Chapter 18 – The Stand

The Following Evening

Edward Cullen POV

Some things in life are really fucking good.  Ya know?

One seriously emotional rollercoaster session of mind blowing and dick numbing sexcapades with Bella Swan.  Check.

And some things, not so much.

Paranoia filled dreams that included ten year old boys dancing to the chain gang song and Emmett McCarty stabbing me in the back with a pair of six inch heels he stole from Bella’s closet.  Check.

Some things, well, are about as bad as you can get.

Realization upon entering consiousness the morning after mind blowing, dick numbing sexcapades with Bella Swan, that there was absolutely no way to ever really defeat Marcus Volturi.  Check checkity check checkalicious check monsters with checks up my ass.

I’m a dead man.

I did still have one option though.

I could still leave.  It wouldn’t be the best of circumstances…  spending my life looking over my shoulder and hoping that someday he’d either give up the chase or forget about me all together. 

Neither of which, if I was being honest with myself, would probably ever happen, but hey, ya never know.  There’s always Alzheimer’s.

Ya take what you can get sometimes.

I did take small comfort in the fact that when I did fully wake up, Bella was still in my arms.

She hadn’t run off to clear her head this time and I took that to mean something.

I mean sure, maybe she was just exhausted from an evening of finding out her father had died, completely vandalizing her room, taking a shower fully clothed and then deciding to work out her frustrations in a very sexy, very vulnerable kinda way, but personally, I was thinkin’ that maybe I was growing on her finally.  Maybe.   You know, etching my name on her heart.  Burrowing myself into her soul.

At least that’s what I told myself I was goin’ with.

It’s what she’d done to me.  The least I could do was repay the woman.  Right?   I was hoping, anyway.

I stretched my neck a little and kissed what part of her face I could reach without giving myself a cramp.

She stirred.

And I mighta held on a little tighter than I should have.  It was a reflex with her next to me lately.  What are ya gonna do?

“Bella…” I whispered, moving some hair out of her face but I got no response from her. 

“Bambi…”

Nothin’.   I started musing some new names, searching for one that might fit better than her own.

“Bertha…”  Definitely not.

There was a slight groan heard on the horizon after that one.

“Bandeeeto…” then, “Blaze…” I said, letting the z sound last a little longer than it should have and I raised my brow a little, curling my lips downward.  “That one actually has a ring to it.”

“Shut up, Edward,” she mumbled without opening her eyes.  I smiled a little, trying to avoid any and all confrontation with the remnants of how being there when she heard her father died had felt.

“How’re you doing?”  I asked and then mentally chastised myself. 

How’re you doing?

God I’m an idiot.

She adjusted her position a little and told me, “Better.”

I figured she was just not in the mood for making me feel like a dick.  And granted, she still wasn’t looking at me but she was talking at least.  That had to be a good thing.

“So, I was thinking…”  Again.

Another groan and then adjusted the rest of the way onto her back, flinging her arm over her face.  “You think too much, Edward.”

I huffed out the tiniest laugh for her that I could.  “Tell me about it.”  And I actually debated if she was right.  But only for like a second or two.  I didn’t even know if I really wanted to bring her dead father up so soon after, well… his death.  But people like Bella and me couldn’t afford time for mourning.

“Anyway… now that your dad’s… gone…”  I had zero ways with words, by the way.  “… which really sucks.”  God this was fucked.  I’m so fucked sometimes. “It seems to me… Marcus doesn’t have anything over you anymore.”

She was quiet.

“I mean if… we’re looking for silver linings, that is.”   I mentioned I’m a fucking idiot, right?

I did have a point though.

I always had a point.

She sat up and grabbed something to throw on, then headed for the bathroom.  I just kinda stayed put because I wasn’t really sure what was gonna happen next. 

Broken glass.

Boiling hot showers with clothes on….

What…

But then she came back in after a few minutes, sat on the edge of the bed and then she turned to me. 

Still no words for me, however, so I did the honors, in hopes of weeding out any more unstable links in our chain of defiance.  “He doesn’t… have anything else on you… does he?”

Like me?

“Edward.” 

Was she answering my question?  Or just beginning a rant? 

I didn’t know.  I also didn’t know if I wanted to know.  I mean, this coulda very well been the beginning of a goodbye, so… I beat her to the punch.   Not the goodbye punch, just… you know… the punch.   “I meant it when I said I’m quitting,” I told her in a very floundering yet determined, blunt kinda way and she lowered her eyes about an inch or two.

“I know.”

“I don’t give a shit about this life anymore.”

“I know.”

Breathe.

“I’m one hundred percent, completely and non-waveringly serious.”

“I…”

“I want you come with me.”

She looked up at me again, pausing only slightly.  “I know.”

I had no idea what to say after that.  I’d pretty much laid it all out there like a bad deck of cards that had been used one too many times.   And in a very typical Bella-esque way, just when I thought the subject was dead, she spoke.

Only it wasn’t to answer me.  Or tell me she was leaving with me.  It felt more like an explanation of some kind.

“I know you don’t think I’ve felt Marcus’s sting like you….  But I have.”

I tried to do that comforting thing again by reaching out for her hand, but she snatched it away abruptly, like she was trying to avoid getting bitten by a poisonous rattler or something.

Did that make me the rattler?

My brow dipped as she continued.  “In college. My freshman year.  I was supposed to help move some illegal arms around through some fraternity for Marcus that he had friends associated with…”

The guns.

“Did you…”

“I met someone.”

Ah.

A dude.

Figures.

She read my expression and clarified.  “I didn’t even love him but… I got angry and I told Marcus I wanted to be a real girl for once, you know?  One with… study halls and dates and movies and stupid late night phone calls and…”

“A boyfriend.”

She nodded.

“I didn’t love him,” she repeated a little more quietly that time.  “I didn’t even know what love was.  I just…”

“Marcus didn’t go for it, I’m guessing.”

“You wanted to know why I never shot a gun off…  it’s because I know what they do.”

“I never know what you’re talking about, Bella.”

“I know.”

“Would stop fucking saying that?”

“He killed him,” she told me quickly.  And suddenly I’m a dick again for giving her hell about her choice of words. 

“He killed him?”

She nodded and looked down at nothing.

Then I got it.  He hadn’t just killed this guy.  And just like that, Ariana’s back in the forefront of my mind’s eye.  And I’m wondering if she really ever got on a plane with some other dude after all.

“He did it in front of you.”

She rubbed at the palm of her hand.  “He doesn’t like defiance, Edward.”

And then I found myself repeating the very word I’d just asked her to stop saying so much as I stood up, walked around the stupidly huge bed to her, then pulled her up and into a hug.

“I know.”

I held her there as I spoke it, hoping my lame ass arms around her would somehow make Bella’s guilt and pain go away, but I knew better. 

It didn’t really matter how many arms found their way around you, that shit just didn’t get erased.

And I fucking hated Marcus even more for making her feel that way.

“That boy died because of me,” she murmured into my chest.  It was like maybe that was the first time she’d ever allowed herself to say it out loud.  That he was dead.  But then I realized what she was doing.  “Because I was selfish and stubborn and…”

Blaming herself.

I put some space between us and looked her in the eyes when I told her the next part.  “He died because of Marcus, Bella.  Don’t ever forget that.”

She didn’t look away.  She didn’t sink or sag or tear up or any of that.  She simply answered with, “How can I?”

I let it go, holding her for a heartbeat or ten just trying to drive my point home and after that, we avoided the neighbors, especially McCarty.  I also kept quite the close eye out for Whitlock’s vehicle which is why I hadn’t noticed Bella sneaking up on me before she offered me up her own idea.

We’ll just call this one option number never gonna fucking happen.

“We could stay you know.”

I pulled my eyes away from the street where McCarty was having a short-ish pow wow type conversation with Alice Brandon as he and the girlfriend, Rosalie Hale, were getting into his car.  “What?”

“I mean… Marcus hasn’t exactly said he’s against us… you know… maybe we could…”

Was she actually contemplating playing house on Marcus’s terms for the rest of our lives?

I nearly laughed. “No.”

“Edward…”

“Listen.  No matter what we do, what we say to him, what he says to us… he’s always gonna hold you over me or me over you to get us to do what he wants, Bella… he’s never gonna let it go.  I’m not gonna live like that.”

“But he’s…”

“He’s shit.”

“How can you…”

“I’m not giving him power over me anymore.  If that means I die, then I die, but at least it’s on my terms… as my own person.”

She reached for another card. “What about your money, I thought you wanted…”

And I batted it away.  “I don’t care about the money anymore.  I care about you… and me.  And that’s it.”

She hesitated and I thought about what I’d said.  “Do you care about the money?”

She grimaced a little.  “No, Edward, I don’t care about the money.”

I wasn’t sure if she had convinced herself on that matter yet, so I called her bluff.  “Then it’s settled.”

“But…”

“I’m tired, Bella.  I was tired a long damn time ago.  Of this life, of Marcus, of being one big huge junk pile of bullshit and lies… I want a fucking life.  Even if it’s a short one.”

A small twist in those luscious lips of hers, and I could tell the wheels in that stubborn ass head of hers were turning.  About what, exactly, I couldn’t tell you.   I only know what she asked me next.  “You’re not going to let this go are you?”

“Probably not.”  Definitely not.

“Okay then.”

What?

“Okay?”

“Yeah, just… tell me what you want me to do.”

“Tell. You… what to do…”  I was a little stunned, I guess.

“Yeah.”

“Bella…”

She arched an eyebrow.  My eyebrow… and I couldn’t help but question her.  “What changed your mind?”

And after some silence, deciding whether or not she wanted to tell me or not, I supposed, she advised me, “I don’t want to lose you.”

Her eyes told me she spoke the truth.

My heart said it was real.

My head just hoped that two to one was a ratio it could live with.

After those words, I leaned into her and kissed her lips, letting our tongues touch a little but not so much that the message would be lost.

She was so soft sometimes.  Like a woman who wanted to give her heart away freely.  Like a first love and then other times…  I wasn’t sure even she knew who she was.

That was easy, I thought by the end of our connection.  Comparatively speaking… on a Bella Swan is a hard headed stubborn woman sometimes sort of way… and then without much more hesitation, on my part anyway, we hatched a plan. 

Together.

Kinda.

It was more like Bella wanted to do things her way and well… I wanted to do them right.

Ya know?

“Oh no,” I told her when she insinuated she was going with me to confront Marcus.  “You’re not going anywhere near that guy.  Meet me here.”   I wrote an address down.

“Why are you going then?  He’s just as dangerous to you, if not more.”

I shoved the piece of paper into her hand.  “It’s gotta be face to face for me, Bella… I can’t explain it… it just has to be.”

“Maybe you should rethink that idea.”

“Maybe.”  But I wasn’t.

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know this.”  Hence the situation I was in from the get go.

“You don’t have to…”

I cut her off.  There was really no sense in trying to talk me out of it.  “I’ll get us a car, and then we’ll head south.  I know some people in the Keys.”

She took the fucking piece of paper finally.  “I’ll get the car, you have horrible taste in cars,” she insisted, trying to lighten things up a bit, I guess. 

And I was on board with that, teasing her back with, “I’ll flip ya for it.”  

She smiled and it seemed sad to me.  The corners of her mouth tilted upward and everything but her eyes… they weren’t in sync or something.

“It’s gonna be okay.  I’ll make it out.  And then I’ll come get you.”

She nodded.   Then this time, she kissed me.

It was different from before.  It was like she wanted it to last forever as her hands ran along my waist and grabbed at my skin almost as though she was trying to take some of me with her.   I could feel her tears against my cheek and when we broke apart, I promised her, again, changing my words slightly to make it seem a little more believable. “I’m gonna be okay.”

 “I know.”

We got her packed.  Just a few essentials, really, and she took the Beamer when the coast was clear out front.   The short term plan was for her to ditch it before she arrived at our meeting spot, later on.  Then wait.

She wouldn’t be able to text me without letting Marcus know exactly where she was, so we decided on no contact until I was there. If for some crazy reason I didn’t show, she was moving on to the Keys, contacting my boat guy and getting the hell out of sight for a very long time.

Alone.

I just had to hope and pray… to whoever was listening… that Marcus didn’t somehow find her and get to her before I did.

Once I couldn’t see Bella’s tail lights anymore, I contacted Marcus.

“Edward!” 

And he seemed… so happy to hear from me.

“How are you and my Isabella doing with Mr. Whitlock?”

“That’s something I need to talk to you about, Marcus.”

“Oh?”

Why did he sound so fucking surprised all the time?   Was he mocking me? 

“Yeah, but not over the phone, I need to see you.  Tonight, if possible.”

“You want to see me?”

“Yeah.”

“This sounds serious, old friend.”

“It is.”

And then his tone felt a little more serious to me.  “Are you sure you know what you are doing?”

Why’d he ask me that?  Like he knew already?  Like he’d…

That’s when I noticed it.  The sticky note with my handwriting that lay on the hall table.

I picked it up and stared at it.

“Edward?”

I should have hung up right then and there.  Should have run for my life and kept on running until there was nowhere else to run, but honestly, it just wasn’t my style really. 

“I’m sure, Marcus.”

He breathed in and out so I could hear him, as though he was so, so saddened by my words. “Alright, meet me tonight near Republic Square Park.  A place called Peche.  It’s on Fifth Street, we can give you directions if you…”

I twisted and turned inside.

“I know where it is.”

“Alright, old friend, I will see you around eight… and then we’ll talk.”

And hopefully not kill each other.

After I got off of the call with him I had to sit down for a minute.  I still held the piece of paper I’d written on and was still staring at it as though it would explain things to me if I stared long enough.

After all the shit.  All the talking and the sharing and the trusting and the sex and the passion… was I still really that dumb?  Getting played? 

Had I learned nothing in the years since Ariana?

Apparently not.

I tried to look at that piece of paper logically.  It was completely plausible that Bella had just memorized the address and didn’t want to be caught with it on her so that I wouldn’t be found in the event of her untimely demise.

Right?

Right.

Although, it was also completely plausible that she had absolutely no intention of meeting me later on.

Maybe she was planning on taking off on her own. 

Maybe she didn’t have room for me in that heart of hers after all.

Maybe I was just a fucking idiot that liked to get the shit beat out of him every ten years or so by Felix and his goons.

I started to let some air out and caught it, making a bubble face for a few minutes until I couldn’t hold my breath anymore. 

Then I got up, packed a duffle, taking only a few wasted minutes to sulk over the cut out picture of my Benneteau, the very real marriage certificate that one Alice Brandon had signed, sealed and hand delivered to us the day after mine and Bella’s fake marriage vows and the ten dollar bill I’d saved from that first bet with her way back when we hated each other. 

I laughed.

“She wouldn’t play me,” I decidedly said to the currency.  And then I stuffed it away and headed out the door.   But not before writing a few more words down onto a scrap of note pad paper that I planned on leaving for Whitlock.

I just couldn’t live with myself if he’d ended up getting blindsided after everything.

Holding on to the Hummer was on my mind after all was said and done.  I mean, it was a fucking sweet ride.  But I was pretty sure Marcus would be able to find it a little too easily, so I scrapped the idea of keeping it.

And anyway, where Bella and I were going, there wouldn’t be room for cars. 

I was fumbling a little with the keys, folding the note up a little and turning to make my way across the street of our fake suburban home one last time, when a voice called out from the sidewalk. 

”Y’alright there, Edward?”

I stopped short.

And tried really fucking hard not to look like I was running off like Billy the Kid about to go face off with John Tunstall or somethin’.

Maybe I should have picked a different set of characters to compare myself to.  That one was a little too close to foreshadowing if ya ask me.  Seein’ how Billy did get shot in the back by John and all.

Maybe I was Tunstall.

 “I’m a little stressed, Jasper.”   It amazed me how I felt the urge to be honest with the guy. It was the antonym of what I should have been.  And I let out a short, amused laugh at myself for it.

To which he eyed me, curiously.  “About?”

I pushed the note into my pocket.  I hadn’t planned on giving it to him face to face, for Christ’s sake.   For all I knew, he’d pull out a forty five and shoot my ass for being a dick.

And suddenly, I’m fighting with my larynx over telling him once and for all.

“Just… you know…” I shrugged uncomfortably like an eighth grader getting a lecture on sex, lies and the will of God.

Then I shivered a little ‘cause… I totally remembered that lecture from the boy’s home.

The Almighty will castrate you for taking a young woman’s virtue.

“Bella?”

You have no idea, Whitlock.

“Somethin’ like that.”

“Wanna go for a beer?” he offered and I grinned over at him.  The dude was just too goddamn much sometimes. 

“No thanks, but…”  I took the note out of my pocket and handed it to him, scowling as I pointed at it after he took it.  “Don’t read that now.”

“This some sorta thank you note or somethin’, Edward?”

And then I repeated my earlier answer for him.  “Somethin’ like that.”

An awkward minute or two later and I was telling him goodbye.  A little more abruptly than I would have liked to when I saw McCarty pulling into his driveway, but it would do.

“Sure you can’t….”

“Gotta go, Whitlock.”

His name.  His last name.  I guessed that calling him that was my last ditch attempt at being honest with him.  At letting him know I wasn’t who he might have thought I was.

I was in the Hummer and pulling out when I had to slam on the brakes so as not to run the fucking backstabber over.

Not that I shouldn’t have, but… you know.

I threw the car into Park as he walked around to my window and I waved a short wave for him.  Then he did that motion with his hand, requesting I roll the window down for him.  I felt like I was getting pulled over for speeding or something.

You’re cool as a cucumber, Edward.

Cool.

As.

A.

Cucumber.

I hit the automatic window button so that I only left enough space for a finger to get through.

As opposed to a gun.

”What’s up, Em?”  I asked him and he nearly laughed.

“Going somewhere, Ed?”

I pointed at nothing.  “Just down the street, need some things.”

He peeked into the car, trying to see if anyone else was with me.  “Where’s Bella?”

“Oh she’s…”  Where is she?  “Tennis today.”  I grinned.

“Tennis?”

“Yep,” I told him as the sky cracked, as if on cue, with thunder. 

“Kind of a bad day for outdoor sports, don’t ya think?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, guess she’ll be home soon, then.”  Not.

My foot instinctively pushed on the gas pedal, revving the engine.

“In a hurry?”

“Sorta.”  I tapped against the steering wheel with my thumbs nervously.

“Want some company?”

Then stopped as my head snapped to attention.  “No!”

He scowled. 

“I mean, no, thanks.”  Shit.

“Ed… you sure you’re okay?  You look a little pale.”

“I’m good, Em, but I really gotta go.” I’ll most likely see you later anyway, when I tell Marcus to go fuck himself.

I put the car into reverse and pulled away from McCarty before he’d had a chance to say anything else and then watched through the rear view mirror as he pulled his cell phone out and made a call. 

To Marcus probably, to tell him how anxious I seemed.  Warn him that I looked desperate.

Probably desperate enough to try and assassinate the man who’d raised me up to be a thief, among other things.

I tried to calm myself on the way to downtown Austin.  So I wouldn’t seem like that teenager all those years ago who was scared shitless for his life and willing to do anything to avoid death.

And when I pulled up to the club… bar… whatever it was that Marcus had suggested as our meeting place, I realized why he’d picked it.

Still seemingly within the live music district, but far enough away that a scene wouldn’t be noticed.  Too much, anyway.  And close to the park.  You know… in case he needed to bury a body.  My body.  Although, I don’t really think he’d… nah.  He wouldn’t.

I don’t think.

It felt like hours had passed as I sat in that parked Hummer, waiting for eight o’clock to roll the fuck around. 

I must have decided to leave about a hundred times and then realized it was a ridiculous notion even more times.

By then Marcus’ men were probably positioned and watching me even as I was thinking that very thought.

So I pulled the duffle out of the back of the vehicle, stowed it in between a couple of buildings, and then headed into the club.

Bar.

What the fuck ever.

Good music was playing.  Not that I doubted it would be.  Austin is the live music capital of the World, you know.  But it just seemed odd that an acoustic guitar would be playing as I made my way through the crowd of already quite tipsy patrons toward the back, where I could see a set of super sized double mint twins guarding a door that probably led to an upstairs room.

A private room.

Somewhere important people probably met nightly to avoid the crowded, smoke filled downstairs space.

Maybe couples who wanted privacy for… a rendezvous.   Who knows, but tonight it was for cutting ties and ending the grip that a certain madman held over another man who once upon a time had hopes and dreams just like anyone else. 

Maybe even had them again.

“He’s waiting for you,”  one of the double mint twins told me as he opened the door for me to make my way up the tight stairway. I nodded politely, wondering if he knew who he was guarding that door for, if he was someone like me who Marcus just knew how to manipulate.

Or at least he used to.

The walk up those stairs was making my chest tight, not gonna lie.

Last chance to run, I told myself, but really… where would I go?  No. It was better this way, I figured,  I wasn’t sure if I’d really believed myself when I had told Bella I’d be okay earlier in the day, so how could I have expected her to believe me?

Maybe that’s why she left without the address.

Maybe she knew, even then…

I was still wondering about that when my hand grasped the doorknob, turned it, and opened the door to the quieted room where Marcus waited for me.

I wasn’t quite sure what I’d expected to find in that room.

Guns.

Torture devices.

Body bags.

A last meal.

I didn’t find any of that though, just people.  Not many, waiting around like they were bored or something.

The first person I saw, of course, was Marcus.  With Felix beside him with a handful of his goons who were now spreading out around the room.

Around me.

“Ah!  Edward!  Look, my friends, it is Edward, come to tell his oldest and most faithful friend he no longer wishes to be a part of his congregation.”

He knew.

Marcus’ voice didn’t sound angry, but I knew that he was.

Despite the lump in my throat.  I decided to man up.

“I don’t mean any disrespect, Marcus, but you know as well as I do I’m not into this anymore…”

“No disrespect?” he laughed.  It gave me the willies.  Then he got louder.  “No disrespect?”

“Marcus…”

“You will not come into my place…” he looked around, following his gaze with various waves of his hand here and there.  People moved out of his way as he walked around, randomly, with no real direction in mind. “My… hard earned business and spit in my face, Edward, not again… not when…”

And then just like that, a switch or something had gone off in my head, I’d lost it at that comment, cutting him off with venom.  “Spit in your face?” 

The words echoed when I said them for some reason and I was in some other reality.   One where I was finally going to tell this a-hole what I thought of him, regardless of the consequences. 

I mean, I knew I was going down at that point; I figured I may as well go out like Billy the Kid… or at least like Emilio had in his rendition of Billy the Kid… in a blaze of glory.

And I could hear Bon Jovi in my mind as I thought about it.

“You killed my mother, Marcus!   So technically it was you who spit in my face!”

And there it was.

Plain as day.

The White Elephant or… pink… purple… whichever.

Point is, it wasn’t goin’ anywhere and it hung like the last leaves of fall as winter approached.

Marcus’ anger subsided for the moment and he nodded, regret trying to make its way to the surface of his expression, but not really making the cut.

Then he spoke.  “Yes.  I did, Edward, but it was…”

“Marcus,” I stopped him.  “If you fucking say it was for my own good, I swear to fucking God…”  Tears threatened to make a showing but I fought them.  I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction.

Felix was right next to me then, putting his large hand on my bad shoulder, telling me with his actions that I wouldn’t be taking any sort of retaliation against Marcus on his watch.

“These are not things I expect you to understand, old friend, but they are necessary for the good of the business.”

I clenched my jaw as I listened to his lame excuses and then I asked him on a whim, “That what you told Charlie Swan?”

We locked eyes for a moment and I knew his answer without him even admitting it.

He may not have killed the man himself, but he’d had a hand in whatever had happened to Bella’s dad. 

I felt sick.

I felt…

“Is it?”

I felt really sick.

My head snapped toward the direction of the voice asking Marcus about my inquiry as the woman entered my line of sight, taking a stance next to him, waiting for her answer.

I could only barely whisper her name.

“Bella.”

I don’t know where she’d come from, but she’d clearly been staying out of sight on purpose.  The room just was not that complicated.

“What are you…”

“Did you kill my father?” she demanded again, ignoring me all together. 

She wasn’t so worried about the tears as I was and as fat, salty globs of wet rolled down the cheek I had a clear view of, I was having a hard time reconciling why she was there.

I didn’t really wanna know, anyway, so I just stood my ground.

“Bella, we will talk about that later, we have business to finish with Edward, do we not?” 

She didn’t look away from Marcus as he smiled down on her like a sympathetic father. Instead, she just glared and I wished to the high heavens she would have round kicked his balls the way she had mine that night I pissed her off.

It seemed so fucking long ago.

Then it hit me.  Marcus’s words.  “What business are you talking about, Marcus?”

Bella turned to me finally, almost like she’d just noticed me and I caught the pain of what was behind her eyes in my own.   I think my head moved from side to side, maybe, but mostly, I was just trying not to vomit so I couldn’t really gauge what she was thinking.

Pretty much like always.

She seemed… off… like, she wasn’t herself and I don’t mean that as in she just realized Marcus Volturi killed her father either… there was something else.  Like a light was getting turned on inside of her… or off, maybe.

I turned my attentions back to Marcus.  “What did you do to her?” 

I started for him, but of course… Felix.   So I was pretty much pinned to where I stood as more goons closed in.

“I assure you Edward, she came here of her own free will,” Marcus told me with reassurance in his voice.  “Didn’t you, Isabella?”

I wasn’t buying it.  Not yet at least.  And I tried ducking out of Felix’s grasp.   “You’re lying!” 

And failed.

I looked over at her.  She looked pained.  But it really wasn’t like she was being held against her will, or … handcuffed or anything either.  “Bella…” I begged.  “Tell him he’s…” my voice cracked and I couldn’t get the last word out. “Tell him he’s full of shit.”

I spat the last word and choked on it and the tears that I thought were gone from the news of her father… they were back in Bella’s eyes.

“Tell him now!”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry?”  I was getting hysterical, I won’t sugar coat it.  It was ugly.  And I didn’t really give a goddamn either.  “You’re… sorry?”

I laughed.

It was just like this entire fucking job for me to be the pun of a really bad joke.

Bella and her… fucking expertise… Whitlock and his kids… McCarty and his….

I hesitated.   The laughter dying down a little.

Where was he, anyway?

I realized I must have been extremely focused upon arriving there that day because that was the first time I’d noticed the small-ish shoes standing in a corner, watching the whole thing go down quietly.

Wait.

That’s not right.

My head spun a little more than it already had and I dipped my eyebrows.  “Seth?”

He waved.  The little fucker.  And smiled.  “H… hey Edward.”

Ankle biter was the mole?

It made sense though.  And I honestly couldn’t tell you how I hadn’t seen it sooner.  But then… maybe I hadn’t wanted to.

Just like I hadn’t wanted to see Bella for what she apparently was.

Still didn’t.

“What the fuck exactly is going on, Marcus?”

“Goodbye, old friend,” was all he said after that.  And I got the distinct impression that he was actually sad to see me go.

This is it then, I thought.  I’d made my stand, I’d put stock in what I thought Bella and I had.  I gambled.  And I’d lost.

From behind me, I heard Felix next, saying “Have a nice life, Cullen.”  He chuckled and added, “What’s left of it, anyway.”

Then a sharp prick to my neck and I didn’t really have much time to try and put any puzzle pieces together as things got a little blurry on me.

“Where’s McCarty?”

“Who?”

I tried to struggle, to go for Bella, to pull her out of the grasp Marcus now had on her, but then I was also trying to figure out why she wasn’t struggling very hard to get to me.

She just stood there and watched me fall to the ground.  Albeit, maybe she looked a little distressed but it seemed more like pity than heartbroken… I don’t know, I was out of it. 

Then, without further ado, none of it mattered anyway because I was out cold.

Most likely on my way to take a swim with the fishes because I’m pretty sure after that last stunt I’d pulled with Marcus, he wasn’t about to just have Felix bring me to the brink of death and start over once again.

No, he’d be finishing what he’s started around ten years earlier.

And he’d make it last a while this time.