A/N: This chapter is in a little different format. I wanted to get Emmett and Jaspers voices in there without having to do it separately. I hope you enjoy it and be ready for some serious action.
Thanks for all the reviews!
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Chapter 23 Ready, Set, Go
∞Emmett and Jasper∞ Ready
"You really ready for this?" Emmett boomed clearly already feeling pumped up.
"I have been ready for this since the day I learned that Alice was taken by that sick freak," Jasper stated as his jaw was tightly clenched.
"Good, good," Emmett smiled.
"What about you man? Are you ready?" Jasper asked with a knowingly smile.
Emmett threw is head back in laughter. "You know, I think I have been ready for something like this since the moment I was born. I have always felt like I was ready for something as big as this. That's why I became a cop. You know, I have loved being a cop, but I have always felt that I was in the need for some more action. Well, more than what Forks would bring me."
Both Emmett and Jasper sat back in their seats on the airplane that was directed for Las Vegas. They had spent grueling hours with heavy training to become FBI agents. The training came more easily to Emmett than it had Jasper, but that was to be expected since he had already graduated from Police Academy and had been a deputy in Forks for six years.
Emmett was completely devastated when he got the call to go to Chief Swan's house alerting the police station and fire department that it was engulfed in flames. When he approached the scene, the fire lighting up the night sky, he had no doubt in his mind that this was the workings of Aro. He knew deep down inside that Aro was trying to cover his tracks, anything that led back to the Newton's or Bella Swan.
Both men had kept their word, alongside Rosalie and had not spoken about seeing Edward and knowing the truth that Bella was still alive. When Jasper had returned to Forks he had called the school alerting them that Alice was pregnant and that she would not be returning for the rest of the school year because she was struggling with her own health and the health of the baby. It was true, he wasn't sure what kind of situation she truly was in, but he knew it was stressful and that it would pose health issues for both Alice and the baby. Jasper had felt so useless. He wished and wanted to do something for his wife and unborn child.
Jasper's wishes were granted when Emmett came to visit him at his office, he owned a construction business, and told him that he was meeting up with the FBI to see if there was any way that he could help out with the case involving Aro Gallo. When Emmett had mentioned going to the FBI Jasper insisted that he come along and hoped that he would be able to help out as well. Even though Jasper had no experience with law enforcement what so ever he still took pride in his body. He worked out daily, running five miles and he also lifted weights. He knew that if Bella was able to be trained, he was capable of being trained as well. Jasper meant that in no disrespect to Bella. He knew that she was one of the strongest women he had ever known and she had been through so much in her life. He was determined to make the FBI see that he wanted in so that he could be there first hand to get Alice out of harm's way. Yes, Jasper did see that it was a conflict of interest, but it seemed that the FBI wouldn't have a problem with that since they had Edward and Bella on the case.
"Emmett, you know I couldn't have done this without you? You pushed me, when I needed pushing. I didn't realize how grueling all this could be." Jasper shook his head and let out a deep sigh.
"Come on Jasper you know the real reason why you were so driven. You honestly did it by yourself," Emmett stated knowing that Jasper knew he was referring to Alice and his child for being his drive to succeed.
"You're right I know. I have to get them out of there, even if I die trying. I just hope Edward and Bella won't be too freaked out when they see that it's us," Jasper worried as he looked out his window and saw the lights of Las Vegas shining brightly up towards the plane.
∞Bella/Izzy∞ Set
"So, um, I am just wondering. Why you are telling me all this right now?"
I was absolutely livid. How could he think that it was simply just all right for him not to disclose this information to me sooner? I had one day to prepare myself mentally to take down Aro and the rest of the kingpins, when he had a whole week to prepare himself. Now I was so ready physically. I had kept up on my combat training and I knew I would be able to take anyone down, if needed to, with my bare hands.
At first when we had left Seattle to come to Las Vegas I wasn't that strong with my hand to hand combat, but I was for sure strong now. Whenever Anthony was gone I trained and I trained hard because I wasn't going to ever let anyone like Aro and James touch me again without giving them a fight.
Lately I was constantly on an adrenaline high. I was either working out or I was looking out. My guard was always up because I knew that once I let it down I became too vulnerable with my surroundings. And that's probably why I was more irritated with Anthony right now—I had extremely high endorphins coursing through my veins. I tried to keep myself from being too loud as we sat outside by the pool. The weather was in the upper seventies and I loved to swim in the heated pool. It reminded me of our training in Seattle. We have come a long ways. Well, I thought we had.
We were both sitting in the white lounge chairs basking in the sun. Anthony had his green swim trunks on and his chest was bare. I wished I could see his eyes, but they were covered up by a pair of black sunglasses. We were also trying to keep our conversation as cryptic as possible, just in case people were listening.
Even though I couldn't see his eyes I knew the whole time we had been sitting here that he was checking me out. I felt absolutely naked. I was totally out of my element. Before we left the room he said he had a surprise for me and he held up a small hanger. It was the skimpiest black two piece swimsuit I had ever seen. All he did was laugh at my expression and insisted that I would look completely hot in it. So I humored him and put in on.
"Come on Love. You just seemed to be so happy. I didn't want to kill your buzz," he said sweetly as he reached out and took my hand in his.
Trying to keep my voice down I replied. "So, this is why you wanted to come down here. You didn't want me getting too mad and end up yelling at you. Well, consider this tone in my voice yelling because I can't believe you think that all this would kill my buzz when it clearly only increases it!"
He bent over in laughter and then tried to contain himself. "I'm…I'm so…sorry Love, but your voice is very far from threatening."
I jerked my head forward so that I was facing the pool. "Well, I guess I can't be too mad at you for keeping a secret from me when I have things that I have kept from you."
Well, that shut him up and I smiled.
He removed his glasses, leaned towards me and removed mine. He looked into my eyes and I looked into his.
"What do you mean? What have you kept from me?" he said sternly.
Removing my hand from his I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapped my arms around my legs and put my chin on my right knee. I was closer to his face and I didn't break eye contact as I whispered. "Well, you see here it seems that there is a certain person that is interested in pursuing a relationship with me when and if everything is done here."
He closed his eyes and sighed. "Agent Black."
I furrowed my eyebrows and was a little taken aback because this information was not surprising to him.
"How'd you know?"
"It is so obvious, Love." My eyebrow raised at him. "Oh, you can't tell me that you don't notice how he looks at you when he is around. Plus, he's had it bad since the moment I saw him looking at you at the hospital in Forks," he said it so low that it was barely audible.
He looked down at his hands, which he had wrapped around my ankles as he thumbs rubbed my ankle bones.
I reached out and lifted his bearded chin with my finger so that he could look at me again. "Hey, there is nothing you have to worry about. I told him that after all this was over I was going to be with you no matter what. Okay?" I smiled at him and he smiled back. Then he leaned in and gave me a soft lingering kiss.
"I love you," he said.
"And I love you."
∞Edward/Anthony∞ Go
This is how things were planning on going down. I was the inside man. I would be at the meeting with Aro and all the other Kingpins. Our top priority was to take down Aro, James and Victoria. The second priority was to take down Aro's brothers; Felix Arturo was stationed in New York and Alec Cobain was stationed in Chicago. Then there was his little sister Jane Peters whom which stationed out of Florida. All of whom which were just as evil and cynical as Aro.
When the FBI started this entire operation they were not aware that the head Kingpins in the United States were all related, but once they dug deeper they found out that they had all been adopted at a young age and had kept their birth names. The only way they had found out that they were family was when they looked into Aro's background and had found out that his parents were killed in a car accident and in their obituary they had listed their children's names. I knew that all the children had something to do with their parent's death.
All of the Kingpins and their henchmen were all meeting down in the Bellagio's nightclub 'The Bank'. It was closed off to everyone and Aro had reserved it specifically for this special meeting. This club was dark and had quite modern feel to it. I knew that he had wanted all his people to enjoy themselves while he talked to his brother's and sister. I was of course invited because even though I never killed anyone he considered me part of his henchmen specifically because I literally cleaned up 'his messes'. This is the spot where the FBI hoped I would end up being; seeing everything first hand.
My job was to make sure everything went as planned and then alert them when there was a problem so that they would be able to swarm in and take everyone down. I was also the one who was to find Mike Newton and keep him alive.
The FBI, including Izzy, was going to be set up outside the club as soon as all Aro's men were inside. They also were going to be set up outside Aro's suite and once they got the word they were going to bust in, take down his guards and get the Newton's out.
All in all everyone hoped things went according to plan.
I was pulled from my inter-monologue when I heard Izzy cock one of her guns. We were both in the bathroom with the water to the shower on, to drown out all our noises. We were trying to be quick so it wouldn't seem too odd for us to be in here for too long. Izzy had on some long black yoga pants and was standing in front of the toilet with one of her feet propped on the toilet lid with her pant leg hiked up to her knee. She placed her gun in her ankle holder and strapped it in tight. Her movements were smooth and it seemed as though she had done this for years. She was a natural.
"Like what you see babe?"
My head snapped up quickly to hers. She was looking back at me with a smug expression. She was so beautiful when she glowed with self confidence. Since she had become an undercover agent I had noticed wonderful physical changes in her body. She was beautiful before, but now she was absolutely stunning. Her legs and arms were outlined with tight wonderful muscles. Even her stomach displayed a soft six pack. She never mentioned it, but I knew she was working out more when I wasn't around. I just sat back and enjoyed looking at all the physical and mental changes that were happening to her. She was bright and it made me happy knowing that she saw herself in a better light.
"Of course I do. Do you realize how sexy you are dressed in those clothes?" I of course was referring to her FBI suit. She was adorning a black t-shirt with FBI written on it in white and then had a black bullet proof jacket over them. She also had another gun attached to the belt around her tiny waist. I of course had my bullet proof jacket on, but had to cover it up with a black suit. That's what I normally wore when I had formal meetings, like this, with Aro.
"Why thanks and you look sexy too. That jacket makes you look buffer than you already were," she giggled. "And you know what? It feels great wearing all this. It makes me feel tough."
"Well, you do look tough. I mean look at you." I gestured towards the mirror and then she turned her head to look at herself. "You are leaner." She raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you were never fat. But you realize that most of your body know is just muscle. It suits you. You look more confident and it makes you more irresistible." I gave her a crooked smile.
"You are such a sweet talker and if we didn't have a mission to complete right now we wouldn't be leaving this suite." She waggled her eyebrows and I laughed.
...
It was now ten thirty at night and everything was underway at the club. The room was mostly dark, but there were soft lights and candles that lit up the room. It definitely gave off a calm, club vibe. The club was taken over with around sixty henchmen holding drinks in their hands, smiling and laughing at the conversations that they held with one another. There were some women, but mostly men, all of whom which were either dressed in a suit similar to mine or suits that were made for the women. We all tended to blend in with the darkness of the club.
I scanned the club trying to locate Mike. I spotted him at the bar, by himself, shooting an evil glare at Aro and his family; whom which were sitting at a table on the second floor. I had a feeling that they had chosen that spot to be able to look out amongst the crowd to make sure everything was going well. I understood Mike's evil glare because once I looked up their group you could tell that they were up to something and I knew that that something was not going to be good.
I was pulled away from my musings when my cell phone vibrated against my leg in my pocket. I knew it wasn't the phone Aro had given me because he was the only one who called on it and he clearly was occupied, so it could only be my FBI phone.
Turning and walking towards the restrooms, the opposite direction of Aro, I answered my phone in the hallway where I could still be able to keep my eyes glued to Mike. "Hello?"
"Hey!" It was Agent Black.
"What's up? Why are calling?" I was clearly confused because I was the one who was supposed to contact him.
"Where's Izzy?" he asked.
"What do you mean? Isn't she with you?" I started to panic.
"No man. I thought maybe she was confused and went with the other team up to Aro's suite, but I just checked with Clearwater and she isn't there either."
My mind was reeling. Was she going to do something stupid? I had seen the way her face was lit up when we were getting ready today. I can't imagine for the life of me that she would risk messing this up because I knew she wanted it to be over, so at least she would be able to try and put a real life back together.
I jumped when all the house lights flipped on, making the room as bright as daylight at noon. The feared look on Mike's face alerted my attention back over to Aro and his family.
"Hey, I think Aro is going to say something. I will leave my phone on so you can hear what he's going to say. Okay?"
"Sounds good…" That's all he said when I put my phone into my jacket pocket. I knew it would be slightly muffled, but he would be able to hear anyways. I didn't want Aro to see my phone in my hand because when Aro spoke he expected your undivided attention.
Aro stood and you could hear him clear his throat because of the dead silence of the room. I scratched my bearded face, man I couldn't wait to get rid of all this hair. I had a bad feeling about this.
"Good evening. My dear family would all like to thank you for coming tonight. Like you had a choice." He laughed darkly and the crowd chuckled in response. I however did not. "I am standing here to express my thanks to you all of the hard work that you have done for me and my family throughout the years. I have been impressed with a whole lot of you and I hope you find yourselves happy within my organization. You have been well compensated and live luxurious lives with how much I pay you." I scoffed; blood money. "I however have not been as happy as my brothers and sister. I have come across some traitors that I have been personally in contact with."
Everyone's attention jerked to the right of Aro when we heard doors slam open. I instantly reached for my gun when I saw James walking towards Aro with Izzy being dragged in behind him. As he reached Aro I noticed that Izzy had duct tape over her mouth and her arms were behind her back. From what I could tell her wrists were being bound together with clear zip ties. The bulletproof jacket and the belt with her gun were gone. What she wore shocked everyone as they took in the sight of her black shirt with FBI written onto it. It instantly marked her like the letter A had done in The Scarlett Letter.
"This woman who stands before us has betrayed us all. She actually has quite a long story, but I spare you the drawn out boring story so that you all can still enjoy a relaxing evening." He eyes scanned the room and landed on me. "Anthony get up here, I will need you close by." He didn't need to tell me twice even if I didn't know what he was up to.
Once I was by his side I glared at James because of the close proximity of his body against Izzy's. He was simply enjoying this way too much.
Aro glanced over at me with an evil grin which sent a chill up my spine. He then pulled a long serrated butcher knife, which reminded me of Crocodile Dundee, out of inside his jacket and handed it to James. My eyes widened and when I looked over at Izzy I noticed that she looked as calm and as collected as could be. How in the world could she not be freaked out?
"This woman is not who we think she is. At first she had me tricked, but see here." He tapped his temple. "I know everything. I see everything." He nodded to James.
James yanked Izzy by her ponytail which made her neck become more exposed then pressed the blade of the knife to her neck. Aro shook his head and James understood his silent gesture. They must have already had something planned because his movements were so swift it was a blur. He had removed the blade from her neck and sliced through her hair at the top of her head as if you were to scalp someone. Her fake blond hair fell to the floor and Izzy gave no indication that this had affected her. She was like ice, cold. However he did not remove her scalp, but had removed all her hair which exposed the dark roots of her natural hair color.
Aro had turned towards me to gage my reaction, but I did not show any.
"This woman here is Isabella Swan," he yelled and everyone in the club gasped. They apparently had heard of her. "Yes, that's right. We thought she died. But it all makes sense now. Her body was never found." He turned to her and her eyes met his gaze. "Huh, you think you and only you could take us down?" He poked a finger at her FBI adorned chest then he ripped the tape from her mouth. She didn't even grimace and that freaked me out. "James, get her out of my sight and take care of her like I had asked you to do before. Don't screw up this time or she will have a roommate in her grave with her."
My insides were squirming, I needed to get to her or she was going to die, but I couldn't. As soon as the same doors they had come in had closed Felix and Alec were at my side, both of them gripping each of my arms and a gun pointed to my head by Felix.
"I have become too laid back in this life. Let this be a lesson to all of you. Keep your eyes wide open and never let your guard down. And I know everyone is dying to know who this is. See I have had two traitors breech within my organization. This here…" He gestured to me. "Is Isabella Swans lover boy, Dr. Edward Anthony Cullen. I dare say the FBI has trained you well, but not well enough. You know after I killed Isabella's parents, you were going to be next, but when we looked for you in Forks you were gone. And when I had Alice, yes little pregnant Alice…" He sneered and I narrowed my eyes at him. "She hesitated at first to tell me anything, but when I pointed my gun directly to her growing belly she spilled everything to me…and I mean everything!" he growled.
"What do you want done with him brother?" Felix asked.
"Disarm him and take him to the basement with the others!"
Just then all hell broke loose. All the doors that accessed the room slammed opened and FBI agents flooded the room with their weapons in hand.
I laughed. "Ha, you thought Bella and I would do this alone. Look who's fooled now!"
Aro jumped. "Felix, go get him out of here now and when you get to the basement kill him!"
...
So some of you guessed—the new agents were Emmett and Jasper
Another thing is people are thinking Bella's parents are still alive—sorry, but they truly are dead. This is all a part of my story. You'll see at the end.
Check profile for links to 'The Bank' and Pool Courtyard