Disclaimer: I own nothing, SM owns all

A/N: As always thanks for the alerts and reviews. Many thanks to EdwardsBloodType for her help beta'ing. Fic Rec's on bottom.

Also, if it helps, go back and re-read the prologue before this chapter. I just didn't want to repost essentially the same thing all over again.

Chapter 4: The Taking Pt. 1

EPOV

I walked to my cart to push it back over them. As I reached it, I heard a sound that would haunt my memory for the rest of my life. I heard my Lily scream and then a gunshot rang out followed by complete silence. I whipped around to save my little girl from I don't know fucking what, and what I saw made me freeze.

A man, with stringy blond hair, and cold gray eyes had a gun pointed at my baby girl and Bella.

* * * * * * * *

I started to move forward to grab Lily and pull her behind me, but his eyes flashed up to me immediately halting me in my movements.

"Stay right fucking there or die motherfucker."

He spoke without raising his voice, and he looked at me calmly as though if was of no real consequence to him if he had to kill me or not.

He looked back down at Lily and Bella then, who were still crouched together surrounded by apples, asking, "Vicki, what are you doing at the store? You know you're not supposed to leave the house without me."

Vicki? Who the fuck is Vicki? Does she know this asshole? If she gets my daughter hurt I swear to god I'll kill them both.

But Bella/Vicki looked completely confused, and absolutely fucking terrified.

"I-I'm sorry, but I think you have me m-m-mistaken for someone else. My name is-"

She was cut off by his backhand.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TRY WITH ME VICTORIA! WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING TAKING OFF WITH ABIGAIL?!"

Abigail? Is he talking about my Lily? Who the fuck is this guy? He's fucking insane!

Bella was shaking, obviously unsure if she was actually meant to answer him or not. I didn't blame her, I didn't know myself to be honest.

After a moment he seemed to calm himself, shaking his head a bit, and a cool mask replaced his rage-filled visage.

"I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to yell like that. You just caught me off guard is all. Were you planning some kind of surprise? I didn't mean to ruin it for you."

Bella still looked completely shocked, her eyes dancing frantically between his face and his gun. He began to look irritated, obviously this time expecting an answer.

She had fallen back on her ass when he hit her, but when she realized he was waiting for her to speak, she scrambled back up. I noticed that she placed herself slightly in front of Lily, where his gun was still aimed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…

"Um…" she began, "I- it would probably be easier to think straight if you could just point the gun away from me, please." She tried to hold her voice firm, but her body betrayed her with slight tremors showing her fear.

"If you were just telling the truth, you wouldn't need to think about anything, Victoria." His voice belied his growing anger, and his eyes flashed to Lily behind her.

"I don't want to deal with this here. We just need to get you both home, and I'll discuss this with you in private. She doesn't need to witness your punishment for disobeying my wishes." He sounded truly annoyed now and motioned with his gun for her to stand.

Bella stood quickly, pulling Lily up with her, but hid her completely behind her body now.

This motion did not go unnoticed by Crazy Eyes.

"Why are you trying to hide her behind you, Vicki? You're only going to make this worse for yourself. Come here," he commanded softly.

Bella hesitated for a moment, but when he lifted his gun and huffed she began to move towards him. I looked around the store quickly and saw every person completely immobile. I noticed now how empty the store was, I assumed since it was already dinnertime and most people were already at home.

Why can't I hear any sirens? Don't they have silent alarms? Shouldn't someone have called the cops by now?

Keeping his gun trained on her, he maneuvered her a few feet away from him, standing on his left, so she was no longer blocking Lily. My baby girl was now standing completely alone in front of a crazy man who thought she was his daughter. With his eyes still on Bella, he moved the gun back towards Lily.

A strangled cry erupted from my throat, and my breathing stopped altogether.

"Victoria, I'm going to say this once, and you're going to listen understand." He spoke so softly I could barely hear him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella nod, but I couldn't tear my sight away from Lily and the gun trained on her.

"If you try to defy me again, I will punish her in your place. If you try to fight me, I will hurt her for your mistakes. I will not be gentle, and I will make you witness it all, so you understand fully how serious I am. I am your husband and you will give me the respect I deserve." After delivering his message, he turned his attention to Lily, while simultaneously moving his gun's aim onto Bella.

Once the gun was no longer pointed at my little girl, I choked out a breath, but still stood frozen and completely helpless.

He spoke to her then, to make sure he had her attention.

"Abigail?"

I had to swallow down the bile rising in my throat, hearing that monster speak to my daughter with…affection?

"I-I-I'm not Abigail, I'm Lil-"

He didn't say anything, but his eyes flashed in anger. Lily froze, going completely silent. He stepped closer to Bella, and nudged her mouth open with the barrel of the gun, placing it inside when her mouth was wide enough. Her eyes flared open, her cry muffled, and I could see her gagging on the weapon. She paled to ash white, but remained perfectly still.

Oh my god, please don't make my daughter see this. Please, please, please…

Lily rushed forward a few steps, arms outreached, crying out, "Stop! Please!"

He turned back to Lily and asked her, "I need you to understand, Abby. If you talk back to Daddy I will have to hurt Mommy. If you're bad, I have to punish her. Can you be a good girl, Abby?" His gun was still inside Bella's mouth, and Lily seemed to be scared speechless. At her hesitation, he pushed the gun further into Bella's mouth, and her knees buckled in an effort to keep from choking. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, her tears spilling over onto her cheeks. They ran off her face and she made no move to wipe them.

"Yes! Yes! I understand! I'll be good I promise!" My baby cried desperately. I couldn't see her face, because she was still facing Crazy Eyes and Bella, but I could hear the tears in her voice. They broke my heart.

What the fuck can I do? I can't just stand here! Where are the motherfucking cops?!

"Good girl. Well, come on then, it's time to go." He beckoned Lily over with his hand, pulling the gun out of Bella's mouth. Bella's eyes flew open at that and she stood quickly backing away slightly from him. "Let's go girls."

No, no, no, no. He can't take my baby. Stop him, you have to stop him. Rush him, you can take him.

As if he could read my mind he reached over quickly and scooped Lily up into his arms. He was standing far enough away from Bella that she couldn't reach the gun, her sight focused intently on it. He used it to softly graze along my daughter's cheek, brushing her hair out of her eyes. She whimpered in his arms, and an identical sound escaped mine and Bella's mouths at the same time. He whispered something in her ear and kissed her on the cheek.

He will die for that. It will not be quick. It will not be easy.

My mind flashed with all the different ways I wanted to kill the bastard, as I saw him pass her over to Bella. Lily began to sob quietly into her shoulder, and Bella cradled her tightly glaring at Crazy Eyes over Lily's head.

What did he say to my baby? Where is he taking them?

"Victoria, take Abigail to the van. It's right outside the door. I'll be right behind you. Remember what I said." He gave her a pointed look and then waved her back with his gun.

Bella closed her eyes briefly and rested her forehead on Lily's head. Her hair fell down around them, and she must have whispered something to Lily, because I saw my sweet girl nod her head. She threw her arms around Bella's neck, burying her face in her chest, and Bella hugged her back just as fiercely.

"NOW!" He bellowed, causing them both to jump. Just before Bella started to walk away, she glanced over at me, and the look in her eyes ripped me in half. She looked so sorrowful and apologetic, absolutely torn. She walked out the front walkway of the store and turned to the right, out of sight, taking my reason for life with her.

"If I see anyone come out of those doors," motioning behind him, "I'll kill them both." He locked eyes with me as he said this, and I've never felt so helpless. My body was shaking with the urge to do something, kill, strangle, torture, save her, save them…He backed out slowly, his eyes darting around madly, evaluating any threats to his escape. His gun stayed pointed in my direction, keeping me from ripping him apart the way I wanted to. As he made his way through the automatic doors, he darted around the corner just as I heard sirens in the distance.

Tears of hatred burned in my eyes as I heard tires peeling out from the front of the store, and my desire to give chase warred with my fear of enraging the insane man you had just kidnapped my daughter.

Christ. Kidnapped. My baby…he just…

I heard the sirens blaring loudly now, too loudly. My ears were pounding as my mind struggled to comprehend what the fuck was happening. I heard a policeman's voice through a megaphone attempting to make contact with the criminal.

What the fuck! If they think he's still in here, that's means there's no one chasing him. How long ago did he leave? How far away could he be already?

At the repeat of the cop's request to make contact, I burst through the automatic doors towards the police outside. There were at least five cruisers situated in the parking lot, and I saw four officers standing outside of two of them, guns drawn pointed directly at me.

"FREEZE! Identify yourself!"

I stopped in my tracks, desperate to do whatever I needed to do quickly to alert them to what was happening, not that my brain could fully grasp it.

"Please," I choked out, "My daughter was just taken, along with another woman. This man, he took them, he took them…" I started to hyperventilate as I struggled to say the words out loud, unable to continue, but needing to say them. They needed to start the chase or I was going to get in my car and hunt this asshole down myself.

Fucking man up, Cullen. Break down later, find Lily now.

At my admission, the officer holding the megaphone came rushing over to me, while the other officers stayed in place. They were covering him, eyeing me warily.

"Sir, can you give me your name?"

"My name," starting to feel really fucking irritated at the time that was being wasted, "is Edward fucking Cullen. My DAUGHTER was just taken by some crazy man, along with another woman shopping in the grocery store at the time. They drove away in a van less than five minutes ago. And why the FUCK is no one going after him yet?!" I was shouting by the end of my explanation, my chest heaving with the adrenaline rushing through my system.

"Sir, you have to remain calm, so we can get all the information we need to find your daughter." Is this guy for fucking real? Calm?! "Can you tell us what the van looked like? Did you see any of the numbers on the license plate?"

Now I was just starting to get frustrated.

"I was inside. He took them from inside. He said if we followed him, he'd kill them. I was afraid if I tried to chase him, he'd-" My voice broke then, unable to say the words, intense shame burning from the inside out. My baby was just taken from me, right in front of me, and I did nothing. Nothing. I should have tried to fight him, distract him, and do something! If he killed me and it kept her from being taken, it would be worth it. But no, I just stood there and watched him touch my baby, my Lilybug, my princess, right in front of me. I deserved to die. I failed her.

I couldn't think like that. My daughter needed me to stay strong so I could find her.

But if anything happens to her, if that monster touches her or hurts her…

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Cullen. FIND HER.

"Alright, sir? We're going to go inside now and look at the surveillance tapes for the parking lot to get an ID on the vehicle. We'll also be taking a look at the security video from inside the store to try to identify the kidnapper. Did he give a name at any point during the abduction?"

"No. He just kept calling them Victoria and Abigail, he wouldn't let them say their real names."

"Alright. Let's go inside and start this. My name is Captain Williams. My sergeant here," he gestured an older looking officer over to us, "Officer Masen is going to take your statement and our sketch artist should be here soon. In case we aren't able to get a clear shot of the abductor on camera, we'll need the best description you can give to help identify him. We'll start an Amber Alert immediately for your daughter. Do you have a current photo of your daughter? We'll be releasing it to the 9 o'clock news broadcast."

As soon as the word 'news' escaped his mouth, I saw three different vans from local stations pull into the parking lot behind the barricade of police cruisers. We turned and began to walk back inside the store.

I laughed humorlessly. "So now everybody decides to show up. What took you people so long to get here?"

I knew I was being rude, but my sanity was reaching the end of its rope. Adrenaline still coursed through my body. I really needed to hit something.

He answered me, unfazed. "We responded to a 911 call from a cell phone inside the store. Someone placed the call but couldn't speak to the operator to give them their location. It takes longer to pinpoint an exact address when the call comes from a cell. We have to bounce the signal back from the nearest tower, and-"

I cut him off then, uninterested in the specifics. "Ok, I get it. I just want to find this bastard and get my little girl home and tucked into bed."

He gave me a curt nod as we stepped inside what must have been the 'security office' for the grocery store. It consisted of a monitor flashing from screen to screen every few seconds sitting on top of a desk. There were a dozen VCR's sitting next to it, in two columns of six. They were labeled with different areas of the store. I noticed a safe sat in the corner of the room with a cash counting machine on top of it.

A woman dressed in the store's uniform entered the small room then, her name tag identifying her as a service manager by the name of Sally. She had dried tear tracks on her face and she was very pale. For a split second, the doctor in me started to wonder as to her health. I noted subconsciously she was probably in a state of shock. But the father in me overpowered him in a heartbeat, because right now the only important thing was watching those tapes and finding a way back to Lily.

She started explaining to the captain how to select and view from the different camera angles. While they set up the view from the parking lot, I began to pull at the ends of my hair in anticipation. I was about to see this man drive away with my daughter inside. My stomach rolled over on itself thinking about it, but I needed to keep it together.

After a couple of minutes, the correct VCR was rewound and the screen was set to it exclusively.

I saw an old black worker van pull into the lot. I saw Crazy Eyes get out of the van and go inside the store. The angle at which he was parked prevented a clear view of his license plate however. I noted the time in the corner of the screen. 5:15 p.m.

"That's before we got there." I pointed out to the cops, unsure if this information was important.

By the looks on their faces, I'd venture a guess and say it was.

"Ok, let's fast forward quickly then to see which direction they drove away in. Then we'll pull this tape and get it sent down to the station. We need their software to zoom in on the license plate and the faster we do that, the faster we can get the information out to the public. We need to look at the store's interior tapes from this time on to see if he touched anything before he took your daughter. Did you see him touch anything? If we can get a match on his fingerprints it will expedite identifying him."

"No, I didn't see him touch anything except…except them." I whispered out the last word, emotion threatening to take over my mind and cripple me.

I could see the wheels turning behind the Captain's eyes. "We'll also look and see if we can find anything the woman touched as well. We need to figure out who she is too."

"Bella. She introduced herself as Bella, in the store, before-" I cut off unable to finish.

He nodded once, and then turned back to the screen.

They fast forwarded through the tape, and after about fifteen minutes had passed in the video, we saw him exiting the store with a small sack in the nook of his elbow. He was packing a box of smokes in his palm as he walked back to his van.

I saw my Volvo enter the parking lot and pull into a space. I got out with Lily and walked right past him. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed him, because he sure as hell noticed us. His head whipped around as we passed him, just watching us walk into the store. After a few moments he entered his van, starting the ignition but not moving.

About twenty minutes later I saw an old red truck drive into the lot and park. I saw Bella get out and walk inside carrying a large purse holding a piece of paper in her hands, reading while walking into the store. She had her eyes down and didn't even glance at his van as she walked inside. As soon as she walked past him, however, he pulled his van out of the space and drove to the front of the store. He parked just past the right of the entryway doors. He turned off the ignition and exited the vehicle, striding with purpose through the automatic doors.

The Captain ejected the tape then and handed it to another officer in the room. I hadn't noticed anyone else joining us, but I was too hypnotized by what I was seeing on the screen. A million questions ran through my mind.

Did she know him? Was he waiting for her to get there? Were they working together? Or was she as innocent as Lily?

She had seemed so scared, so confused. The man was clearly delusional. But my family was old money, well known in the Seattle area. It could be a kidnapping for ransom, but it didn't seem that way. He really thought Lily was this Abigail. And Bella had seemed so sweet and kind when Lily ran her over. I smiled sadly to myself thinking back on how simple my thoughts and life were just an hour before.

He interrupted my reverie asking, "Did you have a picture of your daughter Mr. Cullen? The officer here can take that with him to the station to get the Amber Alert started."

I pulled her safety ID card out of my wallet, really fucking sad that I had a reason to use it. I handed it off to the officer and he left the office.

The Captain started looking at the store's interior camera footage, and my stomach clenched in anticipation. We saw Crazy Eyes enter the store and stride over to a magazine rack by the cash registers. He flipped through several different magazines for a few minutes, finally selecting a few and then walking out of sight of the camera's angle towards a cash lane.

Captain Williams paused the video and pointed at the screen. "Ok, Masen? Get Crime Scene out there to start dusting those mags for prints. Then come back here to start taking Mr. Cullen's statement." He turned to me then saying, "I don't think you really want to have to watch this happen all over again. We'll be able to get a clear enough freeze on this video to release a picture to the media, so you won't need to meet with the sketch artist."

Masen returned then, carrying with him the same purse Bella had been holding in the video. I had never noticed it with her when we were in the produce section. She must have dropped it when Lily knocked her over.

"Crime scene found this near where they were taken." He pulled out a wallet. "Drivers license says Isabella Swan, age 25. Address is listed as close by. CSI is running the name now."

"Alright, good enough. All we can do is wait to hear what they find. Why don't you take Mr. Cullen here down to the station to get his statement?" Captain Williams addressed me next, "Is there anyone you want to call to alert them of your situation? This will be airing out in a little less than two hours on the nightly news."

"Yes. I need to call my parents. They need to know. I just-I just don't know what to tell them." I choked.

"If you'd like, an officer can make the call for you Mr. Cullen. We can notify whoever you need. Were you harmed at all? You didn't look like it, but you are likely to be in a state of shock. You may want to be looked at by the EMT's here."

I stopped him there. I was well aware I was in a state of fucking shock. I didn't need to waste time letting myself be fondled when I could be helping find my little girl. I just needed to let my parents know before I did anything else. I couldn't have someone else do that dirty work for me. My mother was going to fall apart as it was.

I shook my head. "No. I don't need to be checked. My dad's a doctor, as am I. I'll just tell them to meet me at the station, and I'll explain everything when we get there."

He nodded slowly. "Well, if you won't let us check you out here, then I'm going to have to insist you let Masen here drive you down. I can't let you on the road in your state."

I was too drained to argue over something inconsequential, even though I felt fully capable of driving. I pulled out my cell from my pocket and started dialing as we made our way back outside to Officer Masen's cruiser. My heartbeat thundered between my ears as I prepared to tell my parents the fuckery that had occurred merely an hour after picking my daughter up from their house. It rang twice before I heard my mother's voice.

"Hello?" My mom's sweet voice sang.

And in that moment I was her little boy again. And I was completely fucking lost. "Mom…Lily…I need you…Dad-"

My sobs started and I couldn't breathe. My chest felt like it was being crushed and I couldn't see straight. Stars started creeping into my vision and I couldn't feel the rest of my body. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I heard voices in the background, but I couldn't decipher what they were saying. My legs gave out and the voices were closer and louder, but were garbled and I couldn't make any of it out. I felt a prick right before everything went black.