Chapter 12

Hey guys sorry about the late update. In my defense, anatomy class and all of this stuff for nursing school has kept me crazy busy. I may not be able to update again until finals are over in two weeks. I'm going to try my best though.

"What do I owe the pleasure?" I asked.

He sneered when he saw Edward, the fire evident in his eyes.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"Not your fucking business. Now answer my question before I show you my new gun."

He huffed and crossed his arms giving me a disapproving look.

"I would like to know how you managed to get on Aro Volturi's bad side. That takes quite the talent, Isabella. I had settled all of our differences long ago."

"Excuse me? I hadn't even heard his name since your last encounter with him. It's because of you that he's back in the limelight, father," I replied.

We had a stare off for quite a few seconds before he deflated slightly.

"I didn't do anything to him. Get your shit together Isabella before I have to step in again; you won't like what I do next time I come around."

"If there's a next time I'll make damn sure you lose the use of your legs," I threatened.

He walked back out the front door and I threw my hands up in frustration.

"The audacity of some people!"

Edward chuckled and wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed the side of my head.

"Let's go before you destroy something. We should talk to the crew and see if anything new is going on," he suggested.

I agreed happily and we went to the warehouse where there were several cars already.

"That's unusual. If something's going on they know to call you or me," I murmured.

"Unless something really bad has happened that they don't want us to know," he responded.

We quickly jumped out of the car and ran towards the building with one hand on our respective guns. I was hopeful that there wasn't a hostage situation happening but it was always a possibility. We walked in with our guns raised and the crew responded immediately with their own raised guns but once everyone realized there was no real danger we all relaxed. Well, I somewhat relaxed.

"What the fuck is going on here? You know damn well to talk to me if something has happened," I practically yelled.

Rosalie flinched at my tone and Alice looked like she was about to cry. Nearly everyone had a somber look on their face and I had a hunch that I really hoped was wrong.

"Is it about Jasper?"

Alice stormed up to me and got in my face.

"It's your fault that he's disappeared! One minute they were tracking him just fine then poof he's gone! Emmett and some of the guys went out to check out what happened but nothing was there. They left without a trace with my Jazz and it's all your fault! He hadn't even been there for two hours!"

Edward stepped between us before I could say anything. I had caught him up on the conversation between Alice and me earlier that day on the drive over. When he got in her face it was the first time I saw actual fear in her eyes.

"You will learn to be more respectful, Alice. Jasper is a big boy who can make his own decisions. We will not assume the worst has happened, maybe they just need for him to prove they can trust him. It's possible this mission is going to take a while and dangerous things could happen. You will accept this and realize that it's what's best for everything."

He stayed calm through the whole explanation which made it even more menacing. I now understood how someone could fear this man.

Alice said nothing else and went to stand by Rosalie instead. I clapped my hands together to make sure I had everyone's attention even though I was pretty confident I did after that little exchange.

"Alright guys. I want everyone on even higher alert than normal until we have this over with. Embry, you and Emmett go back to where you last had a location on Jasper. Make sure there wasn't something that you missed. I want everyone else to go back to their houses for the night. I will stay here and keep an eye on things while you guys go and get some rest. We're going to need to start rotating shifts to make sure we have enough guard. Got it? Good. Now get the fuck out of my sight," I finished.

They all went and did what they were told. Alice didn't even look at me as she walked by and I grinned at Edward thankfully.

"I was about at my wit's end with that girl. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't jumped it. Probably something that I'd regret later."

He rubbed soothing circles on my back as we walked over to the computers and tried to get a read on Jasper. Luck still hadn't back to my side after waiting for a couple hours for something to show up. We went over all of the evidence that had been collected more recently to see if there was something that we had missed.

I had given up after a couple more additional hours. We had searched everything we could to try and guess where Jasper was. Even without any leads, I wasn't worried. He knew how to take care of himself even in the most dangerous situations.

"Call one of the guys to come and take over for us. I want to get home and see if dad left any information behind on Aro and his gang," I stated.

Edward nodded and did as requested. When Emmett and Rosalie showed up we left and went back to my house. I was grateful for the short drive until I saw smoke rising in the sky. Panicked, I looked to Edward who floored it.

We pulled up to my house which was engulfed in flames.

"Jacob!" I screamed.

Edward ran in without a second thought even when I yelled at him to stop. I made as many phone calls as I could while waiting for Edward to come back, hoping the flames hadn't gotten him.

Alice and a few of the guys showed up right as Edward was walking out with Jacob leaning heavily on him for support. I ran up and wrapped Jacob's free arm around my shoulders and we helped him limp to the car where he could sit down.

"Were you the only one in the house?" Edward asked.

Jake nodded and winced, attempting to look down at his leg. I grabbed a blanket from the back of the car and covered his leg.

"I'd rather not have you freak out looking at this. Edward, call the fire department. I have a feeling I know how this started."

The whole crew watched as my house burned. I couldn't stop the tears that started flowing freely without me noticing until Rosalie and Alice wrapped me up in a hug. I had to fight hard to maintain composure and right when I thought I was going to lose it the fire department showed up.

They went to work as quickly as they could but even after battling the flames for over an hour they deemed my house not safe to enter.

"What do you mean I can't enter my own house? I have important shit in there!" I screeched.

Edward rested his hands on my shoulders and started to give me an amazing massage.

"Ma'am, I understand that you are dealing with a tragedy. But there is way too much damage for anyone to enter safely without the possibility of the building collapsing. We're going to save everything we can. Now, it'd be best for you to work on finding somewhere else to stay while we finish up."

I flipped the firefighter off as Edward dragged me away, before I could do something that I might or might not regret later.

"You're staying with me. No questions and no arguing," Edward said in a tone that left no room for argument.

We went to his house in silence. I still couldn't believe what had happened today with Jasper going missing and my house burning down.

"There's going to be hell to pay for this," I stated simply.

Edward grabbed my hand and squeezed gently. I knew he would be with me no matter what I decided to do next.

Two weeks later we finally got a hit on Jasper's general location. It wasn't precise but Emmett was able to find him from the shitty directions. He reported back that Jasper seemed to be doing just fine but he still couldn't figure out what happened during those two weeks that he was missing. We all breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he was okay and Alice had almost gone back to her old self.

"So what's going on this week?" Edward asked.

"Nothing too important that you need to worry about. Just the usual shipments that have been coming and going. But there was something I wanted to talk to you and Bella about," Rosalie replied.

I nodded in encouragement for her to continue while I continued typing on the computer. The good news is that a lot of the evidence we had gathered for our current Volturi case had been at the warehouse. The bad news was that all of my major information had been burned in the fire which is what Aro wanted. We didn't have concrete proof yet that it was their doing but I was pretty confident in my assumption.

"I think we need to stop hiring new people. Normally I can tell pretty quickly if someone is trustworthy. Well, as trustworthy as is possible. But so many of the people we've been looking at recently…I just think that something fishy is going on," she finally explained.

I paused what I was doing to look at Edward. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

"We could use this to our advantage," he murmured.

"We find one of the more gullible fucks and try to get him to talk," I finished.

Edward and I's relationship has definitely changed drastically ever since we rescued him. We were always together and there was no question about our loyalty to each other. I loved him and I knew he loved me just as much if not more. We hadn't talked anymore about what had happened before he left but I felt that we didn't need to. We had talked about it once he had gotten better and that was it. Hell, I couldn't even complain about our sex life with how fantastic it is.

"Bella? Bella!"

I jumped and glared at Rosalie.

"I've said your name like twenty times. What the hell were you thinking about?"

I blushed and went back to typing doing my best to ignore Edward's smirk.

"Nothing. I want you to keep an eye on what's going on with these new recruits. I'm assuming no one has heard from Jasper?"

Everyone shook their heads no and we proceeded to do research until late into the night. Glancing at Edward, I saw him eyeing me and waggling his eyebrows. I chuckled and stood up, stretching.

"We're going home for the evening. I want two of you to stay here and keep an eye on things. I don't really give a shit who. Alternate shifts every few hours or so. Call me if you need me," I stated.

Everybody said goodbye and we made our way to Edward's car hand-in-hand. Before I could open my door he pressed me against it and I could already feel his arousal.

"It's been far too long since we've had any fun," he murmured against my cheek.

I shivered and put my hands on his neck, entwining my hands in his hair.

"It hasn't even been a day," I replied capturing his lips with my own.

He groaned and pushed me harder against the door, our tongues fighting for dominance. I finally allowed him to take control when I felt his hands grip my waist. I had to fight to stay quiet when his lips trailed down my neck.

"We should get out of here before someone sees us," I murmured breathlessly.

He pouted but agreed and we made our way to his house in record time. He didn't even bother closing our car doors before throwing me over his shoulder and running upstairs. He wasted no time in taking off his own clothes before helping me with mine.

I moaned when he entered me, enjoying the feeling. Sex with Edward had always been an amazing experience that I couldn't get enough of. We came together and he rolled off, collapsing next to me.

"Wow," he said.

I chuckled and rolled over so I could lay on his chest and he rubbed soothing circles on my back.

"Thank you," he said right as I was about to fall asleep.

"For what?"

"For being here with me. For giving me a chance. And for making me the happiest guy," he finished with a kiss to my forehead.

"I love you," I replied before sleep overtook.

"I love you, too."