Later That Week
Unfortunately, still West
Austin, Texas
Edward Cullen POV
We were still calling her that, weren’t we?
Eye to eye contact with her, anyway. I’d had plenty of one way conversations with her bedroom door. Especially the morning after.
“Bella?”
Nothin’.
“Look, I don’t know what happened last night.” I’d taken a minute to think about my next words carefully. I hadn’t actually prepared a speech so to speak; I’d simply not slept all night after the infamous junk destroyer front kick to my groin she’d landed.
After I had gotten past the whole, she’s a fucking psychopath and I’m outta here feeling, that is.
And not just because of the pain at the base of my dick, but also because of the reaction she’d clearly had at some point during the foreplay. It was playing on my mind, and the more it played, the more I wondered just exactly what it was she’d been through with Marcus.
I knew some of the things he’d done to fuck with my head and wondered what differences there might have been had he been playing similar mind games with say, a female.
I didn’t wanna think about it and, in the end, before I made some long stupid fucking speech that Bella had probably heard a thousand times before, I simply put a hand to the door and told her, “I’m on your side, Bella.”
Then more to myself than her, before leaving for the day, I added, “Whatever side that might be.”
Oh, I tried a few more times to get her to come out and face the awkward, but my words always seemed to fall on deaf ears. Or at least, ears that didn’t want anything to do with my words.
The last attempt I’d made, she had been on her “other” cell phone and, although I couldn’t quite make out exactly what she was saying, I could at least make an educated guess that she wasn’t talking to fucking Santa Claus.
Patience has never been a strong suit of mine.
After a failed attempt to understand the muffled words she was speaking, I knocked softly then waited, listening for her respond. Maybe even to me. But the talking ceased abruptly and she didn’t answer me or whoever she was on the phone with. So before I left, I took a deep breath in out of sheer frustration and I made sure to let her know in a very I don’t have a century to play your fucking games kinda attitude, “Ya have to come out some time, ya know.”
Had she even been eating?
No idea.
If she was, she’d gone full on stealth mode to do it.
I dragged my fingers through my hair as I made my way down the stairs of the house, wondering absentmindedly when I’d come back from my days out to her being gone.
I felt like it was a real possibility and honestly, I didn’t know how that was gonna make me feel. I knew her, what, a couple of months maybe? But thinking about her disappearing on me gave my stomach a lurch and I pushed it away, focusing on the day’s goal.
See, the one upside to Bella and I not interacting on a full World War II storming Normandy type of scale was that I’d come to clear my head about things, namely Whitlock, and had made a few adjustments in the way I was dealing with him.
I was paving a road and in order to continue on that path, I grabbed the keys to the Hummer and pulled the front door open to go meet up with him.
And stopped short when I saw Alice Brandon standing there unexpectedly.
“Alice.”
She was bouncing.
Literally.
And then she pushed a piece of parchment out toward me and all I could do was scowl at it as she sat there, with the giddy ass grin spread across her face, waiting for me to take it from her.
“I didn’t have time to get it framed, but I really wanted you guys to have it,” she said as I stood there motionless, glaring down at our fake names, next to each other, right underneath where it mentioned we’d been legally wed.
It was like she’d just punched me in the gut and suddenly Bon Jovi was playing in my head.
Shot to the heart! But you’re too late… you give love… a bad name.
Cue supersonic bad ass electric guitar intro by Jon Bon Jovi and company.
“Do you like it?” she asked, and I forced myself to be civil to her even though the entire reason I was still nursing bruised balls was her fucking fault.
Okay I knew that wasn’t entirely true, but is was partly true. I mean, if she hadn’t been such a nosy goddamn neighbor and forced her friendship on people who weren’t even looking for it, I wouldn’t have been talking to Whitlock about birthdays and surprises, and we wouldn’t have been invited out to that club, and I wouldn’t have given Bella that necklace and read all of her looks wrong and ultimately, I wouldn’t be walking with a slight limp still, either.
In my mind, I pulled my Smith and Wesson out and shot her dead right there.
In the real world, I smiled. “It’s great Alice, thanks.”
“You okay?” she asked me as I took the piece of paper from her.
I nodded and did my charmer grin for her, smirking a little even. “Absolutely.”
She didn’t look convinced and I didn’t give a fuck. “Well,” she said with a tad fall to the enthusiasm she’d originally had, “Let me know how Bella likes it.”
I nodded and shut the door before she got another word out. Then I took the certificate she’d made for Bella and me up the stairs, into my room and placed it in the drawer with the picture of my soon to be Beneteau and the ten dollars I’d won from her back during our first weekend in the house.
I sat down on the bed and looked around, thinking how it felt more like a mortuary than a house lately. I mean, it was more like a normal job actually, no fighting, no discussions about personal shit, no food fights or lock outs but it also didn’t feel right.
I need to get out of here, I reminded myself and then snapped out of the emo bullshit thought process I’d let myself get pulled into. I headed back downstairs, making sure Alice Brandon wasn’t lurking around outside, hoping to corner me about feelings and shit, again.
I also need this job over. Now. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t a fuck up. I didn’t miss shit. I was neat and precise and quick about my marks… and yet somehow lately, all I was doing was the exact opposite of all that.
I needed to keep my focus on Whitlock, get the goddamn goods and go. Back to the Keys and back to that thing called sanity that I knew before meeting Bella Swan, because if I didn’t… and soon, either her or I were not coming out of this thing alive.
Preferably her, but probably me.
I looked through my wall toward where I knew her master suite was, trying not to let myself re-play our last moments together again, but failing miserably.
“Just a finger fuck then?”
“Don’t be such a woman, Edward.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Then last but not least, “What did you just call me?”
I also tried to deny that I could have sworn I’d heard quite sobs coming from behind a locked door that first night, too.
“Stop getting side tracked,” I mumbled to myself. Today was the day. I needed to close the deal on Whitlock or at least bring myself one step closer to closing the deal. I couldn’t stop for soft spots or weak links. And I definitely didn’t have time for the emo.
So I stood up, headed back downstairs and pulled myself together as I strolled over to my neighbor’s house, in casual attire, to ask him about good places to hike, hoping I might tempt him into showing me around as opposed to just giving me directions. And maybe I’d get a look inside his house again. Less one Emmett McCarty following me around.
Unfortunately, he was already outside.
Luckily, though, he was packing his car up with interesting looking boxes, once again. Maybe today’s the day I get a peek, eh, Whitlock?
He asked me a few questions without making any eye contact whatsoever.
He was too busy, you know, packing the boxes into his car.
“Level of difficulty?”
I’d never hiked before, but I didn’t wanna seem like I’d never hiked before. I didn’t know what those levels of difficulty were typically based on, but I was a relatively athletic kinda guy. I was fairly certain I could handle whatever he threw at me.
“Mmmmmedium?”
“You mean moderate?” he joked.
“Right, moderate.” And why did I get the feeling he wasn’t referring to the trail?
“Length?”
I smiled. “Size doesn’t matter.” Yeah, that’s right. I knew how to play that game.
He actually stopped to look at me for that one. And chuckled a stupid Texan chuckle for me. “If you say so, Edward.”
“So, you know any good ones?” I pushed and he scratched his head then pointed at me. “Shit Edward, I can’t tell ya where they are.” He looked at his watch. “I got some free time today, let me take ya.”
And the oceans parted and the skies turned the color of ice blue and the angels sang, “Ayyyyyyyy-MEN! Brothah!”
I grinned happily at him. “Cool.”
I eyed his packages. “You have to drop those off somewhere?” Please say yes. “’Cause I can help if ya want.”
He frowned and shook his head. “There’s no emergency today, they can wait.”
Damn.
“No big.” I shrugged then told him I’d follow him. When I went back to get the Hummer, I saw movement from the second floor window of mine and Bella’s fake home.
“No time to dance in pale sunlight today, Bella,” I told her under my breath as I hopped up into the car, putting a whole lotta effort into ignoring the urge to run back up to her room to see if she was ready to talk. And then I was off, about to make some major headway on the target front.
On the drive over to the trail, I texted Marcus to let him know my progress. Don’t gasp, I was at a red light. And when the bossman inquired about my not so present partner, I blew his questions off.
And finally, later on, when Whitlock spoke, I fucking listened.
He took me to a place nearby called McKinney Falls and can I just say? Than when a hiking trail is listed as “moderate” it really just means, this hike is about to kick your ass. Many times I kicked myself for not saying “easy” or “bunny slope” while wondering, if this was that hard, what the fuck made up a difficult hike?
Jesus mother of I can’t catch a fucking break with this job.
The cool thing was Whitlock chatting me up about everything from stocks to securities. Politics to prison. That was an interesting one. But the most intriguing was his extracurricular participation in something that had turned out to be a huge money maker of sorts.
It wasn’t so much that he’d come out right and said it, but I was good at reading between the lines. Most times. I had a niney-nine percent positive outcome on it, let’s put it that way. And even though it was something he was being cryptic about, I felt as though if I played my cards right, I could finagle my way into his inner circle of trust and get the dealio.
The problem was that he kept turning the conversation around on me, wanting to talk about more personal things. You know, giving me the old, “Let’s not talk about work” bullshit routine.
He
tried to stay flippant, like he wasn’t really all that pressed, but wanted to
seem like he gave a shit about me as he filled his water bottle up at one of
the rest stations. “So, I haven’t heard
from Bella since the party last weekend. Everything alright? She’s not sick, is she?”
I
tensed. “Relatively,” I answered,
stopping to re-tie my hiking boot. It
was truth. She was sick. In her very own
unique and twisted way.
He
was quiet for a moment as he swigged down the H2O, then he looked over at me as
I sat down for a fucking breather.
“She’s a great woman.”
“Uh
huh.” I sat there, watching some of the
water we needed to cross over spill into a much larger body of water that
Whitlock claimed was a creek, but looked much more like a river to me.
Truth
was, Bella really was a great
woman. She had every quality I wasn’t
looking for in the female species and she knew how to kick my ass when I was
being a dick. The only issue was, she
just wasn’t my great woman to worry
about in the big scheme of things.
“Edward?”
“Mmm?”
Still
staring.
He
sat down next to me, watching the same water I was run away from
something. I felt tired and old watching
that water. Like I could just throw
myself off of the rock I was sitting on and float away with it and probably be
all the better off no matter where it landed me.
So
long as Marcus wasn’t able to find me, that is.
“I
know we haven’t known each other long, but if there’s anything you wanna talk
about. Anything at all, I’m known to
have a decent ear.”
I
let out a breath of air and seemed to talk without even knowing it.
“I’m
pretty sure she hates me.”
He
laughed. “Bella?”
I
nodded, picking up a rock that was loose and tossing it sideways into the water
below.
“Doubtful.”
I
glanced over at him, then back at the current that tempted to steal me
away. “Ease my mind, oh great and
powerful Wizard.”
Just
as I said it, a deer made itself known and seemed to notice me at the same
precise moment I noticed him.
He
looked into my eyes thoughtfully and almost as though he saw the things I’d
done in my life, jerked away from my gaze and took off into some brush.
I
huffed.
It
really wasn’t all that beyond the scope of reasoning to understand why Bella
would pull away like she did all the time.
If I was using my brain as much as my dick lately, I’d a done the same
thing.
You
just don’t trust fellow con-men… women.
Con-people. No matter how mis-guided and deep down
innocent they may seem at times. It was
part of the job.
Meanwhile,
Whitlock’s taking his role much too seriously.
“People say shit every day, Edward,” he says all, modern day father
Cleaver like. “I could tell you the
grass is blue, but your basic knowledge of things tells you I’m full of horse
manure, am I right?”
I
scowled and nodded, having absolutely no idea where the fuck he was going with
this.
“But
if I was to look you in the eyes right now,” he did and I couldn’t help but
turn my head to look into his, “And asked you to answer me a question, as fast
as ya can, without thinkin’…”
“Yeah?”
I scowled even deeper, if that’s possible, then told him with a slight nod,
“Shoot.”
“Do
you love Bella?”
“Abso…”
I stopped myself before the rest could come out and Whitlock smiled.
“It’s
all in the eyes, Ed. They don’t lie.”
Fuck me I did not just admit that I
love Bella.
Did I?
I anticipated a different
question. That’s all.
I
hadn’t even known the woman that long.
Was that even possible?
It
was.
"You just called me Bella
again."
"I decided I like your
name."
"I like hearing you say my
name."
When
had I decided that? At what point was
I…?
“I
just…”
“Edward,
you two just need to get your heads out of your asses and things’ll be
fine. Trust me.”
That
word.
Trust.
Ugh.
He
got up and clapped me on the back, then told me in a very Yoda like fashion, as
though he’d heard my thoughts and knew where they were taking me, “Don’t let
the river take ya too far, Edward. Next thing ya know, ya can’t find your way
home.”
Like
I had a home.
I
didn’t even know what home was anymore.
I
could re-learn it though.
I
decided that if Whitlock did know who
I was, there had to be a reason he wasn’t coming clean. I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out
what that reason might be. I mean, he
could have just as easily knocked me out from behind on those rocks and pushed
my dead body over into the “creek” below us and no one would have been the
wiser.
Until
it was too late.
I
was deep in thought about the possibilities of what Whitlock could probably do
to me, suddenly noticing we really hadn’t seen many other hikers on that trail,
when I took the very first step over that running creek water that flowed fast
and furious between the jagged rocks we were treading over.
And
slipped.
My
hands flew out around me and I watched Whitlock turn to watch me fall with a
slight glint of amusement on his face.
Had
I really fallen for the oldest trick in the book?
Take
‘em to the most untraveled place you can think of and watch them have “an
accident”?
Idiot.
It
was just as I thought I’d crack my thick skull open against the rocks below me,
that I felt a strong hand grab my wrist and pull me back up onto steady ground.
I
caught a hold of its mirrored counterpart and pulled myself upright, breathing
heavy and checking for piss stains around the groin area. I’m happy to report I am not a pussy when
looking into the eyes of death.
I
tried to get my bearings again, but, “Jesus Christ.”
“Y’okay?”
he asked, holding on to me for just a second or two more.
I
nodded, wondering why he’d saved my ass.
It would have been the best thing that had ever happened to him in his
dealings with Marcus if he had let me fail.
If I couldn’t dig up dirt on him, no one would.
“All
in the eyes, Edward,” he said, just as he let go of my wrist. Then he turned and kept on walking.
I
followed him, despite my inner desire to turn in the opposite direction and
run. ‘Cause at that point he was just
peaking my curiosity.
As
we continued our hike, I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask him a few things.
Considering he’d just busted open a vein in my arteries that wasn’t
gonna get closed up any time soon.
“You
lived in Austin a while, Jasper?”
“All
my life,” he said proudly from in front of me. “Technically, anyway… did some
time over on the East Coast a while, when I was getting’ a college education…
then there was the army and government work I did, but Texas is home.”
“Army
huh?”
He
laughed. “Yeah, we Texans are born and bred for that shit, Ed. It was like
ridin’ a horse, everyone does it.”
I
didn’t stop myself from showing amusement at his words. I started feeling like I was being read from
the book, “The life and times of Huck Finn” or some shit like that.
If
I was taking what he said as the God’s honest truth, combined with the tons of
personal opinions of just about everyone that knew the guy, there wasn’t an
illegal bone in his body.
We
finished the trail in about two and a half hours. Parts of that time were spent chatting about
stupid shit I tried to piece together to make an educated guess about with
regards to what Whitlock was hiding, others were spent trying to keep up as he
led me through the trails and showed me all the “hidden beauty” of Austin.
And
I was fucking exhausted.
Aching.
And beat.But not too beat to look a gift horse in the mouth.
When we got back to our cookie cutter neighborhood, he invited me into his house for a beer and of course… I didn’t turn down my gracious host. Because the more time I spent inside that home, the closer I was to a WorldWide tour of the open sea.
And I’d come prepared this time.
Like I said. I wasn’t a fuck up.
Not normally anyway.
While he was pissing, I was planting a bug in his office and noticed a manila folder lying out on top of his desk.
I’d only gotten a glimpse of the picture of a young boy paper clipped to the inside of it. He looked about twelve and had a dirt covered face.
Child porn?
Trafficking maybe?
Whitlock?
Seemed completely contradictory to his personality, if ya ask me.
Not that I knew many pedophiles in my time.
The bathroom door opening and closing shocked me out of the file and then the office, and I made my way around to the kitchen area before he’d even gotten out of the room.
I was finishing off my beer when he rounded the corner. “Want another?” he asked me and I eyed the empty.
“Sure thing.”
Five later, plus a few moments of fake male bonding, and the night was getting away from me.
When I nonchalantly checked my iPhone, I noticed four texts from Marcus that had come through earlier in the day while we had been at McKinney Falls.
After one un-attended text, Marcus typically felt a tad slighted and would be visually annoyed with you for a few days. Four was unprecedented and, while I figured the cell coverage must of truly sucked out there in hikers land, I really needed to get back to the house and let him know what I’d found out before he got really pissed off.
“I better scoot,” I told Whitlock when he made to get us yet another alcoholic beverage.
He checked the time himself and sucked in some air. “Man, time really got away from us today huh?”
I laughed. A little. “That’s an understatement.”
I grabbed my stuff and left with a short, “Tell Bella I said I hope she feels better,” from him as I left. As I crossed the street, I wondered if telling Bella anything was a good idea, much less that our flirtatious neighbor wishes her good health.
Surprisingly, when I walked into the house, Bella was up and out of her bedroom, curled up under about three throw blankets and no pillow on the leather sectional sofa we’d had a fake moment together on the weekend before, and she was watching some old classic on the TV.
I’d never seen it before, but it looked like some old murder mystery or something and I thought maybe the fact that she was up and in a common area might have been an invitation to talk so I started with the basics.
“Hey.”
Nothin’.
Just a sideways blank stare at some fifties actor who couldn’t pronounce his S’s very well.
I tried again. “Watcha watchin’?”
I got a blink out of that one, but that was about it.
Maybe not an invitation after all. Maybe her TV just sucks up in that master bedroom of hers.
Maybe you should start, dummy, I thought. Maybe tell her yeah, you had an undying need to see most every single part of her naked and definitely wanted to learn more about her actual self as opposed to the her that everyone else knew. The one Marcus raised and altered.
Then I thought better of it and decided, nah, best to leave well enough alone.
Instead, I blew out some air and said, “Yeah, okay.” Then noticed the chill in the house and saw the slider by the kitchen was cracked and thought, no wonder she’s got three blankets around her. So I went to shut the slider and that’s when I heard her voice for the first time in almost a week.
“Leave it…” she said with a cracked voice from the other side of the room. I looked over to see her sitting up, watching me intently. Then she lay back down, pulling the covers over top of her once again and added, “Please.”
I threw my hands up. “Whatever, Snow Princess.”
Fitting.
That was when the door opened wide in front of me and my head snapped back around to see Marcus standing there, just on the other side of the threshold of that sliding glass door.
“Marcus.”
Bella sat back up at the sound of that name.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked while I sprinted to the other side of the house to pull the front window drapes shut so no one would see our late night visitor had they been spying on us.
Like fucking Whitlock.
“My hand was forced, Edward, when the two of you do not respond the way I expect you to… the way I expect my professionals to respond, I have to make a face to face visit.”
She was already in the vicinity of us then, wrapping her hands around herself, eying Marcus with what might possibly have resembled something along the lines of defiance.
Nah. But really… The two of us?
Meaning Bella hadn’t bothered replying to any texts he might have been sending her all day either.
I ignored how that affected my psyche.
“This is a stupid move, Marcus, even for you,” I told him, taking out a little bit of my frustrations on him as opposed to Bella. I also noticed I had moved a tad closer to her since closing the curtains.
“I am not concerned with who sees me, Edward. I am concerned with whether or not you are getting the information I need on my target.”
I peeked out the front window just to make sure anyway. No car. I wondered how he’d gotten there without anyone noticing him. Maybe from the back… that’s how he came in.
As I thought about asking him about it, he made an observation. “So,” he said, eying the two of us sideways.
I inched away from Bella, because, angry with her or not… which, I wasn’t really sure if I was at the moment… I didn’t need Marcus thinking there was anything between us.
Lock it away, remember?
“I assume that the two of you have gained a little more trust from your neighbors, yes?”
Bella’s eyes diverted. “Doesn’t matter how much we play up to these idiots… he’s still an ass,” she told him, rolling her eyes as she checked her nails.
I should have been insulted. If for no one else that she was referring to, me… except that I knew what she was playing at. I was about to do the same thing.
You just don’t lay your cards out for Marcus. No matter how long you’ve been with him.
I narrowed my eyes when I responded. “Yeah well, Bessy, when you’re showing yours all the time, it’s kinda hard not to be.”
I smiled after, annoyingly for her, but she didn’t respond as she locked eyes with me. Not one single arched eyebrow.
And that hurt more than you’d think it would.
It was just about the first time in roughly five days I’d actually looked into her eyes.
She was still able to pull me in with them. Still gave me the feeling there was more to her than just a psychopathic nature and loyalty to Marcus.
I looked away. I had to. Not because I didn’t wanna look into her eyes… more because I didn’t want Marcus noticing anything he had no business noticing.
“Edward?”
“Mmm?” I moved to the back kitchen slider to take a look out back.
“Whitlock?”
Right. Whitlock.
I gave him the piece of information that had crossed my mind earlier in the day.
I did not, however, tell him I doubted that bit of information.
“I think he’s running a child porn ring,” I told him, shutting the blinds on that side. No car there either.
Bella laughed out loud, which caught me off guard. “Child porn,” she said. “Whitlock.”
“Either that or trafficking.”
Then she did arch an eyebrow and I couldn’t help but smile. Dammit.
I
heard Whitlock inside my head. “Do you
love Bella?”
“And you did not return my
text messages to let me know this, because why?”I still wasn’t looking at him. I was too busy trying to make sure no one was on to our visitor. “Cell coverage sucked out there on the trail,” I started, and then realized he wouldn’t know what that meant. “We were hiking… outdoors.”
He was quiet for a few seconds. His voice, when he spoke next, was calm. “I see, and Isabella? Hiked?”
“You went hiking?” Bella asked, almost not believing me.
“No, she wasn’t there, I…” I stopped myself, but not in time and my eyes shut tightly, cursing my fucking mouth for its idiocy.
Motherfucker.
“Ah,” he mused but I knew what he was about to say and it wasn’t funny. “So the two of you were you not together today?” he asked us, realizing we weren’t on the same page. Not even close and Bella definitely turned a shade paler than she normally seemed when caught off guard. “I…”
I faced him while he started in on her, and could tell he was agitated. “And so you have only been ignoring my texts, then… not missing them, Isabella?”
She didn’t answer him and that’s when he got a tad angry. “I did not put the two of you on this as. A. Team. Only to have you disobey my instructions.”
“Marcus we can’t be together all of the…”
He shut her up by raising his voice and she flinched. “I do not want excuses, Isabella, I specifically told you…”
I shook my head at him and jumped in. “She’s got the flu or some shit like that, I told her to stay home,” I told him, daring him to touch one fucking hair on her head for whatever disobedience it was he thought she was conducting. Then he came at me. Which in my opinion was better than him going at Bella.
“I wanted to take this one alone, anyway. There’s just something about this guy I didn’t think he was willing to give up unless it was a one on one situation.”
I breathed.
Bella relaxed a little.
And Marcus thought.
After he composed himself, he grimaced. “You don’t know what danger you put yourself in by doing that, Edward. What danger you put Isabella in by doing so,” he told me with ice in his voice and I couldn’t tell if he was referring to Whitlock being the danger, or him.
He nodded and I tried not to glance over at Bella. “Well, she was sick, so…” I shrugged in order to fill in the rest for him.
“I see,” he said, then turned his attentions to her himself, putting a gentler hand on her shoulder.
I thought I saw her tense, but if she did, he didn’t notice it. At least he didn’t say he noticed it. Or maybe he just didn’t care.
“If you are sick, Isabella, perhaps I should remove you from this…”
“No,” she cut him off abruptly. “I’m just… I’m better, I just needed sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be fine. I’ll get your man, Marcus.”
Sooooo, she, didn’t want to leave?
I felt my lungs relax, for some reason, when I realized that.
I scratched at my neck. “Anything else, Marcus?” I asked him, needing a little goddamn sleep myself. I mean, based on his desperation to get something on Whitlock, and Whitlock’s relentless Boy Scout record, and possible fettish, and Bella’s sudden admission to maybe not wanting to be as far the fuck away from me as possible, I was officially having a terrible horrible no good very bad day.
Kinda.
It was weird.
Marcus smiled, brushing the back of his hand against Bella’s cheek and she smiled, then he started to leave without so much as a hand shake for me.
Pish!
“The next time I text one of you, I expect a response immediately.”
“We’ll get you something solid by the end of next week,” I promised, and then he was gone.
Bella and I stood there for another minute or so when I asked her, “Can I close the fucking slider now?”
She nodded, bowing her head a little. Then I headed up the stairs in a very Bella like way, telling her I was heading to bed.
After I showered and whacked off out of pure goddamn stress, I was on the bed, vigilantly typing away on my laptop, putting all the pieces together for my next update to Marcus, when I felt her standing at my bedroom door.
Nevermore.
“Edward.” Her voice still sounded cracked in a way. Like she was on unfamiliar territory.
“Yeah.” I didn’t dare look up at her. I was afraid of what I might say… or do. Or better yet, what my dick might do… and since we all knew what my dick had gotten me into the last time I’d let it guide me…. Wasn’t happenin’.
“I’m…” she stopped and I thought it’d be the same old same old, turn and go… turn and go. But then she pushed through the urge somehow. “I’m sorry I junk punted your balls.”
I didn’t wanna laugh. I swear it. I was still pissed. Or thought I was. Plus, the boys still hurt even at the sound of those words.
I pursed my lips and looked up at her. She had the baggy t-shirt on again. And no bra. “Sorry, huh?”
She nodded.
I shrugged. I knew how hard saying I’m sorry could be. “They’ll live.” I hope.
“You didn’t have to do that down there.”
She was referring to the diversion I’d given Marcus so he wouldn’t grind the axe a little further into whatever it was she’d been going through.
I kept typing. “I know.”
She walked over to the bed and I swallowed. It was getting really fucking hard to concentrate on the goddamn keyboard.
Was it warm in there, or what?
“Maybe you’re not the enemy after all,” she said quietly and my fingers stopped.
Enemy? “Bella, I was never trying to…”
“I know,” she said, unwilling or unwanting to let me finish my thought. She sat down and pulled the laptop away from me, then punched a few keys into it.
“What are you doing?” I asked her, not unlike that first night when she’d cock teased me in nearly the same exact spot as she was right then, only with not quite so much double sided intentions as she had before.
Her mouth twisted and her eyes dipped and when she pushed the laptop back to me, she fingered the locket I’d given her. “Un-tracking your computer.”
“You…”
She nodded. “He wanted it done,” she confessed. “I’m sorry, Edward, I didn’t know.”
She had me again, staring into those big brown eyes of hers, wondering what she’d meant by I didn’t know and then I got it. She got it, rather. Maybe she’d gotten it during the past few days while she was locked up in that room of hers, maybe she didn’t get it till just a short while before, when I blamed her absence from the job that day on myself.
She knew I cared about her, and she wasn’t holding it against me. Which meant she must care about me too.
Then she made to leave and said, “Anyway, consider it payment for the cover with Marcus… we’re even.”
Another con-man’s line of thinking. Never owe anyone.
I grabbed her hand. Not harshly, just enough to stop her and it did. She stayed there, on the bed, then slowly turned to look me in the eyes again.
I wanted to give her something.
Not a practical something, by all means, and it was probably really stupid of me, looking back, but in that instant, I wanted her to have it. If for no other reason, so she wouldn’t feel so fucking alone in this.
A leap of faith, so to speak. I just had to hope that leap didn’t land me in a bed of sharks or with steel knives in my back.
“He killed my mother.”
Weird. It still made me itchy to say it, even all those years later.
Bella’s mouth fell open and her hand flew to her chest as if to stop any sounds that might try escaping in their tracks. If looks told a story, I felt like hers would have been heart breaking.
She looked shocked, for one thing, and confused as to why I’d share such an infinitely dangerous piece of information with her.
Hell, I was confusing myself, but something about the time we’d shared with each other, the moments, the kisses, and yes, even the fucked up circumstances of the previous weekend’s mishaps. It all made me want to tell her.
“My beef with him, you’d asked me about it and, well, there ya have it.”
I swallowed, waiting for whichever response I was going to get, because either way, at least I’d know where I stood.
I thought she was going to say something, anything, but then she just quietly got up and left the room.
I stared at the empty doorway to my bedroom for a couple of minutes before thinking about my next move.
How quickly can I pack all this shit up and head outta here?
Fuck the shit, take the Hummer and go.
I was in the middle of option three when Bella reappeared at the door and I was stunned frozen when I noticed her cell phone up to her ear as tears began falling silently from the corners of her eyes.
I thought maybe she was torn up about turning me into Marcus maybe. Ya know? Maybe she cared, but her loyalties just ran that deep? But then, I saw the cell phone.
It wasn’t her Marcus phone and that was when whoever was on the other end of that call answered. She wept, but she managed to choke back the sounds of her sobs as she spoke. “Dad? No… I just needed to hear your voice…. Okay, no, I’ll call you later.”
Then she ended the call and let the phone drop before throwing her hands around my neck, holding on for dear life as she cried hard, but quietly into my shoulder. My arms immediately surrounded her, protecting her from whatever invisible evil it was she was needing to get away from.
Like I didn’t already know what that was.
Guess I wasn’t the only one that had a beef with Marcus after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment