2

Bella gasped for air as she pulled her lips away from Edward's. Tears flooded her eyes, emotions welled up inside her, and for the first time in a year, she allowed herself to feel. To really feel, and not just pretend that everything in her life was all right.

"I'm sorry it took me so long," Edward whispered, bring his hands up to both sides of his face and leaning his forehead against hers.

"All that matters is that you're here right now. You are, aren't you?" Bella asked.

Edward nodded before shifting his attention to where Aro, Alice, and Emmett were standing, watching the two of them with shock on their faces. Especially Aro and Alice. She had kept herself at a distance as much as she could, not wanting to get too close in case she had to leave them. Making the decision to follow their plan and meet up with them in South Carolina had been harder than she expected. A part of her wondered if she would have done them a favor by never arriving on the small ranch she'd managed to secure just before she went to Hell. She knew they'd need somewhere safe to hide, to wait, to survive, but that didn't mean she had to be with them for that to happen.

"Aren't you going to introduce me?" Edward asked, tilting his head toward them.

"Um," Bella hesitated before saying, "Yeah, I guess. Edward, this is Aro and Alice. And behind them is Emmett. He pretty much runs this place."

Edward smiled as he held his hand out to Aro first. "It's nice to meet you. Anna's told me a lot about you, sir."

"Can't say the same about you, Edward," Aro stated, shifting his eyes from him to Bella. "Is this the same Edward from the . . ." He trailed off, letting his words hang in the air.

Bella nodded.

Edward cocked an eyebrow at Bella, clearly confused. She shook her head, trying to tell him that she'd explain later, when they were alone. It wasn't that she didn't trust Aro or Alice, or even Emmett. She didn't trust anyone other than Edward, and even her trust in him had been slowly given.

"Anyway, Edward and I have a lot of catching up to do, so if you'll excuse us," Bella said.

Bella and Edward turned toward the door, but stopped when they heard Alice speaking. "I saw you on T.V. You were there, weren't you?"

Edward and Bella turned back to her. She was clutching onto her grandfather's back, her fingers wrapped around his shirt so tight Bella could see the white in her knuckles. Her black eyes were wide and full of fear.

"After we left, you were there, right?" she asked.

Edward looked at Bella before saying, "I was."

"Did you find them all?" Alice asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper, yet everyone's attention was on her. Which was unusual, especially with Emmett standing in the barn with them. She rarely spoke in front of him.

"We did."

Alice shifted her eyes from him to Bella, before giving them a small nod and turning her attention to the black horse behind her.

Bella slipped her hand into Edward's and pulled him out of the barn door and toward the house. She stopped at her truck and loaded his arms with the fruits and veggies she'd bought at the farmer's market before grabbing the box of pastries and leading him into the house, straight through to the kitchen. He placed his bags on the table and waited until she'd set the pastries down before placing his hands on her hips and pulling her toward him, ignoring the way she tensed at his touch.

"I've been so worried about you," he murmured.

"Me, too," she admitted. "About you, I mean. I knew I was fine."

"But you're not, are you?" Edward asked.

She sighed, knowing how well he knew her. He was the only person to really know her. "No, I'm not."

Edward cradled her against him, one hand resting on the lower part of her back while the other came up to the back of her head. "Should never have agreed to the plan."

"Worked, didn't it?" she murmured, gripping his shirt between her fingers.

"Guess so."

Bella shifted her head back and looked up at him. "Did you really stop them?"

"We managed to track down about ninety percent of those involved in Cullen's operation, including a few senators who managed to keep their names out of the papers by turning against others higher up the chain than them. We found brothels with hundreds of people being held against their will, most of them were runaways who had never even been reported missing."

"And what about me? Still no leads on me, are there?" Bella asked.

Edward smiled. "No, baby, you covered your tracks well. As far as the bureau is concerned Isabella Swan died in a horrible accident just outside of Casper Wyoming after taking a curve too fast and rolling down the side of a mountain. The car was then engulfed in flames, taking Isabella's life in the process. The Bureau officially closed your case a couple months back."

"Did they link me to any of the bodies?"

"No," Edward said, softly. "Everything tied back to Eleazar Santiago, just as we planned. They've filed multiple murder charges against him and Demetri Romanoff, as well as hundreds of counts of human trafficking, tax fraud, and other charges. Neither of those men will be seeing the outside of a Federal prison for the rest of their lives."

Bella turned to the table and began unpacking the groceries she'd bought. "How long are you staying?"

"That depends," Edward said, causing her to look back at him. "How's forever sound?"

"Are you serious? What about your job?"

"Well," Edward grimaced, "it appears that I've gotten too emotionally involved in my work, and they feel it's best if I take a leave of absence for a while. You know, while I get my head on straight and remember that my personal life has no bearing on the cases that are still open. Which means, I'm yours until you get tired of me."

"So basically forever," Bella replied with a smile that quickly shifted into a frown. "But that's not possible."

"Why not?" Edward asked.

"Because we need eyes and ears on the inside. What if they reopen the case against me? Or find out I killed those people?"

"That's why I've set it up where I can monitor everything from here. They'll never know I'm tapped into their system, either. I'm that good."

"Are you sure?"

Edward grabbed her hips and pulled her back toward him. "I'm sure. Nothing will keep me away from my wife again, Bella."

"Wife?" Aro asked, causing them to look toward the doorway of the kitchen, where he and Alice were standing. Alice took one look at Edward before she ran upstairs, leaving her grandfather alone with the two.

"She's still having a hard time, huh?" Edward asked, frowning.

"She went through a lot," Bella murmured,

"Bella, you're married to this young man?" Aro asked, stepping into the room.

She nodded. "Guess it's time for me to explain him, huh?"

"A little past time, if you ask me," Aro grumbled and sat at the table. "Please explain why you're married to the man you indicated was with the FBI."

Bella sighed and sat across from the old man. "You don't know much about who I was before I started researching Carlisle Cullen. My father was never what one would call attentive. After my mother passed away, he lost himself in his grief, turned to alcohol to sooth his pain, I guess, and forgot about me. Unless he needed money. He never seemed to have a problem with asking me to cover his debts."

"Asshole," Edward muttered, sitting in the chair next to her.

"I've always been good with computers. When I was fourteen, I started hacking into people's personal accounts, taking money from them. Small enough amounts that nobody noticed. I was smart. Fifty here, twenty there. People would just assume they'd forgotten about a tank of gas or written a check out wrong. I started socking away the money for when the time came that I needed to leave my father. I knew I couldn't stay there, not with the way he drank. Eventually he'd lose the house, lose everything, and I needed to protect myself. I was sixteen when Edward found me. He'd caught me trying to hack into a bank in L.A., shut me down in about two seconds. Of course I was terrified, sure that the cops were going to come busting in my door and haul me off to jail, but weeks past and they never did.

"Then one night, while I was surfing the net, my computer screen turned black and 'Meet me in ten minutes in front of the high school' flashed across. I probably shouldn't have gone, but I was intrigued. Charlie was passed out in front of the television, so it wasn't exactly much of a challenge. When I got to the school, I found Edward sitting on the front steps with a manila folder in his hands."

Aro shifted his eyes to Edward. "You tracked her down after one hack."

"No," he said. "I had been watching her for a while, but I needed to make sure she was . . . worth . . . bringing in."

"Bringing her in where?" Aro asked, clearly confused.

Bella brushed her tongue across her bottom lip as she looked Edward, wanting to make sure he was okay with telling him everything. He gave her a slight nod, so she leaned forward. "Edward runs a small, under-ground organization called Eclipse. They . . . Well, they keep things balanced. Making sure the powerful don't get too much power."

"Doesn't seem like it's working," Aro said, curtly.

"We do the best we can," Edward stated. "There are a lot of powerful men out there, Aro, and not that many of us willing to take up the fight."

"Hmm," he hummed, before shifting his eyes back to Bella. "So you're a part of this . . . Eclipse?"

"I am now," she said. "I resisted his offer at first, thought he was full of shit, just another asshole trying to scam people out of their money. He persisted, though. He knew Carlisle Cullen was involved in something big and something dangerous, but he didn't have the details yet. It wasn't until Leah ended her engagement to Jacob and I started my own investigation that we were able to put two and two together."

"Cullen's operation spanned further than Forks, Washington. We've been able to link him to rings all over the world. He's responsible for the trafficking of at least two hundred girls," Edward explained, pausing before adding, "Including my sister."

Aro's eyes widened. "Your sister?"

Edward nodded. "Elizabeth's ten years older than me. When I was thirteen, she disappeared after leaving a night class she was taking. Cops said she'd met someone and run away, that there was no evidence of her being taken against her will. Elizabeth wasn't the kind of girl to just leave to me. Our parents weren't what one would call supportive, and she wouldn't have left me alone with them. A few years later, I received an encrypted email from someone calling themselves 'The Red Lady.' Attached to the email was a video of Elizabeth being tortured by Carlisle Cullen. I was able to trace the message to the east coast, as far up as Sacramento, but the signal disappeared before I could pinpoint her location. For the next seven years, I searched Heaven and Hell for my sister. I joined the FBI, thinking they would help, but my sister's case was considered closed. So I said fuck it, and decided if they weren't going to help, I'd do it myself. I created Eclipse, started recruiting some of the best hackers in the country. About a year later, I found Bella trying to break into my bank account."

"I didn't know it was yours," she mumbled.

"I know." Edward winked at her before turning his attention back to Aro. "I tracked her activity for a while, saw how good she really was, and then reached out to her. As she said, she resisted my offer, but when her friend started working for Cullen, I . . . I got a bad feeling. Then when Leah broke off her engagement, pushed everyone away, I suspected that Cullen had gotten to her. Together, Bella and I were able to put together the pieces. Then she met you, and learned about your granddaughter. Though I didn't want her to, Bella made the decision to get inside Cullen's network."

"I didn't much want her to, either," Aro groused, and Bella rolled her eyes. They'd had this argument too many times to count over the last couple years. "You put yourself in danger, Bella. Too much danger!"

"I did what I had to in order to save Alice, to save Leah, and every other person who found themselves enslaved to that monster," Bella snarled.

"Elizabeth is your sister?" At the sound of Alice's voice, they turned their attention to stairs, where they found her half-hiding behind the wooden railing.

"You know Elizabeth?" Edward asked, standing up.

Alice scrambled to her feet and moved up two steps as she nodded. "She was nice to me."

"She was in Forks with you?" Edward asked, softly and putting his hands up as he took a couple steps toward her.

Alice bobbed her head up and down as she took a couple more steps backward. "Mistress Esme likes her girls young and scared. Elizabeth got too old, too numb. She was sold."

"To who?" Edward asked, nearly pleading with Alice as he rushed to the bottom of the stairs.

Alice disappeared out of view, but Bella heard her say, "They called him the Sandman."

Thank you for all the reviews. I know this is a bit confusing, but we'll get there.