We are Evil: It's never enough E-Book

Tanja Weber

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 123

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

"It's never enough" – Volume 1 of the "We are Evil" series The Winter family lives in darkness, fueled by greed, betrayal and violence. In a world where every step is a risky gamble, Klaus and Renate Winter and their children have built a life based on perfect heists. Every coup is meticulously planned - but the price for their actions keeps getting higher. When she comes into the focus of the police once again, the eternal cycle of escape and danger never seems to end. But the family is growing. More money, more power, more freedom. And so they shy away from nothing: no law, no moral obstacle stops them. Her most dangerous enemy is the police - above all the determined Inspector Sander, who only needs one mistake to break up the family. But for Klaus and Renate Winter, the race against time is just another game. "It's Never Enough" - the start of a nerve-wracking, dark saga about a family that risks everything to never return to the shadow of the past. Her journey is filled with violence, betrayal and an insatiable hunger for more. But in the end the question always remains: How far will you go if the price of taking the next step could cost you your life?

Leseprobe

Title: We are Evil:

It's never enough

Author: Tanja Weber

Biography:

Tanja Weber was born in Cologne in 1985 and now lives in Berlin. Even as a child she was fascinated by dark stories and gripping crime novels, but instead of a traditional course of study she decided to experience life directly and draw her stories from reality. After several years in various jobs - from journalist to PR agency to freelance worker in the entertainment industry - she began writing her own thriller in 2015.

With a clear focus on exciting, profound characters and the dark sides of society, she takes her readers into the depths of the human psyche. Her novels are characterized by fast-paced plots, complex relationships and a mixture of thriller, drama andcrime stories. Without ever having had a classical education in literary studies, she relies on her intuition and her ability to create gripping, realistic narrative worlds.

Chapter 1: Introduction

It was one of those days when the air in Frankfurt was hard to breathe. Stuffy, as always in the city center. The smell of exhaust fumes, sweat and a hint of cheap perfume hung in the air. But in the small branch of theFrankfurt private bankit was dead silent. Except for the hissing of the ventilation system and the occasional clearing of the throat of the bank employee at the counter.

"Three minutes, not a damn moment longer," Klaus Winter whispered through the blade of his teeth as he climbed out of the black van. He was a bear of a man, in his mid-fifties, with a face that looked like it had been caught in a storm of shotgun blast. He glanced at his daughter Lisa, who was standing next to him in a leather jacket and tight jeans. "And don't give the bastards too much leeway." You know how they react when they smell fear."

Lisa raised her eyebrows. "Look, man, I know how to hold a gun." You're not the only one who knows what they're doing here."

Mark, her older brother, grinned broadly as he checked the gym bag with the explosives. "Is this another father-daughter therapy session, or can we get started?"

"Shut up, Mark," Lisa hissed. "And remember, I saved your ass last time."

The door swings open. Four masked figures enter with firm steps. Klaus, in his larger than life presence, stands at the front. In his hand is a sawed-off shotgun that looks so old it may have served in two world wars.

“EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR! NOW!” he yelled. His voice was so loud that even the security camera shook.

The bank customers screamed as Lisa pulled out her gun and pointed it right in the face of one of the security guards. "Well, you little shit, do you think you're a hero? Put down the gun or I'll blow your head off."

The guard hesitated, his hand shaking overthe handle of his service pistol. Mark, who was jumping over the counter like a predator, slammed a bag on the counter. "This is not a discussion, you asshole. Get rid of the money. And fast."

Eric, the youngest of the Winter children, was positioned outside as the driver, but his nerves were frayed. The van's engine was beating, but he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. He had sat down on the accelerator to check the time.Three minutes.

"Don't mess around, Eric," he muttered to himself, looking nervously in the side mirror. An elderly woman walking past the bank took a long look at the van.

He swallowed. And then the mask fell from his nose as he leaned forward. He swore loudly.

In the bank, an old man in a grey suitdidn't understand that it was serious. Instead of lying down, he discreetly reached for his cell phone. Lisa noticed.

"What's going on, you idiot?" She rushed at him, kicked him in the chest with her heel and hurled the phone across the lobby. The man gasped as she pointed the gun at his face. "Next time I won't ask, okay?"

"Leave the old man alone, Lisa!" Klaus called from across the room. "We have two minutes."

Mark had reached the vault, where a frightened clerk was punching in the code. "Hurry up, you bitch!" he shouted, hitting the man with the butt of his gun.

Outside, Eric suddenly heard a siren wail. His heart raced and his hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Damn it, they're faster than I thought," he muttered. He reached for the radio. "The cops are here!"

Klaus' voice crackled through the device. "Hold theShut up and stay calm. We'll be done soon."

"Yeah, sure, get it done quickly. While I'm going down here, or what?" Eric hits the steering wheel with his fist.

With a precision that showed years of training, the family packed up their loot. Klaus kicked open the back door of the bank with a loud bang while Mark threw smoke grenades to conceal the exit. Lisa was the last to burst through the door, leaving the children in the bank with a mixture of fear and amazement.

"Eric, drive!" Klaus yelled as he jumped into the van. Eric stomped on the accelerator and the car shot out into traffic. Sirens blared behind them, but Eric knew how to drive.

"You're a real pain in the ass, Eric," Mark growled from the back seat. "But you can drive."

“Shut up,” Eric replied, but a faint grin crept across his face.

In an office at the Frankfurt police headquarters, Chief Inspector Gerda Brandt looked at the surveillance footage of the attack. Her graying hair was tied in a strong bun and her glasses were hanging on the tip of her nose. She was smoking a cigarette, despite the smoking ban.

"That's their handwriting," she muttered. "The damned Winter family."

A young colleague approached her hesitantly. "Do you think we can catch her this time?"

Gerda blew out smoke. "If we're quick. But I'm telling you, they're smarter than you think. And more brutal."

She stubbed out the cigarette and grabbed her jacket. "Call the command. I won't have any more bodies. But if we have to, damn it, we'll shoot them."

Chapter 2: Escape and Camouflage

The van's tires squealed as Eric pulled onto the southbound highway. The sirens were still audible, but they were fading, drowned out by the roar of the engine. Klaus, who was sitting in the passenger seat, looked back at Mark and Lisa, who were crouched on the floor between the bags of money.

“Say, Eric, can yousoftslow down, or do you want to kill us all?" grumbled Klaus, tightening his leather seat belt.

"Maybe you shouldn't act like a fucking driving instructor when I'm saving our lives!" Eric snapped back, not taking his eyes off the road. Sweat was running down his forehead in thick drops. His fingers clenched around the steering wheel, his knuckles white with tension.

Lisa, who was bandaging a cut on her hand with a piece of cloth, gasped loudly. "Gentle? We just robbed a bank, Dad. Who the hell cares about gentle? Let himdrive."

"Shut up, Lisa," Mark growled from behind as he inspected one of the bags. "Shit, there are fewer than I expected. Must have been a small bank. Why the hell don't we just do something bigger, Dad?"

Klaus turned around in his seat and glared at Mark. "Because we can't be as stupid as we used to be, you smartass." Are you going to clean out a branch of Deutsche Bank right now? Sure, why not. And then you're going to report us to the police, right?"

Lisa intervened, her voice sharp as a knife. "Oh yes, because we were sooo subtle when you smashed the security guard's skull with your damn shotgun. Very subtle, Klaus."

"He tried to press the alarm, damn it!" Klaus barked and slammed his fist against the dashboard. "Do you want to argue here, or do you want to live?"

The tension in the car was palpable until Eric snorted and said, "If you don't shut up now, I'll just drive off the damn bridge, okay?" Maybe that'll cause some problems."

There was a moment of silence. Then Mark and Lisa burst into hoarse laughter at the same time.

“You have balls, kid,” Mark finally said, lightly punching Eric on the shoulder.

After an hour's drive, Eric turned onto a lonely country road. The van had now disappeared from the main road, deep in a forest near Darmstadt. They had rented a small house here weeks ago - part of their escape plan in case things went wrong.

Lisa was the first to jump out of the car, her knees cracking as she stretched. "Next time I'll let Tim drive." He's not the least bit afraid of full throttle."

"Tim? "Your guy can't even push a shopping cartwithout crashing into a shelf," explained Mark, throwing the first bag in the direction of the house. "Where is it anyway?" It should have been here long ago."

Klaus, who had now got out with his rifle in his hand, growled quietly: "He's coming. He's taking a different route. We always play it safe, or haven't I taught you that yet?"

Lisa rolled her eyes but remained silent.

Klaus didn't waste any time. He got a petrol can from the car and started pouring it over the interior of the van. "Eric, get the matches," he grumbled.

“Why always me?” Eric grumbled, but he did as he was told.

"Because you are the youngest and you still have hair on your head that I can pull out if you argue," said Klaus dryly.

A few minutes later the car was ablazein flames. The smoke rose into the sky like a signal, but Klaus didn't care. "By the time the police get out of here, we'll be long gone."

"Tell me, how long do you think we can keep this up?" asked Lisa, folding her arms in front of her chest. Her voice suddenly took on a more serious tone. "It'll be our turn at some point. Or do you have a magical plan that will make us invisible forever?"

Klaus played the lead role in "The Flames." "As long as we stay smart." And as long as we're willing to do whatever it takes to protect ourselves."

"Everything, right?" Lisa spat on the floor. "Even risk the children, or what?"

"Stop that, Lisa," Klaus growled. "If you care about the kids, then make sure you don't do anything stupid."

At the headquarters of the Frankfurt Criminal Police, an officer’s screen flickered as GerdaBrandt played the main role in the surveillance footage of the bank robbery. The cameras had barely been able to capture any details, but the methodology was unknown.

"The Winters," Gerda murmured. Her young colleague Jonas stepped next to her. "Do you really think it's the family again this time?"

"Of course it's family," she said dryly. "These assholes are like a virus. And I'm the damn antibiotic."

“And now? “We hardly have any traces,” said Jonas.

Gerda raised an eyebrow. "Traces? I don't need traces. I just need patience. They make mistakes. Always. That's the problem with families - at some point one of them betrays the other. And then I'll catch them."

Tim finally shows up in an old Audi that she had bought months ago under a false name. "Sorry, the cops had set up checkpoints," he explained and gave Lisa a longLook at him. "Are you okay?"

Lisa didn't reply, just pulled him into a hug. "We have to move on. Klaus will be leaving tomorrow."

“Where to this time?” asked Tim.

"Kassel," Klaus muttered. "New papers, new names, new life. And heaven forbid you don't get that into your head. If someone steps out of line, the whole shit is over."

“Sure,” Lisa said quietly. But there was doubt in her eyes.

Chapter 3: New Life in Kassel

The van stopped in a quiet residential area of Kassel, right in front of a gray apartment building from the 1970s. The windows were dirty, the facade was crumbling, and the musty smell of stale water hung in the air. Klaus got out and cast a skeptical look at his surroundings.

"Nice," he grumbled. "It's almost a shame we're only settling here for a few months." A shithole like this would be the perfect place to remain anonymous."

"Sure, Dad," Lisa said sarcastically, pulling her jacket tighter. "Because the cops here definitely don't think that someone with criminal tendencies lives in such a shithole."

"Shut up, Lisa," Klaus muttered, lifting the heavy sports bag with the cash out of the car. "We don't have forever. The landlord is waiting upstairs."

The landlord, a glittering man with a beer belly and a stained white undershirt, opened the door on the third floor. His gaze slid over the group and his eyebrows drew together skeptically. "You're the... er... Müllers, right?"

"Exactly," said Klaus, handing him a thick envelope filled with cash. "Two months in advance. No questions asked."

The man hesitated, but then took the money and quickly closed the door behind them. "Good, good. But no trouble, okay? The neighbors here are nosy."

"We're a normal family," Lisa said with a fake smile. "Absolutely boring."

The apartment was small and smelled of damp plaster. Two bedrooms, a tiny kitchen and a living room with worn linoleum floors.Mark was the first to collapse onto the shabby sofa. "So much for the luxurious gangster life," he said dryly. "I'll sleep on the sofa, right?"

"No, you sleep in the hallway," Lisa said as she inspected one of the bedrooms. "I need space for the kids."

"Oh, sure," said Mark, raising his hands sarcastically. "The princess wing is yours, of course."

“Shut up,” was Lisa’s curt reply.

Klaus ignored the arguments and put the bag with the money under the sink in the kitchen. He pulled out a box of papers that she had obtained through a new contact in Berlin. "Very well," he began and handed out the ID cards. "From now on we are the Müllers. I am Bernd, you are Anna, Martin and Erik. And Tim..." - he handed him an ID card - "you are our dear brother-in-law Tobias."

"Tobias?" asked Tim with a crooked grin. "Couldn't the guy think of a stupid name?"

"The last thing we need is your whining, Tobias," said Klaus sharply. "Believe me, if youIf you hear the name often enough, you get used to it.”