A/N
Things are easing up now and I can get back to writing
Thanks to Sunflower Fran for being my beta and cleaning up my words so they make sense to you all
And more than that, thanks to all my followers, favouriters (is that a word?) and those who took the time to review and send me your warm wishes
Stephenie still owns it all, though I wish Edward were mine every day!
Hope this chapter is good for everyone, please forgive Edward, he's under a lot of pressure
Let me know what you think :-)
Sue
Chapter 11
"Edward?" I choked out. "Edward, it's Bella." I was almost embarrassingly close to tears and couldn't say another word.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" His answer was almost rude and definitely confrontational.
"I came looking for you. I was so worried when I found your house ransacked." I replied slowly, almost wary of his tone of voice. He sounded cold and angry, and I couldn't understand why.
"How did you find me? Who fucking sent you?" He continued to bark out questions hostilely.
He marched towards me and grabbed my arm in a bruising grip and proceeded to drag me along the beach in the direction of Jasper's house. His actions were nothing like those of the Edward I had met in Jamaica. I was almost afraid of this man. I was shocked at his complete change of character and once we were inside the rear gate to the house I pulled myself together and tried to yank my arm out of his grip.
Shoving me before him, he pushed me through the open French doors into a large kitchen, hardly allowing me to keep on my feet.
I rounded on him in a fury, "What the fuck Edward? No one sent me. Why would you think that? Why did you leave without a word to me? I thought we had a moment there, but I guess I was wrong. I actually came to find you because I was worried, but it looks like I needn't have bothered."
"How did you find me, Bella?" He repeated. "No one knows Jasper, and yet you managed to pinpoint exactly where I was with no problem. Did they send you? Tanya left nothing, you hear, nothing." He was almost shouting now.
He paced up and down the length of the kitchen, rubbing his face and angrily tugging at his hair. Despite the seriousness of the conversation and the shock at his verbal attack, I felt a frisson of desire shoot through me as I remembered how soft his hair was when my hands did the same thing and how much he liked it.
Shaking the thought and the feeling away I took a step towards him to still his movements. He shrugged his shoulders and moved back away from me; an action which stabbed at the heart that wanted to touch him.
"No, Bella. I don't want you here, and I don't need your help." He pushed me towards the hall leading out of the kitchen and into a small bedroom and stepped back out saying, "I need to think," turning the key in the lock.
I couldn't believe what was happening. This was not the Edward I had gotten to know over the last few weeks. I could understand that he might be a bit shocked that I had managed to track him down, but his cold, angry demeanor towards me was freaking me out.
Now it was my turn to pace the room. I could have climbed out the open window, but I was sure that if I could get Edward to calm down and discuss this rationally, he would see that I was absolutely no threat to him and that I had only come to help in any way I could. Sitting on the bed, I had no other option than to wait.
"Edward," I called through the door. "Come on you know me, talk to me. I promise I only want to help however I can."
There was silence for a few minutes until he answered, "No one can help me."
He sounded so lost and even a little scared that it didn't matter that he had run without a word, or that he had grabbed my arm hard enough to bruise. I just wanted to hug him and comfort him and get rid of that cold, hard man he had been a short time ago.
There was silence from the other side of the bedroom door. "Let me out please, Edward. I need to see you and talk to you. Please." Slipping my shoes off I rose from the bed where I had laid down for a while and approached the door, where I rested my head hoping that he was listening to me.
"I don't know what to think Bella. How do you explain the fact that no one knows about Jasper and yet you managed to find the one place I felt safe?"
"I can explain everything Edward. I found the SIM card, and I've met your family. Please let me out." I almost begged him.
I stepped back at the sound of the key turning in the lock. After a few minutes, I opened the door wide enough to slip through and moved along the corridor. Heading through the archway the kitchen opened up into a large family room where I found Edward sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands.
He didn't look up when I sat down at the other end of the same sofa, nor did he speak.
"Um, I really can explain Edward," I began, "When you didn't turn up after we spent the night together..." I had to stop and swallow before I could continue. "Well, I was a little worried about you and when Sunday came and I had heard nothing ..."
"It wasn't anything, Bella," he interrupted harshly.
I didn't react to that and just carried on. "I was even more alarmed, and I thought you might be ill, so I decided to pop over and see if you needed anything."
"I can take care of myself." Another snide comment!
My temper flared a little. "If you'd shut up with the comments, I'll explain everything," I snapped.
When he said nothing more and only gestured at me, I started again. "As I said, I thought you might be ill, so I went to your place, finding the French doors wide open and the whole room wrecked. I was afraid and unsure about what I should do; go to the police or, or …" I stuttered not quite knowing what else I could have done at that point.
"I fled back to the bar, and when we had closed I sat and talked to Seth who said that we should either go back and take a proper look or call the police and let them do it. I only trust a few members of the police force though I'm sure there are good ones out there but we decided to return alone and take a proper look."
Edward had leaned back by now and was listening to me. He stood and went to the kitchen, bringing back two bottles and offering me one. I thanked him and carried on.
"We found that the whole place had been trashed, furniture turned over, and most of the soft furnishing slashed and ripped to pieces. I was terrified that I would find you stretched out on the floor badly hurt and was about to leave when Seth called me into the bedroom. He had found a SIM card taped to the bottom of one of the drawers from the bedside table.
I stopped to take a drink from the bottle and chanced a look at Edward. He didn't look quite as hard, cold and angry as he had before and I was grateful he was now actually listening to me.
"When we found nothing else we left. Seth thought that we should go to the police, but I disagreed with him. I took a trip to the mall and picked up a throw away phone and eventually called the number. That's how I found Alice."
"I'd forgotten about the SIM card. " Edward mused.
"Just as well," I answered. "After that, people started to hang around the bar asking about you. He looked at me sharply.
"Don't worry," I hastened to reassure him. "We said nothing. Then, when they started to follow me I couldn't just sit still and do nothing any longer so Seth and I planned that he would keep them busy, I would slip out the back and pick up a few things and head to Seattle."
I took another gulp of water and took a deep breath. "They must have worked out what I was doing because they were waiting outside my house. Luckily I had ordered a taxi and managed to leave early enough so that they didn't see which plane I took of the two flights on that day."
"So, they don't know where you went." It was more of a statement than a question. "How did you manage to work out the connection between Seattle and Jasper?
"I did see some men at the airport, and from their actions it was clear that they were looking for me, but I evaded them and ended up at your house. I spent a few days there and spoke to your family getting the whole story."
I branched away from the story saying, "By the way, there's something really odd about that Royce King. It's as if he knows much more than he's letting on. I don't like him, and Alice agreed that although she didn't believe that he was anything but an idiot, she said that she would say nothing to anyone. So far she hasn't, but I know that she knows where I am and as it gets nearer to your court date she might feel she needs to at least tell your mom and dad."
He groaned and closed his eyes for a moment, "I know," he eventually said, "I either have to go back and face it or spend the rest of my life running. Neither is a good option, and at the moment I am all out of ideas."
"It was really easy to find Jasper you know. I was checking out your high school yearbooks when I had the idea that maybe you would be in the University ones and maybe I could find some of your friends, someone you might have been in touch with."
Another mouthful of water, "I just called UCLA and said I was your fiancée trying to get all your friends together for a bachelor party. Mrs. Cope was so happy she said that Jasper still lived locally and she would get him to call me. He sounded odd when he was on the phone, and I just Googled him, and that gave me an address. And here I am … though I have to say that I have been back every day at least twice a day since Tuesday and I was about to give up and go back to Seattle."
There was silence between us for a while as he digested everything I had said. "If it was that easy for you, then why have those men who are clearly looking for me not done the same," he eventually said.
"I don't know, but I'm sure that they will catch up soon, so we have to do something to find more information. There has to be something!"
Edward stood up asking if I wanted a sandwich. My stomach growled at that moment, and my Edward appeared, and with a smirk said. "I take that as a yes!"
And just like that, he was back! I breathed a sigh of relief and stood to follow him to the kitchen where he made sandwiches and iced tea. Taking the plates out onto the deck, he sat in one of the deck chairs and stretched out in the sun, indicating for me to sit and eat. I really wanted to take my favorite seat, but thought it might be too soon and instead, took the seat next to him.
As things calmed after the tense morning hours we had, Edward began to talk, "I have no idea what Tanya left for me, though everyone is convinced that she must have done so. I can't think of anything and the harder I try the less I remember. I have no idea what to do and the police, now that they have their man, have stopped looking for anyone else. The evidence is circumstantial but pretty damning. Dad says that the justice system will find out the truth, but I'm not convinced. And I sure as hell don't want to spend fifteen to twenty years behind bars for something I didn't do."
I remained silent; I didn't know what would be the best thing to do or say.
"I'm sorry for how I treated you, Bella. I was scared that those guys had found me and that you had been in on it from the beginning. I should have known better and trusted not only you but the connection we made. We did have one didn't we?" He looked at me with a worried frown on his face.
Before I could answer him, the front door opened and footsteps sounded along the corridor.
"Hey Edward," a voice called, "You in?"
"Back here, Jasper."
Jasper stepped out through the French doors and looked at each of us. "You must be Bella. I'm glad you managed to read between the lines and work out that this idiot was actually here." He smirked at Edward and cuffed the back of his head.
I grinned at him, "Well, I figured if you hadn't seen Edward and you were as close as Mrs. Cope seemed to think, you should have asked a few more questions of your best friend's 'fiancée'. The fact that you weren't surprised at all stood out like a sore thumb, and if that was the case, you must have either spoken to him or seen him. And voila, here I am!"
"She's a sharp one Edward; she'll keep you on your toes." Jasper laughed out loud, "He's not shut up about Bella this and Bella that since he arrived. He's been a miserable sod, too!"
Edward just smirked at the both of us without answering and the moment for me to answer his last question passed for now.
**CD**
