WRONG DECISIONS
Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.
The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.
It was several hours later that Carlisle made a phone call to the number that had called him earlier that day.
CHAPTER 13: DO WE START PLANNING?
Before J had a chance to say a single word, Carlisle said, "What in the hell are you demanding for their safe return other than the money? Money is what was demanded in the note that you left behind for the mother to find!"
"The money wasn't demanded by me; it was demanded by the morons that originally took the kids. Those creeps are now dead.
"What I want is for you to get rid of the Volturi family and to turn their territory over to me. Then for you to make sure that I'm not going to be bothered by the Denali family. I don't want to be answerable to anyone, but I do want all of the Volturi area; no more and no less. I'm not greedy."
The whole time that J had been talking about what he wanted Carlisle had remained silent. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It pissed him off to no end that someone would use his grandchildren in such a way. But at the moment he had to play by the current rules that were being presented, or at least let the asshole with the demands believe that his rules were the important ones.
Yeah, what the asshole on the phone didn't know was that Carlisle would only appear to be playing by the rules that the kidnapper declared while the Cullens would be playing by their own rules unbeknownst to the kidnapper.
Before Carlisle had ever called J back, he had Jasper dealing with getting things set up to try attempting to trace the number so they would be able to locate where this delusional nut was staying.
If the trace worked, then hopefully they would know where the children were being held. Carlisle would appear to agree with the kidnapper's demands while quietly going to rescue his grandchildren. However, the kidnapper or kidnappers would pay a price that they had assumed that they would be escaping.
As of the moment as far as Carlisle was concerned, such effrontery of this nature against his family would be paid for in extreme measures by Cullen standards. Everyone knew not to break the law of attacking an 'untouchable' which was the term applied to wives and children of a family head and those that are innocent.
Finally, Carlisle replies to what J had said he wanted the ransom to be, "You do realize that the Volturi family, and I do use the term loosely, is nothing more than a gang of unstable hoodlums? They have no real standing amongst the families. So, why are you demanding that my family get rid of them when they aren't of any true importance?"
"Cullen, my reasons are my own and right now I really don't think that you are in any position to question me. All you have to do is to rid the world of the whole Volturi assholes and turn over to me all of their holdings and ensuring that I won't encounter any outside influence or hassle from any of the other families, your family included." J told Carlisle with a bit of hostility sounding in his voice.
"You mentioned earlier that the children were taken by others who are now dead. So, my question is what sort of deadline are we looking at now in order to be able to retrieve my grandchildren?"
"The deadline that you're looking at is however long it will take you to get the job done that I've told you that will be the ransom payment for your grandchildren. In fact, knowing your family's reputation over the years I would say that all of this could be accomplished in a week, maybe a total of ten days at the most.
"That will give you enough time to plan, get into place and then execute what needs to be done. Don't you agree, Mr. Cullen?" And with that said, J terminated the call without any further conversation.
Carlisle looked at his phone then with a shake of his head he rose and headed toward the security room to see what progress, if any, that Jasper was able to make.
He did stop along the way to tell everyone that he would be updating them as to what the kidnapper had to say in a moment.
At that moment Jasper walked out of the security room and met Carlisle before he was able to move from updating the rest of the family.
"Were you able to track their location?"
"Yes." Was the simple answer that Jasper gave.
Carlisle motioned for him to enter in the living room and to take a seat. Once Jasper has taken a seat Carlisle asked, "Were you able to get a trace of where they might be located?" Then before Jasper could answer Carlisle explained what he had asked Jasper to do.
After Carlisle had finished speaking Jasper told him, "The only location I was able to get was that they were in Seattle. Sorry, but I wasn't able to get an exact location to be able to give you an address."
"That's okay. At least it gives us a starting point. We do know that they are still in the states and haven't been taken out of the country. Seattle is the area the Volturi operate in and now we know that the kidnappers are in the same vicinity."
"Okay, Dad, fill us in on the conversation since you wanted to handle it on your own." Edward demanded of his father. "What is happening to my children and how are we going to get them back?"
Bella was quick to remind Edward, "Those are my children. I had them and I have taken care of them without help from you or anyone else here!"
And, as she showed signs of continuing, Esme told her, "Those children do not belong to you alone; they are my son's children as well and they are a part of this family.
"It was you that chose to leave us, it was you that chose to keep them a secret and away from us until you needed our help. Help that you scorned when you left Edward and hid yourself away from us.
"So, if I was you, I would sit there and keep my damn mouth shut while this family tries to give you the help that you belittled in the past."
"Esme, I-" Bella began only to be interrupted by Alice.
"No. Sit there and be quiet. I agree with Esme; you were the one that treated us as if we didn't count, as if we weren't good enough to be included in these children's lives.
"Now you come for our help, and we are giving it because you are still considered a member of this family, although I'm beginning to wonder why. Those children are Cullen's and are entitled to all that we can give them." Bella and Alice had been friends from almost the very first time they had met. So, to hear such anger coming from Alice was a shock to Bella.
Bella knew that she would have some problems from the family because she hadn't told them about the twins, but still to hear such venom coming from Esme and Alice was almost more than Bella could handle.
XXXXXX
"Mario, have you located where James and Victoria have the children stashed?" Marcus asked his bodyguard.
"I'm not sure if the children are in the same place as I've located James and Victoria, so I have Carlo keeping an eye on the place until you have decided what you want to do. However, I do believe that the kids are with them."
"Good. By any chance were you able to plant a bug so you could hear what is taking place inside their location? We need to know who they are contacting and just what plans they are wanting to put into action. And we definitely do not want my brothers to know anything about what we're doing."
"Yes, I did. I was able to plant it on the outside of the living room where James seems to be spending all of his time, and it seems that they called the Cullen's in Chicago."
"The Cullen's?! I would like to know why they were calling the Cullen's in Chicago instead of communicating with the mother here."
"Marcus, I know that it really isn't any of my business but however is it that Aro and Caius aren't worried about you being absent?"
"They know that I don't approve of what they are planning to do about taking those children, so I made it known that I wasn't going to be available during this time. That I wanted no part of their shit ass plans."
About that time a signal went off letting Mario know that a call was happening with the cell phone that James was using. He quickly put on his headset and when he heard who was calling Mario flipped a switch so Marcus could listen to the call as well.
While listening to both sides of the conversation Marcus got the answers to all of his questions. These were answers that he had anticipated but was also dreading to hear. Now, he needed to decide what to do. He felt like he was caught up in a catch twenty-two situation.
James and Victoria were demanding that the Cullens from Chicago take out the Volturi family as a whole, with himself included, and to give everything to that jackass and bitch to ensure the safe return of the children. Also, this does confirm that the children are Cullen-related. If there had been any doubt in Marcus's mind this overheard conversation would have settled that issue right then and there.
"Boss, what are you going to do? This is a bad situation." Mario asked and then stated after listening to the phone conversation at the same time.
"Mario, you just asked a good question. I need to take some time to think this through. I can't let my brothers get a hold of those children, but that doesn't mean that I want my brothers dead either.
"Also, the Cullen family isn't the family to mess with. When they set out to take care of business that is exactly what they do with well-planned precision. They don't stop until the mission has been accomplished.
"And, with those children being of the Cullen bloodline nothing will stop them from getting to those young ones. Woe to the ones that took them and to the ones that have them demanding ransom of any kind. The Cullen family is one family that you don't mess with in any way. They are one of the four major families that rule our world." Marcus stated matter of factually.
XXXXXX
"Does anyone know where the hell Marcus has taken himself off to? I would like to know when he developed a weak ass stomach. We need to stand as a united family to be able to get a hold of those brats and to make our demands to the Cullens.
"We wouldn't be able to get a damn thing done without having control of those kids." Aro was spewing to any and all that would listen to him.
"Aro, you know damn well that Marcus said he wasn't going to be a party to this chaos that you were planning to start, especially when it had to involve innocent children.
"He told us both that he was going to remove himself completely from the shitstorm that we were getting ready to start and that he wouldn't be returning until it was over with." Caius informed his brother.
"Well, we don't have those brats yet so he should be here to help us get them." Aro commented to no one in particular.
XXXXXX
Bella was still in a semi-state of shock from what Esme and Alice had said to her and the way they seemed to change from welcoming to attacking her suddenly. She couldn't understand why they weren't understanding the fact that all she was doing was protecting her children from the horrors that the Cullen lifestyle was.
The Cullen family lived in a constant state of danger and horror. And because of that Bella chose to protect her children from that. "Why are you attacking me because I chose to protect my children? I did what any mother would do, including you, Esme."
"You really don't get it do you? Where are the children now? Then answer the question of just how well did your protection do them after all?
"Next, those children aren't yours alone, they are also Edward's. So have some consideration on how all of this is affecting him." Esme said with a finality ringing in her tone of voice.
Everyone else had remained quiet during the exchange between Bella, Esme and Alice. So when it seemed that the three women had said all they wanted to say, Carlisle spoke, "It's time we began making plans to go to Seattle and do some cleaning up of that town.
"Jasper, I want you to continue listening for any further calls that might be made to or from that phone. Be sure to keep us up to date.
"Bella, you will return to Washington with us and show us around where the twins were last seen. Also, you will do exactly as you're told without any lip or being difficult about things."
Once he had said that he looked around at everyone and then told them, "Let's move."
He wasn't stupid enough to think that the women would remain behind. This was one of those times when the women would follow if the men didn't allow them to go at the same time.
With that said everyone went their separate ways to get ready to meet at the airstrip.
AN: Several forces are getting ready to move towards the same goal: the twins. What is going to be the move of each of the groups to get the children?
I know that I've been slower with getting updates done for both of my stories, but I will get them completed. Your patience is very much appreciated.
