Chapter Fifty Four

Garrett

I was only just in time to stop The Major ripping Bella's mothers head off her shoulders and knew the only thing I could do was to get him in a good grip and hold on until help arrived. I was under no illusions that I could calm him down, he was in a place only his mate could reach now and there was no way I was asking Bella to come in, it was just too dangerous. I wrestled him into the tub and lay holding him down as he bucked and snapped at me, having caught me a couple of times already. If Peter didn't arrive soon I wasn't going to be able to hold him and God knows what he would do in a hotel full of humans. When the door opened I tensed and redoubled my attempt to keep him in place then I smelled Bella and Peter. What the hell was he thinking? Bringing her into such a dangerous situation. I lost concentration for just a second but it was all he needed and I found myself beneath him as his hands gripped my throat tightly. There was another noise outside and Emmett arrived looking to Peter for direction.

"Emmett, stop him ripping Garrett's head off. Bella now would be a good fucking time to speak up"

"Jasper?"

Her voice stopped him momentarily and Emmett hauled him off, throwing him against the tiled shower wall and cracking a dozen or so tiles.

"Right, Emmett let go and stand by the window. Garrett do something with the door into the corridor and stay there. If he tries to get by you stop him any way you can."

Emmett backed off and The Major went for Garrett again but at Bella's voice he hesitated again.

"Peter are you sure?"

I shook my head warningly at Emmett and he subsided but kept a hold of his "brother" although both of us knew if The Major wanted out nothing short of death would stop him.

"Jasper? Look at me please"

Bella limped further into the room and everyone stiffened but she had eyes only for her mate who stood there teeth bared and still snarling, his eyes black and flashing dangerously.

"Jasper?"

Bella

It broke my heart to see Jasper like this, it was like our first time together when he had been terrified of The Major, the monster inside him, and now I was seeing a manifestation of that "monster". He was lost and I had to connect with him so I called his name again and stepped further into his field of vision. He stopped struggling and I nodded to Emmett who dropped his restraining hands reluctantly.

"Jasper its OK. I'm fine really. Come on"

I held out my hand and waited as he looked down at it slowly,

"Please?"

His own stretched out and our fingertips met,

"It's OK Emmett you can go, I've got it from here"

Emmett looked at Peter who nodded and walked back to stand at the window but I kept eye contact with Jasper, no one else in the room mattered.

" Peter just go and take Em with you, I'll be fine"

They left slowly shutting the door behind then although I knew Em was still nervous. Sliding my fingers along Jaspers I took his hand and brought it to my lips kissing it gently.

"Its OK, she's gone. Charlie took her away so you don't need to be angry any longer."

He swallowed convulsively and stepped forward pulling me close and burying his face in my hair. I could feel him calming as he held me and I smiled stroking the back of his head,

"I love you Jasper. Thank you for being concerned but I'm fine. It's not Renee's fault, Alice wound her up and set her in our direction and I guess that's my fault."

He didn't answer just stood here with me.

"I'm sorry Bella, I made a fool of myself but she made me so angry."

"I know, Charlie says she could try the patience of a saint so don't feel bad. Everything is OK but I think you might owe Garrett, you gave him a couple of nasty bites."

I felt him relax further and heard a groan,

"I'll never live this down"

"Yes you will, you were protecting me and that matters. Are you OK?"

He nodded and sank to the floor amid the broken ceramic and discarded towels and pulled me onto his lap looking fearfully into my eyes. I knew what he was looking for but I felt fine. My headache was back but no worse than usual. No one, not even my devil of a mother was going to force me to miss my wedding to this wonderful man.

We stayed like this for a while then suddenly he stiffened again and I too smelled the faintly metallic smell of fresh blood. He pulled back and checked me over, a sliver of broken tile had sliced into my hand as I put it on the floor to steady myself. He lifted the bleeding hand to his face and slowly brought it to his lips our eyes locked and kissed it very gently before licking the cut with his cool tongue. It stung for a few seconds but when he moved it from his mouth the cut was already healing. On his lips was a smudge of my blood and he wiped it with a finger looking at it,

"I will never allow anyone to hurt you again Bella."

"I know, its one of the many reasons I love you but I think I need to get up, this floor is cold."

He lifted me up and carried me back into the bedroom where the others waited, having mended the door as best they could.

"Let's make things easy all round shall we? Before you rip some other poor fuckers head off. Charlie took Renee back to the motel and I reckon he'll be having a stern talk to her so you take Bella back to the ranch, I rang Esme and they're waiting for her. I can't take any more fucking about so tomorrow you two are getting married and then you can change Bella so she doesn't need a full-time fucking bodyguard."

I opened my mouth to speak but Peter arched one eyebrow,

"I don't remember opening the discussion to the floor so shut it. Emmett, you and Garrett go with them, any trouble, whatever it is, just kill everyone, well sort them out later. Go."

Jasper allowed me to dress hurriedly then with my bodyguard of vampires I went down to the car and Garrett drove us out of town while Emmett watched through the tinted windows.

"What are you looking for Em?"

He turned at my enquiry and grinned,

"No idea but the way things are going we might be abducted by aliens and I am not going to explain to Peter why I didn't see them coming."

I smiled at him then closed my eyes and rested my head on Jaspers shoulder trying not to think about Renee's words. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered was arriving at the ranch and being taken from Jasper's arms and carried upstairs by a concerned looking Charlotte with Esme and Rose in hot pursuit. I managed to explain what had happened without going into too much detail and I could see Rose and Charlotte were annoyed.

"You two go and get on with things, I'll stay with Bella."

Once they'd gone Esme turned to me,

"I'm sorry Bella but I did warn you not to play games with Alice, she plays rough."

"It's OK Esme, no real harm done yet, but I would like to use the phone."

Esme wasn't happy but she could hardly refuse and when I stared at her she went downstairs to get me a hot drink. I was sure she could still hear the conversation if she wanted to but I was way past caring. I dialled Darius number and cursed as it came up engaged but then I heard his voice,

"I thought you might be joining the plotters Bella. You OK?"

"Sure but I don't understand Darius"

"You're on conference call with Charlotte and Rose and both are deeply unhappy about what Alice did. I take it we're ramping up a level?"

"Yes I don't care what you do Darius but I want her to suffer big time."

"Leave it with us. I'll see you tomorrow bride."

I smiled as he disconnected, my friends had already started plotting revenge before me and I knew how lucky I was to have such good friends. Now I would stop worrying about Alice and concentrate on getting a good nights sleep for tomorrow. I knew I wouldn't see Jasper again until the ceremony, Esme and the others would see to that but I did wonder what Charlie had said to my mother.