Chapter 20 –The Beginning

A few days later

Charlotte, North Carolina

Edward Cullen POV

I punched the familiar keys into my laptop and found the neighborhood again. The one Bella was most likely holed up in on some job with some guy and, as I did it, my chest tightened.

I couldn't stand thinking about her sharing a house with someone else.

Someone she probably hated.

Someone she could maybe fall in love with.

I don't know why that last thought even entered my mind, really. It wasn't like Bella Swan to fall for anyone.

Not really.

I didn't think, anyway.

Based on recent events, that is.

Getting back to the purpose at hand, I zoomed in on the area of interest.

Thank the gods for Google Earth.

I tried to concentrate on the map in front of me rather than the residents within the map, coursing out a mental plan for how to get up to the home she'd been living in, unseen. Until I was ready to be seen that is.

I found a few excellent paths to follow through the back wooded area behind her "home" and made a few notes to myself about fencing and security, reminding myself why,  in the end,this was all worth chancing my own well being.

Was I prone to helping the government out? Not really. But sometimes ya gotta pick a side and, for the time being at least, I knew whose side I wasn't on.

As I chewed on my thumbnail and tapped my foot against the gas pedal of the rental I'd borrowed, a group of women caught my attention as they crossed the intersection of the side street I was parked on.

She stood out from them. Not because her hair wasn't dyed blonde or because her boobs weren't fake, but because she held my heart in her walk.

She did. I could tell. Or maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see, but there was something... different about her. What was it?

Jimmy Choos, check. Short skirt, check.

Twitch.

I eyed her, trying not to wonder if she had any fucking underwear on.

I also threw my coat on, zipped it up, and then got out of the car and followed until I saw Felix, also following her. And I stopped short, pushing myself behind the closest building I could find and up against the wall.

Waiting.

When I finally had the balls to check if it was safe again, I made sure to stay far enough behind to do a double follow.

A dual espionage' tio, so to speak.

Whatever.

I focused and watched. I couldn't tell if Bella knew Felix was following her. Part of me wanted to let her know somehow, but then I second guessed myself about not only motives there but how that might screw me over in addition to him.

Or her, even.

She ate lunch at some ritzy place with her gal pals after which they all seemed to split up for awhile.

She made two phone calls. One of which made her expression reflect the desperate need to nut punch someone. Subtle as that expression may have been,  I picked up on it. And wondered if Felix had as well.

She went into a store I didn't recognize and didn't want to recognize for about an hour, came out with a bag of… something. I had to laugh to myself. Shoes, probably. Then suddenly and randomly and for no apparent reason… she stopped, turned, and nearly looked me right in the eyes.

"Shit."

I ducked into a store and waited, heart beating like a mo-fo and sweat beading up on the back of my neck. I didn't linger too long because I couldn't risk losing her and when I didn't see Felix glaring around anymore, I kept going. But not before I was stopped by the shop keeper, who asked if I wanted to pay cash or credit for the lingerie I'd grabbed off of the rack to wipe my neck with.

I gave the guy cash from the wad Emmett had "loaned" me and told him to keep the change, then tossed the piece of silk I'd inadvertently almost stolen into a trash can on my way out onto the street.

What the hell was I gonna do with a thong, anyway?

Don't answer that.

Turned out, after that, she met back up with the gal pals and they all piled into some car that had been parked in a garage for the day.

All the while managing to look as if she hadn't a care in the fucking world.

No dead father, no low life boss keeping her tied to him somehow by any means necessary, and certainly no ex-partner that may or may not be dead for all she knows.

I had to be careful not to let the bitterness creep in. I could ruin this whole plan with the flick of my dick and that would not be good, my friends.

I found my rental and waited for Felix to follow her first, then I tailed behind.

Familiarity sunk in after a while. That is, I recognized Bella's entourage as heading back to their posh neighborhood nest from the street names Google maps had shown me. I veered off a street or two before we arrived so I could do a practice run of how I'd be getting in later on that night.

Lucky for me, and him, Felix followed Bella and didn't see me ditch the car on a side street before proceeding to the woods behind her side of the road.

It's really hard to tell what fucking house number you're at, by the way, from behind the houses.

I couldn't look for a car to tell me because Bella hadn't been driving, so I typed the address that Emmett had given me into the phone I carried temporarily and GPS'd the bitch.

The house, not Bella.

I crouched in the leaves behind Bella's newly derived fake home and made myself invisible to anyone who might be having a backyard moment while I waited. I watched her through the tall windows that walled her dining room area as she said goodbye to her friends, laughing at their jokes, kissing their cheeks and I couldn't help but let the possibility cross my mind that maybe I really was just a huge idiot.

Maybe she was just really good at what she did and yeah, she needed a shoulder to cry on when her dad died, maybe even some semi-meaningful sex every now and again, but maybe… maybe when all was said and done, she really was a company man.

Woman.

Someone who'd be loyal to Marcus until the day he died.

Which would hopefully be sometime soon.

But then, as I stood to go and she closed her front door to the strangers on her street, nearly ready to pull a Ewan McGregor on her ass by storming into the house and thanking her for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love, I decided to watch for just a few more minutes.

That's when it happened.

She broke.

At first I didn't see it. I nearly trodded off and had figured every man for himself, but when she turned inward, toward the belly of room…

Toward me…

I saw something in her face.

Something that hurt.

And then she leaned up against the door, staring at me I almost thought, and sank to the ground.

Her eyes closed and her hands wrapped themselves around her knees and Bella Swan, smart ass, hard headed woman who stole my heart and maybe wasn't quite so loyal to Marcus Volturi after all, cried.

My eyes narrowed and my brow creased hard as I watched her.

My insides felt almost the same as the day I'd found her in the shower, after the news about Charlie, and I wanted to go to her, hold her, tell her it'd be okay but… I'd just be as big a liar today as I was then, I thought.

Not yet.

So I left.

With a little bit of hope in my heart.

And anxiousness for nightfall to arrive.

When it did, I found the neighborhood again. Only this time, I didn't care if Felix saw me. In fact, it was important that he did see me, so when I made my way up to Bella's place, I made sure he did just that.

He was standing by a lamp post and I was in front of the house, waiting for him to notice me. When he finally did, I gave him my own version of a salute, watched him fumble for his phone, and then I worked my way up to the front of the house, wanting to see what I was in for before confronting Bella.

I watched her from the exterior of that prestigious home on the outskirts of some posh suburb in Charlotte, North Carolina, through a window twice my size. Velvet curtains hung from the top of it, caressing the wall, and faux wood shutters were my only disguise as the dinner party played out.

A middle aged man sat opposite a woman I had to assume was his wife.

His attire screamed money, but, of course, I knew that didn't necessarily mean he had any.

I mean look at me.

But honestly, everything about him just oozed wealth.

And greed.

Bella's face seemed pleasant enough, but it wasn't the one that I remembered.

It wasn't the one she wore when her guard was down or, hell, even the one when she was being a smart ass. It was just…pleasant.

The man who sat at the opposite end of the twelve person table seemed…new.

It was freezing outside and I pulled the collar of my freshly purchased trench coat around my neck to keep the wind from flowing down the back of my shirt.

Their voices were mostly mumbles through the glass plane, but I could still hear what was being said when he asked her, "Coffee, babe?"

Babe?

She hated that word. In fact, I distinctly remembered the first and only time I'd ever called her that.

Almost the only time, anyway.

She'd narrowed her eyes at me, balled up her fists and then kneed me.

Right in the nuts.

It was brilliant.

I had swelling the next day and a bruise on my balls that lasted a week.

I laughed at the memory, but my smile immediately disintegrated as I watched her beam over at him with the fakest of happy grins, telling him, "Sure thing darling."

Excuse me while I empty my stomach of all things wretched.

And as she got up to go make her happy little cups of happy little ground up coffee bean filtered juice for their guests, I knew this was my chance.

I pushed my way out of the prickly bushes I'd lodged myself into for my spy session and made my way around the newly constructed stone house to the backyard.

I found the sliding doors that lead into the ridiculously large kitchen and pulled on the handle gently, remembering how she would always like to leave it cracked open, even on cold nights, to let the fresh air move through.

And sure enough, it slid for me, easily.

Her back was to me as I quietly stepped toward her, slowly reaching for my hand gun.

It was a precaution I'd come to make a habit of lately.

I watched as her body moved in ways my mind wanted to explore further while she pulled the coffee pot off of its hot plate and poured four cups for her and her…visitors.

I was just behind her. Within arm's reach, dying to stretch a hand out to touch her and, as though she had a sixth sense that I was there, she stopped suddenly at the last cup.

She set the pot back down.

Her head turned slightly and I could just see the nape of her neck that still held the locket I'd given her.

I smiled.

"You shouldn't be here," she whispered and her voice… just the sound of it… something I hadn't heard in months, made my heart beat again.

She wasn't pleasant Bella anymore. I heard my Bella there again. Which meant I might actually have a chance, after all.

I was nervous as shit.

I knew what consequences might lay ahead because of my actions, but I couldn't do it.

Couldn't stay away from her anymore.

So I steeled myself and conjured up the nerve I needed to follow this through before I lost everything that I had and just…ran.

"Leave with me," I said. "Right now." I looked around at the immaculate room…its fine china and over the top cappuccino maker. "This isn't…"

"No," she told me flatly, picking the coffee pot back up to pour that last cup. "You really should be going now, Edward."

I let my brow furrow at just how resolved she was about it.

Like nothing mattered to her anymore.

I ground my teeth a little before repeating myself a little more assertively this time. "Come with me, Bella." I wasn't above throwing her over my shoulder and taking her against her will. I'd done it before.

"I can't do that," she told me, attempting to be adamant, but I could tell she was also hesitant.

"Can't? Or won't?" I asked. Bitterly, I'll admit…but she didn't answer, still.

She was thinking.

Debating. She still did that way too much.

She was also staring at something of no consequence, unwilling to look at me.

"Why not?"

She couldn't seem to reply. I had a feeling she wouldn't, but I hoped she would have tried at least.

She owed me that, after everything she'd done to me.

"I L…."

Her body spun, anticipating my words, and her actions silenced me. It was as though I'd frightened her…and her eyes. Those big brown orbs I'd tried wholeheartedly not to dream about during our separation… they darted to mine.

Perhaps to see if there was any truth there.

Perhaps to warn me there was none left in her.

She swallowed and her lips parted slightly as though she was going to say something, but then…nothing.

"Bella."

"Edward, I think you should go."

I searched her eyes for it.

For that glimmer of hope, as I pushed on.

"I'm not leaving. Not again. Not without…"

She became stubborn, then. "You can't just –"

"What's going on, guys?"

New guy.

He eyed me, noticed the gun that my hand was on, and instantaneously grew serious.

"Jake," she said, smiling. "It's nothing…this is…a friend."

I snorted and then Jake gave me a wary look. "Everything…okay?" he asked, as his hand non-chalantly went to his hip while he moved next to her. Their guests began trying to peek into the kitchen to see what the ruckus was all about.

Wouldn't want to cause a disturbance in the force, now, would we?

He was good.

He was very good, but he wasn't going to deter me. I found his attempt at intimidation only slightly entertaining.

"Something funny, guy?" he asked me and I eyed him but didn't answer.

Hell, it was all I could do to resist taking him out just based on the principal of his smug as shit attitude.

"Who are you, anyway?" he pushed.

I looked to Bella… then back to Jake.

"I'm her husband, asshole."

"Excuse me?"

I nodded toward Bella. "That's her line, numb nuts."

"I'm not his…"

"Bullshit."

"Edward."

"Me and you, remember?

"We're not," she tried to laugh it off, but I pulled the piece of paper out that Alice fucking Brandon had given me the day following our vows. "Oh yeah?" I waved it at her. "Well I have a legal document saying otherwise."

Bella's shoulders slacked and her face looked full of pity. "That wasn't real."

"Sure it was."

"That's not even your real name, Edward."

"Am I missing something here?" The dipshit inquired.

I informed him, "Personal conversation dude."

The he studied my face for a second or two and became panicked. "Oh shit… You're Cullen, aren't you?"

Then Bella's face blanched and he noticed. "Oh… shit. You are."

He grabbed a phone out of his pocket and I grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry what'd you say your name was?"

"J… Jake."

What, he's scared of me now?

Good.

"Okay, well, Jake…" I let my eyebrows raise a little bit for him. "Don't take this personally, but…"

I decked him and Bella's intake of air called for her guests to fly to the kitchen then. "Oh my Lord, is everything okay in here?" the woman asked.

Before Bella could try to compose herself, I told her visitors, "You should probably go."

When they didn't move, whether from lack of understanding or shock value, I added, "Now."

They were already backing away … typical politicians … good think I wasn’t counting on them to call the police.

Aside from their less than stellar actions, they did at least eye Bella for some kind of confirmation that she was okay and she nodded, letting them know I wasn't actually some psychopath that had just broken in to kidnap her or anything.

Actually now that I think about it… I did look a little crazy.

Regardless…

Once it was clear that our boy, Jake, wasn't getting up, our wanna be intruders were gone, and the full impact of the situation hit me, I took a moment to make sure it was all real.

Or rather, that she was real.

My hand was reaching out before I'd gotten the thought formed and as it became level with her face, hesitant to follow through, Bella leaned her cheek into my palm, then closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief, it sounded like.

I probably should have, I don't know, asked permission, figured out if she wanted the same thing I did before I acted, but honestly, if I'd had the opportunity to do it again, I'd have still kissed her.

My lips crashed into hers like a crash test dummy and I couldn't stop touching her.

Her face, her lips, her eyes… everything.

Just to make sure I wasn't finally falling into an abyss full of imaginary Bellas that is.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't get past the fact that there we were. In a familiar kitchen, with familiar circumstances and familiar needs driving the moment and when it finally broke, she looked up at me, shaking her head a little.

"Why are you so fucking stupid."

Oh kaaaaay…. Huh?

"What?"

"You shouldn't have come here."

"I... I came here for you."

"Well you wasted a trip, Edward. Do you know Felix has probably already called Marcus by now? What the hell were you thinking?"

"Oh, I don't know. I guess I was thinking I'd get us both out of this life, once and for all?"

"Ha!"

"Something funny?" Was I really that dumb? No.

"You… you're always so…"

She was grasping for words, arms flailing into the air, blowing a gasket maybe… but she was also letting out a lot of stuff that had probably been pent up for a long time.

Four months. Give or take, to be approximate.

"Do you have any idea what I went through to make sure you were okay?"

"What you…" her words were specific and I was getting a fuzzy picture of what might have gone down suddenly.  "Tell me you didn't make a deal with Marcus."

"Of course I made a deal with Marcus. You idiot."

"Oh, I'm the idiot?"

"Yes." And she was so sure of herself, even I believed her. Until I reminded myself that I wasn't an idiot. Not anymore.

"Bella."

She cut me off. "Edward, he was going to kill you. Kill. As in dead, never breathing, not alive… do you have any idea what that would have done to me? How that would of…"

She stopped, trying to catch her breath and I grabbed her arms, stopping them from flailing to get her attention so that I could say something, finally.

"Did you learn nothing from the Charlie situation?"

"Yes I learned something, Edward. I learned not to play with fire. Not to push Marcus' limits, not to…"

She seemed so broken, in some ways, this Bella. She wasn't quite as feisty anymore and I wondered what she'd gone through after I was taken away, although it couldn't have been worse than what I endured. Not by a long shot.

"Listen to me."

"What?"

"We have a way out of this, but I need you to focus."

"There is no way out of this Edward. Do you seriously not get that yet?"

I tried to explain. "Emmett's government and I think he…"

"You got the government involved in this? Jesus Christ." And was failing miserably.

"It's not what you…"

Then a very large hand interrupted any headway I might have been creating by making a very hard connection with the very unprepared side of my face.

Bella screamed as I hit the floor and when I turned to see who it was that had sucker punched me, it really shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did. I mean after all, he was a douche bag.

"Felix."

Bella tried to intercede, but he pushed her hard, cursing and spewing something about Marcus not being very happy that she'd lied to him. Her head hit the corner of the counter and she fell, driving me to run for the asshole, despite the stars in front of my eyes.

Big mistake by the way. That dude is one iron-fisted motherfucker.

Felix didn't even flinch when I went at him. As a matter of fact, he welcomed the challenge and gave me a good elbow to the gut once I was close enough. Then caught my chin on the upswing of his next punch and I flew backward against the refrigerator.

"Shit." That hurt.

I couldn't get my bearings and didn't really have to because that's when Felix grabbed me by the shirt, pulling me upright before I had a chance to slide to the floor for whatever balance might have been found there.

"Didn't get to say goodbye properly last time, Edward," he smiled as he decked me square on \ and I thought I felt something crack in between my nose and lip.

I could hear Bella's screams but they were only background noise to the ringing in my ears at that point. "Felix, stop it!"

Another fist to my face and ouch… that was my eye.

Of course, none of this stopped me from having the last word. Sort of.

"You just can't stand that you were never Marcus' favorite pet, could you Felix? Couldn't get the job done… ever."

I smiled. Kinda. I mean it was hard to tell with the whole losing all sense of feeling in my face and all.

A knee to the groin area shut me up though. For the time being. If he'd given me another minute or two, I'm sure I would have caught my breath again and had another little somethin' somethin' to say to him.

The only thing is, I wasn't gonna get the chance to say anything else. Not to Felix, anyway.

Because just as he was about to end my career in stand up comedy, a shot rang out and his face went blank. And as I tried to gain my sense of equilibrium back, his hand slid down the front of my now very bloodied shirt and he fell, face forward onto the kitchen floor in front of me.

A gush of AB negative spilled out from the back of his head and a very shaky handed Bella Swan was standing a few feet behind where he'd just been.

I mean, I think it was her. She was pretty blurry at that point.

No, yeah, it was definitely her.

"Bella Swan, marksman?"

She shrugged. "I've been practicing."

I nodded. "Good idea."

I was losing the ability to stand on my own two legs when she dropped the hand gun and ran to me.

"If you wanted me to hold you, Edward, all you had to do was ask," she teased but I hadn't lost my ability for sarcasm. Yet at least.

"I was going for dramatic."

She shook her head at me and laughed. And then I tried to laugh. And then she kissed me. Bloodied face and all. "Ow." My fingers moved to touch the split lip Felix had given me.

"Sorry."

We walked into the living area and I knew I didn't have a whole hell of a lot of time to get us outta there, so I tried with her again. "If you knew there was a way to leave this glamorous lifestyle, Bella… would you?"

"Would I…?"

"Leave with me."

Her head showed her frustration.  "Edward, how do you know he wouldn't come after us?"

"I don't."

"You really wanna take that risk?"

"If I was with you, I’d take any risk laid out for me."

Her eyes were trying to answer, but I knew Bella. At least I thought I knew her. It seemed more to me that she was scared to say the words she'd spent her whole entire life wanting to say.

And then, before I could find a way to make her understand, I saw movement outside the window over Bella's shoulder.

My eyes were the only thing that budged, watching Marcus as he walked with no rush to the front door and then I looked back down to her, with all the cravings for her that I'd had since the damn day I'd met her.

It was overwhelming to see her again.  To have her this close.  To have her in my arms and to know there’d have to be another goodbye, now.  Especially this sort of a goodbye. 

Because it was too late for running.

"Tell me the truth… no bullshit or masks to hide behind."

She swallowed.  "Anything. I promise."

"Would you have come with me?"

Her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows met each other. "Would I have?"

"Just answer the question."

She eyed me, curious as to why I'd chosen those words, but she answered none the less. "Yes."

I smiled. "I knew it."

Marcus quietly made his way into the house and my eyes shifted to him again.

His lips curled and I felt… satisfied. "I want you to know something, Bella," I said only to her, unwilling to unlock eyes with Marcus. "Every crappy moment in my life, every con, every pain, every lie... you made it all worthwhile when you entered my life."

"What are you looking at?" she asked and then started to look but I stopped her from seeing him, turning my attentions back to her. No need to have any more theatrical interactions with the bad guys.

That was my job now.  My last con.

"Do you trust me?" I whispered and her eyes searched mine but I didn't have time for contemplating. "It's not something you should have to think about, Bella."

She nodded and tears seemed to spring to life in the corners of her eyes. "Yes."

"I love you."

Her lips shook as she started to say something, but I didn't wanna know how she felt. Not yet. So I raised the small pill I'd brought with me to her mouth, stopping the words, and I told her, "Bite down on this. Emmett'll take care of you."

"Edward."

I held her beautiful face in my hands, grateful for the answer she'd given me earlier. "Don't be scared."

I was scared shitless.

Marcus was pulling his gun out when Bella bit down and, as he pointed it at her, I was finding my own little trick up my sleeve.

"You're never getting her back, Marcus. I'm leaving with her," I told him as Bella's eyes closed from the drug she'd just swallowed.

"You will not leave with her, Edward," he informed me with the same smug, arrogant tone he'd always had with me. "Not alive. Not either of you. I gave you your chance and now you have failed." Then he never even hesitated to aim at Bella's head, the daughter of his long time "friend" who in the end, he killed because he knew he wouldn't live much longer anyway. And because he thought he'd found another carrot to dangle over her head.

As Marcus pulled the trigger, I spun Bella quickly and smoothly, exploding the bag in my hand and the two of us fell to the floor.

Blood was everywhere.

On Bella, on me, my face, her eyes… the floor around us.

At precisely that same moment, the chaos that was Emmett's team burst through the back door, swarming in on Marcus before he could get another shot off or even think about running, and I pushed myself up off of Bella's limp body, yelling out for some fucking help.

Someone checked on Felix's body as Marcus attempted to talk his way out of the situation, despite the evidence he had to have known they had on him.

I stood, looking down at my hands. At the blood on them and let emotions take me over for the first time since I don't know when.

Medics from an ambulance that had arrived with the FBI, CIA, DEA and whatever other government agencies rushed in and worked around Bella and check the other two bodies found in the kitchen while Marcus strained to see what was happening.

Officers dragged him out of the immediate scene area, reading his rights to him.

He yelled things like, "this is ridiculous" and "you are an ignorant, meaningless insect, Edward" but I wasn't paying too much attention. I was busy staring at Bella, who lay there, unmoving as the team around her worked.

I removed the Kevlar vest Emmett had given me and inspected it as he came to take a seat next to me. It was the second time he had offered me ice in recent days.

"Sorry we couldn't head in sooner, had to wait for Marcus to show for it to work out, otherwise…"

"It's all good, Em."

I took the cold bag from him and gratefully pushed it up against the side of my head as I watched them take Bella's body out on a stretcher, covered head to toe in white linens, save for the red splotch of blood that was seeping through, as Marcus was lead to his ride for the evening.

No more limos for you, old friend.

I felt cold.

I felt empty.

And I felt lost.

I'd spent what felt like a lifetime trying to find a way out of working for Marcus or, hell, finding a way out of the life of cons in itself, for that matter, but really, what had I planned on doing outside of it all?

It was all I knew.

And without Bella, I wondered, was all of the plotting and planning and hoping worth it, after all?

I stood and followed as the ambulance driver and his partner rolled her out to their van and loaded her into the back, then they drove off and there was nothing I could do. Nothing.

I was helpless.

Emmett had walked beside me.

"What now?" I asked him, watching it drive away with the love of my universe.

Emmett let out a long, exasperated breath of air. "Now… Unfortunately, I arrest you."