Chapter Twenty Nine

Peter

I should have left earlier but I didn't expect my journey to be so difficult, the crash blocking the road was bad enough but the boulder fall at my back made me slightly nervous and fucking annoyed. I could have moved the damn things myself if there hadn't been any witnesses but as it was I had to wait for a bulldozer. Then a cruiser came up behind me and I heard them calling in the hoax accident, the one that had closed the road. I cursed turning the car round, I'd been played, and as soon as I was out of sight I put the accelerator right to the floor. I didn't like this one bit, two coincidences? Was there someone behind it all and if so...why? It wasn't for a few miles that the obvious hit me, Alice fucking Cullen was trying to keep me away from the airport which meant something was going down there and the only thing possible involved Charlotte. If she hurt my mate I'd pull her liver out through her mouth and beat the shit out of her with it! I went as fast as I could but I knew it wasn't fast enough so in the end I pulled the car onto the road side and ran the rest of the way avoiding the traffic jams and clawing back a little lost time. As I stopped close to the airport I smoothed my hair down so I didn't look like a wild man and walked as slowly as I could force myself into the terminal where I smelled Charlotte, so her plane had landed. Looking up I saw that it had been twenty minutes early, when was a flight ever fucking early? I scanned the terminal looking for her but then I smelled another scent, one that had me cursing, another vampire, that meant Charlotte could be in trouble and I tried to follow their scents but lost them outside, how the hell had whoever it was persuaded Char to go with them willingly? Why the hell hadn't I phoned to check if the flight were early? Why hadn't Charlotte phoned me when she landed? I needed answers and soon.

Alice

I'd seen Peter was on his way but I also saw there was a stretch of road which was a cell phone black hole and my timing had been spot on, my gamble paid off. Charlotte had given up trying and ran after Becky as I knew she would. As they took off I checked my timing again, they had about thirty minutes to get off the highway before meeting up with Peter coming the other way and the storage facility was about twenty minutes on so it would be close but I saw they would make it. Even if he checked his cell phone again which I doubted as he was too anxious to get to the airport there would be nothing he could do, he was out of time and out of luck and going to lose his mate, at least for a while. I thought my boss would probably be happy if I killed Charlotte Whitlock but she might be a safeguard for me so she would live, for the moment. The tiny bug in the car I'd supplied Becky with was working fine so I could listen in to their conversation. Charlotte asked her about Bella which had me worried for a few seconds but she remembered what I'd told her.

"Oh, she's human but a little different. I think she has some kind of spell over men, they all seem to like her, even Emmett and Rosalie got very jealous."

I looked at my watch, she was right on schedule but I was glad I'd decided to come to keep an eye on things. I waited and then heard Becky again,

"I just have to pick something up for Jasper, I hope you don't mind. It won't take a minute."

She pulled in to the storage facility keying in the code I'd given her to open the metal gates and drove in.

"He asked me to pick up a box from his unit, now what was the number"

I tensed but then she exclaimed,

"Oh yes I remember, it's just here."

"Fine. I'll stretch my legs and try to get hold of Peter again."

I smiled knowing her phone wouldn't work now, I had put a small box of tricks under her seat which I was assured would fry any cell phone getting close to it and sure enough I saw her look at it in frustration as Becky opened the door of my unit with another code. As instructed as she walked in then turned to look back,

"Is something wrong Charlotte?"

"My cell phone has died for some reason."

"Oh, you can borrow mine if you like."

Becky offered her the use of the new cell phone I'd given her for the purpose, holding it out, and Charlotte followed her inside. I had already set the trap and she walked straight into it. I knew Becky couldn't out fight her but with a little ingenuity I had a strong metal cage made with a sliding door which dropped down as she walked inside. It was meant for Bella originally but I had found an alternative use for it. She whirled as she heard it crash down and looked at Becky shocked and angry.

"Sorry Charlotte, but as my mother always told me, don't trust strangers, not ever. I'm not trustworthy at all, I'm not really a friend of Emmett or Jasper either, I'm Alice's friend. Now be a good girl and with a little luck she won't make you stay here long, its horrible when you ate locked up all the time but hopefully you'll only be here a little while. Alice told me that this cage is made from really strong metal so you wont be able to bend the bars. Oh yes, she also told me the bars are connected to the electrical supply so you have to be careful. Now I have to go, its been nice to meet you Charlotte, bye for now."

As Becky backed out smiling and waving Charlotte launched herself at the bars and was thrown backwards by the shock. Becky shook her head and tutted,

"I warned you, you should have listened to me."

As Becky skipped back to the car I emerged from my hiding place,, still keeping out of Charlotte's line of sight, shut the unit door and jammed the lock just in case she found a way out. It wouldn't stop her but it might slow her down. I was fairly confident my little prison would hold her but you never knew with the Whitlocks, they were very resourceful and I liked to be thorough. Then I watched as Becky drove off before running back to my own car and taking a long route back to Seattle. I really didn't want to chance bumping into Peter or Jazz now.

Charlotte

I heard Becky's car drive away and kicked myself soundly for believing her, I'd never hear the last of it from Peter that was for sure. I sat down on the floor and considered my situation, I was somewhere between Seattle and Port Angeles and I needed to get out of here as quickly as I could. I was pretty sure I could get through the bars but the electrification was more of a problem, it wouldn't kill me obviously but it could prevent me from getting a grip on the bars if I couldn't find a way to short-circuit it. I emptied my pockets looking at the contents, a plastic comb, some dollars, and my passport. Not much help there but I was wearing a belt. I checked the buckle but like most things these days it was coated plastic not metal, damn! No help there so I looked around the larger unit, I could see something that might be of use, a coil of wire leaning against the cinder block wall. If I could get it within reach I could use it to short-circuit the cage. I flicked my belt out between the bars and found it was just about long enough to touch the coil but how was I going to snag it? Thinking fast I tied the comb to it after breaking out most of the teeth to leave a kind of hook shape. I threw it again but it missed, it took a dozen throws but eventually I snagged the coil praying it wouldn't be too heavy for the plastic and jerked it. The coil fell over catching the hook and I slowly pulled it closer. It slipped off a few times but I persevered and finally it was close enough that I could reach through carefully and grabbed the free end of the wire and pulled it slowly through until I had about eight foot of wire inside the cage then I snapped it.

Now I needed some way of earthing the wire so as I stripped back the thick insulation on both ends I looked around then saw the ideal thing, the storage unit had a metal frame with cinder block walls and if I could find a way of getting the wire to touch one of those I was home free. The closest one was just beyond arms reach so it meant balancing the wire between the bars to touch it. I made a hook and holding the insulation slid it over one of the bars then holding the other end about three-foot back I threaded it back through the bars until it was hovering close to the metal strut. Saying a quick prayer I pushed the wire against the strut. There was a loud bang and a shower of sparks and I waited a few minutes before chancing a touch of the bars. Just cold metal, it worked! I didn't wait any longer but took the bars between my hands and pulled. The metal was tough but I was tougher, I was also pretty angry and that gave me an extra boost. Within two minutes I had bent enough bars to slip through, right Alice Cullen, this meant war! I kicked the unit door a few times and it buckled before flying open and I ran out straight across the compound and jumped the perimeter fence with an exhilarated cry. Once free and through the trees I stopped to take stock. I had no idea exactly where I was but I knew I needed to head north-west and did so running as fast as I could. I could imagine Peter's frustration and confusion when he got to the airport and found me gone. He would smell my scent but what would he make of Becky's? Would he realize straight away that Alice was behind it or would he think I'd run into someone I knew? He might waste time looking round the airport for me and I wasn't sure if my capture had been a way of stopping him from helping The Major or a diversion to enable her to reach Bella. I just hoped they wouldn't leave her unguarded to find me, I could look after myself even If I had made a real cock-up of it this time. I guess I was getting rusty, it had been many years since we had needed to be watchful which wasn't an excuse for blindly walking into a trap but it was the best I could console myself with at the moment.