Song: In the Shadows- by Amy Stroup

Eli:

It was easy getting into the house; however once inside we had to take cover a few times to dodge bullets. Several go over my head and one skims my shirt. Thank god that I leaned behind the statue just enough so it didn't hit me right in the arm. Gun fire rips through the air silently with the use of silencers. Each time one man goes down another submerges from another room. I can't count how many dead bodies are along the marbled floor.

I was just about to kill the one guy when Scarlet stops me. She hits the guy square in the nose. "Where the fuck is the girl?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Scarlett bends down and pulls him up close to her. "The girl...that you kidnapped from the hotel...the American girl; where the fuck is she?" She aims the gun right at his head and cocks it back.

"She's in the fucking basement, over there." He nods his head toward the green door off to the side.

Scarlett doesn't hesitate to pop his ass anyway. We all look around at each other, then scan the room again. There is no movement anywhere. Atticus touches the door knob and looks over at Scarlett to see if she wants to continue the rescue mission, not knowing anything that we will encounter behind this door. When she nods for the go ahead, he opens the door.

The room has one light already turned on over head. Atticus goes in first and immediately takes a shot. Scarlett walks in behind him and then I follow. There is a guy yelling and bleeding on the floor; the bullet that just left Atticus's gun apparently went right in his side taking him down.

I hear Scarlett yelling at us, "Take her down from there and be careful." I rush over to her along with Atticus. The both of us reach up and start taking her off the hook. As she drops towards the floor, I hold out my arms to catch her. I pull out my knife and slice right through the ropes to free her all the way. I can't help but notice the rope burns and so much blood on her wrist from where she had been either pulling on to get away or just from hanging there for so long. My hand goes straight to her face and I wipe most of the tear stains away along with a few strand of her hair. Her eye is completely swollen shut, not to mention the whole side of her face is black and blue. Everything inside of me is about ready to explode.

Ashton and Marcus is helping Mekhi down while Scarlett is standing over the motherfucker aiming her gun right at his head. Once Mehki is down, I notice that he is not able to stand up. I'm not sure why at the moment. Scarlett starts barking orders, "Atticus leave Eli to attend to Vi. Come help me drag this asshole to the car. We will take him with us. Ashton will you help him and Marcus you can help me with Mekhi."

I pick her up and carry her out to the car. They throw the guy in the trunk while the rest of us climb in. Violet hasn't moved at all. I look over at Scarlett, worried. "She is breathing, just not very well. We need to assess her to make sure everything is alright."

"We will once back at the jet." She then turns to glare at Mekhi. "You and I will have a very long talk about all this shit later." Mekhi only nods his head and then tilts his head back while closing his eyes as if to tune everyone out. I realize in this very moment that Scarlett is the one that really runs the show around here. Even Mekhi follows her orders. I will have to remind myself to never piss her off. I can only imagine all the things that she will do to the motherfucker in the trunk.

When we get to the airport, we all get out. I of course carry her up the steps and taking her to the bedroom where Scarlett gave specific orders to take her. Mekhi has to hop up the steps and thankfully Marcus and Ashton help him all the way up. Atticus opens the trunk, to get the guy out. He starts cursing like a sailor, but not for too long as Scarlett shots something into his neck. He is out in seconds and Atticus carries him into the plane.

Everyone get situated while I stay in the bedroom with Violet, there is no way in hell that I am leaving her. Scarlett comes in and walks over to her. "How is she doing?"

"She still hasn't opened her eyes. Of course the one may take weeks to open up. He fucking hit her. I want to fucking beat the living shit out of him. I want him to pay for what he has done to her."

"Oh...believe me he will pay. Just wait till we get back." She looks down and then back up at me. "Did you get shot? I should look at that arm of yours."

I shake my head no. "I don't think I did. I'm not hurting or anything." I go to pull up my sleeve and there are not open wounds of any kind. We both look down at Vi.

"She must be bleeding. We need to clean her up see what we are dealing with. Go to the bathroom there should be some washcloths, towels and get a bowl full of water. Hurry now, go on."

I stand up and do as I am told. When I get back, Scarlett reaches for the washcloth and dips it in the water. She hands it to me and then takes another cloth for herself. We both start to wipe all the dried up dirt and blood from her body. We have the whole front of her cleaned off and she has several bruises on her. There's a really bad one on her side. He must have used her for a punching bag.

"We need to clean her back, here help me roll her over."

I pull her in towards me as I watch Scarlett. Her face says it all without me even having to look. I know it must me really bad. Scarlett's cheeks start to turn shades of red as her eyes water up. I watch as she takes a deep breath and slowly lets it all out. She doesn't bother looking up at me. "Eli...maybe you should let me clean her up."

"There is no way in hell that I am leaving her. I can handle this." I pull her all the way and there is blood all down her back. I stare at her with tears in my eyes. Between gritted teeth I want to fucking scream but I keep my tone down so I don't startle her awake, "I will kill that motherfucker."

"We both will. However we need to clean this up. If you need to go you can."

"Hell no. Tell me what to do and I will do it, but I am not leaving."

"Fine then, help me get most of the blood off. I have a special solution we can put on it. It will heal up better. We don't want this to get infected." We both clean as much as possible.

"What the fuck did he do to her?"

"Looks like he whipped her with a leather whip. She will heal in time. I promise." She rings out the washcloth and blood pours out of it. She gets more clean water and continues to clean her off. "Can you please go get Atticus?"

"Of course, be right back." I get up and walk out of the bedroom, not that I wanted to leave her. I walk toward the guys sitting down and motion for Atticus, "Scarlett needs you."

We get back to the room and she doesn't even bother looking at either one of us. "Atticus, I need my bag. Can you get out the silver container and bring it to me."

I watch as he fetches her bag and brings back what she requested for. She whispers something in his ear. He walks back over to me. "Scarlett needs a drink. Can you please go and grab her a vodka tonic?"

I wanted to argue with him but I think I know by now not to say anything. I shake my head and head back out. When I return with the drink in hand, the door is shut. I try to open it and it is locked. So I knock. I can hear Atticus walk over to the door. "Go make yourself at home, drink the drink. Scarlett will be done in no time."

"You can't fucking lock me out. Open the goddamn door." I bang again.

He growls, "Just follow orders, go sit down and have a drink, matter of fact have two. We will be out as soon as she is done."

I go back and sit down. I take the glass in my hand and down the liquid in seconds. Ashton reaches over and hands me a bottle of Jack. "This is much better my friend."

"What the fuck are they doing to her? They can't fucking keep me out." I glace over at Mekhi. "What the fuck happened in there and who the fuck is he?" I point to the guy passed out in one of the chairs.

"I never meant for any of this to happen. She is going to leave me out here to suffer in this pain. She will never forgive me for this." He has a bottle of his own Jack and tilting in back to take a long swig. "His wife use to me one of my subs but Scarlett already told you that earlier. He was hurting Violet to get back at me for the things I did to his wife years ago. I haven't been with anyone since the day I married Scarlett; she is my fucking everything. I can't lose her. I won't not like this."

"I seriously doubt she will leave you over this, however she might kick your ass." I smirk as I take another swig out of the bottle.

"You don't know her like I do. He whipped her in front of me and I couldn't do anything about it. I tried to get him to come after me telling him that Violet meant nothing to me that I never wanted her to begin with but he didn't believe that shit for a minute. Hell, who would. I love that girl and I let this happen to her."

"He fucked her up bad Mekhi...he fucking hurt her really bad." The fucking tears fall silently down my face. "Scarlett says she will heal in time but I'm not sure she will ever heal mentally over this. I want to kill that motherfucker."

"I'm sure she will let you in on some of the action once we are back home." He takes another drink. Half the bottle is already gone. "Matter of fact she will probably even let you help kick my ass."

"I will leave that up to her. I only want that asshole. He has to pay for what he fucking done to her."

"And he will."