EPOV
I've stared plenty of soulless fuckers down, most of them strangers, but nothing compares to me maintaining eye contact with the most soulless… Alice.
This was someone I hadn't expected to be added to my long list of enemies.
I crouch down resting my hands on each arm of the chair she was held captive in. I notice the air of defiance in her expression. It's in her stare and the way she has her chin jutted out.
She wasn't going to give anything away easily.
Liam had warned us a day or so prior that Alice wasn't going down without a fight. I thought that to be super fucking funny since her tiny conniving ass is tied to a chair.
"Just make it easier on yourself and tell me why," I tell her.
Her laugh borders more on a cackle. "Where's the fun in that, Edward? We both know that whether I do or don't give you what you want, I'm dead regardless."
"You are right about that, but you are the one who made it this way," I tell her.
"You are a true dumbass, it disgusted me the way Mom and Carlisle would fawn all over you. You always took Esme's demeanor toward you as distant, but she did that because if we all saw the way she truly felt about you, the soft spot she had for you, we'd all know you were Carlisle's son."
"So you did this out of jealousy?"
"I did this out of years of abuse and neglect," she spits. "Waylon saw it, that's why he took me under his wing, said that Daddy would have never let Esme treat me the way that she had."
"You didn't even know, Dad," I laugh incredulously.
"He's not your father," she grits out.
"But he was for all intents and purposes, he loved me. He took me to my t-ball games every Saturday, then we'd go to that diner off Sunset after."
"I never had the chance—"
"Because fucking Waylon killed him," I roar.
I shift back on my haunches, while Alice blinks.
"Didn't know that, huh?" I ask, tilting my head. "Your fucking mentor killed your Daddy."
"No, Carlisle did," she argues.
"No, Waylon did," I say with a snort. "He killed Eddie Boy so he could blackmail Carlisle and our mother."
Alice looks through me.
Part of me is torn because I could feel that this wasn't my sister. The girl in front of me was broken by a sneaky power driven man and a myth of a father she thought she was seeking vengeance for.
"Regardless of what happens to me, everyone will see you for the bastard you are," she says breezily with a sneer.
I glance back to Em noting we need to search for anything that might be insurance for Alice.
"So, you did all of this because I'm illegitimate?"
"No, I did all of this because you fucked up. I'm saving my father's legacy, Aro gave you every opportunity to marry Tanya. You fucked her for God's sake, Edward, it was so easy all you had to do was put a ring on it."
"I didn't love Tanya."
"You didn't love Angela either and you still managed to be married and have side pieces."
"So fucking what, I didn't marry Tanya that doesn't affect my ability to lead."
"It does when Aro wants to join our families' bloodlines."
"If you were in charge, Aro wouldn't have joined the bloodlines," I yell, frustrated as all hell.
"I already did," she says, her nose in the air.
I swear my heart just about stops in my chest at her admission.
I look behind me to see Em's jaw just about touching the ground and Bella's head shaking frantically.
"You and Jasper have more in common than you know," Alice's chirpy voice taunts. "Both bastards."
I start shaking my head.
"Adriana is Aro's goomah… hell Caius is Aro's goomah," I say that last part under my breath. "Jasper's from Texas."
"But he was conceived in New York when his mother was visiting for a bachelorette party for her sister," Alice says filling me in. "Jasper's father never knew."
"Jasper working for Carlisle wasn't a coincidence," I state.
"You have always been one to catch on quickly, Big Brother," she says almost gleefully.
"So Coco—"
"Is the child of both Cullen and Volturi bloodlines," she finishes with a grin.
"I still don't get it, Alice, if Aro knows that Coco is his granddaughter why push Tanya on me?"
"You are not this dumb, Edward," she drolls.
"I'm not a known bastard," I state in realization.
"Because you fucked it all up. I needed the paperwork to prove you weren't Eddie Boy's child."
"But Jasper wasn't legitimate."
"I am, that's all that matters."
"You talk like you are going to walk right out of here," I say, looking at her crazed expression.
"Because I am," she says smugly, bringing her knee up to meet my chin.
I fall over to the side more than a little dazed by the impact, now seeing Liam's Gucci slides peeking out from behind the column to my right.
"We got a runner," Em yells running off in pursuit of Alice.
"I could have been a coward and hid but I face those who wrong me," Alice calls in the distance before the boiler room door shuts.
"Edward?" I feel Doc's hands on me.
I start shaking my head, still dazed.
"She was holding her ties and dropped them when she took off," Bella explains.
"She—" I panted trying to catch the wind that was knocked out of me. "Liam is over there," I point to the column.
Bella moves away from me to check on Liam.
"He has a pulse," she calls relief clear in her voice. "She knocked him out."
I get my bearings and stand.
I'm quick to grab Bella's hand pulling her behind me as we leave the boiler room.
I grab my Glock that's in the waistband of my jeans with my free hand. Bella surprises me by lifting the skirt of her dress and pulling out her Glock from her thigh holster.
The pride in me swells.
Once we make it to the main floor of the warehouse I look around. I regret not having Bella check if Liam's Glock was on him. I would wager that the answer would be no, but I hate not being a hundred percent certain.
She had to have wormed herself free of her binds fairly recently.
"Edward," Doc murmurs.
I hold a finger to my lips giving her a curt shake of my head.
Something falls with a clatter and I know she's close.
I squeeze Bella's hand moving us forward.
"South is clear, Ed," Em yells out confirming that the noise wasn't him and that we were heading in the right direction.
I step out moving straight down through a row of shelving units.
I don't see her but Bella does because the next thing I see is my wife clotheslining my sister. I wince at Alice's grunt while I watch her small frame hit the concrete.
"Cunt," Alice wheezes.
"Did you seriously think you would get out of here?" I ask her.
"Kill me, Jazz will finish this," she giggles, trying to egg me on.
I laugh hard.
"Doc iced Jazz last night," I tell her while I crack up.
Her face looks grief-stricken while she processes what I just said until she reaches behind her.
"LIIIIIAAAAAARRRRRRRR," she screeches like a banshee.
Three things happen at that moment.
Four consecutive pops ring out and Alice flies onto her back with Liam's Glock falling from her limp hand.
I look at Doc who is standing beside me cool as a cucumber with her Glock still pointed at the vile creature in front of us.
"Ed," I hear Em yell frantically.
"We're northbound within the shelving unit rows," I call over the ringing in my ears.
My shock starts to clear when I move toward Bella.
"I would apologize but I'm not sorry," she says quietly, her brown eyes meeting mine.
I nod, holding my hand out for her Glock.
Maybe Alice was right, maybe I was a coward. Because right now all I feel is relief that Bella took action and pulled that trigger. That is until I look into my sister Alice's lifeless eyes.
Suddenly I'm flooded with memories.
Alice chasing Em and I while we run down the street after the ice cream truck. Em always was ahead of us even though he was a chunker of a kid, nothing could keep him from the Sponge Bob popsicle bar with gumball eyes.
Rose chasing Alice around the house with threats of murder for stealing her clothes.
All the days of when I was forced to cart Alice's ass to school once I got my license. Her and her little friends always squealing from the backseat.
But It was all a lie.
She wasn't the bubbly angel we all thought her to be.
She was fueled by her rage for God knows how long.
My breathing starts to pick up until I'm flat on my ass. Coco was a Volturi and it was something we'd all need to live with.
"Edward—" Bella's voice cuts in, but I can't tear my eyes away from Alice.
"What happened?" Em asks.
"He's having a panic attack," Doc murmurs, her fingers ghosting my temple. "Babe, you need to breathe."
"Ed, c'mon, just breathe in and out," he encourages.
I try to focus on their instructions, but all I see is Alice's unblinking stare until I fall into the black void.