While waiting for Bella to finish up, Edward lingered at the table he'd occupied for most of the night his company taking up his time by a young waitress. Her name was Bree; she had noticed him several times before and was curious now as to why he had stayed back so late after hours. But he had smiled at her and explained without going too much into detail that he was simply waiting for a friend.

"Your girlfriend?" she had asked, glancing around the bar where a few other waitresses were finishing up for the night.

The corner of his mouth quirked up into a little half smile before he corrected her, "No. Just a good friend of mine. In fact, there she is now."

Edward spotted Bella walking towards them from the backrooms of the club. His face had begun to soften at her arrival when he noted the almost anxious look on her face, underscored by the way she bit down on her bottom lip. He frowned, his brow furrowing, as he looked her over. What was wrong?

"Yeah… okay. Let's go." He said slowly as he rose to his feet. She seemed unusually eager to get out of the strip club and home. Edward nodded his head to Bree, "It was nice meeting you. Drive home safely." He said before turning to gesture to the bag that hung from Bella's shoulder, wanting to take it from her.

"Is everything okay?" Edward asked as they started to walk outside. The combination of the dark and the way Bella's long curtain of hair fell forward somewhat obscured his view of her face that made it hard for him to read her. And yet, he did feel like something was off with her. Surely it wasn't because he had been talking to Bree inside? But this seemed a lot different to how Bella had acted when that earlier stripper had clambered into his lap, coaxing him for a dance. She had been angry then. She was far from angry now…

Bella allowed Edward to take the bag from her shoulder and together they walked out into the street. Edward's question startled her, although it shouldn't have. He was a fairly perceptive guy, and Bella was nowhere near as good as he was when it came to hiding her emotions.

"I-I'm fine…" She cringed as she stuttered. Edward opened the car door for her and she slid into the passenger seat of his dark Chevrolet. It was a nice car, fairly new the paint job was black. The interior was nice, Edward kept it clean and tidy and it smelled nice. It smelled a little like Edward too.

A few seconds later, and Edward was opening his side of the car to get in. He'd deposited her bag in the back of the car. In a second he'd turned the interior light on, startling Bella.

"Bella, look at me." He ordered, although the hand that reached out to tilt her face was gentle. He thought he had glimpsed a streak of pink on Bella's cheek when they'd been outside under the glow of a nearby streetlamp. Now that she was close up to him, he realised that it was just as he had suspected.

Bella's body tensed as Edward requested her to look at him. She'd hoped that by covering her face with her hair, and the darkness of the street, Edward would not have seen the red hand print that was probably beginning to turn purple with a bruise. At least it felt that way. Make up would cover it well enough, and Bella was good at applying her own make up to cover up unsightly things but she'd removed all the makeup she'd worn tonight along with her wig and her skimpy outfits. Her skin was clean and pale and Edward was staring right at her cheek. She tried to turn her head away but Edward's hand held her chin as he demanded to know who the hell had done this to her.

He breathed in sharply as his fingers brushed against the pinking outline of a hand on her cheek… the same cheek he himself had stroked only a few hours earlier. Someone had slapped Bella. Hard. "What happened?" Edward demanded. "Who did this to you?"

The thought of someone hurting Bella made his eyes darken and jaw clench tightly. He could taste the anger, could feel the heat of it rising up in him as he waited for Bella to give him a name, something, anything. So help him God, he would beat the bastard up.

Tears welled in Bella's eyes and she flinched at his words, although she knew his anger was not directed at her. She wanted to tell him. She wanted more than anything to let Edward look after her but at what cost? Riley was dangerous. Riley had threatened to kill her if she didn't get him the money she owed him or if she told anyone… She wouldn't let anyone hurt Edward just because he wanted to help her. Edward didn't deserve to be pulled into this mess.

She could have lied, she could have said she ran into the side of a door but she knew that Edward wouldn't believe her for a second. Even still, Bella had a terrible poker face.

After a long pause, as she racked her brains trying to come up with something that sounded half reasonable, that wouldn't propel Edward out of the car to strangle the person who had done this to her, she finally said, "One of the girls… I was dancing with one of her regulars. She got jealous."

Bella couldn't even look Edward in the eye; she pulled away from him, forcing his hand to let go over her.

Edward's eyes narrowed as Bella finally murmured something about one of the other girls she worked with hitting her out of jealous rage. Her words hung in the air between them. Was she telling the truth? Edward hesitated. He couldn't be sure. And yet, it seemed plausible enough… Bella had been quite incensed when of the strippers had crawled into his lap that night. He had wanted to think that it was because she didn't want to share Edward with anybody else, but perhaps that had just been his pride talking. Maybe there was some unwritten rule amongst the girls when it came to their clientele that they got possessive about.

"You're sure?" he asked again, the doubt creeping uneasily into his voice. He couldn't help thinking about the what if's… if this had been the doing of one of the gits Bella had to dance with, one of the bouncers… or even the owner of the club that she had mentioned last time. From what he'd seen of the guy, he'd thought he was quite a sketchy character. But if Bella was sure…

Edward exhaled sharply. "You girls and your catfights." He murmured with a shake of his head as he put the car into drive and pulled away neatly from the curb for the long ride home. "Please be careful next time."

Does he believe her?

Let me know what you're thinking!