A/N: Thanks so much to SunflowerFran for her thorough and fast work as beta. Any mistakes are mine.
Warning: Physical violence ahead. Nothing too graphic. There will be violence, captivity, and character death in upcoming chapters (no death in this one). There will be no rape or sexual assault of any characters. Edward and Bella will not die, nor will they suffer lasting physical harm. There will be a few intense chapters, and then a HEA at the end.
Jacob
"What do you mean I can't come on the raid?" Jacob folded his arms.
He and Alice were huddling against a school wall in a vain attempt to escape the icy wind. The bulb over the side door was broken, but in the weak light from a streetlamp further down the street, Alice's face was grim and stern.
She glared at him. "You're a civilian and a high school student. Of course, you can't come on a police operation!"
"That hasn't stopped you before," Jacob pointed out. "You've been using us all the time on your operations."
Alice glanced away. "There's real danger here. No. Leave it to the professionals."
Jacob balled his fists as she pivoted and left without another word. It was too late for her to get all officious. She'd already crossed too many lines.
He straightened and trotted home. The wind made his teeth and ears ache, but he scarcely noticed it. Jacob slipped inside his house, heading to the back closet where he knew his dad kept a revolver. He was busy in the clinic as usual, and no one saw him sneaking into the room. He pulled the gun out of its slot, checked to make sure it was loaded, and tucked it in the back of his waistband. Then he shrugged on a jacket and ran to catch the bus to Volturi Pharmaceuticals.
Bella
My head pounded like the day my mother had slammed me against the toilet tank. My vision wouldn't clear. All I could see were bright, fuzzy lights all around me. Fiery pain raged in both of my shoulders.
I gradually realized I was half lying on a dark green linoleum floor, and my arms were stretched above my head.
I couldn't pull them down.
The memory of James attacking me in my apartment flooded back. Abruptly realizing I needed to wake up, now, I tugged at my hands again. I couldn't move them and my wrists hurt. I blinked my eyes and focused.
My wrists had been secured with nylon zip ties to a metal bar attached to a long, waist-high counter.
I smelled chemicals, and when I looked around, I recognized lab benches, a centrifuge, and racks of test tubes. I was in a large room lit by banks of fluorescent lights and crowded with lab equipment. No one was around.
Where was I? More importantly, how could I get away?
It was funny. Earlier this morning I'd been feeling as though my life was over just because I'd broken up with my boyfriend. Now, my life really was at risk.
Nothing like real danger to put things in perspective.
Of course, this all probably had something to do with Edward. Dating the Captain of Volterra was dangerous.
But it had been my free choice. And now I had to deal with the consequences.
Pulling myself up to a sitting position, I realized I had some freedom of movement if I twisted my wrists sideways. Could I reach my cell phone? But when I shifted my hip pocket against the floor, I could feel it was gone. Of course, they would take it. I blinked several times, trying to get rid of the dizziness and pain in my head.
A voice sounded behind me. "Is this one of the subjects I've been promised?" Adrenaline shot through me and I twisted to face the speaker.
"Yep, she's all yours. Clean as requested." James stood in the doorway, leering at me. I narrowed my eyes and glared.
He'd caught me off-guard in my apartment. I should have kept Edward's self-defense training in mind at all times. He'd warned me that I should always be ready for an attack. But in my emotional funk, I hadn't kept my focus. I shook my head. Even if I never saw Edward again, I wouldn't forget what he had taught me.
If I ever got out of this lab alive, that was.
Subjects? I shivered.
An older man stood beside James, deep creases in his forehead and brown stains on all his fingers. He eyed me up and down with a blank, unsmiling stare that gave me a chill all the way down to my toes.
I gritted my teeth. I'd be damned if I'd give in to James and his allies.
I pushed myself to a more stable position, tugging surreptitiously at the zip ties around my wrists. Unfortunately, they were so stiff there wasn't an inch of give in the material to be had.
The man nodded irritably to James. "Go feed the subjects in the back room. You've been gone long enough." He slammed the door almost on James's back, and we were alone in the lab.
I lifted my chin. "Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" I demanded. "Let me go at once." I was not going to show fear even though my heart was pounding so hard, I thought it would burst the buttons on my blouse.
The man snorted. "Let you go? I paid too much for you. But you should be grateful—your useless life will, at last, be of service to the greater good."
He slowly approached me, holding something behind his back.
Edward
Edward straightened up from where he'd been leaning over examining a stain on Bella's coffee table. Emmett had reported something suspicious had been happening around her building, so he'd gone to check on it personally. When he'd knocked on her apartment door, there had been no answer. He'd been furious to see the guard he'd set on the building had been missing. Clearly Caius—or someone else—had made his move.
Despite all his safeguards, all his efforts.
Had they killed her or just taken her? And where? He looked around the room one more time, his mind working frantically. He forced himself to breathe deeply. Logic was what he needed now, cold and clear logic, not blind emotion. His chest expanded and his clenched shoulders relaxed.
If they'd wanted to kill her, they wouldn't have bothered taking her. That meant they had some plan for her. He'd thought he'd set things up so that Caius and Aro would learn that he and Bella were no longer together. So what could have led them to arrange for her kidnapping?
His mind ticked over the various points of logic. It was all too likely a parting shot against him combined with something they needed. Why might they need Bella? And for how long would they keep her alive?
His phone buzzed. "Yes, Emmett?"
His lieutenant's voice was strained and breathless. "I missed them. Goddammit, they've got her."
"All right. We'll find them. I'll pick you up."
Emmett had gone to the homeless encampment downtown. It must have been Caius and his lackeys who were collecting homeless people. And based on Edward's research into Aro's and Marcus's files, as well as their secret experiments, Caius could only have taken them one place.
Volturi Pharmaceuticals.
If Caius and James were collecting lab subjects for Marcus, Bella would be there as well. And according to what he had discovered, their human subjects didn't last long after being injected with the drugs.
They only had hours. Maybe minutes.
Emmett
Only a few weeks ago, Edward had approached him.
"I know where she is."
Emmett forced nonchalance onto his face. "What?" He had to pretend not to care, not to know what it was all about. But inside, he was panicking. This must be about Rosalie. How could Edward have learned about her? How could he have found where she was when Emmett had failed for years?
But most of all: what would he do to her now that he knew?
Because it was true that Emmett had had disloyal thoughts. And his leader was unforgiving. He had seen evidence of that many times before.
Edward smiled a thin, cool smile.
Emmett swallowed and backed away. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"I've learned some interesting things these past few months," said Edward casually.
"What do you mean?" asked Emmett. He rubbed his palms on his jeans, the skin on his fingers cold.
"I'm proposing a deal. One that will end with both of us achieving our desires."
Emmett's heart was beating fast, but he tried to appear calm. "Spill it then," he said flippantly.
"What would it be worth to you, for Rosalie Hale to be safe?"
"Who?" Emmett's eyes were flat and hard.
In an instant, Edward had him flat against the wall, elbow at his throat pressing against his jugular. Emmett choked and his fingers scrabbled ineffectually at Edward's iron grasp.
Edward's eyes blazed. "I don't have time to play games," he said coldly. "This will be your one and only opportunity. I'm being generous in return for your past loyalty. Exceedingly generous, since I know what you've been planning. Are you ready to listen?"
He released the pressure slightly, and Emmett's vision started to return. He coughed and rubbed his throat. "Yes, Captain," he rasped.
Edward gave him a long, cool look, holding him in place almost effortlessly. Emmett coughed again and dropped his eyes. "Sorry," he whispered.
"Very well. Here's my offer. I promise you Rosalie Hale's safety and my protection. In return, you give me absolute loyalty and obedience. I have a plan for you to follow. At the end of the year, I'll release you from Volterra with a nest egg, new identities, and the chance to start a new life."
Emmett swallowed, fingers still kneading his throat. "Why?" he squeaked. "You always told me attachments were weaknesses."
Edward released him. "Let's just say… I've found what might be the greatest strength of all."
Emmett ran out of the alley and wedged himself into the front seat of the Lotus. Edward put the car in gear and they swung away from the curb.
"I was too late," Emmett cried. "By the time I got there, everyone was gone. Rosalie was gone." He blinked rapidly and brushed his hair out of his eyes.
"Did you find out who was running the operation?" Edward accelerated around a panel truck and cut back into the lane. Emmett was thrown back into the bucket seat.
"A tall man with greasy dark hair, with two helpers that fit the description of James and Lonnie."
Edward tightened his lips. "As we suspected."
"I swear, I've been doing everything you ordered. To the letter. I thought they were all fooled. I was sure they believed I was betraying you."
"Maybe they did," Edward mused. "It may just be a coincidence that they picked up Rosalie today." He glanced at Emmett. "I found some documentation at the company that shows they've been conducting human experiments for a while. Using them to test new variants of Rapture."
He nodded at his cell phone clamped in a dashboard holder. "There's a secured section of the lab I've been meaning to access. But there isn't a lot of time." A glowing dot shimmered on a map display.
Emmett's fists clenched. "We've got to get her out."
"We're getting them all out," Edward said. He shot through a yellow light and accelerated around a line of traffic. "I'm taking Volturi Pharmaceuticals down."
"How can we get inside the building? I thought they had some really high tech security."
Edward smiled tightly. "They do. But as it happens, they have a rather technologically sophisticated enemy."
The back loading dock at Volturi Pharmaceuticals was dingy and hidden behind high walls. Edward parked his car some distance away. He and Emmett wrapped their jackets around them and approached the building on foot. Edward fiddled with a small device, fingers stiff in the icy wind. "I'm disabling the surveillance cameras on this end. We'll only have a few minutes to get in before they reactivate."
Edward tried the knob on the back door. It clicked open, and they both paused, but no alarms sounded. They slipped inside.
This part of the lab wasn't even held to the slipshod standards of cleanliness of the front offices. Grime and dirt streaked the floors, and rusty irregular patches smudged the formerly white walls. The air stank with an old animal smell that reminded Edward of cages in the zoo. The reek only intensified as they moved up the corridor, guns at the ready.
"About sixty more seconds until the security system reboots," Edward murmured to Emmett. He gestured toward the end of the corridor. "There's our target." Up ahead, an unmarked door with a heavy lock stood ajar.
Emmett took point, his gun out, darting around the corner. Edward followed, scanning to the rear and behind them. At Emmett's intake of breath, he ran forward.
The big, low room stretching before them was dimly lit. Lopsided rows of cages were stacked to the ceiling. The animal stench intensified.
But what lay before their eyes surprised even them.
Each of the cages contained a human being.
