CHAPTER 6

And I tried to let her be someone

Hoping when the morning comes

She's not another hit and run, but everybody knows

People disappear here

~ Halsey, People Disappear Here

EPOV

It was supposed to be a simple meeting. I didn't typically spend my evenings checking every shipment of cocaine I had coming into the city but it was something I sporadically did, just to be safe. To make sure my product wasn't laced with shit and to make sure I wasn't being shorted on what I paid for. My check ins were random, so even my own men didn't know when I'd be there. I found it kept them from fucking me over too.

So whoever the fucker was that decided to shoot Marco between the eyes as he opened my crate of fresh cocaine had been very patiently waiting for their opportunity to make an entrance.

"Edward Cullen," the slimy voice sounded from behind me. Without turning I knew there would be no shortage of weapons trained on him now, just as I could feel the barrel of his own gun pointed at my back. Until I turned around and it was aimed directly where my heart, should I have one, would have been.

He was an average looking bloke, nothing special about the stringy black hair that fell over his forehead or the dull hazel eyes that were trained on me. He had the firepower, though, as evidenced by the group of four men behind them. He was a fucking idiot if he thought it compaired to the men I had surrounding the warehouse.

"Is there a reason you decided to kill Marco, or are you just a fan of dramatics?"

He shrugged. "I'm a fan of a good entrance. I wanted to finally see the infamous Edward Cullen for myself."

"Well, now that you have, you can get the fuck out of my city."

A sly smirk spread across his face. "Hmm that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Your city. I'm a little tired of you Cullens if I'm being honest."

"The feeling is mutual—I'm bored of you after three minutes."

I could feel his frustration that he hadn't fazed me by taking out Marco or by the few men he had behind him. Unfortunately for him, I'd been doing this for a long fucking time and there was little that flustered me. Even the blood splatter staining my chin.

"You've been in charge too long, Edward. It's time for some fresh blood."

My lips twitched in a smile as I leaned back against the crate. "My son will take over in a few years, don't worry."

"Your son is tainted with your blood. I want fresh blood running Chicago. My blood."

My boisterous laughter obviously wasn't what he was expecting. It wasn't what Emmett was expecting either as I saw him shoot me a glare from beside me. It was fucking funny, though, I had to admit. "And why the fuck do you think you deserve my city?"

"It's not about who deserves it. It's about what I'm willing to do to get it."

"And what's that?"

"I've done my research, Edward, and I know you really only have one weakness. Your men are loyal, your empire is strong, but there's one pretty little piece holding it, holding you, together."

"And you know what that piece is?"

He chuckled. A menacing laugh that made me want to choke it out of him. "I do. She was entirely too easy to break. Crazy bitch had it coming from what I've heard. My money is on her ending up in rehab again, but Lawrence isn't so sure. Nice guy."

He was still taking by the time I had my own weapon pointed at his skull. "You're an even bigger idiot than I thought if you're going to come into my city and threaten and insult my wife."

"Don't get too trigger happy, Eddie. I haven't even told you about the hefty amount of money you could get if you took her out yourself. A cool hundred mil to the lucky bastard that kills Isabella Cullen. If I end up dead tonight,everyone was told to make it hurt."

My finger froze over the trigger, stomach churning at his smirk. "I thought so. See you around, Ed."

It went against every one of my instincts, letting those men walk out of my warehouse untouched. A nod from me and my men would have them all dead. But it wasn't a risk I would take with my wife. Because my instincts also told me he wasn't bluffing about his threat.

"Track them," I snapped to the men on my right. Emmett, who had smartly remained silent during the whole ordeal, stayed quietly at my side. "Get Jasper and Aiden. Tell Jasper to figure out who the hell he is and meet me at the house."

Emmett nodded and left. I left the warehouse, more keenly aware of my own men guarding my back than ever before as I stopped at the edge of the pier. The lights of Chicago glistened on the water, the city a beacon in the distance. My fists clenched at my sides as I put off the call I knew I needed to make. A plan I never wanted to need.

It was only the memory of that news report that had me reaching for the burner phone I always kept on me. Only the crystal clear recollection of seeing the headline Actress Isabella Swan Shot at Premiere - Condition Unknown flashing on the screen had me dialing the phone.

Alistar answered before the first ring was done. "Boss."

"Code black. Get her out."

–Love|Power–

I ignored the sound of Jasper, Emmett, and Aiden bursting into the house. Ever since I got home twenty minutes ago, my focus had been on my empty bedroom. The bedside table with a glass of water still collecting condensation and the cell she had used to ask me when I would be home not two hours ago.

She was long gone by now. At least an hour out of the city already with how fast Alistar would drive. There were no signs of the rush he would have put her in to get out. Slamming the door shut, I found everyone already sitting in my office. Jasper sat on the couch, tablet in his hands as he tapped away while Emmett and Aiden sat across from my desk.

"Where's Mom?"

My fists clenched. "Safe."

"Safe where?"

"Safe where only four people in the world, herself included, know where she is."

The hurt that flashed across his face felt like a knife to my chest. "You don't trust me to know where she is?"

"It's not about trust—it's about safety. It's safer for her if fewer people know where she is and it's safer for you if you don't know."

"So you've just had this escape plan ready and waiting?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Since I watched her flatline twice on an operating table." I saw all of the questions in his eyes, all of the skepticism and hurt and worry. With a slow nod, I hoped to ease it all away.

Because I had plans for everyone. If someone like the man tonight had put a hit out on Aiden he would already be out of town. Same goes for Adeline or Ella or Rosalie. No one ever went after them though. Rosalie wasn't a threat to anybody besides Emmett's credit card. Adeline was very obviously kept out of the loop of our business dealings.

Bella was much more than my wife. She was my partner. She was the woman who could have taken down the entire Cullen empire in the blink of an eye if she wanted to, but chose to protect the family instead. She took out Aro Volturi on a whim. She had earned the utmost respect from the underworld of Chicago. With that respect came power and with that power came a constant target.

When she was shot there had been a thirty million dollar bounty on her. The reward was triple this time and I knew enough seedy fuckers to know to take the threat seriously.

There was no time to be upset about the knowledge that I wasn't sure when I would see my wife next. No moment to give into the anger flooding my veins, telling me to find the fucker and kill him myself. If he wanted to play, I'd play. And he'd regret the day he thought he could use my wife as a pawn in his games.

"He's working with Lawrence," I grunted, resisting the urge to grab the closest object and snap it in half. "Who is he?" I asked Jasper, taking my seat behind my desk.

My money is on her ending up in rehab again, but Lawrence isn't so sure. Nice guy.

Lawrence never accepted a bribe from Aro to kickstart Bella's career. He had as much as admitted it when I paid him a visit. But there was little doubt in my mind that he had accepted a new one now. Whether it was to simply put the documentary out whenever this pain in the ass wanted it, or if there was another reason they had met, I wasn't sure.

"Aengus O'Malley. Thirty-one, single, and son of Sean and Nora O'Malley–"

I snapped. "Fucking O'Malley's?" They were from Ireland. Had a nice family business of their own, on a much smaller scale than ours. Two towns. They operated out of two tiny towns in Ireland. Granted, they had every fucker in those towns wrapped around their fingers, but I had an empire. I had shipments of any kind of drug desired coming in from across the border and had distributors throughout the country. Chicago was my base, but the Cullen empire knew no bounds.

O'Malley was blind if he thought he could handle my city just because he had outgrown bumbfuck Ireland.

"Sean died a year ago. Aengus has been in the country for the last six months with his two younger brothers–twins. Finn and Pat. One seems to be staying on the west coast, the other on the east."

"What do we do?" Aiden asked with a frown.

I couldn't stop the small smirk that pulled at my lips. "Show them why we've been in charge so long."

–Love|Power–

It turned out that Aengus did have a thing for a good entrance. Everything went to hell the weeks following his impromptu appearance. More often than not my shipments–drugs, weapons, anything–were tampered with. Men went missing on a nearly hourly basis. Men that were damn good at their jobs too. And reports came from all over the country from various hitmen who were after the bounty on my wifes head.

No one knew where she was. None of the reports were anywhere near her, none indicated that they had any idea where she was. That didn't stop them from trying, though. They wouldn't stop until they remembered who they were dealing with.

I had been accused of going soft a few times over the years. Sometimes they were right. I got comfortable after Aiden was born. I enjoyed my life with my wife and son and didn't feel like getting my hands dirty every night. The Petrov's tried and failed. They weren't the first and would certainly not be the last to do so.

Maybe it had happened again. Maybe I got too complacent or cocky or quiet. Evidently it was time for Chicago to remember who was in charge. I had been dubbed the deadliest man in Chicago since I was twenty. I had nearly every politician and half of the police department in my pocket. And while it had been too long since I got my hands dirty, it didn't mean I forgot how it was done.

It was my pleasure to leave mutilated corpses of men who were hunting down my wife throughout the city for the cops to find. Aengus had good men hunting my men, but I had nearly unlimited resources and manpower and for every one of my men he took down, I had three of his caught and tied up. Begging for mercy in the basement of whatever seedy club or bar was closest and in the Cullen name.

Aiden, Adeline, and Ella moved into the house with me. There was no verifiable threat against them and it was only my own extra precaution that had them moving in. There was increased security on everyone from Maggie and Jared to Olivia and Selena. I may have been a homicidal bastard for the majority of my life, but if you were good to me and mine then I protected you. End of story.

It was two weeks to the day since Bella left town that everyone descended for dinner. Alice was under the impression that I was a hermit whenever Bella wasn't around and tended to force the dinners on me by having them at my own home.

I would play along tonight. Because I was still riding the high of slicing the throat of a man who had been stupid enough to hunt for my wife in my own city.

"Grandpa!" Ella's voice floated through the foyer toward me a moment before the weight of her hit me in the chest as she jumped into my arms. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

I smiled down at her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I checked on you last night when I got home."

"But I was asleep. It doesn't count."

"I'm sorry baby girl. I've been busy."

"Daddy says you're making it safe for Grandma again. When is she coming home?"

"Soon," I promised her. Promised myself. "Soon."

As soon as Ella's feet were on the ground she skipped off to the kitchen where I assumed Alice and Rosalie were. Adeline sat on the couch beside Olivia while Aiden was off to the side talking with Alec and Jared. I gave Connor a small nod as I walked past where he sat with Maggie. He had always been skittish and I had been told by my wife a dozen times to not torment the poor kid.

"He's releasing a clip," Olivia's voice was quiet, but firm. She even held her own when I frowned over at her. "Lawrence. He's going on a late night show and supposedly releasing a clip in a few minutes."

I kept my curse to myself as I poured a glass of scotch. With a jerk of my head in the direction of the television, Selena had it on immediately, Lawrence's face disgracing the screen.

"You brought a clip with you, is that right?" Amos Hayes, the host of whatever inane late night program Lawrence had chosen for the occasion, asked.

"I did," Lawrence nodded solemnly. "It's an important clip to me. It's a piece of footage I found from an FBI interrogation and when I saw it I… I knew Bella wasn't the woman I knew her to be. Thought her to be."

I swallowed my own growl and frowned at the television, my heart stopping when I saw the grainy footage of my wife sitting in an interrogation room. It was one I knew well, one I had spent a lot of time in myself. She was alone, though. Jenks wasn't with her and the time stamp in the bottom corner flashed two-thirty-seven in the morning.

Fuckers.

"Mrs. Cullen," a man greeted as he entered. Dark brown hair, sloppy suit, and a cocky smile I would have happily punched off of his face were he in front of me tonight. "I'm Agent Ryan Erikson. I'm with the FBI."

There were mumblings amongst the crowd in the living room. Muttered curses from Aiden and his cousins and gasps from Alice and Rosalie, who had joined the viewing party.

"I'd like to talk to you, if you don't mind."

Bella shrugged. "I'd be happy to talk to you with my lawyer."

The interrogation was decades old, but her response still brought a smile to my face.

Erikson smirked at her. "I don't think this is a conversation Edward Cullen's lawyer would like."

"Then I don't think I want to have it."

There was a thud as Erikson slapped a large file on the table. Followed by another. And another. "These are all of the open cases I have against your husband. They're all federal. I've heard the DA here has a stack double the size of mine. Which means he's going to drool at the chance to, at the very least, put Cullen's wife in prison for life." He leaned in, and the disgust was clearly written across Bella's face. "I can save you, Bella."

She rolled her eyes. Erikson's flashed with anger.

"Embry call will destroy you and enjoy every second of it. If you help me corroborate just one of these charges against Cullen? I'll have you out of here before sunrise."

"Seems like a conversation my lawyer would be interested in."

"Cullen signs your lawyer's paychecks."

" I can afford my own lawyer."

Erikson shook his head, his hands obviously tense on the table. "You're going to go to prison, Bella. For a man who deserves to rot in hell."

He was right. Had I been with Bella at the time I might have just told her to tell him something, anything that would get her out of that trial. There had been plenty of times I had planned to do just that.

She never would have, though. Even if I begged her she wouldn't have turned on me. It was why Lawrence had picked this clip. One that showed her unwavering loyalty to me. It was another step in his plan of tearing apart her fragile reputation piece by piece.

"Do you even know?" Erikson taunted. "All of the things he's done?" Bella stayed silent as he reached for the first file. "Shall we go through them all?"

The footage on the screen sped up, a single sentence appearing over top the footage that said for the next four hours Erikson read each and every crime the federal government had decided I had committed.

The footage resumed, Erikson sitting back in his chair with a cocky smile on his face as he gazed over at my wife. "Is that the kind of man you'd like to throw your life away for?"

Bella's answer was immediate. "Yes."

The screen went black.

"Turn it off," I growled at no one in particular.

Bella had told me about the interrogation at the time, that an FBI agent questioned her in the middle of the night. She failed to tell me that he spent hours laying out every crime I had committed while he tried to flip her.

It was never a secret; she knew what I had done. What I continued to do. But… Christ.

"It was an illegal interrogation," Jared snapped.

"Six fucking hours? Doesn't that seem extreme?" Aiden grumbled.

"They had Edward Cullen's wife in jail," Adeline added softly, her eyes darting to me as she spoke. "You were–are–one of the most notorious men in the city, in the country. This was their one chance to get you and they knew it. I've seen a lot of footage of her interrogations and some of it is… brutal. And she never flinches."

"It's impressive as hell," Jasper muttered from the doorway to the kitchen.

The group continued on, focusing more on the decades old trial rather than the aftermath of what that clip meant now that it was out in the world. There were fires surrounding us on all sides. Lawrence was still spewing lies every goddamn day about Bella and Aengus was still running rampant through my city. My wife was hidden away and I couldn't risk so much as a phone call to her.

Unacceptable. All of it.

I had gone soft over the years. Age made me lose that ruthlessness that led to me earning all of those files Agent Erikson enjoyed reading to my wife so much. And my wife made me want to be a somewhat better man. Whenever I could be, at least. For her.

My wife wasn't here, though. And it was time to get her back.

A/N: Sorry fir the delay. FFN had some issues yesterday. I hope you enjoyed this one!