Disclaimer still applies; Stephanie Meyer owns all recognizable Twilight characters.

In case anyone is interested I submitted a one shot for the Love for the Unloved contest featuring Garrett. The link is in my profile or you can use this, just replace the (dot) with the real thing. I'd love to know what you think of that one, it's only one chapter and a pretty quick read but I had a blast writing it. There are some other great stories in the community for the contest; the link is in the story.

http://www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/5394233/1/

As always, I absolutely love you all for reading, reviewing, the pms, the alerts and favorites. Remember reviews tell me how I'm doing, it's like a progress report and parent teacher conference all rolled into one. :) Please keep them coming. A friend has offered to start a blog, let me know if that is something you would have any interest in, not real sure anyone would visit, LOL. I would put the sneak peek previews there and we can just chat about the story or I can answer questions.

Only At Night

Chapter 15

The Devil You Know

BPOV

Jesus why is this happening to me? I live off the grid for six fucking years, keep to myself, exercise extreme caution in who I sleep with and never more than once, and now, now that I have finally begun to live again and maybe, just maybe be happy with the perfect guy and I attract a damn stalker. Shit. Poor Jasper, he doesn't deserve this. Thank God for Rose. It would have never occurred to me to keep his name out of it, but she was right, he can't be involved in this. That asshat would probably try to find some way to blackmail him or some shit. I was beginning to understand what people meant when they said money could often be a curse.

The more pressing issue at the moment was James. I felt absolutely terrible that Jacob was pressing assault charges. It was ridiculous. Jacob was stalking me, calling me, peeping in my windows and he gets a couple harsh words. James defends me and gets arrested. Sometimes I hated the justice system I was getting myself involved in. This shit just wasn't fair. I wonder if I could get the law firm to handle his defense pro bono. Maybe Sam could give me some advice or make a call on my behalf. Sam Uley replaced Charlie as the Chief of Police in Forks after Charlie was killed, he was a good friend and he always said if I ever needed anything to call him.

Oh God! Jacob has been looking in my windows. What the fuck did he see? Did he see me…? Oh shit, the night on the phone with Jasper, I thought I heard something outside, was it Jacob watching me? Well, he sure got an eye full if he was. I cringed at the thought. Jasper would kill him for sure. I could not let that happen. We had to spend as much time as possible outside of Washington, it wouldn't be long before I moved and with any luck he would have no idea where to find me.

Jasper was saying something about Not letting him live next door tome, what the hell was he talking about?

"Bella, he isn't your neighbor?" Jasper looked confused

"No. Why would you think that?" I didn't know where he was going with this.

"Bella, he's the guy that was in the car in front of your neighbors yesterday that gave me the dirty looks. I thought it was your next door neighbor. Shit, he was at your house. Fuck, Bella, what if I hadn't shown up when I did? I thought he had just gotten into his car, maybe he was about to get out when I pulled up."

"Oh God, Jasper." Oh shit, what if he started doing more than peeping in the windows.

"Ok, that's it; I have to tell the police I saw him at your house. He was the one that called and hung up this morning, maybe they can trace that call, and we would have proof."

"NO." We all yelled.

"Bella, I don't care if he finds out 'who' I am. I'm not going to let him hurt you." The pain in Jasper's eyes terrified me.

"No, Jasper. I will not let him hurt you either."

"Bella, we don't know how dangerous this guy is. I have to go to Palo Alto in three weeks, what if he tries something and I'm not here?"

"What if he tries something and you are?" I glared straight at him.

"Bella, Emmett is going to go in with you to bail out James. We will wait in the car." Rose broke the silence and the awkward standoff between Jasper and I.

Emmett draped his arm across my shoulders and walked into the police station with me and led us to the desk. Emmett did the talking while I looked around taking in the sight. I had never even considered criminal law and I was pretty sure I knew why.

"Bella, is that you, what are you doing here?" An officer in a crisp uniform approached and it took me a minute to recognize him.

"Steve?"

"Yeah, what happened, you don't look so great, no offense." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"It's been a long night." Steve was in my law school class, I had forgotten that he was a police officer until now. I remembered study group first year, Steve pulled all of us through Criminal Procedure.

"Come with me, Sarge, I got this."

"Steve, this is my friend Emmett. Emmett, Steve is a classmate of mine." Emmett visibly relaxed; the night was taking its toll on all of us.

Steve led us to a conference room and I told him the entire story starting with the night I met Jacob and rejected him, my suspicions about Jacob looking through my windows and the flowers and calls and then finally the incident at the club. I gave him the copy of the reports from the officer earlier tonight.

"Damn it Bella, why didn't you tell them you were a friend of mine?"

"Steve it all happened so fast, I wasn't thinking real clearly after learning I was being stalked and now my friend is in jail because of me."

For several minutes the room was quiet while Steve read through the reports and asked questions.

"Bella, this is not good, he is escalating. Stay here, I am going to go run his priors and I'll get started on getting your friend released."

Emmett paced the room waiting for Steve to return. He was making me more nervous and I was already jumpy at every sound. What the hell was I going to do when Jasper had to go back home and then to Palo Alto? Shit, I was so scared; and I was pissed that someone could do this and make me feel vulnerable.

"Are you ok?" Emmett stopped in front of me and took my hand in his.

"Emmett, I don't know, I'm scared. I have always been so careful, you know that. I only had a couple drinks with him and danced, it was nothing. I didn't go home with him."

"Baby, it's ok, I know that. Jasper does too, don't worry." He read my mind; I was so worried that Jasper would think I slept with him. Was this my fault for leading him on? I did flirt; Mike and I were messing around flirting in front of each other, shit that was so wrong, why did I do that?

"Bella, whatever you are thinking, stop it right now. This is not your fault, you did nothing wrong. This is all on Jacob."

Steve came back in and explained that Jacob had no priors but he had been involved in a couple domestic violence calls over the past year. This was the worst possible situation. He had no record and the woman that called 911 never followed through so technically Jacob was clean, but he was definitely dangerous.

James was led into the room a few minutes into Steve's explanation. He sat and listened in silence.

We were ready to leave, James had signed the papers he needed to sign and I paid his bail. Steve wanted to know whether there was someone staying with me and he offered to escort me to and from school. I told him I would let him know and thanked him for everything. He was being much nicer than I had ever been to any of my classmates. I didn't deserve all these wonderful people.

Steve pulled James aside while Emmett and I walked to the car. They spoke for a few minutes and James met us out in front and climbed into the back seat next to me.

"What did he say?" I pressed James.

"He is going to talk to the arresting officers and see if they will take my side at the hearing. He thinks we can get the charges dismissed. Who do I owe the bail money to?"

"James, I'm Jasper, I'm sorry this is the way we ended up having to meet. I really appreciate what you did for Bella, please don't worry about the bail money, it's the least I could do." Jasper reached his hand across in front of me and shook James' hand.

"Thanks man, but honestly you don't have to cover the bail."

"Please James, let us do this much." I looked at him practically begging him. "Do you know a lawyer; I could get someone to help."

"Bella, my father is a lawyer; he's actually pretty good too. Please stop worrying, by the time he is done with Jacob, that animal will wish he had never been born."

"Oh, I didn't know." What do I really know about any of these people?

"I'm starving, is anyone else up for some breakfast?" James was calm; it was scary how calm he was considering he had just been arrested.

"Oh thank God, I thought I was going to pass out from the hunger." Emmett laughed.

"Bella, do you think you could eat something?" Jasper asked quietly.

"Yeah, I am not ready to call it a night, but would you guys mind coming to our place, I don't want to go to a restaurant right now." I was terrified Jacob would show up.

"Sure." Emmett and James both agreed.

Mike called Emmett wanting to know what was going on, he was just locking up the bar and heading out.

"Tell him to come here." Jasper looked to me for my ok, I just nodded. It would be good to be surrounded by my family now.

Jasper found the bottle of whiskey and poured shots all around, Rose helped me in the kitchen. I needed to keep busy. Rose seemed to understand. She didn't talk much, didn't push for me to talk. Every once in awhile she would just put her hand on my shoulder or rub my back softly. Just to let me know it would be ok.

There was a knock at the door, I was so startled that I jumped and dropped the platter of toast I had been carrying.

Apparently I was not the only one on edge; Jasper, Emmett and James all jumped up too.

"For fuck's sake, it's probably Mike." Rose knelt down to pick up the broken pieces of platter and tossed them and the toast into the garbage. I went for the broom and dustpan and handed them to Rose's waiting hands.

"Bella, it's ok, it's Mike." Emmett called into the kitchen.

I could hear the whispered voices from the other room.

"How is she?" Mike's voice was clearly concerned.

"Shook up." Emmett responded.

"James, are you ok man?" Mike sounded better as he walked further into the house.

"Yeah, as long as she's ok." I could visualize James' head cocking toward the kitchen.

"Jasper, you good?" Mike was now in the front room with the others.

"No, what the fuck are we going to do? I have to leave in a week. I'm not leaving her alone." Jasper sounded awful, his voice was stressed, tense.

"Dude, don't worry, she won't be alone for a minute, between us we can work this out until she moves. Her cop friend offered to escort her to and from classes too, I vote we take him up on it." Emmett sounded like the burly bouncer once again.

Rose looked at me and rolled her eyes toward the front room where the guys were planning my life.

"Come on, let's get this over with." I reached for Rose's hand and walked out to put my two cents in.

"Ok guys, I really appreciate this, but I think you are over reacting just a bit. I don't need constant babysitting." I looked to Jasper, for his understanding, his support. His eyes were wide and terrified.

"Ok, guys, maybe we are moving a bit fast here, let's let Bella chill for now, we'll figure out what to do later." Well, that was not exactly what I was looking for, but I knew he was scared too.

"Shots? God knows I could use one." I walked toward the bottle and shot glasses Jasper had left on the table.

Jasper walked to me meeting me at the table and smiled down at me. I could see that he was trying to hide the fear and concern in his eyes, but the smile didn't quite cover up the other raw emotions coursing through his body. I held the glasses while Jasper poured and I passed them around. Once everyone had a shot I held up my glass to toast my family.

"1, 2, 3, fuck Jacob." I tried so hard to keep my voice strong and determined.

My amazing family returned the toast in a chorusing round of "1, 2, 3, fuck Jacob."

I laughed and the mood lightened with the soft stifled laughs around the room.

"Now let's eat." I headed back to the kitchen and Rose helped me to bring the dishes and food to the dining room table.

I swear all you have to do is put food in front of boys and they lose all inhibition. Emmett and Mike were arguing over bacon and James was stealing pieces of toast off of Emmett's plate when he wasn't looking. Jasper was hogging the scrambled eggs with cheese and Rose was laughing at the whole lot of them.

I went to take a drink of my coffee and realized I forgot the coffee pot in the kitchen and began to push back my chair to get it when Jasper said, "stay baby, I'll get it for you" and headed to the kitchen.

I smiled and relaxed back into the chair and noticed that all the noise had stopped and everyone was staring at me.

"What?" I had just popped a bite of egg into my mouth.

"Our little girl is in love." James announced as a matter of fact and nodded his approval.

Jasper leaned over my shoulder to pour my coffee and kissed the top of my head before saying "She better be; I plan on spending the rest of my life with your little girl if that is alright with all of you."

Coffee mugs and juice glasses raised and Emmett toasted, "to Bella and Jasper, may they live happily ever after."

Rose and Jasper cleared the table and did the dishes while I gave Emmett, Mike and James a tour of the house and the back deck. Emmett was full of questions about the house and the neighborhood. They all laughed at me when they saw my second bedroom was filled to the brim with books. I had moved my school books to the spare room from the dining room before Jasper came so that we would have more space and if I needed to study he could chill out in the front room or work at the dining room table if he needed to. It was literally a mess of papers and books sprawled out all over the table and floor.

"So Bella, are you going to sell this place or rent it out or what?" Emmett was inspecting the water pressure in my bathtub.

"I don't know yet, we have the realtor coming tomorrow to do an evaluation, why?"

"Cancel it; I want to buy your house Bella."

"What? What do you mean you want to buy my house?"

"Rose, can you come in here?"

"Yes." Rose joined the overcapacity party in my bathroom and Jasper leaned against the doorframe raising his eyebrows at me questioning what was going on.

"Rose was telling me how beautiful your house was and how perfect the area would be for us. She wanted to start looking at houses in this neighborhood. Rose, I want to buy Bella's house, you were right it is beautiful and it would be perfect for us."

"Really, oh Emmett, thank you." Rose hugged him and kissed him passionately.

"Hmm hmm." I cleared my throat; Emmett tended to get carried away when he was kissing Rose. Rose giggled and pulled away.

"Jasper, what do you think, should we sell it?" I looked at Jasper who had nothing but love and awe in his eyes for me.

"Absolutely, I couldn't think of a better plan." Jasper pulled me to him and kissed me, giving Emmett a run for his money in the passion department.

It was Mike's turn to clear the air. "Oh for God's sake, James let's get out of here."

We laughed but followed them to the deck where Jasper lit a fire and we all sat around the fire pit and talked about the house and our move and plans for the spring. I leaned into Jasper's chest and he wrapped his arms around me kissing the top of my head every so often and I fell asleep before the fire in his arms.

JPOV

Bella had fallen asleep finally and Rose went in to grab a throw to put over her. Now that she was out and safe in my arms I felt like I could relax a little. Now we could talk about what we were going to do to keep my girl safe.

"Okay, I have to leave next Sunday, until then she won't be out of my sight except at school and I will drive her and pick her up."

"I made a call while you were in the station with Bella, Emmett. I've arranged for someone to look into Jacob and see what we can find out and we have a team to follow both him and Bella around to make sure that he doesn't get near her. I need a picture of each of you to provide to them so that they know who else will be watching after her." Rose explained to Emmett, James and Mike.

"According to Bella's cop friend Steve, Jacob has no priors but was involved in some domestic violence calls that didn't go anywhere because the woman didn't follow through. Steve's impression is that he is dangerous." Emmett filled us in on what happened inside the station.

"Bella is not going to like this one bit, but I don't think any of us is ok with taking any chances at least until we know more about this guy. I'll talk to her and explain it will make all of us feel safer. She'll be coming to see me in Texas the following weekend but then she has to be back for classes that next week and then the following week we will be in California. Can someone stay here with her while I'm gone?"

"Of course. Mike can you handle after school until time for your shift, and James can you cover while Mike and I are working? I'll come here after work and stay until Steve takes her to school, or I'll drive her myself. Rose maybe you can keep her company, help her pack, it'll get her mind off of things."

Emmett finagled the schedules and it was clear he was a born leader.

"Would it be safer if she stayed with us Em?" Rose suggested.

"Probably, but we all know Bella will not be driven from her home, it will upset her too much. This way we can protect her and she won't have further reason to be upset." Emmett called it on the nose.

I sat back and watched Bella's friends, her family, plan to protect her. She may not have had a lot of friends and no real family, but hell, these people were fiercely loyal the best friends one could hope for. We were very lucky.

"I need all of your contact information, cells phones, emails, what ever, so we can keep in touch while I'm out of town." We all took out our cells and I gave them my number, each of them then called me to send their number to my phone. I saved each one and snapped a picture to store with it and added emails.

I carried Bella to bed and tucked her in and then saw everyone out, Mike agreed to drive everyone home. I doused the fire, double checked all the door locks and windows securing the house and plugged both our phones into the chargers in the bedroom. I changed and cleaned up for bed and went to check the doors one more time before crawling into bed beside Bella.

"Are they gone?" Bella snuggled into my side and put her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah. How are you doing darlin'?" My fingers slid between hers, holding her hand.

"Scared, freaked out, shocked and very pissed." She chuckled at the end of her sentence.

"I know darlin', me too. I won't let him hurt you I promise. Your family is very concerned as well, I think they would all feel much better if you humored them and let them watch over you when I am gone. In the mean time I hired someone to find out everything we can about Jacob and I know you won't like this, but I'm not taking any chances with your safety Bella, to keep an out to make sure he doesn't get near you. Please don't fight me on this. I love you too much to not do everything I can."

"Good, Jasper, its ok, I'm glad you did, I have a very bad feeling about this guy."

"I know, me too baby, me too. James is going to talk to his father tomorrow too, so we should know more soon."

"I am going to call the man that replaced my Dad as the Police Chief, maybe he can put a call in the Chief here and get the word out that this guy is dangerous."

"Good idea. Will he do it for you?"

"Yes, in a heart beat, Charlie was Chief for years and everyone in town loved him, especially his guys. They will do anything to keep me safe for Charlie." Bella sighed and settled in closer.

"Let's try to get some sleep." I kissed her forehead and kept my arm wrapped tight around her. I didn't want to let her go. God this was so fucked up, if only I would have been here the night she met him none of this would be happening, but no, I had the stupid idea to give her space. Peter was going to freak the fuck out when I told him what was going on.

By Sunday afternoon things were taking shape. Felix Rinaldi and Mary Casey were going to be watching Bella, Dimitri Carbone was trailing Jacob and prying into his history. Felix was a giant and built like a tank, Mary was a bombshell with a killer body and she could run like the wind. Her special services were to deflect attention. Dimitri was a born tracker, he could dig up dirt and find any tidbit hidden under the slimiest of rocks, if there was anything out there to use against Jacob, he'd find it. James' father would be touching base with Dimitri and using any information he could to go after Jacob. Steve was going to escort Bella to and from classes and we had arranged coverage for all the other times she would be home. Bella had called Sam Ulely in forks and he was livid. He called the chief here and there was a new sense of urgency in the air. It turned out Bella's dad had helped him out in the past when there were a series of bizarre animal attacks between Forks and Seattle. Squads were driving by and checking in and if Jacob so much as made an illegal u turn he was going to be greeted with open hostility.

I felt better, well a little anyway.

Emmett and Rose wanted to buy the house and that was perfect it meant no realtors and people coming through or lockboxes on the door. If we were lucky, we could do the whole thing with out any one even knowing and I could get her out of here and to California with Jacob none the wiser.

The week flew by, Bella went to class and I drove her, meeting Steve in the parking lot. He stayed with her the entire day and walked her back to my car at the end of the day. We hung out at home with Emmett, Mike and James stopping by intermittently. Rose tried to stay away so that we could have some time alone reasoning that she would be here all week the next week. The girls ended up talking on the phone at least a couple times a day.

Bella had begun making coffee day and night and bringing it out to the officers that were vigilantly driving the area and checking on her. In the evenings she would study and cook, she had filled the freezer with over a dozen casseroles for the coming weeks. Typical Bella, she was the one in need and she dealt with it by taking care of everyone else.

I really wanted to take her out for a nice dinner before I had to leave but she was too nervous to even suggest it. Every time the phone rang she jumped, every car that went by had her trembling. She must have checked the windows and pulled the shades and curtains tight every hour. I could see that she was not doing as well as she was claiming to everyone.

It had been a week and we had not seen or heard a peep out of Jacob and he had not been near the club or gotten pulled over for speeding or anything else. All was quiet.

Bella was helping me to pack my small bag. I was leaving the clothes here for now. My flight was in a couple hours and we had yet to make love since this whole damn thing started and I just wanted Bella in my arms.

Walking up behind her I wrapped my arms around her and inhaled the scent of her shampoo. "Mmm, you smell delicious baby." I lifted her hair to plant small kisses down her neck and rubbed her shoulders. Bella stiffened and then I felt the slight trembling from her shoulders.

"Oh baby, what is it?" I turned her to face me and brushed her hair from her face, tilting her chin up to look at me.

"Jasper, I can't, I can't right now."

"It's ok darlin', don't worry. I understand."

"Jasper, I, I think he was peeking in my bedroom window."

"What? When?" I turned for the window.

"No, not now, I think, that night we were on the phone and we umm, well you know."

Oh fuck, the phone sex??? He fucking watched her. Oh hell no, I'm going to kill him.

"Are you sure?" I couldn't let her see how angry I was.

"That's just it, I'm not sure. I wasn't paying any attention to anything but your voice and well, what I was doing, but I remember thinking I heard something at the window after we um finished and then there was a car door and someone drove off. I thought it was a neighbor, I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now I don't know if I'm imagining things or not." She was sobbing by the time she was done. "Jasper the curtains were open, the light by the bed was on; if he was there he saw it all."

"Shhh, shhh, oh baby, I am so sorry. I don't think he saw it though baby. Think about what he said at the bar, if he saw that then he would have known you were seeing someone."

"No Jasper, that's just it, he wouldn't have, he couldn't have heard anything, the window was closed and the ceiling fan was on, I put the phone on speaker and it was lying on the bed next to me, he wouldn't have seen the phone." She was sobbing again and her shoulders shook.

"Ok, ok, keep the curtains closed from now on. You won't be alone and I'll call every night before bed and we will stay on the phone all night while we sleep if it helps you, ok? I love you Bella, I wish I didn't have to go."

"No you have to go, you have to tie up everything in Texas so we can go find a place in California in a couple weeks and then I can get out of here and we will be together."

"Hmm, forever." I kissed her forehead and hugged her tight.

Emmett stayed at the house when I left for the airport. I dropped the car off and checked in and called Bella from the gate just to hear her voice again before I boarded. Suddenly I remembered the weird text about the flowers the last time I was boarding a flight and wished to Christ I had asked her right then what she was talking about, maybe we would have figured this out sooner.

I took a car service from the airport instead of calling Peter; I wasn't ready to tell him what was going on and certainly not in a car ride. He was likely to crash.

When I arrived home Peter was just returning from Charlotte's and he knew immediately something was wrong.

"Shit head, did you sleep at all this week or behave like an animal the entire time, you look like shit."

"Yeah thanks. We have a problem, you better come inside, and you are going to want to sit down for this shit." I grabbed my bag and signed the invoice for the car service.

Peter went in ahead of me and grabbed a couple beers while I threw my bag in my office and kicked off my boots.

"So what's wrong little bro?" Peter handed me one of the beers and sat down into the couch.

"It's a long story but basically Bella is being stalked by some asshole she rejected in the bar one night while I was being a cocksucker giving her space."

"What the fuck, why are you here and not with her?" Peter was out of his seat and pacing the room, taking very long swigs of beer.

"I hired a couple protection specialists to watch Bella and an investigator to dig up shit on the guy and her friends are standing vigil night and day while I am gone."

"Good, that doesn't explain why you are 'gone' though."

"I had to come home to get my shit together for Stanford I have to meet with the accountant tomorrow and the bank and figure out how I am going to buy a house in Palo and get my shit in order here so I can provide a place for her to live and get her the hell out of Seattle."

"Ok. What can I do?"

"Tell me it isn't my fault." Then I lost it. I was shaking and crying and just wanted to break something.

"How is it your fault?" Peter tried to calm me down.

"If I had been there he never would have met her." I was feeling like shit for playing games and not jus telling her I loved her on day one.

"Oh, I see, so you going to go to work with her everyday too and the grocery store and let me guess to the gynecologist just so she never meets anyone ever again? Jasper, it is not your fault, it is not her fault, it's the douche bags fault, and he is the only one to blame here."

Oh shit he had to bring up work didn't he, I'd nearly forgotten about that shit. Jesus she attracted trouble.

"No, your right. Just help me get the shit straightened out here so I can be with her."

"No problem."

"Oh and by the way she is coming here on Friday to meet you and Char."

"Awesome, I'm going to go call Char and let her know. I can't wait to tell Bella what an asshole you are. I have to go dig up baby pictures and shit."

"PETER!!!!"