Sorry for the unexpected shift in perspectives last chapter. I tried to add a divider line…needless to say…Anyway, Here's part two of The Buyer. Like I said in the last chapter, this is probably gonna be the last update this week. I start work work next week so we'll see.

I still don't own anything…well maybe I could stake a claim on this headache I'm sportin'….

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Chapter 4- The Buyer, part 2

"No rules in a scandalous world
We're gonna have a path to find
We sit on the top of the world
And we're proving it every night"

-"Last One To Die" by Rancid. (p.s. they're my favorite band of all time if anyone gives a shit.)

My dreams were their usual run of the mill nightmares about my dad coming home drunk and angry…the rats I fought against for food….and the room I woke up in earlier. At least I thought it was earlier. There was a whimper and then something warm rubbing up against my face. Over and over again. I must have been in the vet's office still because I could swear that there was a dog licking my face. Yup, that's right stupid girl. They left you with the animals cause that's where you belong, dear. I turned my head toward whatever it was that was licking me and it stopped for a minute. Then I felt the paw drag itself across my chest. I thought, at first, it was trying to attack me. I jumped out of bed and moved across the room. When did this room get a bed? Wait, where the heck was I? The dog that had been licking my face walked over to me huddled in the corner and sat down in front of me. It looked like it was waiting for me to give it a command or something. I had never been around dogs that weren't trying to fight me for food or attack me for invading their space. It walked over to me and sat closer and rested its muzzle on my knee. I let it smell my hand and it nudged forward so I would pet it. This had to be the weirdest thing to happen to me, maybe ever.

"Hi." I felt a little stupid talking to a dog, but then again it had been so long since I had talked to anyone or anything other than myself, it felt a little necessary to see if my vocal chords still worked right. The dog whimpered and walked away from me towards the door. Fucking figures, you speak to someone and they walk away from you. You should know better than to try and make friends. No one wants to be friends with a homeless girl. Not even a damn dog. She stopped at the door, turned back around to me and sat down looking at me. I stared at her for a couple of minutes before I stood up. The room started to spin and I knew it was time to find something to eat. Had my pilfering not been interrupted by killers in the alley I could have been over this exhaustion and burning belly ache by now. I braced myself against the bed and started to slowly walk towards the dog and the door that was halfway open. She stood up again and acted excited that I was walking towards her. She must be hungry. I followed after her through the strange apartment. It had been years since I had seen the inside of someone's house. Now where the hell are you? There wasn't much laying around to clue me in on who's house I was in, if it was even a house. There were black and white photographs everywhere of buildings in the city, but no family pictures. You're probably in the damn hospital for dogs still. That would explain your wake up call. I followed the dog out to the living room area and found myself facing a huge open kitchen, an open living room set against a huge wall of windows. This doesn't look like any vet's office. The dog walked into the kitchen and sat next to an empty bowl.

"Hungry, huh? Yeah, me too, me too." I looked around trying to decide where I'd find food for the dog. I saw the sink and remembered my dad leaving food for the cat under there. Opening the drawer I saw two things that looked familiar to me. A bag of dog food and a trash can full of wasted food and containers.

Pushing back the urge to go through the garbage for something to eat before feeding the dog, I pulled out dog food and poured some in the silver bowl in the floor. The dog sat there and waited for me, just staring at me like it knew what I was going to do as soon as it started eating. I looked at the dog and then back at the trash.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Eat." I might have been saying it more to myself than to the dog, trying to give myself permission to look through the trash for edible morsels of food. She started eating diligently. As soon as she wasn't looking at me like I was the disgusting rat I thought of myself as, I started to pick through the trash. I had gotten halfway through the bin with no luck of finding anything but wrappers and empty cardboard boxes when I heard someone behind me.

"What the fuck are you doing?" startled I stood up too quickly and hit my head on the sink. Stumbling backwards and falling onto my ass I reached behind my head and felt warm sticky blood on my fingers. I looked up to see the same face I had in the dumpster and the vet's office staring down at me with a furiously confused expression on his face. Nothing really formed in my brain to say that made sense at first. He waited, the dog kept eating.

"I……I…..I was….hun…..hungry. I'm….um….sorry." Blinking a few times, I started to sway my head from the lack of food and the now throbbing headache. The man standing in front of me didn't move. But he looked at me and then back at the trashcan with pursed lips. He shifted his gaze from me one last time and then looked at the big silver fridge in front of us both.

"There's a whole fucking fridge stocked with fresh food and I find you digging in my damn trash. What's wrong with you?" He wasn't yelling at me. He was obviously angry, though. Knowing in the back of my mind that this was the guy that probably pulled the trigger and ordered the body to be dumped in the alley I wanted to do nothing more than apologize and leave.

"I'm sorry. It's what I'm used to, it's the first place I look for food. I didn't mean to cause a mess or ruin your trash."

He let out a huge breath and shook his head. "Go sit at the table, I'll bring you something to fresh to eat. Any requests?"

Did he just ask me for suggestions on food? "I'll eat anything." I shrugged my shoulders. I watched him smirk and shake his head. "No shit?" I looked at him with a stupid look on my face I'm sure. Was he asking me if I ate shit? Or doing that thing when people aren't surprised but can't just say something like that? I pushed myself up off the floor. Using the counter top as a crutch I lead myself to the table and sat down. The dog finished eating and came over to me. She rested at my feet and looked up at me. Part of me was glad she had eaten since I guessed she was hungry. Another part of me, though, was really pissed at her for leading me out of the room I was in only to come face to face with a guy who could kill me, and probably was. My head was throbbing. I was hungry and the last thing I needed was to spend more face time with someone that would kill me for doing just that. Feeling defeated I put my head down on the table and started to silently cry.

A few minutes later a plate was slid in front of me along with a fork and a glass of milk. I lifted my head and inhaled the smell of eggs and bacon and fruit. I looked up at the man standing in front of me and he turned his head squinting his eyebrows at me.

"Why are you crying?" he looked genuinely confused.

After all I had been through I was exhausted enough not to care about being rational or polite. Looking up at him I couldn't help but think about how unnecessary a last meal really was.

"If you're going to kill me, just get it over with. Don't even bother with the food, you'd just be wasting it, anyway."

He chuckled a little under his breath. His hand reached down and rubbed against my head. I cowered away but he reached in and under my matted hair. Pulling his fingers out and rubbing them together, I saw blood on them. His face went serious again and he stared me down.

"I'm not going to kill you. Now eat what's there. If you're still hungry afterwards, there's more in the kitchen. After you eat, I'm gonna take a look at that cut. Any questions?"

I could think of only one.

"Is it poisoned?"

He reached down and loaded the fork with bacon and eggs and shoved it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

"I wouldn't waste my time cooking a meal just to have it kill someone. That's what a revolvers for. Now eat, damnit." He walked off and left me with the dog to eat my meal. It was fucking delicious. When I was finished I stood up and walked back into the kitchen. There was more in the skillet just like he had said. I put the rest of the food on my plate and walked back to the table. He walked back into the dining area.

"How's the food?" he sat across from me.

"It's delicious. Thank you." There was a bit of silence between us until the dog shifted and sat up next to me putting its face in my lap again.

"I see you've met Dallas." He pointed to the dog. "She usually hides from everyone. She's a rescue dog." I smirked a little feeling much the same as I'm sure Dallas did when he brought her back here.

"She's very sweet." I reached down to let her lick my bumpy palm when he looked at my hand. He cut his eyes towards my palm and then at the table.

"I suppose you're wondering why you're here. And who the fuck I am." I looked up at him a little shocked that he would offer information like this to me. I pulled my hand away from Dallas and she started to paw my lap to get my attention again. He smirked a little at her action towards me but did didn't look up at me once.

"The only thing I've been wondering is if you were going to kill me now or later. I'm not really sure why I'm here and why you or your dog are being so nice to me. But like I said, you shouldn't waste your time."

He didn't get the angry look back on his face like I was expecting. Instead he just pulled his mouth up to a near smile and looked at me.

"My name's Edward."

"Bella"

"Look, I brought you here so you could get some food and a hot shower. I'm not gonna fuckin' kill you."

I started to gather what little bit of hope I could muster to ask the next question...."Does that mean I can leave now? I need to find somewhere to sleep before the sun goes down today." I wasn't quite sure why I felt it necessary to explain my needs. He hesitated for a minute and then spoke up again.

"So….you can't leave….but I'm not gonna kill you or hurt you or any shit like that." I was slightly surprised about the fact that I couldn't leave. But then again, considering the circumstances, maybe having food to eat and a place to be for now wasn't all that bad…..depending on what's expected of you in return, dumb ass.

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There's gonna be a part three to this for me to finish it. I'm fuckin' tired and have to be up early apparently. Drop me a review to let me know what you think. Thanks.