"Because I'm pretty when I cry."
-Pretty When You Cry, Lana
I watched it all. All of mix reactions. The second this Edward guy stepped into the room, both of these men straightened their spines, putting on the serious game look on their faces. I could feel how the nervousness radiated around them. Well, it was so damn obvious. And infectious.
This Edward turned out to be a tall man, a bit of muscular, but not too much like Em, and younger that I had imagined. To be honest I kind of expected him to be fifty something years old with thick mustache and fat belly. Not the clean-shaved face and toned abdomen. And definitely, not strikingly good looking. By his looks, I knew his age couldn't be older than thirty-five.
Edward was wearing a black coat over a very nice suit with no tie. Tom Ford? Calvin Klein? Armani? I didn't know. One thing I knew for sure was it was designer brand. That piece didn't look low-priced at all.
His hair was a mix of brown and red, unruly, but in attractive way. His face was handsome and perfect, no flaw. Like he was born to charm people. Only now it seemed tired and bored. He was still intimidating, though. The charisma he carried was extremely strong. As if it wanted to tell the world he had to be feared because the infinite power he held. He led and ruled. He was the man in-charge. I got where these men's discomfort came from.
The air got unusually thicker when a brief silence surrounded us. No one said a word. I was even holding my freaking breath.
"I'll take over from here." He said authoritatively. His voice was smooth yet mysterious, dragging people to listen more attentively. He got all fingers but the thumb tucking into his slacks' pocket. The gesture was bold and screamed power, bad guy personality. "And don't fucking dare to come back before bringing the fucker to my feet."
"Okay, boss." They replied in unison after gulping loudly. Hell, I knew they were eager to leave this place since the first time they saw him entering the room.
Edward waved his hand in dismissal, and not two seconds later, those men were gone out of sight, leaving me alone with him. The door was closed with a click. It sounded like a death march in my ears.
He shifted his gaze to me. Those piercing eyes were so green and intense I almost tempted to look away. He took a seat across from me, on the other side of the couch, leaning back with arms crossing over his chest. I wasn't gonna lie his presence really made me wanna flee out of the room.
"Why do people keep wasting my time nowadays?" he muttered to himself, glancing up to the ceiling, before turning his attention back to me. His lips twitched a little watching I was dying in my place. "I haven't slept in the last twenty-four hours, so excuse my mood that is probably in messy shape right now." That information caused me to swallow the bile in my throat. I might possibly die here. God, where did all this disaster start from? And why the fuck I was the one who faced the consequences of Jacob's doing? "So…what kind of douche bag drags his girlfriend into his fuck-ups, huh?"
Should I answer that question? Because that was the same question I had been asking myself for the past hour.
"Poor little girl." He mocked. One corner of his lips curled up into a sexy crooked smirk. How could he do that and seem nonchalant about it? "What's your name, sweetheart?"
I hated that the nickname didn't sound disgusting rolling off his mouth.
"Bella Swan."
"Oh, and what do you think your boyfriend is planning, Bella?" his tone was playful, his gesture was relaxed. This kind of man was actually scarier. The one who could let our guard down before he really attacked, so no one could predict his next step? Definitely scary.
"I-I honestly don't know." I replied. And it was barely audible.
His irises darkened immediately. Eyes were stone cold. Smirk disappeared.
He wasn't satisfied with my answer.
I had the urge to correct myself. "I-I mean, I was just told to handle his deali—"
"What a waste of my time." He grunted, cutting me off. His hand dived into the breast pocket of that expensive black coat, slowly pulling out a sleek menacing knife from there. I was sweating here on my seat while he was watching my reaction from time to time. Damn it. "Come here." He ordered, beckoning me with that freaking terrifying as shit knife.
Fuck.
What would he do to me? Should I come over him? Would it enrage him if I didn't make any move? But what happened if I came over him? What if he stabbed me with that knife? My head was aching just thinking about it.
I better followed Jas' advice.
Just come over there, bitch. What was so difficult about that?
My feet were heavy as I dragged them to the other side of the couch. He was staring at me impatiently from where he was sitting. My steps might be slower than snail. As soon as he was in the range to reach me, he caught my wrist and sat me on the coffee table. Then he leaned in so close I could smell the scent of gun smokes, blood, spice and woods mix together from his body.
"You know I don't have time for this shit, right?" his lips were on the thin line. Eyes were sending daggers at my way. He was indeed upset. I was freaking out of the view I didn't realize I made a move to lean away. He quickly caught my right upper arm in his grip out of an instinct. "And I don't care about gender, by the way. So you may want to play nice, bellissima."
I replied him in panic.
"I really don't—"
What happened next was extremely unexpected. I was beyond shocked. He was silencing me with one swift move, twisting my arm behind my back then pushing my body down until I was flat on my stomach. His move was fast and practiced. As if he had done it million times.
The coffee table felt cold against my bare midriff. To locking his grip on me, he had his knee pressing to my twisted-backward arm, shifting half of his weight on my body at the same time. I groaned at the pain.
That shit hurt like hell.
My back absolutely would bruise.
When he was sure I couldn't move an inch, his hands grabbed my other arm roughly. Chills ran down my spine the exact moment he picked out my index finger. The tip of his blade was teasing me with its sharpness. I paled a little.
I tried to fight but it was useless.
"Stay still." He said lowly. The tone was something you couldn't disobey. But what he was about to do was the one that terrified me the most.
"Please…." I whimpered, unconsciously begging him to let me go.
"Where is he, bellissima?" he inquired, demanding a real answer. His knee pushed deeper with no mercy. I was hardly breathing right now. "Oh, you want to do this all day, huh?" he chuckled darkly. I didn't like the sound at all. "You know I'm not gonna stop at one finger, right?"
I gasped at his bluntness and how easy he said the word. This situation was still hard to digest yet I didn't have a chance to stop and think about it. I mean, really, I just happened to be in wrong place and wrong time. And right now I was possibly losing all of my fingers because I didn't have the answers he wanted.
But I tried.
Raking my brain to come up with an answer. Anything. I had to fucking survive.
Shit, come on, Bella. Name a place where Jacob might be.
When he almost did it and I was imagining my index finger rolling off on the table in front of my eyes, I screamed out of the blue. "Mexico!" he stopped and listened. Relief washed over me as I tried to collect the memory. God, I was so damn close. "Two day ago, he said he was in Mexico. I-I don't know if he's still there or—"
My voice was muffled with sobs. I didn't even realize I was crying until now. He let go of me and took a step back. Both my arms fell weakly on my sides. I still tried to control my shaky breaths. This was the scariest thing that had ever happened in my life.
All of a sudden, I felt a hand grabbing my waist. It was not rough like before yet I tensed up by his gesture. With him, you would never know.
He pulled and carefully placed me on his lap. My right side was flushed against his front. His fingers twirled my messy hair, tucking it away from my face. The act was soothing, hell, even caring, but my heartbeats had not yet come down from the insane tension.
"Look at me." I did what he said right away. I couldn't risk getting on his bad side anymore. What just happened made me question his sanity. When I looked up, those piercing greens trapped me under his gaze. That signature smirk appeared. For a moment I was almost sure his mood had lifted up. But again, he could have fooled me. "Such a good girl." He grinned wider before kissing me twice on the lips.
Tell me what you think! xx