Chapter 26.

Edward Cullen

Her face was the worst out of everything. It had been dimly lit in that room so I couldn't see the horrible extent they had done to her. I was the first to arrive thanks to my horrible speeding. I hadn't left her for more than a couple hours and when I had gone downstairs, she was chatting with Esme and Alice. It was just me, the boys and Rose practicing our shots downstairs. When we came up, it actually felt like we were having a normal day…well, a normal day for a mob family.

"You're curb shot sucks!" Emmet teased as he punched my good arm. I chuckled as we made it to the top of the stairs and shook my head.

"Yeah well, your straight shot isn't all that great, wither, Em." I teased and pointed to my still wounded right arm as evidence. If it weren't for Emmet's crappy shot, the Volturi guard wouldn't have been set off and shot me.

Emmet's scoffed for a moment and sighed as we finally made our way into the kitchen. Rose was joking around with the guys when I spotted Esme in the kitchen…alone. I looked around the dining room area that connected with the open kitchen and around Esme from the distance we were separated by but I didn't see her…anywhere. Not a good sign with Bella.

"Hey mom," I walked over casually and kissed her on the cheek, not showing the anxiety that was building up inside. My min kept making excuses, like: she probably went upstairs or she's taking a shower. But I knew there was something wrong.

"Where's Bella?" I asked, still looking around. My mother smiled up at me and shrugged passively.

"She went for a walk, dear." she said stirring something that smelled wonderful in the large pot before her.

"A w-walk?" I stuttered. Something was very wrong and it had started raining outside, from what I could see.

"How long has she been out?" my voice was frantic as I walked over to the large glass window in the dining area. I could practically hear Esme's breath hitch as she glanced down at the clock. That was it. That was the last thing I needed to make the inkling my heart had felt from the moment I didn't see Bella in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Emmet asked in a concerned tone. I didn't waste a moment to answer, though. I ripped the kitchen door open with as much force as I had, practically ripping the door off it's hinges and ran out onto the patio.

"BELLA?" I wrapped my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder but the rain would probably wash out the sound of my voice. I let out a loud growl of irritation mixed with shear terror and rushed back into the kitchen to see my entire family starring back at me now. Carlisle and Alice had come in to see what all the noise was about, only to see my frantic face.

"Mom," I panted and stared at my mother. Her face was ash white with fear and I could see the genuine worry in her eyes for Bella. Our family was not the type to show our emotions very easily, but when it came to Bella…we all felt normal. Like we could say, do and feel whatever we wanted.

"Where did she say she was going?" I pleaded with my mother for any answer that would lead me to her. She thought for a moment, trying to back track something-maybe a conversation between her and Bella-and then it was like a light went off above her head.

"The garden." she whispered out. I didn't stay long enough to see what was going on in the kitchen. I darted back out and ran through the rain as hard an fast as I could. I had told her that the things we could do during this time was limited and she didn't know the entire size of the fifty acres of the Cullen property. Anyone could come out and snatch her away from me and I was too stupid to realize it.

"BELLA!" I roared as the rain pelted down on my back and face. I was practically breathing rain as I ran through our property and made my way to the gardens. She wasn't there.

"BELLA!" I screamed again, feeling my hot tears start to mix in with the freezing rain.

"Bella! Bella come back!" I could hear my families cries behind me. Rosalie and Alice were a football field away from me, running around the more densely forested areas and screaming her name. Esme was on the front porch of the house, trying to scream Bella's name as loudly as possible while my father and the guys rushed towards the front gate.

"BELLA! ANSWER BABY! PLEASE!" I screamed through sobs of fear and horror. I was half expecting her to jump out from behind me and yell "Surprise!" or something like that…but she wasn't here. I couldn't find her and if I couldn't find her…no, I wouldn't let myself think like that. She was here, somewhere. We would find her.

I stared up at the sky for a moment, taking in the darkened clouds above me and letting the rain fall down on my tears stained cheeks. I know God had probably turned his shoulder on me and my family a long time ago, but maybe he could listen to this one little prayer that involved one of his angels. He had been kind enough to send her to me and I lost her. He didn't have to give her back to me…but I just needed to make sure she was safe.

"Please…" I sobbed out into the clouds as I fell to my knees. The earth beneath my jean clad knees was spongy and could easily move from under me but I didn't care. I needed a heart to heart with the big guy right now.

"Please let her be okay." I prayed with every part of my soul.

"Edward!" Emmet's voice cut in through my prayers, causing me to look up to see him running towards me. I stood up but he stopped and motioned to the road with a long finger. I followed his hand only to catch a glimpse of a police car speeding off into the distance.

"Carlisle saw Bella in the car!" Emmet roared over the rain. My heart stopped, my eyes averting right back to my mother. Esme was being held up by Rose and Alice with a look of horror on her face. It was happening all over again and we all knew it.

"NO!" I roared out as I ran back to the house. I knew exactly what I had to do. They wouldn't TOUCH one hair on her head if I could stand it. Once I was back in the house I was running around like a mad man with Carlisle trying to calm me down.

"You need to calm down, Edward." Carlisle pleaded with me while I grabbed the keys to my Volvo and searched for the muffler to my pistol. It wasn't going to make any difference to me right now. I needed to find whoever took Bella and kill them. NOW!

"EDWARD!" Carlisle's loud roar stopped me dead in my tracks once he saw what I was after. Blood. Their blood. His stare was a warning towards me but I didn't want to take it.

"You need to calm down, son." he whispered in a much gentler tone and came to place a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I scoffed and tore my arm away from his touch.

"Calm down?" I hissed at him in bewilderment. "CALM DOWN?"

"You want me to stand by and let them take Bella, the ONLY woman I have ever loved more than my own life, and let them do what they did to Esme!" his face grew angry as I spoke, but I just kept on going. "You of ALL the people in the world should know what this feels like! God dammit, they killed your own fucking CHILD, beat your wife into a coma and you want me to stay CALM?" my face was met by my own father's fist in retaliation to my last few words. I had it coming and I needed that but it didn't mean I would be calm about it.

The punch had made me stumble back a bit. I lifted my hand up to touch my cheek but didn't feel any pain. He hadn't left a bruise or broken bone like he could have. This was just a wake up call. As I looked back up at my father, with anger probably rimming my eyes I flinched away from his expression. My father, Carlisle Cullen, was actually crying.

"Your mother and I went through HELL and back to try to make sure this will never happen to us again," he spoke in a deadly tone through his tears.

"And now that it has happened," he closed his eyes for a moment but continued. "We need to think things through…rationally. We can't just go in shooting up a POLICE STATION, Edward. They will be expecting us to do so."

"He's right, Ed." I heard Emmet's voice from behind Carlisle. Everyone was coming in now, Rose and Alice still having to practically carry my mother in.

"I agree." Jasper nodded beside Emmet. "We should wait at least eight hours before busting in there like mad men. And by then, they will be off their guard and we can strike without any…mishaps." Jasper's lethal grin had reappeared for the first time in a while.

"EIGHT HOURS?" I screamed at my father in pleading. "They will kill her!" I felt my own sobs start to interfere with my speech. Eight hours was too large of an opening to harm Bella. I didn't care if she told them everything she knew about us, in fact I prayed she would so that maybe they'd let her go…or at least go easy on her. I felt the bile in my throat start to rise at the though of myself thinking that but swallowed it back. They wouldn't live to see the next day if they so much as spoke to her wrong.

"Have some faith, Edward." Carlisle whispered with a gleam in his eyes I had never seen before….compassion maybe?

I took a deep breath, still praying to God to let her be alright and nodded. I agreed to what my father said. We all sat down around the table, my mother grabbing a large bottle of whiskey from on of the cabinets in the kitchen and handing us all crystal glasses once she had taken a swig herself to become a bit more stabilized and relaxed. I eagerly accepted the dark, warming liquid and felt my body automatically begin to relax with one gulp.

We all watched the clock in silence, never noticing the light in the dining area change until it was too dark outside to see the little hand on the clock…when our eight hour time limit passed, though, we all shot up like ready dogs. Rosalie and Alice brought me my gun, muffler and keys back that Carlisle had confiscated a while back as Emmet threw me my keys. I was out of the house a few minutes before everyone else but then again, I was the fastest out of the entire family and the best at what I did.

It took me no time at all to get to the police station, thanks to speeding about fifty mph over the limit, and just like Carlisle said…there was only one police car parked up front. They thought we would give up and just leave Bella in their putrid hands…but they were wrong. Bella was apart of our family, blood to the rest of my family, and in my family's business…if you fuck with our family, we fuck you up.

I parked the Volvo in the nearest spot to the entrance doors, not even bothering to close the driver's side door as I lurched myself from my seat. My strides were long and quick as I raced up the concrete steps to the doors. There was no alarm or cameras here, nothing like I would expect, stupid cops, so I just made my way through all the doughnut smelling cubicles and file cabinets until I finally heard it.

"I will NEVER tell you anything about the Cullen's. EVER!" it was Bella's voice. Half of my brain pleaded with her to do the exact opposite of what she said but then there was the other half that cheered her on: That's my little champ!

I couldn't stop my body as I heard a loud male roar in anger. I don't even remember how I found the door to the room they had her in but somehow I did, kicking in the door and lifting my gun to the first male I saw. It only took two shots to get the first one down but the second one, who was still covering Bella's view from me, took at least four. As he went down though, I could see her.

Now, as I held her in the car I could see the full extent of everything. Emmet drove my Volvo for me as I held Bella in my lap in the back seat with Carlisle trying to stop the bleeding coming from the back of her head.

Her beautiful little pouty lips were swollen and cut in five different places from the blows they had administered to her. Her cheeks had large gashes on top of the bruises covered each side of her face. As I looked down at her neck, though, I could see from her ripped white tee shirt that there was little bits of blood starting to seep through from every inch of her torso and collar bone. I felt Carlisle flick on the car lights above us as Emmet sped back to the house and I began to pull the hem of Bella's tee shirt up. I gasped in horror and disgust when I saw almost every inch of Bella covered in cuts, large bruises and gashes. Those fuckers deserved to die.

"Edward…" Bella grumbled, allowing me to see her blood stained teeth. Her voice was so hoarse and I couldn't see what she was feeling because one eye was swollen from a black eye and the other was too tired to stay awake, I'm sure.

"I'm here, baby. I'm here." I whispered as I leaned down to press my lips lightly against a patch of skin that wasn't bruised. She didn't flinch in pain, or moan in agony but let out this little content sigh that made my own heart flutter.

"I'm so sorry…" I sobbed out as I pressed my lips to that same patch of skin again on her forehead. It was all my fault. I should have stayed with her, or told her not to leave the place….it was every bit my fault that she was so battered and broken.

I did my best to keep her comfortable, though. If she whimpered in pain and wiggled in my arms, I would adjust my arm position with her so she wouldn't have to move more than she needed. I ran my fingertips over her battered lips lighter than a feather would, awarding me another little content sigh. My heart was floating now, not just fluttering. It was Carlisle's voice that pulled me out of my little bubble with Bella.

"She's dehydrated, needs a blood transfusion, stitches and probably a couple of splints because her wrist is sprained." Carlisle whispered into his Black Berry, probably to Esme. Emmet made a hard turn into the gates of our property and finally parked it in front of the house. Carlisle hurried around the car to open my door as I carefully tried not to move my arms too much.

As we made our way up to the house, the front door was opened to my mother's haunted face leading us in before I could even reach the few little steps. Once in the house, though, it all went as smooth as it would in an ER. Carlisle and Esme forced me into the dining area where the dining room table had been converted into a make-shift hospital cot. There was a white, thin sheet spread over the thick wood, a pillow from my room, and several things Carlisle had asked for from Esme.

"Lay her down, dear." Esme whispered, placing a gentle hand on my back. I did my best to lay Bella down gently and was thoroughly content with myself when she didn't even flinch. Her breathing was that of a sleeping baby so I knew she must have drifted off in to safe slumber. I just stood there, hovering over Bella while Carlisle rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. I didn't want him to touch her in fear of her screaming for death again…but I knew it was for the best.

"Edward I'm going to need to ask you a few questions while Esme cleans Bella up, alright?" he asks as Esme walks in on cue with a wet towel. She was going to clean Bella off so Carlisle could see the extent of her wounds, which only made me that much more uncomfortable with the situation; Carlisle seeing my girlfriend in her underwear. I finally let myself tear my sight from Bella and nodded in response.

"Is Bella a virgin?" he asks in his normal monotone voice. My head snaps up in shock, my jaw probably hitting the floor. He was serious though, so I answered before clearing my throat awkwardly.

"No." I mumble through clenched teeth. I can't believe my won father was asking me this. I looked over towards Bella to see Esme had already stripped Bella down and was washing her body, causing Bella's poor little body to flinch in pain every now and then.

"Were you her..." he gave out a little cough. "first?"

"Yes."

I heard an exasperated sigh come from Carlisle as I looked back up at him and asked the question that was probably looming on both our minds.

"Why?" my voice was tight in questioning my father. His face was grim as he looked up at me before answering reluctantly.

"If they raped her," my body went ridged in shock, but he kept going. "It would be easy to tell if she was a virgin or has only had one to two partners...sexually." They didn't touch her like that. They better not have. Carlisle asked her a few more questions about her blood type, her birthday and if she had any other medical problems besides her panic attacks. I told him everything I knew before we returned back to Bella. She was in her bra and underwear while Esme stares down at her now cleaned face. I was staring at her stomach…it was so battered and bruised.

"Edward," Carlisle warned after he placed two IV's into Bella's arms. One was re-hydration solution and the other was the blood transfusion with her blood type filled in it. "I'm going to need you to hold her shoulders down, Esme, my love, grab her feet please." he instructed. I did as he asked, searching for a spot on her shoulders that didn't have a wound on it.

"I'm going to start stitching up this gash on the back of her head. She's going to be in some major pain because I can't give her any pain medication right now…but I'll do it as fast I can." Carlisle assured. I tried not to grip onto Bella's limp shoulders as she still slept soundly beneath me without alerting or waking her.

As Carlisle started Bella flinched but didn't wake. I thanked god at that very moment for letting her sleep be so heavy she couldn't feel it.

I thanked God for bringing her back to me alive…but most of all I thanked god for sending her back to me at all because I certainly didn't deserve her.

Mwahahaha! Edward killed the douche duck! Hehe! Bella DID NOT get raped, just so you know and there will be some questioning going on later.

Anyways, I don't know when my next update will be, because I am in tennis and one act-a drama club thing-and I'm usually at school until 8: 30 at night. Yeah and that every day except Friday and the weekends, so I hope you guys will be happy with these four chapters I posted.

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Ohh! Thanks for the tons of reviews! I love you all soooo much!

Lots o love,

-wolfie