Story Summary: In the aftermath of her divorce, a heartbroken Bella Swan looks for danger to give meaning to her life. If only her hot ex-husband would stay out of the picture. AH ExB

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot of the Twilight Saga are the property of its author. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media. Copyright infringement is not intended, nor will I ever make a dime from this fanfiction. So there.

Thanks to everyone for reading, reviewing, tweeting, the posts at ADF and Twilighted, and the PMs.

Many thanks to LJ Summers, detochkina, prettyflour, and jmolly for the beta assistance. Thanks as well to KristinHazzard, Twilover76, EternalSummer79, MuttNFeathers, and pomme_de_terre for pre-reading.

Thanks as well to the lovely ladies at The Lemonade Stand, TheFicWhispererRecommends, and 18+Twilightfanfics.

This is the last chapter from EPOV. Really *blinks*

AN: Shout-outs to all the War Eagles. I had Edward grousing about them in this chapter as a shout out to my father (who went to LSU) and is still sulking over the 1999 beating ya'll gave his team - that and I think it makes Emmett all that more interesting that he went to that school.

Chapter Twelve: Let's Give 'Em Something To Talk About

I heard tapping at the door, and went to let Emmett in. His alma mater, Auburn, was playing tonight and he had the school's obnoxious colors on.

He waved at his shirt, "I wore this just for you, big guy. I know how much you love Auburn."

"You look like a rotten pumpkin exploded." I snorted before becoming serious. Emmett flipped me off. I said, "Thanks for coming over."

"No problem. How's she doing?"

"She's having nightmares and is somewhat combative."

"So she's arguing with you again and winning?"

"Yes."

"Go, Bella," Emmett joked with a raised fist. "You going to tell me where you're going?"

"It's better that you don't know in case something goes wrong."

I saw through the window that Jasper's car pulled up outside.

"Okay, man," Emmett said, his face suddenly grave. "I'll be here watching over her."

"Thanks. I don't know that you'll need it, but my gun is on the table."

"You haven't left that around Bella, have you?" Emmett sounded aghast.

"No. I have a gun safe and she doesn't have the combination. I keep it nearby lately because things have been so crazy."

"Got it. Sorry. Didn't mean to overreact." I waved a hand dismissively and said as I walked out the door, "Forget about it."

I got into Jasper's car. "Ready?"

Dad said, "I am. This has been a long time coming."

I asked, "Where's Mom?"

"She's with Marcus, and perfectly safe. Let's take the back way in." Good thing Jasper had a four-wheel-drive truck. He turned off the lights on his car and we relied upon the moonlight and our memories to guide us down the bumpy dirt road.

Dad said, "Stop here. We have to walk in."

Eleazar had assigned Jasper to work in the warehouse. I asked him, "So you're sure no one else will be there?"

"Auburn's playing now, and they're all football nuts. Eleazar gave everyone the night off since he knew they'd skip anyway." He took a bag, hauled it over his shoulder, and we walked single file behind him through the pine forest. In the dim moonlight, I could see our breath fogging into silver trails in the air it was so cold.

Eleazar had built a lab out of corrugated metal on the edge of a forest. He'd put a basement in it as well, and used workers from another state. No one local knew about this place. The land we crept across was owned by Aro and Cicy, well, by whoever was their heir. They died without children. We'd grown up hunting on the land, so walking on it at night wasn't too much of a challenge. We found the building dark and silent as we'd hoped.

Dad said, "Eleazar thought having it out here in the country would protect it, so he didn't need a security system."

Jasper said, "What a moron," as he unlocked a door.

We walked in the building and I noted the stacks of bottles waiting to be boxed and whistled. "How much do you think all that is worth."

I said, "More money than you and I will ever see. He's been stockpiling these drugs for months."

It took us ten minutes to set things up. We spread an accelerant all over the place and trailed it outside the building a good ways.

Jasper pulled out a square Zippo lighter, crouched near the ground, and said, "Get ready." We moved farther into the forest. I kept wanting to turn and look over my shoulder to make sure the fire caught, but Jasper pushed me and said, "Keep going. If we miscalculated and that blast is bigger. . ." Duly noted.

When we were two miles away in Jasper's truck, we all heard a massive explosion and saw it light up the sky.

"Now that's a sight for sore eyes." Dad smiled in admiration. We all jumped at the roar of another explosion. I heard whistling and looked up to see the sky illuminated by shrieking streamers of fireworks.

"How did that happen?" I asked.

Jasper laughed. "Seeing as it's illegal to set them off in this county, I thought I'd give law enforcement an extra reason to get out here. You know how much the sheriff hates fireworks."

"Yeah, but you had them in the backpack, right?" I asked him.

"I did."

"That's an awful lot of fireworks for one backpack to hold." I craned my neck as a spectacular blue one exploded on the night sky.

Jasper explained, "I've been smuggling them into that building for weeks and hiding them in the basement."

Dad laughed. "Good move."

"It's Independence Day," Jasper said. "Aro and Cicy, that was for you."

"Do you think we'll ever find their bodies?" I asked.

Dad shook his head, "No. I'm sure Carmen got rid of them. We can still hold a memorial service for them both and put a plaque in the family plot."

My mind played snippets of the film Eleazar made of them dying. I shut my eyes to try and get it out of my head.

Jasper must have had the same problem. "Have you heard anything about that Vrabek guy?"

Dad answered, "I've been keeping tabs on him. He's recuperating, but he won't be leaving the hospital any time soon. He's contracted secondary infections. The police say he's not talking at all when they try to question him."

We drove back into town and passed the howling fire trucks on our way.

Jasper asked, "Are you sure they don't have other warehouses?"

"They might," I answered. "But from what I understand, this was almost all of the product they had stored here because they thought it was safe. So now they don't have much money, and they don't have the ready means to get more."

We approached Eleazar's neighborhood, and parked a few blocks away from the duplex he and Carmen shared. As we walked down the street, I could hear people cheering the game. Everything seemed so normal, it made me feel twitchy.

Jasper asked, "Do we know for sure the house is empty?"

"Yeah, we do." I checked my phone. "Carmen and Eleazar are at a party with a friend who just texted me that they're both there."

Dad said, "I have a suggestion."

"What?"

"Why don't we split up? Edward, you take Eleazar's side, Jasper do Carmen's. I'll stand lookout, we'll have less chance of getting caught and we'll get out twice as fast."

"You didn't tell Marcus about this, did you?" Jasper asked me.

"No way. I'm not going to confess breaking and entering to a law man. I'm not that dumb."

We pulled into the parking lot of a church that was a block away from Eleazar and Carmen's duplex. He lived on one side, and she, the other.

For his age, Dad was remarkably spry. He, Jasper and I jumped over the back wall, and put on latex gloves before we entered.

Carmen had horrible taste but very nice dogs that were delighted to see us, and Dad in particular. They were also quiet on command.

She had decorated her apartment in the nauseating combination of Pepto Bismol pink and canary yellow. I stood on a bright pink shag carpet surrounded by rubber trees and cacti and gawped as I walked past a hot pink leather sofa surrounded by ornate gold and crystal floor lamps.

I said to Dad, "Check out the decor." I pointed at a frame. She had pictures of herself all over the place – mostly cheap-looking headshots that looked twenty years old. Several paintings hung on the wall of dying bulls and gored bullfighters.

She had unmarked bottles of pills in the medicine closet over the bathroom sink. I took a few of each and put them in a bag in my pocket so I could find out what they were.

My friend at the party texted me that Eleazar got a phone call that made Eleazar and Carmen look upset and that they had left in a hurry. They should be busy with the fire for a while.

Above her computer monitor, she had a family portrait we sat for five years ago. Thick black X's marked each of our faces with apparent concentration on my mom and Bella. It unnerved me to see that; to imagine her working at her computer and smiling while seeing our faces like that was creepy.

It didn't take me long to find what I wanted in her study. I copied the information using her computer and burned a new DVD. Just because I could, I accessed their accounts again and had Carmen give twenty-five thousand dollars to Paul Vrabek and fifty thousand to the Friends of the Library. Lights flashed as a car pulled into the driveway downstairs.

I peeked out the window. They were home.

I heard my father in the other room, and whispered, "Dad! We've got company."

He said, "They must have decided to stop here before going to the fire."

"Don't care. We're getting out of here."

I'd never moved so fast in my life. I helped Dad over the wall, and made my own climb and landing right as a panicked Jasper took a flying leap and barely missed me.

Ripping off my gloves and stuffing them in my pocket as we moved, Dad, Jasper and I hustled back to the car. Jasper drove us to a Starbucks cafe that had free wi-fi. We sat across from each other as I powered up my laptop. Aside from us and the staff, the place was empty.

"Edward." Jasper seemed hesitant about something.

"What?"

"We really should all be together. It's safer."

"I can't force Bella to do that. She's not ready to see the family. She can barely stay in the same room with me. I've hired guards to watch over Mom and Dad tonight."

Jasper said, "You know that stuff we heard about um. . . him saying Bella's name?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to get that out of my mental Rolodex." I shuddered.

Jasper appeared queasy. "Eleazar's bedroom. . ."

"What about it?" I asked.

"Do you remember that photograph he arranged for Dad's fiftieth birthday?"

Dad asked, "You mean the one that had Bella and Esme in it? Bella was eighteen? That one?"

"Yeah, that the one." Jasper shook his head. "Eleazar paid someone to paint it. He has this huge painting of Mom and Bella on the wall opposite his bed so he can look at it when he's lying down."

It took effort, but I held onto my temper. "He's going down." I held out my fist.

"Agreed." Jasper bumped fists with me.

Dad sat quietly, lost in thought.

We heard a throat clearing and glanced up to see our guest had arrived.

"Gentlemen, thanks for inviting me." Caius was the station's manager for the NBC affiliate in town.

I answered for us. "Thanks for coming. We have something very disturbing we want you to see."

He grinned. "You're making my day."

I put the disc in and turned down the sound.

"Aw, Jesus." He grimaced and looked away for a second. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Yeah. It is. It's proof that Aro and Cicy Volturi were murdered by Eleazar and Carmen Rodriguez. Vrabek helped, as you can see. Those two gave the orders."

"Have you turned this over to the police?"

"We will after you broadcast what you can of it. And I'd greatly appreciate it if you pointed out in your piece that the sheriff has an election coming up and the public would love to see how he treats his cousin and Carmen."

Caius smirked. "You're mean enough to work in my field. I've got to run and get going on this. Thank you." He set speed records leaving the cafe.

We dropped Dad off at the hospital so he could drive home, and hurried back to the apartment. Emmett was in the living room watching TV with the sound turned off.

"How'd it go?"

"It looks promising."

"Is this about that asshole that attacked Bella?"

"Partly, yeah. We've just done our best to make sure he goes to jail for a very long time."

Emmett smiled. "Remind me never to piss you off, Cullen."

"How is she?" I walked to the doorway of the bedroom. "It's almost time to wake her up again."

Emmett stood and said, "That's my cue to leave. Bella didn't make a peep. You owe me a story when I see you next."

"Me, too, on the leaving part," Jasper said. "Give Bella my best, okay?"

My phone chirped. It was Caius. "Legal has cleared us to show an edited portion – a non-graphic segment. We start in about fifteen minutes."

I locked the door after Emmett and Jasper left and turned back to the bedroom. Bella had managed to tangle herself in the comforter.

"Peter. Run!" she said.

I shook her awake again.

"You were dreaming again. I know how much you hate nightmares."

"What did I say?"

"You said Peter's name. Can you tell me about him?"

Warily, she studied me. "Why do you care?"

"He matters to you. That makes him important to me."

"I'm not awake enough to talk about him right now."

"Later then?"

"Maybe."

I moved the small television into the bedroom and turned the volume all the way down.

Bella asked, "What are you doing?"

"I've noticed you don't like sleeping in the dark."

"Yeah. So what?"

"I thought I'd leave that on."

"Okay." She closed her eyes. "As long as I don't have to hear it."

An hour later, I watched with the closed captions turned on as the first local news segment aired. Eleazar and Carmen were never going to know what hit them, and the sheriff should be having an apoplexy by now.

Caius texted me, "The phones are ringing off the hook from outraged viewers."

Aro and Cicy had been well-known and loved in the community.

Nothing works so well as the machinery of a Southern town when you have a common enemy in sight. Mother and Father both spread the word that as much as it pained them to have to say it, Eleazar was ill, and his ex-wife had mismanaged the business' money. They couldn't account for millions of dollars of their clients' money. Regretfully, my parents recommended that the good residents of our town should take their business elsewhere.

Jasper called. He took after our mother in the social butterfly status and had decided to work face-to-face on our campaign.

"What's up?" I could barely hear him over the noise of a crowd and music blaring in the background.

"I'm at Willy's bar. People are already going crazy about Eleazar and Carmen."

"Excellent."

"Yeah, this is the third place I've stopped by. Hey Bubba! How's Margie Sue? Give her my best," he said to a deacon from our church and then continued, "I've been listening to them shout in the cell phones messages that they left for Carmen and Eleazar to return their money. Some of them were, ahem, quite colorful."

"I bet."

"I'm going to stop by the Country Club, and then I've gotta go head for Mom and Dad's. Watch yourself." Jasper hung up the phone.

I hacked into Eleazar's email. His password was my mother's middle name.

The angry emails furious clients sent him, in particular, were entertaining to read. Carmen's in box should have been smoking it contained so many scathing emails.

So far, my plan was working. By the time I was done with them, Carmen and Eleazar would have no clients, no money to pay an attorney, and they'd be rotting in jail.

Sheriff Remus Rey called ten minutes after the broadcast. "I'm so sorry for your family's loss. Aro and Cicy were mighty fine people. I'm on my way over to arrest Carmen and Eleazar."

I didn't expect him to call that quickly. I said, "Eleazar needs to go to the hospital as soon as possible."

"Yeah? That rumor about him being sick is true?"

"Yeah it is. I don't think he knows, though."

Sheriff Rey asked, "How can he not know? Wouldn't he get a rash or something?"

"Some people start out with mild symptoms, and Eleazar has eczema and refuses to see doctors. He could have explained it away."

"But the rash would stay, right?"

"No, it would clear up. You can literally have that disease for decades and not know."

"How did you figure this out if he hasn't been tested?"

"One of his past sexual partners was diagnosed with the condition and told me about it." I wasn't going to mention Angela by name.

The sheriff sounded surprised. "She didn't tell him?"

"She figured he knew since he gave it to her. They aren't exactly on speaking terms now. She was too scared to give his name up when they asked for her prior sexual partners."

He grunted. "Figures. So you're saying that this illness is behind what he's been doing?"

"Yes and no. There's some evidence that Al Capone's behavior was fueled by the same condition. If it progresses far enough without being treated, it causes people to be paranoid and act out. King Henry VIII had it, too."

"That's the fat guy with the turkey leg in his hand that killed a bunch of his wives, right?"

"The very one."

I could hear more sirens in the background of the call, so I guessed he was driving up to the fire. Sheriff Rey asked, "Now what is the thing I need to tell the doc to check Eleazar for?"

"Neurosyphilis. Better have them check Carmen, too." I doubted she had it, and she'd shriek at the indignity of being examined, which was an added bonus. "Just tell them to run a nontreponemal antigenic test."

"How bout I just have the doc call you?"

"That would work, too."

"Damn shame about Aro and Cicy. Well, you keep an eye out until I find Eleazar and Carmen, you hear? Things are a little crazy right now until folks settle down."

"Yes, sir. Goodnight, sir." We ended the call.

I went into the bedroom.

"Help me," Bella whispered in her sleep. I reached out and touched her hand. She closed her fingers around mine for a second before letting go.

"I promise."

I checked the ammunition in my gun and sat down on the bed beside her to wait for the break of day.

The sound of something shattering startled me into action. One second I sat on the bed watching Bella's face, and the next shards of glass sprayed the room like drops of diamonds. I lunged towards Bella and grabbed her as I rolled to the ground, putting the bed between us and the window. She yelped as I yanked her behind me, and I grabbed my gun.

I held up a finger to my lips. She rolled her eyes and gave me an expression that looked like, "Who me?" She followed that with a narrowing of her eyes that didn't need words to tell me she thought I was a moron.

Crouching, I moved to the broken window and peered through the Venetian blinds.

I heard nothing but the wind. A maroon brick painted with odd symbols lurked on the carpet - the choice of missile of our late night visitor. Thank God it hadn't been a Molotov cocktail.

I wanted to help keep Bella calm, so I whispered, "This is the second time this month someone has thrown a brick through the window. That's why I moved the bed. They should go away now like the cowards that they are. You're awfully calm considering how scary that was."

Bella didn't meet my gaze when she said, "I got used to sleeping lightly in Africa."

Tires squealed as a car made a speedy exit from the parking lot. A mockingbird trilled on a river birch tree outside.

We remained huddled close to the carpet. "See? Just like last time," I said. "Don't wo–"

The gunshot scared the hell out of me when it came.

Next chapter is Bella's POV.

Please review!

Stories I'm reading:

My Wounded Soldier by counselor

My Biggest Mistake, My Greatest Salvation by Lyricalkris

References:

For more on syphilis: http:/health (dot) nytimes (dot) com/health/guides/disease/syphilis-tertiary/overview (dot) html

http:/goaskalice (dot) columbia (dot) edu/late-stage-syphilis

For more on Al Capone and syphilis' influence on his behavior:

http:/www (dot) crimetimes (dot) org/08a/w08ap4 (dot) htm

or you could read:

Neurological correlates of high-risk behavior: A case study of Alphonse Capone," Kathleen Brewer-Smyth, Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, Vol. 38, No. 6, 2006, 442-6.

For more on neurosyphilis:

http:/alzheimers (dot) about (dot) com/od/typesofdementia/a/neurosyphilis (dot) htm

For more on Henry VIII:

Ailing, aging, addicted: studies of compromised leadership by Bert Edward Park

To see how the fear of syphilis played out in paranormal fiction:

http:/www (dot) ntnu (dot) edu (dot) tw/acad/rep/r98/h980003-1 (dot) pdf