A/N:

From this point in the story, the angst will be turned up, so if that's not what you want to handle, I'd advise you to not continue.

Title: The Death of a Prince

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: Alice's White Rabbit

Pre-reader: brierlynn03, AgoodWITCH, LunaEclipse17

Genre: Crime/Family/Drama

Rating: NC-17

Summary: At age 7, Edward Cullen witnesses his father's death. Traumatized and terrified, he blames himself and runs away.
Two minor league criminals stumble upon him when he wanders the streets at night, freezing and starving, and they decide to take him in.
Years later, Edward is confronted by his past and must decide if he'll take his rightful place as the head of the Irish Mob, or remain with those who raised him.Based on the plot for The Lion King, which belongs to Disney.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER 6

The shadows around the warehouse were long and ominous, and the darkness of the late night reinforced the atmosphere with a chill that settled deep into the bones. Any dealings made were guaranteed to be nefarious, and the man approaching the building's entrance, his hands buried deep in his pockets, was certainly not invited there for a round of drinks.

"You're late," a voice said from deep within the shadows the second the man stepped through the door. "I thought your sister had made it clear I don't like to be kept waiting."

"You'd do best to keep my sister out of your mouth. I'm not as emotional as she was, or as stupid as her buffoon of a boyfriend," the man warned. "Still, she was family, and I protect my family." He turned his head toward the shadows and smirked. "Unlike you, Mr. Cullen."

Caius stepped into the light seeping through the open door, a sneering grimace twisting his features into an ugly mask. "Family is overrated. I'm hoping you can finish the job your sister couldn't. As I'm sure you've deduced by now, she left quite a mess behind, and I'm not referring to the hole in her head, courtesy of my brother."

The assassin looked unbothered as he stared down the second most powerful man in Boston. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't kill children." He shrugged, his hands still in his pockets. "I've got a reputation to uphold."

"Then why did you come here?" Caius grumbled out. "Do you find it funny to waste my time?"

"I didn't have any plans, so I thought … why not?" the man let out a mirthful laugh. "I guess you could call it a hobby of mine—to mess with pretentious, privileged assholes like yourself who think your lives are so unfair because you didn't get your way."

"You must be dumber than you look if you think you can speak to me like that," Caius said, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "I could do—"

"Nothing," the man interrupted. "There's nothing in this world you can threaten me with. I don't have a family, or friends, or any loved ones, really. You're gonna burn down my home? Go ahead; do it. I have several others lined up because men like you keep me busy and pay well. You're gonna kill me?" He pulled his hands out of his pockets and held his arms straight out from his sides. "Be my guest. I'm sure you'd make the world a better place."

The two men faced off in a stalemate until Caius presented a thick envelope from his inner coat pocket.

"Have it your way," he said. "Let the little shit live. I honestly don't care. But you'll get twice that amount after the job's finished."

"Money I have," the unknown man said without even glancing at the envelope. "What else you have to offer?"

Caius took a deep, calming breath to keep himself from lashing out. Unfortunately, he was in desperate need of the man's services, so he had to keep it together. But he quickly decided he'd just kill him at a later date once his skills had been utilized. "Kill Carlisle Cullen and you can name your price."

—{(DP)}—

The week of grounding had run its course, but Carlisle had decided it was time Edward learned that being the head of a mob family didn't equal a life filled with action and excitement but rather planning and strategizing to always stay several steps ahead of your rivals, the law, and your enemies.

Unfortunately, that meant a lot of busywork and bustling about. In a sense, the legitimate side of the family business had less of it because it was much more straightforward to manage a client's stocks than to micromanage several smaller illegal trades while ascertaining no small-fry criminal attempted to screw you over.

Edward was sitting quietly next to him in the backseat of their Lincoln Town Car, his overall energy lower than what it had always been before the scrap yard incident. While he had expected it, it saddened Carlisle that his happy, energetic little boy had been so irrevocably changed by the trauma he'd lived through.

He was mostly himself at home, but as soon as they went outside the safety of the gates, he became subdued and cautious, constantly looking around as if he were searching out where the possible danger could be.

Carlisle sighed and plastered on a smile to mask his sadness. "Are you excited to come with me today, son?"

Without taking his eyes off the window, Edward hummed affirmatively, and Carlisle's stomach sank. He racked his brain for anything that could raise the boy's spirits but came up empty.

Then a thought occurred to him. Charlie had shared with him that he and Renée were enrolling Bella in a couple martial arts classes so she could start to build up a base for her future training and give her an opportunity to learn to defend herself.

It wasn't the norm for the Cullen children to take any sort of fighting classes since they, from the moment they were born, had a plethora of people protecting them and fighting in their stead, but perhaps it would benefit Edward with his self-confidence and to help fight his inner demons if he knew he wasn't helpless when he was on his own.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Esme to see if she would be on-board with the idea. She was hesitant, at first, for the same reasons as he was.

Why would he need to learn how to fight? He had bodyguards. What would the media write about him if they sniffed out that a Cullen was learning to fight with his fists? What if he'd start picking fights and get in trouble?

However, once Carlisle had explained to her why he thought it would be good for their son, she agreed, and he decided he would surprise Edward with it once they arrived at his office.

"I have a surprise for you, son."

The titillation of a surprise finally broke through the boy's somber mood. He turned to his father with wide, glittering eyes. "You do? What is it?"

"It'll have to wait until we're at the office," Carlisle said with a pleased smile, beyond happy to see his boy light up again.

Edward pouted in disappointment. "Why can't you tell me now?"

Carlisle chuckled. "It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I revealed it right away, would it?"

"No, but I'd rather know now," Edward argued with a cheeky smile.

"Patience is a virtue, son. And he who waits for something good never waits too long."

Edward furrowed his brow in concentration as he thought hard about it. "That doesn't make sense," he said once he'd come to a conclusion. "Doesn't that mean you could wait forever and never get the good thing?"

Pride swelled within Carlisle at hearing how intelligent his son was, and even though Edward didn't understand the complexities of critical thinking yet, the fact that he was asking questions when something didn't sit well with him was fantastic.

He nodded. "In theory, yes," he said, his proud grin barely contained. "The implied meaning is that waiting is the reward in itself because excitement toward something is never bad." And often, looking forward to something is better than the thing itself, Carlisle finished in his thoughts, but he knew that would be too complicated for a seven-year-old boy to process.

"So ... you're not gonna tell me the surprise now?"

Carlisle exploded with laughter. It was impossible to keep it at bay when his son displayed such innocent comedy. "No, you're still gonna have to wait."

Suddenly, there was a loud pop and the car jostled violently. Edward curled down with his hands covering his ears and his eyes clenched tightly shut until the car stopped moving completely.

He felt his father moving in the seat next to him, but the conversation he had with the driver was nothing more than muffled sounds through his hands.

"A flat tire, sir," the temporary driver said. Carlisle had asked Rosalie to step away for some time because, when it came down to it, she was the adult and had allowed herself to be outsmarted by two kids, and her mistake almost cost him his son.

But Carlisle wasn't an unreasonable man, so he had asked Renée to put her to work for the week, and the girl had spent the time as the Cullen Clan Warlord's personal assistant. As far as he knew, Renée had gotten close to the girl who had shown quite a lot of promise to perhaps advance to something more than just the family's chauffeur in the future.

"Are we gonna have to call someone or can you fix it?" Carlisle asked, slowly rubbing his hand up and down Edward's back to soothe the boy.

"I should be able to fix it with the spare in the back. Give me twenty minutes, and we'll be on our way."

"Okay, great." He turned to his son. "Edward? It's okay, son. Just a flat tire. Nothing to be scared of."

Slowly, very slowly, Edward removed his hands from his ears and turned to look at his dad. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Carlisle shook his head. "I've told you, Edward. You don't have to apologize for being scared. It's very understandable after what y—" He was interrupted by the all-too familiar sound of a gunshot through a silencer and looked out through the window in time to see the driver fall to the ground. "Fuck!" he exclaimed and immediately bent down. "Edward, get down between the seats. Quickly!"

In confusion, Edward took in his father's suddenly distressed expression and did as he was told, sliding off his seat and down on the floor between the front seat and the back. He was small enough to hide there, but it was still a tight fit. "Dad, why—"

"Shh." With his finger over his lips, Carlisle slowly hushed the boy. "Just stay down and be quiet," he whispered, his eyes trained on the window from his crouched position, looking for an approaching assailant. But he couldn't see anything, and from his position, he wouldn't be able to protect himself or his son.

He would have to get out of the car.

With great reluctance, he reached into his pocket for his phone and composed a text with a request for backup, which he sent to every family member in his contacts, and then handed it to Edward.

"If anyone calls, answer and just leave the line open so that they can find us."

"Why?" Edward asked, still not understanding what was happening. "Dad, what's going on? What are you gonna do?"

Carlisle gently patted the boy's head and attempted a reassuring smile even though his heart was on its way up his throat. "There's someone bad out there, and I have to go out and deal with them. You remember how I told you trouble sometimes finds me and I have to do that?"

Edward nodded.

"This is like that."

Everything got blurry as tears welled in Edward's eyes. He could tell from his dad's face that this was a situation out of his control, and that was never a good thing. "I don't want you to go," he whispered.

"I don't want to go either, but I have to." Carlisle took a deep breath and prepared himself to face whoever was out there and was most likely waiting for him. "Just promise me something." Edward bit his lip to keep it from trembling and nodded. "Whatever happens out there, you stay in here, okay? You stay hidden."

"Okay, Dad."

The last thing Carlisle wanted was to leave Edward scared because his own fear had affected him, so he carefully placed a brave mask on and smirked at him. "Dad's got to work. I love you, son." He opened the car door and quickly exited, closing it behind him once more to protect his son as best as he could. He used the vehicle as a shield while he assessed his surroundings.

The driver had been killed from the front on the right side of the car, so Carlisle deduced that was the side where the shooter was. Since he hadn't seen anyone, he hoped it was only one as he reached for his gun and made sure it was loaded. He was a master at shooting, but unless he knew where his targets were, it would be impossible for him to come out a winner if they decided to attack from several angles at once.

He looked around for anything he could use, spotted the dropped tire iron on the ground next to the driver on the other side of the car, and mapped it in his mind as something he could use to incapacitate if the shooter dared to step out of the shadows and they were in close range. However, he was still alone on the lot where the car had stopped.

Carlisle had two choices. Cower behind the vehicle and wait for the assailant to either step out and find him and for the backup he hoped was already on its way, or he could force the shooter out and take him down.

Unfortunately, it didn't feel safe to wait since Edward was in the car. If it was quiet for too long, the boy could get curious and decide to sneak a peek, and Carlisle simply couldn't risk that. So he had to go with choice number two.

"Wouldn't it be a fairer fight if you came out and faced me?" he yelled out across the lot.

There was an echoing, maniacal laughter that rang out between the scattered buildings surrounding the lot. "Of course, it would," a bodiless male voice replied. "But why would I give up my advantage for fairness?"

"Maybe it's just me, but I believe there's honor in allowing a man to look into your eyes before you kill him," Carlisle continued, all the while looking around and searching for where the man could be.

"Honor's reserved for those who still have a conscience!"

Carlisle gritted his teeth in frustration. "Fucking hired guns," he mumbled to himself. A real enemy of his would never be such a coward or disrespect him to such a point that they stayed out of sight without giving him the chance to defend himself. That wasn't the way of the mob.

"What happened, Cullen?" the voice called out again. "Cat got your tongue?"

Perhaps he imagined it, but it sounded like the voice was getting closer. Then, there was the distinct sound of shoes on pavement as steps slowly approached. Carlisle held his breath and positioned himself on his stomach so he could look to the other side from under the car.

Edward was trembling in his curled up position. He had heard the yelled conversation outside, and it had terrified him that his dad was talking about killing. But it had been quiet for a minute, and Edward braved looking up only to see a clean-shaven man with an emotionless expression approach the car.

He gasped but quickly clasped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from making any more sounds. The man passed the window without looking inside and headed toward the front, and Edward just stared in silent horror at the huge gun in the man's hands. It was the biggest one he'd ever seen.

From what looked like thin air to Edward, his dad appeared outside his window, his arm raised and his gun aimed at the back of the man's head. His expression was calculated and focused as he pulled the trigger without hesitating, and Edward saw how the man's head exploded with the bullet ripping through it.

He couldn't keep his promise after he saw that. He needed to be with his dad. He needed the comfort only a parent could give, and so he threw the car door open and jumped out.

"Dad!"

Carlisle whirled around in horror. "Edward, I told you to stay in the car!" he yelled. "Get back in th—"

An ear-splitting gunshot reverberated through the lot, and Edward screamed as he saw the crimson-red stain color the front of his dad's shirt. Carlisle's eyes didn't close as he fell to his knees, saw his son for the last time, and slumped down on the ground.

Edward stared at his body in shock. "Dad?"

A/N:

We knew it was coming. Doesn't mean it hurts less.

Next chapter will be out on Wednesday!

Stay Awesome!