Song: Dead of night by Ruelle

I was glad to get back home. I loved the week away...I loved being only the two of us and no one else around however I did miss the guys. I was ready to be back and go back to work even though he had hoped getting me away for the week would change my mind. I hear him groan as he enters the room watching me get dressed. "Don't tell me...you are going on an assignment."

"Mekhi...I know you want me to quit...but I don't know how...it's all I have known. I don't know if I can just give it up just like that." I snap my fingers.

He walks across the room to stand in front of me. "We could just stay away from here. We could go to every country...explore and have fun for once. Hell we could make love every freaking night in every single state...country...island...everywhere. Let's just travel."

"It sounds fun...and yes I would be lying to you if I said I didn't want to...but this is our life Mekhi...this is who we are...what we are."

He groans louder and runs his hands through his hair. "I will never change your mind about this will I?" He walks over to me and wraps his arms around me. "Be careful...alright...I love you." he sounds a little defeated in this whole decision.

"I love you too."I finish getting ready and meet the guys downstairs.

We head out. Tonight we are in the upper end of the city. Mansions line the street, sitting on a good three acre or more a piece. Big iron gates that lead to each house. The one we go to the gate is already wide open. We drive through and follow the long drive up and park in the back of the house. The guys go in front of me and we make a sweep of the house before getting to work.

 The first two bodies are in the kitchen. They look like the help...maybe a cook and a maid by the clothes they are wearing. As we enter the main part of the house there are three bodies on the floor in the living room, each one shot in the head. We walk the bottom floor and then the upstairs. The one room has two young boys; they look to be about ten and twelve. Both laid out on the floor...one face down.

The next room is teen girl's room. She is spread out on her bed...a gunshot right through her eye and out the back of the head. I look around her pink room and she has blood splattered trophies all over the wall...with several medals for swimming and cheerleading...I glance back over at her lifeless body. She is around sixteen...maybe seventeen.

The room down the hall is the master suite. The mother is naked on the bed; whoever did this not only killed her but raped her. There is blood between her legs and the bed is soaked in her blood...both from being raped and the other from a gunshot right through the chest.We search the rest to the house and on the third floor the father is dead in his office. He has a stab wound in the hand...and a gunshot to the left side of his head. He lays on the floor right beside his opened up empty safe. Whoever was here was here for what was in that safe.

 The killing was just the icing on the cake. Can't leave any witnesses behind. I wonder who made the call for us to clean up the place. Why in the hell do they care if this family is found or not.Atticus and I get to work. Ashton started to help us out with the cleaning part. He says he doesn't mind that part but for sure doesn't care to work with the bodies.

  I start in on the mom. I pull her body down to the floor on the plastic. I slice her open and carefully take out her kidneys, liver, and her pancreas...I would have taken the heart but part of it was shattered from the shot. I set each one into the cooler and then take the plastic wrap and wrap her up, securing it tightly and then pulling her to the hallway for Atticus to carry her down to the van.

Atticus takes care of the guy as I walk into the young girl's bedroom. Poor girl. I lay the plastic out on the floor and drag her down to the floor. I have to cut her top to get to her chest. I cut her bra and then take out the scalpel. I take out the saw and cut through her sternum then grab the brace and crank open her chest. She is fully exposed to me. I see her heart and immediately remove it, placing it in the cooler. The heart itself will not be used but whoever needs it can still use the heart valves. I then start in on the rest of her organs...they will sell at high dollar amounts. I try not to think if she has ever been kissed...or out on a date. I see pictures of her all over her mirror...pictures of her and her friends...pictures with one guy...they looked like an cute little couple. I hate to know how he will feel once he finds out she is gone...gone for good. I finish up taking out certain organs and placing them in the cooler and wrapping her up as well. I pull her out into the hallway.

We both end up in the boy's room. I do one while he does the other. I hear Ashton cleaning up the left over splattered blood. The wiping down everything to remove any fingerprints that might be in the home. The whole job takes over six hours. There is just so much space to clean and a total of ten bodies. I wonder what this guy was into...why was he targeted. His whole family died because of whatever it was they wanted in the safe. But I have a feeling that it was so much more than just that safe.

While the guys carry the bodies down to throw in the back of the van, I carry out the coolers. I'm sure Atticus will make a great deal of money out them. I go back into the house to do one final sweep...just to make sure that we didn't miss anything. Everything is back to normal...clean...the beds are made, clothes and other stuff put back on shelves or in drawers. It looks like the family went on vacation.As I walk back down stairs into the living room I glance up at the cute family photo on top of the mantel...I shake my head at the thought that they will all be gone. All of them...all...of them...wait. I close my eyes for a second and look back up at the photo...the mom and dad, an older daughter and two sons...and...another daughter. She looks to be around four or five years old. Where the hell is she?

I look at more and more pictures on the walls...all four kids, pictures throughout the years...playing in the leaves, ice skating, skiing, sports...you name it the family did a lot of things together. I start searching the house again. Where is she? I am upstairs going through each room again. I find her room but she is not in it. I search under beds, closets...everywhere and she is nowhere to be found. I hear movement behind me and turn to see Atticus staring at me. "You ready to go?"

"Where is she?" I shrug my shoulders. "I don't get it...they were all here...where is she?"

One of his eyebrows perks up at me. "Where is who?"

"The youngest daughter...where is she?"

"Scarlett...we searched the whole house...what little girl."

I go back down to the living room and point to the picture. "Her...look...they had four kids not three...where is she?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe whoever was here took her. I don't know but we searched the whole house...she is not here."

"She has to be here." I run back through the house again and as I am walking out of the one room and into the other he stops me.

"Scarlett...stop. She is not here." His hands hold my arms in place. He looks down at me and I hear that fatherly sound in his voice. "Scarlett...look at me. If she was here we would have found her. They must have her or maybe she was never here."

 I try to think about it...maybe he is right but something deep down tells me that she is still here. I give in and follow him out to the van. I open the door and sit in the front seat as he walks around and get in. I look into the backyard and see the playhouse. I jump out of the van and run over to the door. I open it and I see a pair of tearful eyes looking back at me.

Everything inside of me drains out of my body. I see her in a little ball in the far corner hoping that I might not see her...then I see me standing there looking back with those same sad frightened eyes. Is that what I looked like that night, alone...scared...afraid of what was going to happen to me. I see his face in my mind...looking right back at me. There was something there in his expression that I knew that I would be alright with him. I knew he would save me from whatever was happening. I will never forget the first words out of his mouth, 'There is something about you kid...'

I feel Atticus come up behind me and he sees what I see...two little eyes looking scared back at us. He starts to push me out of the way but I don't budge. I turn and stop him. "Atticus...stop...please give us a few minutes."

"Scarlett...you know we can't keep her alive."

I turn and glare at him. "You so much take another step in there I will take you out myself...she is scared to death...I said give me a few minutes."

He shakes his head and steps back out the door. I bend down and walk in a little closer to her. I get down on my knees and just look at her at first not saying anything. "Are you ok?"

She shakes her head no and starts crying again. "I want my mommy."

"I know you do sweetheart. Your mommy had to leave."

"She...she's not coming back is she...she...she dead...is she in heaven now?"

I think of my mom and nod my head. "Yes...she is in heaven...so is my mommy you know."

"And...Carlie...Sammy and Jacob...are they too in heaven?"

I nod.

"Where is my daddy...I want my daddy?" She cries more and tightens the grasp on her blanket  while pulling it up closer to her for protection.

"I'm so sorry...he...he is gone too."

"The bad men...they did this...they hurt my mommy...and...my daddy...they going to hurt me too."

"No...no they are not. I am here now."

"I...I don't know you."

"I know...my name is Scarlett...I will not hurt you."

"But that man wants to hurt me." She points behind me and I know she is talking about Atticus.

"No...I will not let him." I am quite for a few minutes and then look up at her. "I told you my name...what is your name?"

"Violet." She whimpers.

"Hi Violet." I sit down all the way. I don't make any sudden movements. "I guess we could be friends now." She just looks back at me and squeezes her blanket harder. "I promise I won't let anyone hurt you."

A few minutes later, I scoot over closer to her trembling body and pull her into my lap. I rock her back and forth while I sooth out her hair. I don't know why...but I start to sing to her...the same lullaby that my mother use to sing to me and I can't believe I recall all the words as if my mom just sung them to me. Atticus looks in the doorway and he sees me singing and rocking her. I see the look on his face and I dare him to come closer. He steps back out shaking his head. I know I should not let her live...I know it is against all the rule is the book but then again he saved me all those years ago. He saved me...he broke protocol so why can't I this one time.

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Author's Note: I so loved writing this chapter...why...because knowing Scarlett can't have kids maybe she will be able to take in Violet and raise her. What are your thoughts will this be a good thing or a bad thing?