A/N... You guys do love the action... well, you'll get your wish for more. They still have to clear that mountain top cabin and the surrounding grounds. I think you'll like this chapter. It has a bit of everything.
In fact, I'll say no more and just let you read. See you at the bottom...
CHAPTER 11
BELLA
God, Edward had never looked so good...or sexy, in spite of the paint that was all over his face. He looked straight out of a movie, all jagged stripes of black, green, and brown across his face, like a giant claw had swiped them there.
Maybe it was because I'd missed him terribly, or maybe it was due to the commanding aura that he was exuding, but as we climbed up out of my cell, I couldn't help but kiss his cheek. I didn't give a shit if I got paint on me or not at this point, because no matter the reason, he was saving me. Again.
"Thank you," I whispered, when his head snapped around to meet my gaze.
"Don't thank me yet, sweetness" he said, giving me that perfectly sweet, crooked grin of his. "It sounds like we have to fight our way outta here."
"And Bethy?"
"Oh, she's perfect, love," he whispered with an almost reverent sound to his voice, tugging me up the steps to the very edge so he and Alec could glance around each corner. "She told me to tell you that she did everything you told her to."
I smiled, tears filling my eyes, but I swiped at them. I could be proud of my girl later, but concentration was most important at the moment. We had to get through this shit in order to get back to her.
"Aw, fuck," Carlisle growled over the radio. "Alice!" he barked.
"Go ahead," she answered him.
"I need some sort of current thermal on this house and the surrounding area. Can you do that?" he asked.
"Give me two minutes," she replied, and I could hear her muttering orders to Rose and Makenna.
"Edward, get Bella and your team to the house with me. Sam, Spike...stick with Eleazar," he ordered. "We've got a fucking tunnel running out of the basement and into the goddamn mountain!"
"What do you want done about this bomb? And where do you want me?" Jasper asked.
"Bomb?" I mouthed to Mickey, who was nodding with wide eyes.
"J, you stay high," he stated, and seemed to falter when it came to the other question. "Em, can you take it apart?"
"Almost there," he grunted.
"Christ," I heard in my ear, and I'd be willing to bet it was Rose.
"Keep me posted, then," he replied.
Edward turned in front of us, his face serious, but he was aiming his instructions more to me. "Jazz is in the hayloft. He'll cover us when we run. El and his team are at the back of the property, and as you can hear, he ran into some trouble."
I nodded, because rapid fire from automatic weapons sounded off faintly.
"You will be by mine or Alec's side, no matter what. Got me?"
"Yes," I answered, trusting them both explicitly.
Without looking away from us, he called, "Jazz, how's my path to the front door?"
"Crystal clear," the answer came back, "but I'll cover you anyway."
Alec turned toward the opening of the bomb shelter, scanning the front yard. "I say we do this in stages, kid. Aim for the water well, then the machine gun nest, and then finally, the house."
Edward nodded once in agreement as we listened to Sam's and Eleazar's teams struggle over the radio. He held up his hand, hissing, "Now!"
Edward took lead, while Alec took the back, which put me and Mickey in the middle. We moved quickly at a crouched run a few yards, kneeling behind the bricks of the water well. We did the exact same thing as we dove behind sandbags, which were piled up around a machine gun.
My eyes fell on two men that had obviously met the wrong end of Jasper's sniper, but the smell of gunpowder that hung heavily around the large weapon gave me a good indication as to why they had died. And it explained the extremely loud gun fire I'd heard just moments before Edward and Alec had come to get me.
"That's too far," Alec mused, looking to Edward and back across the lawn. "I vote that clump of trees first," he said, pointing to a thick part of the forest that had been allowed to stay on the property, just to the right of the front porch.
"There's a heat source in those trees," Alice piped up. "If you go, I'd surround it first..."
"Thank you, pixie," I muttered, looking up at Edward.
"Surround it, it is," he sighed wearily, gesturing for Alec and Mickey to take the right. He and I would take the left.
"Carlisle?" Alice called as we approached the trees with caution. "Um, there are...several heat sources underground. Like...a lot. It seems there is more than one tunnel under there."
"Shit," Carlisle hissed, and I could just imagine him shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Edward, I need you..."
"On our way, Dad," he answered in a whisper, his head snapping around when bullets zinged past us into the shrubbery.
"Down!" he grunted, taking me with him. We dove behind two trees, staying low to the ground. "Jazz, I've got company."
"Waiting for it..." he sang low over the radio, humming what sounded to be Amazing Grace. One single pop, followed by a grunt, and he said, "You're all clear. All the assholes are out of my sight."
I laughed once, rolling my eyes as Edward grinned over at me. "Just like old times, huh, sweetness?" he whispered. "So much for harmless detective work," he snickered, dodging my punch to his arm.
A twig snapped, along with a rustle of leaves, to our right, and we both stopped, slid up the trunks of our trees into a standing position, weapons at the ready. Edward gestured for me to take the back so that he could take the lead.
"About a yard away, Edward," Alice warned low in our ears. "Forty-five degree angle, behind what looks to be...a large pine."
My eyebrows shot up, because she had to have been looking at two screens in order to tell those kinds of details.
Edward adjusted his aim to the direction she mentioned, his voice ringing deep and commanding, the sound muted due to the greenery surrounding us. "Come out, or I'll toss a grenade in there, sure as shit!"
We took a few more tentative steps, before a man popped up out of the bushes, his hands raised. From every angle, four guns aimed his way – three automatic rifles and one handgun – but I lowered my weapon instantly.
"Don't shoot!" I ordered, stepping forward. "Fuck, Kurt...what the hell?"
"Jesus Christ, you weren't kidding!" he gasped, looking around him.
"Hell, no, I wasn't kidding," I sighed, shaking my head. Both Edward and Alec shifted uneasily on their feet, but I held a hand up. "Wait," I told them. "He's not...what you think..."
"Bella," Edward warned. "He's got your gun."
"Fuck! Take it back... I didn't want it to begin with," Kurt stated, pointing to his waistband with his hands still raised.
I chuckled, taking back my nine mil. I checked the chamber, the clip, and made sure the safety was on, before stowing it in the small of my back.
I turned to face Edward, making sure I was between the two men. "I'll explain details later, but I will vouch for him, Edward."
My husband didn't look placated with that statement. At all.
"Fuck, baby... Without him, I'd never have gotten the girls to you!" I urged in a whisper. "He's protected me from the get go. He protected Bethy."
Kurt was nodding fervently, but stayed quiet.
"Fine," Edward conceded with a sigh, only to point his gun at Kurt one more time. "You fucking stay with us. Don't get twitchy, or I may just change my mind. Understood?"
Kurt paled, his mouth falling open. Sweat poured down the poor boy's brow as he stood there, scared to fucking death.
"I'd answer him, kid," Alec chuckled, nudging him with the muzzle of his gun. "He's not always that...giving."
Mickey smirked, shook her head, and rolled her eyes, but she came to stand on the other side of Kurt. "Say something, dude," she snickered.
"Y-Yeah...whatever... just don't kill me!" Kurt finally spat in a rush.
Edward sighed, rolling his eyes, but finally dragged his gaze away from Kurt toward the house. He turned back. "Alec, take the back. And you," he grunted at Kurt, "stay between the girls."
Kurt swallowed nervously and nodded.
We took off at a run, bolting up the front porch steps and into the house. Several guns raised in several different directions, but we quickly lowered them back down. I didn't recognize the two men that were standing guard just inside the front door.
"The house is clear, Ed," one of them said, with the thickest Southern accent I'd ever heard.
"But your pop didn't want to chance those tunnels alone," the other one said, finishing the first one's sentence.
They were obviously related, because they looked way too much alike not to be. They were average looking men, and if I had to guess, I'd say they were about Eleazar's age. But it was the man coming up out of a basement that caught my attention.
"Bella," he sighed with relief at the sight of me, and he swung his weapon to his back as I launched myself into his arms. "Sweetheart, you okay?"
"Yes," I said, kissing his painted cheek. "I'm fine."
"Good," he sighed again, letting me go, but gestured to the two men. "Ned and Harry Cauldwell...meet Isabella Cullen."
"Ma'am," they both crooned, taking off their hats and bowing dramatically.
"Morons," Edward chuckled, shaking his head as Mickey and I giggled at them.
"Who's this?" Carlisle asked, pointing to Kurt, who had been hanging to the back of the room in silence.
"This is Kurt," I said, introducing them to my godfather.
"Yes, Bella has offered him...asylum," Edward said with an eye roll.
"Ah, Kurt with the doughnuts...the same one?" Carlisle asked with a wry smile.
"He helped me," I whispered, frowning at the fact that Carlisle's smile did not reach his eyes, which meant I had to plead Kurt's case again. "He's...trapped in this situation, Carlisle."
"We'll see. For now, he's with us...but don't fuck up," he warned him, just like Edward had. He turned to his son, saying, "We've got what looks to be fucking miles of tunnels down there."
"They're old mining tunnels, Carlisle," Alice piped up. "I just pulled the history on that mountain. Apparently, it was used to mine gold in the early eighteen hundreds. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that's how Walter's family got their money. It's very old money."
"Well, that would explain the dynamite," Alec mused, looking out the window.
"But not the bomb," Mickey added. "Which reminds me...Em, you okay, big guy?"
"Yup, the timer is dismantled. It's just a pile of TNT now," he stated proudly.
"Good," Carlisle said. "You and Jasper get your asses to the house. We're searching these tunnels."
"And Alice," I added. "Is there any map that you can find?"
"I'll look," she answered. "And Bells...it's nice to have you back."
I smiled, feeling Edward's fingers link with mine. "Thanks, pixie," I muttered, looking to Carlisle. "Whenever you're ready..."
~oOo~
EDWARD
"How do you want to do this?" I asked, looking between a split in the tunnel.
Both ways were lit by dim bulbs every few yards, from what I could see. It left spaces filled with shadows. One path descended and then veered off to the left, while the other went straight into darkness. It was the fucking unknown either way.
"Carlisle?" Benny piped in on the radio. "If you split up, make sure that at least one person on each team has a camera on them. I want to be able to see what you're seeing."
"That's me and Em," Dad mused, turning to me. "You take Emmett, Alec, Mickey, and Bella. I'll take Ned, Harry, and Jasper. Alice, any luck on some sort of map?"
"Yes, coming through on your phones now," she stated. "Keep in mind that this is the original mining layout. I'm not sure what the current situation is."
"That's fine, Alice," he said, pulling out his phone. We all followed suit.
"Let me see," Bella muttered softly, looking over my shoulder as I opened the file.
I leaned over and kissed the top of her head, because fuck...I'd missed her like crazy. Just having her by my side made me calmer, more at ease, like none of the rest of this shit mattered. She leaned into it, a ghost of a smile flickering across her features, but she said nothing as she wrapped an arm around my waist.
"It looks like there's an opening about a mile from here," she muttered, tracing a path from where we were, to what looked like Eleazar's position with her finger.
"El, check in," I stated over the radio.
Sam's team was down Elam, who had been shot by a guard at the front gate, so he and Felix had joined Eleazar, Spike, and Eric as they struggled on the edge of the property. A new wave of Walter's men had popped up out of nowhere as my team was making our way to the house.
"I've got three prisoners back at those shacks, four dead," he stated, "and right now, we're tracking a trail to where they came from. I sent Felix to guard the barn, just in case."
My dad's eyebrows shot up. "Are you about a mile out from the main gate?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I got that map. I'm hoping to find the end of the mining shaft on this end... There it is," he sighed in relief. "I'd like to work our way to each other; that will reduce any risk of anymore attacks."
"Fine," my dad stated with a nod. "On this map, there's no split. Alice, where's the biggest concentration of thermal activity?"
"Facing the entrance of the mine...to the right...which would be a northeast direction," she replied. "I'd count about ten more warm bodies, but don't hold me to it. It's underground, so I may not be picking up everything down there. Keep in mind that there could be interference from underground water sources, ore, and just the fact that it's too damn far under there..."
"Ten-four," he sighed, looking to me. "You take that shaft, then, son," he ordered, pointing to the left.
"Carlisle," Bella interrupted. "This is a guess, but...I had a couple of guards on me. They were talking about women, kids... That may be who's down here. They may have put them down here for their safety."
"That's my guess, too," Kurt piped up from behind us all, and he flinched when we spun to look at him.
He'd been so fucking quiet that I'd forgotten all about him. He looked nervous, but there was something about the kid that seemed to scream...harmless. Yeah, I'd warned him, and so had my dad, but Bella's vouching for him, not to mention Bethy's statement of how he'd treated her, meant something to me. I was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
"You don't know?" Bella asked.
"This is my first time here," he said softly with a shrug. "I'm telling you, Bella... I was only with Walter to make sure he stayed away from my dad, mother, and sister. Lilith is...unstable. And for some reason, Walter allows her...leeway. I couldn't risk them going back on their word. As long as I went along, my family was safe."
There it was. I'd been wondering exactly what had kept him with such foul people, especially when he'd been kind enough to help my girls.
"Unstable? No shit, Sherlock," Bella muttered, rolling her eyes, and Mickey chuckled. "Okay, so I think maybe...if it's women and kids down that way," she said, pointing to the tunnel on the right, "that maybe me and Mickey should go..."
"I'm not a Neanderthal, Bells," my dad laughed.
"Speak for yourself," Ned said with a chuckle, giving the girls a wink. "We're cavemen, all the way down to our crotch scratching in front of the TV."
"Nice," Emmett praised with a grin.
"No wonder you two never married," Jasper muttered wryly, rolling his eyes.
Harry grinned, but only shrugged.
"Let me guess," Mickey snickered. "You turn your underwear inside out to wear again another day."
"Now you're catching on!" Harry beamed when both girls groaned and giggled at the same time.
"On that note," Dad snorted, pointing to the right side tunnel. "It's yours, but be-fucking-careful!" he urged, raising an eyebrow up at her. "El, we're going in. We may lose radio signal down here, so just keep your eyes peeled."
"Ten-four," Eleazar replied back.
"Kurt," I barked, and he jumped, looking up at me. "You're with me. Come on." I turned to the rest of my crew. "My team...weapons out. We're going to take this nice and fucking easy...slow. Alec, you've got the back. Emmett, take the lead, since you're..." I waved a hand at him. "Camera boy..."
"Jealous?" he asked, feigning a haughty attitude, but he still pulled his weapon from his back to lock and load it.
"Get your ass in there," I growled, rolling my eyes. "Move out," I ordered, keeping Bella at my side and Kurt in front of us.
My dad's theory was correct; the farther we went into the tunnel, the worse our radio reception was. We lost all communication once we reached a quarter mile in, and at that point, I had no idea if the camera mounted on Emmett's chest was working. We took the tunnel at a slow pace, careful of niches and long spans of darkness. Our path was up and down, and it wound left and right. The walls were jagged, rough stone, with large timbers mounted in archways every few feet. They looked old, but still doing their job of holding up the mountain over our heads. However, there was the occasional side tunnel that had collapsed, like they'd tried to split off again, only for it not to hold.
As we turned another corner about a half a mile in, a wailing baby's cry echoed down the tunnel, only to be hushed immediately.
"Oh, hell," I sighed, shaking my head. "Em, take this easy," I told him. "Be cautious, but don't get trigger happy. Sounds like Bella was right."
The tunnel opened up to a wider area. My heart sank at the sight before me. Lining every inch of the place were makeshift cots, bedrolls, and small fires. I looked up to see an opening in the mountain, almost like it had formed with a cave that way. Alice was right. There were ten to twelve women and children in there. And our appearance was scaring the shit out of them. Women pulled toddlers closer, older children ran to their beds, elderly women flinched, and one woman scooped up an infant, trying to make a run for it, but coming in on the other side was Eleazar and his team.
"Alice, can you read me?" I asked, thinking that the opening overhead would reinstate our communication.
"Yeah, and we see you, too," she stated. "Damn, they look...scared."
"They are," Bella sighed, looking to Eleazar when he took control over the small crowd.
"I need you all to please calm down. We're here to help you. We'll get you out of here shortly," he stated, commanding the attention of everyone in the small space.
"Where's Walter?" one woman asked, standing up slowly from her bed roll.
"Which way did he go?" El countered, stepping closer to her. She pointed toward the way he had come in. "Shit," he hissed, shaking his head. "He escaped the same time that second wave came at me, I'd guarantee it."
"Was Lilith with him?" Bella asked, her face dark with the anger that she could barely contain.
The woman nodded slowly, her eyes wide.
Eleazar walked to me, his face grim. "I want them out of here, but I need to talk to them. Any word from your dad?"
"No," I said with a shake to my head. "We lost him about a quarter mile back. We think this is the original tunnel. There's no telling how deep his goes."
He nodded, swallowed, and turned back to the group, as Mickey, Bella, and Eric checked the well being of everyone.
"Oh shit," I heard over the radio in a hiss from Makenna.
"Tell me, Mack," I ordered, because she didn't normally say anything unless she recognized someone.
"Em, turn slightly to your left. Sam...you turn to the right ninety degrees," she stated, and both men did as she asked. "See the old woman against the wall in front of Emmett?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said warily, walking to stand next to Emmett.
"Don't you recognize her, Edward?" she asked incredulously. "That's the old homeless lady from that coffee shop in Seattle – the one we use when we go see Carlisle. She was right around the corner from Twi Tech. She'd been there for months. Remember? The last time we saw her, she gave Bethy a little bouquet of wildflowers?"
I tilted my head at the old woman, my eyebrows raising up. "Oh yeah! And who is Sam looking at, Makenna?" I asked, walking to his position.
"Carla Danvers and her son, Malcolm," she stated, like I was supposed to know who that was. "They've been missing for days out of Portland! Her husband's been on TV, asking for information. These are missing and homeless people, Edward!"
As I skimmed over the lot of them, I saw what she was saying. They were dirty and scared, they were actually comfortable down here, and they seemed to have no idea that living like they were was wrong.
"Aw, you've got to be kidding me," Eleazar groaned, rubbing his face roughly. "This is some sort of cult, then," he said softly to himself, only to turn to Eric. "Once you make sure they can all move, I want them out of here. Now! We'll get them back up to the house and make them comfortable, until I can get a medical team up this fucking wet ass mountain."
"Sir," Eric grunted with a nod.
"And Benny," he barked, probably more out of exasperation than anything, "get on the horn with Portland. Tell them we may have found their missing woman and kid. Find out the details on that shit."
"Wes is calling them now," Benny replied, and I knew the man well enough to know that he was shocked at what he was seeing on camera.
"Great," he stated wryly. "Let's...move them out. I hate being in a fucking groundhog burrow. The shit's making me nervous."
~oOo~
The sun had risen to a bright day, and we'd basically taken over Walter's compound temporarily. We'd moved the women and children into spare rooms, allowing them to clean up a little. Alec had raided the kitchen, and though there wasn't much, he started making spaghetti to feed them all. However, the fact that his sauce was coming from a jar was offending the Italian in him to no end.
Wes and Benny hiked up to us, because when they tried to drive, their van wouldn't make it. The road was too slick, to unstable for them to drive it. They were currently talking to some of the women.
From what we could gather, most of the people in the tunnel knew Walter, or were seeing him professionally at Shady Glen – with the exception of Carla Danvers. She was merely at the wrong place, at the wrong time. She'd been filling up at a gas station when Kenny and Rusty had pulled in with Abby and Bethy. The Amber Alert had just gone out over the radio, and she had tried to call it in, but they'd stopped her, taking her and her son right then and there. She'd been passed over to someone else along the way and had been a prisoner ever since.
That conversation resulted in Bella's inability to hear another word, and she left the house in a rage.
Walter had been recruiting. It was homeless single mothers – or as close to it as they could get – and it was women with harmless mental problems, like extremely low self esteem or uneducated, so that they were easily manipulated. Walter told them he had a place for them away from judgmental society. And some of the women were spouses of the men that had attacked us. They said their husbands had been duped by Walter, because he played into a love of guns, hunting, and a hatred for government. Those women had been forced to go by their significant others, with a promise of a better life – or better yet...a job.
All told, there were fourteen women and six children. It was fucking ridiculous.
I lowered my head into one of the bathroom sinks, wetting my hair and finally washing the face paint off. I scrubbed hard, making sure to get all of it, and dried my face on a spare shirt from my bag. I looked up to see my dad standing in the doorway.
"My turn," he grunted, starting to do the same. "El put out an APB on Lilith and Walter. We're not sure if they're on foot, or if they've acquired a car by now."
I nodded, sighing with relief when I could finally rip open the velcro of my kevlar vest. "El and Benny seem to think he's not done. That he'll come for us again," I said, keeping my voice low.
"He may be right." He shrugged, leaning a hip against the bathroom sink. "I was going to continue to help him. I wanted to ask if you were in."
I grimaced, looking down the hall as six-year-old Malcolm Danvers sat on the floor with a race car in his hand, but I nodded. "I'll talk to Bella," I told him. "But the answer is probably yes, if only to capture Lilith."
He nodded, like he'd suspected as much, pushing away from the sink. "Where's El now?"
"Rounding up every prisoner."
"How many were there?"
"Alec and I had one down in the bomb shelter, El's team caught three, and I think there was an injured man at the guard shack," I reported as we walked down the stairs to the living room.
"What's he doing about Kurt?" he asked.
"He's treating him as a witness, for now, though Rose spoke to his father, who's out on bail," I explained. "The kid wasn't lying. Walter had threatened the whole family, once he discovered that Dr. Vernon was on the take at Shady Glen. He went as far as killing the family dog, just to prove he could get to them. So Kurt played along. I'd have done the same thing...just to make sure the asshole didn't touch my family."
He nodded once, relaxing a bit at that news, and sighed. "Okay, well, we're stuck here for a few more hours, at least until that road dries up, so settle in for a bit."
We stepped out onto the front porch, and he pulled out his phone, most likely to call Esme.
"Tell her hello." I chuckled at his wry smile, making my way down the steps. I wanted to find Bella. "Oh," I said, turning back to him. "What's the story here?" I asked, waving my hand around.
"Waco gone terribly wrong," he replied. "With Walter's escape and the return of Carla and Malcolm Danvers, it won't take long to pair it up with the train station fiasco, so this will be a media frenzy. We won't be mentioned," he stated, "but El is bringing in a clean up team. They'll make false statements, but what really happened...the world will never know."
I huffed a laugh and shook my head. "Does he know who shot JFK?"
My dad chuckled. "Yeah, probably," he snorted. "But if he told us, he'd have to kill us."
I grinned, holding my hands up in surrender. "Right...got it."
I found Bella in the barn, leaning in the doorway, her gaze sweeping over the cache of weapons, but more importantly, the stack of TNT. I walked up behind her, swirling her ponytail around my hand and placing a kiss to the back of her neck.
"You okay?" I asked for the umpteenth time.
She nodded, humming, "Mmhm." She leaned back against me, and I wrapped my arms around her waist. "This was above me the entire time?"
I grimaced, because that same thought had gone through my mind the second I saw it. "Yes, love."
"Was the timer on?" she asked, pointing to the bomb that Emmett had disengaged.
"No, sweetness," I assured her. "It looked like it was waiting to be put to use."
She nodded, finally turning to face me, a smile lighting up her face. "Ah, there's the face I love," she giggled, reaching up to cup my jaw. "The face paint was hot, in a rugged, dirty sort of way, but I love this," she said with a grin, biting her bottom lip and squishing my face.
I chuckled, leaning in to kiss her lips lightly – smooshed face and all. "And I love you. God, I m-missed y-you," I sighed, pressing my forehead to hers and pulling her flush to me. "I w-was s-so w-worried, baby."
"I know," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry, Edward."
"Don't be," I told her, kissing her nose. "However much I hated it, it got us our girl back."
She swallowed thickly, nodding a bit. "It was so fucking hard letting her go," she breathed. "But I knew you guys were waiting."
"We were, baby. She was fine...they were both fine. She did just what you told her to..." I was about to tell her that when we went to get her at the hotel, poor Bethy fell apart, but loud voices from the other end of the barn cut me off.
We turned to see Eleazar walking his four prisoners at gunpoint. Sam and Felix were walking with them. A skinny fucker tried to run, but made the mistake of picking Sam's side to turn to. A large, unsympathetic fist caught him in the face, knocking his ass flat on the ground, where he writhed in pain.
"Not so fast, Kenny," Sam rumbled with his deep voice.
My eyebrows shot up, and I walked away from Bella, picking the motherfucker up off of the ground by his neck and slamming him into the nearest pole.
"Kenny," I sneered, pointing my Glock to his temple. "I'm sure Rusty misses you. Ready to be his cellmate in hell?" I asked him.
Several pairs of hands pulled at me, but I held my ground, staring at the asshole in my grip. All I could see was Bethy with a gun pointed to her forehead, and this motherfucker's hand attached to the other end. I'd made sure that Rusty had paid for the same sin – for Abby. But the same crime against my daughter would not go fucking unpunished.
Kenny tried to laugh, but his airway was suddenly cut off. He couldn't even fight against my grip, because his hands were zip tied behind his back, but his feet kicked out, trying to make purchase against me. His lips moved, but no sound came out.
"What was that?" I asked, letting up just a bit.
"I said...whatever," he rasped, trying to swallow. "Walter's gone, man."
"Not for long," I chuckled with a shrug.
"Hey, Ed," Eleazar said, coming to stand by my side. "I get it, but I need to ask him some questions. Feel free to join in on the...interrogation." He gave me a raised eyebrow, and I knew that El would be using whatever means necessary to get this guy to talk. "He keeps singing about how we won't find Walter, but he hasn't met your dad yet."
I smiled, dragging my tongue along my bottom lip. My dad was deadly when it came to interrogations. He would slowly, methodically torture information out of men – men more dangerous than the little thief I had in my hands. I nodded and let go, snickering in amusement when Kenny grunted with his hard fall. He landed awkwardly due to his bound hands and rolled to a sitting position.
"Hey, Dad!" he called mockingly. "Has she asked about me? Does Bethy miss me?"
Bella started for him, but my fist flew before I could think. I caught him directly in the temple, and he sagged to the dusty floor of the barn.
"No, asshole," I told him, though he was out cold.
Sam sighed, tilting his head over at me with a sarcastic look plastered on his face. "Thanks, Eddie. Now I have to carry his sorry ass."
"Sorry," I muttered, still glaring at the man at my feet.
"No biggie," he chuckled, hefting Kenny onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes with ease. "I was just saying..."
I huffed a laugh at him as he walked away with Eleazar and the rest of their prisoners.
"I'll let you know when we're ready to begin," El called over his shoulder.
The radio crackled in my ear as Bella and I sat down on a bale of hay. It had been quiet since we'd secured the compound, so I'd assumed the girls had been getting some much needed rest. They'd been up all night with us – well before we had exited the truck about halfway down the mountain.
"Alice," I sighed, pulling Bella to my side during a rare quiet moment. "You're gonna go blind if you stay on those computers any longer, pixie."
Alice chuckled. "I think I may need glasses," she laughed softly. "I've worn out my eyeballs the last few weeks. But I'm merely on here to relay a message."
"Okay," I groaned wearily, smiling into the top of Bella's head when she snickered into my chest.
"Morning, Daddy!" Bethy chirped over the radio, sounding like sunshine and all things perfect and happy.
Bella gasped, sitting up, her hands covering her mouth, and I realized that she hadn't talked to our little girl since she'd had to let the girls go at the hotel. It had to have been the single hardest thing she'd ever done, and I was still in awe of her. The pure fucking blind faith it must have taken to just set the girls free was still something I couldn't wrap my head around.
"Hey, little sweetness," I said, unable to keep the smile off of my face. "Did you take care of Gamma for me and Poppy?" I asked, wanting to surprise Bethy with her mother.
"I did!" she squeaked. "We watched movies, made pock-corn, and she let me play dress up. And we kept only happy thoughts...just like Unca Alec told me. Did it work, Daddy?"
I grinned, reaching up to wipe away the happy tears that were spilling down Bella's face and tucking a stray hair behind her ear that had escaped her ponytail. "You tell me, baby. Someone wants to say hi."
"Hey, pretty girl," Bella sniffled.
"Mommy!" Bethy practically screamed into the radio, causing us both to flinch, but chuckle at the same time. "Daddy found you?"
"He did, baby," she laughed and sniffled at the same time, leaning into me as I wrapped an arm around her. "He always does."
"Good. You can come home now," she stated, much like an order, and I laughed, because she sounded just like me.
"Soon, Bethy," I told her. "Not long. Keep taking care of Gamma for Poppy, okay?"
"Okay, but I want to see you," she said, her voice dropping to a sad tone. "Hurry?"
"We're doing the best we can, okay, baby?" Bella soothed softly. "How 'bout we call you every now and then to check in, huh?"
"Promise?"
"Promise," we both vowed at the same time.
"Okay, love you...be safe," she sang, and her voice was replaced with Alice's again.
"Love you, too," we called back.
"I thought you two could use that," she giggled.
"Yeah," Bella sighed, a smile playing on her face, but tears welled up in her eyes at the same time.
I smiled, pulling Bella to my lap, because she looked like she was about to lose it. "Yeah, thanks, Alice."
~oOo~
BELLA
I sat on the water well, bringing my knees up to my chin. It was late afternoon, and the road up to the compound had dried enough that vehicles could now get in. The place was chaos. Ambulances, coroners, and more of Eleazar's men had arrived and were now in the process of cleaning up the place, checking the people that we'd found in the tunnels, and removing the bodies of Walter's men.
Carla and Malcolm Danvers' reappearance had brought the media to the bottom of the mountain, and they were now being held back by Wes and Benny – not to mention a few local police. Mr. Danvers was being brought in at that moment. Anyone that wasn't CIA was being kept hidden, because Eleazar needed to keep some parts of this operation secret, and that included Edward's and Carlisle's participation, not to mention the rest of our crew.
My eyes fell on the men that were pulling Christopher Douglas out of the bomb shelter, and I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to try and keep my composure, but the tears came anyway. I owed it to him to tell his mother. He didn't want her to go the rest of her life wondering what happened.
"Hey, what's this?" Edward whispered, suddenly at my side. Kneeling beside me, he cupped my face to wipe away my tears.
"Lilith just killed him, Edward," I breathed, gesturing to the gurney that two men were struggling with over the rough terrain and the weight of Chris' body. "She just...pulled the trigger..." I sniffled, shaking my head. "She wanted him to suffer. And he did...for hours."
Edward turned me, pulled my legs down so that they were on either side of him, and looked up at me as he rubbed my thigh gently with one hand and continued to caress my face with the other. His touch was soothing, just as it always had been from the beginning, even when my tolerance for it was limited, and I unleashed emotionally on him.
"He...He made me promise to tell his mom," I hiccuped, playing with Edward's fingers on my leg until he just linked our fingers together. "He didn't want... He wasn't a bad guy, Edward. He just was young and made a stupid...a horrible..."
"Mistake," he finished softly for me, and I nodded frantically.
"Yes," I sobbed, nodding again. "I tried to stay...confident and strong, but that... She was so fucking callous!" I growled, practically shaking as I balled up my fists. "There was no remorse. None. And when we explained to Chris why he was there...when we talked about her girls... this...this look came over her face, like maybe Bree hadn't been an accident, you know?"
Edward stayed quiet like he always did when I lost it like this. He brushed my hair from my face softly, his eyes locked on my face. They were sincere and as green as the forest surrounding us, and they showed an ancient worry that I hadn't seen since Riley Miller was after me. He was afraid for me, that my captivity was too much. Maybe it was, or maybe just Edward's presence was like a soothing balm on a burn that allowed me to relax just a little.
"You were strong, sweetness," he soothed, ghosting his fingers along my cheek and under my chin. "It's hard watching a man die like that, especially when it's pointless. We'll go see his mother, if that's what you want," he stated, rubbing my hand until it relaxed, and then he kissed each finger.
"I promised him," I urged.
"Okay, baby," he said with a nod, placing another kiss to the middle of my palm. "Then we'll go."
I nodded, reaching out to cup his face. He was all things strong and noble, soft and comforting. And his face was fucking beautiful as he gazed up worriedly at me. I knew there was a part of him that was probably raging inside, because he couldn't fix whatever had hurt me, but he tamped it down in order to treat me like fragile glass, and at that moment, I felt a little bit like that.
"I love you. I'm sorry," I breathed, bringing his lips to mine.
"Don't be sorry, love," he whispered, kissing me once, before pulling back to look at me. "I know it wasn't easy down there."
I shrugged, sniffling at the same time, but allowed my forehead to fall to his.
"Sweetness," he started tentatively, "who gave you the bruise?"
I pulled back, and he traced a finger around the side of my eye and across my cheek. "Lilith, right after they discovered that my bag didn't have the money...and just before I kicked her ass with my hands still cuffed."
He grinned beautifully crooked, shook his head once, and leaned up to kiss my bruise with a feather light touch. "That's my girl," he chuckled.
I couldn't help but smile with him, because I was willing to bet he'd been tossing that question around in his head since he laid eyes on me. I probably needed to lay his fears to rest.
"Walter didn't touch me," I stated firmly. "No one did, except for that. I promise, baby."
He let out a sigh of relief and said, "Good."
Two large SUVs with dark tinted windows pulled onto the property at the same time that Eleazar and Carlisle came out of the house and walked toward us.
"We're being kicked off the mountain," Carlisle snickered, giving both of us a wry smile.
"Just until morning," Eleazar countered. "There's an inn down the mountain in a small town. I've taken it over. Take your crew, get some rest, and come back up here in the morning."
"What about questioning Porter?" Edward asked, his brow furrowing.
"Tomorrow," Eleazar urged, and then pointed to me. "She's shattered, Edward. And you guys need to be off this property for the rest of the clean up. I will need you tomorrow, though."
I would've argued to stay, but he was right. I was exhausted and in terrible need of a shower, so I stood slowly and took Edward's hand. "Tomorrow," I conceded, pulling him up, just as our whole crew exited the house. I looked up to Edward. "It'll be fine. Let's go."
~oOo~
"Hi, Mommy," my pretty girl said with a yawn over the phone. "Gamma says you'll be home soon."
"We will, baby," I sighed, stretching my legs out on the bed in our hotel room and straightening the robe I'd put on after my very much needed shower. "I'm not sure when, but we're trying really hard to finish up. Are you getting in bed?" I asked, missing the little routine we used to have before all the shit started.
Normally, Edward or I would read to her until she nodded off. His "little soldier" commands were her favorite of the night. And there were always lots of hugs and kisses before he'd fly her into her bed, tucking the covers around her.
"Yes." She audibly yawned again, fighting sleep, and I looked up as Edward came out of the bathroom after his shower.
I bit back a swoon and a groan at the sight of him in just a towel wrapped low on his hips. Water still glistened on his shoulders and arms, and his hair was a tumbled wet, sexy mess. The two day stubble on his face, the dark green of his eyes as he scanned through his phone and set his clothes on a chair, and the flexing and rolling of every muscle as he innocently moved about the room was just killing me. Sometimes, he reminded me of that beautiful, untouchable man that I first saw making me breakfast in just a pair of basketball shorts after rescuing me from Miller – unknowingly sexy. And then there were times he was the thirteen year old that I'd first met, that I'd hung out with all day in my tree house in Seattle, because when he heard his baby's voice over the phone, he smiled sweetly, crookedly, and lovingly, holding his hand out for the phone.
"Night-night, pretty girl," I told her, nodding to him. "Be good for Gamma, okay? I love you."
"Okay, Mommy. Love you, too," she muttered wearily on the other end of the line.
I handed over the phone to Edward, who immediately started with, "Is it lights out, little soldier?"
He grinned when she snapped, "Yes, sir!"
I giggled, shaking my head and padding into the bathroom to brush my teeth as he commanded her to only have good dreams. By the time I came back in the room, he was sitting on the side of the bed, setting the hotel phone back in its cradle.
"She sounds like...this shit didn't affect her," I stated softly, walking to him to stand between his legs.
His hands immediately landed on my waist, and he looked up at me, his brow furrowing just a touch. "She kinda freaked out on me when you weren't at the motel room," he sighed with a grimace, "but she calmed down once I got her home. Esme says she's dealing with it perfectly. She's a little...clingy."
I took a deep breath and let it out. My worst fear for Bethy was that there would be irreparable damage from her kidnapping. I knew what it was like, though her experience came nowhere near what I'd gone through with Miller. Thank God. I never wanted my baby to have fears of basements or touch. It had taken me a very long time to work through my fears. It had been painful, scary, and downright nerve wracking. Without Edward there for every single fucking step, I'm not sure I'd be as comfortable in my own skin.
I ran my fingers through his soft, damp hair, sighing softly with contentment. "Clingy, I can handle. I might be a little clingy right back when we get home. I need girl time with my baby. Maybe even a pajama picnic in the living room," I said with a grin and a bite to my bottom lip.
Edward chuckled, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me flush to him. He set his chin on my stomach and gazed up at me. "Sounds like fun. I may have to crash that pajama party."
"Should I sneak you in?" I teased him.
"Want me to come in through a window, sweetness?" he snickered, his hands starting to travel over my back, over my bottom, giving it a squeeze, and down the backs of my legs.
"Why does that sound like something you've done before?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him when his cheeks tinged pink. "Edward Cullen!" I gasped in false shock, my mouth hanging open.
He huffed an embarrassed laugh. "Once, okay? But I almost got caught by the girl's father. Scared the shit out of me, because he had quite the extensive gun collection..."
I giggled, because I couldn't help it. His past was no secret to me when it came to women, but he was mine now. I didn't doubt it. In fact, I trusted his love for me completely. It was a crutch I leaned on in order to make it through life. Without it, I wasn't sure I'd have made it through my most recent captivity.
I sighed, brushing his hair from his forehead so that I could place a long, slow kiss there. "God, I missed you," I moaned, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and another around his head when he buried his face into my stomach, just holding me. "I had dreams about you when I was gone, and it just made shit so much worse," I admitted softly into his hair.
His hands skimmed down my backside again – only this time, they traveled underneath the edge of my robe. As he slowly brought them up to cup my ass, he pulled his head from my torso.
"Tell me about them," he commanded in a smooth, velvet voice, his eyes darkening when he discovered that I was bare underneath.
"You were kissing me," I whispered, already reacting to his touch. "Touching me."
"You had dirty dreams, baby?" he asked, a naughty crooked smile curling up on his lips.
"Mmhm," I said with a nod. "I did," I breathed, when he tugged the knot open on my robe.
"Did it make you wet for me?" he asked, his voice like liquid sin and warm honey, dripping with want and sex and carnal knowledge.
"It made me cry for you," I whispered the truth and nodded at the same time, which only caused his eyes to darken even more. The green was almost nonexistent at this point.
He dropped the terrycloth belt to the floor and gently opened my robe, letting it hang loosely on my shoulders. With a flat hand, he pressed it to my stomach and ghosted it up between my breasts to my neck and back down. He was taking his time on purpose, teasing me. He wasn't even kissing me yet, and I was aching for him to the point my legs were almost shaking.
"Did you come in your dream?" he asked, and my stomach tingled and clenched at the way that sounded, but I shook my head no. "So..." he sighed dramatically as his brow furrowed in concentration, using both hands to glide up my upper body, purposefully skimming his palms over my hard nipples, to push my robe off of my shoulders. It pooled silently at my feet. "Do you want to come, love?"
"Yes," I breathed, a sound barely escaping me, because I needed to feel him, needed to reaffirm my aching love for him. "Please..."
He leaned in to drag his nose over my skin from my bellybutton, around each nipple, and up my neck to my ear, where he finally opened his mouth. A long, deep moan rumbled from him when he laved his tongue over the soft spot behind my ear, sucking lightly. My fingers gripped his shoulder and wove themselves into his hair to hold him there.
"I couldn't sleep in our bed without you," he admitted in a whisper, his breath pushing softly against the wetness he'd just left on my flesh, causing me to shiver. "It seemed...wrong, baby."
"Edward..."
"Shh," he chided gently, shaking his head, because he didn't want to have that conversation. From the look on his face, he only wanted me. "I want to finish that dream for you," he added in a rasping whisper, switching to the other side of my neck and leaving another long, slow kiss.
"Then you really need to kiss me," I panted, tugging his hair so that he would look up at me. "Really kiss me."
Long, talented fingers traced up my spine, almost tickling me from the small of my back, all the way up to my shoulder blades. Edward's other hand slipped into my hair at the base of my neck, weaving firmly and pulling me closer. My forehead thumped to his, our eyes locked. There was need and want, relief, and a glimmer of relaxation that shifted between us, before I nipped at his top lip, and then the bottom. Teeth and tongues slid lightly over skin, as I dragged my fingers slowly down his chest, caressing each pec, each ab, and each vee just above the towel he was still in.
Tugging at the terrycloth, I finally exposed him, only to crawl into his lap, straddling his thighs as he covered my mouth with his own. Edward pulled me closer, trapping his arousal between us, and a deep, breathtakingly erotic moan rumbled from his chest. He turned my head, moving us farther up on the bed and deepening the kiss. Our tongues swirled together as I loomed over him, pushing at him to lay back, but he had other ideas in mind, and he pulled me down with him.
Sliding his flattened hands down my back, he gripped my ass, grinding me against him, only to finally break away from my mouth to gaze up at me with pure heat in his eyes.
"Bring that sweet pussy to me, baby," he purred, his voice almost hypnotizing in its carnal sound.
I grinned, remembering the guards outside my cell, and my thoughts of how different the word pussy sounded when it was said the right the way – and Edward always said it the right fucking way.
He shifted under me, bringing his legs up behind me as slipped me up his chest so that I was straddling him, with my knees on either side of his head.
"What?" he asked, caressing the outside of my thighs, only to place a kiss just shy of where I needed his mouth the most.
"Nothing," I groaned, unable to keep my hips still as I writhed to get closer to him.
"Tell me, love," he teased, trailing his tongue where my thigh creased. "What was that smile?" he asked, giving me a long, slow lick on the outside of my folds.
My eyes rolled back, and so did my head, at the same time I breathed, "The word pussy, Edward. It sounds so good the way you say it."
He moaned against my flesh – this time, slipping his tongue just inside my folds to swirl the tip of it around my clit. His hands slipped under my ass to lift me, to bring me closer.
"That's because it's such a beautiful pussy, baby. There's more than one reason I call you sweetness..." he crooned, with an open mouth kiss and a swirl around my entrance. "Now, open up for me, so I can see all of it, beautiful..."
"Oh fuck," I hissed, losing myself in the sensation of his mouth on me, his tongue in me, his hands holding me open, his stubble rubbing against my skin just right,and the amazing sounds that vibrated up my body as he hummed against me.
My climax started at my toes, causing a rolling wave to slither up my body, until I was grinding against his face and gripping the covers of the bed in two tight fists as I reclined back against his thighs. My stomach muscles clenched as he sucked me hard into his mouth and slid two fingers deep inside of me, and my breath caught as my whole being shattered.
I shuddered in post-coital bliss as Edward gently rolled me over, settling between my legs and bracing his elbows on either side of my head. He brushed my hair from my face, dropping sweet, nipping kisses on the corner of my mouth, my chin, down my neck.
"Did that beat the dream, sweetness?" he whispered against my collarbone.
I laughed weakly, nodding. "Yeah," I sighed, threading my fingers into his hair. "Most definitely."
I pulled him closer, and he came willingly, giving me most of his weight and a long, breathtaking kiss. He tasted of me and a touch of mint. His hips shifted forward, causing my breath to catch when his cock brushed against my oversensitive clit as he slid through my slick heat.
"God, Bella," he grunted, squeezing his eyes closed and pressing his forehead to mine. "Th-There was a p-part of m-me that th-thought... th-that w-was afraid of n-never having this again...of l-losing y-you."
"Shh." It was my turn to shush him softly, shaking my head, because the pure honesty that came through in his stutter was sweet and scary and filled with a slight touch of sorrow. "I'm here. We're here, Edward. Make love to me, baby," I told him, gliding my hands over his strong shoulders and down his back, reveling in every sinewy muscle, finally reaching his ass and urging him to enter me. "Please, Edward..."
His mouth covered mine, kissing me with an almost frantic feel behind it, but his hand traveled with a sweet, loving touch down my side to my leg, which he hitched up higher around him. With one beautiful roll of his hips, he slipped into me, and we both moaned at the feel of that perfect connection, that feeling of fulfillment.
I couldn't imagine what Edward had gone through when both his wife and child had been taken from him. Even though it might have been less than a day, I knew it must've taken all that he had to maintain his sanity. He loved us and protected us with every fiber of his being. His very first concern in the morning and his last thought of the day was his family. Every job we took, he treated with utmost security. Even the food he cooked was done with us in mind – what we wanted, what we might like, and what was good for us. To have that snatched away – for even mere hours – must've killed him.
With every kiss, every gasp, every gripping hand, we reassured ourselves that we were okay. That our little family unit was safe, that our love was still fucking strong. The danger may not be over, but we would not make the same mistakes again. We would hold on stronger, fiercer, and with more determination to never let someone take what we had worked so hard to build.
We fell apart together, coming hard, but somewhat subdued, clinging to each other fiercely. Despite how we were covered in sweat, we didn't let go, but held each other close way into the night. We spoke softly about Bethy, about how we were needed back at the compound the next day, about how Carlisle had asked for our help. We both agreed that Lilith and Walter should be stopped, because there was no telling what they would do next.
I yawned widely sometime just after two in the morning, mumbling about not wanting to stop talking, because I'd missed it. Edward chuckled, kissing my forehead, and said, "Sleep, love. We'll pick up in the morning where we left off."
I buried myself in his neck, closing my eyes, and I knew no more.
A/N... Ahhh, a little make up time.
Okay, so Walter and Lilith got away, but there are still interrogations to do. I do want to warn you about those, because they will be...rough. Though, the way you feel about Kenny, I'm not sure it would be violent enough for you. LOL
I know some of you are concerned with how long this story will be. I'm looking at about 23 chaps, give or take. So as you can tell, this story is far from over. :)
I need to thank JenRar for all that she does. We've been throwing around all sorts of ideas at each other, and I've benefited greatly from it. MUWAH. I need to thank GooberLou for pre-reading this, because without her, I would plan such torturous things for the bad guys in all my stories. Hehe. And MedusaInNY... oh, I need you on so many levels! I just love you. Forget blogs and the pom-pom cheering that she does, it's just more.
Okay, the next posting will be on Wed, BUT... there may be a little break from the Sunday post. It will depend on time and my writing skills. I need to catch up, but I will let you know by Wed. So, make this one and the next one count. Tell me what you think. I love all your theories. Much love...and until next time... Later. :D