Chapter 1


SM owns the cast of twilight...I only own this plot!


It all started on a night in November. I'm sure I could go back farther, but then I'd be opening up old wounds. My father had just died and it was just going to be me and my little sister. I'm not too sure that I was ready for it considering that I'm only twenty three and my little sister Halley is eighteen, but after sorting through the endless amount of debt I know I don't have a choice. So we packed up what we could in a U-Haul and we put the house on the market and left Mississippi for good. We looked at it as a sort of fresh start at least that was the lie I told Halley and myself. I didn't want to sell our home. Momma's memory was there along with dads. It was the place we grew up. Nothing would ever be the same again. I tried to be upbeat for Halley's sake; even when all we could afford was a rundown dump of an apartment with paper thin walls and only one bedroom. I never thought my dreams would take such a tragic turn. My dreams didn't matter as much as Halley's did though, not to me at least. I ended up working in a garage slash auto parts store keeping the books in Chicago.

Angelo Calinni, the man who ran it seemed nice enough, but I noticed about six months into the job that something was off. I noticed that he had two sets of books and one didn't have anything to do with the store. It seemed like he was trying to trick me into doing this second set of books. He would bring it to me and want me to do the math or he would tell me that the books weren't done right even though I was still working on them. When I questioned him about it he shrugged and smiled sheepishly and told me to just do those books after we closed. I knew something was off, but was powerless to stop it. He started to pay me about eight hundred extra on the weeks that I kept the second set of books. I wanted to quit, but with Halley still looking for work I had to keep the job. After all if I didn't pay the rent then who would? Dad's house sold, but most of that went to pay off his medical bills so there wasn't much to go on as it was. We needed to eat, so while I looked around for what I really wanted to do on my days off, I stayed at the shop.

Nothing ever came from searching for a new job. I wished it had. Then maybe I wouldn't have been there that night. Maybe I would have made enough money to help Halley with more dance classes? But it didn't work out that way. The economy was awful and the only other kind of work I could get didn't pay nearly enough to live on, or they wanted me to take my clothes off for it and I wouldn't sink that low. As it was we were still staying in the rundown apartment building with one bedroom and one bath and paying almost thirteen hundred a month. I took the couch most nights and left the room to Halley. She needed the bed more anyway. We could hardly afford food and what we did manage was all generic. Truth be told we were lucky that we weren't living off of macaroni, ramen and hot dogs.

A year later in the month of august I was finishing the books and was going to take Halley out for a sort of congratulatory celebration seeing as she landed a great job staring in some artsy little performance. It wouldn't pay much, but she was really excited for the first time since we came here. Her part time job working at a children's day care was seasonal and her last paycheck was not as much as she thought she would get. I was supposed to leave early that night, but had gotten caught up with work. It was the second week into the month and I was hoping that I could get the second set of books done in time for the extra money as we were a little short on last month's rent. So when I saw that it was almost eight at night and I was already running twenty minutes late I hurried through the last pages and scooped up the books shoving them in my purse intending to do them later that night. I was locking up the desk and shutting down the computer when I heard the shots ring out. Creeping through the hallway I peeked around the corner only to see Angelo duct taped to a chair and Aaron Marcus aka Aro, mob boss himself holding a gun and yelling at Angelo, a bullet hole in each of his thighs.

"I swear I've never taken a penny of your money Mr. Marcus. I wouldn't ever do that to you."

Angelo pleaded as Aaron slammed a knife into the top of his hand and proceeded to cut off his fingers. I held the whimper and sob back by holding my hand across my mouth. The tears threatened to fall. His screams will forever be seared into my brain. Aro never spoke a word in reply to Angelo's pleas. He didn't even stop to hear what Angelo was really saying he just kept cutting Angelo apart piece by piece and a swear word would slip out here and there. I could see a blond man with steel grey eyes watching everything with a smile on his face while another man with a dark black suit that looked expensive stood next to him making comments. The papers said he was a known associate of Aro Marcus. Demetri Caius and Jamie Micaville aka the hunter were watching as my boss was hacked into small pieces. I crept back to my office and called 911 leaving the receiver on the desk top before grabbing my purse and sneaking to the back door. Just as I was almost out of the back door a man came around the corner and spotted me. It was Demetri swiping at little blood splatters on his jacket with a white handkerchief grumbling.

"Can't you cut a guy without all the blood spray ARO? If I didn't know any better I would think this is the first time you took care of a guy. Holly shit…. Jamie! Thought you checked this building?"

"Angelo said the buildings all clear when we got here. Whatchu take me for some rank amateur?"

Jamie 'the hunter' came around yelling back and I forced my body to move and I darted through the door as fast as my legs could carry me and jumped into my unlocked car. I could hear the men chasing after me and as scared as I was I couldn't force myself to look and see how close they were. My little Honda started right up and I floored it as fast as I could. The men in my rearview mirror were waving and shooting a gun at me as I sped away. I was sure that my car had a couple of bullet holes; I could hear the impact on the back of my car as I swerved out of the parking lot. My car may be small, but it sure could haul ass when I was in a hurry. I floored it to the apartment building running two red lights and a stop sign before throwing it into park and racing up the stairs. I threw the door open and came face to face with my little sister sitting on the couch in a clubbing dress with a scowl on her pretty face and her arms folded across her chest. Before she could say anything I yelled at her to go and pack up anything important that she couldn't live without as I started tossing clothing into a suitcase. She stared at me for a moment before I yelled at her.

"We don't have time for your piss ass hang ups! Do it NOW Halley! This is life or death!"

After grabbing all the clothes in my dresser in the living room I made my way over to my bookshelf. The fire proof box that looked like a book my dad bought me was shoved in next. On top of all of that went my bathroom products then I zipped the bag closed. My mother's necklace and my parents wedding rings were the only thing I could think to grab besides the photo album. Mom wasn't too camera happy before she died and dad only kept pictures from big occasions like birthday's and Christmas's. By the time I was done packing everything that meant something to me I had already been here for fifteen minutes. I rushed to see what was taking Halley so long only to find her with four bags full of costumes, makeup, hair stuff and she was sorting outfits on the bed.

"Halley we have to hurry! We don't have time for sorting shit out. We needed to be out of here like five minutes ago! I will explain everything as soon as were far from here and safe, I promise. Now start throwing shit in the bag and let's go. Don't worry about the little extra shit. You'll need clothes, bathroom products and any jewelry that we won't be back for. Now scoot Ally!"

Using her nickname seemed to cause her to move faster, or it could have been the panicked edge in my voice and wild eyes. I started helping her toss clothing into bags before hauling my two big bags over one shoulder and grabbing one of her bags in my one free hand. She just closed the last of her bags before pulling a big bag over her shoulder and pulling out the handle for her rolling bag that had two more bags on top of it. My purse was still in my car so I started throwing things into the back seat knowing full well that we didn't have time for the trunk. Pulling away from our little dump we called home for a year was hard, mainly because mom's hope chest was still there and so were dad's paintings. As we hit the first stop just outside of the apartment building I saw a dark car come tarring around the corner and screeching to a stop in front of our old building.

Four men got out of the dark car and stormed into the front entrance and I pushed hard on the gas to get us away from there as fast as I could. My only stops before we left Chicago were a few A.T.M.'s and a gas station where I repeatedly used the A.T.M. until my account ran dry. By the time I was done I had the last of the money from the sale of dad's house and my last paycheck. It was only about six thousand dollars and I shook my head knowing that the safety deposit box at the bank still held at least ten thousand in T-bills that gran had bought us when she was still alive. Too late now was said under my breath as I followed the signs to the highway.

When we left Chicago it was still dark out, we headed west and after driving about five hours we were just outside of Des Moines Iowa. It was daylight out, but I was exhausted and needed sleep. Red bull and coffee only went so far. Halley's iPod was still playing and she was sound asleep in the seat next to me. Elton John's tiny dancer played softly as I searched out any type of cheap motel. My adrenalin rush had long ago worn off and even though I was terrified for Halley's and my life I need to sleep and contact to the FBI. We couldn't run and hide forever on six thousand dollars. How long before he tracked us down and killed my sister and me? I hadn't even told Halley the whole story. The moment I mentioned Aaron Marcus's name she started to cry and wail, so I shut my mouth. I knew that she was too scared to ask me to shut up. She knew as well as anyone that Aro Marcus would seek me out and kill me to keep my mouth closed, no matter the means. He had been in the papers enough, and any charges that were brought up on him were always dropped. No one ever testified against him or his crew. How hard would it be to track us down? How long would it take to shut me up, and why didn't I leave before things got this bad? Shaking the morbid thoughts from my head I found the closest motel and parked.

The star dust motel looked like something close to the Bates motel. It was red and yellow with dark blue doors. The red was faded on the trim and the neon light was missing a few letters. It was a bed though and it was cheap so it would have to do. The young chubby girl behind the desk was all smiles when she heard me shut off the car. If possible her smile widened further when I got out of the car. My back was killing me and my legs needed a good stretch after driving for so many hours. Only stopping for coffee, gas and the restroom wasn't such a good idea after all. Raising my hands to the sky I stretched my body and yawned. I made my way to the open door and into the run down office. The heat and humidity were nothing short of what I had felt in Chicago. The fan on the countertop blowing around the stale air in the small office gave to some type of coolness. The chubby girl with the frizzy brown hair smiled in welcome and started asking questions right off the bat.

"Need a room?"

She asked as her eyes lit up and she started pulling papers out and setting a pen right on top of the low counter in front of me. Shoving my hands into my pockets I ducked my head and gave her a shy smile before I started in on the small pile of papers in front of me.

"Yeah with two queen beds please."

She raised an eyebrow in question but when I didn't answer she started to rattle more off.

"You know how long you're gonna stay?"

I nodded in a jerky bob and gave a halfhearted shrug with my left shoulder before giving her the best answer I could, the only answer I had as of right now. I didn't know how long it would take to get the FBI to get back to me once I did get ahold of them. I didn't even know if they would help me? This was only an attempt and a piss poor one at that. This was my last resort.

"A few days, maybe four days at the most, is that going to be a problem?"

I asked her with a shaky voice and did my best to keep my eyes on her instead of letting them dart around the office looking for hidden intruders holding guns. I watched as her eyes widened in alarm like I would walk out of here in a moment's notice and head to the next motel that looked like it charged by the hour. As it was the parking lot was empty. She back tracked as quickly as she could speak and I held the small smile at bay as she spoke.

"No! No problem at all. You visiting family or something? I can't imagine that you're on vacation in Des Moine. Perhaps business?"

I could tell that she wanted more than I was ever going to give. I mean were running from the mob and this chick wants details. Yeah, do I look stupid? Didn't think so! So I just smiled politely and wrote down a fake name and fake home address. Ok, so the name wasn't all that false. I did go to school with a Lidia DePuree. She wasn't that nice of a girl, she was more of a big bitch who picked on my in middle school so I didn't feel that badly at using her name. However just as I handed her the papers back along with enough cash to get us through a few days, she asked for id. My heart pounded in my chest and I knew I was sweating, but I was panicking so I thought on my feet.

"I don't have id is that going to be a problem?"

The girl looked at me oddly and raised an eyebrow like she knew I was lying to her so I elaborated for her the best I could without trying to look suspicious.

"It's just…..Look I just ran away from my abusive ex and brought my sister along. We had to get away and he took my id. Can I still get the room?"

The tears filling the bottom of my lids from pinching the side of my leg seemed to have done the trick. She nodded in sympathy and looked at me in pity. Pity I could handle if it got us this room. Reaching around behind her she pulled a key from a hook. Taking my paper work she shuffled though it and slid it in a folder and put it in a desk. After giving me my total of 286.00 for four nights worth a stay with two people in one room and tax I shook my head thinking about just how cheap this place was. I mean from how they looked on the outside they shouldn't be charging us 60.00 a night. I handed her an extra fifty for her troubles and told her to call the room if anyone came looking for me. She nodded and handed me the key to room 407. By the time I started up the car and drove around to room 407 I was exhausted from sleep deprivation and my eyes felt dry and gritty. I shook Halley a few times and she woke up bleary eyed and cranky.

"Halley wake up I found us a motel room. Help me get the bags inside and then you can go back to sleep."

She nodded to me weakly and stumbled out of the car and helped me haul the bags into the dark dank room. The orange thin blanket and off white pillowcases were a welcome sight after driving for so long. After kicking off my shoes I locked the door and climbed onto the bed opposite of where Halley was already asleep.