Chapter 12

I won't even attempt an explanation as to what's taken me so long on this chapter. Suffice to say, I appreciate all of you hangin' in there, and the many new readers that have cropped up over the last few months. In appreciation for your patience, I've included an EPOV. I hope in your eyes I've done him, and my Bella, justice. For all you Jizzperites? You're probably…well…yeeeeah.

There isn't a word big enough for the amount of thanks I owe JaspersDestiny, JaspersIzzy, Hammerhips, and Alexis Danaan. I love you all more than you could ever know.

Warning: I go where my chapters and characters take me. This chapter is not for the faint-of-heart, nor anyone with issues with torture. Please do not PM me, or email me, after you've read the entire chapter, only to flame me after you've done so. You've been warned.

BPOV

Fog. Pea soup-style.

Darkness. One lone streetlight on an otherwise empty road in the middle of nowhere.

Christ. Where the hell was I?

As if glancing up and down the lonely stretch of asphalt would actually make something appear, all it made me realize was that I couldn't see shit. The very edge of the pavement butted up to my toes, with gravel piercing the very thin soles of my shoes, most likely ruining them.

Not the fucking Choos.

Not a car or a soul was in sight, only what looked like rows and rows of corn on both sides of the road…

As my eyes darted back and forth, I realized I still had my dress on; the one that Edward had…

"Edward! Edwarrrdddd!"

Where the hell was he?

Where the hell was I?

Twisting from side to side and seeing no car and no Edward, a jar to my shoulder made me realize my hand was suspended, my arm stretched up into the air, and something held it there around my wrist.

The Awards Dinner…

The Masquerade Ball…

Scrunching my eyes shut for a moment, I tried to clear the fog in my head that seemed denser than the shit surrounding me.

Why the fuck was my arm stuck up in the air?

How the fuck did I…

Holy shit, was that a light?

Squinting, trying to come up with something solid, whatever it was was coming closer, a slim stretch of line growing into a hazy ball of light, but I couldn't tell if it was a car or a truck, or for that matter an alien ship.

Waving my already-raised hand, I started to panic, but a pinching at my wrist made me stop. Glancing back to the light, which was now much closer, I saw headlights. Big ones.

Turning slightly, I grabbed my elbow with my other hand and pulled hard, but the pinching at my wrist stopped me as a feeling came over me.

How completely fucked is this?

"Shhhit…"

Something pierced clean through to the back of my head, and the road that had just been there disappeared, replaced by twinkling lights on the backdrop of nothingness. The base of my throat vibrated with a low moan as I struggled to clear away some of the mental fog. It took only a few seconds to realize I wasn't on a road; I was lying flat on something soft. My eyelids felt glued shut as I tried to open them, to see, but the pain in my wrist had me fluttering them open and then squinting between the throbbing in my head, the light coming from somewhere, and the sting at my wrist.

Damn, my head was… The pain in the muscles of my arm and the clank of metal on metal made me pop my eyes open wide, not giving a shit about the light, to get a view.

White, lots of white. Slowly drawing my head back, I saw the cuff around my wrist and the steel rods that were the frame of the bed I was laying on.

What the absolute fuck…?

~o~o~o~

EPOV

One moment.

One distracting conversation with Emmett, and one completely innocuous trip to the bathroom.

That's all it had taken for him to nab her.

And I knew he had her.

As my cap toes wore a path between the stereo and the view out my bank of windows, I couldn't help but think of Bella. The ominous darkness of the lake that stretched far and wide conjured up visions of the state she must be in.

Somewhere.

That is if she was still…

I inhaled half the Macallan 25 from the crystal in my left hand.

Fuck! Not going there.

Emmett's fingers banged on the keyboard of my laptop, a phone held precariously on his shoulder, as he spat orders at his men—men who included PIs on the take that owed him a favor, men who had worked their way on the fringes of city business, politics, and were only talked about by law enforcement in reference to waiting for them to slip up.

The big guns.

We'd torn the hotel to pieces as quietly as we could, starting with the bathrooms, searching every nook and cranny. We moved from there to the ballroom, then to our rooms, and then back down to the ballroom, calling Bella's cell phone every nanosecond. Voicemail. Either she had it off or it was on vibrate still from the ball.

Damn that fucking ball.

It was only when a marketing coordinator came up to Emmett with an evening bag, his face flashing with concerned recognition as he took it from her but changing to cool charm as he thanked the girl, that I knew. Her pink cheeks revealed just what she thought of his dimpled smile. He rifled through the insides as she walked away, only to pull out a Blackberry that we both recognized. It was the Blackberry he'd been trying to call for the last half hour.

The thing was like Rose's Amex card; she never left home without it.

Emmett didn't want to believe that Jasper had taken her, too, after their pseudo stare down and argument at dinner. Rose had wanted to leave. Emmett, with all his eloquence, had flatly told her no, that he had to stay with Bella and he wanted her within eyeshot.

Rose didn't take kindly to being ordered around. Not by him. Especially not by him.

To say Emmett was on a mission was putting it lightly. To say we both had wracked our brains, me with files and Emmett with technology, would be the understatement of the year, the century.

Unbeknownst to my brother, my mind was a spinning maelstrom of implications, and the thought that kept coming to the forefront, the possibility of all impossibilities, kept denying me any form of concentration on the files of information that had been strewn out in front of me.

If Jasper did have Rose, then he might have somehow made the connection between Emmett and me.

Emmett only knew part of what that meant. He knew about Jasper, he knew of our history, but I'd never told him of my suspicions about Tanya, thinking it would be better to keep the beast at bay than having my brother go off half-cocked. Neither one of us needed that at the time.

Now, I rethought that decision. Things would be different now if I'd allowed Emmett the honor of giving Jasper cement boots years ago.

We'd been pouring over info for almost two hours. It was nearing midnight, and my adrenaline levels were spiking. I had to think. I had to digest. The path I was wearing on both my Persian and my hardwood was of no concern. I had to figure out where the hell he'd taken her.

However, I couldn't help but voice the one thought that was clear as day, "I let my fucking guard down, Em. We let our fucking guard down."

"Get your game on, bro. We're gonna find 'em. If he wants you, then they're just bait."

"Yes, and fully expendable." I turned from the windows and walked up to the bar, grabbing my bottle of scotch for a four-finger pour.

Emmett stopped all movement, his attention to me leaving briefly to hit the End Call on his phone. "What you sayin', bro?"

I took another swig, and my breath inflated my chest before I responded. "He's done it before. He may already have…again." I didn't have to look up to know that the finality of my words had sunk in and had effectively blown to bits the thin string of positivity that he'd been clinging to since we'd walked in. The ensuing silence, however, was like the striking of the wrong piano key—a b flat as opposed to a b—and it hung in the air, invading the already heavy blanket of anxiety that was both of us together.

Emmett blew out a long breath and stopped typing. "When? Why the fuck didn't you tell me?" He sat back in my desk chair, and I could see the wheels turning in his head as my revelation sunk in further.

"Because at the time, it wasn't necessary." I took my scotch and headed back to the files of information of one Jasper Whitlock that were spread across my coffee table, where I sat down.

It was Emmett's turn to stare out the windows now.

Perhaps it was time to call the legitimate law enforcement. Real cops. At least get some top investigators on this. I could bankroll anything, and with Emmett, hell we could…

"If we call the cops, they're as good as dead, you realize that, right?" Emmett's low voice bit across the silence as I glanced up at him still gazing out at the darkened lake.

He was right. "Which is why you need to get your game face on. Now." It was enough to move his gaze from the windows back to me. Two seconds later, his face was once again focused on the laptop.

~o~o~o~

BPOV

Metal. Everywhere.

The room was like some industrial Star Wars meets bad hospital drama, complete with a gray cement floor and blacker-than-coyote-shit curtains draping the one window. The whole room reeked of cheap décor, even though its attempt at pretentiousness was clear. The light coming from the two silver floor lamps, their canned shades meant to set-off the two metal tables, shined down on what was on the two tables...

My eyes zeroed in on the thin strips of a multi-stranded whip hanging off the side.

Shit.

It must have been a warehouse of some sort or a vacant building, with what looked like heavy-duty walls around me. It was a space made up to look like a modernized version of… a room for…

Mother. Fucker.

If it weren't summer, this place would be freezing, but as it was, it was August. Hot little beads of sweat rolled down between my tits and on my forehead, which was still pounding. The air hung stagnantly, and I realized I was fucking naked as the day I was born, except for the thong Edward had given me, and my one wrist was cuffed to the bed.

This was soooo not good.

Edward. My head swam with thoughts of him—of us—and what had just been hours before.

Jesus fucking Christ, he probably had no idea where I was. With no clock in the room, I had no idea what time it was or how long I'd been here, or even how long I'd been out. The two piece-o-shit lamps and their too-bright bulbs made me feel like some sort of an experiment. As my head dropped back to the pillow beneath it, my eyes scanned the white-tiled ceiling, and that bitch's reflection in the bathroom mirror came back to me. She'd put something over my mouth, and then…lights out.

Oh, Edward, Edward, Edward…

SHIT! What had I done? How was I supposed to know a quick trip to the bathroom to find Rose would result in this?

I knew it was Jasper.

It had to be Jasper, and the thought was enough to freeze every blood cell in me. There would be no Emmett this time, no Edward to the rescue, because no one knew where I was, not even me.

My free hand inadvertently went to my abdomen, slowly rubbing, softly pressing, trying to reach that thing inside me, that little piece of life that just hours ago had been accepted by not only me but by Edward as well—my little Bug growing within me that I thought I'd never have, would never want, and now, besides Edward, was the most precious thing of all.

I had to get out of here.

Rolling on my side and scooting up the bed brought a stab to my temple, but I had to get a better look around and at this cuff. Damn, if I'd worn my hair up I could have at least tried to jimmy the fucking thing with a bobby pin, not that I knew shit about how to do that. Glancing at the bedpost and then up and over, there was absolutely no weak point to pull the cuff, with two metal bars horizontally attached to the posts and the cuff underneath the second one.

"Fuckshitbitchpissonastick," I huffed as I lay back too quickly, too forcefully, and my head swam with the movement. Blinking through the dizzy spell, I knew there was only one way out of this, and it was up to me. Sweet-talking Jasper now would most likely be a vain attempt at freedom, but I had to try.

For Edward.

For his baby.

For us.

A door on the far end of the room suddenly swung open. "Well helllooo, Beller."

The Joker had nothing on the grin plastered on Jasper's face.

~o~o~o~

EPOV

"G-god…DAMMIT!" My glass fell hard onto the table. The sides of my head were throbbing as I squeezed each side with the palms of my hands, trying to put the information it contained into some coherent, cohesive usefulness and pummel my guilt down deep, burying it.

Guilt wouldn't help Bella now.

"Whhhy, Emmett? Why didn't I…?" I pulled at the ends of my hair, hoping the needle-like stings would stop the throbbing, "…say it to her, to her face, so she heard me, to…FUCK. Just say it!"

"Say whaa?"

I slapped my hand down and the movement set the paper in front of me adrift.

"Bro, if you're meaning the L word…?"

The question hung in the air but needed no affirmation, as Emmett's fingers started again on my laptop. This funk was neither doing me nor Bella and Rose any good. They had precious little time, if I knew Jasper at all, and my knowledge of Bella's condition made my chest implode. If she could just hear me…

Submit, Bella. Submit and survive until I find you.

"She's strong, bro. A fighter. They both are." Even though Emmett's voice tried to sound as strong as his 250lb frame of pure muscle exuded, even though I knew he meant Bella and Rose, he couldn't hide the uncertainty from me.

"That's what I'm afraid of. That fucking mouth of hers. She doesn't know when to stop. She'll goad him into…"

I didn't even need to look up from the blurry words on the paperwork in front of me to feel his stare.

"Bella's pregnant." My voice was flat.

I caught his reaction from the corner of my eye. He grabbed his phone and had someone on the line before the words flitted across my consciousness.

Submit, baby. Buy me some time. Just…

Fuck if I didn't love her beyond reason.

I actually thought she could hear my mind.

~o~o~o~

BPOV

Jasper's mix, Part 1

Enter Sandman – Metallica

Little Smirk – Theory of a Deadman

The Killing Moon – Echo & the Bunnymen

…

He sauntered in like the cat who ate the canary, the carnie ride operator who's working the day shift just this side of sober, that boogeyman in your dreams that doesn't ever go away from your psyche even in the bright light of day.

Fucking ass.

"Welcome to my new facility, Beller. I figured I'd get the best of the best to try it out first, break her in." His voice dripped with sarcasm as he took a step toward a table, snatching something in his hand and pointing it upward. I followed the general direction, and just as the music started, I saw the small Bose system on the shelf.

Enter Sandman. How original.

His head bowed slightly toward me. "Since I knew ya like your music when you…ah…" his hand put down the remote, taking his eyes from mine, "I done made this special mix just for you." The turn of his back to me only partially muffled his sardonic chuckle.

Lifting my head slightly, I followed him as he shifted to look over what was on the table. His fingertips glided slowly, reverently, over whatever was on top, until he picked a few items up, as if inspecting them.

Gut check time.

What I once referred to as toys now had me inwardly recoiling. His eyes found mine, only to ravage down my body, a spreader in his hand. My feet instantly slid up and to the side, trying to draw them away, even though I knew there was nowhere to go other than to bend my knees and lengthen the physical distance between us. As he set the spreader back on the table and picked up something else, a bulge at his ass crack caught my eye. There, in the waistband of his hand-me-down Wranglers, only partially hidden by his half-untucked white button down…

Rat bastard.

My tongue flew off the handle before I could swallow it.

"Nice denim. Where'd you get them—your sorry ass of a daddy or the crack pimp your momma fucked to create you?" He took the four or five steps it took to reach the side of the bed and cocked his arm back so fast that my instinct to move hardly had the time. The back of his hand whacked across my cheek mid-cringe.

"Darlin', you have a mighty smart mouth for someone in your predicament." He half-laughed as he grabbed my chin in his hand, forcing my eyes to his even as they squinted, his fingers wringing more pain into my already stinging face. "You do realize you keep talkin' like that, I'm gonna shoot ya before I get to fuckin' ya. And what would be the fun in that?"

Asswipe. He would probably even fuck this up before he…

I tugged my chin from his grasp, swallowing hard as a crippling sensation started to take over. Jesus H. Christ, he was going to kill me.

Edward.

He had no idea I was here, no idea how to find me, if he even knew I was missing yet.

"Oh, no, Beller, we don't have time for idle chit-chat. No, sirreee. I've already spent enough time with my other guest, and she's worked over quite nicely, although I was rather disappointed in her. I always reckoned her to be a more spirited filly."

My mind registered "other guest" about a millisecond after he said it. "Who—?"

"Nah ah ah." He casually strolled back over to the table as his drawl dripped, where he reached for a whip, dragging the leather through the palm on his other hand as he walked back toward me. Part of me wanted to scoot away from him, but the bitch in me held my ground as he came up beside the bed. Jasper had seen me naked countless times, but the psychotic ass simply would not get the satisfaction of seeing my fear.

No fucking way.

But as he knelt down, the convo with Edward sprang back into my head quicker than a switch. My panic chipped away at my passive façade as I put two and two together. This wasn't about just me being held, being handcuffed to the bed, and something told me it wasn't just about Edward and Jasper's past.

It was about him, me, and Edward. It was about a triumvirate of transgressions, possessions, and losses, and in a minute it was about to be something else.

I couldn't let my mind focus on the t-word that flitted through it.

Suddenly, the fingers of his left hand came up, inching their way toward my skin, and my abdomen unconsciously contracted. As he reached the valley between my tits, I couldn't keep my body from jerking, but he kept on, running his fingers down over my stomach and belly button to the edge of my thong, his eyes following them as they went. It took everything I had not to push his hand away with my free hand.

Instead, I clenched the sheet underneath it, wishing it were his balls.

"Of course, there was never really anyone like you, Beller, for me." It was almost a whisper, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear. I glanced up at the door before coming back to his hand, his fingertips playing with the edge of my thong. I knew that voice. It was the voice that said his dick was already hard.

"I know I'm not supposed to touch ya, but I'm changing the rules." Taking another glance at his face, I saw that it held a faraway look, as if he were remembering or maybe planning, I wasn't sure which. I concentrated on a spot on the mattress between his face and his fingers, which were still skimming over the lace that was the front of my thong, and tried to maintain control of my breathing. My body wanted to inch away, but my inner bitch wanted to rip off his dick.

He was more fucked in the head than I ever realized. The corners of my mind jostled for position—one wanting to just reach up and gouge his eyes out, the other more rational side running over possible ways to keep him talking.

I'll take conversation starters with homicidal lunatics for $200, Alex.

I needed to work him, and I needed to do it fast. I needed to convince him of…of something. Maybe I could convince him I was on his side? That this was all a misunderstanding? That Edward was merely a plaything and he was my everything?

I felt the bile rise up and burn the back of my throat.

If I didn't keep him talking, I was liable to become another...Rose. I knew it was Rose in that other room. We would be…

Just like Tanya.

I breathed deep through my nose, and I watched him stand up.

Calm. Cool. Get your shit together, Bella.

"Jasper, I—"

The precision strike of the whip over my upper half was so quick, so unexpected, that I had no time to prepare myself. There was no time to hold back the cry that escaped me. My one hand pulled at the cuff that surrounded it as my other hand came down over my abdomen. I curled onto my side as the fire ignited across my ribs.

"NOT another word from ya!" He sneered back at me and then turned, the soles of his boots scuffing like sandpaper against the cement as he did so. I studied his back between the stinging pain of my skin and the scrunching of my face as he walked away. I tried to contain myself, tried to breathe, thankful for the fact that three inches lower he would've struck something far more valuable to me than my skin.

The door suddenly swung wide open, and it caused me to lift my head up and off the bed, just in time to see that fucking bitch pixie walk in wearing my dress. Cock sucking whore had my Choos on, too.

Damn her and her annoying twig hair.

Whether it was from the burning still across my ribs or recognizing that silence was golden, I pressed my lips together, deciding that not speaking was a better plan than ripping her a new asshole from across the room.

"Whadya think, cowboy?" She twirled, putting on a show and gyrating her hips as she went around. "Ooh, the shoes, too, Jasper! We wear the same size!" She pointed out her toe and clapped like a 10-year-old girl getting a new pony. I swear, if ever got out of this, I would find her and shoot her myself.

"Knockout, darlin'," he drawled as he walked over to her, his hand slithering around her waist and to her ass, both of them coming together for the most disgusting display of open-mouthed mauling I'd ever seen. I dropped the side of my head back onto the bed and squeezed my eyes shut, not only to rid myself of the view but also to keep myself from vomiting. The sound of something being dropped on the table had me bringing my knees up further, until I realized he had something else in his hand, and by their tinkling I knew it was a set of keys.

Please, please, unlock the cuff.

Although the thought of even touching…

"C'mon, darlin'…" He was suddenly next to the bed, his breath wafting over my cheek as he spoke, causing me to open my eyes and see him nearly nose to nose, and he undid the cuff on my wrist. "I have other plans for you, and horizontal isn't one of them…yet." His whisper prickled like ice crystals across my skin, and I caught a quick glimpse of his expression. The corners of his lips lilted upward just as Little Smirk came on the sound system. The smirk I once found so incredibly hot was now almost maniacal. He tugged my arm and yanked me up to sitting position by the cuff before pulling me off the bed.

"You should recognize this next part of the show." He laughed ominously as he wrenched me forward, and I stumbled to the foot of the bed. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, I wanted to knee him in his non-functioning nads, but something told me to wait, to try and play the scene as he was leading it. Maybe all he wanted to do was teach me a lesson.

Yeah, but a lesson in what…?

Submit, Bella.

Edward's voice.

The clarity and authority of this timbre in my head was only silenced by my sharp inhale.

Could I submit?

To…Jasper?

There was no way he was putting that Texan toothpick of his inside me now. Shit, would it even come to that? Or was he planning… I remembered what Edward said about Tanya—a drug overdose—but as I took a good glance around the room, there was nothing that I could see that looked like drugs or drug paraphernalia.

The fear crept back in on silent toes as he pushed me with his body until I couldn't go back any further. The starchiness of his shirt was coarse against my nipples, and his jeans pressed against my thighs. The edge of the mattress suddenly hit just below my ass cheeks, and he purposely rubbed up against me, attaching the cuff on my left wrist to a chain hanging from the metal bedpost. Then he grabbed my other arm, stretching it to a set of cuffs already hanging from an identical chain on the other side. The whole time, I kept my yap shut, enduring it all, trying to relax enough to let him manhandle me into whatever position he wanted me in.

Stall.

Yes, but…how? My pain threshold? Fuck if I even knew I had one. With Edward it had been… But this? This was… I tugged slightly at the cuffs and the chains they were attached to, my stomach and ribs still tingling.

I couldn't talk him down, or else I was liable to make it worse.

"Such a good little filly, all quiet-like, and I didn't even have to tell ya twice." His breathy whisper was next to my ear as he ran his fingertips from the cuff he had just closed up my arm to my shoulder. The urge to turn my face from that hot, cheap-ass-beer smelling breath of his almost won over, until his finger grazed my armpit as he stepped back, making me jerk—not because I was afraid but because I was ticklish, and the asshole knew it.

"But I don't want ya quiet anymore…darlin'." He mocked as he turned to face me. My face and my body were as passive as I could make them, but just as I dragged my eyes up to meet his…

Smack!

I couldn't help but cry out as my other cheekbone felt the wrath of his backhand. My eyeballs nearly popped from their sockets, and my neck muscles strained as my face flew to the side, his knuckles hammering my temple. The pain was no match for my inner bitch. Even as my eyes started to water, I made sure to turn my head back toward him, keeping my gaze ahead and away from his, even as the thought of meeting his eyes dead on crept in in the back of my mind.

This was about me.

Only God knew what he had in store for me, considering what he might have already done to Rose. If she…

If she was even still alive.

A high-pitched squeak from the doorway cut into my head like an ice pick.

As my anger started to flare, overtaking my fear, I stared at the tips of his Old Gringos boots. He didn't turn toward the sound as he said, "Now, would ya mind leaving Beller and me alone for a while, Honeybuns? Why don't ya go check on our other guest? I'll holler for ya when it's time."

I'd nearly forgotten about his pixie bitch, but even so, my head came up a smidge at the word time.

Time?

Just as the possible meaning registered, I was able to move my gaze enough to catch a peep of his Hack-headed wench. "Of course, baby. Don't forget, now—I wanna watch." Her lips stretched wider as she reached for the doorknob, her eyes sliding from his to meet mine, the expression on her face exactly as it had been in the bathroom mirror. She then turned and walked out, the click of her heels—my Choos—clacked over the floor as she shut the door behind her.

I lowered my gaze once again but caught the movement of Jasper's boots as he moved toward me.

"Oh, I forgot ta mention the walls're soundproof. Each and ev'ry room. So you go ahead and scream all ya want, darlin'. Ain't no one gonna hear ya, 'cept for me, and ya know I like it loud, unlike you. But in keeping with the theme of tonight's festivities…"

Suddenly his damn boots were a foot in front of me, and something in his hand caught my eye. His hot breath burned as it came in contact with what I already knew were cuts on my face. I turned my head just a fraction away, but his hand wrenched my chin back to him, holding it, drawing my eyes and my mouth to him.

"Now, gimme some sugar." Yanking my jaw, his mouth covered my own, his fingers pinching to open my lips like a fish, his tongue forcing its way in. It took everything I had to keep from biting down on the slithering mass of flesh, even drawing my own tongue to the back of my throat.

But then his hand came up like a vice on my pussy, his middle finger moving the thin strip of thong to press hard up and around my clit. I drew in a breath when his mouth left mine, but his other hand still clenched my jaw to make me look at him. "What, not wet for me yet? I guess I'll have to fix that."

Before I could grit my teeth to keep from calling him all the shit that was flying through my head, to keep from spitting in his face, his fingers squeezed my jaw harder, opening my mouth, and a ball gag appeared out of nowhere. He shoved in it and stretched the strap around my head. Contrary to the force against my mouth, his one hand slowly, softly, dropped over my clavicle and then to my right tit. His fingers traced circles around the nipple, and the fucking thing hardened, betraying me, and then those same fingers clamped down hard, twisting my nipple.

I couldn't help but make a noise and wheeze through my nose.

"I am soooo going to enjoy this, Beller." My eyes caught his long enough to see his lips part into a full-fledged menacing smile as he stared back at me. I only lowered my chin once again to hide the defiance in my head, yanking a bit at the cuffs.

His laughter as he walked over to the table sent a chill down my spine.

I was so fucked.

~o~o~o~

EPOV

"Bro! Her cellphone!" Emmett started pounding keys on my laptop, whose keyboard had taken the brunt of his abuse all night. I wondered if it would hold up much longer.

"Yeah? What…?" Then I realized what he was already working on and my ass flew off the couch to stand next to him. "Of course. The fucking tracking! Can you hack into the company software?"

"It's a long shot, but we didn't find her bag, only Rosie's. If he took it with him…"

All the company phones had tracking software installed. I didn't want to know how Emmett knew how to tap into it, nor did I want to know how he could find it on my laptop.

"In case you're wondering, and I know you are, I did some other work while in the office. Just in case."

"Whatever you did, don't tell me." I leaned over the desk, watching as something that looked like Google Maps appeared on the screen.

"It's a fucking building in a sketchy area of the Southside. Lemme check out a little more on it before we—" He stopped talking long enough to click on another tab, his fingers flying almost as fast as his brain evidently was. I never realized the technological prowess my brother had up until this point. I'd never had a reason to.

Until now.

"Ed, the owner of the building at that address is one Alice White Locke."

I read the information on the screen as he said it aloud.

"There's an Alice in the mailroom. Her name's Alice Brandon."

"Fuck, that's it! The stupid fuck thinks two letters and the splitting of his name is going to hide it."

There was one thing I needed before we left, and I grabbed my keys from the corner of my desk, unlocked the bottom drawer, and took out my 9mm semi-auto.

Emmett was already halfway down the hall when I shoved my piece in the back of my suit pants, and I was nearly caught up when he said, "Don't worry. My firepower's in the car. We'll take mine." I wondered about the stealth of his jacked-up black Escalade, but the firepower under the floor in back had me reconsidering.

As we both ran out the door, Emmett was already on his cell giving his men the address and ordering them into position.

As we reached the elevator, I suddenly realized an onslaught wasn't going to work. "You and I go in first, alone. The rest can wait for a signal. If Bella and Rose are…" I didn't finish. The expression on Emmett's face told me the guns were an afterthought. His bare hands would be enough.

"Just so we're clear, his ass is mine."

~o~o~o~

BPOV

Jasper's mix, Part 2

I'm Your Boogie Man – White Zombie

The Chain – Tantric

Shoots and Ladders – Korn

Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) – Big & Rich

...

I was on fire.

Every inch of my skin, from my ass to my shoulders, the tops of my thighs and across my ribs and tits, was aflame.

I knew I was fading in and out, the pain ripping through my arms only occasionally bringing me back. The metal on my wrists dug into what I knew was my skin rubbed raw as my body nearly hung from the cuffs, my legs barely keeping me upright.

He had used everything in his arsenal. I didn't even register the clamps on my tits anymore. I wasn't really sure how I was actually still conscious. It had stopped being his fucking version of foreplay somewhere around the time his cane reacquainted itself with my back and introduced itself to my ass. I tried using everything I had been taught, everything I could remember, but my brain wouldn't cooperate. Everything was on fire. Everything.

Safeword?

Fuck. There was no safeword.

I'd kept myself as quiet as I could in the beginning, clamping down on the ball in my mouth to the litany of motherfuckers that flew through my head with every lash, but the leather whip across my abdomen had me whelping out loud.

Not for me, but for what I knew was inside of me.

The strikes grew in their ferocity with each wave, with each change in weapon, while he went on about how Edward would never fuck with him again, how Edward would never have me, how he'd take away the one thing that meant anything to him, just like Edward had done.

During a few moments of lucidity, I actually considered telling him, begging for my life and the one that I carried, stupidly thinking that a shred of compassion still laid buried deep inside of him. If I were as he said I was—the only one that ever "did it for him"— he might stop. Knowing I was pregnant might make a difference.

But then Edward's revelation came back like a train going off the rails. Jasper would know it wasn't his.

If this could get any worse, telling him I was pregnant with Edward's baby would send him into the stratosphere.

And just like that, it stopped.

"Lemme give you the moral of this story, Beller, just so you an' I understand each other, so ya have the knowledge before I send ya where you're going. You thought I was your puppet, your wimpy-ass cowboy who didn't know shit. That's what you thought, wasn't it? You thought you had my dick so far up your pussy, it was touching the back of your throat."

He paused long enough, walking…somewhere, but I couldn't lift my head or open my eyes enough to find out.

I didn't give a shit about his explanation.

The cane that had just met my ass sounded as if it had been thrown onto the top of one of the tables. "But, see, ya did, Beller, ya did."

His boots scraped across the floor as he came to stand somewhere close by, in front of me. My mind said cringe, but my body said what's the use?

"I thought…I thought we'd take the money, escape to some little Mexican village or the Caribbean, Cayman maybe. Then, when I saw he might actually be hired, and no one knew who he was, 'cept for me, I wondered…should you and I take the money and escape or should I…just do 'im myself?"

Closer he came, and my one eye opened a slit to look down on the pointed tips of his boots.

"Beller, do you even know what type of man Edward Cullen is? Do you know what he's capable of? He stole the love of my life from me. Before you, that is. But all that doesn't matter now. 'Cuz I've just stolen his. And he ain't never gonna see ya again."

His punk-ass laughter started at the back of his throat, only to erupt into something just this side of madness.

My one functioning eye tried to squeeze further shut.

"I need to take a piss. Don't go anywhere, Darlin'."

He and his fucking laugh trailed away from me as he opened and shut the door behind him.

Sagging on the cuffs, I tried to slide one foot forward to hold myself up and not pull my arms out of my shoulder sockets, but I knew I didn't have much more in me. I didn't need to open my eyes as my chest held my chin. I didn't want to. Images of Edward flitted in and out with each intake of air through my snot-filled nose.

He would find me. He would. He and Emmett.

It was all that kept me sane—repeating the words like a mantra. I only needed to hold on long enough, the awareness slowly seeping in that as soon as I lost consciousness, I would cease to be of any use. For whatever reason, I realized this was about breaking me, either physically or mentally, like one of his fucking horses.

He was neither going to break me nor the little bugger inside me. My Bug.

Spittle ran down my chin as I tried to breathe through the gag, through the pain and stinging coursing through my body with each rise and fall of my chest. I couldn't look down. I couldn't even think of looking at myself, the searing heat of my skin where marks from each different whip he'd used still burned. My nipple pain was long forgotten, dulled, against the backdrop of my skin on fire.

Hurry, my King. Please hurry…

NO!

My head jolted up, my eyelids squeezing and fluttering to focus as I willed away unconsciousness.

FUCK, NO. NOT giving up. NOT giving in. Not giving up. NOT giv—

The door flew open again. It was all I could do to bring my eyes up, my one lid opening and closing with the effort. His goddamn smirk was still in place, and he had a beer in his hand that he took a drink from before he setting it on the table, his boot kicking shut the door.

As he walked toward me, his hand went to the back of his jeans. I could feel the one eye that wasn't swollen shut bulge as he slipped the gun out from his back and waved it in front of him, dropping it a bit to catch my eye line as he walked toward me.

"Time for somethin' a little different."

Oh, God… Oh, God, no. Not yet. Not…

"Tell me, Beller, ever been fucked by the barrel of a gun?"

I couldn't stop the noise that escaped me, as weak as it was, even as he lowered the gun following my sinking gaze, continuing to wave it back and forth in my line of vision as he reached just a foot in front of me.

"Oh, wait. You can't answer, can ya?"

I didn't have the strength to lift my head, but his hand was suddenly at my mouth. He removed the ball gag, and the pain of my jaw trying to close was nothing compared to the rest of my suffering. Even if I'd wanted to, answering him was out of the question.

"Nah, I didn't think so."

Closing my eyes, I steeled myself for what was to come. Of all the things I knew, of all that I had expected, this was not one of them. Even as it registered, I felt the cold metal between my legs slide over my pussy, and I instantaneously clenched my thighs as much as I could. My attempt at "Please, Jasper," was a barely audible whisper.

Maybe it had just been my lips moving.

His other hand flew up to my chin, forcing me to look at him through slitted eyes.

"Thing is, I don't wanna see your face anymore, but I do love the look of ya from behind." Suddenly his hand was gone from my chin, and my head bobbed as it fell. The gun was gone from between my legs, and the nipple clamps were ripped from my tits.

Air and spit rushed through my lips as I tried to breathe.

A split second later, there was the tinkling of keys, and the cuff around my wrist was gone. I could do nothing but fall forward into him as he worked to unlock the other one.

For two seconds I thought it was over…

Until he spun my body and threw me face first onto the bed. The once soft material now scraped at what I knew to be gashes in my cheek, and the weight of my body against the mattress sent tweaks of pain to my tits. My arms flew out at my sides, my strength all but gone, and any attempt to catch myself, to protect what bounced against the top of the mattress, was overridden by the pain shooting from my shoulders and down my arms. As the edge of the mattress jutted into the bend between my thighs and pubic bone, I sent up a silent thought, a prayer…to someone…anyone that would listen that Bug be protected. I prayed that the mattress was soft enough, that by mere inches that hard edge wasn't against my gut.

"I've always loved yer ass, Beller, but never more than right now."

Holy fuck. Oh please, God, no.

I had always been a survivor. My life flew by in snippets, all of my actions, reactions, misdeeds. I'd screwed many and appreciated few. It had been for my own protection. A cold heart can't be fucked with. A mind that was shrewd and one step ahead couldn't be caught unaware. I'd wrenched control from the moment I understood my predilections and never looked back. My dad Charlie's face appeared, the times at the shooting range where it had been just him and me, moments where he and I had actually bonded, his attempts at life advice comical at the time, the fleeting wish that he weren't a thousand miles away, that I had called him, told him what was going on…

A few seconds of wishing he and the entire Forks PD were looking for me.

Until Edward's face flashed in my mind.

"Nothing will happen to you, Bella. I won't let it."

I felt the corners of my lips twitch through the pinch of what I knew was dried blood. If I'd not been concentrating on breathing, I might've snorted. I'd lived to witness the moment when Edward Cullen, Mr. Fuckhawt Hair with emerald eyes, who saw right through me, who had a persona that screamed unyielding reserve and bend-to-my-will even as those infinitely kissable lips had run soft and tender over my body… had been wrong.

If only I could live long enough to throw that in his face.

But as the jangle of an oversized belt buckle and the lightning-fast rip from the teeth of a zipper coming undone sliced through my reverie, my fingernails dug into the sheet beneath them as cold metal feathered my ass cheeks, my lower half flinching at the contact.

His voice was a whisper growl. "Such a fine, fine ass…" There was a sharp pull, and then I heard the rip as my thin strip of a thong tore away. "Betcha I can make ya scream now…"

His tone-deaf attempt at singing accompanied the cold metal now ridin' the crack of my ass. "And the girls say, 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy'…"

The waterworks ran down my cheeks as snot bubbled out from my nose. Words, phrases, whizzed through my head—things I wanted to tell to Edward, should've already told him, would never get the chance to say.

I love you.

It was pure futility, as my body detached from my mind, knowing full well what was about to happen. There was nothing but resignation and acceptance that my King would be too late.

A/N:

I'm just going to go hide over… *points to the corner* there.

Thanks soooo much for reading, and reviewing if you so choose. Have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday for which you and yours come together.