Chapter Twenty-Six—Deniability

We'd been in my apartment in the city for the last few days, mainly due to the security issues we faced. The media had swarmed around Bella's house, her job locations, and my downtown office building. It led to my security advising Bella and I work from home until we could be sure everyone working for was thoroughly checked.

Bella was not working much, other than to give orders through her phone and though she was less than pleased, she understood the reason of it. Her safety was important and my number one priority. It was decided my apartment was the safest place to stay, the most secure. No one but tenants and approved guests were allowed up to my penthouse. My security team searched the place for bugs daily, and for the moment no one but various security people, Charlie and Bella were allowed inside my home.

It had been three days since the incident on the highway, and the morning paper was on my lap. Bella had finally fallen asleep, assisted by medication since she was having nightmares about Logan's return home. We decided only a few hours earlier that we would push back his arrival until the last possible moment before he started school.

I hated that we were driven to take such drastic measures. It was because of our relationship, a mother and child were kept apart. Reasoning with Bella the morning after the accident, hadn't gone well.

"Tell me how you believe breaking up would benefit either of us?" she said through clenched teeth, pacing alongside my hospital bed. "Do you think our enemies will back off because we're no longer together?"

"First of all, it'll be an act, Bella," I said as calmly as possible. I knew if I raised my voice, so would hers, and it would accomplish nothing. "It will only be long enough until the threat is eliminated."

I was angry and showing it, my hands clenched at my sides.

"They will never believe it," she yelled, turning her back toward me to pace some more. "Did you not see that damn video of you fighting four fucking men to get to me? Two orderlies and two paramedics. You cried out my name over and over again. Whoever is doing this, will never believe that we're over. Not after that."

She had a point. The video had gone viral as I was lifted into an ambulance, from the angle we believe it as one of the damn police officer had taken it. Charlie was furious about it and launched an investigation on his own men.

I had to reason with her. "We can stage a public fight. Claim I cheated on you or something else." I hated the idea, but if it led people to believe that we were no longer together, my enemies could back off Bella.

She spun around and glared. A look that clearly stated she was very angry with me. "I will not allow you to be labeled a fucking cheater!" Her eyes narrowed. "And don't you dare think of making me out to be one! Not an option."

I rubbed my hands over my face, wincing at the cut on my lip and along one side of my jaw. Our eyes locked once again. "I need to know you're safe, clearly being with me is not the answer either."

She stomped her way back to my side with flushed skin and angry eyes. Her hands gently took hold of my face, careful due to the scrape that covered one side. Her eyes on mine.

"If you hadn't been with me at the gala, I could've died before my dad reached me. I would've panicked if you hadn't been in the car, and you'd be attending my funeral right now."

My chest ached as her words painted an all too clear picture.

It had taken Bella almost ten minutes to pull me back from the panic attack I had after what she said. I shuddered at the images of her dead, lifeless, from my mind for the moment. My hand tugged on my hair, rubbing along my stiff neck. Stress was eating away at me for the first time in my adult life.

She had won in the end. We would get through it together, and not present some fictitious story to the media and our enemies.

A knock on the door had me slipping on the mask of cool composure. Something I hadn't felt in days. "Come in," I said smoothly after a few deep breaths. An act I hoped to continue if I wanted to learn the truth.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Emmett asked, after popping his head inside.

"Come in and close the door," I stated. I forced myself to relax back against my chair, trying to appear unfazed. Emmett would read me as easily Bella often did. Those two were like peas in a pod, but it was their friendship that probably saved our lives.

Emmett had been ready to slow down our vehicle by smashing into it if the road block and spikes hadn't been set up in time. I had no doubt he'd take a bullet for, but I hoped it would never come to that at all.

Emmett, who I had come to rely on concerning Bella's safety, entered the room with a mask that rivaled my own. He was good, but not that good. I could read him easily, better than Bella, in fact. He no longer believed Bella was behind any of the attempts of theft or those on her life. All it had taken to convince him was a discussion on how she'd never jeopardize herself for fucking money. She also told him if he ever accused her of such a thing, she'd bust his balls.

She kissed him on the cheek after that discussion, leaving the man speechless.

I pushed away from the memory and returned my attention to the task at hand. Tossing the newspaper on my desk, toward him, I watched for his reaction. It was open to a page with Alec's face plastered on it. He wasn't front page news, but news nonetheless.

"Care to explain why I'm only now hearing about this."

Emmett's mask didn't falter one bit, nor had he bothered to look at the paper. His lack of reaction confirmed my suspicions. He was behind the news.

"Plausible deniability," he said simply.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, the only sign of distress. "What happened? What did you learn?"

Alec Williams had been found beaten in his apartment and suffered from amnesia. The authorities called it a home invasion or possibly a robbery in progress Alec had interrupted.

The amnesia was convenient.

"He's not behind any of the attempts on Bella."

I watched Emmett carefully for a moment. The full report on him had come in only an hour earlier. The man was honorable, and for him, it wasn't about the money as was typical for a gun-for-hire. His boss made it clear, if the client is up to no good, Emmett would probably kill the client himself. He chose those he protected. His contracts to kill, had to be for a good reason and not for the money or even territory. He only killed bad guys to simply state it. He was in essence incorruptible, and the main reason I asking for him.

"I find your information hard to believe."

Emmett breathed in deeply, and asked, "Mind if I have a seat?" I gestured toward the chair on his right, and watched him try to fit his immense size into it.

"I acted without orders and against all codes of conduct my employer has in place. We're not supposed to be get personally involved with those we protect."

"Understandable." Emotions could cloud judgment, hinder your ability to think properly in a tense situation.

His mouth tilted up on one side. "Unfortunately, Bella isn't someone you can just ignore if she's trying to be your friend."

Of that I was sure. "Again, understandable."

"I wanted answers. Fucking hell, sir. Someone tried to kill her."

"What makes you think that it wasn't an attempt on my life?"

"First of all, the license plate frame says her name. The 'B' emblem you had custom inlaid the day before into the dashboard and steering wheel, made it obvious that the car was meant for her even if it's under your name. It was remote triggered when she was driving, and we believe only her air bag malfunctioned. They wanted her dead or at least gravely injured."

"Leaving me vulnerable for another kind of attack," I offered, my mind spinning with possibilities. "They don't want me dead. They want me to suffer. It sounds personal."

"Yeah, well I still thought, at the time, it had more to do with her than you."

"Which is why you went after Alec."

"Yeah, plus Aro and his bitch of a wife were in New York on the way to Tokyo the night of the incident, according to my reports." We had people tailing them. "Alec seemed a more convenient punching bag." He was without regret and remorse as he admitted he committed violence on Bella's behalf.

"I see. Explain how you've come to the conclusion that Alec is not behind the attempts."

"About two years ago, he was fucking Rosalie Hale, your real estate agent," he said bluntly.

"What?" I reached for the phone, reeling at information.

"Relax," Emmett said, shaking his head as I stopped. "Let me explain first. After you brushed Alec off, he found out she was your agent. He wanted payback, hell maybe he hoped to steal you away as a client from her. He charmed his way into her bed, she said he'd been persistent. We're guessing he'd gone through her records and computer. He found out your aliases and dummy corporations that you sometimes use to buy property. We believe that he searched for information under those names and snatched up a nearby property on a recent purchase. It was around this time when rumors started about a revolutionary new product by your company coming soon. He approached Aro with the information and sold the property to him."

I controlled my anger and kept my composure. "How has this breach with Ms. Hale been handled?"

"I told her to setup a meeting with you this week. She did nothing wrong besides fall into bed with the wrong man."

"All right, I will have Angela call and schedule an appointment."

"You're firing her, aren't you?"

I didn't answer. She failed to keep business between us. The rumors leaked about the start of Oasis originated around the time I bought the property, too. And she was well aware of my needs for a lab when I made that purchase. Maybe she had shared more than a bed with Alec.

"Right," Emmett said, rubbing the back of his neck. The first sign he was nervous and I wondered if he had a thing for Ms. Hale. "After that, Alec said he tried to do more business with Aro, but the old man was an asshole and not interested. When I told him Bella had been in the car the news reported on and that I thought he had something to do with it, he pissed himself. He's too much of a chicken shit to pull something like it off. I worked him for six hours and couldn't get anything out of him, though he did mention he made the biggest mistake when he let Bella go because of his father."

The information changed nothing. Bella made it clear she wanted nothing to do with the man. "Anything else?"

"Aro contacted him when there was speculation Bella was the mystery woman taken in a few pictures."

"And?"

"They had lunch one time, where Aro casually mentioned you and the supposed mystery woman. Alec told him that he knew who it was and how he dated Bella. He never told him that he was Logan's father though, thank God. There was nothing after the lunch meeting until they saw each other at the gala. Alec said Aro ignored him."

"Did he mention Bella's allergy to him at this lunch?"

"It was brought up, in an offhand manner according to Alec. Heidi mentioned she was allergic to something on the menu, and Alec mentioned Bella's allergy to peanuts."

"They set up the lunch meeting to gather intel on Bella. Aro already knew Alec dated her."

"Yeah, by the time he confessed Alec was a mess, and started to lash out and spew crap. He blames everything wrong with his life on Bella. I might've hit him a couple of times to shut him up."

Good. The asshole deserved it. A part of me wanted to have been the one that delivered each blow. "His memory?"

"Top secret government formula," Emmett said, shrugging. "Made it look like a robbery and left. Surprised that it took so long to find him."

"It still leaves us with no one to pin the nightmare on, besides Aro. Now we know that he doesn't go after someone unless he has all the facts. It still tells me there's a leak in my company. One he's probably had in his pocket for a while."

"Who knew you bought the car with the intention to have Bella use it the most? Knew it was being worked on before you gave it to her? And knew that it was left overnight at the dealers for that work. And also knew you were scheduled to pick it up with Bella that morning."

"Besides me, there might be a considerable amount of people"

I pulled out a clean sheet of paper and pen, noticing Emmett lay out a list of his own. "Did James know?" he asked.

"No, but Charlie did and so did Sue, his girlfriend, well fiancé now."

"If Charlie mentioned it to him, that's three people."

I hated adding them to the list, but we had to approach it from every angle and eliminate them as suspects.

"Then there's the salesman, his boss who chose to introduce himself," I said as I wrote down each name. "The secretary there called to make sure the check would clear."

"Any teller she worked with at the bank," Emmett added, writing it down with a note to check out that person. "If the salesman decided to talk to anyone about it, showing off, he probably said something to anyone willing to listen at the dealership." Water cooler gossip ran rampant at most companies, mine seemed no different.

Emmett pulled out his phone, typing something. After a minute, he had an answer. "All right, the dealership has about twenty-seven employees."

"Send me the list." I printed out the page of employees. The dealership's computer network seemed reasonably easy to hack into, apparently, Emmett's computer skills were as versatile as my own.

"That leaves us at square fucking one," Emmett grumbled and popped his neck "There's got to be someone we're missing."

"You are." I watched as Bella entered, wiping at one of her eyes.

"You should be in bed," I said, rising to my feet to meet her.

"I told you that sleeping pills only last long enough to take a nap when I have this much shit on my mind," she said with a shrug, attempting to stifle a yawn. A sheet draped across her shoulders, and she barely held it closed in front of her. She drew closer, allowing me to lead her to my chair.

I pulled her onto my lap. Normally, I would never do something like this in front of another employee, but Emmett was her friend. It didn't matter anyway, I needed her close.

"Who are we forgetting?" I asked, kissing her temple as she tried to hide another yawn. She stretched slightly and nuzzled my neck. She didn't seem to care about our audience.

"One thing I learned when I work with high end clients is there are no keeping secrets from certain people in their lives."

"Family?" Emmett said. "Aro has none that we know of besides his wife. He lost his son almost ten years ago in a car accident."

"Maids, gardeners and drivers know everything. Most of their employers go on with whatever they're doing as if they aren't there. To them they're insignificant."

"Edward doesn't have staff staying with him," Emmett offered, now scratching his head in confusion. "He isn't stupid enough to say anything in front of them."

I was careful, but careful enough? I couldn't be sure.

"God, you two are dense. Another person that would know everything, no matter how hard you tried to hide it would be a personal assistant."

Emmett's eyes widened, as he pulled out his phone again, sending things to my wireless printer. I stilled, trying to come up with a plausible denial.

"Would she have known you were looking for a car for me?" Bella asked sleepily, unaware of the turmoil she caused me. Angela had been with me since the beginning.

"I asked her for a list of dealerships in the area and to find the safest and most reliable SUV on the market."

"Damn," Emmett hissed from his chair. "How the fuck had we missed her?"

"You were thinking with your dicks and didn't think a cute, innocent looking woman could be responsible for the leak." Bella shrugged and batted her lashes as if to prove her point. I knew she was quite capable of doing whatever she set her mind to do.

"If it's Angela. Who is she working for?" I asked.

"You can't come out and accuse her," Bella stated, stretching again. She was making it difficult to concentrate. I had been especially careful with her, since she did have bruises, too. "Set her up with a false rumor. One you'll only allow her to 'hear' and then you'll know for sure if it ends up in the news."

"It's worth a shot," Emmett stated. "Meanwhile, I'll put someone on her records and dig up some dirt. There has to be a reason she would turn against you, Edward. For fucks sake you helped her get her first house."

I cocked an eyebrow, the was information concerning my assistance was not publicly known. Angela wasn't even aware I was the one who'd given her the grant for her and her son to purchase a home after her late husband died overseas.

"Edward," Bella said softly. The tone of her voice was enough for me to know what she wanted to say would be something I didn't want to hear. "I know you. Once you had the means when you got older, you'd look for him. What do you know about your father?"

There were some secrets I hadn't told her or Emmett, the most alarming ones were about my father.