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Bella chuckled watching Winnie dance around her room to a beat in her own head instead of the one playing on her stereo. "You said you wanted to study. Winnie, I'm supposed to be home with guards. Being bored. Yearning to pull my hair out for some excitement."
"There's still a guard here." Winnie smirked before laying on top of Bella's back, peering over her shoulder to the textbook. "And here, you could never be bored, and I would duct tape your hands behind your back before I let you touch this pretty hair of yours."
"Thank you for threatening me with that." Bella giggled. She reached for Winnie's homework when she felt the burning stare of her best friend boring into the side of her face. "Ask what you want to ask, Winnie. The answer to your question is not written on my face."
Winnie sighed and rolled off of Bella, laying beside her sprawled out on her back. "I don't know where to start. Your ex-boyfriend that you are still hopelessly in love with shows up in town, and you fuck him the night the guy who wanted to rape you goes missing. Everybody thinks Chet is dead at the bottom of the river. While we should be celebrating that, I also know that you sleeping with Joe is going to set you back in moving forward. You know, getting on your back for another guy."
Bella shook her head despite the smile that spread across her face. "You are disgusting." She shoved on Winnie's shoulder. "Joe wants to get back together. He had this whole plan of us going to college together in New York. He said he didn't care what was in New York; he just wanted me."
Winnie played with Bella's hair. "That's sweet, but, honey, you realize you're only seventeen, right? He may have discovered the skanks in college don't hold a candle to you, but you haven't met anyone outside of DC. There's plenty of time to sleep around before you commit to sharing his bunk for the rest of your life."
"It wasn't a marriage proposal." Bella said, but she knew that, if she chose him, it would be as good as wedding vows. "I told him no anyway. We're giving 'us' more time to be apart." She sighed before turning to Winnie. "You did tell me I should get laid."
"I meant a new lay." Winnie rolled her eyes, but her attention was diverted when the doorbell rang. "That's weird. Doesn't your guard do all the work of letting someone in?"
Bella laughed as she reached for her phone on the floor. "He's a bodyguard, not a doorman." She frowned when she turned on her screen. "Shit. My mom has called three times. I promised her I would call her back."
"Bella! The door is for you." Winnie's mother called from downstairs.
Winnie met Bella's confused gaze with one of her own. "For you? Who would that be?"
Bella dialed Clarice as she stood as well. "Probably my mom freaking out. One would tend to come looking for their child when they don't answer their phone and some psychopathic maniac has marked them for death." She followed Winnie out towards the top of the staircase, pausing when she saw the guest in the living room. She only recognized him from pictures, but he looked like he had aged decades since they were taken. He was dressed in layers, even leather gloves, and had scratch marks on his face. When his eyes met hers, he smiled at her. "Hello, Bella."
"You're Will Graham." Bella breathed before Clarice picked up on the other end of the line.
Clarice gripped the dashboard as Hannibal sped through the streets of D.C. "Bella! Where are you?"
"I'm still at Winnie's. You'll never believe who showed up." Bella breathed, keeping her eyes trained on Will. He shuffled from one foot to the other before peering outside. "What's going on? I'm sorry I missed your-"
"Bella, listen to me very carefully." Clarice began. She could feel her heart beating in her temples. "Is Will Graham there?"
"Yes."
Hannibal turned onto a backstreet hearing Clarice's breath hitch. He didn't need to hear the conversation to know Bella's answer. Clarice kept her voice calm though. "Remain calm. Don't set him off. We believe he's the Beer Can Killer. Your father and I are on our way. Just stall. Do they still have that back alley behind their house?"
Bella glanced towards the kitchen where the back door was. "Yeah, it's still there."
"Find a way to get out the back door. Make an excuse to leave the room, but he can't follow you. We're in a greenish-blue farm truck, about ten blocks away." Clarice explained. "We'll meet you on the back street. We're coming from my office. So if you don't see us, head in that direction."
"How sure are you?" Bella asked as she slowly made her way down the rest of the stairs.
Clarice pinched her phone between her ear and shoulder before reaching for her gun on her hip, verifying the clip was in and it was loaded. "The FBI could arrest him right now based on what your father found." She cocked the gun, keeping her finger away from the trigger. "Now, hang up the phone normally and excuse yourself to use the main floor bathroom. I'm sure he's going to try and get you out of there."
Bella swallowed hard but put on a smile for Will when he looked at her. "Okay, I'll do that. Bye, Mom." She ended the call before slipping the phone into her back pocket. Her attention quickly turned to Will though. "Sorry, my mom was just checking in to make sure things were going okay." She held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot of good things."
"I could say the same about you." Will squeezed her hand a little tighter than what would qualify for a common handshake. "I know that you don't know me very well, but I've been assigned to your protective detail. With my ability to get into the killer's head, the Bureau thought it would be best to have me by your side. I was actually hoping you could come with me to go pick up your mom. I'd like to go over ways on how to protect you both to the best of our abilities."
"Okay, I'll just use the bathroom first." Bella pulled her hand back, stepping towards the kitchen. She avoided looking at Winnie or either of her parents as she fled towards the back hallway where the bathroom and back door were. Rounding the corner, she glanced back to see Will staring after her, making polite conversation. He could see the back door from where he was standing. There wasn't a way for her to go out that way right now.
Slipping inside the bathroom, Bella locked the door and surveyed the bathroom. "C'mon, Mom, what would you do?" She paused and smiled softly. "Or Dad." She pulled open the medicine cabinet and grabbed the nail clippers, flipping out the small blade usually used to clean underneath fingernails. A small sowing kit sat in the bottom right corner, and she slid the needle from that into her back pocket before closing the cabinet. The window was big enough for her to get out of, but it was impossible to reach it and get out with how high it was.
Taking a deep breath, Bella carefully pulled the door back open, but she was pushed back into the sink when the doorknob practically punched her in the stomach. The force caused her head to smack the mirror, and the haze it left her in blinded her senses before she felt a hand grab a fistful of her hair.
"Hey, get off her!" She heard Winnie's father yell. Some of the fog started to clear from her vision when he rounded the corner. Will's gun was fast to fire though, and Winnie's father fell to the floor with the entirety of his weight.
Bella yelped when Will yanked on her hair like a dog on a leash, taking her with him out towards the kitchen. That's when she heard Winnie's mother scream. "Run!" She didn't stand a chance either. Will pulled Bella closer to him, extending his other arm out beside her before shooting Winnie's mom twice in the chest. Her body collapsed on the floor, part of her body landing on her husband. The gun didn't lower though. Bella looked up, seeing Winnie close to hyperventilation on the spot. "Winnie, go! Run!"
Before Will could fire again, Bella used his hold on her hair against him and jerked to face him, sinking her teeth into his ear. The metallic taste filled her mouth again, but the taste was different from Chet's. Will howled and his arm jerked in time to make his shot burrow into the floor. Baring the nail clippers that she had snagged, she shoved the blade up into his torso. The blade must have hit his rib, because there was a vibration against the metal in her hand.
The stab made him release her hair, and she didn't waste the opportunity to shove him away from her. She lifted up the nail clippers again and shoved the blade down towards his face, and it shocked her when it sunk into his eye. "Shit."
"Bella, we need to go!" Winnie grabbed onto Bella's hand as Will stumbled to the floor, writhing in his pain.
"C'mon." Bella breathed, gripping onto Winnie's hand, before pulling her to the back door. They hurried down the stairs and through the back alley before Bella tugged her towards the main road. "Fuck!"
Winnie wiped at her face furiously even as they sprinted. "Bella, what was that? That guy just killed my parents, tried to kill me. What is going on?"
Bella spotted the farm truck a couple blocks away and stopped at the corner curb, pulling Winnie closer to the building in case Will tried to follow them. "That was Will Graham. My mom told me, when I was on the phone with her, that she thinks he's the Beer Can Killer. He is targeting my mom and I."
"Why? What does he have against you?" Winnie asked.
Bella hugged her best friend, knowing it may be the last time. "You have to promise not to tell. I mean it. It's huge and scary, but it could destroy my family if you tell anyone." She saw Hannibal pull the truck over a block away. Clarice stepped out, but she stood by the passenger door, gazing over at them both. "I need you to trust that everything is fine, and I'm happy with it."
Winnie hugged Bella back, laying her head on her shoulder. "Bella, you're my best friend. You just saved my life from the man who shot my parents. You're all I have right now. Just tell me."
Bella nodded to Clarice before pulling back from Winnie. "I have to show you."
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