"Grab her purse." Red barked the order out to the man standing next to her. "No! Don't move her, then the police will know it's been tampered with!" Red commanded.

They were in the standing in the middle of a crime scene; of a murder. A murder that Red Reznikov was responsible for. She was high up in the ranks of the Russian mafia in the streets of New York City. She was respected. She was feared. And she didn't take shit from anyone.

"Get the trash bag and let's go. We've got 5 minutes before the police get here." Red said as she opened the door to let the 4 other men out of the apartment. They had just killed a woman and her husband.

Why? Because they did wrong by the mob. If you do wrong by the mob, you die. It was that simple.

They piled into their black van and left the apartment building so swiftly and cleanly that no one we know they were there. That's how they did it. That's how Red made sure it was always done.

They had two more houses to go to on the hit list. The next household had a child.

"Our next hit's got a kid. I'm glad someone scopes out these houses before we get to them." As an after thought, Red added, "Be careful with that one." As bloody as her hands were, and as responsible for such horrendous crimes as she was, Red had a soft spot for kids. She didn't have any, but always wanted to.

An hour's drive went by and they arrived at the house.

"You two: around back." Red pointed out.

"You: side gate."

Ad they all knew she went up to the front door like the boss she was wth the two strongest men flanking her side.

Once everyone was in position, she rang the door bell. A woman opened up the door.

"Are you Mrs. Jameson?" Red said smoothly.

"Yes, how can I help you?" The woman asked kindly.

Red looked to the man at her right and nodded her head. He raised his gun and shot the woman in the head. She fell backward, dead, lying in her front doorway.

"Like that." Red smirked.

"Go ahead. Remember, we are being careful with this hit, I'm going to look for the kid. Find the husband, you know what to do." Red explained to the man on her left.

Less than 3 seconds later she heard a gun shot.

"Guess you found him." She said to no one in particular. She continued searching the house.

Red ran into one of the men in a hallway up stairs. "Anyone find the kid?"

"Not yet, boss. We are still looking."

"Well look harder."

"Boss, what are we going to do with it?"

"We are not going to do anything. I am going to explain what has happened and send the kid somewhere else. Children have nothing to do with their parents mistakes."

"I'll be sure to tell my kids that."

"You do that. Your kids of all need to hear it." Red said said smartly.

"We will go down stairs and look some more."

"Good." And Red walked into a bedroom once more. This bedroom appeared to be a child's room based on the twin sized bed. And a girl's room based on the decor.

"Hello?" Red said in a voice that no one would expect to come from a cold blooded murderer.

"It's ok. You can come out, you're safe. Your parents are downstairs." Red said not thinking that these words would be believable to a child who just heard her parents die of gun shots in their house, but also not knowing what else to say.

Red must have sounded convincing because out from underneath the bed, crawled a young girl, who brushed off her clothes as she stood up as tall as she could and said, "Those aren't my parents."

"Oh." Red mumbled, a little taken aback and not knowing quite what to say to that.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Red added.

"I know." The girl said so confidently that Red was a little surprised.

"You know?" Is what came out of Red's mouth faster than she could think. "Did you even hear those loud bangs?"

"Yes." The girl said. "And yeah, I don't know why but I know. Maybe it's one of those extincts."

"Instincts?"

"Uh-huh." The girl nodded. "And what was that loud bang?" The girl said so innocently that Red knew she had to be careful with her wording.

Red just stared at her and she stared back.

"Your parents just went to the store for a few minutes." Red stumbled out, not knowing what to say to this child.

"They aren't my parents." The small child repeated. "Those are the people that babysit me." And the girl broke eye contact with Red and looked at the floor and added quietly, "They are mean."

"How?" Red said, sounding so concerned and surprised at herself for feeling this way genuinely towards this child.

"They just are." The girl said even quieter and Red knew she shouldn't be asking these questions.

"Ok." Red said, understanding that the girl wasn't going to explain further.

"Well," Red said a little cheerfully, "I can take you home if you'd like." She expected the girl to say no and call Red a 'stranger' or something of the sort.

"Ok." The girl said in a tone that mirrored her confidence that Red wouldn't hurt her. The girl's mood changed instantly at the change of topic. "It's not much better there either, though."

"But it is your home, right?"

"Yes."

"Are your parents home? I don't want to leave you there by yourself."

"It's just my mother. She should be home by now, I think."

"Alright, let's go then."

Red walked several steps ahead of the young girl throughout the house to make sure those bodies were gone. She didn't want the girl to see them, especially if she didn't even know what the gunshots were. Luckily, the other mobsters had taken care of it all.

Once they reached the front yard, Red turned around to the girl and bent down so that they were eye level. "I'm going to go talk to my friends over there for a moment. Wait here would you?"

"Ok."

"Alright listen up." Red said to the group of mobsters once she was out of ear shot of the girl. "This girl doesn't know we killed these two. When I found out she didn't even know what a those 'loud bangs' were I just said they went to the store or something. They were her babysitters. I asked her if she wanted to be taken home and she said yes. So her and I will ride in the second van. You guys go back to the shop. I'm not sure how long I'll be, but I'm just dropping her and going. Got it?"

"Yes, boss." They all said at the same time.

"Ok, let's go." Red said with such authority.

Red walked back over to the girl. "Are you ready to go home?"

"No." The girl answered quite frankly. "But I have to."

"We are riding in the second van."

"Ok."

And they walked to the van and climbed in.

"Where do you live?"

"Just in the neighborhood over."

"Oh, so not too far."

The girl gave directions and the driver listened carefully, straining his ear for that small voice.

"That one, with the blue mailbox." The girl pointed.

Red and the girl got out of the car and Red walked her up to the front door.

Out of absolute no where the girl looked up at Red with tears in her eyes and said "I don't want to go."

"What?" Red looked down at her, confused. She crouched down and looked the girl in the eyes. "What is it?"

"I can't. I don't want to go in there. My mother hates me. She's mean to me." The girl started to sob.

She had no idea why, but Red's heart was touched by this girl's emotions.

"Can't I just go with you?" The girl pleaded.

"But you don't even know me." Red said, a little dumbfounded.

"But I feel like I do. It's those extincts, 'member?"

"Instincts." Red corrected softly.

"Please. It's gotta be better than this." Her crying just continued.

"I'm sorry, but you can't come with me." Red was finding it difficult to say this to the little girl, which Red thought was odd, considering she didn't know this kid.

"Well can you come back tomorrow?"

"What for?" Red was a little confused.

"To make sure I'm alright." The girl sobbed.

"And why wouldn't you be alright?"

"She's mean to me." The girl repeated her previous statement.

Red vaguely understood what was going on.

"Ok, ok. Calm down." Red tried to get the girl to relax before she went inside.

Once the girl was somewhat calm, Red said simply, "I'll come back tomorrow." Red had no idea why she was agreeing to this. But she knew it felt right.

"Please. But it's gotta be at night so my mother doesn't know. Can you come at night?"

"Yes, I can come here tomorrow night."

"I'll open my window so you can come in."

"What?" Now this was just getting ridiculous.

"I'm on the second story so you can just climb the ladder and come in through the window." The girl said this in a tone that seemed like she thought this was perfectly normal.

"I'm not going to sneak into your bedroom window. That's crazy." Red said, almost forgetting she was talking to a child.

"But..you saved me from my babysitters. Aren't you going to save me from my mother too?"

"Kid, you're talking like I'm a superhero or something."

"But you are. You saved me."

Red didn't know what to say. But she did know what she felt: she was looking at this girl, hearing the conversation being had and realizing how serious this girl was about Red sneaking into her window to make sure her mother hadn't 'hurt' her too bad, which Red didn't even know what kind of 'mean' this girl's mother was, although she felt protective of her either way. Red had no idea what it was or why it was, her head told her it was ludicrous and yet her heart told her to just listen to the girl.

"Ok. I'll be back tomorrow night, ready to make sure you are alright." Red finally agreed and instantly knew she made the right decision when she felt her heart warm up her entire body as she saw the girl's face go from a frown to a face with a grin from ear to ear at Red's words.

"I've got a superhero." The girl said so innocently as she hugged Red, her tears vanishing from her eyes. Red couldn't help but feel protective of this girl.

"What's your name?" The girl asked, both realizing that they didn't know that detail about each other.

"My name is Red." She said warmly.

"I'm Nicky." She smiled.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Nicky."

"Ok." She said so cheerfully and went into her house.

Red walked backed to the van trying to figure out just exactly what and why she agreed to that. The topic was brought up between the driver and her on the way back to the shop.

"I heard the whole thing." The mobster said once Red got into the car.

"Oh?"

"Why the fuck would you do that, boss?"

"I don't know." Red said, being completely honest. "Call it an instinct."