I'm smokin' while I'm runnin' this town and you better believe it, honey. I'm laugin' as I'm taking no prisoners and taking down names. I'm cryin' while I'm gunnin' in the smoke they can hear me coming. If you were me, and I was you, I'd get out of my way. ~ Lana Del Rey, In My Feelings

EPOV

"It's always been this unspoken rule between everyone, you stay the hell away from Hollywood. People always gets caught, and they take everyone down with them," Jasper said, always the practical one of the family. Emmett was the muscle and attack man. He had planned some pretty brutal murders in the past. I took care of the business side of things, both legal and illegal. There wasn't an ounce of cocaine or heroin in the city that I didn't know about; there wasn't an illegal weapon that wasn't supplied by me. Jasper was the one that typically kept us from acting too much on anger and looking at things from a different perspective. He was logical and diabolical.

We were all spread around Jasper's home office. Jasper sat at his desk, Emmett leaned back against the couch in the corner, and I paced between the two.

"We will. We've got something no one else ever had," I told them. Bella's willingness to help was one thing, but her desire to go above and beyond was… confusing, intriguing, even fucking arousing. Right now, she was in Los Angeles meeting with Lawrence about stealing a role right out from under Katrina.

When I saw the script and recognized the name, my first instinct was to get Bella to forget about the project. If it was a project Katrina could have gotten in the first place, it shouldn't be on Bella's level anyway. Then, my girl decided to go for the kill and take it right out from under her. Maybe Luka bought his way into the project, or maybe his daughter was somewhat talented. Whatever it was, I knew anyone in the business would be insane not to want to work with Bella.

"I thought you were dead set against asking Bella about this. What changed?" Jasper asked.

"She wants to help. It's not just helping me, either. At least, I don't think it is. She strives to be the best, just as much as we do."

The gleam in her eyes when she said she wanted to take the role was breathtaking. She said it was simply because it was a great role, and I knew that was true, but I also knew my wife. She liked getting revenge, just like me.

Damn, I'd miss her, though. She would be gone for months soon, once she got the part. I'd visit when I could, but we were still facing an impending separation. She was supposed to get back from Los Angeles this afternoon, but I got a cryptic text that said something had come up and she would be back late tonight. I didn't push for more answers, but I did call Ben just to make sure it was nothing important.

Then, earlier this evening I got a message from her instructing me to watch some late-night television show tonight. It was an odd request, but I had the television in Jasper's office on the channel, waiting for it to start as he and Emmett continued talking amongst themselves. When I heard the mention of hormones I assumed they were talking about their wives, so I tuned it out.

"Fucking hell," I muttered once the show started. The regular host should have walked out from the curtain, but there was my wife, smiling and waving at the audience.

"Thank you so much for not booing when I came out. That was a very real fear I thought of about thirty seconds ago," Bella said with a laugh and a blinding smile. "Of course, I'm not your regular host for the evening. Just an hour ago he and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world, so you're all stuck with me for the night."

There was a round of laughter, and Bella looked instantly relieved. I, however, was still confused as hell. "I'm in town for two days in the past two years and he's already putting me to work for him," Bella grumbled. "There are a few changes to the show tonight I should tell you about. The original musical act has backed out because they didn't want to be in the same room as me. But, I'll play a few songs for you later. I don't know what, because I'm vastly unprepared for the entire evening, but something will happen!"

Jesus, she's got everyone in the palm of her hand. She knows exactly what people want to hear, and she knows exactly how to get into the hearts of an audience. When she used those talents for acting, it got her to the top of the food chain. When we start to use it for our business, we'll be unstoppable.

I looked her up and down, enjoying the little sliver of skin I could see of her abdomen, and the two generous slits of her skirt showing her legs. The black of the fabric made the black ink on her arms stand out against her pale skin. She was stunning.

She was also funny as hell. Bella talked with various people, joked with them and didn't take shit from anyone. The entire time, in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think she was made for this. For acting, for life in the public eye, and for me.

She played two songs, neither of which I had ever heard. It made me wonder how many she had that I didn't know about. They were both equally amazing, but one was also heart wrenching.

It was still a mystery to me, how she managed to put our lives into song in a way that matched exactly how it felt. There were so many lines that meant more than most people knew. Finding those was my favorite part of listening to her music.

Lights flash and we'll run for the fences. Let them say what they want, we won't hear it. Loose lips sink ships all the damn time, not this time. With that last line she practically solidified her loyalty and confirmed she held secrets in while on trial. It was brave as hell admitting it.

The second one made my chest hurt, because I could picture it perfectly. It wasn't hard to recall the last moment I saw her before I had to fake my death. Your kiss my cheek, I watched you leave. Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees. When you're young you just run, but you come back to what you need. This love is good, this love is bad, this love is alive back from the dead.

Once the show ended, I went back and re-watched the performances. The songs wouldn't have been chosen lightly. Bella thought through every move she made. The first one… that one was all pounding bass and romantic excitement. It was a way to tell everyone we saw what they did to us, but we knew how to get around them.

The second painted Bella in a better light. She was the grieving widow until she found out I was alive. She got everyone's sympathy. She's brilliant.

Years ago, when Bella was still on trial and I was on the island alone, Carlisle told me something. He said Bella was made for this life, that despite how miserable she seemed and how much she had deteriorated right before my eyes, she was strong enough to handle it. He was right, she was stronger than anyone I knew, but the idea that she was made for this life left me uneasy.

Thoughts of her… creation were always uncomfortable. Thinking of her as a Volturi was disturbing. Imagining her growing up along the likes of Tanya, Irina, Demetri, and Felix left me with a migraine. Despite how horrible it made me, I was thankful that Elena Rossi abandoned her, because I wouldn't have trusted myself around Bella before.

If she grew up with that family, I would have used her like I used Tanya and Irina. The thought of that made me sick to my stomach.

She's here. She's mine. She's not going anywhere.

Dark…

"Mr. Cullen, you've got a new appointment this afternoon," Jessica's shrill voice sounded over the intercom to my desk.

"Cancel it," I told her, frustrated that after I came in this morning and told her to clear my schedule she was doing the exact opposite. You would think after being at this job for close to a decade she would either learn or move on, but she's done neither.

"Well, its – "

Before she could finish, my office door swung open. "You're always so grumpy," Bella said with a smirk, striding in. The jeans she was wearing hugged every curve she had, and the lacy silk tank top distracted me from the work I had to do. She had gotten in late last night after she hosted the show, and nearly immediately collapsed into bed. She was still fast asleep when I left this morning.

"Are you my appointment?" Standing, I met her on the other side of my desk. She fell into my arms, resting her head on my chest.

"Yes," she said, her voice muffled against my suit. Bella hugged me close for another second before she backed up and shoved me back to my chair. Damn, it was an actual meeting.

"I have two things," she said, looking adorably serious. Bella pulled out a file folder and slid it across the desk at me. "First, Heidi, Claire, and Kate are starting their own management and promotion company. I'm leaving Stewart & Kirkland and going with them. But, they also need another investment partner, and I think we should do it."

The wheels in my head started turning, trying to think of ways to use this to my advantage.

"Before you go all… you, I want this part done completely legally. These are my friends, I don't want them mixed up in anything. This," she pulled out another folder from her bag. "Is how you'll get the most out of Hollywood your way."

I set aside the first file, opting to do as she said and have that business taken care of completely by the book. Opening the second folder, I saw quickly skimmed the pages and realized they were plans for a production company. Very well thought out and organized plans. "Did you do this?"

Bella shrugged. "Is it bad? I googled a lot."

"No, it's great," I told her honestly. It was obvious from time to time Bella thought she was beneath others because she only had a high school education. She never went to college, never needed it or had the time for it. Just because she didn't have a higher education didn't mean she wasn't one of the smartest women I knew.

"Production companies are where the most money is. They fund the projects, but they also get the highest pay out once the films are released. I don't know… what you want to do, exactly. Whether you're in it to make money or… do other things."

She was adorable, trying to avoid saying anything incriminating. "You can say launder money. I'm not wired, I promise," I joked. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" Laundering money was one of my primary goals. I had a lot of income that wasn't legally obtained. Having extra businesses where I could invest that and then get an even higher payout later was always necessary.

"I'm sure. Just… don't get caught."

She still looked nervous, so I changed the subject to calm her down. "How was your meeting with Lawrence?"

Bella sighed, finally relaxing a little. "It was good. He brought up everything I knew he would. I'll hear from him in a few days."

"They're insane if they choose her over you." It made no sense to me, choosing someone who had been acting for a few years over someone with Bella's experience.

"They're logical if they choose her. She's less of a liability, she distracts less from the film itself, they can pay her less, and she hasn't been dubbed the new OJ." Bella shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

"People call you the new OJ?" How had that one gotten past me? I kept pretty close tabs on everything that was said about Bella, but I had never seen that one before.

"Yeah. It's just to get a rise out of me but I still hate it," she said, her voice small. Bella dropped her gaze from mine and started focusing on her hands in her lap.

Walking around my desk, I knelt in front of her. "Bella, you –"

"I did what I had to do to survive," she said, repeating what I told her whenever she got like this. It was conflicting for her and I knew it always would be. She didn't want to feel relieved at what she did, she would never want to take joy out of ending someone else's life.

But she did, sometimes at least. She was glad Aro was gone. I was too, but I never felt guilty about it.

Dark…

A few days later, the entire family was gathered at Emmett and Rosalie's home. Before, I had always dreaded the Sunday dinners with my family. Now, it was surprisingly enjoyable. It was nice to see Emmett and Jasper with their families. It was a good reminder why we worked so hard.

The second the name Cullen stopped sending a shiver down everyone's spine, we would be eradicated. We needed to stay strong for everyone in this room.

The gatherings were much more relaxed than our Sunday dinners used to be. Esme always required the girls to dress up and everyone had to be on their best behavior. Why, I had no clue. No one else was around. I should have seen it earlier, how much Esme valued her status over her family.

Now, our dinners on Saturday were casual affairs. Food and family catching up. Bella usually loved them, but it was obvious she was distracted tonight. It had been four days since she got back from Los Angeles and she should be hearing about Savage any time now.

Sitting in the living room with Bella's legs draped over my lap was the most relaxed I had been all week. I had a scotch in one hand and a smooth calf in the other. Everyone was happily chatting, even Jared had emerged from his room and joined everyone.

The room went silent when Bella's phone, which had been glued to her hand all night, rang.

"Oh! Put it on speaker!" Alice squealed. Everyone knew what call Bella was waiting for. They were all as confident as I was that she would be getting the part. Only Emmett and Jasper knew why it was an important part, though.

I gave Bella's leg a firm squeeze as she answered.

"They're offering you $600,000 for the part," Heidi's voice came over the speaker. She didn't bother with any formalities, and she sounded rushed.

"Six hundred?" Bella asked, confusion all over her pretty face. Even I knew an offer of six hundred thousand was an insult to her. "That's less than I was paid for my first movie."

"They're under the impression that you're desperate," Heidi said, exasperated. I wondered how much haggling it took to get them up to that figure.

"No," Bella said, an air of finality to her voice. "Tell them I want what they were going to pay the other girl at least, and I won't settle for getting paid a third of what the male lead is getting just because I don't have a penis. I've got six goddamn Academy Awards, I'm not desperate."

"Bella –"

"You know six hundred is an insult, Heidi."

You could practically hear her exasperation over the phone. "Okay." Then the line went dead.

"Shit," Emmett mumbled.

"This is so nerve-wracking," Alice said, nibbling on a chunk of celery.

"They'll call back," Bella said, standing from the couch to start pacing around the room. She was more nervous now, but her little speech as admirable.

I loved that she knew her worth. She wasn't desperate enough to take something like that, or to work with people who didn't value her.

Dinner progressed, and it seemed everyone was now as nervous as Bella about whether she would get another call tonight. We were sitting around the table when her phone rang again.

Bella and I both looked at the screen, but it wasn't Heidi. It was Lawrence.

"Answer it!" Maggie shouted, making everyone around her laugh.

"Lawrence," Bella greeted.

"You sure know how to get what you want, don't you?" Lawrence said with a laugh.

"I know when people are trying to fuck me over," Bella replied. There were a few gasps from around the table, but I smirked at her. She was a spit-fire.

"$20 million. A trainer is flying out to Chicago tomorrow. You've got six weeks before I need you in Hungary."

"I'll be there," Bella said, looking over at me with the biggest smile before hanging up the phone. She let out a loud sigh and relaxed into her chair, still with that big smile on her face. Fuck, she's cute.

"Do you guys have any candy?" Bella questioned, standing from the table and wandering into the kitchen. She didn't wait for a reply, but a moment later she walked back in snacking on a bag of chocolate.

"What?" she asked, looking around at everyone, myself included, giving her incredulous looks. She makes a twenty-million-dollar deal and acts like it's nothing?

"Congratulations!" Alice and Rosalie said, both standing to give Bella a hug. They started chattering about the film, but Bella couldn't really tell them much. Apparently, she wasn't supposed to talk about it with anyone.

"So, twenty mil for doing basically nothing?" Emmett joked, ruffling Bella's hair as he walked past.

"Basically nothing?" Bella said, her voice having lost the playfulness from moments before.

"Well, I mean, you just read lines, right?" I cared for my brother, but he could be a fucking idiot sometimes.

Bella left the room for a moment and returned with a script in her hands. "You wanna try?"

"You really stepped in it this time, Em," Jasper said, laughing with an arm around his wife.

It really was an absurd thing to say. Granted, I once thought the same thing, but I knew there was much more to it than that now, especially where Bella was concerned. Some might just read their lines and be on their way, but when you were acting at the level Bella was, that wasn't enough.

"Pfft, of course," Emmett said, taking the script to the living room.

We all followed, sitting eagerly on the couch waiting for the performance to begin. Emmett flipped to a random page, and immediately froze. His eyes scanned the page, and his brows furrowed more and more with each passing second.

"Well?"

"Shouldn't it tell me like, how to say it?" Emmett asked, his eyes wide as he looked at Bella.

"It's just reading lines, like you said," she replied. I pulled her into my lap, kissing the hollow of her neck. I hadn't gotten the chance to tell her how proud I was of her, but I would have her to myself soon enough.

"Okay, well…" Emmett stuttered. Before he could move on, Bella interrupted him again.

"Remember you have a Russian accent. Oh, and to stand on your cue, which we'll say is the edge of the rug back there. And, no pressure, but there are hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment filming you at the moment, and about a hundred people waiting on you to get it right."

"Damnit," Emmett grumbled, handing Bella the script back and going to sit next to Rosalie.

"So, what's with the candy?" I asked Bella, watching her pop another chunk of chocolate into her mouth.

"I'll probably have to start a ridiculous diet tomorrow. Gotta enjoy it while I can," she replied, smiling through another bite.

Looking down at her, I wondered how much smaller she could really get and be at a healthy weight. She was always tiny, but with curves in the best places. Never again did I want to see her so emaciated as when she was on trial.

"It'll be fine," Bella whispered to me, placing a gentle kiss on my cheek.

Later that night, I left Bella peacefully sleeping in bed. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and wandered into my office. I knew there would be at least one call waiting for me. He had called earlier, of course, but I ignored it. Celebrating with Bella was my priority.

She looked… so fucking happy. All night. Not only did she get her part, but she also made sure she was paid fairly. It wasn't about the money, we didn't need it, but it was the principle of everything. She shouldn't get paid less because of her history or her association with me. She was the best, she should get paid as such.

As soon as I dialed the number, angry Russian curses filled my ear. My laugh just made them increase in vigor.

"What did you expect?" I grunted out. "You've overstepped, Petrov. Things were fine and you got greedy."

"You don't run everything, Edward."

"I run Chicago, and I'll have more pull in Hollywood than you ever will, even with your daughter's help."

"Katrina could have –"

"Katrina is no match for my wife." How he thought his daughter could every compete with Bella is beyond me.

"You're going to regret this, Edward," the threat was clear in his voice. It was a threat against me, and every member of my family.

"You can't touch me or my family, Petrov. You overstepped, and I put you back in your place. That's how this works. Now, back the fuck off."

Hanging up the phone, I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. Maybe it was a good thing Bella would be getting out of town for a while, considering I had just started a war between two of the biggest crime families in the city.

A/N: The lyrics italicized in the beginning of the chapter are I Know Places and This Love by Taylor Swift.

Okay, before anyone leaves a review, please remember this is fiction. I don't actually know how to plan a money laundering scheme, and I don't know everything about the business side of Hollywood. I know there are some factual discrepancies in this, but it's fanfiction. Just enjoy the ride, okay?

Also, Sick Boy has been nominated for the top ten completed fics in April over of twifanficrecs! Feel free to head over and give it a vote :)

As always, thank you for your continued support.