RPOV

I've wished I were dead before.

Actually I wished I was dead exactly twenty five times in my life.

I kept count of those times, with all of the reasons that I wished my self-dead.

There was very first time when I was six and no one came for me at school.

The time, a year later, I realized that I was truly alone and had to do things for my self.

The time I slept outside in the rain because my father said he couldn't stand the sight of me.

All of those times I wished I could just disappear and make everything stop or go away.

But each and every one of those times Lissa had been there for me.

She came through in the end, proving her awesomeness, convincing that it would get better eventually, both of us knowing the truth.

I wished Lissa was here now or that I was with Lissa wherever she was.

I wasn't really a good friend having not called her in the past few days. I kept telling my self the telephone works both ways and she'd call me if she really wanted to but I had been fooling my self to save most of my time with Dimitri.

I mentally sighed at his name and the hurt that came with it.

I really needed Liss.

Despite the fact that we've gone the longest we've ever gone without talking to each other Lissa would be there for me no matter what.

I really wanted her here.

Was it bad that every time Dimitri drove us over a bridge of overpass I thought about opening the door and jumping out?

Dimitri didn't try starting any conversations or making awkward small talk. The last thing he said to me, barely looking my in the eye was to hand him a sharper knife.

I would have handed it to him all right…directly in the palm of his hand, there were too many witness though.

I had been conjuring these hostile feelings since this morning when he gave me a varied version of 'it's not you it's me'. To my ears it became, 'it's not me it's you and this case and your age'.

I've kissed guys before.

I've made out with guys.

I've gone out with guys but never anything serious.

They always wanted me for my curves.

And because of that I never thought I'd have a guy turn me down, especially if it meant he could get lucky.

Another mental sigh.

This was going to be a long drive home.

We didn't make any stops like we had on the way here and we got home by sunset. He started to merge on the highway that would lead back to his place where I stayed when not working undercover.

I felt like a Charlie's Angle.

"Can you take me to Lissa's?" I asked speaking for the first time in eight hours.

He looked over at me squinting as if to make sure it was me and not one of the other hundred people in the car with us who had spoken.

"Um sure…here," he handed me his cell phone. "Call and find out where she is and make sure she's alone."

Dimitri explained an earlier conversation he'd had.

Abe and Eric were on their way home early.

"I'd forgotten to tell you after our…talk this morning."

He cleared his through unnecessarily.

I nodded and dialed.

Vacation's really over.

Lissa picked up before her voicemail did.

"Hello?"

Her voice was cracked and strained.

"Liss? Are you okay? Have you been crying?"

I could see Dimitri looking over at me worriedly.

She sniffled.

"Rose? I'm so glad to here from you."

"Liss what's going on?"

She sniffled again and coughed, crying. When she finally spoke, her voice was muffled and a little high pitched.

"Rose it's terrible. Adrian…Adrian found me at Christian's apartment after Christian and I were talking about us and I told him we couldn't be together if something went wrong with this case-"

"A lot of that's going around," I mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'll tell you later. So what happened?"

"After Adrian showed up, he told me to leave with him and I did and we went to his house to talk because I'd been avoiding him because you know I can't lie to him. It's hard for me to lie to him; he knows when I'm lying. I tried lying to him when he asked me what was going but he knew and he got mad and-"

"Lissa he didn't? Tell me he didn't? He would never hurt you."

Oh great, I was defending Adrian.

I didn't have anything against him really except he freaked me out a little.

"No, no, he didn't touch me."

"You're he implies someone else did touch you. Who?"

"Adrian called my father and told him that something weird was going on and that he had a suspicious feeling and my father was already mad about the deal going bad so he told Abe and Abe sent Mikhail and Ambrose home ahead of them and told Mikhail to keep an eye on you and Ambrose to deal with me and Ambrose came over here and he…"

She broke off into soft quiet sobs.

"It's okay Liss. You don't have to say it. I'm on my way to your house now. Just hang on okay."

I could hear the rustle of her hair against the phone as she nodded.

"Hurry please. I don't want to be alone. Ambrose left to meet Adrian."

We hung up as Dimitri drove the last few blocks to Lissa's house.

"I knew we were being watched."

Dimitri glanced at me expectantly.

I relayed what Lissa had told me.

"You were right. It isn't safe for us to…" I let the sentence trail off.

Dimitri stared forward, gripping the steering wheel tight.

"Apparently it isn't safe for any of us. I'll keep you safe Rose."

It was words like that made all of these conflicted feelings flow through my body.

I didn't say so though.

We made it to Lissa's house quickly. I hopped out.

"I think I should see her by my self."

He looked hesitant to the idea.

"Alright. I'll go check in with Jesse, he doesn't live far from here. I don't see any one following us so Mikhail must have fallen back or we lost him on the highway. I'll be back in less than an hour."

I nodded and ran into the dark house.

Dimitri didn't pull away until the long wood door closed behind me.

"Liss?" I called.

All of the lights were off except for the one in the den downstairs.

"I'm in here."

Her voice broke.

I walked into the doorway and gasped.

Liss sat near the window that walled the house sniffling.

I almost didn't recognize her. Her face was splotchy and purple; her lips swollen, both of her eyes almost entire shut, her normally fair skin reddened.

I ran to her and wrapped my arms tight around her.

She flinched from the pain of the bruises but I didn't care. I missed my best friend and she needed me.

I cleaned her up a little and when we sat down again she told me everything that happened word for word.

"This is their fault," I muttered. "Christian's to be more specific. Why didn't he do anything? Do they even know you're hurt?"

She shook her head.

I helped pull her platinum hair back into a loose bun and wiped the fresh tears running down her face.

"I knew this wouldn't work," she hiccupped. "Abe and my father always win. The F.B.I. needs our help because they haven't been able to take them down, no one can stop them. You and I are just caught in the middle. This wont end well for us. We should just get now while we can and maybe we'll be okay."

"That sounds pretty good right now," I said.

"Why? What happened to you?"

I told her about my 'vacation' and the feeling that Dimitri and I were being watched, even about what happened, or I guess didn't happened, between Dimitri and me.

"Rosie I'm so sorry."

She hugged me then, tight as I had hugged her before.

Suddenly we hear Lissa's front door close and from the shadows a tall muscled figure emerged grinning as always, wickedly.

Mikhail stepped into the light.

"Isn't that sweet? Your last goodbyes."

Lissa and I looked at each other.

This wasn't good.