A/N: I'm back. Sorry this took a while, but it wasn't in my original plan. Thank you guys for all the comments. It's really motivating me. I'm really thankful to you guys, so here's EPOV from the last chapter. If you're not really interested, you can skip this chapter. It has no new information.

EPOV:

As she walked into the room, I struggled to not let my gaze flicker up to meet her. I tried to observe from afar. There were dark circles underneath her eyes, but she somehow still seemed on edge.

"Morning," I spoke. I wanted to say more, but I wasn't sure how well I could keep the emotion out of my voice. The apartment was dreadfully silent without her. I missed her morning yawn and her little humming voices throughout the day. The quiet suffocated me.

"Good morning." Her voice was music to my ears. I wanted more of a conversation. Something. Anything.

"Here," I slid the packet of papers over to her. Taking a deep breath, I acknowledged that this case would be just as dull as the last one. She turned away from me once she had the file. I ended up staring out the window with my back to the door. I needed to be able to see more than just a blank wall.

I turned to find her frantically typing something. I could practically see her expression: lip between her teeth with a little "v" forming on her forehead. Even though I could only see her back, I studied her.

My email pinged, setting my priorities straight for the moment.

I knew our time together was limited. My body was so aware that as it got closer to 5, my heart started to beat faster. The work would have to be done later; I needed to preserve these last few moments.

She stood up quickly and left with a quiet, "I'll see you tomorrow Edward." As she walked out, I felt a piece of me leave with her.

A second later, Emmett's head popped in the door.

"You look rough."

"Thanks Em, real helpful."

"You need a break." He walked into the room further, sliding into Bella's old seat.

"No, I need normal."

"How about a drink?" The idea wasn't terrible. I would have loved to forget about everything for a while. There were moments where I feared for her safety. Black could always get angry and pull something on her while she's away. I wouldn't be able to do anything. A drink sounds very nice.

Emmett pushed me out of my seat and didn't sit still until I had a beer in my hand.

—-

I awoke with a pounding headache. The ground beneath me felt familiar, but it wasn't my sheets. My eyes strained to open. I was in the apartment living room on the couch.

As I tried to adjust to my surroundings, I heard footsteps. The gate sounded familiar.

"Bella?"

"Hey." It took a few minutes for it to register that she was really here and not some realistic daydream.

"Do you need something?" I didn't know whether to get up and help her or to stay put. I chose a middle ground where I sat up to look at her. Her movements seemed frantic, but I couldn't pinpoint the reason why.

"I think I left something here. I'm going to go look in my room." My foggy brain wasn't awake enough to consider the vagueness of the words.

"Okay," I leaned back into the couch trying to seem nonchalant. As she went into her room, I heard another set of footsteps. They were heavier––most likely a man. I turned to look at the wide open door that was blocked by a 6 foot man.

Dressed in mostly casual clothes, he held a hand-gun with a silencer attached. My heart jumped knowing that Bella was in the other room. I had to warn her, but I didn't want to draw attention to her.

"Edward, thanks for watering the plants." Shit. Shit. Shit. The gunman's eyes squinted with her voice.

"Thanks for watering the plants." Her voice carried even more the second time. Praying that she would find a way out, I was paralyzed where I was.

"Everything okay?" The door opened to reveal her face. I wanted to run and push her away from the danger. She shouldn't have even been here. I could see her eyes assessing him.

"Okay, let's be logical." What the hell is she doing? She inched out of the doorway in a calm manner. My inner voice was screaming at me to get her out of here.

"You're not supposed to be here," the hitman spoke. It clicked in my mind. I was the easy target while she stayed with my sister. Jacob Black knew that I should be alone. Although I understood I was the target, it didn't diminish my fear for her.

"Where am I supposed to be?"

"Not here." She grinned. SHE FREAKING GRINNED. Her lack of self preservation was beyond worrying.

"Okay, why are you here?" With a swift step, she came towards me. THE TARGET.

"So you're not going to answer, how rude." Never in my entire life would I have expected Bella to say "how rude" to a man trying to kill us.

"Why kill him and not me?"

"He's my job, you're not supposed to be here." A small smirk graced her lips; my heart froze. I knew what she looked like when she got an idea. I wasn't keen on her making these ideas right now.

She stared me in the eye, bit her lip, and winked. God help me. Two years back we established a code for "human shield." There were too many situations where only one of us had the protective gear needed and the other needed to run away. I wasn't 100% sure how she was going to help me "run" but I knew it was coming soon.

She sprinted into my arms, almost knocking me backward. By the time I had situated myself, she was already mouthing off to the man sent to kill me.

"I will shoot both of you."

"Oh, but I'm fairly certain, you're not allowed to kill me."

"What the hell is your plan? You are not going to be a shield to save me. Get off." The last thing I wanted to do was to injure her, but I was willing to do that to save her life.

"Remember when you had to learn knife throwing." I could feel her breath on my ear. "Well, there's a knife in my pocket. Use it." I had no confidence in this plan but I didn't have time to consider a new one.

A moment later the subtle sound of a bullet leaving the bore caught my attention. If I had even turned my head or shifted slightly, that shot could have been the last thing I heard. Without a conscious movement, I already had the knife in my hand ready to throw. I prayed that the training from a couple years ago hadn't gone to waste.

I blinked and he fell to the ground with a knife in his heart. I couldn't conjure up any sympathy for the man, considering Bella was in the firing range.

Her arms continued to hold herself to my chest. Expecting her to jump off, I stood up straight giving her time to unwrap herself. But, she never moved. Her breathing stilled for a moment, sending me into a slight panic.

"Bella, you can climb off now." Her lack of movement concerned me. Even after what most people would consider very traumatic events, she has never become stuck. I reached my hand up to comb through her hair when her body went slack in my arms.

"Bella! Bella!" I gripped her to me, unwilling to put her down at the moment. "Bella. Talk to me. Can you hear me?" Looking down, her eyes were still closed and her breathing slow. It only disturbed me further. My heart beat faster and louder than ever before. I could barely concentrate on her pulse with mine racing. I couldn't feel anything.

"Bella! Bella!"

"Yeah," her words slurred.

"Are you okay?" I wouldn't put her down until I knew both of us could handle it.

"I think so, you can let me down now." We walked to the couch where I gently dropped her. I missed the contact.

Staring at her, I watched her thoughts rule her expression. She looked at me, but I had a feeling she wasn't actually seeing her surroundings. Eventually, her breathing became close to hyperventilation and I had to take some sort of action.

"Bella, calm down. Everything's okay. We're fine." I didn't know what to do. We had gone days without speaking. My instinct took over. I began rubbing her back the way my mom used to do when I was a kid. It always soothed me, hopefully it would have the same effect on Bella.

"Bella, you look stressed, talk to me please. I know I haven't been the greatest friend recently, but I'm here for you." Her eyes still wouldn't really connect with mine.

"You were right." Her face paled a considerable amount. Should I get her something to eat or something? Her color doesn't look good.

"About what?"

"Jacob." She tensed as she spoke his name.

"I don't understand."

"I jumped on you, because he was hired to kill you, not me. I'm the leader's girlfriend, they can't kill me. That's why he said I wasn't supposed to be here. Jake knows I've been staying with Alice. You were right." It clicked. I could only try to imagine what she must have felt. I'm not meant for situations like this. What do I do?

I couldn't respond just in case I would say something insensitive. I pulled her into a hug instead.

"Bella, I'm here for you."

"How could I have been so blind? He was my boyfriend. How could I not see it?" Once again, her panic wreaked havoc on her breathing. My hand went up to comb through her hair, hoping it would make some sort of difference.

"You were blinded by love. It's happened to us all."

"Not all of us have had a crime lord as a boyfriend that has put out multiple hits on your best friend…I put you in danger. I'm so, so sorry." Out of all the things I expected her to feel, guilt (for my situation) was not on the list. A warm sensation filled my stomach. I didn't think I was capable of loving someone as much as I loved the girl in my arms.

"I'm one hundred percent fine," I whispered.

"But if I didn't come, you would be dead." There was no question. I would have been dead even if she decided to wait to ask about her plants.

"But you were here." If she focused on the "if's," she would be filled with guilt forever.

"I—I wouldn't know what to do if you died." Tears filled my eyes at the emotion in her voice. I couldn't imagine losing her.

I smiled as I spoke, "Well, let's make sure that never happens."

"I'm going to kill Jacob." I did not expect that. Not immediately at least. She looked like she was about to dart from the room.

Before she could do anything she regretted, I took her arms and pinned her against me. "Bella, you know that's not the right thing to do."

"Do I?" I could feel the heat radiating off her skin. Right then, I made a promise to myself that whatever would happen to Jacob Black, she would not kill him. Although she would try to deny it, she loved him, at one point.

"He hurt you. He's not getting away with that." She tried to rip away from me.

"Just breathe." Her muscles relaxed beneath my touch, making me smile. "We have time to fix this. I promise we'll get him eventually."

"I just—I should have seen it."

"It's not your fault."

"I need to talk to him."

Before I could consider using a reasonable volume, I had already screamed: "NO!" Her hands pressed against my chest reciprocating my touch from earlier. She can't see him. Not now. Not after only knowing for 15 minutes. She'll get killed.

"Why not?" She asked with a grin.

"It's dangerous." This won't end well for anyone if you go now.

"No it's not. He wants you dead, but he won't let anyone touch me. I'm his precious girlfriend. He'll just think you outsmarted his hitman."

"Do you really think that? You think he's stupid enough to think I've escaped two hitmen without help?" She's going to get killed. She's going to get killed. She's going to get killed. I felt like I couldn't breathe. The walls were slowly closing in on me.

"We are all blinded by love. I think I can use that." She kept the grin on her face.

"You are not going anywhere without me," I said a little possessively. I was still finding it hard to focus on breathing.

"I think it's the other way around, I don't have a target on my back."

"Okay, so we stick together either way." Together, that sounds safe.

"I'll find a way to get to him. We'll record him, I'll wear a wire."

"If you didn't know before, do you really think that he's going to just say it out loud?" I need more reasons. Think. There's got to be a legitimate reason for her to never see him again.

"Okay, maybe not, but it's worth trying."

"For right now, I think you should relax. Too much stress isn't good for the body." That was my subtle way of pushing a problem off.

She laid her head on my chest. I played with her hair and watched tv while ignoring the dead man 10 feet away from me.

—-

The dead had a tendency to start smelling after some time. I reached for my phone.

"What's up Ed?"

"Emmett, can you tell the office there's been an incident at my apartment," I spoke as low as possible.

"Why are you whispering? And what the hell happened?"

"Well, Bella is currently laying on me. Don't get any ideas Em. She fainted like 20 minutes ago. Anyway, there was a hitman and well he got hit."

"Shit. Okay. I'll be there in twenty."

I absentmindedly stared at the tv as she slept.

"How long have I been out?"

"A while." I realized we would have to get up soon and work on this mess. She stood up. I watched closely to make sure she didn't fall. She didn't trip, but I watched as her eyes became wide with the sight of the man on the floor.

"Edward, there's a dead man on the floor." I almost laughed.

"Um, yeah. What did you think I was going to do with him? You were on top of me."

A lovely shade of pink filled her cheeks. "Don't you think we should call it in or something. What do we even do with a dead body?

"Emmett should be here any minute. I'm not totally useless."

"You're not useless at all. Do you know how to get this smell out?"

"Maybe on the way back we can find a candle or something."

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed it. I'll have the next chapter out soon. :)