14

Bella's world felt like it was closing in around her as Edward's words hit her like a ton of bricks. Bile filled her throat as she rushed to the front door, making sure the door was already locked. Leah had attacked Tyler. Leah had hurt Tyler. Leah had escaped. Leah was more dangerous than Bella ever imagined.

"Where were they?" Angela asked, ending the deafening silence that had filled the air. Bella shifted her attention to the woman, surprised to find her still in control of her emotions. Bella would have been a mess. She was a mess, yet Angela seemed composed.

"They stopped just outside of Great Falls, Montana. Ben said Leah hadn't uttered a sound until she asked to use the restroom. Tyler escorted her, and when they didn't come back to the car after almost ten minutes, Ben went to check on them. He found Tyler inside one of the stalls in the ladies' room. He had cuts on his arms and hands. Looks like Leah attacked him and broke a mirror. She used a shard from the mirror to stab him several times before dragging his body into the stall. Ben called 911 and set off to find Leah, but she was gone."

Angela nodded and looked down at her watch. "Okay, I can be ready in ten minutes."

Edward replied with a nod and waited for her to leave the room before he turned toward Bella, and she knew he was leaving her behind.

"No," she said, the simple word struggling to leave her mouth. "No, Edward!"

"Babe," he started, but clamped his lips shut when she threw herself at him, grabbing the front of his shirt.

"No!" she cried. "You're not leaving me again!"

"Okay, okay," he murmured, covering her hands with his. "Go pack us each a bag."

Bella tore her hands from beneath his and rushed upstairs to their bedroom, throwing the door open with more force than was needed. She scrambled about the room, throwing the first articles of clothing her fingers touched onto the bed. Her hands trembled, her legs felt like they'd break any moment, and her heart raced. She'd known Leah was dangerous but nobody believed her.

"Shit," she muttered, leaving the clothes on the bed as she rushed back downstairs, finding Emmet, Jasper, and Edward huddled together. "She knows where we are."

Edward, Jasper, and Emmett shifted their attention to her, as did Aro and Alice, both of whom were sitting in stunned silence.

"She knows where we are, how to get back here. She'll come here looking for me," Bella whimpered. "Everyone has to leave. We have to abandon the ranch."

Edward dragged his hand through his hair as he looked from Aro to Alice. "Okay, here's what's going to happen. Everyone needs to pack up as much as you can carry. Only take what you cannot live without. We'll meet back here in ten minutes."

"Ed," Jasper murmured, drawing his attention away. "Plan B?"

Edward nodded, but didn't say anything else as he swept across the room to Bella and almost pushing her back up the stairs. Once they were inside their bedroom, he closed the door behind them and shifted his attention to her.

"What's Plan B?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"If I hadn't been able to stir the FBI's investigation away from you after you faked the accident, and your death, Plan B was going to have you, Alice, and Aro going underground for a while. We have a bunker set up in Wyoming, but we were hoping not to have to use it. But with Leah on the loose, I don't think we have a choice."

"So you just expect me to go into hiding while you do what?"

"I'm going to go find Leah and take care of her."

"By taking her to Denali?" Bella asked.

"Maybe," he said, shifting his attention to the floor. "Or maybe not."

"You'd kill her?"

"If that meant keeping you safe." Edward shifted his eyes back up to her. "I don't want to hurt her, Bella, but I won't let her get close to you."

"So I'm supposed to go into hiding while you go after her?" Bella scoffed. "That's not happening. We'll take Aro and Alice to the bunker, but I'm going with you."

"Bella," Edward groaned and moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"No, don't sit there and treat me like a child," she argued. "I can't let you go again, Edward; not when I know she's willing to kill to get to me."

Edward sighed and reached for Bella, who moved to him so that she was standing in front of him. He gripped her hips and rested his forehead against her stomach. "Okay."

Surprised that he gave in so early, she said, "Really? You'll let me go with you?"

Edward nodded and looked up at her. "I'll admit to feeling safer knowing that you're with me, and not at the bunker. I'll have Jasper, Angela, and Ben stay with them. Tyler can be transferred when he's ready. Emmett and Rose can go with us, if that's okay with you?"

Bella bit the inside of her lip as she nodded. She was terrified, of course. While she liked both Emmett and Rose, she wasn't sure how she would handle being closed up in a car with them for hours at a time. She also worried about Alice. Would she feel that Bella was abandoning her?

"Finish packing for us while I go make a few arrangements."

Bella nodded, but waited until Edward had left before she started shoving clothes into their duffle bags.

—BR—

A little over ten minutes later, Bella hoisted the two duffle bags onto her shoulders and carried them downstairs, finding everyone waiting for them with their own bags.

"Is it true?" Alice asked before anyone could say anything. "You're leaving me, Bella?"

"For a little while," she said, dropping the bags on the floor and slowly walking up to her. She held her hands out to Alice, who wrapped her tiny fingers around Bella's. "I have to in order to keep you safe, sweetie."

"It's not because you like her more than me?" Alice asked, her lips trembling.

"No, of course not," Bella insisted. "You're my sister, right?"

"You should stay with us, Bella," Aro argued. He was standing few feet behind Alice, his eyes red and his cheeks still wet. "I'll keep you safe."

"I can't," she whispered. "I can't let him go again. I'm sorry, but I can't."

"You're too stubborn for your own good, sweetheart," Aro muttered and shook his head. "Where was he when you put yourself in the hands of a madman?"

Bella's mouth flopped open. She'd never heard Aro speak with such spitefulness and anger. "We've already talked about that."

"Yes, yes, I know." He waved an irritated hand in the air. "Nobody tells you what to do and you make your own choices. Well, I'm sorry, Bella, but that's horse shit."

"Excuse me?" she asked, shortly.

"No, I don't think I will," Aro continued. "You've paid a lifetimes worth of pain because of that girl. And for what? Nothing! She taunts you left and right, makes you miserable, yet you want to go find her? Stay with us, Bella. Let them find her. You don't have to be the hero every time!"

"I'm not trying to be the hero," she argued, her tears betraying her as they dripped down her face. "I cannot let him go, Aro. Edward is everything to me. When . . . when Carlisle Cullen was . . ." Bella paused and took a deep breath. "When he was raping me and hitting me, Edward was the reason I never gave up. He was . . . is the only person who I trust not break me again. I'm sorry, but I can't let him go again."

"You love him," Alice whispered, her eyes wide and childlike. "It's like a fairy tale, isn't it? He's your prince and you're his fair maiden."

"No, Alice," Bella said, sadly. "It's nothing like a fairy tale. I'm just a girl like you, who's lucky enough to have found someone who loves me."

Bella sighed. "You and Aro are going to be fine without me, okay? Jasper and Angela are going to be with you. And Ben will be there, too. Just . . . just be strong for me, okay?"

"Promise to come for us?" Alice asked.

"I'll do everything I can," she said, quietly. "That's the best I can offer."

Alice nodded and stepped back next to Aro, who refused to meet Bella's eye. She understood that he was angry, scared, and tired. So very tired. She hated that the brunt of everything seemed to fall at his feet.

"Aro," Bella murmured. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," he agreed. "We'll be outside."

Bella wanted more than anything for him to understand why she couldn't let Edward go. Aro loved her as his own, treated her as his own, too. He and Alice were the closest people she had toward family, but she'd let them go if that meant being with Edward. He was everything she needed and wanted.

"Okay, so Ben will meet you at the bunker. Said it would be a couple days before Tyler is stable enough to be moved, so I'm going to have Liam's team escort him. They're keeping an eye out of Leah, too, in case she decides to finish what she started," Edward explained, propping his hands on his hips. "Jasper, I need you to coordinate with Garrett's team. Have them meet us in Montana. It should take us almost five hours to fly."

"We're flying?" Bella asked, surprised. She had assumed they would be driving.

Edward nodded. "Emmett's got a pilot's license. It's faster. It'd take us too long to drive and we need to get on her trail sooner, rather than later." He turned back to Jasper. "Have Garrett start hitting his contacts. We need as many eyes looking for her as we can find. It's important that she's found by the right people."

"You mean by members of Eclipse?" Bella asked, and once more Edward nodded. "What happens if she's not? What if the regular police find her?"

"Officially, Seth, Jake, Leah, Sam, and Emily are considered missing out of La Push. They didn't cover their tracks as well as you did, though. There are questions about why they left."

"I thought you had everything covered?"

"I do," Edward said, "but like I said, they didn't cover their tracks as well. A couple weeks after you left, they were spotted outside Portland, Oregon. By the time agents got there, they were gone. I also intercepted intel about phone calls to Leah's mother."

"You think she'd run back to Sue?" Bella asked.

"I don't know. I have someone keeping eyes on her, but I just . . . I just don't know, Bella. She's fucked up, you know?"

Bella nodded. "We should go. We're wasting time."

As they shuffled out of the house, Bella couldn't help but feel a pang in her chest. The ranch had been her home, her sanctuary for a year, but now, it was too dangerous for them to remain. She'd always known this day was coming.

Once upon a time, her life had been simple, easy even. Sure her father had been a useless drunk, but she had friends who loved her, people to count on. But then Carlisle Cullen decided to take Leah from them. In that one decision, by a sick, sadistic bastard, the lives of so many had changed. No longer was Bella the quiet girl hiding behind her laptop. She was a killer, a murderer, and she had a feeling by the time this part of her life came to an end, she'd have more blood on her hands.