I was thinking about my past. This was not at all unusual for me, given the events that happened in my life.
I was born to be a mobster – my father was the legendary Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzini, head of the Lucchelli crime family in New Jersey. I had made my way up the ranks, and at 23, when Dad was "retired" by some old enemies he had made, I took the helm. My training in martial arts and my M.B.A. from Princeton helped me handle the situation, and by the time I was 30, I was a millionaire several tens of times over. But I wasn’t happy.
I decided, at the age of 31, to hand over the reins to my top lieutenant. We agreed that I should retire gracefully, and one deal with the police later (sharing information on some of the lower-level people, then paying them $1 million per year to accept a 1-2 year sentence), I had a "new identity" and was in witness protection in California, knowing I’d never need it. (The "boys" knew a little time in prison looked good on their resume, and a million a year is good pay for sitting around doing nothing. Money heals all wounds…)
I was now Nick Baker, having left Joseph Provenzini back in the Garden State. With the $25 million I had in the bank, I didn’t need to work. I spent my time working on my martial arts skills, my shooting, and my cooking (a man has to eat, and I was a bachelor without a woman to do the kitchen tasks…)
I poured myself a final glass of orange juice and climbed into bed. I didn’t anticipate anything out of the ordinary happening that night. I had no idea what was about to happen.
At 2:30 a.m., I was awakened by a noise. I thought at first it might have been a creature of the wild: my house is a mile from the nearest neighbor, and set in a forested area. I sat up in bed and listened. This time I heard a distinctly human sound coming from the living room. A footstep of someone trying to be as quiet as possible.
I slipped out of bed, in just my sweatpants and a T-shirt, and took my gun off the nightstand. Slipping quietly down the stairs, a made my way into the living room. A shadowy figure was trying to remove my computer from the desk. Since the machine is bolted down, they weren’t having much luck. I aimed my gun at their head. Flipping on the light switch, I called out, "FREEZE!"