SM owns.
Thank you GeekChic for everything.
Sorry for the super late update.
Chapter 21
Present
Edward's POV
Riley Biers' phone number glares at me from my cell phone screen. I'm one touch away from talking to him and asking him for what I want. I'm one touch away from disrespecting her privacy again.
Sighing, I put my phone down. This week feels as if I've been doing the same day after day. I get up, get dressed, come to the office, work, and go back home. Except in between actions, I always find myself picking up my phone to call Mr. Biers, private investigator.
I haven't been at the club this week, and Bella hasn't been around the office again. I don't even know if she's still in town.
Resisting the urge to find out has been hard, and I feel close to the edge. I'm afraid if I go down the rabbit hole again, I won't find my way back. Tanya is gone, after all.
I pick up my phone just as Emmett walks in.
"It's time to leave, Mr. Cullen," he says, but the tone of his voice gives him away. He's protecting her, just as he always has.
"I wasn't going to call," I say, standing up. Liars like to defend themselves.
He stays silent.
"I could just ask you, right?"
"I'm not her friend anymore," he says. "I guess she wants to keep the past where it belongs."
A punch to my face would've hurt less. I took her away from him, too.
When Bella became my sub, Emmett was the only person in the scene she had as a friend. I introduced them at a party, while they kneeled side by side at Rosalie's and my feet.
They became close, and when she went away, he knew who was to blame.
"Then why is she back? People running from their past don't go back to it," I say, eyeing my phone and clutching my fist. Riley Biers could tell me everything there is to know about this new version of her, just like he helped me figure her out almost three years ago.
Emmett shrugs. "They do if they need closure."
This motherfucker.
After exhausting myself out with exercise and work on Saturday, I go to the cemetery in the afternoon. It's the first time I've been here since Tanya's death.
I sit on the ground and talk, pretending to be a better person. Even dead, I'm sure she knows I'm still using her to distract me—to keep me from going to the club, to keep me from making a phone call I'll regret.
"I'm sorry, T," I say when I'm done.
Wind doesn't blow on cue.
There are no signs here.
I give up on Sunday and go to the club, knowing it's usually a slow day. I drink at the bar, waiting to see if there'll be anyone doing a scene tonight.
Judging by the few amount of people here, I don't think so. As if to prove I don't know anything, the lights go out.
For a moment, I can't understand what's happening. I'm sure my mind is playing tricks on me.
But even if I don't know anything, I know that body. I know those curves and the length of that hair. I know the elegance of the person on the stage.
Bella.
She's tied to a chair in the middle of the room, a red light illuminating her.
There's no one touching her, but she's squirming in the seat. She whimpers in need, and the sound echoes off the walls and comes straight to me.
I know that sound.
It's the sound of too close to coming, but not close enough. Devouring the sight of her naked body with my eyes, I notice the toy plugged inside her.
That's what's torturing her. I look around, wondering who's controlling it, but another moan from her takes my focus elsewhere.
I don't know how much time the few people in the club and I sit staring at her as she chases her orgasm, but it feels like a lifetime. I'm desperate, craving her fall, selfishly needing her to come so I can enjoy it myself. And when that thought enters my mind, she cries out, but I don't see her, because just before she falls, the lights go out.
"Fuck."
"Biers, it's Cullen. I need a profile. Her name is Isabella Swan—yes, the same Isabella Swan. I want to know everything."
Thanks for reading.