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Chapter: Twenty-One – Edward takes it to code one
EPOV

It didn't take long for my office to be set up. Emmett, Jasper and Mac had just sat down, when Randall buzzed.

"Mr. Platt, there's a Mr. Black here to see you," Randall says all business like.

"Thank you, Randall, show him in."

I look around at my men and see they're each on edge. "Code two, until I say otherwise."

They each nod at me in agreement to follow my orders. I look to the door as Jacob, Sam, Paul and Seth walk in. Yes, I knew each of them. Unlike the Blacks, I take my time to know each of their men, and make sure I have full knowledge of who they are and what they do best.

"Please, take a seat." I wave my hand to the empty seats.

"Thanks, Edward, nice to see that I can just arrive and get to see you any time," Jacob says overly cocky.

"I always make time for people who stop by. Now, Jacob, is there something I can help you with?"

Jacob glares at me as I start to talk. By the end he looks like he ate something that tasted bad.

"It's Mr. Black or Sir, Edward, show me the respect that I deserve."

I just raise my left eyebrow at him.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding between us."

I smirk at him, and give him my who-gives-two-shits look. "Yes, Jacob, that does seem to have happened," I deadpan.

This time Jacob just chuckles and shakes his head at me.

"Edward, I get it, really I do. You have this crappy business, and you need to look good in front of your workers and all. However, you ought to be really careful. I could kill you where you sit. Now, how about you stop wasting my time with your childish games? Let's get down to business. You will do what I requested, and you will also stay away from my girl."

"Your girl?"

"Yes, Eddy—my girl—Bella Swan. I know you have been sniffing around her, but she's not interested. She's my play-toy for the time being. Since you work for me, and after I am done with her and my pack of boys here are done with her, I'll give her to you."

I grip my seat to stop myself from lurching across the desk and taking the jerk out personally.

"Well, Jabba," Jacob narrows his eyes at me, but I keep talking. "I think you will find that she's my girl, and I intend to keep her. I don't share well at all."

Jacob chuckles as he tries to act like he has some control. "I have already done her four ways from Sunday. Then there's the whole gang bang we've had with her. I'll even send you a copy of the video." Jacob stands up and his men follow suit. "Well, Eddy, keep in mind that I want your company, your money, your unwavering and undying devotion to me. You will kneel at my feet and do as I desire. You will watch me do your mother and your little girlfriend if I want. I'll groom your daughter to become the perfect wife, if she's cute she could be one of mine, if not I'm sure I'll find someone willing to pay for her. You will do what you are told. This is your last warning."

I start to chuckle and Jacob tilts his head at me, before he can even blink, I have Seth knocked down, and I'm holding Jacob by the throat against the wall in my office. I know that my other men will deal with the others.

"You will go nowhere near my daughter, you stupid piece of shit. I should kill you where you stand for that remark, and I will if you so much as even think of my daughter, my girl or my mother like that again. You will never own me—you don't have enough power, money or balls you half-wit. Do not come back here again."

Without looking away from Jacob, who I defiantly took by complete surprise, I speak to Jasper. "Show them the door." I let Jacob go as more of my security comes in and walks out with them.

"Code one," I say as soon as Black's crew is out of my office.

I close my eyes trying to get my temper back down as Jasper sweeps my office. "Everything's clear, Boss, we're having them followed and working to get a man on the inside."

I pinch the bridge of my nose trying to hold off the headache I can feel knocking on my skull.

"I think it's time we had a word with Bill, and find out if he knows what his son is up to."

"This isn't the first time they have threatened us or family members."

I look at Jasper. "It's the second time he has threatened my daughter and that is two times too many."

Jasper holds up his hands. "Sorry, Boss, but I really think he's just trying to push your buttons."

"I know that," I say grinding my teeth together.

"What about what he said about Bella?" I take a deep breath trying hard to not go off and hit Jasper. "He was lying!"

"Are you sure? Because, he could be telling the truth?"

I shake my head at him. "We've been following her from when she took my kids to the park."

"Dora found some more information on her; it was just sent." Jasper hands me the file and I just look at him.

"I asked for it to be stopped."

"I know, but you need to see this."

I look down at the information and shrug.

"So, we already know she's in hiding; you've changed your looks and appearance when you were hiding out."

"She worked as an escort," Jasper says a little loudly.

"So?"

"Boss ..."

"No! I damn well said enough! I trust her, so this is a moot point, and the end of the discussion," I say throwing the pages down.

"She made Esme cry!"

I sigh and look at Jasper. "Alec said that Esme was crying during her lunch meeting with Bella."

"And that means what? Were you there listening? They could've been talking about a dumb, sappy-ass movie, you know my mother. If there was a reason to fear, my mother would face death to warn me. So, my mother tearing up and crying means jack shit, Jasper."

"Edward, for damn sake, I was raised to protect you. I know we never really hung together until you went off to college and I went with, but it is my job. The job I was born into. You've got to let me do my job!"

"I do, but not when comes to Bella. I'm heading out to see my mother. You keep your focus on getting Jane, and Mike at my warehouse as soon as possible. We're staying at code one until this Black shit's dealt with," I say walking out.

Code one means all hands on deck. It also means we call our friends and associates in, just in case we need them and we have a lot of connections. But, this also means that Caius, his wife Anna, along with their daughters Kate, Irina and Sasha will be here. Sasha has this stalker-like fascination with me. For some reason, I really don't think Bella will be too happy with Sasha's attention toward me.

I pull up outside my parents' house and walk right in. "Mom," I yell out as I look for her.

"I'm in the kitchen," she yells back.

I walk in and see that she's cooking.

"Getting a head start?" I ask and she nods.

"Do you know how long code one will last?"

I shake my head at her.

"Do I even want to know?"

I sigh and grip my hair. "Jacob Black came to my office and threatened you, Cassie and Bella."

My mom looks at me sadly, but there's a lot of anger there as well.

"I'll protect you all," I tell her, not wanting her to worry.

My mom's face softens and she cups my cheek. "And who will protect you?"

I grin at her, shake off the panic inside me. "I'll be fine, always am. But I came to ask what happened at lunch. I thought it was going to be light?"

My mom moves back from me and gets back to work at making up the meals for the incoming army we have on the way.

"It was light," she says.

I roll my eyes. "Then explain to me why there were tears shed?"

"They really need to stop reporting every little thing. I know you care about her and I really didn't mean to make her cry."

I frown and look at her. "Bella was crying?"

My mom stops what she's doing and looks at me.

"Jesus freaking Christ, Mom," I yell.

My mom hits me over the head with the rubber spatula she just took out of the drawer.

"That was for swearing," she then hits me again, "and that's for taking the Lord's name in vain."

I rub my head. "We're not particularly practicing churchgoers, or have you forgotten that?"

She gives me her look to say don't mess with me. "We were talking about her mom and dad and she became a little upset. She's fine, I really like her; she's great. When are you planning on taking her through what code one means?"

"Later on tonight, after the kids go to bed. Oh, could you have Cassie and Cullen overnight one night this weekend? I'm planning on taking Bella out for a date. Besides, the kids will be safer here with everyone that's going to be here."

She gives me a smile and a wink to say that she will.

Chapter: Twenty-One – Bella learns code one
BPOV

I arrive at the school and wait for the kids to get out. After chatting with Candice—who turns out to be an old chum of Edward's from high school—I get the kids in the car. Everything I found out about her seems to point to that fact that she's just a friendly person. She works with a lot of different charities throughout the week, and finds it easy to start up conversations with strangers. She sure loves to talk.

Soon as I leave the school, things get a little odd. In front of me appears to be two new guards, and then Hulk is behind me with Rock behind him. I pull into the driveway and up to the house. I see that Stark's car is in the drive already. I frown a little, because he's not supposed to be home until closer to six.

"Daddy's home," the kids yell together, before running inside the house. I manage to catch up with them just as they enter the door. There, in the hallway, is Stark talking as he pulls at his hair pacing back and forth.

"Daddy," the kids yell again as they run to him and give him a big hug.

"Hey," Stark says pulling the cell away from his mouth.

"Guess what happened at school?" Cassie starts all excited.

Stark smiles at her.

"Two seconds, Princess, I just need to finish talking to Caius."

"But, Daddy, I need to tell you," Cassie says in a stubborn manner as she starts to stick her tongue out at him.

"Cassie, you know the drill, get going upstairs and get changed," I say softly as I remove Cassie's little hand from Stark's shirt.

Cassie rolls her eyes at me as Cullen makes his way upstairs.

"No, I need to talk to Daddy, now."

"Cassie, look at me," I say as I kneel down in front of her. "Your dad is talking on his cell, so you have to wait. Go and get changed. When you're done, your father will be ready to listen to you about your day."

Cassie goes to argue, but I shake my head and place my finger on her lips. "I was not asking, now move it," I say pointing at the stairs.

Cassie glares at me for a second and then stomps up the stairs loudly. I sigh and stand up, and as I do, I feel Stark wrap his arms around my waist and he kisses my head.

"Thanks, we'll see you soon," Stark says and hangs up his cell. "Thanks for dealing with Cassie. She's not often like that but ..."

I shake my head at him. "It's what you pay me for—well not that you pay me—but it's my job."

Stark chuckles as he looks at me. "We haven't talked about pay, have we? We can discuss it; we need to talk anyway. We're all on a code one at the moment, and I need to give you the run down on what that means."

I hear the sound of stomping feet, so I know Cassie and Cullen are on the way back down. "Later tonight," I ask.

Stark nods at me, before giving me a kiss on the lips. He grins letting me go, turning to face his kids.

"First off, Cassie that was rude. You know the rules about when I am on the phone. As for the look you gave Bella… that was VERY rude. Now, what do you say?"

"Sorry, Bella," Cassie say in huff.

"Cassie!" Stark says, but I move forward as I talk.

"Thank you for saying sorry, Cassie. I'll go in and start on dinner."

I walk away quickly. I work in the kitchen giving them some family time together. When dinner is ready, I set the table, and send them off to get washed up.

"Bella?" a soft voice comes from next to me and I look down and see a sad Cassie.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" I ask as she climbs into my lap.

"I'm sorry I gave you a mean look and was rude to you."

I chuckle and kiss her head. "It's okay; you were upset and wanted to talk to your dad about your day. But, just remember if someone is on the phone, you have to let them end their call first."

She nods at me before laying her head on my chest.

"Were you rude to Miss Honey when you were my age?"

I chuckle and smile at her. "It was not often I misbehaved, but when I did, I swear Miss Honey and some of the other staff wanted to kill me."

"But they didn't, did they?"

I shake my head at her. "No, I'm still here all alive and kicking. They love me, but I did do a lot of things that were not very nice, especially when I was upset, angry or even mad at my dad."

"Were you mad at your dad often?"

I look to see that Stark seems to be looking at Cassie and me.

"Only when I knew he was leaving me. I got mad, because I would worry in case he didn't come back."

Cassie looks at me with a pout. "Why wouldn't he come back?"

I let out a breath. "My dad had a very dangerous job. He put a lot of bad guys away and some of them didn't like him. I was always worried that he wasn't coming back."

Cassie hugs me closer to her.

"Then one day he didn't?" she asks in a soft voice, and I shake my head.

"No, he always came back – always. I was with him when he died."

Cassie gasps and I wish to God that Stark would interrupt this talk.

"What happened to him?"

I scratch my head knowing I can't say he was gunned down in front of me.

"He was hurt, and the doctor that saw him couldn't help him. The way I see it, God must have needed a really good person up in heaven, and my dad said that he would do it. Now, he's up there and he watches out for me," I say hoping I haven't worried her or made her sad.

"I'm sorry, Daddy, you won't go with God, right? You'll stay here with us?"

Stark smiles and nods at his little girl. "Yes, Princess, I would stay here with you three."

His eyes go to mine and he just stares right into my soul. I turn away after only a few moments, knowing if I keep looking back at him, I'd start to cry.

"I think we should go and eat our dinner and then watch a good movie before bed."

The night seems to go by fast, with Cassie sticking to me like glue. Even when we take them to bed, she asks for me to lay with her, while Stark reads them their bedtime story.

Once it's finished, instead of going back downstairs, Stark just takes me to his bedroom again.

"Stark, this is becoming a habit."

He just chuckles at me and throws me a t-shirt.

"You know I should just sleep in my own bed; after all that's where my clothes are."

Stark moves to me and starts to strip me of my clothes.

"We could solve that by moving you and your clothes in here."

I look at him swallowing.

"Too fast?"

I nod a little.

"Fine, but you're staying in here, every night I can get you to."

I start shaking my head and Stark pulls the t-shirt over my head.

"Okay, what's code one?" I ask as soon as we are in bed facing each other.

"Code one means we're on full alert. You will have more than one babysitter. If you leave the house, you have to text me first. I'll need to know where you're going. When you get to the said place, you'll text me to say you arrived. The same applies when you leave and arrive home. It also means we have some family and friends of the family coming here until we are out of code one."

"Okay," I say hastily. "What caused you to go to code one?"

"Jacob Black … he's just up to something and it put me on edge. He made a few comments about wanting my company and making me work for him."

I tilt my head a little, I know he's hiding something from me, but I am not a hypocrite. There's no way I'm calling him on this, when I'm still hiding stuff from him.

"What's does this mean for me?"

"Well, as I have already said, more bodyguards on you. You keeping me informed of where you're at, all the time. I'm going to be taking some time off this week to greet people, but when I go back to work, if you can't come with me, I'd like for you to keep in contact with me. And, there's some training I would like you to go through."

"Training?"

"Yes, Emmett will teach you how to fight."

I chuckle and smile at him. "I already know how to fight."

He shakes his head. "No, you'll need to know this stuff. These people can hurt you, they will not be like Jane."

"Jane?"

"Oh yeah, Jessica… turns out she is really Jane, Jessica's twin sister; we still haven't located the real Jessica."

"Donkey!" I say using her nickname.

"Fine, Donkey; they won't be like her and will not go down as easy."

I roll my eyes but Stark keeps talking.

"So, he'll teach you some moves; after a bit I hope to have Jasper teach you some as well, but we'll need you to build up to him, because he's good."

I close my eyes holding back a chuckle, he really has no idea what good is.

"Do you agree?"

I nod at him knowing that he needs agreement from me.

"I was thinking of you meeting Miss Honey and Guido," I say in an almost whisper, unsure of what the hell I'm doing, but hey, it could help him relax.

"I would really like that because they're important to you, but it'll need to be next week maybe ... I've just got a lot going on with everyone coming and the Blacks."

"Okay," I say before kissing his lips and giving him a slight nod.

"Okay," he says back to me and then he starts to kiss me again.

A/N: Well things are getting a little stickier between Edward and Bella and now with the code one in place, what do you suppose will happen next? Who do you think will teach who things, when it comes to fighting? Jacob is quite cocky, isn't he? What are your thoughts? How do you think Bella will react to Sasha? Wonder what kind of nick-name Bella will give her? Things are about to be pretty interesting.

Someone asked about up and coming stories we have so here is a short rundown of what we have coming SOON:

First we will be reposting Year of Hell, we are fixing a TON of the poor grammar it had, and straightening a few things within the storyline that really needed to be tweaked.

Bent Not Broken: Edward, fresh out of veterinary school moves to the small town his grandfather was from, after his sudden death. There he inherits his veterinary clinic and ranch. He finds himself intrigued by the young Isabella who tries to runaway with her brother several times. What will Edward do when he finds a journal his grandfather kept and he realizes that his own grandfather was trying to help her and her brother run away?

This started as a light comment about a multiple personality Bella, meets a biker Alice. It has turned into a story about a friend helping to save another and finding and exploring many things along the way. Me, Belle and Bella: Alice takes to the road when her home becomes unbearable. She meets and quickly befriends another lost soul. Together they run off and see what the world has to offer. There are a lot of demons to fight along the way, but maybe meeting a couple of hunky firemen will help keep the rage and voices burning through one of the girls at bay.

This will post in July for Jess2002's birthday. The Family Business: The Cullens have owned a family business for years, but had a investor. Lots of sudden changes and the death of the investor leave the Cullens in a bad place. Needing extra money to save his family business, Edward takes on the task of torturing the seemingly poor little rich girl into learning how to run a business. Will they survive the stereotypes surrounding their situation and what will happen when they find out there is more to meet the eye than some studying.

And Coming In June The Entry we wrote for Fandom Against Domestic Violence will post.
Baker's Man: Bella, free from an abusive ex and his controlling family, takes her son and moves away from the life she knew. Opening a Bakery, she meets Edward, a fireman, when her partially deaf son runs off. Can Edward be the Baker's Man, and Irina's daddy too? What baggage does he have?