The Cleaner's Daughter

That could have been me...

Scarlett POV:

Atticus wakes me up at four am. I've only been asleep for about two hours. Apparently we are being called to clean. So I get out of bed and pull on some black jeans and a black long sleeve shirt, then find my boots in the dim light coming from the hallway.

We pull up at a house and get out. There is a body in the kitchen. Maybe she is the housekeeper. She is Hispanic and shot right in the back of the head.

In the master bedroom there is a guy laying face down and a woman underneath him both naked and both were shot in the head. Who ever wanted them dead made sure they were.

Zane gives orders to start cleaning as he continues to look throughout the house. We hear someone crying. I go down the hall to another bedroom and Zane is holding a teenage girl.

"It's going to be alright, I'm with the CSI. You're going to be alright." He is hugging her as she cries. Then he reaches around her neck and within seconds snaps her neck and she falls lifeless to the floor.

He turns to see me as I am turning to walk back out the room. I go back to cleaning. I'm sure he is taking care of the body.

...

Zane POV:

I hear her crying in her closet. When I open the door I place my finger to my mouth and she stills. I reach out and pull her into a hug and tell her that I'm with the CSI and more cops are on the way. I hold onto her for a second, her frail body reminds me of Scarlett. However she is still crying; Scarlett never shed a single tear.

"You're going to be alright." I tell her and then within seconds I snap her neck and she falls to the floor. I hear someone behind me and as I turn around I see Scar is leaving the room.

I take the girl and lay her down on her rug and proceed to take out her insides because she is so young, I can get a lot of bids on her organs. When I'm finished with her, I roll her body up in the rug and then carry her down to the truck.

They are all still cleaning. When they all finish we load everything up and drive to the underground room and I put the coolers away.

No one says anything on the way home. We are pulling up in the drive and Scar looks over at me.

"Why me?"

I look at her then out the window. I know what she is asking. Why did I save her?

"That girl back there; you did it with no hesitation. She was like me afraid and she hugged you like you meant something to her. She didn't even know you and trusted you."

"You didn't know me either."

"I don't remember you hugging me like that."

"No I didn't hug you."

"You were supposed to kill me, too, why....why did you save me?"

"I told you there was just something about you. I just couldn't do it?"

She sits there as is she is thinking back to that day. I can tell she is in very deep thought.

"You loved her." Her eyes light up.

"Who are you talking about?"

"My mom; you loved her."

"You don't know what you're talking about." I look over at Ashton and he looks at me in confusion. He was there that night and he is the only one who knows the truth.

"You told me to clean the blood on the floor and I did but then I wondered off and you were in her bathroom. You were holding her hand and talking to her. I saw you kiss her forehead and then whispered something in her ear as if she could hear you. What did you say to her?"

"Drop it Scar."

"Just tell me, what did you say to her?"

"Alright damn. I knew your mom. I loved her. When we got to the location I was fucking devastated to see her laying there in a pool of blood. There was nothing I could have done she was already gone.

"What did you say to her though?"

"That I would keep you safe and never let anyone ever hurt you."

"Why?"

"Because I loved her, we dated off and on but when she found out what I did for a living she couldn't live with that. She left me and a few months later got married."

"If she didn't like what you did for a living then why did you make me become like you?"

"Because it's all I know."

"Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Scar I already know what you are going to ask me. I don't know who put the hit out."

"Do you know who did it then?"

"No, all I know is that your dad apparently owed someone a shit load of money and he didn't pay it so they came after him. They just didn't bother looking for you."

"Oh!"

"Scar look at me, let it go. It happened years ago and no matter what you do nothing will ever bring them back."