AN Sorry that it once again took me a little longer to update the story. I would love to say I had a good reason, but I really don't. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I promise to try my best to do better about getting this updated every week.

Chapter Ten

Bella POV

I was bored out of my mind in this motel room. Jacob refused to let me leave the room for anything. His reasoning was that there could be someone watching the room and waiting to have a clear shot at one of us. As much as I trusted his judgment in all of this, I was going stir-crazy.

Since we still have to eat, Jacob would leave the room a couple times a day to grab us food from a nearby diner. I'm sure we would have been stuck eating room service if the place offered it. At least I could get a decent meal this way.

Earlier today when Jacob left to grab us some lunch, I decided to help out by running down to the front desk and paying for the room. I was pleased that I managed to pay for another night on my credit card and get back to the room without Jacob or anyone else knowing about it.

Of course, I didn't realize how upset he would be about me doing such a simple thing. It turned out that he had stopped by to pay for another night on his way back with our lunch only to find out that I had already paid for it. I've never seen Jacob so mad before. I wasn't afraid of him doing any physical harm, but I still cowered on one corner of the bed as he yelled at me for going out by myself and using my credit card.

After he calmed down, we settled down to our lunch on the bed as we watched a movie. For the rest of the day, Jacob kept me in his sight. I wasn't sure what he was expecting, all I knew was that I needed to get out of this room. It was getting claustrophobic being practically locked up in here. I just wanted to get out of the room and take a little short walk around the block or something.

I knew I wouldn't be able to sneak out any time soon because Jacob was being too careful in watching me. He even waited until it was dark before he went out to get us some dinner from the diner. I guess he finally got hungry enough that he wasn't going to sit and watch me any longer.

I watched him go out the door. He never said anything else to me, but he did give me a glare that I could tell meant that he better find me in the same spot when he gets back with food for both of us. As much as I wanted to get up and leave the room just to get some fresh air, I didn't want to make Jacob any angrier than he already was with me. Knowing him, I might end up tied to the bed in order to keep me in the room.

With a sigh as the door closed behind him, I settled back onto the bed and used the remote for the television to change the channels hoping to find something worth watching.

I gave up on the television after five minutes and threw the remote onto a nearby table. If only I had a good book to read in order to kill some time.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I got off the bed and headed over to the door thinking that Jake must have forgotten something.

"Did you forget your wallet, Jake?" I asked as I reached to open up the door.

As soon as I had opened the door a crack, it was flung back with such force that I was knocked backward against the wall. I looked up with fear in my eyes as an unrecognizable man stood over me.

"Who are you?" I asked hearing the slight quiver in my voice.

The man didn't respond to my question. He flung a piece of cloth over my head and grabbed me from behind in order to direct me out the door. I didn't know what he planned to do with me, but I really hoped that Jake was okay.

I was ushered out of the room by the man. I was clumsy on a good day, so with my eyesight impaired by the cloth over my head, I was stumbling every other step it seemed. I don't think we walked too far away from the room before I was roughly shoved into the backseat of a car. I tried not to panic as the car pealed away from the motel, but it was difficult considering I didn't know who grabbed me or where we were going.

I tried to pay attention to all of the turns the vehicle was making on the road, but there were too many for me to keep track accurately. After what might have been the twentieth change in direction, I gave up and settled back in the seat waiting until we arrived to whatever location we were headed toward.

It could have been fifteen minutes or even an hour later, I felt the car doing a slow turn. It finally seemed as if we had left the highway and were perhaps venturing up a driveway. Even though I was scared of what was about to befall me, I was at least looking forward to hopefully getting this stupid cloth taken off my head so that I would be able to see again.

The car finally slowed to a stop and the engine was turned off. The door to my side was opened and a large hand grabbed my arm firmly to help me out of the car.

"Do you think you can take this thing off my head now?" I asked irritated.

"Soon," the man murmured to me.

I was led up some steps that must have led to the front door of wherever we were located. I felt myself walk over the threshold inside the building.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" an angry voice asked.

I felt myself hold my breath because I knew that voice. That was the one person who could bring a smile to my face no matter what the circumstances might be. The only problem was that I didn't understand how he could be here with my kidnapper.

Before I had time to ponder my thoughts, the veil was lifted from my face. I blinked a few times to allow my eyes to readjust to the lighting inside what I now recognized as a house I had frequently visited.

"Bella?"

I looked up and met the startling green eyes of the love of my life, Edward Cullen. I saw that he was standing a distance away but he quickly closed that gap.

Edward walked right up to me and cupped my face in his hands. Looking deeply into my eyes, he asked softly, "Are you okay? Were you hurt at all?"

"I'm okay now," I told him although I saw his eyes give me a once over checking to see if there was any visual damage showing.

Edward looked up and over my shoulder to glare at the man beside me. "Who are you and what on earth were you doing handling my Bella like this?"

I saw Edward's gaze shift a bit before he said, "And I expected better out of you, Nancy."

I made a move to turn my head and Edward relinquished his tender hold on my face. I could finally see that there was actually two people with me.

"Not that I'm not grateful for you bringing me here," I began, "but did you have to do it like that? You had me thinking of all kinds of scenarios."

I watched the girl Edward had referred to as Nancy grimace. "I didn't really know that's what Demetri had planned. I'm sorry about all the cloak and dagger stuff, but this guy is a bit on the paranoid side."

"A bit?" I asked sceptically.

Demetri held out his hand to Edward. "Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Demetri."

Edward ignored the proffered hand. "I think you need to leave."

"Edward, what's going on?" asked Carlisle who entered the foyer where we were all still gathered.

Carlisle took in the group of us standing there and paused before a wide grin graced his features. "Bella, I'm so glad to see you safe and sound. We were all so worried."

"This man," Edward said jerking his finger toward Demetri, "brought Bella inside with a bag over her head."

Carlisle's gaze met Demetri's before asking, "And who might you be?"

"I'm Demetri. Bella's father hired me to find her."

I gasped at that information. "Charlie sent you? He must be so worried."

"He doesn't know what's going on here, so you might want to wait and call him tomorrow," Demetri suggested.

I nodded mutely as Edward wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

"Why don't we all have a seat in the living room and discuss everything that's happened?" Carlisle suggested.

"I'm just going to head back since no one needs my services any longer," Demetri stated as he backed away toward the front door.

"Thank you for bringing Bella back to us," Carlisle told him, "even if your methods were a little unorthodox."

As Demetri opened up the front door to leave, I breathed out another sigh of relief at the sight I saw. Jacob was on the front steps along with two other men I had never seen before. Even though I had already realized that Jake wasn't in any danger, it was still a welcome relief to see him standing here unharmed.

Jacob met my gaze and smiled at me, "Bella, I'm glad you're okay. I wasn't sure if I could trust these two jerks behind me."

"How did you end up here with them?" I asked.

"Bella, let's go and have a seat so you'll be comfortable while listening to everyone's rendition of what's been going on," Edward said softly in my ear.

I nodded and allowed him to lead me into the living room where Carlisle and Esme were already seated on one of the love seats. Edward pulled me down beside him on the sofa where Jacob chose to sit on the other side of me. I saw a look pass between the two of them and sighed quietly. They were always going to be jealous of each other.

The last three people to enter the room were individuals that I didn't know. The girl seemed to be around my age with reddish hair and chose a chair across from Carlisle and Esme. One of the guys with darker hair sat in the remaining chair next to her while the other one with blonde hair leaned back against a nearby wall where he could see everyone in the room easily.

Carlisle began everything by saying, "We would all like to hear your version of the events that took place the night Jane Aswad was murdered."

Jacob and I took turns explaining everything that we witnessed. Everyone was great in not interrupting as we told the story of that night. I could tell that it upset Edward because every so often he would grip my hand tightly based on something that I said. After we finished leading up to this evening, the questions began.

"So you said this guy's name is Felix?" the blonde asked. I learned that his name was Joe.

Jacob nodded, "Yeah, I've seen him around the company. He supposedly does private security work."

"Who does he work for?" Frank asked.

Jacob ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure who he works for exactly. All I can really tell you is that it has to be somebody in the company that makes a pretty penny because he definitely doesn't work cheap."

"Would you be able to narrow it down any?" Carlisle asked.

"Now this is purely guesswork," Jacob began, "but I would say it has to be someone your level or higher. Since you're the plant manager, you would know all of the people who are higher ranked better than I would."

"I'm guessing that's why you didn't come to me first?" Carlisle asked.

Jacob shrugged. "I had Bella with me and didn't know who to trust. I wasn't going to risk her safety."

"Thank you for protecting her," Edward suddenly said.

I saw that they were staring at each other with similar expressions on their faces.

"You know as well as I do that I would do anything for Bella," Jacob said earnestly.

I shifted because they were beginning to make me a little uncomfortable with everyone else in the room to hear their little display.

"So, we probably need to check out everyone that could have the means to fund someone like Felix," Nancy supplied.

I smiled gratefully at her discerning my discomfort and changing the subject.

"Jacob, I would prefer if you and Bella stay here until this is all cleared up," Carlisle said. "I don't want the two of you to have to go out in public and be seen by anyone that might do harm to you."

"Okay," Jacob said.

"But what about work?" I asked.

"Honestly Bella, right now you're not going to be able to come in because you're needed for questioning by the police," Carlisle responded.

I sighed and hung my head at the seriousness of the situation I was in. I couldn't really fathom the idea of being wanted by the police for questioning on a murder that I didn't commit.

"Will we be alone here?" I asked.

"No, I'll be here with you while everyone's at work," Nancy replied.

"At least they'll be company," I grumbled quietly.

We finished discussing a few things including how Jacob came to end up here with Frank and Joe. I found out from them that Frank and Joe were following Jacob to the diner. When Jacob returned and found the door wide open and me missing, they came up and told him exactly what had happened. I could tell based on how Jake told the story that he didn't trust them, but because he saw that I was gone, he didn't know what other option he had other than allowing them to lead him here. He was surprised and happy to find out that they hadn't lied to him about my whereabouts.

Esme brought all of us mugs of hot chocolate which I accepted gratefully. I took a sip of the warm liquid and finally relaxed against Edward's side allowing his warmth to remove all the worries I had built up inside me for the time being. I knew there was still a long road ahead to clearing my name, but at least I wasn't so isolated from the people I love anymore.