Chapter 3

Max was aggravating, interrupting an estate inventory because some skirt. . .

"Oh right. Wait. She says her name is Bella Cullen. That help?"

There was no Bella Cullen.

My lips went cold with panic. Cullen! Someone knew the name. Someone was impersonating them. Someone was hunting them down, tracing them. Following them to me!

"Would you die to protect a client's secrets?"

What I said next wasn't something I would have used in front of a client or my mother. The nuns from grade school would have keeled over dead if they'd heard me. When I finally had to pause for breath, I yelled, "Why the hell didn't you tell me?" Was this his idea of a joke?

"Because you didn't ask!" he all but screamed back.

I forced myself to calm down. Swearing wasn't going to help. Brains would.

"Pale and beautiful?"

"I said that, didn't I?"

It had to be another one like him, like his family.

"Son of a bitch. She's a priority client! If I see so much as a hint of your grimy fingerprints on her, I'll feed you to the sharks. I personally know two people that want your head and I'll give 'em a coin toss for you if you mess this up. Got it? Send her to my office. Now!"

"But you only meet downtown clients on Thurs – "

"Idiot! Didn't I just tell you she's a priority client!"

"Okay, okay! On it."

I dropped the receiver. She was coming here. I paced the room nervously, desperately wishing there was time to slip out and pick up some cigarettes. I'd quit years ago, but the addiction – the need – for a smoke never really went away.

This Bella would be here in less than twenty minutes. Another monster, coming to call. The thought sent me bolting to the bathroom, where I upchucked my lunch. Mexican food had been a bad choice today. I shakily rinsed out my mouth and staggered back to my office, trying to get a grip on myself.

It wouldn't do to think of her as a monster. She was a client, potentially dangerous but that was part of the thrill.

Think! Be rational!

Either she was who she said she was, or she wasn't. I examined both possibilities, frantically pacing the room.

What if she really was a Cullen? Then my resources were at her full disposal. But why the change in procedure? Thirty-five years, and Mr. Jasper hadn't trusted Paul or me with so much as a single photograph of the others. Why would he send in an unknown member of the family? A test?

It was a possibility. Certainly it was the most comforting one.

But what if she wasn't really a Cullen? I'd realized a while ago that there was something out there more powerful than Mr. Jasper, or at least powerful enough to make him run whenever people died. I'd just assumed that Mr. Jasper would be a buffer between that power and me. For twenty years, he had. If Bella was part of that power, whatever was hunting him was now hunting me. I sank weakly into my chair, the bile rising again at the thought.

After rummaging through my desk for a moment, I found a mint and desperately sucked on it. Another thought, the most hopeful yet, occurred to me then. Maybe it was a human impersonating Mr. Jasper's kind. That seemed more likely. How many monsters could be out there? If there were demons and angels battling it out in the streets, it would have been news long before I was around to read about it. Maybe somebody else – somebody human – figured out the connection between Mr. Jasper's family and the mysterious deaths and they were trying to get to the bottom of it. She claimed I knew her sister? Whoever Bella was, she obviously didn't know that my only contact was Mr. Jasper. Most likely she was an outsider trying to bluff her way into getting information out of me.

Still, I didn't dare turn her away. If Mr. Jasper came to me with questions, I needed to have some answers. I glanced at the clock; it had been about fifteen minutes since Max called.

I buzzed the front desk. "April! I'm expecting a Ms. Cullen shortly. Send her in immediately. Do you understand? I don't care what it's interrupting." Mr. Jasper had forgiven me for making him wait that day with Daniels, but I had no idea what kind of temperament this Bella would have.

"She's just arrived."

"What? Send her in! What are you waiting for?"

"Right away, Mr. Scott!"

I put my head between my knees, trying to keep the nerves from overwhelming me again.

I heard my secretary open the door and sat upright. "Here you are," she told my visitor.

"Close the door behind you," I told April.

I turned to face Bella Cullen. She was ethereally beautiful, even more so than Mr. Jasper. Undoubtedly, she was like Mr. Jasper. A monster. I shuddered. That was nothing compared to when I met her eyes, though. They were a strange, flat brown – almost brick-colored. It took half a second to realize what I was seeing – brown contacts over red irises. Death was in her wake, too.

With a shaky breath, I respectfully stood and offered her my hand. Coward that I was, I couldn't bring myself to come out from behind the scanty protection of the desk. "Ms. Cullen. What an absolute delight."

Her icy hand grasped mine, and I couldn't help reacting. Making a deal with another devil.

"Mr. Jenks. Or do you prefer Scott?"

I flinched. She knew everything – my real name, my alias. She probably even knew about Kubarev. "Whatever you wish, of course."

"How about you call me Bella, and I call you J?"

"Like old friends," I gratefully agreed, resuming my seat. It was too easy, her relaxed manner. She must be after information. I needed a test right now, some way to know if she really was who she said she was. I'd slip up, otherwise. "I must ask, am I finally meeting Mr. Jasper's lovely wife?"

She paused for a heartbeat, as though taken off-guard. "His sister-in-law, actually."

I pursed my lips, considering. Bella had dodged that trap, so that made her either extremely knowledgeable or legit. If she was that knowledgeable, I decided, she wouldn't need to go through me. I'd have to operate on the working assumption that she really was a Cullen. That still didn't explain the change in procedure, though. "I trust Mr. Jasper is in good health?"

"I'm sure he is in excellent health. He's on an extended vacation at the moment."

Why not? Even monsters needed a break from the daily grind. "Just so. You should have come to the main office. My assistants there would have put you straight through to me – no need to go through less hospitable channels."

Bella nodded obediently, and I almost smacked myself in the forehead. WHAT AM I DOING? Chewing out a Cullen? "Ah well," I said, trying to recover, "you're here now. What can I do for you?"

Her ringing, bell-like voice was sure. "Papers."

"Certainly. Are we talking birth certificates, death certificates, drivers' licenses, passports, social security cards. . .?"

Bella smiled, but something about her expression was off. Even if she really was part of Mr. Jasper's family, something was wrong here. Her voice was rougher, almost human, when she answered, "Two birth certificates, two passports, one driver's license."

"The names?"

"Jacob Wolfe and Vanessa Wolfe."

Two more names I didn't know, and Mr. Jasper's family never changed their first names. Fishing for more information, I asked, "Middle names?"

"Just put something generic in."

"If you prefer. Ages?"

"Twenty-seven for the man, five for the girl."

It was the girl's age that cemented my suspicions. The youngest any member of the family claimed to be was fourteen.

All this information was inherently a lie. If Mr. Jasper came hunting her, I needed something useful for him. There was only one sure truth in any of the documents I did – the face. "I'll need pictures if you prefer finished documents. Mr. Jasper usually liked to finish them himself."

"Hold on." She rummaged in her purse for a moment, and the action struck me as remarkably human. I'd never seen Mr. Jasper so disorganized. Then she passed me a photo. "Here you go."

Ah, finally. The truth. "Your daughter is very like you."

"She's more like her father."

"Who is not this man." I regretted the words as soon as I spoke them. It was giving away far too much.

Bella's expression darkened. There was death in her concealed demon-eyes. I broke out in a cold sweat.

"No. That is a very close friend of the family."

I was surprised by the tone of her voice; it was more suspicious than furious. Maybe I would get out of this alive – if I kept my big mouth shut. "Forgive me. How soon will you need the documents?"

"Can I get them in a week?"

"That's a rush order. It will cost twice as – but forgive me. I forgot with whom I was speaking."

"Just give me a number." She sounded exasperated.

I jotted it down on a piece of paper and handed it to her. She opened her purse and began to count out the money, standard operating procedure, but to my utter amazement, she continued until the full sum sat on my desk.

"There."

Was this Mr. Jasper's way of testing my honesty? "Ah, Bella, you don't really have to give me the entire sum now. It's customary for you to save half to ensure delivery."

She gave me a tired smile. "But I trust you, J. Besides, I'll give you a bonus – the same again when I get the documents."

She trusted me? No one was that naïve! No one! I mean, I was a lawyer, and a crooked one at that. Even mere mortals weren't that innocent – and she was a monster. What was going on here? "That's not necessary, I assure you."

"Don't worry about it. So I'll meet you here next week at the same time?"

How to delicately explain that one? "Actually, I prefer to make such transactions in places unrelated to my various businesses."

"Of course. I'm sure I'm not doing this the way you expect."

"I'm used to having no expectations when it comes to the Cullen family." Except being deadly, immortal, and filthy rich. "Shall we meet at eight o'clock a week from tonight at The Pacifico? It's on Union Lake, and the food is exquisite."

"Perfect."

She sealed the deal with another cold-as-death hand-shake, but I was expecting it this time. What I wasn't expecting was the way I couldn't get that little girl's face out of my mind. I'd dealt with enough family law that I had a good hunch as to why she might need these papers. I wondered idly if "flight risk" would be literal with a Cullen.

"Will you have trouble with that deadline?"

"What?" I looked up, hoping my expression hadn't given away my suspicions. "The deadline? Oh, no. No worries at all. I will certainly have your documents done on time."

Bella seemed unconvinced, but she shrugged it off. "Then I'll see you in one week."