DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc., are the intellectual property of the respective author. The original characters and plot are the property of Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.
-Chapter Thirty-Five-
The Bonnie and Clyde comparisons stuck, and our newest nicknames were gaining wider recognition with the public. They were becoming familiar with our faces, and hiding out in plain sight was impossible.
The media publicized every crime to an outrageous level, and it grew, getting picked up by one news source and recycled by another. In total, we had robbed six stores in the last three weeks. The money in a single holdup was less than a hundred dollars. It was barely enough to hold us for two days, and I expected Edward to focus on a bigger game, robbing a bank or something, at least aiming his sights higher so we could ride out the score a little longer than a day. Still, he was content with keeping our activities small and local.
He stayed close to Illinois, hopping around and going back and forth between state lines. If we were smart and not fucking out of our minds crazy, we would be heading down to Mexico—while we still had some time. But we were constantly playing with fire by sticking our hands in it, testing our boundaries, and getting off on the excitement. The danger of getting burned was the last thing on our minds.
This desire, somewhat of a compulsion, was a destructive habit: robbing stores, running from the cops, sticking our guns in people's terrified faces, and ripping each other's clothes off when our arousal came too much—everything was for our amusement, and we did nothing out of necessity.
It was a drug, plain and straightforward: Potent, and it altered our judgment, making us feel as though we were invincible. It was highly addictive, and I wasn't ready to give it up. No matter what the consequences were.
"It's unclear where these two are headed or where they'll strike next, but one thing is for sure, mark my words America, they will be caught. The question is will they go quietly? In my opinion, I don't see these two young, and highly volatile lovebirds going down without a fight, and in the end, it could lead to another unnecessary tragedy—whether it is their lives or lives of their innocent victims. So get ready America, because this crime spree is about to end the same way it had nearly eighty years ago: with a bloody and bullet riddled extermination of these two criminals."
"Oh, shut the fuck up," Edward growled, irritated, turning off the TV. He shifted in the bed and pulled my body close, wrapping his arms around me. Again, there was this feeling of need to ease his mind that I was there alive and bullet-free.
Burrowing my face deep into his bare chest, I breathed him in deeply. "I take it that you're not a Nancy Grace fan?"
"Fuck no, I hate that woman," he replied, hugging me tighter. "I know shit is crazy right now, kid, and our prospects aren't looking so good with the cops and media all over our ass, but I swear to you, I'm going to make sure that you have a life again. Give you some kind of fucking normalcy with school or college or whatever the fuck you choose to do. I promise. There are just a couple things we gotta do to make that happen, okay?"
I shook my head slightly, saddened by the idea of being ordinary. "I don't want normal."
"No, baby, you do. Spending the rest of your life prison is not the life for you. Believe me; I've been there—multiple times. Being normal and boring is better."
He wasn't referring to himself because he loved the thrill of living outside the law, and if it weren't for me, he would continue to do just that. I was the issue. That pedestal he held me on kept him looking ahead at a straight, narrow life, a brighter future. He wanted to do right by me.
"Yeah," I said, listening to his heart's slow and rhythmic beating. That sound and feel of him against my skin was my main selling factor. Boring was better. I wouldn't be able to let him go. "I know what you mean."
It was quiet for a moment as we lay in bed, covers wadded at our feet, holding each other. It was peaceful. My eyes got heavy, and with my mind at ease, I felt myself slowly drifting off to sleep.
"I'll make safe you again—if it's the last thing I fucking do," he whispered intensely and earnestly. It ultimately came out of nowhere, and it woke my ass up.
"What are you talking about?" I murmured, shaking my head and feeling an argument coming on because he was talking absurdly. The guilt he was feeling about me and my safety were unwarranted.
He didn't force this life on me. I willingly chose it. The only thing he did was make me love him, and even that wasn't intentional on his part. He fought hard against my advances for nearly two months. I pushed and pushed until I got what I wanted.
This crime spree was no different.
Lifting my head, I propped my elbows on his chest to get a better look at him. His tired and sad eyes met my curious ones. "You don't have to make me promises…." I started to say, but he stopped me short.
"Just give me one more week to fix this fucking mess."
"A week?"
He nodded.
"To do what?"
"To bring that fucking bastard down."
Questions. There were so many questions. They overwhelmed me, and I couldn't decide which one I wanted to ask first. Edward gave me a nugget of hope and a promise of a fairytale ending, but I couldn't see how he would get us there.
It seemed impossible.
After staring at him with a dumbfounded expression, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, albeit a fumbled and incoherent thought. "How...I mean, why? What's the point? With all the media attention on us, and the polls still in that man's favor, how do you expect to bring him down when nothing we've done this far has worked? The voters fucking love him, Edward."
"Yeah, I know, and that shit is fucking pathetic. The things that some voters are willing to overlook just because a candidate is a smooth talker, and that's all he is, Bella, a smooth fucking talker," he said, clenching his jaw, biting back his hatred for his father. "There is no redeeming quality about that man. We just gotta bring to light something that the voters won't be able to ignore. Something so incriminating that even the law can't ignore."
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure yet," he said, contemplatively gnawing on his lip ring.
This vendetta against his father, the real anger he held, was understandable, but would it be worth it, in the end, to get even?
"Be honest with me," I said, placing my hand on his cheek, gaining his attention. "Is this why we're doing all of this?" I waved around the room, my eyes falling on our guns and ski masks.
"Yes," he said bluntly, and my face fell.
All this time, I thought it was him and me against the world, fucking the town up one drugstore at a time, but I was wrong, and that shit depressed me.
"You're seriously risking our freedom just to get even with that man?"
Edward stared down at me, taking note of my hurt feelings, and as an afterthought, sought to reassure me that all wasn't for naught, that it had meant more to him than just revenge. "Listen to me, baby, getting even with him is what's going to ensure our freedom, okay?" I nodded, still discouraged, and he smiled weakly, tapping the tip of my nose with his finger. "You just gotta trust me."
"I do trust you. I just…I just wished that it was more about us than—"
Suddenly, there were a banging on our door, solid and robust fists, and my body jolted into an erect sitting position. My ears were alert as every muscle of mine stiffened.
"Open up, it's the police!"
I stopped breathing, and the panic had a latent effect on me as I sat there staring at Edward with wide eyes. The pounding continued, the sheer volume increasing with every rap on the wooden door. Then my heart jumped out of nowhere, thumping hard against my chest, and I returned to myself. I realized our fate had finally caught up with us, but I was a fighter. I refused to give up so easily.
Who cares if our room was on the third floor this time, I would jump out a window and risk breaking every bone in my leg to ensure my freedom and continued life with Edward in a fucking heartbeat.
Alright, that was a wee bit dramatic, but I was freaking out.
"Oh, fuck!" I cursed, stumbling out of bed backward, landing painfully on my ass, but unfazed by the stabbing and shooting pain in my tailbone, I reached for my chucks and yanked them on my feet, having so much difficulty in such a simple task. "Damn it, you piece of shit shoes!"
"Bella," Edward said, peering down with a raised eyebrow, watching me scramble on the floor as I searched for my purse. He laughed, shaking his head. "What are you doing?"
I pulled my head out from under the bed and looked up, shocked by his calm and unaffected tone. He was smirking at me, enjoying the flustered and manic show I was giving him.
"Why aren't you freaking out?"
"If you don't open up, we're going to bust it down." The urgent voice shouted, causing me to jerk my head towards the door, expecting them to be inside with guns pointed.
"Go let them in, Bella," Edward said, nodding towards the insistent banging. "Our running days are over, kid."
I narrowed my eyes. "What? That's it? You're just giving up?"
He grabbed my hand, helping me to my feet. "Just answer it."
"Okay," I croaked out, my mouth and throat dry.
Everything was spinning wildly around me, and it took some grueling effort to get my blurred vision to focus. Then, taking a deep and calming breath, I entrusted Edward with my sanity. I tugged on my shirt nervously, walking cautiously towards the door and glancing back at Edward, seeking his confirmation. But instead, he waved me forward and onward with an encouraging smile.
The knocking had finally come to an abrupt stop, and I rose to my tip-toes to look out the peephole, but whoever was on the other side was covering it up and blacking out my view. Placing my hands flat on the door, I pressed my ear against the thick wood and listened closely. There were multiple voices outside, all of them overlapping each other as they laughed and talked loudly.
"Open up, fuckers!" The booming and unknown voice hollered, barely making it through that sentence without guffawing.
It was that familiarity of home, so close and within my reach, and that feeling of joy was insane. I couldn't seem to get that fucking door open fast enough.
For twenty seconds, my shaky fingers fidgeted and fumbled with the locks, yanking and pulling at the doorknob, twisting and turning it with desperation. Finally, after much frustration, I could unlock the door and open it wide, revealing a tall and grinning Emmett with a stunning Rosalie tucked snugly under his arm.
"Hey there, baby Bella," he said, reaching out and picking me up off the floor and into a fierce bear hug. "Or should I be calling you Bonnie?" He laughed, squeezing me tighter. "You damn troublemaker."
I grunted in response, unable to speak as the air left my lungs due to his massive and muscular biceps constricting and compressing my chest, taking the very life out of me.
He snorted, feeling my body limp in his arms and setting me back down on my feet. "It's good to see ya, little one." He steadied me, looking over my head. "Where's that fucking asshole?"
"Somewhere over there," I said, gesturing behind me.
"Ah, there's that fucking pussy!" Emmett called, letting me go, and I swayed, still dazed from the lack of oxygen. I managed to step out of his way before he had a chance to trample over me.
"Hi, Bella," Rose said, surprising me as she gave me a timid hug. It was brief, but the intent was clear. She pulled back, tilted her head to the side, and assessed me. "You look good. Who would've thought being a criminal on the run would suit you so well?"
"Not me, that's for sure." I laughed uneasily, brushing the bothersome hair from my face. "But thank you, Rose. You look..."
"Phenomenal?" she interrupted. "Yeah, I know. It's the curse of being beautiful, I guess." She gave me a playful wink, walked into the room, and greeted Edward, punching him in the arm before hugging him.
Turning my attention back to the door, Alice and Jasper were next in line. I couldn't even get a sentence out before Alice embraced me. The grip for such a small girl was incredibly strong, and I gasped, feeling as though I would need to tap out soon. Especially since it was so close after Emmett's hug, I was still feeling lightheaded and dizzy from that little love fest.
"Bella," Alice said, releasing me and allowing me to breathe again. She smiled warmly as her eyes, a deep hazel with a touch of green, were brimming with happiness, "it's so good to see you again, girl. How are you?"
"I'm good. Really good, you know?" I said truthfully as my tense body relaxed. I sighed, shaking my head. "God, it's so good to see you guys. You have no idea."
She nodded, seemingly understanding how much I'd missed them.
Something that I wasn't even aware of up until now.
"Well, we're all here now, right?" she said, giving me another hug, but it didn't have as much enthusiasm this time.
My eyes peered over her head and landed on Jasper—the tall, quiet man standing still in the doorway. He had his hands shoved deep into his pockets, looking out of place and ill at ease.
"Hi, Jasper," I said.
At first, he didn't say anything, and Alice tugged on his shirt, trying to coax a sentence, even just a word, out of him.
"Hello, Bella," he said, regarding me warily with a tight smile. "How are you?"
"Fine," I replied, unsure how to respond after that. The truth was that Jasper intimidated me in a weird but non-threatening way. It was unsettling under his stare, and I found myself stammering. "Um…how…are…are you doing?"
He chuckled, and the sound of his laughter mixed with his easygoing smile shocked the hell out of me. "Well, I'm better off than you. Let's just leave it at that."
"Yeah," I said, rolling my eyes. "That's an understatement."
"Relax," he said, gripping my shoulder reassuringly, walking away, and getting reacquainted with Edward.
"Um…yeah, okay."
It was hot and cold with him, and I was starting to think fucked with me on purpose. Almost as if he enjoyed watching me squirm—that belief soon proved to be true when Alice gently slapped him in the back and told him to play nice.
That's nice, I thought sarcastically, turning around to shut the door, but only to find three more people standing outside waiting for me to invite them into the room.
"Uh…" I frowned, trying to place these unknown faces but coming up empty.
There were two guys and one girl, and they stared with curiosity and fascination.
"Hi," I said, slowly finding my voice. "Who are you?"
"Oh, yeah, Bella, these people are—" Alice started to say before Edward came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and interrupting her.
"These are my friends, Charlotte and Peter," he said, gesturing towards the attractive couple.
The woman was as tall as Alice, if not shorter, with pale blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She held tightly to Peter's arm, a man who was a couple of inches taller than Edward but had the same shade of blond as Charlotte, but his eyes were a light brown, almost hazel. They both smiled kindly at me and shook my hand.
"It's nice to meet you," Peter said.
"We've heard so much about you," Charlotte added.
"Hopefully, not all of it was from the news," I said, chewing nervously on my bottom lip, a habit I had picked up from Edward.
They laughed a little too boisterously at my lame joke, glancing back and forth between each other before walking into the room and joining Alice and Jasper on the bed. It was an odd exchange, and I looked up at Edward, silently asking him to explain what had just happened.
He shook his head, shrugging his shoulders indifferently, and moved on to the last introduction. "And this is one of my business associates, Caius."
"A business associate, huh?" I questioned suspiciously, knowing any business associates of Edward's meant one thing and one thing only, and it sure as shit wasn't selling stocks.
The man took a step towards me, eyes trained on my face, dark and black like his hair, a very intimidating presence for a man with such short stature. He shook my hand with a firm grip, almost to the point of being painful, and I tried to keep myself from wincing.
"It's so nice to meet you, Bell-la," he said, smiling wide and showcasing his crooked teeth. Unfortunately, his Spanish accent was thick, and I had trouble understanding him.
"Yeah, it's nice to meet you, too...Caius?" I asked, hoping that my pronunciation of his name was correct.
He nodded in assent. "Muy bueno."
"Um, well, welcome to our, uh..." I paused, glancing around our overly crowded hotel room, "humble abode? I guess."
"Here, Caius, let me get you something to drink," Alice said, playing impromptu hostess as she led him into the room.
Emmett had brought refreshments on the trip, not to mention several bags of weed—which he had already busted out and was puffing away on, making the small hotel room into an instant clam bake.
"You, mister, come with me," I hissed to Edward, dragging him outside, and closing the door behind me, hoping to create some privacy.
In a short span, my home had become a full house. It was unexpected and overwhelming, and I needed some answers. First, because Edward didn't seem all that surprised by our guests dropping in on us, it wasn't like Arizona was in the neighborhood—it was two thousand miles away.
"So," I started, placing my hands on my hips, "what's going on?"
"I called in reinforcements."
"Yeah, well, that's obvious. When did you do this?"
"Last week or so."
"Last week?"
"Yeah, it was sometime after our first robbery together. You know, where we almost got fucking caught?"
I rolled my eyes, waving him on. I swear to God, he would never let me live that shit down.
"Well, I felt like things were getting a little out of control—even for us—and if I didn't do something about it, we were going to end up in jail or dead, and I would never let that fucking shit happen to you!" He nearly shouted, running his hands through his hair. He took a calming breath, refocusing his eyes on me. "So, I decided to get fucking smart, you know, for once. And, well, I called up Jasper and Emmett, and asked them to come up here."
"What about those other people, Edward?" The weird ones. "What are they doing here?"
"They're here to help us. Please trust me on this. I know what I'm doing," Edward said, sweeping the hair from my shoulder and bending down to kiss the bare skin. I jerked away from his advances, and he sighed. "What is it?"
"When in the hell were you going to tell me about all of this?"
"Now?"
I laughed dryly and wanted to be mad at him for keeping all of this from me, but I couldn't find the strength to keep a fight going. It took a lot of focus and energy when we fought, and it wasn't like we could end it like we always do: naked and satiated.
So, for this one time and once only, I let his infraction slide and tried to scold him with my words but put little effort into making them sound hateful. "You're an asshole."
He smiled crookedly with a slight touch of cockiness. "Yeah, I know, but you fucking love every damn bit of it."
"Ugh," I groaned, throwing my arms around his shoulders and burying my face in his neck. "I know. I must be fucking crazy."
He rubbed my back in circular motions, comforting me. "I've got a plan, baby. It's going to work. I guarantee it."
"And it involves all of them?"
"Remember when I said if you're going to steal a diamond…."
I smiled, remembering that conversation from the long and never forgotten distant past. "You're going to need people to help you do it."
"Exactly…and this diamond, Bella, is a huge fucking rock."
There were no more questions, and I'm sure Edward would reveal all the details to me in due time, but even before knowing what his plan was, when it came to my old man, there was only one answer.
"I'm in all the way. Whatever it is, I'm in," I said, pulling away from his warm and alluring neck. I rose to my tippy-toes to kiss him. In hindsight, I should've known that Emmett's cockblocking ways would be in full force again because not even a second after my lips grazed Edward's, he opened the door and ruined our intimate moment.
"Hey there, fuckers, we didn't travel all this way for you guys to blow us off and suck face on the balcony. So get your ass in here and let's party," he said, grabbing Edward by the shoulder and yanking him backward.
Ripped from my arms, I followed them, sulking, as they tackled each other to the floor. Shutting the door and locking it behind me, I watched as Emmett and Edward's wrestling match turned into a dog pile as Jasper leaped from the bed and joined in on the madness. I edged around them and pressed my back up against the wall. They were taking up quite a bit of room, and I barely had enough space to clear them.
"Let me help," Alice said, grabbing my arm and yanking me towards the round table by the window.
"Thanks," I said gratefully.
"Drink up, girl," she said, offering me a beer. I hesitated momentarily, unsure if I should partake in the festivities. She laughed at me, forcing the cold can into my hand. "I won't tell." She gave me a conspirator's wink and flitted to Charlotte, who sat on the bed.
"What the hell," I said, popping it open and taking a large swig. As far as beer goes, it was decent enough, and I drank it with no problem.
Scanning the room, taking in my old friends plus my new ones, I spotted Rose by the bathroom talking with Caius and Peter. They were messing with a laptop they'd set up on the sink, and when I went there to investigate, Emmett cut me off and pushed a joint in my face. At first, I told him no, remembering my previous experience, but he was persistent. Eventually, I gave in to peer pressure, vowing to take it more slowly this time. Besides, the circumstances were different. They weren't strangers, for the most part.
An hour later, two beers down and stoned out of my mind, I sat securely on Edward's lap as we talked and laughed, the weed getting passed around. All of us were taking puffs.
It was fun.
Edward and I could relax and enjoy ourselves for the first time in weeks. We weren't constantly worrying about the cops or having to jump out a window.
"Tonight, baby, we party," Edward said, bringing my attention back to him. He took a significant hit off the joint, holding it in his lungs, cheeks puffed out. He grabbed my face and pressed his lips to mine, slowly blowing the smoke into my open mouth.
He pulled back and watched me as I blew it out, making rings that floated up to the ceiling. I smiled, kissing him softly. "And tomorrow?"
"We attack."