Chapter 1

6 Months Earlier

Beep.. beep.. beep

The sound of my alarm clock blaring through my ears wakes me up from a dreamless sleep. I never dream anymore. The last dream that I had was when I was 10 years old and I was on a roof top with my father, Carlisle Cullen on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. He had a bolt-action M40A3 sniper rifle in his hands and was passing it to me. He showed me the target that was supposed to be taken down and taught me how to aim. "This is my life, Edward. I take down guilty people, people that have done wrong in this world Edward." Dad explained to me with a cautious look in his face. He explained to me who this target was and why he was being killed. "Extortion to little children", dad said. "I thought this would be the best first target for you. To help you understand why I do this Edward." I lined the scope to the targets head, Michael Newton was his name. "Now you will feel a kick back when you pull the trigger but I'll be here holding you so that you don't miss your target. Now take a deep breath and hold it in to steady your aim." Dad whispered in my ear and he put me in position. As I held my breath I could hear my own heartbeat accelerating as I pulled the trigger and saw the target before me fall face first into the sandy beach. That was when I woke up and decided that it was time I learned about the family business.

I went down the stairs and walked straight to the kitchen in my bath robe and put the coffee to start brewing. I went back upstairs and started my morning routine which consisted of shower, shave and the many failed attempts to style my hair. I don't know why I bother any more. I sprayed some Euphoria by Calvin Klein and looked at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a charcoal gray suit with a white button down shirt and matching tie. I looked at my watch to check the time and saw that it was 7:45 and I needed to get a move on if I was going to make it to the meeting on time. I ran down the stairs and quickly poured the coffee in a to-go thermos grabbed my keys and my recently cleaned Glock .45. It was a chrome finish with a black handle and I always kept it clean. As I walked to my car I grabbed newspaper from the front porch and proceeded to climb into my black Mercedes S550.

While driving on the highway towards the city, I began to go over all of my accomplishments in life. Aside from my "vigilante" lifestyle I also had some businesses set up. I own 3 of the hottest night clubs in Miami. Two of them are in Miami Beach and I have one in the Downtown Area. I had my brothers Jasper and Emmett run the two clubs down at the beach, but I ran the main club of Miami, which is where I'm headed to now. It's Friday and it's the start of the weekend and I need to make sure that my staff is well aware of the consequences that will follow if they allow another swarm of people into the club like they did last week which caused some problems to brew and well let's just say that some people don't know how to act in the presence of alcohol.

"Good morning Mr. Cullen, the crew is here and waiting for you to begin today's meeting." Oscar said as he opened my car door and waited for me to exit the vehicle in order to park it. Oscar was my valet parking supervisor. He was about 5'8", medium build and a tan complexion. He was 30 years old and from some island somewhere in the Caribbean. I didn't really care where he was from, all I cared about was the fact that he never let me down. I never had to worry about the parking situation since he always took care of everything in that particular area.

"Good morning Oscar. Make sure to park it so that I can drive off easily. This is going to be a quick meeting with absolutely no chance for any of them to even get a word in." I said as I walked to the back door of the club leading to the main floor.

"Go easy on them Mr. Cullen, they don't have any control over how people act." Oscar said sheepishly. I just waved him off and kept walking into the building.

As I walked in, everyone was running around making sure that the liquor bottles were filled and the bars looking immaculate. Even the interior designer was already running around making some last minute adjustments for tonight's private party. Some local designer was throwing a party tonight to release his new line of clothing. What was his name…? Giancarlo? I'll have to ask Alice to run that by me again before I leave.

"Edward, it's about time you got here! I have been wondering what to do about these drapes over in the VIP section. Do you like this plum color or do you want to keep the gold how we talked about in the beginning? See we have lots gold everywhere and I think if we keep gold then it will be overpowered-" I knew that voice anywhere. That shrilly, ear piercing voice was no other than my marketing department, my interior designer and my lovely little sister in law. Measuring at 5'2", she was little but Lord was she mean and aggressive. You couldn't just say no to Alice, she knew how to get to you without you even realizing that she's had you the whole time!

"Alice, please. Can this wait until after I'm done taking my frustration out on my staff? You're the girl here, you pick the color. This is all going back to the original color scheme when this party is over with tonight." I complained to her as I was scrolling through my emails in my iPhone. I was midway through replying to one important email in particular when Alice ripped the phone from my hands and gave me the most exasperated look I have ever seen. "Edward Cullen, this is not going back to normal. We discussed TWO WEEKS ago that this party was also going to be the unveiling of the newly remodeled "pLace"! I cannot believe that you are totally oblivious to this! Didn't Angela run this by you? How else did you set up a budget for this renovation if you were not aware of this?" Alice looked like she was about to be sick. Alice never did anything unless running it by me first. I ran my hand through my hair and took my phone back from Alice's tiny hands. "Alice, handle it. If Angela gave you a budget, then work with it. I'll talk to Angela about it later." I waved Alice off because if I never did then I wouldn't get this meeting over with and I had other things to do today. "Don't forget your tux at the – oh, never mind! I'll just tell Angela-"Alice was chirping away but I stopped her midsentence. "Do what you have to do Alice. I'll see you here at 7:30 pm sharp."

I had Alec, my right-hand man and also best friend round up the troops. I've known Alec since I was 11 years old. He knows all about the family business and helps out with all my other business when he knows that I can't. I know I can always count on him for anything and everything. We were so close that people usually thought we were brothers. We both are the same height, but he had a reddish brown tint to his hair and was always slicked back. He was slim but cut at the same time.

"Okay, first order of business," I ran my hand through my hair one more time and cleared my throat. "Now as you all know of our little incident last week. I expect everyone to be on their toes tonight, especially my bouncers. We are going to have a full house tonight because the new release of Giancarlo…"

"Gianini!" Alice yelled from behind the bar.

"… yes Giancarlo Gianini's clothing line. Now I don't expect for things to get out of hand but there will be a lot of intoxicated people and I expect all of you to keep things in order. I will be here for the first part of the evening, but will have to take care of some other things, so Alice, I expect everything to be in top order and I'll send Jasper over later to help you closing out the place tonight. Am I making myself clear here people? "All the bartenders and waitresses mumbled "Yes Mr. Cullen," and got back to work.

As I walked back out into the blistering Miami heat, my phone buzzed with a text message from my father.

New Assignment. My office in 10.

A slight smile formed at my lips as I put on my Ray Band sunglasses and walked over to the benz. I put the car in drive and sped on to the interstate on-ramp and made my way to my father's office.

I pulled up to my father's office and headed towards the elevator. I had my own parking spot at my father's office. I took the liberty of running over to Moe's and got some breakfast burritos for us and two coffees. "Good morning Edward, I'll let your father know that you're here." Mrs. Cope, my father's assistant greeted. Mrs. Cope has been my father's assistant for 20 years, maybe more. She always had these motherly tendencies even though she never had any kids herself. After 20 years, I grew to love her as part of the family and not just an employee of my father's. "Your father is just finishing up a phone call, give him about 5 minutes and you can go right on in." Mrs. Cope smiled sweetly at me. "Sure thing Mrs. Cope." I said to her while I sat down in the waiting area.

My father's office was quiet on the top floor of a small building just south of the county line, near the beach. The office was decorated in business like tones, beige, light browns and the occasional splash of color on a painting hanging up on the wall. I looked at my watch and saw the 5 minutes of waiting was up and I walked over to my father's office.

"Edward, good morning, this assignment is not something that we normally come across." My dad eyed me speculatively and handed me the manila folder with all of my new targets information. I skimmed through the paper work and noticed something odd, this wasn't a typical assignment. I kept the manila folder open in my hands and looked up at my father, "Why a woman? Or better yet, why a 25 year old woman? She's only 25, not nearly as much time to do something worth killing her for." I kept looking through the paperwork to see why I would need to off this person while I waited for my father to reply. Dad cleared his throat and said "Edward, you're not killing her. You are protecting her."

A/N: So this is my first fan fic. My posts should come every couple of days or so, a once a week is like last resort. I dont want this to be a typical "love" story. Since i dont have a BETA, any reviews and any ideas that you guys have will be greatly appreciated.