"Mom, have you seen my new bikini?" Clare shouted from her room.
"I washed it, it is in the laundry room on the drying rack." Alisa shouted back from her bedroom down the hall. "Don't let your father see it until we get to France, otherwise he will not let you take it."
"I know, why is he so strict about things?" Clare asked.
"He is just trying to protect his little girl."
"I'm not little anymore mom, well, except for my height, I'm 18 now, I'll be going to university soon."
"Your father still thinks of you as a 5 year old. He'll come around."
Clare grabbed her bikini from the laundry room and went to put it into her suitcase. Clare was really looking forward to this trip, spending an entire month in southern France in a nice villa on the coast. It was her high school graduation present from her father. "There are going to be so many cute French guys there." When her sister Kate graduated two years ago their father took them to Sweden. "I don't know why my sister wanted to go there, it was nice, but not very warm. Oh well, it is my turn to choose, and France it is, and Kate isn't even going."
"I'm home!" Daniel shouted as he came in the front door. Alisa walked out to greet him.
"Hi honey!" Alisa said as she kissed him and hugged him. "You are home a lot earlier than I expected. It's great."
"Yeah, Malcolm has everything covered, that guy is great. I feel I can leave the company to him to take care of while we are gone, he has been doing the day to day operations for the last year." Daniel said while hugging his wife. "Are you two all packed?"
"Just about, I'm just finishing your suitcase and Clare is almost done." Alisa said while walking back down the hallway.
"Have you heard from Kate?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, she texted me earlier, she will be here to watch the house on Sunday."
"Watch the house, I'm sure, and have a party or two with her friends." Daniel muttered under his breath while following his wife to their bedroom and walking past Clare's bedroom.
The three had an early dinner and went to bed early since they had to catch their flight tomorrow morning at 6 AM.
***
Knock Knock "Get up Clare." Alisa said while sticking her head in her bedroom door.
"What? What time is it?" Clare said as she squinted and looked at her mom standing in the doorway.
"It's almost three, Get up and get dressed, we are leaving in 45 minutes."
"Okay mom, I'm getting up." Clare said while blinking her eyes. She quickly put on a pair of shorts and tank top then went to the bathroom to quickly brush her teeth and check her hair. Clare fished around in her purse on her side table digging out her birth control "Can't forget these, hopefully I will need them."
"You want some toast Clare?" Asked her mother when she walked into the kitchen.
"Sure. Where's dad?"
"Oh, he is in the garage loading the car." Alisa said.
The door to the garage opened and Clare looked over to greet her dad, but it wasn't her dad. Clare suddenly sucked in her breath and took a step back. Alisa looked around the corner and saw a man standing there in a light jacket and slacks.
"Who are you? Where's Dan?" Alisa asked with a worried expression.
"You must be Alisa and Clare." the man said calmly, still holding the garage door open.
"DAN!" Alisa shouted.
"Your husband is currently with my associates outside. He will be in shortly."
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Alisa shouted at him while backing into the kitchen.
Terror was slowly creeping up Clare's spine making her whole body shiver.
"Alisa, Clare, why don't we go have a seat in the living room." The man said. Alisa turned around and grabbed a knife from the rack on the counter.
"STAY AWAY YOU FUCKER! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Alisa shouted again.
Clare was looking around for her phone quickly but realized she left it in her room on her night stand. Clare didn't see her mother's phone anywhere either, the normal charging spot was empty.
"Alisa, please put the knife down. My name is Richard. I will be working with your husband's company." Richard said while slowly walking towards the women.
"STAY BACK!" Alisa shouted.
Clare was back against the kitchen counter and her mom was slowly backing up to stay away from the intruder. Suddenly Richard's right hand shot out and grabbed Alisa's wrist holding the knife and pulled her towards him. Using his other hand he pulled the knife from Alisa and spun her around and pulled her close to him and put the knife to her throat.
"NO!" Clare shouted. Richard was staring at Clare while holding the knife to her mom's neck. "Don't hurt her, please!" Clare wailed.
"Now why don't you two join me in the living room." Richard said while backing out of the kitchen and forcing Alisa to walk to the living room. Clare slowly came out of the kitchen and went to the living room scared to do anything else, she didn't want him to hurt her mother.
Richard pushed Alisa onto the couch and pointed for Clare to join her, which she did. Richard sat down on the antique coffee table facing the two and stabbed the large knife into the table top next to him, causing the women to jump a little. Alisa grimaced looking at her stabbed table.
"I approached Dan with a business opportunity recently, but he turned me down. Maybe I didn't make it clear to him that he didn't have a choice in the matter. Malcolm, Dan's 2nd in command was much more willing to work with us. So we have been forced to take some drastic measures and remove Dan from his business temporarily." Richard said slowly looking between the two women.
"Where's Dan?" Alisa asked again with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, don't worry Alisa, we aren't going to hurt Dan, he is the sole owner of the company and we need him alive, but he doesn't actually have to be at the company for us to get what we want. Now I know you were supposed to go on a nice trip to France today, but we are going to need to cancel that. You three will need to stay home this summer. Sorry." Richard told them.