As soon as Edward came back into the conference room, Bella knew her life was about to change.

She could tell, just by the look in his eyes – a look she had never seen.

The two of them had interacted plenty within the halls of Cullen Consulting, and they had interacted plenty in the privacy of their bedroom.

She had never seen the expression that was on Edward's face before.

To anyone else, she was fairly sure he looked as cold and composed as ever. But she could see the flicker of fear in his irises, and it was the first time that particular emotion had ever shown through.

"It's gone."

Carlisle's eyes widened.

"Are you s-"

Edward cut him off with a sharp nod.

Bella squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, sharing in his terror. But then she opened her eyes, squared her shoulders and prepared to fight.

"So what do we do?" she asked, looking to Carlisle and willing herself to believe that he knew what he was doing.

Carlisle looked over at Jasper and Seth and then back at Edward. "It's time we go into defensive mode."

Edward's lips thinned out into a hard line. He opened his mouth but then saw Carlisle's gaze go over to Bella's just for the briefest flicker. Edward then closed his mouth and nodded. "Alright."

"Mr. Clearwater?" Carlisle said, pulling Seth's attention away from his screen. "Can you access the security footage from there at any location?" he asked.

"Yes."

Carlisle nodded. "Are you almost done?" he said, asking Jasper.

Jasper looked incredibly frustrated. "These don't look like they did when I last looked at them a week ago. The formatting is different and I don't know for sure because I don't have the other numbers in front of me…but they look wrong."

"Our balance sheets look wrong?" Bella inquired, letting her breath out as she spoke.

Jasper was looking more frustrated by the second. "I don't know!" he exclaimed, running his hand through his hair. "It's Mike's god damn job, I don't look at them that much. But they sure as hell don't look the same as last time."

"Seth, is there any way you can see if our systems have been hacked?" Carlisle asked.

The younger man grimaced. "If it was hacked from the outside maybe. It'll take me much longer if it was someone from within the system who manipulated numbers." He then looked around the room and especially at Bella before looking at Carlisle. "They…are manipulated right?"

"Mr. Clearwater," Carlisle said in a firm voice. "I can assure you that absolutely nothing untoward has ever been allowed to happen in this firm under my watch."

Seth nodded. "I was just checking."

All of the sudden, Emmett's booming laughing could be heard from down the hallway.

"Seth," Bella hissed at him, nodding at his screen.

"Oh, right!" Seth exclaimed before shoving it behind him and tucking it under his shirt. He leaned back against the chair as if he wasn't hiding a piece of technology that the Feds had ordered to confiscated.

Just a moment later, two agents walked past their conference room. They glanced in, eyes hardened and suspicious. Carlisle met their gaze and gave them a confident nod. One of them hesitated for a second, but then fell right into step with his partner as they kept walking past the room.

Bella let out her breath.

"So Seth, you can access the footage of the security tapes?" Bella confirmed quietly.

Seth nodded.

"Okay, I'll take him back to headquarters. Edward, Bella, go back to your apartment. Hopefully we will get the information we need, but if our suspicions are correct, then be prepared for defensive mode. I will contact you when we know."

"If our suspicions are correct then I must insis-"

"No," Carlisle cut him off. "I have made my decision."

Bella watched as the two man stared at one another, Edward's nostrils flaring slightly and Carlisle as unwavering as ever in his conviction. Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and remained frozen in that position for a few moments. Bella held her breath, knowing they were speaking cryptically in the event they were being spied on, so she did not ask what they were talking about. Instead, she watched the man she loved as a war raged on within him.

"Carlisle, without those papers, we have to-"

The older man cut him off by holding up his hand. He looked over at Bella and then back at Edward. "I've risked both of you too much already."

Edward looked over at his lover and his heart clenched. She had her chin up and her shoulders back and she was remaining calm, but he could see the barely contained fear in her eyes.

He could withstand a lot of things, but he was not sure that her being in danger was not one.

Finally, he nodded.

"Go. Prepare what you need. Wait for my signal."

Bella looked at Edward and he nodded at her. She grabbed her purse from where it was on the chair near Seth, her gun tucked in the special compartment. Jasper's eyes followed her as she straightened up. "Be careful, Bells," he said, his words heavy.

With a swallow, she nodded. She didn't know what was going on, and she didn't know if Jasper did either, but whatever was about to happen was going to change the course their lives were on.

She could see it in Jasper's eyes as he realized that their numbers had been tampered with and they were all being set up. She knew as well as he knew that this would tarnish the resumes and careers of thousands of people if things didn't go their way.

She could see in Carlisle's gaze as he scanned the room around him and grasped the utter destruction that was about to fall on the company he had built. She could see the weight of the lives that had been lost and the lives that would never fully be out of danger.

And above all, she could see it in Edward's eyes as he looked at her. The way he was gazing at her, with a mixture of determination and fear. It was enough to make her understand, that there was no going back now.

There couldn't be.

"You too, Jasper. Seth," she said, forcing a smile. The younger man nodded back to her, his eyes solemn.

Edward and Bella left the conference room and took the nearest exit. They didn't look back in case an agent was wanting to question them. Neither of them said a word as they hurried down the stairs, not wanting to stop to find an elevator. He put his hand on the small of her back and led her calmly through the parking garage to where his Ferrari was parked. His other hand was hovering near his waistband, and her hands were clutching her purse, ready to pull out a weapon and defend them in need be.

As soon as they were in the car, Edward peeled out of the lot and was speeding to his apartment. Alec, Bella's bodyguard, was following behind them in his black car.

"Edwa-"

"Not here."

Bella took a shaky breath and Edward heard the intake. He looked over at her and his sharp face softened just as slightly. "I will explain. Just give me a couple minutes."

So it was with baited breaths that they finished the car ride and went up to the penthouse suite. Both of them were silent the whole time, not taking any chances that someone wasn't listening. Edward trusted the defenses of his apartment, but nowhere past that.

As soon as they were in the apartment and the door was closed behind them, Bella looked at him blankly. "What's defensive mode?"

"I get out of the country," he said flatly.

Bella's mouth fell open before she quickly closed it.

Edward leveled her with an intense stare as he took off his suit coat. "And there is not a chance I AM leaving without you."

Bella swallowed. "Where?"

Edward pulled the gun out of his waistband and set it on the granite island between them. He then ran his hand through his hair, something he only did when he was agitated.

"I have properties around the world, all of which have been bought by aliases for aliases. Thailand, Moscow, Capetown, Bogotá, Dubrovnik, Glasgow...they can't be traced back to either of us or Cullen Consulting."

Bella's head was starting to spin and she had to sit down on the stool next to her, lest she faint.

"How long?"

Edward shook his head. "Until it's safe again."

Bella let out a frustrated breath, "Edward, it may never be safe again here!"

Edward stared at her.

She shook her head. "You've been prepared for this," she accused.

Edward scratched as his chin, where a 5 o'clock shadow was coming in. Bella watched the movement as he considered his words before speaking.

"I have known it was a possibility," he finally said.

"In a world where the Brigados did not offensive against the firm and Wilder was alive, we would have been in a position a power over them. But with Wilder dead, Roman beginning his crusade, those papers being gone and the Brigados being close breaching our systems, something we're defenseless against with Black dead –assuming he was not in their pocket, which is a stretch- all we have is my testimony. Until Carlisle can get everything figured out, I need to disappear. And since you are in just as much danger as I am, you need to come with me."

Bella shook her head. "What were you wanting to do that Carlisle wouldn't let you?"

"Kill them."

Bella dropped her face into her hands and rubbed as she tried her hardest to wrap her head around what the fuck was happening. Edward and Carlisle had had plans and had put years into calculating this all out. Yet, she had been in the dark, despite the fact that her life was very much tied to Edward's.

She heard his footsteps retreat in the direction of their bedroom as he gave her a moment.

It would be a suicide mission for Edward to go in and try to take them out on his own. And Carlisle wouldn't let him. He would try and get someone at the FBI, someone who wasn't in the pocket of the Brigados. But with his firm being threatened by the biggest scandal to his Corporate America in years, he wasn't in the best of positions credibility wise.

When she heard the footsteps return, she said, "How are we going to get out of the city without them knowing?"

And when she didn't get a reply, she lifted her face out of her hands in confusion.

Her gaze immediately found Edward, standing in the kitchen. He had lost all color in his face and was staring at her in a mixture of shock and what she had to guess was anger, an emotion she was not used to having directed at her. She opened her mouth and was about to voice her confusion when she saw what he had in his hand.

The pregnancy test.

"Something you were planning on tell me, Swan?" he asked, his lips curling up into a sneer.

Oh fuck.

However, looking at him and seeing the anger in his eyes, she felt anger spread throughout herself in response.

"Yes, actually," she replied shortly.

Edward raised an eyebrow. "When exactly were you going to get around to that?"

"I'm sorry, when were you hoping I let you know?" she asked with a hysterical laugh, throwing her hands angrily into the air as the stress of the situation fully absorbed her. "This morning when you went to meet the the fucking mafia? Or should I have texted you even though you don't think that's safe? Or just announced it in that fucking conference room in between news segments telling the world that our company is about collapse in scandal? After you realized that safe was gone? When would you have preferred?"

"When did you find out?" he demanded.

"This morning," she deadpanned. "And then I spent the next four hours throwing up."

"And that's why you weren't at work?" he asked.

She gave him a terse nod.

"Swan, how-"

Bella let out a frustrated growl of her own. "I don't know, Edward!"

She had been on birth control. She would have noticed had she missed a pill and she was almost certain she had not.

Edward slammed the stick down on the counter with enough force to make Bella jump in her seat. Her anger began to soften as she looked up at him warily as he began to pace, his hands going through his hair and tugging it in all different directions. She watched as he muttered something under his breath, and she was reminded of that dream that had woken them up a couple months ago.

"This shouldn't have happened," Edward finally said with a long sigh as he ran his hand over his face.

She didn't say anything.

"We cannot do this right now," he said abruptly, stopping his pacing and looking her square in the eye.

Bella let out an agitated breath. "This wasn't my plan, Edward. None of this was my plan so please stop acting like it is."

Edward looked uncomfortable as he tried to steady his breathing in and out his nose, his hands gripping the edges of the island so hard that his knuckles were white.

"Do you understand how bad this is?" he finally asked, his voice soft yet oh so cold.

Bella shivered and pulled her cardigan tighter around her as she released her own breath.

"Yes."

"I do not think you do," he replied, his voice remaining that deadly calm that was beginning to frighten her.

"Of course I d-"

"I do not think you do," he repeated over her. "Because if you did. You would not be looking at me like that."

"Like what?" she demanded.

"Like you don't know what to do about this."

Bella's stomach twisted into a knot at his words and his hard stare. On instinct, Bella moved her hand to her flat stomach, whether to soothe her stomach or if it was a protective gesture, she did not know. Edward did not miss the movement as he stared at her impassively.

"You mean…"

"You will have to get rid of it."

Bella's whole body felt like it was stinging, but mostly it was just her eyes. She blinked a few times as moisture gathered beneath her lids. She had not been under any delusions about how unfortunate this discovery was, but the way he was handling it and the way he was looking at her so coldly was enough for her to feel the hurt.

"We can't, Swan," Edward said, his voice softening. "It wouldn't be safe."

Bella let out a humorless chuckle as she blinked at the tears threatening to form. "Kill our baby to eliminate the chance it might be killed?"

Edward's eyes hardened. "If I thought death was the worse thing that would befall my child, we may be having a different conversation."

Bella felt icy cold.

The two of them remained shrouded in heavy silence as they stared at each other before Bella finally dropped her head back into her hands. She stayed that way, breathing in and out, trying to stabilize her breathing and get rid of it's shakiness.

"I'm going to get another pregnancy test," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Edward lifted his own head up and stared at her impassively.

"Before we finish this conversation, I'm taking another test to make sure it wasn't a false positive," she said, standing up from the stool. "I'll be right back."

Edward straightened up. "No, I'll go."

Bella let out a frustrated sigh. "There's a pharmacy 20 feet out of the front door. I can get it. I'd barely be leaving the building."

"Then I'll go with you," he said, reaching to grab his gun of the island, readying to go.

"It's fine. I'll go," she insisted.

"You shouldn't leave the apartment alone, I'll go."

"No!" Bella exclaimed, her body surging with agitation from their conversation.

Edward froze and looked at her, still an unreadable expression on his face.

Bella let out another breath as she picked up her purse and started towards the door. "I have my gun and my cell phone and I'm only going a few feet away. For a few minutes, I just need to not see you."

And then she was out the door before he could say anything, leaving him to stare at the door that had just been slammed. Despite the million thought coursing through his mind regarding everything that had just happened in the past hour, every instinct he had urged him to go after her. However, with their first real fight unfolding in front of them on one of the most tumultuous nights of their lives, he could give her a couple minutes to herself.

He looked at his watch.

She had five minutes before he went after her.

~O~

After the elevator let her down to ground level, Bella stomped out of the lobby. She looked both ways before crossing the two-way street, seeing no cars coming as she darted to the corner pharmacy. Everything in the store was over priced, but it was convenient and right now, she needed convenient.

Without wasting time, Bella looked around the store and saw a dozen people milling in the isles. Seeing nothing untoward, she hurried over to where she knew the pregnancy tests were. As she was just about there when she stopped in front of the granola bar section. She stared at it for a split second before grabbing a box of Cliff bars with a growl. If they were going to be fleeing the country, she was going to need a god damn snack.

As she was standing up, she noticed there was a man who had come up right behind her.

She stiffened.

He was standing far too close for comfort and though she couldn't get a good look at him, she felt his presence. She started to take a step to the side, and he subtly moved right along with her.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

"Miss Swan," the man murmured lowly.

Bella moved her hand slowly, moving towards her purse where she had her gun.

"If you pull that out your friends die," he said, his tone low yet calm and disgustingly conversational.

Bella froze.

She was still staring at the energy bars in front of her, having not moved a muscle. She felt him get even closer. To anyone else, it would look like he was simply examining one of the bars next to her.

"Now that I have your attention," he continued, his voice still calm. Bella looked down at the phone he shifted into view and narrowed her eyes to see what he was showing her. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest as she realized what she was seeing.

It was Rosalie's apartment.

It was from the vantage point of where she knew Rose's entertainment center was. The view was zoomed out, but she could clearly see Alice on the phone, sitting next to Esme on the couch while Rosalie stood aways behind them.

When and how had they gotten in there?

Bella's throat constricted.

"If you tap a toe out of line, this camera on her TV will cause the entire system to explode," her murmured conversationally. "And they will die."

Bella felt a sheen layer of sweat break out on her forehead. She was thinking everything at once, yet her mind was blank, overcome with a terror she had never before felt. She gulped and the nodded, letting him know she heard him.

"That's a good girl," he crooned. "Now, unless you want me to activate that and the one that's in your boyfriend's Ferrari, you'll do as I say."

Edward. Oh, Edward no.

"Now, why don't you go and pay for those and then leave the store. Get in the black car outside without saying a word. One step out of line and your friends and lover are dead."

See you next week.

All the love.