A/N Hope you guys enjoy having this perspective of the events taking place in the story. I figured that this would help tie some of the various things together that are happening. As a little side note, I do want to say that there is a lot more going on that what Bella sees, so you shouldn't be concerned that I might be revealing the "suspect" early on since that's not really the case. We'll leave those revelations for later on. Enjoy, review, and remember that I don't own any of these wonderful characters.

Chapter Five

Bella's POV

I was beyond exhausted as I dropped onto the bed in the hotel room we were staying in for the night. It seems that in the past twenty-four hours my life has turned upside down.

I thought back to the events that had just occurred. Today had been the typical day at work at Volturi Pharmaceuticals. I had been busy all day working on a validation process for one of our newer products that we made. There was barely time for me to fit in a quick bite to eat for lunch before I needed to get back to work, so I wouldn't be staying there all night long.

As it got closer to five o'clock when we would typically get off work, Alice had come over to help me try to finish things up. Edward also came by to remind me of our dinner arrangement for the evening. I smiled at him and assured him that I would meet him later for dinner once I finished things up.

As five o'clock approached, I ushered Alice our the door because I didn't want anyone to stay late on my account. Fifteen minutes later, I was left alone in the lab with the exception of our lab manager, Jane, who was in her office on the phone. I had walked over to one of the HPLC systems and placed my samples in the tray before sitting in front of the computer to set everything up to run overnight.

I had just finished hitting the green button on the computer screen that would initiate my run when I noticed a very tall man enter the lab. He didn't appear to see me, which wasn't surprising because the equipment on all of the benches made it easy to mask who was actually in the lab.

I watched as he went into Jane's office. The next few minutes would haunt me.

The man pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Jane's head. I watched as she shrank back in fear of him before he pulled the trigger. I didn't hear anything except a slightly muffled noise, so I guess that part of the reason the barrel of the gun was so long was that it contained a silencer on the end of it.

My hand involuntarily came up to cover my mouth as a whimper escaped from my lips. The slight sound was all the man needed to turn his head in my direction. I quickly ducked down between the benches and tried to decide how I was going to make it to the nearest exit without him shooting me.

I peeked around the corner of where I was hiding to find the man walking slowly in my direction. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and hoped that he wasn't able to hear it. I inched along the benches trying to stay out of sight as much as possible until I could reach an exit.

I had finally made it within eyesight of a door when I felt someone grab my wrist. I turned quickly away from the direction of my assailant and barely kept from letting loose a scream when a large hand covered my mouth.

"Bella, calm down," a voice whispered in my ear. "I'll get you out of here."

I immediately felt a little sense of relief when I heard Jacob's voice in my ear. Jacob was fairly new to the security team at work, but he took his job seriously and we had become friends over the few weeks he had been working here. I knew I could trust him to get us both out of here.

I nodded to show I understood and he removed his hand from my mouth and grabbed the hand closest to him. He began leading us in a half-crouched position toward another door that didn't lead outside. I wondered why we would be going toward this door since it led into the manufacturing area, but decided I would just let Jacob lead the way without trying to question him since we did have a man with a gun trying to locate us in the lab.

We made it to the door quickly and silently. As Jacob opened it up softly, I looked over my shoulder to find the man staring at me from several feet away.

"Run!" I shouted to Jacob who glanced past me and then yanked me through the door.

I followed his lead as we ran through the manufacturing area because I had never been back here before. I knew Jacob had to do rounds over the course of the day so he not only knew his way around, but had badge access to all parts of the facility.

We followed several twists and turns until I saw that we were in the loading dock area. Jacob hurried us to a door that was off to the side and opened it up showing the dimly lit parking lot.

"Come on," Jacob said tugging my hand. "We still need to hurry and get out of here before Felix shows up."

"Who's Felix?" I asked breathlessly as I ran behind him.

"Later," Jacob replied briskly.

We finally stopped in front of an older model car. Jacob unlocked the doors and I hurried to get in the passenger seat. He was driving off in no time going as fast as he safely could around the premises of the facility.

Once we were finally able to turn onto the highway, Jacob raced down the streets trying to put as much distance between us and the company as he could. My blood was racing through my veins from everything I had just seen.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

Jacob gripped my hand firmly in his. "Bella, I won't let anyone harm you. Just trust me to keep you safe until this is all over."

"I trust you," I spoke softly.

I watched as Jacob pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. Before I had a chance to ask who he was calling, the person on the other end picked up.

"Hey man," Jacob greeted. "Are you still at work because I need a favour?"

Jacob nodded his head before replying, "Yea, I'll owe you big after this."

"I need you to make sure the coast is clear and then go and grab Bella's belongings from the lab. We'll meet up later after you have them, and I'll give you a better explanation on what's going on. See you in a bit."

Jacob hung up the phone and turned his head toward me. "I didn't want your stuff to be found there tonight or tomorrow morning whenever the police arrive," he explained.

"Why would that matter?" I asked. "Not that I'm not grateful for you trying to get my stuff or anything," I quickly added.

He flashed a quick smile my way. "Well, it will be easier for you to get around with things like your phone, money, and keys to your apartment. Really, I'm just not sure how it would look if the police came on a murder scene to investigate and they find all of your belongings still in the lab without you being present. I'm not a cop, so I don't know if that would be something in your favour or not."

"You think the police might actually think I murdered Jane?" I asked in a slightly higher pitched voice than normal.

"All I'm saying is that I think it could be a possibility," Jacob replied.

"What are we going to do?" I asked now picturing myself being arrested and sitting behind bars in jail.

"You are going to stop worrying," Jacob replied, "and I'm going to keep you safe."

"I should probably call my dad," I said softly. "He's going to be so worried."

"Bells, I really don't think you should be in contact with anyone right now."

"But why not?" I asked puzzled. "It's not like my dad or even Edward are going to put me at risk."

I watched as Jacob sighed heavily. I could tell that he was trying to decide how to word his response.

"I agree that your dad would never intentionally put you at risk, but he doesn't really know what's going on here. In fact, there's probably a lot about this situation that we don't even know about," Jacob explained. "I just think it would be best for us to stay low key and not bring him into any of this business."

I nodded because Jacob did make sense. I would never want my dad brought into this business and possibly put him at risk.

"What about Edward, though?" I asked. "I was supposed to meet him for dinner and now all of this happens. The least I can do is call him to let him know I'm okay."

"We can't trust him," Jacob replied simply.

"What do you mean 'We can't trust him'?" I almost screeched. "Of course we can trust him. I trust him with my life."

"Maybe you shouldn't," came his reply.

Before I had a chance to argue again with him, Jacob turned his eyes to stare me down. "Edward is family of the plant manager. Now, granted, I will say that I wouldn't expect something like this from either of them, but we still have to be careful. Jane getting murdered tonight was because someone ordered it, and until we know who did, we need to be very careful as to who we trust."

I sat back in my seat with my arms crossed and a pout on my face. I realized I was probably acting like a little schoolgirl, but it was hard to help it after being told that I couldn't be in contact with anyone I knew. I understand the reasons for this, but it didn't make it any easier to accept it.

Ten minutes later Jacob pulled into a small diner that was situated in one of the seedier parts of town. We got out of the car and I couldn't help but to scan the surroundings to see if Felix might be hiding in the background waiting to get to us.

Jacob led me inside the diner and to a table in the back corner of the place where someone was already seated. I glanced worriedly up at Jacob, but he didn't seem concerned by the mystery person that was at the table. He even seemed to relax just a little bit.

Once we were at the table, Jacob motioned for me to slide in opposite the guy sitting there. Jacob sat down beside me after I was situated.

"Seth, did you manage to get everything?" Jacob asked him.

I took a closer look at the man sitting in front of me only to realize that he was probably a few years younger than myself. He still had a boyish face on him with short, dark hair that was slightly unkempt.

"I got everything you asked for," Seth replied handing over my purse and jacket to me.

"Thank you," I told him with gratitude.

"I'm guessing that I probably don't want to know exactly what happened at work tonight?" he asked us.

"Probably better that you didn't," Jacob responded.

Jacob turned to me, "Seth works security for the second shift. That's why he was able to retrieve your things for you without getting caught."

"If you guys need anything else, I can run by your places sometime and grab a few things for you," Seth offered.

"Here, you can take our apartment keys and head over there sometime tomorrow to pick up some clothes for us," Jacob said handing over a key to Seth and then looking at me to do the same.

I dug through my purse until I found my key ring and pulled off my apartment key and handed it over to Seth. I didn't much like the thought of some guy digging through my clothes, but I guess I didn't have much of a choice in the matter right now.

"Where are you guys going to be staying for the night?" Seth asked.

"We'll probably stay in random motels until things die down a little bit," Jacob answered.

After we had all enjoyed our dinner, Jacob and I left the diner. I was guessing that now that we had both been fed, we were probably on our way to find a place to stay at for the night.

I grimaced when I saw the place Jacob had pulled into. It was a motel that looked like it might be a pay by the hour joint. Definitely not something I particularly wanted to stay in. I was already questioning if the bed was even going to be safe to sleep on. I was definitely running on fumes after the day I've had and wanted to get some much required sleep. I just didn't want to do it on a nasty bed.

I walked in the office as Jacob checked in for us. I watched as he handed over some cash to pay for the night and the old lady behind the counter handed him a room key.

Jacob ushered me out of the office and we walked down the side of the motel looking for our room. When he unlocked the door and turned on the light, I was waiting to be disgusted by the appearance of where we would be staying tonight. However, on the bright side, the room wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be.

None of the furnishings matched in the room, which wasn't too surprising. Although, it did surprise me that everything looked extremely neat and well-kept. Of course, then I noticed that the room only had one bed.

"You couldn't have possibly gotten a room with two beds?" I asked Jacob.

Jacob smirked at me. "Scared of sleeping in the same bed with me?"

"No, of course not," I retorted shifting uncomfortably.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to try anything on you in the middle of the night," he replied back with another smirk.

"You wish," I muttered.

"You can go ahead and fall asleep if you want," Jacob told me. "I'm going to take a quick shower before I go to sleep."

I plopped down on the bed exhausted and I watched Jacob head into the bathroom and close the door behind him. I laid down on the bed and got comfortable thinking that I would at least attempt to brush my teeth after Jacob got out of the shower. I wasn't sure how I was going to do this without having a toothbrush or even toothpaste, but I liked to keep my nightly rituals as in tact as possible.

Those thoughts drifted away as I quickly fell off into a deep sleep before Jacob even stepped out of the shower.