Chapter 1 - Below Zero
"Open the door! Please, Mommy, it hurts!"
Four-year-old Leo pounded his bare, reddened fists against the thick patio glass. Outside, the wind howled like an angry animal, whipping razor-sharp flakes of snow against his soaked flannel pajamas. Inside the climate-controlled luxury of the glass-walled living room, Evelyn stood barely three feet away.
She took a slow sip from her crystal glass of pinot noir. Her tailored cream-colored fur coat hovered just above a silk crimson dress. She didn’t blink. She didn't look at his bruised cheek where her ring had clipped him two minutes earlier.
With a languid flick of her manicured wrist, Evelyn reached down and snapped the heavy brass deadbolt shut with a crisp, sickening click.
"Consider it a timeout, you little parasite," she mouthed silently through the glass. Then she turned on her Louboutin heels, the wine swaying gently in her hand, and disappeared deeper into the mansion.
Leo dropped to his knees. The freezing patio stone burned into his skin through his thin cotton pants. His tears froze almost instantly on his eyelashes, gluing them together every time he blinked. He tried to pull the brass handle, but his tiny fingers had already lost their sensation. His jaw locked, chattering violently as his breathing grew shallow.
"Daddy..." he whimpered into the graying dusk. "Daddy, please..."
Nothing. The house sat on four secluded acres outside Aspen, completely insulated from the road. His father was supposed to be at a corporate retreat in Denver until Sunday. Leo was entirely, lethally alone.
His core temperature dropped with terrifying speed. His vision blurred, turning the snowy spruce trees at the lawn’s perimeter into jagged black monsters. He curled his legs up, tucking his elbows inside his chest just like his teacher had taught him, shivering so hard his bones ached.
I’m going to sleep now, he thought, his head drooping toward the icy drifts.
Then, from the darkness past the long driveway, two blinding halogen beams ripped through the whiteout.
Tires screamed against ice. A battered silver Subaru hit the perimeter fence, crashed through the iron mailbox, and spun sideways before slamming into the decorative stone retaining wall with a deafening crunch.
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The driver’s side door kicked open instantly.
Cliffhanger: Out of the crumpled wreck stepped a woman in work boots, holding a rusted tire iron, her eyes locked straight on the tiny bundle freezing on the patio.
