A/N: Okay sorry for posting all these chapters so quickly. If you want to prolong the experience wait until tomorrow to read this one, but I'll warn you it's good. Which is part of the reason I posted it tonight. I absolutely loved how it turned out so I hope you guys do too. I guess I'm just terrible at making you guys wait stuff out. ; ) Review Review Review
"What are you talking about?"
"Aro, the brothers…" She peered over my shoulder. "It was Demetri Bella. He was behind the whole thing."
"Demetri?" My knees buckled in shock and I fell back on the ground.
"He brought me here and told me to stay outside at first, but I got bored of waiting so I walked in. I heard…voices. Up in Aro's office. They were arguing. I heard the shot just as I was opening the door. Demetri was standing over Aro's body. I screamed and started to run back down the stairs but Demetri must have switched off the master power. Everything went dark and I tripped and fell down the rest of the stairs." She started crying. "Bella I could hear him coming down the stairs to get me, but I couldn't walk. I tried. I just couldn't. I pulled myself over here and hid behind the crate."
"Alice?" Demetri's voice taunted. It echoed through the warehouse. "Where are you Alice?"
"Oh God." Alice looked at me with absolute terror in her eyes. "Bella you have to get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you. Stay here and stay quiet until I get him upstairs. Then I want you to get out of here. Walk, crawl, pull yourself. I don't care how you do it just do it." I got up and started walking towards the lit part of the room.
"Bella no." Alice whispered.
"It's not Alice Demetri, it's Bella. What the hell happened to all the power?" I laughed so he wouldn't be suspicious. "Did Alice already leave I didn't see her?"
There was a movement in the shadows in front of me. He finally stepped into the light.
"She must have." He smiled. "I don't know what happened to the lights, I've been tinkering with the fuse box for the last fifteen minutes. She must have taken off."
"She said Aro wanted to see me?" I started towards the stairs.
"Oh yeah. Go on up." I took my time going up the stairs, not wanting to seem too eager or anxious. Demetri followed too closely behind me.
"How has your day been so far?" I asked, tilting my head back in his direction.
"Excellent." He smiled a menacing smile.
I had no clue what I was doing or how I was going to figure this out. I just had to get Alice out somehow.
I took a deep breath before opening the door. I knew what I was going to find, but that didn't make me any more prepared to see it. Aro's chair was turned with its back to me. His arms rested on the sides just like any other time he'd sat there. I knew I had to play along.
"Aro you wanted to see me?" I called out. Of course there was no response. "Aro?" I inched towards his chair. My hand reached out and slowly spun the chair around. I gasped as Aro's lifeless eyes looked back at me. There was a single bullet wound in the middle of his forehead. I didn't look back at Demetri. I needed time to compose myself. I needed a moment to come up with a plan.
"Did you do this?" I said slowly.
"Yep," he said. Cocky bastard. I heard him cock his gun. I had to do something or I was going to end up just like Aro.
I quickly grabbed Aro's shoulders and pushed his body to the ground before sitting myself down in his chair and putting my feet up on his desk.
"About time somebody put that asshole in his place." I put my hands behind my head and smiled at Demetri, who was fully confused at this point. "Whatever you're pulling I'm in." I rocked side to side in the chair.
"You're fucking with me." He cocked his head to the side.
"Am I?" I stood up and unbuttoned the first button on my shirt. And then another. I walked around to the front of Aro's desk and slid onto the edge. My shirt was completely unbuttoned now. I motioned Demetri forward with my finger. Thank God he's horny. He smiled slightly and inched towards me.
My hands reached out for him as soon as he was within reach and pulled him towards me. His face was only inches from mine. I ran my finger up the middle of his chest and to his chin. "What can I do to prove myself to you?" I raised an eyebrow at him. He reached his hand behind my head, firmly grasped my hair and pulled my face to his.
Act Bella. You're putting on an act. You better make it believable. I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he continued moving his lips against mine.
"I wanted this for so long." His lips traveled down my neck.
"I know me too." I tried to pull him closer.
His hand slid up my shirt and around to my back, trying to unclasp my bra.
Think Bella. Think.
"Baby," I whispered into his ear. "We should probably save that for later. We have some business to take care of." I kissed his neck and then his lips again. "Now tell me everything." I leaned back on my elbows.
"I was just getting so sick of these stupid pricks acting like they're fucking kings. They think they run everything, but its over now. I run everything." He gestured to himself. "I do."
"We do." I smiled.
"Right. We do. And by the way I'm sorry about the whole boat thing babe, I thought you were one of them."
"You were behind that?" I tried to hide the look of shock on my face.
"Yeah. And the whole thing at the docks too. With some of the Denali crew. I paid them off to start a turf war. I didn't want to get my hands dirty. I knew it would get blamed on Tanya and her family and I was kind of just hoping they would wipe each other out. But unfortunately things didn't go quite my way. I guess if you want something done right you have to do it yourself." He started loading more bullets into his gun.
All of the lights out in the warehouse flicked on suddenly.
"Bella?" Edward's voice called out. I panicked for a second before putting myself back into character. Demetri's going to kill Edward.
"What are we going to do about him?" I nodded my head towards the doorway.
"Go down there and keep him occupied. I'll be down in a second."
I nodded and walked towards the door.
Edward's eyes were fixed at a point below me that I could see. And they were absolutely filled with terror.
"Edward. I'm up here."
He kept his eyes fixed on whatever he was looking at while I started to descend down the stairs.
"Bella I want you to walk directly to me. Do not look behind you or to the side of you. Just look right at me okay?" He finally looked at me. He was scared. Truly and genuinely scared. I could see it in his eyes. But he should have known that I wasn't going to listen. As soon as I stepped on solid ground I turned and looked behind me.
"Oh my God…" I whispered. The same dining room table we'd eaten at before sat in the shadows beneath the catwalk above. Cauis and Marcus sat at both heads of the table. Every other seat was occupied by any and all associates of the Volturi that I'd ever met in my life. And they were all dead. Just like Aro.
I heard Demetri step onto the stairs above me. He was laughing.
"So glad you could join the party Edward." He spun the bullet chamber of his gun.
"Bella get behind me," Edward said as he looked up at Demetri. I followed his direction, but smiled up at Demetri as soon as I was behind him. I was still putting on an act.
"I swear to God if you hurt one hair on her head I will kill you," Edward threatened.
"Why would I hurt her? Come here baby…" He grinned in my direction.
I'm sorry Edward. He's going to think I betrayed them. But I was really trying to save them.
I sneered and walked confidently towards Demetri. He wrapped his arm around my waist and roamed south. I had to clench my fists to avoid punching his lights out.
"I want you to do it," he whispered in my ear. He handed me a gun.
"What?" I looked up into his eyes for answers.
"I want you to do it." He bit his lip and motioned towards Edward and started circling around me. "I know I don't know everything that goes on in that penthouse but I know that he did something to piss you off Bella. Now you can teach him a lesson." He grabbed a lock of my hair and twirled it in his fingers. "And if you really want to prove your loyalty…"
I raised the gun in front of me and pointed it straight at Edward. His eyes flitted back and forth between mine and the gun. He raised his hands above him.
I had to hold in the tears. I don't think I can do this.
Demetri set his chin on my shoulder. "My best advice? Go for the stomach. It makes them suffer longer…" The image of Jake lying under that white sheet flashed back into my head. Bleeding from the stomach. My breathing started to increase with each passing moment. Emmett was right. Demetri killed Jake. I wanted nothing more than to turn around and put a bullet in him. Make him pay for what he did to Jake and me. But I didn't.
I finally forced my eyes to look at Edward. He was surprisingly calm. Not scared. Like he understood why I was doing this. Like he knew it was all an act.
"Do it Bella…" Edward whispered, looking me dead in the eye. "Do it." His voice broke.
I closed my eyes and the tears started running down my face. I couldn't hold them in anymore. When I opened them again, Edward had dropped to his knees.
"Bella I love you. Just do it." He nodded.
My finger started to tighten around the trigger and a shot went off. Edward fell to the ground. I looked beside me and saw the smoke coming from the barrel of Demetri's gun. He was smiling. "Remember what I said before Bella. If you want a job done right you have to do it yourself."
I whipped back towards Edward's body and ran to him. I dropped to my knees beside him and shook him. His eyes were closed.
"Edward?" I whispered, my eyes searching for any sign of life. "Edward?" I shook harder. Totally lifeless.
"I knew you couldn't be trusted you dumb bitch."
I turned my body towards Demetri. He turned his gun towards me.
"I guess you two can be together now." He cocked his gun back. I heard two shots but I didn't feel the bullet, I felt something grab me around the waist and fling me to the ground. I looked towards Demetri. He fell to the ground clutching his knee. His gun flew out of his hand and landed close to me. I finally looked above me to see who my savior was.
"Are you okay?" Edward said, caressing my cheek.
"I can't breathe," I said slowly.
"Why?" He started looking frantically down my body for any sign of injury.
"Because you're laying on top of me."
"Oh." He pushed himself up so he was hovering over me. "Sorry."
I pulled myself up as he sat on the ground beside me.
"How…?" I looked up and down his chest, looking for blood or anything from where Demetri shot him. There was nothing.
He lifted his shirt up. "Good thing Carlisle keeps a spare bullet proof vest in his car. I would have been bumming." The white vest had a small disturbance in the middle of Edward's chest, just to the side of his badge, which was dangling on a chain. All I wanted to do in that moment was pull his face to mine and tell him how sorry I was.
"You shot me you son of a bitch…" Demetri choked out. He started crawling towards the gun. I stood up and kicked it far away, out of his reach.
"How long do we have before they all get here?" I turned back to Edward.
"At least ten minutes. We got a call that a woman reported hearing shots from the warehouse so we tried to get here as soon as we could because we knew something was wrong. There was this huge fucking traffic jam and we couldn't get through. So I got out of the car and ran here. They should be here soon."
"Can I have a few moments?" I nodded towards Demetri.
"Yeah sure." He started to get up. I rushed over to help him. He winced when I grabbed at his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" I looked down and noticed the bit of blood that stained his shirt.
"Nothing. I think I just scraped it on the concrete." He smiled a little bit. "I'll be outside."
I watched him walk out and close the door before I turned back towards Demetri.
I pulled the picture from my pants pocket. The one that Charlie would bitch me out about if he knew that I had it on me. The one I'd managed to hide from Edward and everyone else. The one who held the whole reason I was here.
"Do you remember him?" I held Jake's picture out to Demetri. He didn't answer. "Do you remember him?" I said again. I kicked Demetri in the ribs. "This was my partner Jake. He was my best friend and you killed him like he was trash, just something to be disposed of." I kicked him again. "Look at him!" I held the picture right up to his face. He spit at it. I slammed my fist into his mouth.
"What are you gonna do…kill me?" He smiled a bloody smile and spit out a tooth.
"No." I stood up just as Carlisle opened the door and ran into with about ten other agents. "I'm going to let you rot in jail where you belong." I turned and walked past Carlisle and out the door.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I stepped out into the fresh air. There were swarms of police cars and ambulances. Alice sitting in the back of an open police car with a medic looking at her. Rose was by her side. Another dark car pulled up to the scene. Emmett got out of the drivers side and rushed up to me.
"Bella are you okay?"
I didn't answer. I couldn't take my eyes away from what was going on behind him. Jasper stepped slowly out of the car, sporting a sling and some bruises around his face still. He put his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun as he searched the parking lot. I knew who he was looking for. I turned my head towards Alice, who was talking animatedly to Rose, obviously telling her everything that had happened.
Rose saw him first. She smiled at Alice and nodded in Jasper's direction. Alice's head turned slowly and her mouth fell open. She stood from the car, letting her blanket fall to the ground. She fell to her knees for a brief moment before standing back up and limping towards Jasper. He smiled when he saw her and opened his arms, despite his sling. She jumped into his arms, sobbing hysterically. Her lips grazed every part of his skin that she could see.
"I guess happy endings do exist…" Rose laughed and nudged my ribs with her elbow.
"I guess so." I smiled. "Rose where's Edward? I need to talk to him."
"Last I saw he was getting the bullet taken out of his shoulder in the back of that ambulance." She pointed to an ambulance across the parking lot.
"What?"
"I told you that man would take a bullet for you." She winked and walked away.
My feet started moving before my brain could catch up. I couldn't get to that ambulance soon enough.
"Edward?" I said smiling as I rounded the corner. There was nobody there except a medic. "Excuse me? Where is the man who you were treating?"
"He took off about five minutes ago in a cab."
My heart sank. He's gone.
I tried to call his phone multiple times a day in the two weeks following the pinch. I finally got a message saying the number had been disconnected. Everytime I called him at the precinct they said he was out on a case or he wasn't in that day. I was getting frustrated. I had to talk to him and apologize. And tell him how stupid I was being and that I loved him and wanted to be with him. More than anything.
"Fine," I said to myself after I'd been told for the millionth time that Edward was in the bathroom, "I'll just go see about that myself." I mean how many bathroom breaks can a guy take.
When I got to the precinct, Emmett was there sitting across from an empty desk.
"Where is he Emmett?"
"He's not here."
I pointed an angry finger at him. "I'll deal with you later."
I stomped into my dad's office. "Where is he Charlie?" I was at my breaking point. The tears were starting to well up in my eyes.
"He is no longer with this precinct." His eyes didn't move from the paperwork he was working on. I snatched it away from underneath him.
"Why the hell not?"
He looked up at me from underneath his glasses. "You better watch it young lady, I'm the one in charge here."
"Dad stop avoiding the question, why isn't he here?" I crossed my arms in front of me.
"Because I asked him to leave."
"You fired him?! Why?" I threw his paperwork in the air in frustration.
"Because he got too involved with his last assignment."
"He got fired because he fell in love with me? I thought that was the plan Dad, you know, to distract me wasn't it?"
"Bella I'm sorry about that. I was wrong. I realize now that you are more than capable of handling yourself in situations like that. But Officer Cullen crossed a line. Pretending to be in love with you wasn't part of the deal."
"He wasn't pretending Dad."
"Bella just let this go okay?" He got up and started picking up his paperwork. "Carlisle said your last day at work was last week. I have a proposition for you. Take a seat."
"I'll stand."
"I know I haven't been supportive of you in the past, but I want to change. I would be honored to offer you a position in this department as a Detective."
"I can't believe you're serious right now. No." I turned and left his office.
"Give me his new number Emmett. I need to talk to him."
"He told me not to give it to you Bella."
"What?"
"He said that he didn't want to hurt you anymore. That he was letting you go. I'm sorry."
I slumped down in his chair.
He was letting us go and I was fighting tooth and nail to hang on. I guess it wasn't worth the fight anymore. He was gone and didn't want to be found. It would be like he never existed.
A/N: Only one more chapter to go guys....its all wrapping up : (