Our last goodbye. It had finally come. Today was the day I had to say goodbye to Edward just once more. I didn't know how I had made it through his deployment so far. But knowing that Edward would be flying out of Iraq for good in less than two months, made his departure so much easier on me.

In fact, I liked to think that I had actually gotten pretty good at the whole army girlfriend thing. I was proud of myself that I could handle his leaving and arriving better than a year ago. My calmness affected Edward as well, so our drive to the airport was actually fun.

It was déjà vu walking through the airport for the third time with Edward. The whole time, I just kept thinking that I had done this before. It felt like life was just repeating itself.

When Edward's flight boarding was called, we stood and hugged each other tightly. "I'll miss you snicker doodle," Edward murmured against the top of my head quietly.

"I'll miss you too," I said quietly against this uniformed chest, "and thanks for taking me to prom Sergeant," I said with a smirk as we pulled a little ways apart from each other. His arms hadn't fully released me, and for that I was glad. I never felt completely safe unless he was holding me.

"Yeah, and sorry again for the whole mafia king thing…" Edward trailed off, making a comical yet sheepish face to finish off his statement.

I shook my head while my eyes rolled, "God I love you Masen."

Edward grinned crookedly and pulled me back against his chest, holding me close. I clasped my hands together around him and held him back.

"Edward?" I mumbled quietly against him, not looking up.

"Mmm?" he hummed back in question.

I started out sheepishly, "If I asked you for something really nicely, do you think you'd do it?" I asked hopefully, still not looking up.

"Probably," he answered, nuzzling his nose against my hair tenderly.

"Can I have a gun?"

Even though I couldn't see anything other than his camouflage, I could tell he was rolling his eyes. "That's a negative," he replied without thought.

"So…no?" I checked, a little ambiguous at his choice of words.

I felt him nod. "That's an affirmative."

I sighed endearingly and pulled away from him, playfully narrowing my eyes. "Someone needs to get back to the desert."

"Maybe just a little bit…"

"Please don't get shot again," I said, giving him a pointed look. He smirked and nodded.

"And if I do, you'll be the first to know all the wonderful details of the ordeal," he promised with a chuckle.

"That's all I ask," I smiled. I leaned up on my toes to press my lips against his. He met my lips with his and gave me a kiss filled with a desire and promise that made my toes curl.

"Stay safe yourself babe," he said serious after we broke apart. I nodded. "Don't do anything Jesus wouldn't do."

"Well actually I was going to use Emmett as the standard," I replied, partially serious. Don't do anything Emmett wouldn't.

Seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

"No," Edward said firmly, completely serious, shaking his head. "Jesus."

"I don't think Jesus would have approved of our little excursion last night," I disagreed, teasingly. Edward just sighed, exasperated.

"Goodbye dear," he said, shaking his head. I giggled quietly as he winked at me.

"See you soon," I smiled. I pressed my lips once more against his while his flight was being called. Regretfully, we broke apart once more and he turned and started to walk towards the boarding door.

I stayed frozen in my spot as he walked away. Right before he handed the attendant his boarding pass he turned back to me, his face nowhere near happy. Edward put up a good front. He was better at staying strong for me than I was for him. But every so often I could see how he truly felt. As I looked upon his sad face, I gave him a half hearted smile and nod. With shoulders sagging he nodded back and gave me his own sad smile before turning and boarding the plane.

I knew the absolute only reason I was keeping it together was because of the amount of time he would be gone. If he would be going off for a year, there was no way I would be able to handle it in any way other than how I did last time. But this time, this was the last time I would have to watch him board a plane to Iraq. I didn't have to do it anymore. And that was sole reason I was able to walk out of that airport with only a few tears threatening to spill over.

This time around, I knew I had support. Rose was in the same boat as me, having Emmett just left as home and always knew the right thing to say. And Carlisle and Esme did the best they could. Last time, I wasn't sure how they would react, but this time, I knew that I had nothing but love, support and understanding from them.

I was sad when he left. No matter how long it felt like I had been doing this, it wouldn't take aawy the sorrow of watching him leave. But this time around, I had the whole weekend ahead of me, and I had a mission.

The FBI didn't plan on helping Edward with the whole mob gunning for him thing. I decided that it wouldn't hurt if I was a little more aware of the guys trying to kill my boyfriend. Edward had said that some of them had probably embedded themselves into my city, and it freaked me out that I had been so oblivious to this. I wanted to know where they were and where I would be watched.

I didn't really have much of a plan. I was actually planning on winging it. I hoped that all of them intended on receiving their full billion and weren't willing to change their minds on me.

After I got home from the airport I sat around the house for all of 14 minutes before I grew restless. I wanted to know who the hell was following me and what they knew about me.

I got in my truck and pulled up the driveway and into the street. I kept shifting my gaze to the rearview mirror. I had accepted that I was paranoid. So, I didn't really feel crazy as I looked in the mirror.

Five minutes into my drive, I noticed that a silver car had passed several turns and was steadily following me. Alert, I took a turn at a stop light, and waited for him to continue to go straight. When he turned as well, I was pretty convinced this was one of the guys. His windows were dark but through the mirror I could make out some of his features. He was a man wearing a dress shirt. He was young with slicked back black hair and nicely groomed features. But what I noticed most was that his eyes were locked straight ahead, on my truck.

Physically turning I checked to see if someone was next to me before switching lanes. He followed. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. There was a dirt road coming up, so I signaled my blinker. He did the same.

I didn't have a plan. I don't know why I practically invited the man to come and kill me. I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do when the dirt road ended. All I knew was that, by an act unknowably intentional or not, Edward had left a small black head gun tucked under my seat.

I slowed down the car and moved to turn sideways so that I was blocking the road. I pressed down on the brakes as the guy slowed his car down as well. I unrolled my window while he turned his car opposite of mine. My heart was pounding and my fingers were strumming as he unrolled his window next to mine.

I found that I was thoroughly annoyed by the arrogant smirk on his face.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, sitting up straighter and narrowing my eyes. I knew I couldn't pass as menacing or threatening. But I sure as hell could be a pissed off woman, and I hoped that itself was frightening.

"What are you doing?" he smirked. I noticed that I had been right, he was dressed very nice. The inside of his car that I could see looked very expensive. I had quite the nice vantage point since my truck was a good amount taller than his car.

He kind of looked like Orlando Bloom.

I was pissed at this man. I was unthinkably angry. Because men like him had been trying to kill Edward for the past five months. "Can we cut the shit? I know you were following me. Who you want isn't even here."

This seemed to amuse the guy. He chuckled, shaking his head and then grinned at me. I continued to glare. "I know Masen's gone. His flight left at 1:12."

My mouth almost fell open. But then again I wasn't really surprised that they had done their stalking so thoroughly. I was again, just angry at their insolence. "So why bother following me?" These questions weren't helping me. I needed a better plan.

"Is this really the first time you've noticed me? I had given you more credit. Especially after the high heel incident," he laughed again, truly amused. I raised an eyebrow, slightly insulted.

But beyond that, I was disturbed. The first time I noticed him? How many times had he been following me? I thought back to the past few months, trying to remember anything different happening.

"God," I griped, irritated and freaked out, "what the hell do you want? What do you think you're going to be able to get from me?"

The guy thought my questions were funny. "I'm much smarter than those dumbasses that your boyfriend shot on your prom night."

I made a confused face as I ran the words through my head again. "Great answer," I congratulated, poisonously sarcastic.

Orlando-looking guy sighed. "Look," he sighed, looking at me, probably trying to convey peace or surrender, "your boyfriends worth quite the amount of cash these days. If you feel the need, I'll dish out a few million of the reward for your help. We could meet some time and...talk."

I blinked. I couldn't even fathom appropriate words to say. Looking at his inviting held out hands, I knew he was completely serious in his offer. I was absolutely repulsed by what he was suggesting. "Cool." I said angrily. I said it in only the way a pissed girl could.

He frowned at my response and looked disturbingly meaningful, "If you change your mind, I'll be around."

I debated on telling him to fuck off. But in the end, I just punched the accelerator and made a large circle around his car before speeding off down the road. My tires made dust fly up as I got the hell out of there, unsure of what I was doing, or had done.

The next few days, I thought about the exchange I had had with the guy. I didn't tell Rose or Alice about what had happened, and I didn't mention it to Edward when I called him.

My conversation with the man had freaked me out. What Edward had said about the mobs guys was true. They had been in my life for awhile. But I had been so distracted by Edward and Alice that I had been paying no attention whatsoever to my surroundings. The more I thought back on it, I realized how easy it would be for them to be watching me, and know stuff about me. I was more and more glad that Edward had insisted Carlisle install the best security systems available.

The weird thing about being followed, and knowing I was being followed, is that I was never really scared for my life. Elliot still hung around me, just like Edward had told him to. He was in almost all my classes and always walked with Rose and I to my truck at the end of the day. I knew he was still packing heat. It went without saying after prom night. Neither of us mentioned the incident, and I felt guilty about that.

When I was home Carlisle was in a very alpha male persona. He protected the family. The alarm system helped too. Plus, Alice was a trained soldier. How can you go wrong with that?

The mafia men didn't want to kill me. They probably even wanted an alliance with me, helping them kill Edward. They all wanted their full billion dollars and not a penny less. I wasn't worth the kill. I knew it was irrational, and I still was freaked out by the stalking thing, but I was never really scared. Besides…I had a gun in my truck. If someone tried to attack me, then I'd have not a problem using it.

I couldn't tell you why I was so strangely accepting of the mafia thing. I should have been scared as shit. I shouldn't have been so nonchalant about it. But if Edward was able to be calm about it, or at least somewhat, then I was going to do the same. I didn't have the answers I wanted, I didn't know for a fact that they wouldn't kill me. And looking back, I don't why I was so careless with my life. I was just on a quest for any type of answers.

This thinking is the reason that I was currently following a mafia guy. I had convinced Rosalie to switch cars with me after school. Somehow, I also convinced her to drive to my house and pull in the garage with my truck. She called me "fucking insane," but agreed because she wanted to see Alice.

I hoped I was being watched at school as well. A strange, fucking statement, but true in my case. So when Rosalie bolted out of the parking lot in my car, I slipped into hers and pulled out of the parking lot. A Mercedes slid into the lane behind hers slyly. I nodded to myself with satisfaction as I let a few cars get between me and the shiny little black car.

A few minutes later, Rose was pulling my truck all the way into the garage. There was still one car between me and the black one that continued down the street. My hope was that he would lead me to where any of them were currently living.

I grew more and more confused as he drove out of town. I slowed farther back, just to make sure he didn't know I was following him. After about two minutes his blinker turned on and he turned down a road that led to an abandoned gas station. My eyebrows furrowed.

I waited until he had turned before parking the car behind some trees. I had thought to grab the gun out of the truck, and Esme's fancy camera. I put both of them in my backpack and got out the car and started to walk to the gas station. There were a bunch of various trees and shrubbery scattered around that gave me plenty of cover leave myself undetected.

The gas station had closed a few years ago, because there was no real point to it. The road it was on went for a long time and led to many farms. It was very much a rural station that was unneeded. After it closed, somebody bought it and started construction on it. They took out the gas pumps and awning used to cover it before the construction stopped.

I only walked for about five minutes before I found a good vantage point. I was across the road from the station, a dirt road in between. I plopped down onto the ground, well covered my several trees and overgrown bushes. The bushes had grown together from the sides, but where two met there was a gapping hole in between. There was a perfect view of the station.

Since I was already missing golf practice, I decided to make myself comfortable. I laid down on my stomach in the grass and took out Esme's camera. It was one of those $500 ones with the long lenses and excellent zoom. I turned it on and got ready to snap a picture with zoom of whoever got out of the black car.

There were a lot of men that came and went in the next three hours. I mean literally, I saw all of the men I had had encounters with. First I saw the one exotic man who I had seen at church on Christmas Eve and seen at the gas station taking pictures. I snapped quite a few pictures of the car he was in and him himself. Then I saw the Mark who had spoken to me when Alice was getting a sonogram months ago. When he left the man Al with the creepy nose from October showed up. He had two other guys with him. From the looks of it, he was a head honcho. And finally, the man who I had spoken to a few days before.

All of the strange encounters with guys I had had over the past few months were flashing through my mind as I saw all of the guys coming and going. I snapped pictures of all of their cars as well as them.

Unfortunately, I had no clue what they were doing inside of the gas station. I was growing more and more frustrated. I mean sure, I had pictures of over a dozen men who were trying to kill Edward, but really, what good is that? I needed to hear something, just anything.

Finally a little after 5 pm, Orlando guy, exotic guy, and one other blonde guy -that looked more like a model than a mafia man- who I had never seen before all came out together. The blonde one had parked his car on my side of the street, only about five yards away from me. I snapped a few pictures of them coming towards me before I went silent. The three of them all started to walk towards his car. My heart started to pound against the ground as my hand went to finger the cold gun lying next to me.

"I went up to their lake home yesterday, wasn't too hard to find," Orlando informed the two of them. Blondie jumped to perch on the hood of his car, while Exotic leaned against the door and Orlando stood in front of them. Like the rest of the men, they were dressed like they belonged on Main Street.

Of course I realized they were talking about my cabin. Was I annoyed? Yes. Was I creeped out? Yes. But then again, it made sense.

"How're the locks there?" Exotic asked, completely business.

"I did some poking around, nothing serious. But they're definitely new. Masen must've been there at some point. There might be a security system; wouldn't surprise me," Orlando shrugged. I knew for a fact that there was no security system.

Blondie nodded thoughtfully, looking pretty pleased with this information. "That'll be useful when Masen gets back. It'd be easier if we could perform the hit there, so many more opportunities, and less implications since it's a different town."

Exotic and Orlando nodded in agreement. They were so casual speaking about Edward's planned demise. It was making me literally sick. "Why don't we just rig the jet ski? Set it off with some explosives or something. That'd do the trick and leave us completely unscratched," Blondie suggested. That man was just a douche.

"And if Swan gets on it? I mean, they are hers." Orlando asked, rolling his eyes at the suggestion. Well, at least not all mob men were that dense. Just most.

I was glad that they were having this conversation at just the right angle from me. I could see them all perfectly, but I was so low on the ground that they weren't able to see me. And I heard them perfectly. Finally I was able to get feel for what their conversations sounded like. Don't get me wrong, I was disgusted with it.

When Orlando didn't have a response for Blondie, he continued on, "If the 4th comes around and Masen is still alive, I won't even care if we take out the girl. Half a bil is better than nothing at all." Glad they practiced common sense.

"Not when you have to split it by three," Exotic complained, shifting his weight so that his elbow was on the top of the car and he was leaning against it.

Orlando groaned. He leaned back on a car a few feet away from the other two. "I told you; we're not an alliance. They're not fucking allowed."

"Is anything we do allowed?" Blondie asked rhetorically. The three of them laughed at the thought.

"From what I saw," Orlando said after their weird laughing fit died down, "the lake is the best place. I'll probably go up tomorrow again. I'll let you know what I find." Exotic and Blondie nodded in acknowledgment.

What really bothered me was that these guys looked so normal. They didn't look like bad guys. Blondie and Orlando were actually kind of cute. They looked like guys in their mid twenties, maybe newly married, that should be working in a bank or a law firm. I would never peg them as killers. But they clearly were, and it frightened me that people who looked so innocent were plotting my boyfriend's murder as if they were talking about college football.

Blondie sighed and shook his head wistfully, "It would be the perfect ambush if I could get physically in there. Masen could walk in the door, ready for a weekend at the lake, and I could just shoot the gun and end this."

And suddenly, I didn't feel the weird safeness. I wasn't above being scared. I wasn't nonchalant. I was scared shitless. Hearing these men talk, planning a murder so casually and so confidently of someone I love, it made me snap. It instilled so much fear in me that my hand literally started to shake. I had finally come to terms with what was in front of me.

This wasn't a game. Dozens of men wanted Edward dead. And when he got home in June, they'd be waiting.


I can't win, I can't wait
I will never win this game without you, without you
I am lost, I am vain,
I will never be the same without you, without you

I won't love, I won't love
I will never make it past without you, without you
I can't rest, I can't lie
All I need is you and I, without you
Without You, Usher & David Guetta


-Not entirely happy with this chapter...but you deserve something posted, so here it is! I think I'll update again tomorrow (but you all know by now not to hold me to that...)
-Between sports, my friend's sports, Friday night football games and homework (LOTS) I haven't been able to be around much. I'm still alive and if you want to get a hold of me, you should try my Twitter (2carm2carm2) because I tend to check that more often.

-Thanks for sticking with me!