I have to give a special thanks to my betas, Mel and TwiMarti, for their very valuable input into this chapter. Also, to my pre-reader, EveryDayBella, for her endless assistance with this story.
My deepest apologies for the horrible delay in getting this chapter out. I had a terrible case of writers block. I wrote and erased this chapter more times than I can count. Writing is not something that comes easily for me, and inspiration doesn't always strike when I need it to. On a good note, the next chapter is coming along nicely already, so I don't expect another delay like this one.
As a recap, we left off with Bella on her first day on the job in San Diego. She is in the conference room getting ready for her first meeting, when Edward walks into the room. The following paragraphs are from the last chapter.
"Ah, good, we're all here," Agent Banner exclaimed. "Bella, this is Edward Masen and Lauren Mallory, and this is our newest agent, Bella Swan." I watched as Edward's head pivoted in my direction and the smile dropped from his face and was replaced by shock at seeing me. In the next instant, I heard the grating voice of the woman next to him.
"I know you." I recognized her instantly. It was woman who laughed at me in the hall six weeks ago. Oh yes, you do.
"You've met Agent Swan?" Agent Banner asked Lauren.
"Oh, well, yes . . . uh, I mean, no. No, it's just that I saw her at Quantico—and oh, this is so funny . . ."
I gripped my pencil a bit harder and stared in Lauren's direction, mentally willing her to shut her mouth. Edward must have had similar thoughts as he moved slightly in her direction before she blurted out, "Ow, Edward, that was my foot!"
Edward grabbed her arm and steered her over to the empty seats at the conference table while mumbling, "Sorry, Lauren. You know, we're late, and we need to get this meeting started. Let's find our seats."
Lauren complied, sufficiently distracted from telling the room about my debacle in the halls at Quantico. I just stared at the two of them, not really knowing what to do now. Should I tell everyone that I do know Edward? Edward didn't seem to be indicating that he knew me. Maybe it was just as I feared, and that night didn't mean much to him. Oh God, and now I have to work with him on a daily basis. I could feel my anxiety level rising, and I quickly looked down at my stack of files, needing a distraction.
Edward settled into the chair directly across from mine, and I continued to cast my eyes down to the table, doodling on my notepad. I could feel him staring at me, but I just couldn't look up. The emotions were too strong, and I knew they would show plain as day across my face. I needed a moment to get over the shock of seeing him here.
"Well, then—since we're all here, let's get started." Banner's voice quickly brought my attention back to the meeting, and I shifted my gaze to the head of the table. Banner explained to me the typical way he ran the meetings, moving around the table and giving each member a chance to update the team on any changes to their current projects. After running through the procedure with me, Banner gave Andres the go ahead to begin.
Andres shifted a bit in his chair and flipped some pages in his notebook. "Well, there haven't been any significant changes in the Mexican Cartel cases in the last two weeks. We are still looking into the shipment of grenade launchers that were obtained by the Gulf Cartel. It is highly suspected that these weapons were acquired by the Volturi and sold to the cartel. It has been confirmed through the Mexican government that the weapons were U.S. issue. We are not sure yet if these weapons were recently made and smuggled out of the U.S., or if they were part of the weapons stockpiled from former wars in Central America and Asia."
Andres continued to review the current status of the Volturi's connection to various Mexican and South American drug cartels, as well as their political pull with South American governments over drug production and distribution. As he proceeded with his case, I would occasionally peek through my eyelashes to catch a glimpse of Edward. Each time I looked, he was staring at me as if he was also trying to figure me out, like I was a puzzle he didn't have the pieces to.
From a quick glance at Lauren, I could tell she was trying to figure out what was going on between us as well. Her pouty lips were pressed in a hard line across her face, and she looked most displeased with the way Edward was watching me. I quickly wondered if there was something going on between the two of them.
God, that would be so awkward. The very thought turned my stomach in knots, and I quickly looked over to Agent Banner and Andres in an effort to put my mind back where it should be—on the Volturi case.
As I redirected my attention, I quickly realized that while I was obsessing over the situation with Edward, I had missed a significant portion of Andres' review. Agent Banner had now turned his attention over to Rob McKinley, and I quickly re-focused on taking notes.
"Rob, what have you got?" Agent Banner asked.
"We've had some developments. It's also dealing with counterproliferation. It appears that there have been increasing incidents of our own weapons being used against our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last two months."
I perked up a bit when Agent McKinley began discussing the weapons in Afghanistan. Counterproliferation referred to the efforts the U.S. government employed to stop the spread of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction to our enemies. I also knew that Volturi were one of the top players in illegal weapons trade across the globe. It sounded as though the Volturi may have been getting their hands on our weapons and were selling them to our enemies. If true, that would be very serious.
"These are not older stockpiled weapons," McKinley continued. "So far, we have been unable to trace the exact delivery routes of these weapons to the insurgents. However, we have had some recent intelligence that is indicating the sale of the weapons is through the Volturi, and that the Volturi are being aided by the Chinese as a middle man. So the questions now are: how are the Volturi obtaining our weapons, and how are they getting them to China?"
"Well, I may be of some assistance with that," Lauren interrupted. She abruptly stood from her chair and grabbed a stack of blue folders that were sitting in front of her. She began to pass out the folders to each member of the team, except for me. "I'm sorry, Agent Swan, but I didn't make enough copies." Lauren smirked a bit as she addressed me. I quickly waved her off and indicated I would have a copy made, but Timothy quickly slid his copy over to me. Lauren huffed a bit before turning to Agent Banner.
"Agent Banner, if you wouldn't mind, I have a few photographs that I would like to put on the overhead." Banner nodded, giving her the floor.
As she began to hook up her computer to the overhead projector, Banner explained Lauren's role in the group. Lauren was the image intelligence—IMINT— specialist for the West Coast. I was guessing she wasn't an agent then, but I wasn't sure if she was a civilian contractor or FBI employee. I did find, though, that I was quite relieved—as the West Coast specialist, she wouldn't be a permanent member of the team.
As Lauren was setting everything up, I took a moment to study her. She was quite pretty—tall and thin with long, dark-blond hair and blue eyes. However, her nose was a bit too thin and sharp on her angular face, and her mouth pulled down into a permanent pout. It gave her a harsh look, which I decided must also fit her personality. I decided that I didn't like her, not one bit, and the thought of her and Edward made me sick.
Once Lauren had finished hooking everything up, she posted a picture of a cargo vessel on the screen. "We have recently come across some information that may be linked to the weapons in Iraq. This information was analyzed and confirmed as recent as of yesterday, and I drove down immediately to report the findings. I haven't even had the chance to share this with Agent Banner. Copies of the photographs I am about to show you are included in the folders, along with the technical report. As always, this is highly classified information." Lauren turned her attention to the photo on the screen.
"This ship left the Port of Long Beach two weeks ago. It arrived in Shanghai two days ago and appeared to skip customs clearance. Based on a tip, we had kept the ship under satellite surveillance upon its arrival in Shanghai. Once we realized that the ship was skipping customs, we contacted our operatives at the port and were able to obtain these photographs." Lauren hit a button on her computer and a photograph appeared showing the off-loading of the cargo from the ship.
"Approximately four containers were off-loaded from the ship upon its arrival at the port without clearance. After these containers were transferred, the remaining containers began normal customs clearance. Although the quality of the photos was poor, our office was able to work with the images and were startled by the results."
She clicked her computer again, and my breath caught in my throat. The image was grainy and not completely clear. It was a close-up of the original image, showing an area of the dock next to the ship where the cargo was being transferred. On the dock were several men overseeing the unloading, and one of them I had seen before—when I was nine years old. The face wasn't very clear, but it was clear enough. My chest began to tighten, and my heart felt like it would pound right through it.
"We believe that the man in the center is Aro Volturi, and whatever was being transported on this ship was important enough that he was directly overseeing the delivery and transport of the those items." The room was silent as we all stared at the picture. I couldn't take my eyes off the photograph. I closed my eyes briefly to block the image, but I could still see him, only this time, in my mind, staring at me from my own backyard. I slowly opened my eyes again to the image of the man who killed my mother and felt my breath hitch in my throat again.
It was then that I felt a foot nudge me from under the table, and I quickly pulled my eyes away from the photo and over to Edward. He looked worried and mouthed, "Are you okay?"
I stared back at him and swallowed deeply while trying to get my breathing under control. I slowly nodded to him that I was going to be all right. My hands were clenched tightly to the armrests of my chair, but I could feel myself regaining control as I released my grip and wiped my sweaty palms across my pants. I quickly scanned the room, worried that other members of the team had seen my reaction. Fortunately, everyone was still glued to the images on the screen —everyone except for Edward, who was still watching me with a look of both concern and curiosity. I gave him a weak smile and a quick nod in thanks, and he returned it with a small smile of his own.
Agent Banner let out a deep breath, pulling my attention away from Edward and toward the head of the table. "I think we have a serious problem on our hands." He leaned forward in his seat, placing his elbows on the table and clasping his hands together in front of him, looking deep in thought.
This wasn't good. It was rapidly appearing that the Volturi had somehow infiltrated the weapons manufacturing in the U.S. and were currently stealing and shipping our weapons to our enemies. No, not good at all.
"We need to get on top of this right away," Banner continued. "It appears this is originating here in the U.S. I need to get together with our counterproliferation experts and contact our Washington office about this immediately.
"Edward, I would like you to accompany me to Los Angeles later today. I think that we need to get over to the docks at Long Beach. Can you clear your plate for that? We may have to stay up there for a day or two to work with some of the agents out of the L.A. office. We need to find out if this is a military leak or if it is coming directly from the manufacturer."
Edward nodded his head. "Yes, I'll make the necessary arrangements. How long will we need to stay up there?"
"Just one night for now," Banner replied. "I want to come back here and re-group on Wednesday. Rob, I would like you and Bella to go over all shipments out of the West Coast to China in the last six months and see if you can spot a pattern or determine which additional ships may have transported weapons for the Volturi."
I looked up at Banner, then over to Rob, and nodded in understanding. All shipments? That would take forever. There had to be hundreds of ships each month that ran one of those routes. Nothing like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I could see that there wouldn't be much of a breaking-in period for me.
"Bella, look into the owner and operator of this ship and see if you can find any connection with the Volturi. Lauren will have the data on this ship."
"Yes, sir," I replied. I looked over to Lauren as she presented me with a slight smile that didn't reach the rest of her face. Great. I really didn't want to have anything to do with Lauren, and it appeared that she felt the same way about me. But, I also knew I had to remain professional and suck it up.
Agent Banner continued to bark out instructions to each member of the team. Finally, bringing the meeting to a close, he sent each of us off to start our new tasks with the promise to update at the end of each day. I slowly began to gather up my files, trying to use it to buy myself some time to find my footing once again. I felt completely blindsided by my new job, seeing Edward again, and the image of Aro Volturi. My emotions were all over the place, and I really needed to find a moment to pull myself together again. However, as the room cleared, I could see Edward standing next to the wall, waiting for me to finish. I just wasn't ready to deal with him yet.
"Bella, can you come with me?" Agent Banner stood from his chair and motioned for me to follow him. Ah, Agent Banner saves the day. As I stood from my chair, I locked eyes with Edward. He looked concerned, confused, and also a bit annoyed. I couldn't decipher what that meant for me. I gave him a small smile and made my way around the table toward Agent Banner. As I began to move out the door, I overheard Lauren talking to Edward. I slowed a bit to catch the conversation and wished I hadn't.
"Edward, if you're going to be in L.A. tonight, we should have dinner. There's a new sushi place in Santa Monica that we haven't tried yet."
As I heard this, I stopped briefly to look over my shoulder at Edward and Lauren. He was frowning at Lauren but quickly looked away from her to me. As his eyes met mine, his expression changed, and he looked a bit, well, panicked. Crap, there was something going on between them. I swallowed hard and made my way out the door toward Agent Banner before I could hear any more.
I followed Agent Banner through the halls. As we neared the end of the hall, he stopped and turned to me. "I know this has been a crazy morning. I apologize. Now you can see why I needed you on the job so quickly." He chuckled a bit at the end, and I smiled in response. "I hope you're not totally overwhelmed."
"No, sir. I'm okay. It's exciting." And it was. I really was chomping at the bit to get started on this case. That said, I definitely had a lot thrown at me this morning and was still reeling from it.
"I'm sure you're going to be a great addition to this team," Banner continued. "I'm really glad to have you aboard." His words of encouragement meant a lot to me, and I smiled in return.
"Thank you."
As we came around the corner of a cubicle, I saw a small red-haired woman who appeared to be in her fifties, working busily on her computer. She turned in her chair toward us as she heard us enter.
"Hey, Barbara." Agent Banner greeted her. "This is our new agent, Bella Swan. Can you get her all set up?"
"Hi, Bella, it's a pleasure. I'm Barbara Hopkins, and I'm one of the HR Managers for this office. Let's get you going. Have a seat." Barbara pulled out another chair from her cubicle, and I sat down.
Banner reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder to get my attention. "All right, I'm going to leave you with Barbara now. Because of these recent events, I'm going to have to take a rain check on lunch today. If you have any questions about settling in here in San Diego, Barbara can help you out. Once she has you all set up, go catch up with Rob and Tim. They'll get you going on the shipping data."
I nodded, then turned in my chair toward the desk, where Barbara was preparing my paperwork.
"Okay, Bella, let's get this paperwork done so you can start working on more important things." And we began the process of getting me all settled in the office.
Barbara spent the rest of the morning with me, finishing up my paperwork, assigning my access cards and codes, and working with IT to set up my computer. By lunchtime, I finally made it over to my newly-assigned cubicle. As I sat down at my chair, I looked at the stark, empty space of my office. The cubicle had a wrap-around desk along two of the walls with two small filing cabinets under each end and the computer sitting in the middle corner. I ran my hands over the edge of the Formica desk. It was just a simple, plain cubicle, but it was my cubicle and my desk. I suddenly felt a little more important and quite a bit excited.
I immediately started to put my files away in one of my filing cabinets. The twelve little files looked a little lonely all by themselves in the big drawer, but I knew in no time, those filing cabinets would be overflowing. Barbara had left a little pile of office supplies on the corner of my desk, and I began to go through them, arranging my drawers and desk. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on my in/out box, I heard the very familiar and velvety voice behind me.
"Isabella Swan. . . Bella. I should have put the connection together and realized it was you." He paused briefly before continuing, "I knew that an Isabella Swan was joining the team, but I somehow didn't connect that Bella was short for Isabella—that it was you." His voice sounded a bit sad and apprehensive.
I slowly turned my chair around and looked up at Edward. I felt my heart jump a little at the sight of him. God, he was gorgeous. He was leaning against the opening of my cubicle, watching me, waiting, I assumed, to see how I would react. He looked a little unsure, as though I was a wild animal that might suddenly bolt.
"Hi, Edward." I smiled at him, and he smirked back at me, confidence returned.
"You gave me quite a shock this morning," he said, his smirk spreading into a beautiful grin.
"You? What about me? It's been a hell of morning for me too."
He laughed lightly at that, and I could see his body relax a bit. "Yes, I suppose it has." He paused again, and then his smile slipped a bit. "You never called."
He looked a little hurt and disappointed, and I honestly didn't know how to react to that. It wasn't what I was expecting. I wasn't sure what I was really expecting. I just thought I wasn't ever going to see him again and that I wouldn't ever have to deal with it. But, here he was, right in front of me, looking so damn perfect.
I dropped my gaze to my lap and shoved my lower lip into my mouth, mumbling, "I'm sorry."
"Why?"
I looked up into his face again, trying to figure out what he wanted from me.
"Why didn't you call?"
Had he really wanted to hear from me then? The thought both terrified and thrilled me at the same time. How do I explain to him my reasons for not calling? However reluctantly, I knew I had to at least try to explain to him how deficient I was when it came to relationships.
"Um, I'm not very good at this," I said. He just looked confused, so I tried to elaborate. "Relationships, you see. I'm not very good at them. I just—" I was fumbling at what to say, how to explain to him my inadequacies in the dating department. "I, well . . ." I quickly looked back down to my lap and blurted out the rest. "I'm not very confident when it comes to relationships. I'm fine as friends, but . . . oh, God, this is not making any sense." I groaned and ducked my face into my hands. I was sure I was beet red from my head to my toes. I gently peeked through my fingers to find Edward, still standing there, but now with a rather large smirk across his face.
"Well, that's a relief."I looked back up at him, completely confused. What did he mean by that?
"It's just that . . ." He paused, smiling down at me with a bit of humor in his face. "I thought that either you really didn't like me, that I did something horribly wrong, that you completely regretted that night, or that I sucked in bed." He paused again briefly and smirked. "No, not the last part. I know I'm pretty good there," he said with a chuckle. And, as annoyed as I was, I couldn't argue with that. He was amazing in that department. With a little courage, I decided to agree with him.
"No, you're right, you don't suck at all . . . at that." I ducked my head a bit on the last part of the statement but still kept my eyes on his. His grin widened into that amazing smile that easily turned me into the village idiot. I just stared at him, completely stunned by his good looks. Fortunately, Agent Banner once again saved the day as he rounded the corner of my cubicle. We both looked over, a little surprised, hoping we didn't just get caught with our hands in the cookie jar.
"Edward, I'll be ready to head out in twenty minutes. Can you meet me out front then?"
"Uh, yes. I'm all ready. I'll see you then," Edward replied.
"Great." Banner turned and headed straight into his office across the hall.
I looked over at Edward, slightly panicked. "You don't think he overheard?" I asked.
"No. One thing you will soon learn about Agent Banner is that he has a one-track mind. He won't be thinking about anything except the new developments in this case."
"Oh, thank God." I slumped into my seat.
"Bella." I looked back over to Edward. He looked more serious, and the carefree moment we had a few minutes ago was gone. He nervously ran his hand through his already messed up hair, making it stand up like a porcupine. Somehow, he looked even hotter that way.
"Uh, I think we should talk," he continued.
I nodded in agreement. I knew this was inevitable. I just wasn't sure which direction it would go, or where I wanted it to go, for that matter. Oh, who was I kidding? I wanted him. I wanted him badly. I just wasn't sure if he wanted me in the same way. Or if he was even available anymore, I thought as I remembered Lauren's comment in the conference room.
"Well, I'm not sure how long we are going to be up in L.A.—most likely longer than one night. Banner often has a skewed since of time. He always thinks things will take less time than they really do. But, I'm sure I will be back by the end of the week. Can we catch up then, maybe over the weekend?"
"Yeah, sure," I replied.
"Good. Well, I need to get my stuff together and meet Banner." He began to turn to leave, but he hesitated and turned back to me. "Hey, and, welcome to the team, Bella. I really am glad you're here." He smiled that panty-dropping smile again and turned back down the hall.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I watched him walk away. How was I going to deal with this—with him? As I thought about him and that night, my first instincts were to do what I always did—bury my head in the sand and hope it went away. But, I couldn't do that now, could I? And honestly, I didn't want to anymore. I felt something very strong for Edward Masen, and for the first time, I wanted to find out if there could be something more.
I shook my head as if to physically clear my thoughts. I had other tasks I needed to focus on rather than pining away for Edward. I would have to sort out my feelings for him later. I grabbed my notepad off my desk and headed over to Agent McKinley's office.
After spending a few minutes with Agent McKinley catching up on the current status of this case, he sent me to the other end of the office to work with Tim. I found Tim hunched over his computer going over a large database with the shipping information from the last six months. He had set up a laptop on the other side of his desk, and I quickly joined him in processing the data. I was right—here were hundreds of ships to sort through. I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Did you get the information on the ship from Lauren?" Tim asked.
"Yes, she sent an email with the information." I didn't tell him how thankful I was that she sent it via email, and I didn't have to deal with her in person. My day had been hard enough so far without having to deal with any more interactions with Lauren.
I began flipping through the pages of my notepad to find where I had written the information down. "Here, Huang Shipping out of Hong Kong." I had found that Huang was one of the largest shipping businesses in Asia. Not only did a great number of cargo ships belong directly to Huang, but a large number were also owned by smaller subsidiaries of Huang, and tracking down each and every one of these was going to be quite a task. I also knew that I was going to have to do some research on Huang to see if they had any connections to the Volturi.
Tim and I worked quietly for several hours, occasionally conversing in small talk about where we were from and what things we liked to do. I was finding that I liked Tim a great deal, and I thought we would work well together.
Finally, Tim asked the question that I had been dreading. "So, you've met Lauren before?"
"Huh? Uh, no. I just saw her once at Quantico when I was training. Why?"
"Oh, well, she was mentioning that she had met you before. But, well, she was also looking at you a bit funny during the meeting."
"Funny?"
"Well, maybe not funny ha ha. More calculating." So, he noticed. I wondered if anyone else at the meeting had.
"Oh," I replied. I didn't know what else to say.
He continued, "Well, have you met Edward before?"
Shit. He really did notice.
"Um, yes. Just once. Again, while I was training at Quantico. Why?" I tried to play it off as no big deal, but there may have been a slight tremor to my voice. I didn't even know what was going on between Edward and me. How was I supposed to explain it to someone else?
"I thought maybe so," Tim continued. "He was also looking at you funny. But this was more like he was trying to place you, or that he knew you from somewhere. No, more than that . . . I'm not sure how to explain it." I just continued to stare at the computer screen, pretending that that was really all it was—just an innocent connection.
"Well, just be careful of Lauren," Tim stated. I immediately look over to Tim, a bit concerned with what he meant by that. "She is professional and very good at what she does, but she can also a grade 'A' bitch." Now, I really was curious. If something is going on between the two of them, Tim may know.
I swiveled my chair in his direction and asked, "Is there a reason I should be careful? I mean, I don't even know Lauren. Why would she dislike me?"
"Oh, I didn't mean to imply that. It's just, well . . .the way Edward was looking at you. I could tell Lauren didn't like it." I knew how Edward was looking at me. I also knew how Lauren was looking at both of us. I decided to cut to the chase.
"Are they together, then?" Here it goes. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer to this, but I braced myself for the truth.
"I'm not sure. Lauren has been after Edward ever since he transferred here. He seemed to be deflecting her for the most part, but there are always rumors of something going on between them." That left me with a lot more questions than answers. Was he dating her? Were they just good at hiding it from their co-workers? Or was it just wishful thinking on Lauren's part? I didn't have any clue which scenario may be the truth. If he was dating her, how long had they been together? My God, was he dating her when we got together? I didn't think so. Still, I could feel my blood begin to boil as my mind played through all the possibilities.
"And, what do you think?" I asked.
Timothy smirked and then replied, "See, now you're making me look like the office gossip. Honestly, I would say no, but who knows." I felt a brief moment of relief from his words until he spoke again.
"It's just that from the way Edward was looking at you today, I would have said there was something going on between the two of you. So that tells you what kind of judge of character I am." He thought he hadn't read the situation well at all, when, in fact, he had pretty much nailed it. I didn't want to continue on with this subject, because soon enough, I was sure to give something away. So I re-directed our conversation back to the task at hand as we sorted through the shipping data. However, my mind kept drifting back my interactions with Edward today and on that night six weeks ago. The only thing I could say for certain was that I was totally and utterly confused.
By the time I finally made it back to my temporary residence, I was exhausted. I had worked well past seven o'clock trying to make heads or tails of the shipping data. It didn't help that I was emotionally exhausted as well. I plopped myself down on the couch and pulled the burger out of the In-N-Out bag in my lap. I was too tired to even get a plate from the kitchen. I took a big bite and moaned. This had to be the best damn burger I had ever had. My ravenous hunger took over, and I wolfed it down in minutes.
Once I had fed my stomach, I reached for the phone. I grabbed the paper out of my purse that Agent McKinley had given me. Earlier today, he told me his aunt had an apartment over her garage that she wanted to rent. The apartment was in Pacific Beach, a great area for young singles, and had been recently renovated. It sounded perfect, and he seemed to think she would cut me a break on the rent for both knowing him and working in Law Enforcement. I typed the number into my phone and pressed send.
"Hello." The voice on the other end sounded sweet and motherly, and I warmed to it immediately.
"Hello, yes, Mrs. Cope," I replied.
"Yes."
"My name is Bella Swan. Your nephew, Rob McKinley, gave me your number. He said you had an apartment to rent."
"Oh, yes. I do. Do you work with Robby?" I smiled at her nickname for him.
"Yes, I'm a new agent at the office."
"Wonderful. Let me tell you about the apartment." She continued to describe the apartment in great detail and then went into further discussion about poor Robby McKinley when he was a boy. After half an hour on the phone with her, I had an appointment to look at the apartment on Wednesday after work and enough fodder to rib Agent McKinley for years.
Once I hung up with her, I had one more call to make before I crashed. I quickly hit the speed dial button and waited for the familiar voice to answer on the other end.
"Bells, how are you? How was your first day?" At the sound of his voice, I instantly calmed, relaxing and sinking deeper into the couch.
"Hi, Daddy. It's was good, just really, really busy."
"You sound tired. They're already working you to the bone, huh?"
"Well, I guess my timing was perfect. They just had some new developments that required a lot of attention. It was exciting, though. I'm going to like it—working on this case."
"Glad to hear it." I could hear a gentle shift in his tone as he continued, "Bells, please be careful. This is a big case, and the Volturi are—" He paused. "I don't need to tell you that it can be dangerous. Just . . . be careful."
"Always, Dad. It'll be okay. I promise." I didn't have the heart to tell him about the photos I saw today, nor my reaction to them. I knew well enough how dangerous this case was. I knew he was worried but was trying his best to hide it and support my decision to work on it. If he had had his way, I would be as far from this case as possible. But he also knew how important it was to me, and he wasn't going to stand in my way.
We talked for another half hour or so before we said our goodbyes. I promised to call him again in a few days and let him know how the apartment hunting was going. I pulled myself up off the couch and headed into the bathroom. After a hot shower, I crawled into the bed and tried to find sleep. As tired as I was, sleep wasn't coming to me easily. I tossed and turned as my mind played through the day's events. I tried to sort through all of my thoughts and feelings about the Volturi, my job, and mostly about Edward. As I finally drifted off to sleep, my dreams were vivid and haunting. I kept having visions of deep green eyes morphing into blood red ones.
Thank you to all who have stuck with me so far on this story, even with my delays.
Please review and let me know how you like my story. The reviews really inspire me and help me move forward on this story. And, I will be sending out teasers again to all who review.
Now, I don't rec stories too often, but I came across another vampire fic that is outstanding and hasn't received nearly enough credit. It takes place during the Roman Empire. The author has amazing writing skills. I wish I wrote as well as she. It's De Immortalitate by Raum.
www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net / s / 7116125 / 1 / De_Immortalitate - Just change (dot) to a period and remove extra spaces.
Go read this one. It's wonderful.