A/N: My thanks again to all who have supported my story in all the various ways. I'm still completely amazed that anyone actually likes it! :)

Kari, you so totally rock! Thanks for all the help and encouragement.

SM owns Twilight-thanks for letting me play.

Rated M for a reason

Ch 21

BPOV

Edward took excellent care of me. He made sure that I was comfortable and that I ate. He even made me get up to move around, exercising my leg. It took me a week before I could walk around without the aid of the crutches. Emmett and Rosalie's wedding was only 3 weeks away and I wanted to be able to walk without limping.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with the entire family, my parents even joined us. There was enough food to feed an army. I made sure to make a cherry pie for Edward. He really appreciated it. I think my Mom even got over her awe of the Cullens. As I watched them, I could see Esme and my Mother becoming fast friends. They made plans to go out shopping on Black Friday. Thankfully, I had my leg as an excuse to not go with them. It was a wonderful and exhausting day.

xXxXx

On Monday, Edward took me to my final dress fitting and waited in the lounge area. My phone rang, the number came up as private. When I answered it, no one spoke.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I asked. Nothing. I could tell that someone was on the other end, they just weren't speaking. I hung up. When we got out to the car, there was a black rose on my windshield. Edward went ballistic.

"Sonofamotherfuckingbitch…" he yelled, pulling out his phone to call Emmett.

"Emmett, is Mike still in jail?" he spat as soon as Em picked up.

Emmett told him that yes, Mike was still behind bars. Edward told him what we'd found. He told us to stay there, he was on his way to us.

I told them both about the phone call I got in the dressing room. Emmett took my phone and said he'd return it later.

"You're sure that someone was the other end?" he asked.

"Yeah. I could feel it." You know how you can just tell?

"If it happens again, give me the phone," Edward growled. Protective Edward was coming out. Sexy, protective Edward. I chastised myself for thinking such things given the situation we were in.

Emmett brought my phone back when he and Rose came over that evening.

"Our tech guys took some information off your phone. We'll have to wait and see what they come up with," he told us.

Over the next few days, I got more phone calls with the other party not speaking. I handed the phone to Edward each time. The latest one pushed him over the edge.

"Listen motherfucker, and listen good. When I get my hands on you, you are going to wish you were never born! STOP CALLING!" Edward hung up and threw my phone onto the sofa. He paced around a bit and muttered "Shit, I need to call Charlie."

"Why do you need to call my father?"

"I promised him." That was all he offered. He excused himself and went into the bedroom, I assume to call my Dad. I went down to get the mail and was shocked to find another flower on my mail box. I found the security guard and he stood there while I went to get Edward.

I waited outside the door to compose myself. I was shaking and on the verge of tears. When I went in, Edward was sitting in the chair with his head in his hands. He looked up when he heard me.

"What's wrong?" Apparently, I didn't do a very good job of masking my emotions.

"Um, I need you to come downstairs. I went to get the mail and found another rose on my mail box. It's just like the one we found on my car the last time. Black."

He was up and out the door, grabbing my hand, towing me behind him. We got down to the mail boxes and he had already put a call in to Emmett. He stepped aside so I couldn't hear the conversation.

He walked back over to me, wrapping his arms around me from behind. He kissed my head then told me about his conversation with his brother.

"Emmett is calling Detective Smith to get over here and check this out. I'm taking you upstairs where we are going to wait for Jasper. I want the doors locked and you to stay put until I get home. DO NOT let anyone in," he ordered.

"Where are you going?" I asked nervously.

"I'm going to pay Mike a little visit." oh shit.

We went back to Edward's apartment and waited for Jasper. He showed up about an hour later with Alice. Edward took the dog out, so none of us would have a reason to leave the apartment.

"I'm not sure how long I'll be. I'll see you later." He kissed me hard and left me breathless.

"Edward, just be careful." I had no idea what his intentions were, but knew that I also didn't want to.

"I always am. See you later, babe." Damn. I was glad that Mike was legally an adult. Edward was about to fuck his shit up.

EPOV

"Can you get me in to see him?" I asked Emmett. We both agreed that he had to know something about this, even if he wasn't involved.

"Yeah, I can get you a few minutes of face time. You'll have to go in alone so I can watch the door," he told me.

"Not a fucking problem." I was ready to beat somebody's ass over this. There was no fucking way anyone was going to even get close to Bella.

I took her back upstairs and waited for Jasper to get there. I think she was actually worried about me. I realized that I had never gone into detail about my training or skills. It wasn't exactly dinner conversation. I kissed Bella and left to meet Emmett at the police station.

Emmett had already brought Mike into a room and turned off all the recording devices.

"Try not to mess him up too badly. I really don't want to answer to the Captain about this," Emmett chuckled. He opened the door and closed it behind me.

Mike lifted his head and looked at me. I saw his eyes flicker in recognition, then widen.

"I take it that no introductions are needed?" I asked. He shook his head 'no'. The kid was already shaking in his shoes.

"Have you been sending flowers to my girlfriend again?" I asked harshly.

"No," he shook his head again. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, leaning over the table putting my face in his. The kid looked like he was scared shitless.

"Really? Because she's gotten some over the past week or so. She's had some interesting phone calls, as well." I moved and sat on the table so I was right next to him.

"I don't know anything about any of that, I swear!" He held his hands up in defense.

I stepped back for a minute. The kid seemed to be telling the truth. I kicked his chair, spinning it so he faced me. I put my foot on the seat of it, right in front of his balls.

"Did you mouth off to anyone about the shit you pulled? Maybe giving someone the idea?" His eyes bugged out of his head again. Yeah. He ran his mouth to someone. "Who?" I yelled.

"I…I can't tell you," he stammered, covering his junk.

"That's it! I've had enough of this shit!" I snatched him up by his shirt and put the fear of God into him. "You are going to tell me what you fucking know right the fuck now!" I pulled back and punched him in the gut. He doubled over and coughed.

"He'll kill me if I expose him," he cried.

"I'm going to kill you if you don't tell ME! I want a name!" I said shaking him by his collar. He needed some more convincing. I shoved him away from me and punched him in the face then kneed him in the stomach.

"Okay," he sputtered. "Okay. No more." He held his hand up in front of me while he tried to catch his breath.

I leaned down over him and growled. "Name."

"Marcus. I don't know his last name."

"How do you know him? Where can I find him?"

"I, um…sold drugs for him. At school. I usually meet him in this warehouse, down by the docks." He told me where it was and that he was usually surrounded by his guards.

"What does Marcus look like?" I at least needed a description of the fucker.

"He's tall with long brown hair. He slicks it back and sometimes has it in a pony tail."

I stood up to leave then turned and walked back to him. I pulled my arm back and punched him in the face. That's for Bella.

"If you EVER even THINK about Bella again, I will end you. Got me?" Mike looked like he might cry. Bitch. His only answer was to nod his head furiously. "Good. I'm glad we have an understanding." I walked out the door.

"Well?" Emmett asked looking into the room as the door closed.

"I found out whose bringing the drugs into town," I said casually.

Emmett and I discussed what Mike had told me. We sat down at the local diner to figure out just what we were going to do about it. I pulled my phone out to call Bella.

"Hey baby. Em and I are getting a bite at the diner. Want me to bring something home for you?" I asked Bella.

"Um. Sure. How'd it go Edward?" Like I really thought I'd get out of this without telling her?

"It was fine. I'll tell you about it when I get home," I told her.

Bella told me what she wanted and what to pick up for Jasper and Alice. I told her I'd see her in a hour or so and got down to business with Emmett.

We agreed that we should stake out the warehouse to see what all was going on and to lay eyes on Marcus. I told Emmett that we'd have to include Charlie as he already knew what was going on. That was a difficult phone call to make.

Charlie was unsurprisingly not happy. I told him that when we came up with a plan that I would call him back. I did, and he insisted that he be involved. He said he'd take a few days off and help with the stake out. Now I just had to deal with Bella.

I got home to find Jasper sitting in the chair flipping through channels, Alice asleep on the sofa and Bella nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Bella?" I asked Jasper.

"In the bedroom. She's been in there for a while," he said. I sat the bag of food on the counter before going to see her.

The door was open a crack so I gently pushed it to open it a bit more. Bella was propped up against the headboard reading. She was wearing one of my t-shirts and I spied a sliver of black peeking out around her ass. She was twirling her hair with her fingers and apparently hadn't heard me. God she was beautiful. I stepped in and closed the door. Bella looked up in surprise.

"Edward. You're home." Bella layed the book down and sat up as I made it to the bedside. I gave her a short but passionate kiss.

"Are you hungry? I brought dinner, it's in the kitchen."

"Yes, but I want to know what happened tonight first." Of course she did.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we know whose behind the latest flower deliveries. We're going to need to investigate a little more to be positive."

"Who? Did Mike tell you?" she asked. I thought for a moment about what and how much I would tell her. The truth. Yeah, I wasn't going to lie to her.

I told her about Mike working for the drug dealing Marcus and that we had planned a stake out.

"Mike just told you all that?" She asked suspiciously.

"Well, he needed a little persuading, but yes, after that he was cooperative."

"Hmm." Bella looked me over, I assume checking for damage.

"There is one more thing. We're going to have a house guest." This was the part I was actually dreading. "Your Dad is coming here in the morning. He'll be staying with us for a few days."

"My Dad? Why is my Dad staying here?" she asked incredulously.

"Bella, I promised him that if anything like this ever happened again, I would let him know. When I called him earlier, he insisted that he was going to help. He's taking a few days off and he'll be here in the morning," I explained.

"Perfect. Now I'm disrupting my parent's lives, too."

"Bella, this is about your safety. We love you and this isn't something that you need to feel bad about. None of this is your fault. Besides, if this guy is behind this, then he needs to be taken down. He's dangerous and not just to you."

"When you put it like that, I guess you're right. Again," she said with a smirk.

"Come on, let's get you fed." I grabbed her hands and pulled her off the bed.

Charlie was knocking on our door at 8:45. I've been referring to my apartment as 'ours' for a while. Bella hadn't brought up the subject of her moving in permanently yet, but as soon as this shit was over, I was going to.

"Good Morning, Charlie," I said as he strode right in. He looked around the place with his keen, investigative eye. I'm sure he saw a few of Bella's personal belongings.

"Morning Edward," he said as he dropped his duffel on the floor.

"Um, Bella will be right out. She's just getting dressed." I winced as soon as the words left my mouth. Charlie's moustache twitched and I was quickly searching for something to distract him with.

"Want some coffee? Emmett will be here soon so we can start going over the plan."

"Sure. Coffee's good," he grumbled. Just then, Bella walked out of the bedroom.

"Hi Dad," she said as she hugged him. "Grab your bag and I'll show you to your room." Bella led him to the guest room.

Emmett showed up and Bella insisted on making breakfast for us. We sat in the dining room developing a plan.

Emmett wanted to get a picture of this Marcus guy and run it through the facial recognition program at the station. Charlie wanted to follow him to see if we could get him alone. We had to assume that he had a lot of protection.

"This is kind of my area of expertise, guys. Let's get over to the docks and do some surveillance and get some pictures. We'll go from there," I suggested.

My Mother came over to stay with Bella and we left for the docks. After watching the warehouse for a few hours, Emmett had gotten a few pictures. We were pretty sure we knew who Marcus was from Mike's description. Emmett left to run the pictures, while Charlie and I stayed.

"I'm not so sure I like the fact that you're shacking up with my daughter," Charlie said, breaking the silence. shit. I didn't plan on having this conversation so soon.

"Right now, it's purely for protection, Charlie. Bella's getting around on her own now, but I'm not letting her out of my sight. At least not without someone being with her." I respected Bella's father, but I wasn't going to just step back and defer to him.

"I did ask her to move in with me, though." Charlie glared at me. "And while I'm not going to ask her just yet, I am going to ask her to marry me. I would love to have your blessing," I said in all honesty.

He was silent for a few minutes, staring out the window of the car. I started sweating, waiting for him to reply.

"Well, Edward, I've never seen my daughter's eyes light up the way they do when she's around you. And while I don't believe that there is any man that's good enough for her, you come pretty damn close," he said, albeit, begrudgingly. "Besides, I kind of already gave you my blessing in the hospital."

"Thank you sir. I'll do my best to make her as happy as she can be."

Movement from the warehouse grabbed our attention. We saw a boat pull up and some of the men ran over to it. We watched as, who we believed to be Marcus, walk out of the building.

"Shit! He's going to leave," I hissed. Charlie and I looked at each other and reached for our doors. We decided that Marcus was not going to be leaving. We hatched a quick plan and got out of the car. I was glad that I brought my 9mm.

Charlie made like he was looking for his lost dog to distract the men by the boat, while I made my way behind some barrels that were close to the entrance of the building. Most of the guards were over by the docks, loading something on board. I took advantage of Marcus being relatively alone and snuck over closer to him. I was at the edge of the entrance, so I whipped around the corner so I was just inside the warehouse.

Marcus turned and walked towards what looked to be an office. He was alone, so I followed right behind him and closed the door behind me. Marcus turned quickly and froze when he saw my gun pointed at his head.

I gave the room a quick glance and as soon as I saw a bunch of black roses on the desk, I knew I had the right guy.

"Sit down motherfucker and keep your hands where I can see them." He sat behind the desk with his hands lying flat on top of it. "Why are you sending those to Bella Swan?" I asked him, pointing at the roses.

"That bitch owes me. It's her fault that I lost Mikey. I've just been playing with her to get under her skin," he sneered. "That is until I can get my hands on her."

I lost it and smacked him upside the head with my gun. He fell over and lunged for me. We wrestled around on the floor and I got myself clear. I kicked him in the chest and knocked the breath out of him. After punching him a few times in the face, I sat him up in the chair and looked for something to tie him up with.

My back was to the door when it slammed open. The last thing I remembered was everything going black.

A/N: Yeah, I'm probably going to hear about this... Thanks for reading! Leave me a review with your thoughts!