A/N… We're back to Bella's POV again. I'll let you get to it.

~o~H&E~o~

Chapter 13

BELLA

"Gravity info team, come in."

I flinched at the sound of my husband's voice. It was anger and hate personified. Hell, it was stress and exhaustion and fear, too, and it was all boiling over in him.

"Edward Cullen! You'll wait for my say." Eleazar was truly trying his best to control him, but I knew there were only two people Edward would listen to at this juncture, and we were sitting side by side on the sofa.

I glanced over to Carlisle, whose brow wrinkled at whatever expression was on my face, but tears welled up in my eyes when Edward started to lose his shit on everyone…over me.

"No, the fuck I won't! I'm fucking done waiting. I want my wife off the top of the goddamn building now! This motherfucker is probably going to lose his shit when he realizes he just lost like a hundred fucking hostages to negotiate with and a huge chunk of his soldiers. I want my wife out of his reach."

I started to shake, and the tears fell, not because I was beyond my limits being bound and held at gunpoint but because I knew the only one he'd listen to at this point was me. And despite how amazing Edward was at what he did, despite how ruthless he could be, his temper tended to override his senses. I needed him focused, not out of control. I needed him cunning, not running into danger with his hair on fire. Fuck me, I just needed him.

"Bella?" Carlisle whispered, cupping my face as best he could as he tried to gently wipe away my tears. "What's happened?"

"He's…" I trailed off as I heard over the earpiece Edward absolutely come with in a breath of killing Jacob. "Oh God, Carlisle, he's… He's lost it. They've cleared the auditorium, but he's…he's beyond reach. He'll bust down that door alone if someone doesn't stop him."

My father-in-law's face darkened, his brow furrowed, and he narrowed his eyes for a moment. He sniffed, and his blue eyes were calculating and assessing as he took in the room slowly. He glanced from the bathroom, to the shattered window that now was simply open to blackness. He scanned over to the bookcase door that led into the penthouse. Finally, he studied the guard at the door, the guy typing away at the laptop, and Kim himself. Carlisle's mouth was set in a hard line, his jaw clenched. My godfather was planning and plotting, but I wasn't sure what could be done; we were outnumbered, unarmed, and only the two of us could fight. Cho and his daughter would be killed just out of sheer spite.

He looked back to me. "They haven't let them into the servers yet."

"No, but soon."

"When they do, it'll be the distraction we've needed. I want you out."

My eyebrows raised in question. Just how was I supposed to get by the guy at the door? Or have enough time to get through the bookcase, considering it needed power and a password behind a stack of books? Realization dawned slowly, and I gazed over to the bathroom.

"The ceiling," I surmised.

"Yes, up and over and then into the walls."

Nodding, I clenched my fists when I heard Alice tell Edward she was going to give him a head start to the stairs. Knowing my husband, knowing how close he was to the edge of his sanity at this point, I knew he needed to hear from me.

Pretending to scratch my ear, I pressed the commlink, whispering, "Edward, hide and seek. I'll meet you there."

I wanted to smile at the slightly evil tone I could hear from him, but I bit my tongue to keep my face blank.

"Ten-four, sweetness."

Taking a deep breath, I let it out, nodding Carlisle's way. "It's all on you now."

He nodded, his sharp eyes on the desk when Kim spoke harshly into his radio. Our captor was livid. I wasn't sure how many men he had left, but he'd lost a shit-ton since he opened up this can of worms. Edward had taken the building to the west and the garage. Eleazar had taken the building to the east. The two of them combined forces, taking the auditorium and releasing the majority of the hostages. If my calculations were correct, then there were most likely men in the building behind Twi Tech, and there was still a helicopter somewhere, not to mention the floors under construction that Alice had pointed out earlier. And because his agenda was taking weapons from Twi Tech, he had to have more men out there.

Kim had been planning this for years, and he'd had millions of dollars at his disposal, since he had been stopped from buying the nukes from George Stefan two years ago. He'd have the ability to pay for men – from any country – transportation in and out of the country, and for fake identities.

However, judging by his anger-filled expression, I was pretty fucking sure that he'd not bet on people like Edward and our crew. He'd picked the wrong building, the wrong hostages, and the wrong time. We'd been hired at the exact right moment, and I wondered if it was coincidence.

My gaze shot to Carlisle, and he raised his eyebrows. "Do… Carlisle, do you have a mole? A traitor?"

"Hmm." He nodded a little. "I've been thinking that myself since Alice said they'd been in the building from the get-go. She said they were in the construction crew on the forty-fifth, -sixth, and -seventh floors, not to mention the cleaning crews. So…this started months ago, I think. I wouldn't know who, though." He leaned closer to me. "However, now isn't the time for you to worry about that. We'll get there. Right now, I want you ready to run. I'd have you take Seong with you, but I know for a fucking fact she'd never keep up. She'll get killed."

Nodding, I agreed. I'd considered the same thing. I also knew Carlisle well enough to know that he'd never leave with me. He'd never leave two innocent people with this asshole, but he'd also never leave Twi Tech in the hands of an enemy, either. He'd consider it cowardly. And that was one thing Carlisle was not – a coward.

And we all knew that Kim needed Carlisle alive more than anyone else left in this room.

We turned toward the desk when the hacker started to speak quickly and animatedly.

Kim leaned over his shoulder to read Jacob's laptop screen and then caught our stares and grinned, saying, "I told you we'd get in."

There was no way to stop the snort that escaped me. Alice had been on it since the beginning, and I wanted to tell him the only reason he thought he was in was because my pixie allowed it. And if I knew Alice, then she would only allow what she wanted him to see, which in this case was two local caches of weapons.

The downside of that was the two caches held some intense weapons. I'd only heard Alice mention it to Edward over the radio, but I didn't know what those weapons were. I didn't know the details.

Carlisle stood, never even batting an eye when Kim pointed his handgun at him. "Relax, Kim. Since you're in, I'll give you what you want."

There was silence for a heartbeat or two, but Kim nodded, nudging his man out of the way.

Carlisle leaned down and kissed the top of my head, whispering, "Sweetheart, you get to my son, and you end this shit."

I nodded and leaned into his kiss. "Do you want my earpiece, Carlisle?" I asked before he stepped away, but he shook his head, muttering something about "fucking trust" and that I needed it.

I pretended to fidget with my restraints and my pants, but I glanced over at Cho and Seong. Both had been pretty quiet most of the time. They were scared, but they also knew that this was way more dangerous than anticipated. Cho was watching Carlisle with worry and curiosity. However, Seong's eyes were on Kim.

I turned back to Carlisle because I needed to be ready for whatever he was about to do. The hacker stood up from the chair, picking up his weapon, and Carlisle took a seat. He held up his hands, silently asking about the zip tie around his wrists, but Kim scoffed, waving him on.

Carlisle typed into the computer, giving me a brief yet harsh glare before going back to the screen. I knew my father-in-law was getting older, and I knew that he was a clever man, but even I was slow on the uptake when his hands shifted just slightly to the edge of his desk. He'd had a .45 there all along. Whether it was beneath the desktop or along the side, I didn't know. But when he moved, it was with wicked speed and even better aim. The hacker, who had backed away from the desk, chose not to pay attention, and Carlisle exploited that, pulling the trigger once.

The shot was directly in the middle of the unfortunate hacker's forehead, and he never made a sound as the impact caused him to fall back and out of the open window.

I was running, catching the weapon that Carlisle was throwing my way, and into the bathroom with the door locked before Kim could react, tucking the weapon into the waistband of my pants.

I heard banging and yelling, but I was up on the vanity, pushing a ceiling tile aside, and doing my damnedest to pull myself up and out of that bathroom using the air vent and the water pipes. Suddenly, I was very grateful I stayed in shape. I slipped the tile back once I got my footing, gazing around to figure out the best way to get the fuck into the secret stairway. The sound of gunfire met my ears as I followed the pipes the best I could, finally dropping down into the hallway just outside Angela's office doors through another ceiling tile.

"Bella made a run for it! And another guard just fell out the window!" Alice called over the radio, but I was too busy staying quiet and moving fast to answer anyone, especially Edward, who was next to sound out.

"Sweetness? Baby, what happened? Talk to me!" he crooned, but he was going to have to wait just a few. Alice started to explain while I couldn't.

The only way into the secret stairway on the top floor was through the penthouse, so I needed to get my ass down to the next floor, where there was another entrance. At full speed, I ran as quietly and quickly as I could to the stairs by the elevators. Peeking through the window, I saw it was empty and took my chance. The sound of doors slamming above me and below me made me freeze for just a moment, peering over the railing and down through the stairwell. There was company coming from several floors below, but the one above me was moving fast. I leaped down to the next landing, ripped open the door, and ran down the hall at top speed. There was a supply closet at the end of the corridor. That was my goal – the entrance to the secret stairwell – and I was in the closet and through the hidden door just as I heard calls from behind me.

I didn't stop, but I did press my commlink. "Edward, come in."

"Sweetness? Thank fuck! What the fuck happened?"

"I'm in the walls. I'll explain later, but I'm armed and coming down."

"Roger that, love. What's your location?"

"Sixty-eight and counting."

"That's my girl," he praised, and I grinned a little as I kept going. "We'll watch for you. You aren't alone in here, so don't shoot me, baby."

I giggled breathlessly. "I would never!"

His chuckle was deep and sexy and beautiful – and, if I had to guess, a touch relieved, too. "I may deserve it sometimes, but not today."

"Everyone, on me," Eleazar stated over the radio. "We're approaching the forty-fifth floor. We've got movement. Alice, do you have visual on these few floors under construction?"

"Yes, yes, yes," she chanted. "Each main stairway door has guards. Each floor has several men moving about. I can't see what they're doing. The cameras aren't catching everything; they're just catching the main corridors and larger offices."

"Roger that. We either clear it or go by them in dark silence," Eleazar offered up.

"El, that's three floors of fuckery," Alice countered. "You'd have to take each one from the stairs and have Edward's team sandwich them between you. Honestly, you could shoot each other."

"Copy that," he replied.

"Alice, what's their vision like? Are they lighted? Or in the dark?"

"I see flashlights, some phones being used, but they're dark for most of it."

"I have NVGs, El. We could clean it," Edward suggested.

"Roger that, Edward. Stand by for my say," Eleazar requested softly. "In fact, hold your position for a minute." He called over the radio to his people, but I didn't pay much attention to what he was saying.

I kept going, and I was moving as quickly and quietly as my feet could carry me. Down, around, and down again. Over and over. I was almost dizzy and light-headed with each spin, but I wanted away from Carlisle's office. It didn't help that I was hungry. I hadn't eaten a damn thing since Edward's huge breakfast at dawn this morning.

The closer I got to where Edward was, the faster I willed my feet to move. The secret stairs were dark, but my eyes had adjusted quickly. I started to lose track of what floor I was on until shuffling and whispers came from below me. Without thinking, I pulled my gun, but it was the low growls that morphed into whines that made me come to a standstill.

Lock and Load appeared out of the darkness below me, and I heard someone call for them, but they were on me with whimpers and licks and wagging fluffy tails before I could say a word.

I stood up when I heard heavy boots, finally dissolving into tears at the sight of him. "Edward," I breathed with relief and exhaustion and need.

"Oh, thank fuck," he groaned, practically catching me from the few steps above him. He set me down onto the step, kneeling in front of me and cupping my face. "You hurt? You okay? Hey, Bella, it's okay."

"Edward, please," I begged, holding out my still-bound hands that were gripping Carlisle's gun. "Get it off, get it off… Please…"

Edward barely batted an eye, reaching down to his boot to pull his knife out. "Close your eyes, love," he whispered, and I did as he said because he knew me so well.

Immediately, my hands were free. Someone relieved me of my weapon, but I was lifted and finally in the safest, strongest arms I'd ever known. I heard whispers from around us and calls over the radio, but at that moment nothing mattered but the feel of Edward. He was strength and comfort and love and all the things I needed to feel right then. I wound my arms around his neck, and he lifted me up. My legs locked around his waist, and I clung to him, still shaky and breathless from my escape, but he felt so good.

~o~H&E~o~

EDWARD

Something in my chest healed at the feel of my wife in my arms. Something that had been aching since I woke up on the sidewalk down at the lobby of my dad's building with my Bella seventy stories above me finally let loose with relief.

I buried my face into the crook of her neck, breathing deep as she wound around me and clung to me like a second skin. She was shaky and tired, but she was the very best thing I'd fucking seen all damn day.

"I-I've n-never b-been s-so g-glad t-to s-see y-you," I sputtered in her ear. "Fuck, I've come damned close to losing my fucking mind all goddamn day!"

Bella's giggle made me smile, and when I pulled away from her neck, I smirked at her smiling face but then kissed the ever-loving shit out of her. Pressing my forehead to hers, I just reveled in the feel of her in my arms again.

"What happened, baby?" I asked her.

"Your dad lost his patience," she replied, still breathless from her escape, so I set her down on the steps, kneeling in front of her. "He had a weapon stashed, and when he offered to hand over the locations of the weapons, he ended up shooting Kim's computer guy. He threw the gun at me so I could get away." She locked gazes with me. "He knew you needed me. He told me to get to you and 'end this.'"

I let out a long, slow sigh, cupping her face and kissing her forehead. "That sounds like him."

I smirked at her soft laugh, lifting her hands and inspecting those wrists. Her sweet skin looked red and angry, but there were no cuts or blood, for which I was very grateful. However, I couldn't stop myself from pressing kisses – each wrist, inside and top.

A bottle of water appeared over my shoulder, and I thanked Emmett, giving it to Bella. Her stomach growled, causing some chuckles, but it swiftly turned to anger because we knew she'd been stuck up there without any food.

"Here, sweetness," I said, sitting next to her and reaching into my bag for some of the snacks Bethy had packed. I handed over a pack of Pop Tarts, saying, "Compliments of our daughter."

Alec laughed at her confused expression, and he knelt in front of her, telling her all about our little "mini-mercenaries," with their bags of ammo, food, and their bravery. Bella's grin but watery eyes said it all – she was ridiculously proud of Sammy and Bethy.

Jasper was next, handing her my dad's gun back, along with clips of ammo, another gun just in case, and a silencer, too. When Bella finished eating one Pop Tart and saw Dean and Mickey toward the back, she jumped up to hug them both. And even Felix wrapped her up in a bear hug.

I leaned against the wall, feeling all the puzzle pieces falling back into place now that my team was perfect and complete again. Nothing worked right without my Bella. She just made us better.

I crooked my finger at my wife. "Ready?" I asked, pressing the commlink in my ear when she nodded. "Bethy, come in."

Bella gasped, but I pressed a finger gently to her lips.

"Hey, Daddy!" my smart girl answered. "You know, you'd owe the swear jar an awful lot of money."

We all cracked up, trying to keep quiet. Emmett puffed up with pride.

"I think I told you that the rules were broken today, little sweetness," I reminded her.

"Oh, I know. I was just sayin'."

"That's right, pretty girl. You tell him," Bella finally replied over the radio.

Bethy gasped. "Mom, are you with him!?"

"Yeah, baby." Bella leaned into the kiss I pressed to her head and the arm I wrapped around her shoulders.

"Yay!" she cheered and then told everyone she was with that Mom was with her dad. "What about Poppy?"

"Not yet, but we'll get there. He helped me get away, though."

"Okay."

"Bethy, baby… Where are you?" Bella asked, but she looked to me for the answer.

"In the building next to Poppy's. I'm with Gamma, Abby, Sammy, and Caleb. Daddy has two soldiers guarding us. Sweeney and Hobbs. We found a deck of cards, so Sammy is winning Go Fish right now against Sweeney."

Grinning, I shook my head. "Okay, little sweetness. We'll check in soon. Promise."

"Okay, love you. Be safe!"

Bella and I said the same, but my wife looked to me for an explanation as to why our daughter was wearing a commlink.

"She's been listening all damn day, sweetness. I couldn't stop her, but I think she needed it. I think she just wanted to hear us." I gestured around to everyone. "After a while, I just liked being able to talk to her." I shrugged a shoulder, but everyone nodded. They'd been hearing her the whole time. "Listen, it was all I could do to keep her from flying us off the roof."

Bella laughed, shaking her head. "You know, we joked about her once… We've created a monster. She'll run the world one day."

"Hell yeah, she will," I grunted in pride, nodding once firmly.

"Guys, guys, guys?" Alice called over the radio. "Umm, I may know what they're doing on those three floors."

"Go ahead, Alice," Eleazar said softly.

"I think they're setting explosives."

We all froze, letting that sink in for a second.

I shook my head to clear it. "Say again?"

"I saw on the security feed one or two guys walking with what looked like bundles of TNT. Another had a spool of wire."

"Mother fuck me," I sighed, looking to Emmett, who stood up straighter.

"Get me in, and I'll take it apart, but we'll have to be fucking careful taking these guys out. One stray bullet, and we're all toast," he stated, but he said it so that El could hear him too. "And if they're setting it on the main supports, then the top half of this building will collapse."

All thoughts of celebration at having Bella back with us went away like a puff of smoke. Instantly, we were all alert, strapping down our weapons and getting ready to do whatever it was we needed to do.

Alec stepped forward, gripping Emmett's shoulder. "I have an idea before we move in on these assholes. Em, get that drone ready. Let's go back down to the forty-fourth floor. I think we'll have to break a window, but we'll beg Carlisle for forgiveness later."

"Better a window than thirty floors and his home," Bella muttered wryly, rolling her eyes.

"Ahh, yeah, it's good to have her back," Jasper sang, rubbing his hands together. "C'mon… Down we go. Let's see what these motherfuckers are up to."

"El, you catch that?" I asked.

"Ten-four, we'll meet you there."

The forty-fourth floor housed a law firm and an accountant's office. It was seemingly untouched when we stepped out of a small breakroom and out into the main corridor. We met Eleazar's team as we worked our way toward the north side of the building. Once the windows were in sight, we went dark per Eleazar's request.

"We've cleared the buildings on the east and west side, but there may be enemies in the building to the north. It wasn't a concern, simply because it faces the backside of Twi Tech, with no visual on Carlisle's office," he explained, stepping slowly to the back window in some lawyer's office. "If we stay dark here, they won't see us."

Emmett and I moved the desk out of the way. Alec walked to the window, securing his silencer to the end of his gun, aiming at the bottom corner of the glass. The pane spider-webbed, and with a few harsh hits from the butt of a rifle, the glass gave way, shattering to the sidewalk below.

Everyone stilled, giving a moment to see if the movement caught anyone's attention. Jasper shifted to the window in the next office over, using his NVGs to study the windows across the street.

"Ten seconds, please," he said, humming to himself. "They're dark, too."

"Roger that," I whispered, unable to stop myself from checking on Bella. She was finishing off the last Pop Tart, which made me smile, but when she caught sight of the drone, she raised an eyebrow up. "Yes, love. That's Sammy's." I grinned, shaking my head. "He offered it up. Emmett took it. Promised him the one at Gravity should something happen to this one."

Bella chuckled, nodding a little when Emmett ruffled her hair on the way by. "That's a fair offer," she stated, brushing off her hands and walking to the open window as Emmett set the drone down.

"All right," he said through a heavy sigh, pulling out the smartphone that controlled it. "Let's see what these assholes are up to, shall we?"

We gathered around him when the drone whirred softly into life. The screen switched from the regular camera to the night vision. He lifted it off the carpet and slowly sent it out the window.

"FYI, Em…" Rose started over the radio. "Alice wants me to remind you that the drone probably won't go much farther than the floor above you. The signal will weaken."

"Ten-four, babe," he called back softly, his face intense as he turned the drone to face the building.

Through the camera, the side of Twi Tech drifted by – glass, stone, metal, and more glass. The next floor was a flurry of activity, not to mention easy to catch movement due to being under construction. No walls, no offices, no silly-ass cubicles to get in the way, just equipment, stacks of supplies, and bare concrete floors.

"All right, someone talk to me. Where does the secret stairs let out?" Eleazar asked from the other side of Emmett.

"Here," I said, pointing to the screen in the far back corner.

"And we've got how many men?"

"Looks like a dozen or so, not counting the two guards at the main stairs," Emmett replied, sending the drone slowly and stealthily across the window to see as much as he could. "Actually, if you both go in dark, then you could remove the ones at the stairs and take out all these fuckers in between. But we'd have to watch for friendly fire."

Glancing across to El, I asked, "Knives and silencers?"

"And keep your bullets from there," Emmett stated, zooming the camera on the main support beams in the middle of the open area. "Look at that shit," he sang low, giving a soft whistle as he shook his head. "And look at that… The wires all come in from above, which means this first floor is the detonating floor. I stop this here, and it disables all of it."

He was studying the setup as I turned to face everyone. "My team, we'll go in silent and dark. Alec and I lead, using NVGs, and we clear the floor to let Emmett do his thing."

Bella nodded, slipping down from the edge of the desk she'd been sitting on, spinning a silencer to the end of one of her guns. Jasper appeared at the door, and Dean and Mickey readied their own weapons. Emmett secured the drone back in the bag across his shoulder.

"My team, we'll come in the main stairway, both doors. I want the two guards gone and vanished in one movement," El commanded.

"Sir."

I turned to Jasper. "As soon as we're clear, I want you watching the north. Silent is one thing, but gun flashes will draw attention, especially when they don't get an answer back."

"Roger that," he grunted, attaching his own silencer to his handgun.

Bella found a pencil to pull her hair back and keep it out of her way, and I smiled, pressing a kiss to the middle of her forehead.

"Edward, Edward, Edward!" Alice called over the radio. "Kim now has the locations to those weapons. Carlisle gave them up. He'll want to move soon."

"He'll want to move and then blow this fucking building, you mean," I verified.

"Yeah, probably," she said with a weary tone.

"Alice, get those addresses to Ben," Eleazar stated as we walked back through the law office to where we'd all come in. "Have him send two teams ahead of us. Tell him I said to get there and settle in."

"Okay, gotcha."

"Bomb first and then top floor?" Bella asked, glancing between El and me.

"Welcome to my day, sweetness." My voice was pure sarcasm. "All fucking day, two steps forward to you and then one motherfucker back." I rolled my eyes at her soft giggle, but when she grabbed either side of my face gently to kiss my lips, I let out a long sigh.

"Just making sure, Edward," she whispered, smirking at the chuckles over the radio as they all started toward their appointed stairways.

"Yeah, love. Bomb first and then top floor." My gaze raked over her face, making sure she was okay to continue, but my girl was on point and fierce when she nodded my way.

"Okay, then on you, baby."

~o~H&E~o~

A/N… Ahhhh… Reunited. I know everyone was ready for that, but Poppy is still up there with Kim. Not to mention, there are a few floors between them.

Okay, so I think that's it for this week. I will see you guys next week. Thursday for the teaser, and Sunday for the update. Until then… Mooches, Deb ;)