A break from the heat! Much cooler today which is good, because I'm back at work. Thanks for all of your reviews guys. It's really lovely to hear such warm feedback. I'm glad you are enjoying reading as much as I enjoy writing it.

Even at two o'clock in the morning, the night seemed to be a slow one for a Saturday. Edward thought that there were far more people at yesterday's show as his eyes roamed over the large room. He paid no attention to the buxom redhead currently stripping on the stage, certain that the parts of her body which gained her so much attention from the members of the front row were fake anyway – and tried instead to look for Bella.

She had been steadily avoiding his side of the room the whole night, never once looking his way let alone wandering over to his corner. Edward wasn't even sure if she knew that he was still around. He hadn't exactly been able to call out to her either as every time he spotted the brunette, she was disappearing off into the back room with another eager paying customer.

Edward's face darkened as he raised his glass to his lips. After what they'd done that night, after the way he had touched Bella, he couldn't help feeling a little jealous. Nay, very jealous. He wasn't used to sharing and he didn't like it – especially when sharing meant sharing Bella. He tried to tell himself that this was her job; she had to tease the other men, she had to take her clothes off. She was a stripper.

But his hands always curled into tight fists at the thought of her allowing someone else to touch her body like he had.

It would be easier if she wasn't a stripper, he thought moodily. Why was Bella moonlighting as one anyway? Edward reflected back over the new pieces of information that had slipped today over Rosalie and Alice's conversation with Bella. Whatever financial problem she had, it must be quite big, he decided – if it meant that she had been forced to sell her car to cover for it. But why? What problem? Did she have student debts to cover or something? He assumed that she would have been able to pay them all off by now at their age, especially with the job she'd landed with at the magazine.

She was healthy. Surely she didn't have any medical bills. And nor did she seem to have any close family – or any family at all, for that matter – that might be otherwise affected that she would need to help out with.

There was something missing to the picture. But what was it? And why wouldn't she let him in to help her?

Edward set his glass down loudly on the table, his face dark and broody. By now, he was certain he knew Bella enough that she most definitely wasn't stripping because she enjoyed it. At least, stripping for other people. She seemed to enjoy it well enough for Edward. (Everything up to about what had happened earlier that night at any rate.) He had remembered asking Bella once if she was being forced to do this work. Even if someone wasn't dragging you out on stage in chains didn't mean that there weren't other ways of coercing you into doing things you didn't want to do. Had someone threatened her?

But Bella dodged the question and with a sudden sickening sinking feeling, Edward began to realize that perhaps there was a reason for that. That she had been forced into stripping had been his fear from the start, but from his casual talks with the other workers in the place – dancers, waitresses and bartenders alike – he was pretty certain that none of them were doing this because someone had put a gun to their head. Or were they just all really good actors?

It's okay, he assured himself. This would all come to pass. He would take Bella home and apologize for his behavior… and then slowly coax her into telling him why she was working at Indulgences. He would get to the bottom of this, if it was the last thing he did. But what he needed to remember now was patience. Patience was key. And so Edward waited at the table until the end of the night; until four o'clock had come and gone and it was only the fact that he was in the good graces of Tom, the bartender, that he was able to avoid the bouncers from chucking him out and continue waiting for Bella.

But when Tom had left, and even Bree and the other waitresses had disappeared too, he frowned. Where was Bella? He hadn't noticed her leaving with the other strippers. Was she still in the changing room perhaps? Or had she slipped out the back door after seeing Edward waiting at the table for her to come out? He scowled.

Edward rose to his feet and moved towards the back of the club where the dark hallway led to the girls' changing rooms and the main offices. Didn't they want lights in here or something? He thought as he maneuvered himself in the semi-darkness. In the silence that surrounded him, there was the sudden loud slam of a door that made him jump. He peered around the corner only to have someone light and small collide quite hard into him.

"I'm sorry," Edward apologized, reaching down to help her up. "I didn't see you there…" The girl's curtain of blonde hair hid her face from his eyes and it was only once he'd helped the shaking girl up that he realized two things: one, she was completely naked and two, the terrified girl in his arms was none other than Bella.

His gaze immediately went to the door that she had just shot out from. 'MANAGER' it proclaimed in large, bold letters. "Did he touch you?" Edward demanded furiously. The blood drained from his face as he looked between the door and Bella's trembling naked body. What the fuck?

"Did he hurt you?" Edward's eyes were dark and livid, his expression dangerous as he turned to throw open the door which Bella had just ran out from. But she shook her head fiercely, tugging at his hand in a vain attempt to drag him down the hallway.

"You can't go in there!" she cried plaintively.

"I don't care." He snarled. Edward could feel the fury rise up in him; feel the sharp taste of it on his tongue as his blood rushed to his head. He could hear the blood pounding in his ears, his hearts furious rhythm a constant beat to the sudden surge of dark rage pulsating through his body.

Once he was done punching the man's face in, he would set about the best way to kill him. Painfully.

No one touched Bella like that. No one.

Bella had initially flinched when her body had collided against Edward's hard chest but once she knew it was him she felt relief wash over her body. His arms had lifted her up to hold her, to stop her from sagging to the floor in a helpless heap.

As she looked up to his face, she saw anger there. His brooding stare was taking in her nudity, and the door she'd just shut behind her. His angry words made her flinch again. Why would he think that she let Riley do this to her? She wanted to tell him no, but fear still gripped her keeping her from speaking. His next question, did Riley hurt her?

Physically, the answer to that was no. She wasn't hurt. He hadn't hit her; there were no bruises on her body to prove anything. Not this time. But she'd been degraded, humiliated, and she was trembling with fear. The fear of Riley killing her the next time she failed to deliver. Her body was tense with it.

But Edward was moving toward the door now. He intended to speak with the man that had done this to her. She reached out to him. "You can't go in there."

But Edward didn't even care. She needed to get him to stop! She tugged on his arm "Edward! No, they have guns." She hissed. "They'll kill you. Please."

Edward's eyes flickered to her, wide but still angry.

A sob escaped her. "Please, can you take me home?"

After a moment's pause, Edward finally relented only because his concern for Bella's current state overrode any deep-set fury he had for Riley. There were priorities and taking care of Bella had always been one of his top ones.

Some other time, he thought darkly as he gave the door a final glance.

"Come here." He said gruffly, shrugging off his jacket and slipping it over her shoulders to shield her nakedness from him. "Where are your clothes? Do you want to change?" He would wait for her in the changing room if she wanted. But Bella shook her head, begging him to take her home now.

Edward agreed and careful to keep only his hand in the center of her back – she was still so skittish, he didn't want her to think he was pulling moves on her or anything – he gently guided her outside to where he'd parked the car.

Yay! Edward to the rescue. :)