A/N: Thank you to everyone still hanging on and reading 3 I read your reviews and they mean the world to me!
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"Tell me about my parents." Bella sat herself across from Edward and leaned forward against her thighs. His eyes briefly flashed to hers before he looked back down at the newspaper in his hands.
"What do you want to know?" Keeping his voice low, so as to avoid being overheard.
Edward took a deep breath and folded the paper before leaning back against the leather chair positioned below their large living room windows. Bella watched the clouds move across the sky behind him.
"Your dad was a lot more involved than you think. He and Carlisle grew up together. Charlie always knew what my family did. My grandfather sent Carlisle overseas to carry out a hit and Charlie tagged along with him. It was before he had decided on the police academy and I guess he wanted to see if he had what it took to be made. They flew to Russia, where they met Esme and Renee; both of whom had different names at the time. Unfortunately, Esme was connected to the Bratva via a promise to the future head of a family.
"It didn't intimidate Carlisle; he went for her anyway. They had a whirlwind romance and Renee tagged along on their dates to keep suspicions low. Of course, they weren't able to keep it under wraps for long and within a week the family knew about it. As a result, Esme was set to be shipped off to a family home in some small town in Spain until her wedding night."
Sitting up in her chair and crossing her legs, she tried to process the information as her heart thumped hard against her chest. Her mother was connected to the Bratva? Her mother was Russian?
"What does any of that have to do with your grandfather though?"
"Well, as you can imagine he was not happy about this at all. Esme's driver was killed, the car sent over the edge of a cliff with two other bodies in the backseat. An effort to make it appear as if Esme and Renee died in the crash and our fathers flew back with them. However, one: they had brought Bratva women into our family. And two: had it been found out that it wasn't Esme and Renee, it'd start a war - a war he didn't want to be in. At that point, we had a positive working relationship with the Russians; everything Vincent had worked for would've gone up in flames. After a year or so of quiet, Vincent came around to the idea and they created a story for the sudden appearance of Esme, passed her off as Italian, and things moved forward.
"I don't think my grandfather was ever okay with the idea, but he pretended to be. Vincent was old school, only Italian blood in and out. He was present at the first gathering of The Commission for crying out loud. But, Carlisle was the underboss and Vincent didn't want it getting out and for a few years everything was fine."
"What's The Commission."
Sighing, Edward looks off in thought before taking a breath and replying.
"I'd describe it like the government of the mafia. Bosses from the Five Families, Chicago, and Buffalo outfits, make up what'd you think of as a board. Once the guy that Esme was supposed to marry had taken over, he started using his family connections to look into her death. Of course, they found that the bodies in the car weren't her or Renee and they immediately began searching throughout Europe for them believing they had gone into hiding.
"A few more years passed after that, Carlisle and Esme had some kids, your parents had you and plans were set forth for how all of this would work. What they didn't count on were the Russians realizing Carlisle was Vincent's child. During a meeting one of them recognized him from his time in Russia. The night your parents were murdered, Vincent had put out a contract for one million dollars."
"But…" Bella recalled the transfers that had been made which definitely didn't add up to a million. Edward held his hand up to silence her argument.
"The contract was made for your parents and mine. Carlisle and Esme clearly held the more weight and once they were all eliminated the person would get the full amount."
"He was going to kill his own son?" Bella asked in disbelief.
"I told you, he was very old school. Carlisle had broken the oath and had to be dealt with."
"But it had been years prior."
"It didn't matter. His choices were now coming to threaten the family. Of course, he never made it to Carlisle and Esme that night. My parents were supposed to be out with Charlie and Renee, but Esme ended up falling ill and they stayed home. He tried to break into my parent's property, but the guards were alerted and he ran off. They didn't know it was Aro that had come for them that night.
"When Carlisle heard what had happened to your parents he went on a rampage. Killing anyone who was thought to have anything to do with it. He threw his money behind finding out who ordered the hit. When he discovered it was my grandfather and that they had been named in the contract, he leaked a bunch of information to the police. They came and arrested him 48 hours later. Carlisle then paid off a cop to murder him. Once inside there's two things that can happen; you're either well taken care of or you're dealt with."
O...O
The sound of birds singing outside the window awoke Bella from her deep slumber. She stretched beneath the hot weight of her husband as a slow smile crept across her face. Her thighs ached from the night before. A full, uninterrupted evening and night had led to her and Edward having sex on almost every surface; cristening their new house. She slid from the bed and walked down to their kitchen as she tied the sash of her robe. The sun shone through the picture windows that hung over her kitchen sink.
Grabbing fruit from the fridge Bella carried a bowl to the sink and started rinsing the fruit off. She looked out over their backyard and watched as the leaves danced in the light breeze. The bouncy castle had been deflated, but laid in a pile of pink and purple nylon on the lawn. Movement caught her eye when she glanced towards the tree line. It wasn't much, just the quick flash of light falling to the ground. A cigarette butt being thrown to the grass. Bella's blood ran cold and her heart sped up, but maybe she was mistaken.
The bowl clattered to the sink, the sound of glass shattering on the metal filled the quiet room. She quickly turned and ran up the stairs, throwing the bedroom door open.
"Edward!"
His head shot up and he quickly moved from the bed, his green eyes searched her body for injury.
"What's wrong?"
"Someone is in the backyard."
His face pulled into a look of confusion and then shifted into seriousness before he grabbed his pants off the floor and yanked them on. He hurried to the end table and pulled out a gun, looking out the window.
"Well, let's go."
Bella froze for the first time in 20 years. She hadn't told Edward about the baby yet, she had planned to do it over breakfast. She couldn't tell him now, in the heat of the moment or he'd focus on her and not the possible danger near their house. Edward was already gone from the bedroom, so Bella grabbed a gun from the dresser and ran down the stairs after him.
"What's the plan here?" She asked when he glanced out the backdoor to survey the yard.
"Maybe we should go from the front? Walk into the trees and then come up from behind?"
Bella nodded.
"Sounds like a decent plan." She turned to walk towards the living room, but he stopped her.
"Wait."
"What?" Bella looked back at him.
"Maybe you should stay inside to keep whomever it is distracted."
Bella looked at Edward confused. Did he know? He couldn't know, not yet.
"Yeah, that makes sense." Bella walked back towards the kitchen, watching out the window for any sign of a body coming out of the treeline. She looked down at the sink, the pieces of the bowl littering the clean, silver surface. Bella lifted her head to look back up at the yard just as Edward walked from the trees. He motioned for her to come outside and she held the gun in front of her as she walked out.
"Nothing?" She asked.
"Just a few cigarettes on the ground, but one was still burning. So whoever it was is gone by now."
She mentally kicked herself.
"He probably saw me run out of the damn kitchen." Bella sighed.
"It's okay," Edward smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to lead her back to the house. "I'd rather him know you saw him instead of trying to come in the house."
"Yeah, but I'd rather have seen his face so I'd know who I'm looking for. Or I could've just gone outside alone. I don't know why I ran upstairs for you instead." Bella closed the door behind them, locking it out of habit.
"No," Edward turned to look at her, his jaw set and his eyes hard. "You shouldn't run towards anyone without knowing who they are or if they have back up." His phone rang before Bella could respond. "Yeah?"
Bella moved to the sink to clean up the mess she had created.
"All right, pick up A10." He disconnected the call and placed his phone on the counter before wrapping his arms around Bella's midsection.
"Who was that?"
"One of the guys going on a pick up run." Edward buried his face into her hair and took a deep breath. Bella felt her body relax, melting into his chest.
"Pick up what?"
His fingers pulled at her robe, untying the sash around her waist and then pulled it open. She gasped softly as the cool air rushed over her naked body.
"Money. You were going to run outside naked?" His fingers trailed up her thighs.
"I have a robe on." Bella laughed and squirmed against him before dropping the pieces of glass in the sink again. "Fuck."
"Leave it, Winston will clean it up." He turned her around and lifted Bella up, placing her on the counter.
"What's A10?" Bella leaned back on her hands and slid her hips to the edge of the counter, her legs automatically opening for her husband.
"Quadrants of the city. Old guys back in the 80's got busted by using initials of businesses like idiots because the Feds could hear them." Edward leaned down so he could kiss Bella's thighs, his tongue dragging along her soft flesh as she moaned. "So if anyone were to tap our phones they wouldn't be able to figure out which part of the city our guys are moving towards. A through G and numbers 1 through 15. It's a very intricate and detailed map." He dragged his lips across her hip before he stood up and brought her lips to his, kissing her hard.
"Who created the map?" She asked against his mouth and Edward laughed.
"Is this really what you want to discuss right now?" He yanked her closer to him, balancing her ass against the very edge of the counter.
"I'm just trying to learn." Bella smiled and propped herself up on her hands behind her.
"Carlisle created it when he was still an underboss." Edward lowered his pants and entered Bella in one smooth motion, his hands gripping her hips tightly as she rocked against him, trying to adjust to the sudden intrusion.
A moan fell from her lips as she dropped her head back, lifting and rocking against him.
O...O
Jacob moved toward the edge of the trees, lighting another cigarette as his hands shook. He cursed and shook them hard to get the tremor to stop. Damage left over from being shot years ago. He still wasn't sure what had tipped Bella off earlier, but she had definitely seen something. He looked at the house in the clearing once again and spotted them right away. Bella's naked back in clear view of the backyard. Her brown curls hung down behind her almost dragging the countertop and Edward was in front of her. His face was tensed up in concentration as he thrust into her and Jacob felt the anger rising inside of him. That should be him.
Bella leaned up and wrapped her arms around Edward, their bodies moving in time with one another. The muscles in her back tensed and loosened with her motions as she lifted off the counter. Why did she not want him? He could've made her happy. He could've even given her this life while protecting her better than the Cullens.
He threw his cigarette down and crushed it under his boot while holding the last of the smoke in his lungs. He looked up again just as they relaxed, both laughing and lying against the counter. Jacob slowly let the smoke out through his lips, watching it dance between him and the window.
It doesn't matter anymore, he thought. She had to be dealt with.
