Chapter 1 - The Cage Scraping Across the Marble
The first sound Vincent heard was metal screaming against stone.
By the time his motorcycle rolled into the courtyard, Marcus had already wrapped a heavy chain around the black iron cage and was dragging it across the marble paving as if the terrified little girl inside were no more than a crate of broken tools. Lily staggered with each violent jerk, clutching her stuffed rabbit so tightly that her tiny knuckles had gone white.
“Please… stop it!” she cried, stumbling against the bars as the cage rattled and slammed.
Vincent killed the engine so fast the motorcycle nearly tipped. He stepped off with his helmet still in his hand and froze for one terrible half-second as he took in the whole scene—the cage, the chain, the metal bowl beside it, the stacked fertilizer bags, and his granddaughter trapped in the middle of it all.
Marcus looked over his shoulder without a hint of shame. “She doesn’t know her place,” he said coldly. “She needs to be taught a lesson.”
That was the last full sentence he got out.
Vincent crossed the distance in three hard strides and swung the helmet up with brutal precision, driving it straight into Marcus’s chest. The impact sent Marcus flying backward into the wooden garage door. The panel exploded inward with a cracking crash, and Marcus hit the ground dazed, gasping for air.
Cole and Dean lunged at once.
Vincent shoved Cole backward so hard the bigger man careened into the stacked fertilizer bags, then turned and drove a heavy punch into Dean’s face. Dean flew into the same pile, bursting the bags open in clouds of dust and white granules. Both men went down cursing and clawing at the mess around them.
Then Vincent turned away from them as if they no longer mattered.
He dropped the helmet, yanked open the cage door, and lifted Lily out with a gentleness that made the contrast unbearable. She clung to his neck, burying her tear-streaked face in his shoulder, her stuffed rabbit crushed between them.
Vincent looked straight at Marcus, Cole, and Dean.
“You’ve all got a death wish, messing with the little girl, don’t you!?”
No one answered.
He held Lily tighter, his eyes going colder, darker.
“The biggest fools,” he said in a low, menacing voice, “are the ones who know too much.”
Marcus’s confidence vanished.
Cole and Dean exchanged a glance that was not angry anymore.
It was frightened.
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And then, with her face still hidden in Vincent’s shoulder, Lily whispered something so softly he almost missed it.
“Grandpa… Mommy said if this happened… I had to give you Bunny.”
