Twilight is owned in it's entirety by Stephenie Meyer and Little, Brown publications. No infringement was intended in the making of this story.
A/N: I hope that you will all forgive me that this chapter is a little short, but I wanted to get it out to you when I felt it was finished…unfortunately finished, at least in this chapter, means short. I hope that you enjoy it none the less. Please feel free to leave me a review if you enjoy it.
Thank you to all of my faithful readers out there. Oh and as a suggested reader, if you aren't already reading something great…try picking up KitKat681's story Darkness and Light. If you like blind Edward stories (which I love for some reason) then this is a wonderful twist on that. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I personally think it is Wonderful with a capital W!
JamesPOV
Pacing. Shit, was this what I had been reduced down too. That fucking son of a bitch Swan had some how found my great grand-father's house and in turn, my hide out. How he had done it was still a mystery to me. I thought I had been so careful, I mean he didn't even have the same last name as I did. So how the fuck he had connected the dots still puzzled me. But no matter how you looked at it, I was fucked. By now he and his band of "merry men" had taken away all my shit and I would be left with nothing.
Even if he had somehow left me something, there was no way in hell I was going back to that place. I wasn't born yesterday, the place would be crawling with surveillance just waiting for me to come back. No fucking way was I going back to that place. Forcefully I raked my hands through my hair, pulling at the ends. Shit, everything I owned was there. I didn't even have a fucking change of clothes. I was mad as hell at the turn of events. I threw the small controller from my cameras against the wall, watching as it shattered into a dozen small pieces.
Alright, if that's how they wanted to play this, then so be it. I would just have to step up my plans a bit, that's all. But first, I had to get a few supplies.
EmPOV
The raid on James' suspected hide out had been planned for mid-morning. I called Edward earlier to fill him in on everything going on and he promised he would do everything he could to keep Bella calm. But he made me promise that they would be given a full update when it was all said and done and he made me promise to stay safe.
Alec and I had updated the SWAT team that would be raiding the location before my agents headed in, trying to give them a much information as we knew about James and what kind of man he was. The more they knew and what to expect, the better the outcome would be over all. I couldn't really settle on one emotion right now. I was anxious and nervous, psyched-up and scared to death of what we would find, if we would find anything.
It wasn't long before I found myself standing just outside a decrypted looking set of wooden cellar doors, gun in hand, waiting for the all-clear signal from the lead officer. It seemed to take forever, when I'm sure only a few minutes passed before the signal came that it was all clear and safe to enter. I was no where near ready for what I walked in on. Even Alec, who had entered just behind me, stumbled a little in his footing when he gazed around the open room.
I hadn't meant it to come out as a whispered question but it seemed I couldn't bring my voice to raise any louder. "How the hell am I going to explain this to Edward and Bella, bro?"
BPOV
It seemed things were moving along so quickly since Edward and I had gotten home. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by it all to be quite honest. We had barely even stepped in the door before Emmett was dropping the bombshell on us that they had found what could possibly turn out to be James' hideout. I didn't know what I thought. I don't know what I was fighting inside myself more with, the fact that they had possibly found his hideout or the fact that they couldn't conduct the raid until the next day.
It was that uncomfortable little fact that had me sitting at my dinning room table this morning, surrounded by the women I loved and my fiancé, all desperately trying to keep me distracted, and failing miserably. Edward had called Esme this morning, who had called Alice, who called Rosalie who already knew what Emmett was doing this morning, so they all rushed over to be with me and Edward as we waited.
Edward was a rock and I was envious. How he kept from being nervous and anxious for an update like I was, I don't know. I couldn't help it, I could imagine everything that could happen with this raid this morning and none of it was good. What if James was there and he put up a fight? What if someone got hurt? What if he wasn't there and this nightmare continued on?
I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I wasn't really even paying attention to the conversation going on around me. We had finally decided on a wedding date, December 24th, and everyone was here to help Edward and I to start making plans towards it. There was no disguising it, I was a nervous wreck. If it weren't the constant jumping of my leg that gave it away, then it was the never ending drumming of my pen against my note pad. "How about we have Pepto Bismol pink and Pumpkin orange as your colors, Bella." I barely registered Alice speaking to me so I just nodded my head, whatever Alice came up with I'm sure it would be fine. "That sounds great, Alice."
Edward's hand reached over and stopped my nervous pen tapping about the same time Rosalie burst out laughing. "Seriously Bella? We better be getting the pink because I do not do orange." I looked at each of them completely confused by what they were talking about. Edward quickly explained why they were all in either a state of shock or hysterics…well Alice was in shock, Rosalie and Esme were giggling. "Love, you just agreed to pink and orange as our wedding colors."
"I'm so sorry," I said as I rolled my eyes at my own stupid mistake, "I don't know where my head is right now." That wasn't completely true. I knew exactly where my head was right now. It was in the woods somewhere with my big brother praying he was safe. "It's alright dear. We are all concerned about what is going on right now. But it won't help anyone to sit and worry about it." Esme's kindness knew no bounds as she left her seat to come and sit beside me. Edward was still holding my hand as Esme put her arm around me to comfort me. "Now, let's try to focus on this and before you know it, they will be back and all will be alright."
It took six hours, lunch and part of the afternoon to finish up but somehow between Edward, Alice, Esme Rose and myself we had an small intimate wedding completely planned out. Each of us had a small list of things that needed to be done within the next two months. Barring any complications it would easily be completed giving Edward and I exactly the kind of wedding we had always dreamed off.
The grandfather clock in the foyer chimed marking off five o'clock. Esme was right, time did fly when you were focused on something else. But the normally comforting chiming of the clock only seemed to remind me that Emmett had yet to return, and I was growing more worried by the minute.
We were just gathering up all of our notes and things when the house phone began to ring. It was like watching a moving in slow motion as I watched Edward slowly make his way over to the cordless phone hanging on the cradle on the kitchen wall. Picking it up his fingers found the button to cut it on before answering, "Hello? Bro. you had us worried. What's going on, where have you been all this time?" There was a pause as he listened, "Yeah we can be there. When?" After a short pause Edward hung up the phone. An uncomfortable silence filled the room. I rushed to his side, "Edward what did he say?" "He wants us to come down to the station. He's got something he needs you to see."
EPOV
Our small caravan of cars made it the five short miles to the police station in very little time. As Bella rushed around the house to close everything down and grab her coat and purse, mom called dad to let him know what was going on and to meet us at the station. Alice called Jasper and he was on his way, while Rosalie called Jacob for me to let him know what was going on. Mom was driving our car, I hadn't had my patches removed yet and Bella was in no shape to drive. Rosalie drove Alice in her car. As we pulled up you could hear three other sets of tires hit the gravel at just about the same time as ours did. I was able to get out of my side of the car fairly easily but knew I couldn't venture much further without assistance.
My dad's hands hand gripped my own alerting me to his presence, "Do you need a hand son?" His warm and gentle voice made me feel safer just knowing he was there. "Thanks dad I appreciate it." He slipped my hand in the crook of his arm, tucking me against his side. Before we started moving though I called out to Bella who quickly slipped her hand in my free one, there was no way I was letting her do this alone.
Slowly we made our way into police headquarters to meet with Emmett.
EmPOV
Alec was just as blown away as I was. I think it literally took me minutes to pick my jaw up off the floor. The room was covered from floor to ceiling with pictures and details of women. As I stepped closer to look at one, I had to admit he was very thorough and methodical. Each section that displayed a new woman had a bio sheet all about her, from her height, weight and hair color, to details about the foods she bought and the kind of clothes she wore. There were complete schedules detailing their whereabouts throughout the entire day from one day to the next. Sometimes there were candid shots of them putting groceries into their car, setting out flowers in their yards or even just laughing with a friend. James knew these women inside and out.
I started on one side of the room as Alec started on the other. In the background you could hear the powering up and flash of the camera man from my team detailing the room. Before anything could be moved he had to take every detail down by camera. We even had an agent with a video camera recording our every movement. We didn't want to leave anything to chance. Slowly but surely we made our way to the middle of the room as we looked over the descriptions of each and every victim.
It had been several minutes since Alec had moved by the time I joined him. He was focused intently on one victim in particular. In the back of my mind I realized that Bella would be on this wall somewhere but I wasn't sure how ready I was to see it when my eyes finally did find her pictures. When my eyes focused in on what Alec had been staring at I couldn't help the anger that began to boil up inside of me. There were pictures of her doing everything from going out to get the mail, to kissing Edward goodbye in the morning. There was a picture of her jogging down main street, one of her flipping through a book as she stood in the library, there was even one of her as she stepped out of the shower at my dad's house. That one appeared to have been taken through the window. Her privacy had been invaded long before she was ever kidnapped and I was fucking pissed.
My anger came out in my voice as I barked my orders to the room full of agents. "I want every damn piece of this cataloged and photographed before you move it. Don't miss one single thing. You run out of evidence supplies you let either me or Alec know and we'll get you whatever you need. I need this to be meticulous guys, no fuck ups you hear me? And I don't care if we have to get a goddamn eighteen wheeler in here to haul it all away, we are taking everything. Even if you find evidence on the goddamn rocks I want those too!" The heads of over twenty agents all bobbed in understanding to my orders. They knew what was at stake and they all knew why it was so important to me.
Two hours had passed since we entered James' hideout and we had only barely scratched the surface to getting all of this evidence out of here. One whole corner had been cleared out as my team worked their way around the room. Every item had to be carefully logged and identified to the best of our abilities. Plus each item had to be in separate bags to keep it from cross-contaminating another item, so tons and tons of evidence bags were filtering out to the waiting truck.
In the end we did have to end up getting a massive eighteen wheeler up here in order to haul everything away. And let me tell you having that done was no small feat. The area surrounding our location was very dense with trees and overgrowth. While we were inside prepping evidence bags for transport dad's guys were outside doing the best they could to clear our underbrush just so we could walk without falling over our own feet. Charlie had also called several of the guys from the Rez and they had been more than happy to come up and help. They brought chainsaws, weed-whackers, hacksaws you name it they brought it. Within an hour a path was made clear enough I was sure even Bella could walk down without tripping, and that was saying a lot.
Once the eighteen wheeler got here and backed into place everyone started moving in order to get stuff loaded. Because we were in such heavily forested area we were loosing daylight quickly. Alec had called ahead and had gas powered generators brought in so that we could get several lights running. We would probably be working throughout the night to get everything we needed. I didn't want this to be just sitting here when it felt like we were getting so close to catching James.
It may sound strange but at one point it even felt like I could feel him near, just watching and waiting. I couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit smug. We were hot on his ass now and he had to be feeling the pressure. When perps felt the pressure they tended to mess up more. This was the time when we had to be ready for anything.
Alec and I were standing outside taking a breather. Inside was dank and cold and if you were in there for to long you almost began to feel weighed down, like something dark had a hold of you. So I insisted that everyone take shifts coming out and getting some fresh air periodically. Charlie's girlfriend Sue had heard that we were all up here and had insisted on going by the dinner to pick us all up something to eat. It was really great of her but totally unnecessary. Plus I'm sure it would be terribly expensive. But in true small town fashion, the owner of the diner donated all of the food stating that we were doing a great service by getting this animal off of the street and the least they could do was donate a few meals to say thank you.
Alec and I had just finished our sandwiches and chips when one of the tech agents came over carrying what looked like a small tripod. "Sir, I think I might have located the end of those cords we saw in the main room earlier." I'll be honest, techie stuff was not my strong point. I could read a person like a book, but when it came to technical stuff, I was lucky to get the manuals right side up much less understand them. "It looks like a transmitter of some sort, sir. It had a small receiving dish hooked up as well to it." So the guy was sending out a signal and also receiving one as well. Hell that could mean anything. He could have been stealing cable for all we knew. "Unfortunately without the missing connector we won't be able to be certain what wave band he was jacking into. But it had to have been within a fifty mile radius. This dish isn't that high powered."
Alec and I just logged this as yet another strange part of the puzzle that is James Reynolds. We were walking back downstairs to pick up cataloging where we had left off when another agent came running up to us. "Sir, we found something…you need to see this." The ashen look on his face left me feeling very worried.
We quickly walked to a back room off to the side of the main corridor. Upon entering it looked to be set up as a bedroom. There was a small double bed against a wall with a wall closet open showing a few tee-shirts and some pants. On the other wall was a large metal cabinet, this is what we were headed towards. "It's kind of shocking, sir." Slowly he opened up the metal case.
BPOV
It was going on seven but the sun was still giving off plenty of it's comforting rays. I needed all of the comfort from every possible source available right now. Holding on to Edward's hand I was trembling as we walked into the station. Emmett had called just a half hour ago and told Edward that we needed to head down to the police station. I wasn't sure what to make of my Dad meeting us at the front desk, but I instantly knew it wasn't going to be good news when he pulled me from Edward into his arms, hugging me tightly. Don't get me wrong my dad hugged me growing up, but he was never overly affectionate. Right now his hug was freaking me out. "Just try to remember that it probably looks worse than it really is, ok Bells?" His hug got tighter as a gasp slipped from my lips. What did that mean? Dad led me back over towards Edward and I grabbed on to his arm like my life depended on it. We all followed dad slowly out the back of the station house towards the warehouse behind it. They used this area to lay out evidence from major crime scenes. I could see the soft glow of the lights as it filled the room. Carlisle, Edward and I had fallen back behind the pack. I'm sure it was me that slowed us down behind the pack. With each step closer I got to the warehouse it felt like my feet were weighed down with lead. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe as we continued closer. Rose, Alice, Jasper, Jacob and Esme all stopped in front of us blocking our view. When they stepped away, allowing me to see the room, I suddenly wished I had not come at all. It would have been better not to know.
"Oh my god," I heard someone softly whisper. That was before everything went black and I tumbled to the ground.
A/N: I KNOW, Trust me I know. Another cliffy…but don't you love it? I mean come on tell me honestly is the suspense killing you right now to know what she saw or did I fail miserably? This is a short chapter but that's because I really wanted to get another out to you guys so you wouldn't be waiting so long in between updates.
I'm debating (and I hate this question so forgive me for asking)…would you, my wonderful, tolerant, loyal readers, be happier with shorter chapters updated more often or longer chapters that you might have to wait a little longer for?
Be honest. I love your thoughts.