Chapter Fourteen

Jasper

The cruiser was the only car that came through in the twelve hours I waited before I heard the familiar sound of the SUV coming along and I jumped down from my vantage point to meet my friends. They pulled up a short way back on the track and came in the rest of the way on foot.

"I checked at the end of the track, no new tire marks except for a police cruiser."

When I looked at Peter questioningly he shrugged looking embarrassed, "Hey, I collect tire treads, so shoot me."

I nodded,

"OK, it was just a drive through. Any news?"

Charlotte shook her head

"It's hopeless Major, there are so many possibilities that I've only just started to scratch the surface. Sorry."

Peter piped up then,

"I might just be able to help you there honey. I found the restaurant Victoria used and guess what? She's used it again in the last few hours so I think we can safely assume Bella is still alive unless our friendly red headed psychopath has suddenly developed a craving for burned cow."

I thanked the gods for this break and gestured for Peter to continue. He pulled a map of the city from his back pocket and spread it out on the ground pointing to a section in the far southwest.

"That's where the burger place is situated so I guess we can assume that's the general area of her hiding place."

I looked at the area he indicated.

"Right, Charlotte, search any possibilities within two miles of that restaurant."

Peter looked at me,

"Why so small an area?"

I put my finger on another point about four miles in,

"because unless I'm mistaken there's another burger place just here and she's not likely to travel further than she has to, not with her prisoner locked up somewhere and the enemy in hot pursuit, she's too smart for that. So, Bella must be somewhere within this area"

He drew an imaginary circle.

"Let's head out, it's pretty obvious that they aren't coming back here. Victoria must have a few bolt holes readied for use."

Peter

We drove back as fast as possible, keeping an eye out for patrol cars, the last thing we needed was to be stopped for speeding, time was too precious. I directed Charlotte who was driving to a parking lot at the rear of the burger joint and we parked up. When The Major told me he wanted me to hang around and wait in case Victoria came back again I was ready to argue but one look was enough to tell me that wouldn't be a very good idea so I slid back in the car and hunkered down grumbling to myself quietly, I hated stakeouts, hated sitting still for hours just watching, I was a man of action, not a fucking CCTV camera!.

Charlotte went off hunting for possible haunts Victoria might have taken a liking too but I didn't fancy her chances, the area to search was still way too vast and a single hiding place so easily overlooked. I had wondered whether to suggest we contact the Cullens for help but after a look at the expression on the Major's face, I decided against it.

I hadn't been watching long when I saw a familiar face come round the corner, not Victoria but my biggest fan, Alice Cullen. Well, I guess it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that she had just happened upon this burger joint while out hunting for Bella but I didn't like the way she was acting, it was almost as if she was determined not to be seen by anyone who might know her...say another member of the sainted Cullen family.

I slipped out of the vehicle and followed her dodging into alleyways when she turned to check her back which she did suspiciously often. I just hoped Victoria wouldn't come back for a fucking Ice cream sundae while I was gone. I became even more curious when Alice slipped into a dingy alley and followed her cautiously. Before I got to the end of the alley I saw something that made me pause and step out of sight again into the shadows. Now, why was Alice Cullen meeting one of them? It made me wonder if there might be more to this kidnapping than we were aware of.

Alice

I was getting really annoyed now, I'd looked everywhere I could think of for Jasper with no luck. Wherever he was, however, he hadn't found Bella yet or I would know by now. The plan had been a good one, a very good one actually, and if not for Emmett's one brain cell finally deciding to fire up when he got a look at Jasper's eyes it would have undoubtedly succeeded but now it was beginning to unravel and someone I knew would be mighty ticked off when he found out. Of course, it would be my fault and nothing I could say would alter that. If Jasper rescued Bella then I would be forced to start all over again and I hated retracing my steps, it was so demoralizing. Using Victoria was a stroke of genius, a brilliant idea that I was proud to claim as my own. Still, there was no time to daydream right now, I'd been away far too long as it was and the way my luck was running at present the others might well have stumbled upon a clue and that would be extremely annoying.

Carlisle

I had been searching for hours along with all the others but we'd had no luck in finding Jasper or Bella and I was worried we were running out of time so I went back to our hotel room only to find Emmett had beaten me to it. He was sitting at the desk with his laptop open in front of him and for one second I had the horrible thought that he might have given up on the search and decided to while away the time playing games but then I saw his face, he looked very troubled.

"Carlisle, I think I may have found something."

From his tone, it was obvious that whatever he thought he had found was something that horrified him.

Keen to discover just what it might be I crossed the room to look over his shoulder at the screen. In the center of a dark blue background was a red banner which read "BID FOR BLOOD." and below it a fuzzy picture of a woman.

"It looks like Bella"

He put his index finger on the picture then tapped a few keys and the photograph became a little sharper, he was right, it did look like Bella.

"Now watch this."

He went back to the original screen and clicked on the red banner. At this white writing scrolled across the screen and I read feeling sick as I took in their meaning

"Living blood donor for sale by auction."

Emmett growled,

"I guess we know why Bella was kidnapped now, Jasper was right it was Victoria and she plans to sell Bella to the highest bidder."

I stared horrified at the screen for a long moment before organizing my scattered thoughts,

"Are there any bidders yet Emmett? Does it say how long the auction has to run?"

Emmett clicked on the banner again and a drop down list of bids appeared.

"Whoa! Yep, she's got a whole heap of bids on here and there's still twelve more hours to go. What do we do Carlisle?"

I shook my head,

"I'm not sure. We may have to bid for her ourselves if we can't find her before the auction ends. How did you find this Emmett?"

He shrugged,

"Computers are my thing Carlisle and I guess I just thought I might try tracing Bella through one of the vampire sites on the dark web but I never expected to find this!"

"I want you to stay online and keep an eye on this Emmett. I need you to keep me up to date with the state of the bids in real time."

Emmett nodded and turned back to the computer growling softly as he did so.

I left quickly sending a text to Alice and Esme with the latest news knowing that they would be just as sickened and horrified at what Victoria was doing as Emmett and I were. It was even more imperative that we find Bella but I was more than happy to outbid anyone to ensure she was not sold to a vampire eager to drain her of her blood. I hadn't been aware such websites existed and I wondered if the Volturi did. Surely such dangerous undertakings risked exposure of our kind to the humans, there were plenty of computer geniuses among the human population who could find their way to such websites. I decided once this was over I would contact Aro and lay out my concerns although nothing he could do would help the present situation.

Esme got back to me immediately but there was nothing from Alice and no one had any luck finding Jasper or his friend which was a real problem. I doubted they knew of the auction or the very short time frame left to us to find and rescue Bella. I believed that he had not been responsible for her disappearance, someone had set him up for a reason I couldn't begin to understand but I was less certain that he or his friend had not been responsible for the trail of bodies despite Emmett's assurance that Jasper had not been feeding on humans. I'm afraid Emmett only saw the good in people and it hadn't occurred to him that Jasper might be wearing contacts to hide the red in his eyes. Alice was less sure of her ex and she should know him best of all, still, only time would tell who was right.