A/N… Better late than never… See me at the bottom please for info. When we left the Gravity crew, they were taking off in Edward's helicopter from the roof of Twi Tech. I'll let you get to it.

~o~H&E~o~

Chapter 15

BELLA

"Apache team leader, do not engage unless fired upon," Eleazar commanded softly over the radio. "Shadow only."

The call back was an affirmative, but I was studying Edward's phone, my eyes narrowing at the strange winding route Kim's chopper was taking.

"I think…" Edward started, glancing over to me as we were following the Apache team. "Sweetness, I think we should get Esme and the kids out of the city. Maybe a safe house?"

My gaze shot up from the phone's screen to study his face. Even though the kids were in the safety of the military, that wouldn't be good enough for Edward. And we weren't quite sure how many more men Kim had out there.

"Trinity? Or Aunt Kate's?" I asked, not sure how far I wanted the kids away from me, but at the same time, getting them away from all this shit wasn't a bad idea.

Trinity was the mountain cabin safe house where Edward and I had fallen in love. It had been his mother's cabin. Hell, it was where my girls and Edward's crew finally meshed into the unstoppable team we now were. It was in the middle of nowhere, and we hadn't used it since the beginning. However, Aunt Kate's was a fortress. It was sealed and probably the safest house on the planet since it was surrounded by the Denali preserve. It was also as connected and online as the Gravity office.

The mention of Trinity had Edward's eyes meeting mine for a heartbeat or two, and a small smile twitched the corners of his mouth. The green in his eyes was so intense, highlighted by the chopper's control panel. I cracked a smile, shaking my head, and even a small giggle escaped me.

"Well, love, I was thinking Aunt Kate's," he said with a chuckle. "But now…"

"It's probably the safer place, not to mention the kids are familiar with it. They won't be with Trinity. And really, if we went there, I'd rather be with them."

"Okay, so that conversation is for another day, because I think that would an awesome fucking trip." He grinned as I laughed, but I went back to the phone screen as he switched over to the radio. "Emmett, come in."

"Seriously? You fuckers just left my ass?" Emmett called back.

"It wasn't on purpose, asshole," Edward replied.

"Yeah, it was," Jasper teased, grinning at the laughter and giving Edward a fist bump from the back.

"Em, what's your status?"

"All explosives have been disabled and handed over to El's people. I'm making my way down to the ground floor. If I'm not mistaken, there's a team finally clearing the north building."

"Copy that. I want you to meet up with Alec. Once he's patched up and able to be moved, get him, Esme, and the kids to Aunt Kate's," Edward told him.

There was a pause. "Oh, damn, it's like that?" he asked carefully. "What about Gravity?"

The question was vague for anyone outside the team, but for us, he was asking about Rose and the girls. Were we truly evacuating everyone out of Washington?

"I'll get to Gravity, Em. You handle the baby bears," Edward vowed. "And check on Cho while you're down there. He took a bullet to the back."

"Ten-four, Ed. I'm on it now. And I'll let you know how many medics Alec has insulted."

Mickey cracked the fuck up, but she held up the phone she'd borrowed from Eleazar. "I let Obie know. He said Aunt Kate will be ready and waiting."

"Thanks, wild child." Edward said softly, but he glanced over to me. "Now, to tell the boss." He pressed the commlink. "Bethy, come in."

"Hey, Daddy," she answered him immediately. "Did I hear you take off?"

"You did, little sweetness. Did Uncle Alec make it to you guys okay?"

"Yes," she said with an adorable laugh. "Wow, he's pretty mad."

Edward grinned. "Yeah? Well, with him, you can go ahead and start adding up the swear jar."

Bethy's laugh was evil and wicked, not unlike my own, which made us all crack up, but all she said was, "Sure, Dad. Got it. I'll tell him you said so."

"Good girl," he praised her. "Listen, baby, once he's patched up and completely in swear jar debt, Uncle Em is gonna take you guys to Aunt Kate."

"What?! No! Daddy!"

Edward flinched because that sound, that pleading heartbreak, was my husband's kryptonite. He couldn't bear to tell her no when all she wanted was him. Sammy either. He could deny them toys, pets, junk food, and all the things in between, but if they called for him, if they wanted or needed him, Edward would stop everything to give them his time, his ear, his heart. He'd been that way since they were both babies. My Edward was a dichotomy of hard and soft, of warm and cold, of strict and easygoing. He'd delivered death all fucking day, but his little girl was wearing away at his resolve.

"Bethy," I called, giving Edward's leg a squeeze. "I need you to listen to me. It's very important that you guys go to Aunt Kate's. When this is done, we'll come to you guys."

"Aw, Mom," Bethy sighed and then launched into a million questions. "What about our stuff? How long will you be? Haven't you guys caught all the bad guys yet?"

"Bethy, you'll have 'stuff.' And I don't know how long we'll be, but we still have more bad guys to catch. There are more around, and you guys will be safer at Aunt Kate's. Now…let me talk to Sammy," I answered, smirking at the sigh and unseen but undoubtedly heavy eyeroll I was probably receiving on the other end.

"'Kay," she huffed, and then she added a mumbled, "It's Mom."

"Hey, Mom," he said softly over the commlink. "Is Dad with you?"

"Hey, buddy. I'm here," Edward answered.

"Is it true? We gotta go to Aunt Kate's without you?" he asked us.

"I'm afraid so, handsome," I soothed him, but my son was way different than my daughter. My Sammy needed to be pointed in the right direction. He needed something to do while he waited and worried. "I need you to help me out when you get there, buddy."

"With what?"

"Once you've loved on Aunt Kate, go in and open up the computer room for me. Turn it all on. IGOR, too. And make sure you put the computer on that shows where we are. Can you do that for me, Sammy?"

Samuel was my computer tech wannabe. He loved gadgets and computers, and Alice was constantly teaching him something new. So I knew this would give him something to do.

Sammy was quiet for a moment, but his answer was his usual soft, slow, "Yeah."

"Thanks, buddy," I told him. "Love you."

"Love you guys, too. Be safe."

I sighed, letting my head fall back to the headrest behind me, and I glanced out the side window for a moment before going back to Edward's phone. My brow furrowed a little.

"Why are we winding all over the city?" I asked no one in particular but looked up at the heavy-duty military choppers we were tailing. "It feels like we're being led into…"

I was going to say the word trap, but a bright light flared up in the night, coming from a rooftop. The blaze trailed behind it with a fiery trail, and not only did it aim for one of the Apaches, it actually curved to follow it.

"Fuck! Stingers!" Edward hissed, veering off to the right a little in order to avoid the scattering of military choppers. "Everyone strap in and hold on!" he ordered as one of the military helicopters burst into flame.

"Are you sure?" Jasper asked, leaning forward to the window a little. "Fuck, Ed. We don't have flares to knock them off track!"

"I know, I know!" Edward growled, pointing out the front. "But they do."

Just as he pointed, one of the choppers pulled up and off to the left, sending out what looked to be a dozen flares out the tail of the helicopter. The second rocket went for the flares instead, exploding over what looked like a bank.

Edward glanced my way for a split second. "Stingers are smart rockets. They're heat-seeking once they've been aimed and launched at their target. Flares are the only thing, besides shooting them out of the sky or trying to outmaneuver them, to set them off their course."

"Fantastic," I whispered to myself as evasive moves continued with all of us in the air.

"Well, fuck me," Mickey grunted, reaching for the side door to slide it open. "It's just like old times, pretty boy."

"Without all the goddamn sand," Jasper muttered, nodding in agreement and opening the other door. "You fly, Ed. We'll watch the rooftops."

I looked to Edward, who was maneuvering the best he could to avoid everyone else in the air as well as the shit aimed our way. Eleazar was arguing with someone over the radio about retaliation on the roofs, but he wasn't getting anywhere. Whoever was higher than him was telling him not to destroy every building in Seattle. Another argument was to not fire upon Kim's helicopter.

Jasper settled down on the floor, strapping himself in as best he could, and Mickey did the same. Both aimed their weapons out the open doors toward the tops of the buildings.

"Alice, come in," I called her.

"You guys don't have the fuel for this fuckery!" she chastised, but she was right, apparently, because Edward merely nodded.

"Okay, noted, pixie, but I need you for something else. I need thermal readings on the tops of these buildings. We need to know where they are."

"Right, right, right. Good thinking. Hold please."

I was sure I could hear her typing above the chaos around me.

"Jesus, they'll run out of flares before we can get this asshole out of the city," Edward muttered, and I wasn't sure it was to anyone in particular.

"Okay, I'm up!" Alice stated, still typing. "Let's see. We've got a concentration of warm bodies on the buildings around Twi Tech. We've got a few scattered for the next several blocks; those go for about a six-block radius. But he's taking you toward the water, so…" She trailed off for a moment. "Everyone, on me. You've got one on a tall, fancy apartment building coming up on your left."

"That's me," Jasper stated, readying his sniper. "Ed, level out, slow down."

"Roger that," Edward replied, gently turning the chopper to face the building.

We all leaned over to look. Stepping up to the edge of the building was a single guy and what looked to me like a rocket launcher, but Edward called out the word stinger again.

I pulled up binoculars to see the guy better. His aim was just beyond Kim's chopper. However, he switched his direction straight for us.

"Jasper…" I warned.

"I know! I see him." Jasper called back, but he held his aim steady. "This is gonna hurt," he said softly.

When Jasper pulled the trigger, it took a blink or two to register. The shot couldn't have been more perfect, and through the binoculars, the explosion was massive and bright. He'd not only hit his target, but he'd caught the man's weapon. The rocket and all the ammo around the guy blew all at once. The rooftop of what I knew to be a very expensive, very posh apartment building incinerated, causing all the windows on the top floor and the building beside it to shatter.

"And that's why the military aren't allowed to fire back," Mickey sang. "Ain't that a bitch."

Edward grinned, shaking his head. "Alice, any more out here?"

"Yes, but you need to change your course," she answered him. "Leave them, Edward. You're gonna run out of fuel and time if you aren't careful. I assume you want to beat them to the cache location?"

"Aw, Alice, you know what they say about assuming," Edward teased her.

"I do, but that usually doesn't apply to me."

I laughed, giving Edward a brief glance. "She's kinda right."

Edward chuckled, shrugging a shoulder. "Yeah, she usually is. Roger that, pixie. Please send the coordinates to the warehouse."

"Already done. And that's the location where Ben's team is, by the way."

"El, you better let him know we're comin'." Edward tossed a glance back to Eleazar, who nodded.

Eleazar called Ben to let him know we were inbound, but he also told Ben to secure the second location and to remove the weapon, hide it. The second one was the EMP, I knew that much, but I wasn't sure what the first cache held.

"What's at this warehouse?" I asked, glancing around the chopper as Jasper and Mickey closed the side doors and took their seats back.

"Thermobaric bombs," Edward answered. "Six, to be exact."

"Oh, shit," I said through a deep sigh. "We really need to talk to your dad about his hoarding of my dad's bullshit."

Edward chuckled, reaching over to cup my face as he leveled out over the water, leaving the military and Kim behind.

"You do that, sweetness. I've got your back," he said, running a thumb seductively across my bottom lip. "Once we get him, you give him hell, baby."

~o~H&E~o~

EDWARD

"Edward, your best bet is to come home to fuel up. Or take cars from here." Alice's voice was calm but firm.

"Ten-four, Alice. Just keep watch on Dad's GPS, please."

"Actually, heading back to Gravity may not be a bad idea," Jasper stated. "We can load up on weapons and ammo…and oh-my-fucking-hell, can we eat something!?"

I grinned, glancing over to Bella, whose lips twitched a little at that proclamation from him, but her eyes were intently watching the phone in her hands. She then gazed unseeingly out the window, shaking her head a little.

"Sweetness?"

She shook her head again and sighed, narrowing her eyes on me. "Your dad has a mole. He has to have had one in order for this to succeed as far as it did. This was years of planning, months of setting up, and someone on the inside to allow it. Something about that is bugging me." She met my gaze again. "Your dad said to let it go for now, but I can't. It's not how I work. I think if… Maybe if we figure out the traitor, we'll get a better idea as to how to stop this guy." She held up the phone. "He'll head into Canada in order to get us off his trail, but still…"

"She's right about that much," Eleazar agreed. "They just left US air space."

"My first guess would've been Jacob." Mickey's voice was filled with sarcasm. "I've never seen a grown man puss out so badly."

I snorted, shaking my head. "As much as I'd like any fucking excuse to put a bullet in his head, I don't think it's Jake."

"It's not. It's Seong," Dean's voice was soft and tentative. "I think she sold her father out."

Bella's head spun to look at him. "So I wasn't crazy."

"No, I don't think so."

She sat facing forward again. "Alice, how long was the chopper camera running when we got to the roof?"

"A few minutes."

Bella rubbed her temple, letting out a deep sigh. "And we have footage from the get-go inside Carlisle's office, right?"

"Definitely."

The next voice to come over the radio was Mack. "Bellsy, you want me to take a look? Want me to watch her? I can put together some footage."

Bella was nodding before she verbally gave the go-ahead, and she gazed over to me. "It has to be more than Seong, though. There's more to it. Someone here let them in, let them get a foot in the door." She studied my phone again, finally adding, "Girls, let's look into floors forty-five through forty-seven. Find out who is remodeling, who's paying for it, and who would've been moving in. I want to know everything about those three floors. Let's start there. We'll work our way from that point."

"I'll take that part," Rose stated. "What's your ETA?"

"A few minutes," I replied, glancing down at the trees below.

Something seemed wrong landing at home without the kids. I knew we weren't staying long, just enough time to grab a bite to eat, load up on ammo, and plan. Those bombs could not end up in the hands of Kim Min-Jun. No more than the nukes couldn't end up in their possession. And that EMP was a dangerous motherfucker. One of those could send us all back to the Stone Age without communication or electricity.

Bella wanted to chastise my father for holding on to weapons Charlie had stored away, but the reality was that if he hadn't squirreled them away, where would they have ended up? Gathering dust in a warehouse in the middle of the Olympic forest was better than destroying small villages in the deserts or jungles. It was better they sat unused and forgotten than sold to kill women and children. Best case scenario was that we could have them disassembled and destroyed.

I shook my head as I landed in my own yard. Giving Eleazar a glance, I said, "I know we need to keep moving, but my crew has been up and running since the sun came up, with no food or break. We're taking a few minutes."

"No, no… Fair enough." He nodded, checking in with Ben at the bomb location.

"Alice, bring a laptop with you, but everyone in the office needs to come inside the house," Bella stated over the radio and smiled when the three girls exited Gravity.

Alice, Mack, and Rose all hugged Bella. The former with not one but two trusty laptops under her arm. She walked to Jasper, and they spoke quietly and intimately, with sweet smiles and nods.

Rose walked to me, giving me a hug. "Emmett checked in with me. I chartered a private plane to get them to Anchorage. They're already in the air. Esme, the kids, the dogs… They're all fine. And Alec is patched up and on crutches. Cho, however, is hanging by a thread. He was rushed into surgery. The bullet to his back did some extensive damage to his lungs and shattered a rib or two. He lost a lot blood in the process. So… They've moved him to a military hospital to keep him under guard."

"Got it. Thank you," I told her sincerely.

"And don't you fucking dare think about cooking for all these people. Once you decided to come here to fuel up or whatever, I ordered a shit-ton of pizza. It was easier than anything else I could come up with here in Forks. It's already inside."

Grinning, I nodded. "Thanks. That's fucking perfect."

Bella was already opening the front door when I made my way across the yard. Everyone piled in behind her, walking straight to the kitchen to grab a slice. Rose had thought ahead, for sure, because not only was there plenty of pizza, but she'd brewed a pot of coffee and set out soda and waters. However, Bella wasn't there.

Walking down the hall, I found her in our bedroom just coming out of the bathroom.

"C'mere," I said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I know you're starving, but I wanted to see you for a second."

Bella walked to me, and I reached out to pull her between my legs. I inspected those wrists again, making sure the angry red had dissipated, and it had. I couldn't bear to see marks on her skin. She had enough fucking scars, as far as I was concerned.

"Y-You're… Y-You… I-I j-just w-wanted t-to ch-check o-on y-you," I whispered against her palm, gazing up at her.

She smiled, cupping my face and bringing me in for a soft, short kiss. "I'm fine, Edward."

Nodding that I heard her, I kissed her again. "I know you are. I just… Bella, you sent a man down seventy stories because he put a hand on your shoulder. I'm merely making sure that you're not covering up the panic. Okay? I can't help it." I huffed a heavy sigh through my nose, finally unleashing my stress. "All fucking day, sweetness. All day, all I wanted was to get back up there to you, to Dad. But everything else had to happen before I could do that. I've never had to put you last before. I fucking hated it, but it was necessary."

Bella chuckled a little. "Hey," she whispered, reaching up to take off my hat and rake her fingers through my hair. "I'm okay. I'd tell you if I wasn't." When I opened my mouth to argue, she kissed me soundly. "I'm not saying I didn't snap, Edward. I'm saying I'm okay now. For the most part, I kept you in mind. I channeled the Edward-Cullen-go-fuck-yourself type of attitude."

Grinning, I shook my head. "That's my girl," I sang, giving in to the need to touch her and pulling her to my lap.

"And you didn't put me last, Edward. I never once felt last."

I wrinkled my nose but only nodded.

"Everyone had shit to do, baby. And there were steps to take to get it all done…even getting to me."

"I-I k-kinda t-told th-the k-kids th-the s-same th-thing." I kissed her when she hummed against my lips. "You were restrained, sweetness. I just… I could just imagine how hard that was for you."

"Shh," she breathed against my cheek. "I was, but it was only my wrists. It wasn't my feet. I was never bound to a table or chair. I was able to go to the bathroom, drink water…all that. I wasn't tortured, Edward. It was difficult, but the only time I panicked was when I realized you were out there tearing through Kim's men, and if he knew the handsome man in the frames on Carlisle's desk was the same one slowly tearing apart his plan, then he'd use me, use Carlisle, to draw you out. I couldn't let that happen, and then that guard touched me." She shrugged.

"Ah, so that was what caught your attention. We weren't sure." I held her closer, burying my face in her neck and breathing deep.

She giggled a little, straddling my lap and pulling my face away so she could see me. "Honestly, I zoned out a bit to stay sane. I kept playing our game of hide and seek in my head in order to find that happy place."

"Mmm, that was a good day," I hummed, going back to her neck and giving her a kiss just below her ear. "That conference table was sturdier than I'd expected. Kudos to the carpenter."

Bella's laugh was sexy and soft. "I think it wobbled a bit when we were done. Had you made that table…"

Laughing, I pulled back to kiss her lips again. "I love you, sweetness. I know we need to get moving, I just… I-I c-can't n-not ch-check o-on y-you. Understand?"

"I love you, too, Edward, but if you stutter one more time, we're not leaving this bedroom. And that would be bad," she said, slipping gracefully off my lap and rolling her eyes at my salacious grin as I pulled my cap back on. "Let's eat, and then we'll talk about the next step."

We walked back into the kitchen hand in hand, running into a wall of loud voices.

"Oh my God, Bella, you're right!" Mack gushed, spinning the laptop in front of her around. "Seong… She's… Fuck, I think she's with Kim. Like in love with him."

Bella grabbed a couple slices of pizza on a paper plate, and I followed suit. We both sat down at the table with Mack and Alice.

"Well, she's a damned good actress if that's the case," Bella mumbled around her water bottle. "Because at one point, he had a gun to her face, and she was completely losing it."

"Then give the girl an Oscar, because watch this shit. This is from the chopper camera on the roof. Carlisle places himself between all the bullshit and Seong, but look…"

Mack played the footage from Twi Tech's rooftop. The camera came online just as Eleazar's and my teams split up and surrounded Kim's men at the north side of the building. I saw what Mack was trying to explain when my father surreptitiously pulled Seong behind him. She didn't seem nervous or worried. In fact, her eyes were on Kim, who had her father in his grip as he and I had exchanged words. When the shot to Cho's back was fired, there was a flicker, a momentary hint of a smile that crossed her face as she was forced into the helicopter.

"She's so young," I countered. "That would mean…" I frowned at that. The girl was essentially a senior in high school – or she would've been had she been in the US. "I thought her record, her history came up clean."

"And it would have," Alice agreed with a nod. "It's quite possible Kim is using her – her age, her innocence, her obvious disdain for her father – for what he wants. It's cruel, but it's not unheard of."

I sighed deeply, shaking my head. "Which makes my dad…the only fucking hostage."

That brought the room up short. Everyone went quiet for a heartbeat or two.

"But they need him," El's voice was soft, but he was obviously thinking aloud. "They need him alive. He's the key to what they want. Me. Or really me getting the US out of the DMZ, which will never happen. They need Carlisle for the weapons Benny is babysitting right now."

Bella hummed and nodded, but her eyes were on the computer screen as she studied Seong. She glanced over the table, her gaze finally landing on me.

"What'cha thinkin', sweetness?" I asked her, reaching up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. Honestly, the fact that I could reach out and touch her was soothing after having worried all goddamn day.

"How big are those bombs? That EMP thing? I mean physical size."

Alice typed quickly, spinning her laptop around. "As long as the bed of a pickup truck, the bombs. The EMP is like the size of your desk in the office."

Bella nodded, getting up to take another slice of pizza. "And where's Carlisle's GPS location now?"

"Currently stationary in Canada."

"They stopped to eat, too," Jasper guessed, shoving half a slice into his mouth. "I'd bet on that shit."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Eat, refuel, possibly grab more men or ammo."

Everyone nodded, but I looked to Bella. "You're thinking of taking them. Putting everything they want into hiding in trade for Dad."

"Mmhmm," Bella hummed, nodding once. "Yeah, like Russia."

"That's a dangerous game, especially if you actually make the trade," Mickey pointed out. "You're handing these assholes some seriously heavy shit."

"I know," Bella agreed, starting to pace in the kitchen. "What if… What if we lead them into a trap? We could lead them to a place we know like the back of our hand?"

"Where? Here?" Rose asked, frowning at the possibility.

"No! Never here." Bella looked to me. "What if we hid those things in Trinity?"

"The mountain cabin?" I asked, my brow wrinkling as I thought it over. "We'd publicly out a safe house, but we'd have the woods to our advantage. We also know that property is already wired for us – lighting, motion sensors, and lookout spots. It's stood vacant for a few years. Dad went to check on it not long ago, but otherwise, there may be issues we'd have to address."

I was thinking out loud, and they knew it. They let me ramble. I stood up from the table to get another slice of pizza.

Bella walked to me, speaking softly. "We have one of their radios," she stated, pointing to Dean, who tapped the device in front of him. "We could take what they want, offer up a trade, and lead them into a trap."

"Sweetness, if you wanted to go back to Trinity so badly, you shoulda just said somethin'." I was teasing her, and she knew it. "But this may be our only shot to end this. Bring them to us."

"Exactly."

I looked to Eleazar. "What do you think?"

"It's a strong location," he stated. "The fact that they'll offer up Carlisle as trade is fact. We'll need to downplay the theory on Seong, though. We might need to assume he's using her, which means he'll kill her when he's done with her. We'll ask for them both. It'll buy us a day or two…maybe more. But if you want those weapons, I've got to tell Ben now, while Kim is nowhere near."

I looked to Bella and then the crew. "Pack it up. And pack up enough equipment for info. You guys are coming, too. I promised Emmett I'd get you out of here."

Rose nodded, standing up. "C'mon. Let's go lock down the office."

I turned to Eleazar. "Call Benny. Tell him to take it all, and we'll meet him. You might want to bring a few men in. I'm down Emmett and Alec."

Eleazar stood, pulling out his phone. "Roger that. We'll take it all."

~o~H&E~o~

A/N… So…they've decided to stand and fight, taking the two weapons Kim wants most. And they're going back to the mountain cabin… ;)

Okay… so update on me… I'm off all the meds, and detoxing, I think. I swear Prednisone is the devil. I'm breathing fine and back to work full steam. I'm also struggling with quitting smoking. And smoking and writing have gone hand in hand since the very beginning for me, but I'm trying to find a groove. That is some seriously hard shit to do. I want to thank everyone for their love and words.

Anyway… When I write a chapter, I'll post a chapter. I'm doing the best I can to keep it coming. Until next time… Mooches, Deb ;)