Chapter 20
BPOV
I hated talking like that to Edward, but I also hated being treated like I was some fragile creature. I don't care what the circumstances were; James has my daughter and I will scale the earth to get her back.
I walk out of the room, and into the bathroom, stopping right in front of the sink and looking up at myself in the mirror. I refuse to let some psycho with an obsession run my life, and if the only way to stop him is to make him think he's won, and maybe put myself in danger, than I'll do it. As long as it'll bring my little girl back.
I reach down and turn the knob, turning on the water and cupping my hands under the cool stream, collecting the water and leaning down to splash it on my face. I look back up at my reflection as the water droplets pool together before dropping down my face. I reach for the towel, and dry my face off, before walking back out to the living room where Aro is standing by himself.
"What do I need to do?" I ask, standing right in front of him. He tucks his hands into his pocket and looks up at me, shaking his head.
"You don't have to do this, Bella. We can get him…"
"You heard what he wants. If he sees anyone else approaching him, he'll hurt my daughter. Edward can get over his issues with this, but I want my daughter back, and I'm going to do this, with or without your guidance." he nods his head and we walk together to the table. Edward walks in soon after, holding Blake.
"Rose and Emmett are on their way to pick up Blake. Bella, are you sure you want to do this?" he asks, eyes pleading with me to reconsider, but I stand strong.
"Yes" I say and then turn back to Aro. From the corner of my eye, I see Edward drop his head and walk out of the room.
"Ok… so, my plan is for you to drive to the warehouses, but about 5 minutes before we get there, I want you to drop me off. You continue on and I'll call some back up from my cell. Reason I want to do it that way is because we don't know if James is monitoring the police radios." I nod my head, and tell him to continue.
"Well go in on foot, and we'll give you a signal, like maybe a flash of light, and then I want you to grab Lila and drop down on the ground, while we go in and take him down."
"Sounds good. Are we ready yet?" I ask him, and he nods his head and stands up from the table. I walk in front of him and grab the keys to mine and Edwards car off of the counter, and start to walk out when he comes out from the kitchen.
"Rose just picked up Blake… Emmett wanted to come, but I told him to stay with Rose." he says, looking between Aro and I. Our eyes stay on one another's as he silently tries to plea with me. I keep my expressionless face as I look at him, and he finally sighs and drops his head.
"Let's go" he says, and I open the door and walk out of the house, and over to our car. Edward gets in the passenger seat and I get in the driver's seat, with Aro sliding in back. I start the car and start to drive down the road, through the streets on Seattle, on my way to one of the biggest moments I'll ever have to get through.
I pass the sign letting me know I'm leaving the city, and I get onto the highway, keeping my eyes straight ahead as the trees whiz by the car.
"Right where that red mailbox is," Aro says, leaning forward and pointing straight ahead, "That's where you leave us.. Ok? And remember, a flash of light, and you are to grab Lila and drop to the ground, Ok?" he says and I nod my head. I pull along the road right next to the mailbox, and Aro gets out, shutting the door behind him and walking over to the trees waiting for Edward.
"Be careful, please…." Edward says. I turn my head as he turns his and looks at me. There are tears in his eyes, and he reaches up and swipes them away. "If anything happens to you…" my face softens and I reach over and grab the side of his face in my hand.
"I'll be careful…" I say, leaning closer to him and bringing my lips to his. "I love you, Edward." I say, closing my eyes as I rest my forehead against his.
"I love you too, baby. Bring our baby home." he says, and I open my eyes and nod. He slips out of the car, and shuts the door, walking over to Aro and waving me off as I continue down the road.
I come up to the warehouse, and park right next to it. I shut off the car, and look at the old building, with it's peeling grey paint, and rusty corners and as much as I want to sit back and think of what I'm about to do, I know my little girl is in there.
I step out of the car, keys in hand and I walk through the rocks and dirt littering the floor, and walk to the door.
James POV
I kick Alice's face in, and watch as her head bobs around on her neck, and she gets knocked out. Lila started screaming just as I kicked my foot forward, and she saw what I was doing to her aunt, so I know she's frightened. I close the door, shutting out the sound of her cries, and drag Alice into the bathtub, shutting the curtain and walking back out into what looks like her kid's room. Lila is crying next to Alice's son's crib, and I walk over in front of her and kneel down.
"Lila. I'm sorry you had to see that." I tell her. Her crying doesn't stop, but it does calm down a bit, and I hold my hand out to her.
"You remember me, right? What's my name?" I ask her, and she takes a breath, and answers.
"James" she says, in he sad little voice, and I nod my head.
"That's right. Are you hungry, Lila?" I ask her and she nods her head, and I smile down at her.
"Do you like McDonalds" I say, and she nods faster this time, while wiping the tears from her face. I chuckle and hold my hand out for her, which she quickly grabs and I walk her out the door. We walk over to my truck, and I put her in the passenger side, and buckle her seatbelt. I shut the door behind her and walk back around to the drivers side, and get in, starting the car, and driving down the road.
We pull up to a McDonalds, and I go through the drive thru, and ask Lila what she wants.
"Chicken" she says, and I laugh and say Ok. After ordering her chicken nugget happy meal with the princess toy, we make our way to the warehouse. I pick up my phone and dial Alice's number, leaving a quick message on the machine for Bella and Masen to find.
We pull up to the warehouse, and I walk around the car, a and let Lila out. She grips onto her happy meal tightly, and I grab her drink as we walk into the warehouse. We walk into the middle of the giant area, and I lay down a towel I got from the entrance for Lila to sit and eat her food.
About 15 minutes later, the phone rings from my pocket, and I pick it up.
"This better be Bella" I say as soon as I pick it up.
"It's me… please.. Just give us Lila back." she says, and I can hear how upset she is. The way she is talking is breaking my heart, and I begin to lose it.
"I want you Bella… Please.. Just meet me.. We can be a family…." I plead with her.
"Where are you, James?" she says
"Are you coming?" I ask her, desperate to know if she is, if I'll be able to hold her soon.
"Yes. Where are you?" I tell her where we are and then I remind her that it needs to be just her and hang up the phone.
"I'll be back, Lila. I'm just going to my car to get something, Ok?" I ask her and she nods her head and gets back to eating her fries. I walk out into the grey light of the Seattle sky, and walk over to the truck, and reach under the seat for the gun I know is there. I need a gun for just in case they don't listen to the rules and I'm glad I decided to leave it in the car after I used it on Jacob.
I tuck the gun into the waistband of my pants, and unstuck my shirt to cover it, and make my way back inside the warehouse, where Lila is putting all of her trash from her food in the little happy meal bag. She stands up, brushing off food from her clothes, and brings me the bag.
"Good job, you ate it all?" I ask her and she nods, grinning widely. I smile as she runs back to the middle of the warehouse, and grabs the toy from her happy meal and sits down to play with it. I'm going to enjoy being her father. I'll treat he like one of my own and give her a couple of brothers and sisters to play with and we'll all be one big happy family.
I smile and walk over to the door, and open it. The squeak from the old metal hinges rings out through the old building, hurting my ears so being so close to it, but I get over it soon enough, and leave the door half open. I look down at my cell phone, trying to see the time, and when I see that it's been almost 20 minutes from the time Bella made the call to me, I walk back inside and sit down next to Lila.
5 minutes later, the sound of gravel crunching under tires has me jumping up from my spot on the floor. Lila looks up at me, and I shake my head and tell her to stay right there as I move towards the door. I peek out of the open slit of the car and that's where I see Bella in her car, looking up at the building. She shuts off the car, and slowly gets out of the car, walking through the gravel to get into the building. She reaches the door, and I push it open all of the way, smiling when I see her beautiful brown eyes look up to mine.
"Hi Bella" I say, and go in to hug her, but she dodges my attempts at making contact, and walks past me.
"Lila!" she screams, and I turn to see Lila's face lighting up as she jumps up from her spot, and runs to Bella, crashing into her arms.
"Are you Ok, baby?" she asks her, looking over her form. I suddenly start to fell angry. I'm angry that Bella would think I'd hurt Lila.. I love her as if she was my own.
"She's fine Bella. I wouldn't hurt her" I tell her, and her head snaps up to mine, and the look of her face is one of rage.
"Really? James…" she says, standing up and walking over to where I am. "I'm supposed to believe you wouldn't hurt my daughter, when you beat her aunt until she was unconscious. That's the type of person I'm supposed feel comfortable to have around my daughter?" she says, still inching towards me. "Or maybe I should feel comfortable having a murderer with her… and a con artist…? Well let me tell you something, James, you are all those things and I never want you to even look at her again, let alone touch her."
"What the fuck are you talking about, Bella?" I yell at her, leaning over her and bringing my face about an inch away from hers, but she doesn't flinch and she doesn't try to move away.
"What? Do I have to add 'stupid' to the list of things you are? I know everything about you, James HUNTER." I'm the one who flinches when I hear her call me by my real name, and panic runs through me when I realize she knows I lied about who I was.
"Really? What do you know?" I ask her, crossing my arms over my chest, and staring down at her, still with her eyes narrowed at me.
She lets out a chuckle and begins to tell me everything she knows. "What do I know? Well, let me see. I know you were in jail for 10 years for killing a poor girl who didn't want you. I also know that while you were in there, you met Jacob who probably told you about me. I also know that you came to my wedding, acting like you were the son of a friend of my father's, because you knew I'd take you in. Most of all James, I know that you're a sorry excuse for a human being and you will fry for all the shit you've done."
My breathing picks up as I hear her talk to me like this. My blood starts to boil and all I see in front of me is the dark hair and caramel colored skin of the girl I once loved, who rejected me and humiliated me. I reach into the waistband of my pants, holding on to the handle of the gun as I look into her eyes.
"What makes you think I'll ever get caught, Bella?" I say, a smirk plastered on my face. Just then a flash of light from an outside window beams in, flashing in my eyes and fucking up my vision for a couple of seconds. I open my eyes back up to see Bella running towards Lila, and as she reaches her, she throws herself down, on top of her and looks back up at me, smiling.
I want to wipe the smile off her face at that moment. I want to take her life, and make it so she never looks at anyone the way she is looking at me right now. I pull the gun out of my waist band and lift it, pointing it right at her as the smile spreads across my face.
"He has a gun!" she yells out. I run over to her, and grab her up by the hair, ignoring the cries that are coming from Lila, and I stand there, facing the door and waiting for whoever is out there to come in so I can get this over with.
EPOV
I watch as Bella drives off to the warehouse and as soon as her car is out of sight, I look to Aro, who is motioning for me to walk with him to the warehouse. He takes out his phone, and looks down at it, as we make our way through the tree line. The sound of twigs and grass snapping under our feet are the only sound we hear, besides the occasional beep from Aro's phone.
As we near the area where the warehouse is, our steps become softer and slower, as we try our best not to be heard. Bella and my daughter are in there as well as my unborn child, and I don't want James hearing us coming and doing something to hurt them.
Without them, I'm nothing.
Aro starts to dial on his phone for back up, and brings the phone up to his ear after pressing send. I wait for him to begin talking to someone, but when that doesn't happen immediately, I look over at him and see him looking at the phone in the palm of his hands.
"What's wrong?" I ask him after a moment. He shakes his head and looks up at me with a worried look on his face, immediately making me nervous.
"I have no signal." he says, and my heart drops. I take out my cell phone checking for a signal, and grunt out loud when I see I also have none.
"Shit!" I say, stuffing my now useless phone back in my pocket. "What do we do now?" I ask, and Aro looks over at me, and reaches into his pants, pulling out a gun.
"I think we're going to have to do this alone" he says. My chest tightens when I realize that the lives of everyone I love are now in mine and Aro's hands. If we can't get to them in time, they'll be gone and it'll be my fault. I have to get my girls back.
I nod my head, and together we continue to make our way to the warehouse, slowly stepping and trying not to make too much noise. We come upon the clearing where the warehouses are, and there parked in front is our car. My heart starts to beat faster when I realize that this is it. This is the moment where I can either do everything right, and get my girls back, or fuck it up horribly and loss everything. I look over at Aro, who pulls out his silver cell phone and walks near the window in the front. He brings the phone up, catching the light with it, and I watch as a flash of light pours into the warehouse. I peak in and see Bella running towards the center of the warehouse, and throwing herself on top of Lila. She's looking towards where the door is, smiling but suddenly her smile fades.
"He has a gun!" she yells out, and I look at Aro, who mutters 'shit' under his breath and moves from the window. I take one more look into the room, and that's when I see James reach Bella, pull her up by her hair, and hold the gun up to the door.
"Aro.. Wait" I yell over at him, but it's too late. Before I even finish, the sound of a gun going off echoes through the space, and I watch in horror as Aro drops to the ground in the middle of the doorway.
BPOV
"Aro…. Wait" I hear Edward yell from outside of the warehouse, but it's too late. I watched as James raised the gun, and pulled the trigger, sending the bullet flying through the air, and straight into Aro. It was almost as if it happened in slow motion as I watched Aro's body jerk from the impact of the bullet, before falling back and landing on the ground with a loud thump. I turned my head behind me, to look at James and felt sick when I saw the look of satisfaction on his face. He licks his lips and looks down at me, still smiling, before looking back at the entrance of the building.
"I know you're there, Masen. How about you come to the doorway so I can finish you off too." he yells, and I shiver with fear.
"No Edward… don't" I yell out, only to be hit on the head with the handle of the gun. The blinding pain shoots from the top of my head, down my face and torso and shoots out until I feel it on my fingertips. I start to feel lightheaded but fight against the feeling, not wanting to leave Lila alone.
"Masen? You gonna join the party? I got your pretty little wife here; don't you want to say goodbye before we leave." there's no answer, and James looks down at me, silently questioning where Edward is, when we hear his voice.
"Give up now, James. The police are on their way…" I hear James scoff close to my ear, and he shakes his head.
"Yea fucking right, Masen. There's no signal way out here. Just come in and accept your destiny." James says, pulling me closer against his back, where I feel his disgusting bulge hitting me in the middle of the back.
"What destiny would that be, James?" I hear him say, but this time it's coming from another direction. James spins around, taking me with him as he points the gun to the window we just heard Edward from. James snickers as his eyes dart behind him, and in front of him.
"I'm going to kill you. Then I'm going to take your family, and make them my own." he says, and I feel my gag reflex start to react. I hear Edward chuckle, this time from the other side of the building, and James turns quickly, almost making me lose my balance from the quickness of his movements.
"What else?" Edward asks, mocking him and James grunts and grips tighter to me.
"Then I'm going to show her how good a real man can be." he says, and I start to gag out loud. James shakes me hard, and then turns back to the window when we hear Edward's laughter harder this time.
The laughter stops, and James starts to creep closer to the window. Once we reach it, he peeks through, and then pulls back.
"Where the fuck are you, Masen?" he begins to yell, and his voice echoes throughout the space. He turns completely around, watching to see where Edward is and I see him way before James does. In the doorway is my husband. His clothes are tattered and dirty, and the sweat is beading off of his face and I watch as his body moves with the deep breaths he is taking. I hear Lila's intake of breath, but I turn my head and motion for her to be quiet, and she slaps her hand over her mouth.
"Where the fu-" James starts as he begins to turn back around again, but then stops abruptly when he sees the outline of the man of my dreams in the door way. James hold up his gun and points it to him, but Edward raises one of his own, pointing it right at James.
James lets out an evil sounding laugh, and then pulls me even tighter against him before moving the gun from Edward to Lila.
"No!" I scream out, and James jostles me.
"Put the fucking gun down, Masen. Or I kill her" he says. Lila is crying now, her cries ringing in my ears and all I want to do is stop her tears, but I'm helpless. My daughter needs help and I can't help her. I look at Edward, silently pleading with him to do something, but he stays there, watching James, and thinking about what to do.
"I said put it down, Masen, or your going to be picking up pieces of your daughter." he says, and I feel a chill run down my spine. Tears start to fall down my face as I look up to see Edward nodding and raising his arms above his head.
"On the fucking ground!" he yells and Edward slowly starts to bring his hands down to the ground. I try and look around, see if I can maybe slip out of James' grasp, but it's hopeless, as James has a tight grip on me. The gun in Edward's hand finally rests on the ground and Edward straightens up again, and looks to James.
"I put it down, now take the gun off of my daughter." he says, and James shrugs, and takes the barrel of the gun away from Lila, but turns it to me. I feel the cold metal as he presses the barrel against my temple, and I hear as James laughs.
"Good. Now, back the fuck up against that wall" he says, pointing his head in the direction of the wall to the left of us. I watch as Edward slowly starts to back up towards the wall, and once he's reached it, James leans down and brings his mouth to my ear.
"Grab your daughter." he says, and I begin to shake my head which only pisses him off. He cocks the gun, and starts to squeeze the trigger, and then asks me again.
"I said, grab your fucking daughter." he says, and I hold my hand out for Lila who is still crying and looking up at me.
"It's ok, baby. Grab my hand" I say, and she nods her head, and stands up, grabbing my hand in hers.
James starts to move us towards the door, keeping his eye on Edward. As we pass the spot where he is leaning against the wall, our eyes meet, and I silently beg him to do something. He gives a slight nod, and looks back to James who is less than 10 feet away from the door now.
"Don't try any funny shit, Masen." James says. We reach the door, and James bends down to get the gun Edward has and he moves me out the door, and walks over to his truck.
"Open the back door, and both of you get the fuck in" he says, and I blink back the tears that are blurring my vision as I reach my hand out and grab the door handle. I pull it, and the door pops open, and I watch as James leans forward and pushes Lila towards the open door. She looks up at him, and then her eyes dart to me and I nod my head to let her know it's ok to get in the car. She turns her head towards the car, and steps up into the floor of the car, and walks to the other side, taking her seat and I can see her noticeably shaking from fear.
And as much as I want to help her and let her know everything's Ok, I can't, because for once, I'm not so sure it will be.
Since some of you love the cliffies :)
Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! and Hi to all the new readers and reviewers!
It's looking like there will only be 2 more chapters, one being the Epi, and then we're done :( The next chapter should be up by Thursday, with the Epi on Friday, so I'll see you then.
-Ana