Full Summary:

Rose is a homeless teenager involved in the dark, troubling, tragic world of underground crime with no hopes of her life getting any better until fate intervenes and she meets Dimitri, an F.B.I agent who makes it his soul purpose to get her out of this world and into a happier one. ALL HUMAN.

Disclaimer: Richelle Mead owns everything. I own nothing except the plot.

RPOV

It was the coldest night of the year so far.

I could practically see entire trees, cows, and houses flying by out the window behind the customer's head. I know I should have been paying attention and taking his order but this was the most indecisive diner in the world.

I've only been a waitress a couple of months but my patience is already worn thin, my feet and back are killing me, and the bags under my eyes make it look like I'm wearing eyeliner.

Basically I feel middle aged instead of like a teenager.

People would laugh if they found out I was only seventeen. Well at least I think they'd laugh, if any one cared enough to ask or even talk to me.

That's right. I'm a seventeen year old with no friends, two dead-end jobs, and oh yeah, I'm homeless.

Well, technically, I have a home but it's no where I'm welcome nor going back to unless I apologize, get down on my knees begging to the disgusting scum that is my father, Abe Mazur.

Yes, I'm one of those 'lucky' souls born into a 'good' family where the father is a controlling, abusive, mob boss and the mother is a frail woman who would do just about anything to please her husband.

Obviously I've never been okay with the way my family is but I used to just go along with it and pretend everything wasn't as bad as it seemed but after my mom got sick and looking less appealing to my father, I had to take care of her. With that responsibility I also started inheriting my father's defiant of the law, back talking side and started rebelling.

Suddenly, everything daddy perfect did didn't seem so 'great' in my eyes. I tried to get my mother to see the light too but her devoting love to my father blocked the light.

Eventually mommy dearest and daddy dearest grew tired of me trying to sneak mom and I away and I was asked to 'quietly' leave the premises.

I didn't leave as quietly as wanted and actually had to be escorted by Abe's two bodyguards, Mikhail and Ambrose.

And now here I am, three months later, waiting on the slowest customer in the world and no idea of where I'm sleeping on the coldest night of the year.

It isn't the first time I've been on my own on the street before but it sucks each time.

"Okay, I know what I'll have now. I'll take…no…well maybe the-"

"How about I come back later when you've decided?" I suggested with the worlds fakest smile on my face. I was becoming more irritated by the second.

"No I know what I want just give me a second."

I did and eye roll and imagined how much time I would do for stabbing this guy in the eye.

He was the last customer in here tonight and the one keeping me from leaving.

I fidgeted in my plane white shoes and black and white 50's uniform.

The door to the diner cling-ed announcing even more customers coming in.

Great.

The second waitress, and my best friend Lissa, appeared behind me.

"I was just about to go home and enjoy and nice quiet evening alone with the parents out but no. Three of the worlds cutes customers decided to interrupt my plans and guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm okay with this. Look at them."

I turned around and sure enough Liss was right. Sitting one of the booths was three of the cutest…no, hottest, customers…ever. We don't get many good-looking guys in here, mostly truckers, so it was nice seeing a few new faces, especially these.

"I can be nice and let you serve them or I can be selfish and hog all three of them and hope they go for the foursome thing."

"I thought foursomes meant two men and two women. Besides, I thought you were dating that guy Adrian?"

"Hell, he can join in too."

"Ewe," I laughed. The world's slowest customer made a disgusted face.

Payback for taking so long, I thought.

"You're out of uniform and look better than I do right now. All yours," I sighed.

This uniform was ridiculous, my hair was coming loose and pointing in all directions, and I smelled like ground beef and grease.

No way was I going over there.

Liss on the other hand had forgotten her uniform again and looked good enough to hit on.

"I would if I had nerve enough to go over there," she admitted sighing.

"Liss, maybe you should look away. I think you're drooling," I advised.

"I can't help it. They're all just so...mmm."

"Making hungry noises. Any one of them in particular got you going?"

"Yeah, the blue eyed one."

I turned to see for my self.

At one end sat a tanned, brunette with long dark hair pulled back at the neck, beside him a blonde with permanent frown imprinted on his face, and at the end, a blue eyed dark haired one with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Okay, so go over there and offer them, water, coffee and a foursome."

Lissa laughed and playfully smacked my arm.

"No way! It would be easier if you go over there and scope them out for me."

"I look like crap right now and you want me to be your wing woman?"

"Just turn on that Rose charm of yours and I'm sure they'll overlook your crappiness."

"I doubt that."

World's-slowest-customer finally looked up at me. "Okay I know what I-"

"OMG Rose, they keep looking over here," Liss interrupted turning away. She stared 'nonchalantly' out the window.

"Well you wanted their attention. Here it is!"

She bit her lip nervously.

"What if they heard me?"

"More reason to go over there. Now they know what you want, maybe they'll do it," I snickered.

Liss laughed and then sighed.

I held out an order pad to her. With a sigh she took it and walked over to their table.

"I know what I want to order now-"

"Ssh!" I said trying to listen.

I couldn't hear anything and from my peripheral I could see them talking.

I'd just have to wait until Liss told me what happened. I took world-slowest-customer's order and went to stand behind the counter.

Liss was still talking to them. It looked more like they were having a conversation than ordering food.

If any one could strike up a conversation with three hot guys, it was Liss.

It was one of many of her perfect qualities that made people love her and sometimes made me envy her. I always considered her the pretty one of us two, with her platinum blonde hair and bright green eyes, and she came from a pretty okay family compared to mine. She was lucky and had it easier than I did. I was jealous. I got over it quickly though when I reminded my self that she was also my best friend and was there most of the time for me.

The only time she couldn't be there for me was when it came to my living situations. I said before that her family was pretty okay compared to my own and that's true but her father's a mob boss just like my own only he treats his family better as long as they obey and Lissa is one to obey. If she hid me at her house though and her father found out and told Abe, we'd both be dead by morning. Or at the least severely beaten. I couldn't do that to her.

"Lost in thought?" Liss asked appearing behind me. She handed the order to the fry cook and leaned on the counter beside me.

"Yeah I guess. What were you guys talking about?"

"They asked me how long we'd been working here, how old we were and if we were the only ones working here. I asked them if this was a pick up line and we had a few miscommunications."

I slapped my hand to my forehead.

"Weird. Why would they ask that unless they plan on robbing the place or they're perverts looking for a feel?"

Liss smiled.

"I hope it's the latter 'cause I would sure like to be felt up by blue eyes," she purred.

"Ewe, Liss! Ewe!"

She laughed.

"Did you answer their questions?"

"Not really. I kind of managed to avoid them. A trick daddy taught me," she said.

"Really? My dad taught me how to hot wire a car in under ten seconds and how to stand a beating."

Lissa's smile faded from her face. "Rose, I'm sorry."

"Why Liss you didn't do anything?"

"Yeah but you get it much worse than I do. I just wish you'd go back and apologize and obey like I do. You'd have a roof over your head and you wouldn't get hit," she pleaded.

"Liss, no matter what, I'm sure Abe would find a reason to hit me. I could be breathing or blinking too loud and he'd hit me for it. It's not okay what he does. It's not okay what your dad does so why do you put up with it?"

"Because I'm not as brave as you," she said honestly.

I never thought running away from my crime-committing father was a brave thing. I thought of my self as runaway from my fears.

Her phone went off, ringing Katy Perry's 'E.T.'

"Oh gosh, it's Adrian. I forgot we had a date. I gotta go! Will you cover their table for me?"

I sighed and saw the pleading, puppy dog look in her eyes.

"Okay, okay. Go and have crazy wild sex with your boyfriend. I'll cover for you."

She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you! I owe you one. Oh and try to get blue eyes' number," added, whispering the last part.

"GO!' I pushed her toward the door.

"Bye!" she called heading toward her car. A second later, her Audi pulled out of the lot and left. I sighed for about the hundredth time that day went to serve world's-slowest-customer.

The three guy's order was up and I couldn't put it off longer. I grabbed a tray with their food in my hand and headed over, all the while cursing under my breath.

The second I made it to the table they stopped talking and it became one of those awkward silences. Each of them stared at me almost analyzing what I looked like. It wasn't in a creepy, checking my out kind of way, it was more like they were-

"It's about time," the blonde said. I bit the side of my mouth to keep from snapping back. Every tip counted and brought me closer to actually having a home or at least a cheap motel room.

"Sorry," I mumbled. Blue and brown eyes both elbowed the blonde and then blue eyes turned to me.

"Ignore him. Obviously he's the charming one of the pack."

"So I noticed," I mumbled.

As I set their plates in front of them I could see the slight smile on brown and blue eye's face and the annoyed expression on the blonde's.

That's me, Rose Mazur, making friends everywhere she goes.

I handed them their plates without looking any of them in the eye and their drinks and was about to go and hide behind the counter until they left like I'd been doing all night. I stayed to ask if they wanted anything else when I caught the three of them sharing looks having a silent conversation between them.

Brown eyes turn to me.

"Are you Rose Mazur?" I took a step back from the table.

"How do you know my name?" I asked growing more nervous by the second. I was careful never to tell anyone my full name. My father had ties all over the city and was try to find me no doubt and I'd bet all of my tips that there was a bounty for my return.

The fact that these three smokin' hot guys knew my full name wasn't making me feel so good.

"We wanted to talk to Rose Mazur but we need to know for sure that it's you," blue eyes said.

"And it would help if you answered the question unlike your idiot blonde friend," the blonde muttered. I ignored the jab at Liss and took another step back from the table.

They had to be working for my father.

"I have to go," I whispered backing into a table.

"She's scared. We have to tell her," brown eyes said.

He and blue eyes looked over at the blonde. He must have been their leader. He nodded looking annoyed.

"We're F.B.I and we're looking for Rose Mazur. Is that you?" brown eyes asked again.

"Prove your F.B.I and I'll tell you."

They each pulled out their badges and showed me.

"That doesn't mean anything. You could've gotten those badges anywhere." Now I was just being difficult.

"Oh for heaven sakes. We're F.B.I. We're looking for Abe Mazur's daughter because we need you," the blonde said annunciating each word like I was the slowest person in the world.

"I didn't know my father had ties in the F.B.I too. What's he paying you to bring me home?"

"We don't work for your father," brown eyes said. "We've been tracking your father for sometime because we've been trying to tie him to at least one of many of our open cases we're positives he's involved in but we cant find any evidence. We thought that maybe we could persuade his daughter to work for us on the inside in exchange for anything she wanted but we couldn't get to you until we found out about the bounty for your return and we set out to look for you."

"And here we are," blue eyes said.

"So now that you know who we are and we know who you are you can help us," the blonde said digging into his food.

"I didn't say I'd help you."

The three looked up at me in unison.

"It wasn't a request, it was more of an order," the blonde said looking back down at his plate.

"What is it with you men and orders?"

I felt like I was dealing with father all over again. If I wanted to be ordered around like a dog I would've stayed home.

"If you weren't so difficult men wouldn't find the need to order you around," the blonde said.

"Jesse, back off," brown eyes told him giving him the evilest glare in the world. Looking at him directly, he was even better looking up close, practically carved out of stone, tan, muscled and the deepest chocolate eyes I could swim in or stare at all day. I looked away from him and stopped gawking.

Jesse in turn gave him just a wicked glare and turned back toward me.

"Look. You know about us now, you know that the F.B.I is trying to infiltrate your father's connections and unless you pinky promise, we cant have you going back and telling him so it's an order, not a request."

"No," I said simply. "You can take your order and shove it."

With that I went back behind the counter and waited until the three cops and world's- slowest-diner would finish eating and leave.

Suddenly this felt like the longest day of my life.

I could never work undercover for the F.B.I., if they even really were cops or agents or whatever.

The abusive bastard that is my father is the worst person in the world and has done so many of the worst terrible things that they couldn't even imagine but blood is blood and turning in my father meant turning in my mother. Even if I agreed it could get me killed whether Abe is behind bars or not. Even from the grave he could have me bumped off which I'm sure he'd do given the opportunity and reason. He's kept me around for a reason though. I was just never able to figure it out.

After what felt like hours, world's-slowest-customer left and the three 'agents' got up and headed toward me to pay at the register. All night I managed to avoid go to their table by wiping the counters and moping the floors and cleaning the tables. I caught them whispering and conferring, probably about me, but anytime I went near they'd quiet.

Now they stood in front of me, each of them tall, good looking (even the blonde-Jesse-despite his attitude) and pretty young for F.B.I.

Jesse gave brown eyes a look and left the diner with even a glance my way, blue eyes gave him a reassuring pat on the arm and left with a slight nod to me, and then it was just brown eyes and I.

He handed me a fifty, which was more than all of the food in this diner would add up to.

"That's too much," I said.

He smiles slightly. "I know. The rest is a tip."

I bit the inside of my cheek and took the money. "I'm not a pity party. I don't need charity."

"Take it any way," he said putting his wallet back in his jeans pocket. "I'm Dimitri by the way. Christian is the one with the dark hair and you met Jesse."

He sounded sincere enough and there was something in his voice, a twinkle in his eyes that made me feel…something toward him.

"Yeah. He's a pleasure to be around," I said putting the money in the register. I held out my hand to him. "I'm Rose. Obviously."

He gave a small smile. I had a feeling this guy didn't express his emotions a lot.

He took my hand in his larger one and shook it. His hand was warm and engulfed my entire palm.

I felt a jolt go through my hand. As if he could feel it too, we let go at the same time.

I cleared my throat to make the silence less awkward. It didn't work.

"I really hope you'd reconsider helping us. You'd be doing a good thing and-"

"Putting my only family I jail," I finished. "You sound like you're scouting me for the marines or something. Next you're going to tell me to be all that I can be."

He didn't laugh or even smile at my joke.

Neither did I.

"I'll think about it," I said without thinking. The weight of eyes on me made me say it. He gave me a soft, nice smile, handed me a business card, and left.

DPOV

"She was smaller than I'd imagined," I said sitting behind my desk. Christian sat on the edge of my desk. We both worked for Jesse but we were high enough agents to have our own offices.

"Yeah. From the reports it said she'd been in fistfights with entire gangs and was considered a danger to the public. She was cute hot though."

I rolled my eyes, signing into my computer to pull up Rose's file. We'd been on the Mazur case for a while now and I already had a file on the girl.

"What? She was. You saw it too. He friend was cute too. Lissa." He said her name like it had power to it.

"You know the rules. We don't date anyone involved in any of our cases."

"I'm willing to break that rule for a couple of girls who look like that."

"Are you also willing to lose your job?" Jesse asked walking into the room.

Christian muttered under his breath and got off of the edge of my desk.

"I'll take that as a no," Jesse smiled. There was no rhyme or reason to the way Jesse was. It was just his attitude I'd learned.

"So here's the plan. Even if Rose and her friend-"

"Lissa," Christian put in.

"Whatever. Even if they agree to aid us in our investigation we still cant be one hundred percent sure their not double crossing us and still working for their fathers so to be sure an don the safe side, Christian, Lissa is your new best friend. Do whatever you have to keep close to her. Even if it means breaking the dating rule. Dimitri, the same goes for you and Rose. No questions, comments, concerns. I want a report every day on my desk. You start tonight. Get to it."

With that he left.

"Why do we follow his orders and put up with him again?" Christian asked grabbing his car keys. I stood to pull on my jacket and grabbed my own keys.

"He signs our pay checks," I reminded him as we headed to the parking lot.

"Where are you going to find Rose?"

"At the diner and I'll follow her from there."

"Lissa should be easy to find. And so another case begins," Christian sighed.

"It's how it will end that I'm worried about."