Reaching for Love
Chapter 17: Haters Gonna Hate
JACOB
Bella had vanished off the face of the earth. I stared at the tracking app I downloaded to my computer and wanted to rip my hair out. IPhone and iPod - not found. Not surprising. She told me more than once she sometimes forgot charge her phone and didn't always connect her iPod to Wi-Fi.
Laptop – not found. What the hell? She was always on her laptop.
Where the hell was she?
It has been a week since she told me she was pregnant and I ended things with her. There was no telling what happened after I left. When I turned to look over my shoulder to figure out how to handle her news, I saw her father. It was clear Bella didn't realize he was home. The look of shock on her dad's face was replaced by what I would describe as happiness. And I hated what I did to do to both of them, but it was all part of the plan.
Last night, I drove by her house. Her pathetic red Chevy truck was parked in the driveway. It hadn't been the day she was fired and left with an unknown man. I had tried to find out who he was, but the valets were a tight-lipped group. Her truck being in the driveway meant she was home. Knocking on the front and backdoors proved useless, no one answered. I thought about searching for a key, but with her dad being a cop, that would be bad for me if she wasn't home and he returned.
Uncle Royce was going to kill me if I didn't locate her soon and get her back under my thumb.
~~~ Reaching for Love ~~~
Three days later, I was driving by an office complex and I saw Bella. A felt a sneer form on my lips. Parking, I jumped out and tried to figure out with building she went into. Scanning the signs, I found one was for women's health.
"Finally," I said, making my way to the building.
Once inside, Bella was nowhere to be seen. It didn't matter.
Forty-five minutes later, she and the guy she left with over a week and a half ago got off the elevator. He said something to her before leaving the building.
Watching, I waited until he was out of sight. I moved toward her. The conversation we had was not one I pictured. She was fucking married. How is the world was I going to tell Uncle Royce?
~~~ Reaching for Love ~~~
A black and white cop car was sitting outside my house when I got home. They got out as I walked down the driveway.
"You, Jacob Black?" one pig asked me.
Crossing my arms over my chest and blowing out a breath, I said I was.
"Do you know an Isabella Swan?" the same pig asked.
I groaned. What is the hell had she done?
"What if I do?" I countered.
The other pig glared at me. "Answer the question, son."
"I ain't your son, copper."
"Answer the question," he said once more.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yea, I know her. What of it?"
His eyes narrowed at my disrespectful tone. "Seen her lately."
Shit! She filed a police report. How in the hell was I going to play this? My threat was said in a low voice so there was no way the guy who came in the lobby for her would have heard. The truth was best in this situation, but not the whole truth.
"Yea, I ran into her today."
The first pig found his voice again. "Did you threaten her?"
Internally, I chuckled. I was right about why they were here. "Nah. I beat she took it that way, though. She could never take a joke."
They both nodded. "Okay. Have a good evening."
I watched as they got back into cruiser and drive away.
EDWARD
I clutched my phone as I talked Detective Briscoe Hedley, the detective who was assigned to the report Bella filed. I'd worked with him from time to time when clients filed police reports. He was good at his job.
"This shouldn't surprise you, Edward. Mr. Black denied having threatened your wife. Said he was joking."
Joking, my ass. Bella was shaking after he left. I had to hold her for a good twenty minutes in the medical building lobby before she stop. Then another fifteen minutes to get her to tell me what he whispered.
Lifting my free hand, I ran it down my face. "So, Briscoe, what do we do now?"
"You know as I do, there's nothing you can do. You got her to file a report, so there is a paper trial. Hopefully the two officers I sent was enough of a deterrent to keep him from seeking her out again."
From what little Bella told me about her relationship with Mr. Black, I didn't think he would care about the visit.
"However," Briscoe continued, "with his rap sheet, I don't think he will leave her alone."
I rubbed the back of my neck, my gaze moving to where Bella was asleep on my bed. "Anything you can share?" I asked.
A long sigh from the other end of the line. "Robbery, assault and battery, all misdemeanors. Just get her to report him each time. They more reports, the more likely a judge will grant a restraining order."
We talked a few more minutes before he had to go. After setting my phone down on the bedside table, I laid down next to Bella and wrapped an arm around her. Like the first time, it felt like the most natural thing to do. Bella had refused to share a bed with me when we returned to Seattle after we returned from Vegas via Forks. When I insisted she take a nap and in my room, she didn't argue. She even asked me to hold her. My cell had rang before I could even sit on the edge of the bed.
Maybe, just maybe, I could convince her to move into my room, making it our room. I nuzzled her exposed neck, kissing her behind the ear.
~~ Reaching for Love ~~
The room was dark when I opened my eyes. Bella was gone. Rolling onto my back, I struggled while pondering how she slipped out from under my arm. It didn't matter.
Getting up, I went in search of my darling wife, finding her sitting at the kitchen counter with a book. Something smelled amazing.
She startled when I brush her hair off her shoulder.
"You scared me, Edward," she said, looking over her shoulder at me. "Dinner is almost done."
"Whatever it is, is making my making my mouth water."
Bella laughed was like tinkling bells and made my smile. "A vegetable lasagna."
"Uh?" I knew my freezer. There was no lasagna, vegetable or otherwise, in the it.
She bit her lip. "It's homemade, not a frozen meal. All fresh."
Outside of my mom, no one had ever made me a home cooked meal. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but you can cook."
Bella again looked over her shoulder at me. "Yes, and I can bake. There are made-for-scratch chocolate cookies ice cream sandwiches from dessert."
My stomach grumbled at the mention of dessert. I pushed the urge to go to the freezer and ruin my dinner aside. "How are you doing?" I asked in a low voice.
"Better," she answered. "Thanks for holding me."
A perfect opening if ever I saw one. "You know, I can hold you every night."
She nodded. "While you slept, I thought about that. You have been so patient with me."
"Bella, we got married a few days after meeting. It is still understandable for you to have your own room. We've only been husband and wife a week and a half–"
She cut me off. "I realize that, Edward. Waking in your arms this evening was surreal and felt like I have been doing so for years, not just a handful of days. It made me come to the conclusion that sleeping in separate rooms doesn't make sense anymore."
My breath left me as if I was knocked down by Emmett. Was she saying what I think she's saying?
"It's time for your room to become ours." Her lower lip disappeared between her teeth.
"This isn't because of Jacob is it?" I didn't know what made me ask.
"No. It's because of the way you make–" she stopped midsentence, eyes going wide. "I'm not going to finish that. The bottom line is, it's time to accept the fact you're my husband and we should sleep in the same room."
I wasn't going to pry, nor was I going to speculate how she was going to finish the sentence. I smiled down at her before moving to the oven dinner out.
