I saw the exact moment they spotted me- and was promptly reminded of my hookeresque outfit. The jaws of both brothers dropped and while Emmett's eyes bulged out I could see Edward's fists opening and closing time and time again. Not wanting to out my nervousness I greeted them.
"Well well well, I didn't know that I'd earned the creme de la creme of clean up crews- I am positively honored." I said quite cheekily. That seemed to snap them out of the fog the surprise had wrapped them in, but they got completely different reactions. While Emmett, in his usual exuberance, charged at me to wrap me in a bear hug, Edward stiffened, looking guarded at me and my surroundings, staring at the body with a questioning eye. Why? Did he not recognize Hunter? My thoughts got interrupted by Emmett finally answering my previous statement:
"You should be-" He said with a massive grin. "I am Emmett freaking Cullen after all, but the reason for my extraordinaire presence I have to blame my seemingly mute brother over there." He said pointing back at the still suspicious looking, but attractive man.
"And why is that?" I asked genuinely curious about the reasons.
"Weeeeell, Edward didn't trus..."
"Who helped you?" Emmett got interrupted by a harsh voice, a harsh silky smooth velvet like voice. A voice that seemed to warm up my entire body and chill it down. The tone was biting, accusing and frankly, pissing me the fuck off.
"Helped me? Helped me with what?" I scoffed, sneaking a bit of a bitch tone in my voice. Like I needed help.
"With killing Hunter of course, there is no way in hell a girl like you could have done it alone." His voice contained a finality, like his theory was correct. I was fucking speechless, who did this fucker think he was?
"Now, I demand to know who helped you, a boyfriend lurking in the shadows perhaps?" He demanded? The fucker demanded to know, I could feel my face turn to ice, clenching my jaw in frustration and he must have seen it to, because I could hear Emmett letting out a low whistle. He probably remembered when I as a kid got a demand, now don't get me wrong, if you ask me to do something I will gladly do it, but if you expect to manipulate me after your desires and will?
Shit hits the fan.
"A girl like me? A girl like me? I stared into the suspicious eyes of Edward but addressed the other brother.
"Emmett, is your brother adopted or simply stupid? Because he doesn't seem to possess the charm of you and Alice, nor the intelligence of Carlisle or the cunningness of Esme." At that statement Emmett let out a guaff, that quickly turned into full laughter that led to him bending over clutching his stomach.
I still maintained eye contact with an increasingly red faced Edward. When Emmett's attack stopped I sauntered towards Edward putting in extra sway in my hips, I felt smug as I saw his eyes- once again- roaming my body, stopping to linger on my hips. Now with only a feet between us, his eyes snapped up to mine that was almost exactly at his height, courtesy of the 4-inch heels I was still wearing. He had a dazed look in his eyes, leaning slightly towards me as I started to speak.
"I am a women Mr. Cullen and the daughter of Charles and Renee Swan, your parents confidants and friends." By now I was poking him in the chest, stressing the words. "I do not answer well to demands and I do not need help with missions- especially concerning low class felons like him." I said pointing at the body of one James Hunter. "I do not need a boyfriend to save me. I am highly trained and deadly. Do not disrespect me." The last words turning into a sort of growl, I turned away from the astonished man to say to finish up this business- I needed to get out of these heels.
"Now, Emmett do you have a body bag with you?" My voice once again turned friendly as I saw Emmett's laughing expression.
"I sure do Sugar-" He said using his old nickname for me. He crouched down, removing the backpack he had been wearing and removed a big black shapeless lump. "-and you do realize now that we know that Charlie' 'unknown associate' is you we have to take you home to re-meet everybody right?"
"Unknown associate? Why would he..." I mused out loud, before it dawned on me. "Ooh, Esme still has her worrying streak, hasn't she?" I asked Emmett.
"Right in one, Sugar. So now you have to come home with us." He winked and proceeded to rummage thru his bag.
"Now tho Emmett, really? It's like 2 am. Aren't your parents asleep?" I continued to talk to Emmett even when Edward approached and crouched down on the other side of the body, like he finally realized what he was here to do- work.
"Who are you kidding Bella, my parents especially mom can never sleep properly when we are out on a mission in the middle of the night and certainly not when we are meeting someone we supposedly don't know." Oh right, it is to be suspected I suppose.
"Yeah about that, why are You two the clean up-crew? Doesn't that task usually fall to the lower ranked guys?"
"Yep, that's true, but Eddie boy over here wanted to make sure that the job was done correctly. He does not trust people he hasn't seen in action.
I narrowed my eyes at the notion of me doing the job in a faulty way, but I guess I could understand the reasoning somewhat...
"Do you not trust my fathers judgement Mr. Cullen?" I wondered if he would ever react to the formal title I used.
"Absolutely and completely, but that does not mean that people can't mess up once in a while." Being irritated once again at the insinuation that I can't do my job properly I rolled my eyes, crouched down and asked:
"So what do you think 'bout my work Mr. Cullen? Is it satisfactory?" He considered the question obviously wondering if it was worth his time and coming to a positive conclusion, answered:
"It is very clean and tidy, the only blood coming from when you, I'm guessing, punched his nose in but..." I interrupted him saying:
"I did not merely punch it in, I punched it to the back of this creeps fucking skull." I got a high five by Emmett and then gestured for Edward to continue.
"As I said, that punch being the only evidence of struggle, I cannot figure out how you killed him. There is no gunshot wounds, no stab marks from a knife and he was not beaten up enough to die of internal damages. How did you do it?" Enjoying the fact that he couldn't figure it out and getting more than a bit hot hearing him dissecting the assassination, I gave him a flirtatious smile and said:
"You got to let a women keep her secrets Mr. Cullen." I then winked at him and stood back up.
"Do you guys still insist that I'm going with you to your house tonight?" At the simultaneous nod confirming it I said:
"Right, then I'll just go to my car and change and drive it back here." I got two different responses:
"Why do you need to change?"
"Did you drive here by yourself?"
"Because Emmett Cullen I will not meet your mother for the first time in more than ten years dressed as a slut!" I said gesturing against my body. "And yes I did."
While Emmett shrugged and gave me a go to it-gesture, Edward was more persistent.
"Where is it parked?"
"About 5 minutes from here I think, why?" Edward frowned at the information.
"You are not walking back there alone, it's not safe." I let out a tinkering laugh at the argument and said:
"Did you miss the 'I'm deadly' part of my rant earlier? Or did you dismiss the fact that I am the reason that man died 30 minutes ago?" I pointed at the body that was emerged in the body bag.
I got a mumbled "Still don't like it." from him and sighing I relented. I was getting to tired for this shit.
"Well come on then Macho man, let's go. Emmett will you be fine?"
"Yeah, I just gotta cary him to the trunk and I'll wait for you there, just don't take to long." Emmett wiggled his eyebrows and then winked. I could feel Edward tensing up and I rolled my eyes.
"Will you ever grow pass the mentality of a 15 year old? I'm going." I the strolled away leaving the brothers in my wake. I heard a thump followed by a muffled "Fucking ow." Ha. Serves him right.
Edward caught up with me pretty fast and then we preceded to walk in silence. A natural silence, unlike the awkward ones that usually happen. I felt so comfortable in his presence- It was like I belonged there, needless to say, I was creeped out. Stuff like this does not happen to me, no matter how many romance novels I read. It is just fiction.
After a few minutes I turned in to the dingy alley where I had parked my beauty and I could feel the anger drifting of my companion.
"I can physically feel your irritation, what has gotten you so pissy all of the sudden?"
After a slight hesitation he answered.
"I saw you in the club, how could you stand having that bastards hands all over you?" I saw the ire in his face and was a bit touched at first before reminding myself that he was in the club in the first place to make sure I was doing my job.
"Easy, it was for the mission."
"That's it? Really?"
"Really. Besides you learn to disconnect after a while."
"Would you have done... hm... done the same if the target was somebody like me?" One eyebrow shot up incredulously, was he flirting? No matter what, I was game. Let's test the limits shall we?
"Depends... How good are you with your hands?" I turned my back to him and unlocked the car, I opened the backdoor when I heard a seriously cocky reply.
"Hmm. Really really good." I crawled in to the car to reach my duffle bag that was in the seat of the opposite side when I heard a sharp intake of breath. I stiffened when I realized that me bending over in this dress gave him an excellent view of my lacy boy shorts. thinking Oh well, I will enjoy seeing the result, I scooted back slowly before standing up and turning around to face Edward again.
His eyes were almost completely black and I caught him licking his lips as his eyes dragged their way across my body for the umpth time this night. I could feel myself getting wet by the images that streamed into my head at the sight. I snapped out of it when I felt my phone vibrating against my thing- signaling a text arriving.
Shit shit shit shit shit. This is very very bad.
I put the duffle bag down in the back seat and opened it to take out my favorite black ballerina flats. I needed to get out of these heels- pronto. I then took out a pair of black skinny jeans I was about to put them on when I remembered that I was still wearing my thigh holsters, they had to go. Propping my foot up against the low seat I started removing the poison tubes, the phone and the small knife. When I started to drag the first holster down my thigh I thought I heard a growl coming from behind me. Feeling a bit giddy at the realization, I took my time with the other one, making sure he saw the lacy edge of my underwear peeking out and then slowly dragged the holster down my leg. I then leaned against the car and proceeded to wiggle my jeans on, one leg at the time.
When I started to tuck in my dress in the jeans, I finally looked up.
Holy Fucking God.
When I was changing Edward had removed his suit jacket- rolling up the sleeves to his elbows and unbuttoned a button so you now could see the start of his chest and where his clavicle met in the center. I don't know why, but seeing the distinct outline turned me on. I bit my bottom lip. Edward's eyes centered on them.
It was his phone that interrupted us this time, apparently Emmett had gotten impatient. I threw on a dark blue zip up hoodie and got in the car with Edward sliding in to the passenger seat soon after. I went from thoroughly aroused to highly irritated when I felt Edward's mood getting grouchy again. When I pulled up next to Emmett's car Edward practically flew out the side door and into the other vehicle.
Coward.