In the long pause that followed, I tried desperately not to grind my molars into dust.
"Very well," her hostile voice continued. "Riley will be staying close to make sure there's no cheating. I suggest you get rid of them as quickly as possible."
Bella rolled her eyes. "No problem, Vic. If I can't force them out the door with my super strength, I'll just incinerate them with the laser beams in my eyes." She snapped the phone shut aggressively.
"Stupid bitch," she muttered.
"What the hell was that?" I burst out. Good grief. Bella's foul mouth seemed to be catching.
Bella eyed me critically as she dropped the phone into her pocket. "Way to be subtle in front of the humans, Usain," she said drily. "You took a whole tenth of a second to get back here."
"What. Was. That?" I enunciated, my patience stretched to the limit.
"Oh, that?" Bella gestured to the phone, her eyes wide in feigned innocence. "That's Tori, my BFF. She wanted to know what I thought of the latest episode of Laguna Beach."
I didn't understand this version of Bella. She had never been difficult. My Bella was sweet, and patient, and accommodating. Everything was turning red in front of my eyes, until a crunching noise startled me out of my haze. I looked down and was surprised to see my fist embedded in the drywall.
"Oooooo," Bella crooned in sotto voice. "The big bad is getting pissy."
I wrenched my hand from the plaster, shaking the crumbs to the carpet. "As usual, you seem oblivious to the fact that I'm a danger to you."
Bella chuckled low. "You aren't a danger to anyone, directly. You just bring down the animal, then stand back and watch the scavengers do the real damage."
A spark of interest shot through me from Jasper's thoughts. He stepped forward, drawing Bella's attention.
"Is Victoria the scavenger? Is that what you're saying?" he asked gently, his tone soothing.
"No. Victoria is the gamekeeper," Bella said with a mocking flourish.
"What game is she keeping, exactly?" Jasper asked.
Bella looked over my shoulder and smiled grimly. "That would be the game that is now my life."
"Excuse me?" I was aghast.
Bella's eyes returned to me. "There really is no excuse for you."
"No, I mean, what-" I rubbed my hand over my eyes and tried to gather my thoughts.
"Look, if I give you the Cliff Notes, will you get the hell out?" Bella demanded. "Fine. Here it is. You guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
"What?" I asked blankly.
"It's a little bit Running Man, a little bit Death Race," she said conversationally.
Jasper shuddered a bit, swaying ever so slightly. I glanced at him quickly. Her moods swings are like a drug, he thought.
"What is, Bella?" I demanded. She wasn't making sense.
"The game," she insisted. "Pay attention."
"Okay," Jasper replied. "So you're playing a game. What are the rules? Every game has rules."
"That's easy," Bella said with a smirk. She held up four fingers. "Don't get caught. Don't get killed. Don't kill yourself. Don't seek supernatural help."
"What?" I demanded, aghast.
"Victoria framed me for the murder of my own father. I have to stay ahead of the police and I have to stay alive."
Glancing at the floor, she drug a shoe across the seam of the rug. "It wasn't too bad when I had the wolves to help me."
My head jerked. "Wolves? You've been associating with wolves?"
Really, Edward? She's fighting for her life and you're going to give her shit for something like that? Alice demanded in my head.
Bella's glare cut through me. "They protected me on the reservation, and they could smell people coming long before I could hear them. When Victoria realized they were making it easier, she changed the rules. Now I'm not allowed to have any help that isn't human."
Her eyes cut from one of us to the next. "You know, like vampires," she said pointedly.
The shame and horror flowed through me like a river, washing away the rest of my thoughts.
Jasper's mind was whirling with strategy. "What's your motive for staying away from the police?" he asked.
Bella's glare became speculative. "You think I should go to jail for something I didn't do?"
"No," he said. "But trial and jail has to be easier than living on the run. You might even be safer from her if you were locked up."
"I'm not worried about myself. Victoria knows that." Bella shrugged. "Thus the rule about not committing suicide."
Alice sucked in a breath, her thoughts dark. Flashes of bars and cots drifted through her head.
With a deep sigh, Bella straightened her shoulders and looked me in the eye. "If anything happens to me, Renee dies. Slowly."
