A/N: Dear Mosaic readers, I am working (have been working for some time) on the next chapter. Unfortunately, it's absolute shit. When it ceases to be shitty, I will post it. Send me good vibes. :)

OTL reviewers, For all your WONDERFUL casting suggestions, thank you. Scott Eastwood. . . wow. He sure has grown up. The family resemblance is undeniable! But I think his dad will ALWAYS be one of my favorite actors. Dirty Harry, the man with no name, even Space Cowboys. He's just. . . . he's Clint Eastwood. An icon. Ain't nothing else to say about it.

Masen parked the car on the outskirts of a grocery store parking lot. He opened his briefcase in his lap, pulled out a small electronic device and plugged Demetri's phone into it. Less than a minute passed before he unplugged it, removed the SIM card and crushed it with his teeth. He pocketed the device, handed his laptop, briefcase and phone to Bella, and motioned for her to get out and step away from the car.

Remembering the debugging device he had first demonstrated when they claimed the car in Seattle, Bella stood two stalls away and waited. A short time later, Masen gave her a quick smile and a nod, so she scampered back to the car and climbed in. Masen reversed out of the parking slot and moved the car several blocks away to a crowded mall, where he wedged the Bimmer between two other dark-colored cars.

"We can talk now?"

"Should be safe. First thing's first. Are you okay?"

"I'm fi-" Bella began, but balked when he scowled at her. "My wrists are burning, my arms and shoulders are sore, my jaw aches, I need to pee and I can't think about you holding a knife to that creep's ear without wanting to vomit."

"Good. You're fine, then."

"Wha-?" Bella gaped.

"Your physical and emotional reactions are perfectly normal, considering the circumstances. However, if you were going to minimize them and deny how that scene affected you, I was going lose it."

"I don't minimi-"

"Yes you do. All the time."

"I-," Bella started, but bit her tongue. Arguing with Masen wasn't going to get her questions answered. "So what happened back there? I know my concept of time was completely distorted, but that felt like a lot more than three minutes."

Masen didn't reply at first. He was looking straight through the windshield at the water-stained concrete barrier, not moving, barely breathing. For a moment, Bella thought he hadn't heard her.

"I had a lapse in judgement," he finally said, speaking haltingly. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"What do you mean, a lapse?"

"The housekeeping crew was taking 30 to 35 minutes per room. With the low quality image, a different hairstyle and his uniform on, I didn't recognize Demetri at all. Not like that's a good excuse."

"Crew? What happened to the other housekeeper?"

"He probably sent her off on an errand, then ditched. I'll look into it today. Anyway, the pair entered the unit beside ours at quarter past 10. When Tanya called me ten minutes later, I took the call. She was looking into somebody for me, and I was too eager to hear what she had discovered."

"What did she have to say? Do you have a new lead?"

"Her intel is obsolete now."

"Could you please, for once, just answer my question?" The words came out sharper than she intended.

Bella was feeling angry and brittle. The after effects of the fight with Demetri were starting surface. He hadn't done anything to her physically, but Masen hadn't had any way of knowing that would be the case. The gravity of it all was sinking into her bones. Her fingers were trembling, so she wedged them under her thighs. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering.

"Shit. . ." Masen cursed under his breath. "I had sent her pictures of Demetri and asked her to look into him."

"But why? How did you know he one was of them?"

"I didn't. But his behavior bothered me. Didn't it seem odd to you, that out of the dozens of people we've interacted with on this trip, he is the only one who made an effort to address you instead of me? He was different. He stood out. I never trust an anomaly."

"I thought he was just being nice," she stammered self-consciously. Thinking of Demetri's transformation from ally to enemy made her feel ill.

"Yeah. Nice. That's one way of putting it. He was fishing, Swan. Get that through your thick skull. All his flirty B.S. was intended to test you. If you had demonstrated even an ounce of independence or hinted that you were attracted to him, you could have destroyed all our chances of success."

"I wasn't attrac-" Bella tried to say, but she choked on her own denial.

"And I have tits and a tail." His tone was sarcastic.

"Fine. I thought he was nice. And good-looking. There's nothing wrong with that. It's embarrassing enough to know I got played without you rubbing it in. Even so, I didn't let my feelings stop me from doing my job. And when did this become about me? I did my part. I stuck to the plan. You're not the one who was strapped naked to a bed with some fucked up stalker taking pictures of you!"

Bella realized she was yelling and crying. She didn't even know where the tears came from. One second she was fine, the next second, tears were pouring down her cheeks. She didn't recognize what she was feeling at first. Then it hit her. She felt betrayed. She had trusted Masen with her safety. Her life. If Demetri had been so inclined, he could have kidnapped, raped or murdered her while Masen sat downstairs, slurping coffee and joking around with Tanya.

Her partner sat silently, looking straight ahead, his hands clamped white-knuckled on the steering wheel. They were in an emotional stalemate. Masen wasn't speaking, and Bella had said more than she intended to.

Bella wiped her eyes with her fingers. They came away smudged with mascara. "So when did you figure it out?" she finally asked, hoping to break through the tension.

"My call with Tanya only took a few minutes. I ordered another drink and kept my eye on the video feed. Some other hotel guests came and went, but the door to the neighboring suite was still closed. Forty minutes had gone by since the cleaning crew went in. I thought it was odd, but I figured the tenants were especially messy. Then I noticed something was different. The "Do Not Disturb" was hanging on our door."

"Oh," Bella breathed.

"Yeah. I almost pissed myself. I got upstairs as fast as I could. The whole way up, I was ready to hit someone. I was stuck in an elevator with this little brat and his parents. Too much money, not enough sense. They stood by and watched as he pushed every goddamn button on the panel. I wanted to snap his pudgy fingers. The imbeciles just laughed."

"Masen!" Bella gasped.

"What?"

"Nevermind. Hmm. I wonder if Demetri saw you come out of the elevator without me. Although he did seem surprised when he found me alone in the room," Bella mused.

"Why would he be staking out the elevators only to wait more than an hour to make his. . . Wait a second. Why would you think he would be staking out the elevators at all?"

"It was just a thought," she said, trying to brush it off.

"Don't. Just don't. My fuse is about one millimeter long right now. If you-"

"He left me another note!" Bella blurted out, then clamped her teeth shut to stop herself from saying anything else.

He glared at her, but didn't make a sound. In the close confines of the car, Bella could feel his rage building like a hurricane. His jaw was rigid and his nostrils flared. She couldn't look him in the eye.

"Explain. Now," he bit each word off angrily.

"This morning. At the workout room. He left a note by the drinking fountain inviting me to breakfast at 9. It wasn't like he stuck around to watch me read it. I doubt he even knows I saw it. I wasn't going to respond at all. . ." her voice trailed off lamely.

Masen balled his hands into fists. He was shaking violently. Bella shrank back in her seat, instinctively trying to put more distance between herself and the imminent explosion.

"We're talking about a man who was arrested at the tender age of 14 for skinning his next-door-neighbor's dog alive and setting it on fire," Masen roared. "He's not even human, he's a psychopath! Photographic evidence places him in San Francisco on the exact dates of the Volturi's massacre of that rival gang. Remember that conversation? How scared you were about having this carved into your chest?" He brandished the silver and white invitation in her face. A beautiful "V" was embossed in the center of the card. "And you're passing notes with him like some gullible little second grader! If we weren't under a fucking microscope, I would shake you so hard right now. So help me, I have never wanted to hurt somebody so badly in my entire life. You. Are. Driving. Me. Insane."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, trembling.

"Fuck!" he yelled, punching the dashboard repeatedly.

"Stop! Stop it! Please!"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. . ." he continued to mutter, tugging on his hair until it stood up in every direction.

Bella didn't believe that he would hurt her. In fact, she knew with absolute certainty that he wouldn't. But the emotional storm was so out of character that she felt as if she was sitting in the middle of a broken compass with the needle spinning and whipping wildly around her. If Masen could be vulnerable to emotions, if the stress of their mission could crack his iron facade, they were doomed to fail.

"Do not ever conceal something like that from me again. Do you understand me?" he gritted out through clenched teeth.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"I said, do you understand me?" he barked.

"Yes, sir!" she sobbed, feeling barely an inch tall.

"I need a minute. I need. . . I. . . God. . . Just don't move."

With that, he got out of the car, slammed the door and strode off, his arms swinging stiffly at his sides. Bella clenched her hands tightly between her knees and waited, shell-shocked, overwhelmed and completely confused.

*hides under desk* I didn't see this coming. It just kind of sort of happened. What can I say? He's unpredictable.