Page 1 of Shadow's Surrender
Prologue
Pinewood Springs
Nineteen years before
Stevie sat upwith a jolt, blinking to focus his eyes in the darkness. The familiarthudof his father’s footsteps on the stairs filled the boy’s ears as fear burned in his veins like liquid fire. He glanced over at the nightstand and the red light from the clock radio his mother had given him for his birthday glowed 3:47 a.m. When his father hadn’t come home after the bars had closed, the boy thought his dad wouldn’t show up until the morning as was his routine more times than not. No such luck—and from the way he was walking, he was drunk …again.
“Dammit!” his father’s voice bounced off the hallway walls. “Why doesn’t that stupid brat keep his shit inhisroom?”
The knot in Stevie’s stomach coiled tighter and his heart pounded as he listened to the Transformer Nemesis Pax figure break apart. He clutched the sheets and brought them up to his chin while he inched toward the edge of the bed, his gray eyes fixed on the doorknob.
The door burst open and the boy stared at the menacing form as it staggered toward him. Stevie slipped off the mattress and tried to crawl away, but his father rushed over to him, grabbed one of his arms, and yanked him toward him. The carpet on the bedroom floor burned the back of his leg.
“Lemme alone!” he cried out as his father jerked him up then tightened his grip on both underarms, thumbs digging between the muscles.
“What have I told you about leaving your shit in the hallway?” His breath stank of alcohol.
“I’m sorry,” Stevie mumbled.
“You didn’t think I was comin’ home, did you?” His father’s eyes narrowed.
The boy just stared into his dad’s bloodshot eyes.
“Answer me!”
“Russ, leave him alone,” his mother’s voice filtered from across the darkened room.
“Stay outta this, Carmen, or you know what you’ll get!” For a split second, Russ looked over his shoulder then back at his son. “I told you to answer me.”
Stevie’s arm ached and a surge of defiance pushed away his fear. Staring his father straight in the eyes, he lifted his chin. “No, and I’m sorry as hell you did.” His mother’s gasp echoed in his ears right before he was slammed against the wall with athud.Pain ripped through his body.
“What did you say?” his dad gritted out.
Stevie hung his head to avoid his father’s gaze and looked over at the box of Legos his mother had given him that morning for his eleventh birthday.
His dad grabbed his hair. “What the hell did you say?”
“Nothing,” he muttered.
“Tell me what you said!”
“Russ, stop this now! Leave Stevie alone. You’re drunk—just go to bed.” His mother came over and tried to pull her husband off the boy.
Without even a sidelong glance, his father backhanded his mother and then slammed Stevie against the wall again.
Falling on the floor, the boy looked up and glared at his father. “I said, I’m sorry you came home. You wanna hear more? I wish you would never come home. Never!”
“You little shit!” His dad kicked him in the stomach, and the boy cried out and crawled away.
“Never! Never! Never!” Gasping between words, Stevie tried to make it to the closet, but his father followed alongside him. Then he bent down on his haunches, his elbows on his knees.
“You ungrateful bastard!”
“Russ! Stop it!”
Stevie saw his father’s hand balling into a fist and he prepared for the blow that would land on his face.
All of a sudden his dad’s face twisted in pain. “Fuck!” He jerked back and held his head between his hands as he slumped down on the carpet.
“Go downstairs and call the police,” his mother said as she placed the desk lamp on the nightstand.
“What the hell did you do to me, Carmen?”
Stevie scrambled to his feet. “I’m not going unless you come with me.” After years of watching his father slap his mother around he didn’t want to take any chances, especially since this was the first time she’d fought back.
“I’ll be fine, honey. Just go.”
“Not unless you come downstairs too.”
Nodding, she reached out and ran her fingers through his thick black hair. “You always look out for your mama, don’t you? You’re my shadow … always with me.” She grasped her son’s hand and they ambled out of the room, his father’s groans growing fainter as they walked down the stairs.
