Beloved Predator (Beloved Series #2)

Prologue

Arianne

Portland, Oregon
April 2007

"Ari!  Dinner's ready!" a voice yelled from the top of the basement steps.  I had my music turned up loud, so I couldn't tell who was yelling.

"Coming," I muttered absentmindedly as I continued to type. 

I had just hit the motherlode during my search.  I scrolled down the list for a few moments until I heard loud footsteps on the stairs. 

"Arianne!" my mother said in that slow, sharp voice of hers that showed her annoyance.

I sighed and turned down the volume on the speakers by the monitor.  "I'm sorry, Mom.  I lost track of time.  Can I please just have five more minutes?  Please?"

She opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.  She looked up the stairs, probably trying to see if my dad had announced he would get the door.  Hearing nothing, she turned back to me.

"Five minutes.  Not a second more," she said firmly.  She then turned and walked back up the stairs.

I brushed the hair out of my face and turned back to my screen.  I glanced at the clock on my computer, promising myself I would head upstairs in a few more minutes.  I started scrolling through the file list again.  Suddenly I heard the door to the basement open and footsteps on the steps.

"It hasn't even been five minutes, Mom," I protested, not looking up from my screen.

"FBI!  Don't move!  Hands in the air!" a man's voice yelled, startling me.

I immediately put my hands above my head and turned to toward the stairs located to my right.  A tall man stood a couple feet away from me wearing a dark blue jacket with "FBI" emblazoned on the back.  He wasn't pointing a gun at me, but his right hand was hovering close to his hip.  I glanced up at the steps and saw two other people, a man and a woman, both wearing the same FBI jacket.  The man closest to me nodded and the other two proceeded down the stairs.  The second man moved to stand behind me on my left side while the woman stood directly behind me.

The man to my right, the man who yelled at me, turned his attention back to me.  "I want you to stand up and step away from the desk.  Slowly."

I nodded, my hands still above my head.  I tried to push my chair back slowly.  Unfortunately, it was an old chair with no wheels and the floor in the basement was concrete.  The chair never slid that well under normal conditions, so of course it didn't move the first time my feet pushed backward.  I pushed harder and suddenly the chair lurched backward with a loud screech.

The man jumped at the sudden jolt from the chair.  "I said slowly!" he yelled. 

He grabbed my upper arm and roughly pulled me up to my feet, causing me to wince from the force of his grasp.  He pushed me forward, allowing me to fall forward against the stairs.  I let out a small whimper as my side hit the wooden step, and turned my face to look at all three agents.  The woman had a look of shock on her face while the other man started looking through everything on my desk.

"Ouch!" I yelled.  "Sir, I didn't mean for the chair to move like that!  Please—"

He grabbed both my arms behind me, and I felt cold metal against my wrists.  I closed my eyes as my side and arms continued to throb.  Tears welled in my eyes.

"Bob, she's thirteen years old!  Don't you think that was a little much?"  the woman said angrily.

He turned back to her and shrugged.  "I took care of it.  She's not going to be a problem now."