I'm wondering if I have to give this warning this far into an assassin AU story, but feel like I should. There's another killing in this chapter. So please don't say that I didn't warn you.
It had only been a month since Bella had last taken a proper job, but she hadn't had any idea of how much that she'd missed it until now. She slunk through the crowds at Grand Central Station, and her eyes never once left her mark.
He wasn't anything to look at, and most people didn't look at him twice as he walked past. But, Bella knew the truth. She'd followed the story as it had evolved over the course of two years on the news. He'd killed his wife and their two year old daughter. His bloody fingerprints had been all over the house, but his scum-bucket lawyer has gotten pretty much every bit of damning evidence thrown out and he'd walked free.
The public had moved on and lost interest in him not even two days later. After all, people who brutally murdered their families were about a dime a dozen in New York. Nothing to see, move on to the next psycho.
Bella had been more than happy to take the job when Victoria offered it to her. If the criminal justice system failed to uphold the law and let such a man walk free, then Bella felt as if it was her duty to make sure that they got their comeuppance.
This was where she belonged, what she'd been trained to do. She'd been following him for hours now. She wouldn't make contact with him until she managed to get him in a private place where nobody would find the body for hours. No messy entanglements, no room for his side of the story.
The only problem was that Bella believed that this man was truly guilty. After having been with Edward for an entire month, she couldn't even begin to say what he was guilty of. Before she'd taken the job, she'd wanted to kill him based solely on the fact that she didn't think that celebrities should be considered newsworthy. Especially not people who were famous for being famous.
But, after that time, Bella had come to understand that Edward hadn't asked for any of his fame. It started out as a young man who enjoyed to go to parties sometimes, turned into a heavily misquoted and out of context magazine interview, and spiraled into something that was completely out of his control.
Bella mentally shook her head once she realized that her target was getting onto a train. She jumped into another car just as the doors slid closed.
This wasn't like her at all, to just let her mind wander while on a job. She'd almost lost sight of her target, and it was all because she'd been wrapped up in the ever-consuming thoughts of Edward. Granted, her work with Edward wasn't over quite yet, but she had to focus on the job that she had right now.
She slipped between the other passengers on the train and went into the car that he was in. She spotted him easily— she had been following him all day, after all— and sat down on the other side of the car. She pulled a newspaper out from her bag and pretended to read it while she kept an eye on him.
He rode for three stops before he got off and left the station. Bella was never less than a few feet behind him the entire way. He walked around the streets for a while before he went into a department store. He bought a couple of new ties, and then contemplated several suits while he talked to a sales assistant.
"Can I help you?" another sales assistant said as he came up to Bella.
"I'm just thinking about something to get my boyfriend for his birthday," Bella lied.
"Most girlfriends just get their man a tie," the man said.
"Well, he's very special to me," Bella said, and then blushed slightly. "But, like I said, I'm just looking around for some ideas. His birthday isn't for a while yet. But, you know; gotta start thinking about it so that I don't just end up getting him a card to Home Depot again!" She forced out a little laugh.
"Alright, just let me know if you have any questions," the man said before he left to help somebody else. Bella looked around. In the thirty or so seconds that she'd been talking with the man, her own target had vanished. The sales assistant that he'd been talking to was helping somebody else, so Bella doubted that he was in the dressing room. Regardless, she waited a few minutes, but he failed to appear.
"Fuck," she whispered under her breath. Five hours wasted because she was distracted over Edward. She was starting to lose her touch.
Bella trekked back to where her target lived. It was in a highly residential area, and there weren't any shops around. It made for awkward stakeouts caused by overly noisy neighbors. But, she was used to awkward. A house on the corner, about four houses down on the opposite side of the street from her target's house was clearly empty for the day. So Bella sat casually on the front step, shook out her newspaper, and settled in to wait for her target to return.
As she waited, her mind drifted back to earlier in the store. How in the world could she have possibly been so damn stupid? It wasn't like her to make up some overly elaborate lie to shake off curious passers-by. With a quick word and a smile, she used to be able to send them scurrying off in a hurry. But today…
She shook her head with annoyance. And earlier, at the subway station. She'd almost lost track of her target. And, both instances had a common theme: Edward.
It was absurd: Even though her job with him wasn't finished but rather, put on hold, she couldn't stop thinking about him. Was it because of the lack of completion? She'd never gone this long on a job before.
It must be the reason, Bella concluded after a moment. She'd never taken a job that went on for this long. She would maybe tail a target for a day or two, but then, she'd kill him and that would be that. She was anxious to end the job, which was only making her distracted.
Victoria had already bought the plane tickets to London, but that was in two weeks. Bella felt anxious to get over there.
But, as she mulled this over, she realized that she wasn't eager to kill Edward, but rather, to see him again. They sent texts to each other like crazy, but she'd only called him twice since he'd left.
With a pang, Bella realized that she actually missed him.
She was pulled away from her musings as a car pulled up in front of her target's house. Her target got out after a moment and went to get a garment back from the backseat of the car. As Bella watched him go inside, she realized that he still lived in the house where he'd killed his wife and daughter. What kind of a person did something like that?
Bella got up, tucked the newspaper back into her bag, and casually strolled further down the street. As she walked, she pulled on a pair of crisp, white gloves so that she wouldn't leave any fingerprints behind. It was the middle of the afternoon, and most people were at work or school. She hadn't even really questioned why he wasn't at work until just now, but it sure made her life a lot easier.
And, as far as she could tell, her target was currently home alone. She walked up the short path to the front door and rang the bell. He answered after a moment.
"Hello, sir. I'm here to talk to you about the true word of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Chris," Bella started.
"I have religion and I go to church weekly," he said with some annoyance. He was about to slam the door in her face, but then he stopped. "Wait, don't I know you from somewhere?" Bella started to sweat— she'd been made.
"I have been talking to some of your neighbors, so maybe-" Bella started, but he cut her off.
"Yes, I have! You're the girlfriend of that Edmund Calwen celebrity!" Well, fuck. Bella couldn't say that she hadn't anticipated this, but it still came as a bit of a shock to her.
"It… It's Edward Cullen, actually," Bella said, and struggled to keep a smile on her face. "But, I'm not here as his girlfriend, I'm here to spread the good word about-"
"Yes, yes, I heard you the first time. Please, won't you come in?" He opened the door wider and gestured for her to enter. This was almost too easy. Bella stepped inside and followed her target through the foyer and into the kitchen. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Water, thank you," Bella said. She pulled out her stiletto when he turned around to grab a glass from the cupboard. When he went over to the refrigerator, Bella walked up behind him and stabbed him through the heart with the knife.
She moved quickly out of the way as his body collapsed onto the ground. She bent over to wipe her knife off on his shirt, and turned around to leave. Before Bella left the house, she found the thermostat and turned the heat up as high as it would go. She wasn't a forensic expert by any means, but she knew that excessive heat would help the body to decompose faster. It would likely be several days before anybody noticed that he was missing; he lived alone and didn't appear to have any sort of a job.
With that done, Bella quickly left the house and returned to her own apartment.
"This is your captain speaking. We will be starting our descent to London in about fifteen minutes." The announcement awoke Bella from a rather restless sleep. She hadn't been on a plane since her parents had died, and she liked it even less now. But at the same time, she knew that it was a necessary evil, because, at the end of the eight hour flight, she'd finally be able to see Edward after a month-long separation.
She didn't want to think about Victoria. Or how Victoria had told Bella that she'd meet up with another agent while she was in England who'd give Bella the final instructions about her job with Edward.
The plane landed, and Bella stood to grab her bag out from the overhead bin. After she'd gone through customs, she came out into the baggage claim area. Her eyes instantly took in every possible threat and exit in the room— it was a reflex— before she spotted Edward standing by one of the baggage carousals.
Nothing seemed to really matter anymore. Not Victoria, not the bodies that Bella had left behind in New York, not the job. Because there was Edward, holding a bouquet of flowers, and she was very happy to see him.
Bella was hardly aware of crossing the distance that separated them, and then he was there, and he was hugging her, and everything was somehow alright in the world. As she fisted her hands into the fabric of his shirt, she realized how much that she'd missed the scent of his aftershave and shampoo.
Edward pulled back and offered her a sweet yet chaste kiss. "I got you these," Edward offered as he pulled away from her. It wasn't anything at all like the expensive bouquets that he'd given her in New York, but rather, looked like he'd picked it up at the grocery store on his way to the airport.
"They're wonderful, thank you." And she meant it. They got Bella's single bag and Edward lead her to where he'd parked his car.
"Did you have a nice flight?"
"I slept most of the way through."
"Probably for the best. I hate long flights," Edward said with a slight nod of his head. Bella hummed with agreement. "Did you eat?"
"I had a bite on the plane, but I couldn't eat much."
"Are you hungry?"
"Not really."
"Are you sure? Because we could stop somewhere and get some-"
"Edward, would you stop?" Bella snapped at him. "I'm nervous enough over meeting your family. I don't want to put it off any longer than I have to!"
"Don't be nervous," Edward said. He took his hand off the wheel and gently caressed Bella's knee. "They're all super eager to meet you. You don't have anything to worry about." He chuckled slightly. "Honestly, the way that Alice keeps going on and on about you, one might think that you were her lover instead of me."
Bella looked out the window. They were quickly leaving the city behind, and even the signs of the suburbs were melting way to nothing but rolling, green hills. "I look at a map of England, and I see how tiny that it is in comparison to a lot of other countries," Bella started. "But then I'm actually here, and I can see how completely stacked together that everybody is. But, we drive for an hour, and suddenly, there's literally nothing around but open fields." She turned to look at him. "How?"
Edward chuckled slightly. "Hey, we're not the birthplace of Harry Potter for nothing, you know," he said, and threw her a wink. Bella laughed, too.
They drove for about another hour before they got to a smallish town. Bella thought that this was surely where the Cullens must live, but they drove past without stopping. About five minutes away from the town, Bella saw a massive house. Surely…?
"No," Bella said to Edward as they headed towards the manor house.
"Welcome, Bella, to Oakenwall Manor," Edward said. They drove up to the beautifully ornate wrought-iron and golden gates, which opened promptly for them, and Edward drove around a simple fountain that sat between the front gate and front door. Before Edward had even turned the engine off, the front doors flew open and a young girl ran out and down the three, narrow steps eagerly.
"I'm so happy that you're here! You're here!" the girl exclaimed over and over. Once Bella was out of the car, she realized that it wasn't a girl, but rather, a young woman who was close to Bella in age. Only, the woman probably wasn't even five feet tall, which had lead Bella to her conclusion that she must not have been fully grown yet. Alice Cullen threw her arms around Bella and buried her face in Bella's chest. "I thought that you would never ever ever never EVER get here! Ever!"
"Um…" Bella started hesitantly. "It's… uh…"
"Alice, dear, let the poor girl a moment to breathe. Please," a stern yet soft voice said from the front door. A middle-aged couple stood in the open doorway, and both looked amused over the actions of their daughter.
"Sorry," Alice said as she pulled away from Bella. She offered Bella her hand instead. "Alice Cullen."
"Bella Swan," Bella said as she accepted Alice's hand.
"Oh I can tell that we're going to be best friends already! Do you have any bags?"
"Um…"
"It's okay, I've got them," Edward said from near the trunk of the car. "Go on, then, Alice. Give Bella the tour, since I know that you've been on edge ever since I got home."
"Yay! Come on, Bella! There's so much that I want to show you! Oakenwall Manor is a really big place, and if we start right now, then maybe I can show you some of the best places before dinner and then-" Alice said in all one breath.
"Alice, honey, Bella just got off from a long flight," Esme said as Alice dragged Bella up to the front door. This brought Alice up short.
"Oh, right," the tiny woman said absently, as if she'd never even considered that. "Sorry, you must be really tired. Should I just show you to your room?"
"Yes, thank you," Bella said, grateful to have such an easy out. She'd barely known Alice Cullen for an entire sixty seconds and Bella was already exhausted by the woman's energy.
"Come on then, Eddy! Best not to keep your sweetie-pie waiting!" Alice said as she skipped inside the house.
"It is ever so lovely to finally be able to meet you," Esme said to Bella once Alice had vanished down another hall. "I'm so very happy that Edward has found somebody who makes him happy."
"Thank you," Bella said with some hesitation. "I'm very glad to be here at last. Thank you for having me in your home, Mrs. Cullen."
"Oh please, call me Esme."
"And call me Carlisle," Edward's father said with an easy smile.
"Beeeeeellllllllaaaaaa!" Alice called from the other end of the front hall. Because of the old, stone structure of the room, her call echoed and sounded much louder than it really was.
"You'd better go," Esme said to the younger woman. "Best not to keep Alice waiting. We'll have plenty of time to get to know one another later. I'll…" Esme looked over to her daughter and heaved a frustrated sigh. "I'll have a talk with Alice. She can be a bit-"
"Too much?" Edward chimed in.
"I wouldn't have put it like that, but yes," Esme agreed with a slight nod of her head. "I'll have a talk with her. You two probably have a lot of catching up to do, though." She winked at them before she and Carlisle turned and went the opposite way. Edward put the hand that wasn't holding Bella's luggage on the small of Bella's back and lead her over to where Alice waited for them.
"I wanted to have you room with me, but I didn't dare bring it up," Edward whispered as they followed Alice up the grand, sweeping stairs. "However, I don't think that anybody would so much as bat an eye if your bed looked exactly the same as it did the day you leave here as it did right now." Bella flushed slightly as she thought about Edward's family knowing what they would be up to during her stay with them.
"Ta-da!" Alice exclaimed as she threw open the door to a room. It was decorated with an understated pink color scheme, and it was floral without being overly feminine. "What do you think?"
"It's beautiful," Bella said honestly as she stepped inside. Edward dropped Bella's carry-on onto the bed and parked her suitcase by the closet.
"Well, I'll let you get some rest now, but mark my words, Bells, I will be by in a bit to get you ready for dinner!" Alice said before she casually skipped out from the room.
"Wait, what?" Bella asked as she turned to Edward.
"She likes for us to dress up for dinner. You know, like on Downton?"
"I don't know what that is…"
"It's a period drama that's insanely popular right now," Edward explained. He stepped closer to Bella and held his arms out. She fell against him with an exhausted sigh. "I've missed you."
"I… I missed you to."
Please let me know if there were any errors, so that I might fix them. Lady_vyxen looked this over, but we're both human and bound to make mistakes on occasion.
