Chapter 13 – #113- Venomous
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Note #113
When a snake hisses
it is not wise to pretend
it's a kitten
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No photos, no envelope just a gift in a red backpacker and a note.
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Monday
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It was Monday afternoon and Bella had been working the front desk at the gym for six hours straight without a break. Her work consisted mostly in keeping an eye on the high tech FBI equipment that they had installed throughout the building; fourteen cameras, five motion detectors, numerous door switches and contact sensors and a face recognition system. She was registering every single person moving in and out of the building all the while pretending to be a regular desk clerk working side by side with the ever charming Rosalie McCarty/Cullen.
When her phone vibrated in her pocket at 1500 she was tempted to ignore it and just collapse into the nearest chair and kick off her shoes. She knew she couldn't, though, so she pulled it out and checked the coded text message on the LCD display. To anyone else, it would just look like a bunch of numbers. To Bella, the message was clear; her fellow colleague wanted an update ASAP. She groaned inwardly. So much for her ten minutes break…
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"We have to stop meeting like this," Bella muttered as she let herself be dragged into what appeared to be a supply closet.
"Sneaking around is half the fun," Seth chuckled and whipped out his palm pilot. "How long do we have before they start looking for you?" he asked as he punched in his PIN code.
"I'm supposed to manage the front desk in about fifteen minutes so that Rose can take her break."
"Okay, let's keep this brief then. Is there anything I should know about?"
"Nah, I don't have much of interest to report," Bella said with a slight shake of her head. "The gym has been busy per usual but only a handful of people have ventured upstairs, all of which have been captured on camera. You shouldn't have any problem identifying them. There was an UPS delivery guy here at 1445. He left again four minutes later and there are two girls from 'Top To Bottom' cleaning service working in apartment #18 right now."
"And Cullen?"
"He's been cooped up in his room most of the day. He's working on the score to some documentary about leafcutter ants in Arizona… or was it Utah?... "
"Fascinating I'm sure, speaking of which, what do you make of the note this morning?"
Bella sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "A pathetic display of obsessive-possessiveness and repressed anger… the usual… The steady stream of new photos are alarming though."
"I agree. With the changes we have made over the last two weeks, the security is now as tight as it gets, but we still haven't been able to shake this stalker. You know what the means don't you?"
"It confirms that the person we are looking for is someone with inside connections."
"Precisely... I'll lay my bets on a young girl, early or mid twenties. More than likely someone's little sister, or someone's little sister's best friend. I'll be looking into that…"
"You do that and I'll keep focusing on befriending the inner circle."
Seth nodded and tucked his palm pilot back into the inner pocket of his jacket.
"We'll talk again in a few hours."
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Wednesday
Dang! Jasper and Emmett were right. She did look all fit and fabulous these days…
That realization came to Edward at seven a clock in the morning, while he was on the exercise bike in his brother's gym forcing himself through another early morning workout session.
The object for his distraction, Special agent Swan, his gym partner slash constant shadow, could only be described as a force of power in the gym. Where had the clumsy teenager he remembered so fondly disappeared to? The grown-up version of Bella moved through her workout routine with both precision and effortless grace.
This was Edward's third morning in a row watching her.
He hated early mornings, hated exercising, yet ironically the gym was one of the few places he felt truly safe and secure these days. Mornings between six and eight was for tenants only which meant the gym was more or less deserted, except for various family members (usually just Emmett), a few of the girls on the second floor and of course little miss Arizona Bell Hawkins.
Stealing glances at Bella was quickly becoming just as much a part of his workout routine as sweat and nausea. This particular morning Bella kept herself busy on the treadmill as she waited for him to finish his cardio. Her form-fitting exercise pants and matching sports bra left very little for imagination. And Edward couldn't help but gawk at her as he pedaled his way through his workout. Mainly because he liked what he saw but also because he was curious to see if he could catch her looking back… but she never did.
As conceited as it may sound, he knew he got his fair share of appreciative glances from females of all shapes, sizes and ages, but Agent Swan for the most part kept her eyes averted. It was perhaps better that way, less complicated.
The problem was that he still felt that undeniable attraction to her. Eight years had done nothing to diminish the effect she had on him. This was exactly why he had been against the idea of having her there in the first place. He felt like a heel for lusting after newly widowed woman and the fact that she was an FBI agent didn't help much either…
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Forty minutes later Edward forced his poor body to do one more sit-up before he collapsed onto the sweat covered exercise mat. "Three hundred", he declared between pants.
Bella smiled at him. She had done five hundred sit-ups after running half a mile and beating the hell out of the punching bag. All he had accomplished was to do the sit-ups and ride the stationary bike for thirty minutes. In other words, compared to her he was in a piss-poor shape. Not that it was a competition in any way, but it sure felt good to see him sweat.
With a smirk on her face she encouraged (the by now utterly exhausted) Edward to hit the shower. Her Her smirk quickly turned into a frown though as Edward yanked his t-shirt off and used it to wipe the sweat from his chest as he walked out of the gym.
He always finished his workout session this way and it always took tremendous self-control not to stare at his bare-chested glory, and it was a lot of glory….
Despite her attempt to stay professional, Bella wasn't immune to his charm and good looks. She had, however, long since decided that his ego didn't need anymore boosting. Besides this morning she had other more important things to concentrate on…
There were four other tenants in the gym and Bella had some snooping around to do...
Ushering Edward off to the dressing room, she signaled to Seth, who was standing guard by the door, to keep an eye on the hallway. With both men out of the way she was ready to get some work done…
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Thursday
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Another Thursday gig at Forever Dawn…
Show time was fast approaching... Excitement and nervousness was in the air. The opening act, that's right he had his own opening act these days, had just finished their set and Edward was only seconds away from entering the stage.
He was nervous. Actually, he was beyond nervous he was terrified..
The security was as tight as ever, even more so now with FBI working on the case, but Edward couldn't help but feeling like he was about to walk out on that stage wearing a bull's-eye.
Damn! He hated feeling this vulnerable.
He was used to performing in front of this audience and used to dealing with this crowd, but lately, he seemed to look at each one and wonder if they were sending him the letters. And it was driving him nuts. He hated not being in control of his own life anymore.
Jasper started playing the opening notes of the first song and he knew he needed to get himself together and walk out on the stage ASAP. He couldn't see the crowd, but he could sure hear them as they erupted into clapping and cheering. Sometimes, he lived for this, the pure innocent reaction from the audience… Sometimes it scared the living daylight out of him…
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"Anyone got a pen? Why don't I ever have a pen when I need one? A pen? Anyone?"
Still vibrating with post-show buzz Edward dug through his pockets with no success.
"Ouch! Hey, watch those elbows. Can't this wait until we get home," Rosalie muttered, scooting as close to the door as she could get. "This is quite possible the smallest limousines I have ever seen in my life."
"Come on, someone's got to have a pen! "
"Try the laptop case," Bella suggested from the front seat.
"What laptop case? I don't have a laptop case…"
"My laptop case," she clarified turning around to point it out for him. "It's the one that looks like a backpacker, the red one, by your feet."
"Oh, thanks."
He quickly picked it up and pulled the zippers open.
Later, Edward would wonder when he'd developed such fast reflexes, but the moment he saw what was in the bag, he threw it back in the floor and pulled his feet up onto the seat, hugging his knees to his chest. It was good that he'd moved so fast, because the new inhabitant of the bag hadn't been happy about being disturbed.
"Stop the car! Stop the car NOW!" I mean RIGHT NOW! Stop this bloody car NOW!"
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"Are you alright, Edward? You didn't get bitten or anything did you?"
"No. No, I didn't get bitten. God, Bella! Why would someone put a snake in your bag? How did they get a snake in your bag?"
"Calm down, Edward. We'll figure that all out."
Bella had a pretty good idea WHY her bag had been the chosen one, but she had no clue to HOW the snake had gotten there without her knowing it.
It wasn't until hours later when the snake and the laptop case had been thoroughly examined that they finally got some answers. First of all, it wasn't her laptop case. It looked similar, but the design was slightly different and the brand name was wrong. The two bags must have been switched sometime during the day.
The animal control officer informed them that the snake was venomous, but that its venom sacks had been removed.
Venomous or not, a bite from a snake that size would have hurt like hell, the officer told them, making Edward turn pale.
It was also helpful to know that the snake was tagged with an AVID microchip. This was the
first good lead they had had in weeks.
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AN: Snakes are my biggest fear for sure, be it a rubber snake or a picture of one, I loath the creatures.