you honestly believe we didn’t know you were skimming money from us and transferring it into an offshore account?” Zane sighs as he walks around, swinging his gun as he looks across the living room. “Give us a little credit. We’re way past that.” Zane states as he stops in front of Emilie and smirks. Lifting his gun, he drags the cold steel suppressor along her jaw. “Hello, beautiful.” Emilie pulls her face away from the gun and looks over at Adrian, her brown eyes wide and showing her current state of distress.
“Zane, come on, leave her out of this. This is between us—let my wife go.” Adrian pleads, wincing when the second guy pushes his gun to his temple. “I’ll do anything, man, plea—”
“—No can-do brother, rules are rules.”
Zane looks at his companion Aaron, holding a gun to Adrian’s temple. “You had two children, right? Where they at?”
“At a sleepover,” Emilie answers swiftly, and Zane turns his gaze to her. He motions with his fingers to his associate to search the house.