Okay lovelies. Shit's gonna get real. I love you. Reviews are like chocolate. I really, really like chocolate. Like, a lot.

Kids, I told you to get out of here. Seriously dudes, there was a content warning on the first chapter and everything.

SM owns Twilight. I know that, you know that, but I'm afraid to not write it down. Not trying to infringe.

No music.

. . . . . . . . . .

I woke up at six again the next morning to the sound of the door closing. She must have been coming back from a run, but I couldn't greet her with the early morning tent in my pants. I stayed in my bed, staring up at the ceiling while I listened to the sound of the water running.

Her hair would be down, she couldn't shower with that fucking bun in her hair. I felt my hand slipping into my pants as I tried to picture what she'd look like with her hair down, stopping myself when the shower shut off.

I groaned and rolled over onto my side, burying my face in my pillow. What the fuck was wrong with me?

I made my way into the washroom when I heard the door to her room close, relieving myself before hopping in the shower. After I got dressed, I went out to find her sitting on the couch, talking on her phone.

"I don't fucking care how hard it is, get me that fucking footage Paul." Pause. "Because I want to fucking see it for myself! Get it done, you owe me and you fucking know it." She hung up, whipping her phone angrily at the couch across from hers.

"Everything okay?" I asked hesitantly.

"Fucking dandy," she growled, not looking up at me. She pinched the bridge of her nose while closing her eyes for a minute, and took a deep, slow breath before relaxing. "Sorry. I didn't hear you come out. You shouldn't have heard that."

"I don't mind," I said, dropping down onto the couch and tossing her phone back onto her couch. I tended to yell at people on the phone too. "You take your job too seriously B, you can make fucking phone calls, I don't care." She didn't say anything. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. But thanks." I nodded, and looked at her closely. She seemed kind of tired today, but still looked hot as hell. She was wearing her black pants, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket. And that stupid fucking bun.

"Why do you always wear your hair up?"

I seemed to catch her by surprise. "Huh?"

"You always have your hair up in that damn bun. Why don't you ever wear it down?"

"It's harder to grab onto like this. Professional hazard," she said in an obvious tone.

"Oh, okay."

"What, you don't like my hair?" she asked teasingly.

"I didn't say that, but I know you'd look even more fucking gorgeous if you wore it down." Fuck, god damn word vomit. I didn't seem to make her uncomfortable though, she just laughed.

"Man, you're good Hollywood, I have to give you that." I looked up at her in surprise as she walked out of the room, shaking her head with a small smirk.

What? Did she actually think I was joking?

She came back out ten minutes later, pulling her small suitcase along behind her and leaving it by the front door. She packed up her laptop and left the bag with her other one.

"We should head out within the next ten minutes, are you packed?"

"Almost, I'll just take a minute," I said, kind of annoyed as I walked back out to my room. I shoved my things unceremoniously into my bag before dragging it back out. Why couldn't she see how much I fucking liked her? Every compliment I gave her, she just brushed off like a fucking joke. Did she not realize how fucking out of character this was for me? Can she not see that I haven't been able to have a good fuck in over a month because she's the only fucking thing I can think about?

"Mmm, oh god," she moaned, freezing me in my tracks. The sound alone already had me hard. What the fuck? I followed the sound into the kitchen, and she was leaning over the counter, dragging her finger through the cheesecake, then wrapping her red lips around said finger and slowly pulling it out of her mouth.

I think I might have actually growled.

"Dude, this cheesecake is fucking amazing, you have to try it. I completely forgot about it last night."

I adjusted my pants inconspicuously before making my way over. I followed her lead, scooping some up on my finger, and licking it off.

"Fuck."

"I know right?" She hummed happily after trying some more.

This had to be the most arousing thing I'd ever seen in my life. I wanted to rip off her clothes, rub the chocolate all over her body and lick it off again.

I closed my eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

Her watch beeped, and she sighed, looking at the cake longingly. I knew that beep meant we had to go, and I followed behind her as she made her way over to the door.

She sat with Tyler, Marcus' assistant and I while we went over our contracts. I even got a corner table for her, not thinking she'd be comfortable in the one Tyler had chosen in the center of the room. She didn't say a word, but my eyes kept flickering to her every few seconds. I noticed when she checked her phone that her entire body seemed to tense, almost like she had stopped breathing. She watched her screen intently, and her hands started shaking slightly before she started clicking away furiously on her blackberry.

"You okay B?"

She looked up at me in surprise, and then put away her phone, her expression unreadable.

"Yeah."

I nodded, watching her worriedly for another moment before going back to the paperwork. If she didn't want to talk to me, she wouldn't. It was as simple as that, there was nothing I could do.

The rest of the morning went by well, B threw around a couple of overly eager fans with a bit more hostility than usual, but I didn't say anything. She barely spoke a word for the entire day. Even on the plane, she didn't read, she just sat there staring into nothing with a slightly lost yet tense look in her eyes. She was so distracted that she even set off the metal detectors again. I couldn't take seeing her like this.

"Okay, seriously, I'm sorry for prying again, but what's up with you today? What happened on your phone?"

She acted like she didn't hear a word I said, but right when I opened my mouth to push, she spoke. "There's someone that I've been looking for, for a while. One of my contacts said they saw someone matching his description outside of New York. I just got the surveillance footage, and it turns out it was him."

"Why were you looking for him?"

"Sorry Inquisitor, I don't feel like playing twenty-fucking-questions." She looked over to the side, away from me, and I noticed then that her hands were balled up into tight fists, her knuckles white from the tension.

I was lucky, and honestly, pretty damn surprised she had even answered one of my questions.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to push," I said regretfully. She seemed to slump in her chair slightly, whether she was relaxing or just lost her energy I'm not quite sure, but still didn't look at me.

"Don't worry about it."

I got more and more tense the closer we got to NY. What was I supposed to do when we got back? Would she go back to ignoring me? Would she talk to me? Were we friends now or something?

What if she didn't want to hang out with me?

I was practically vibrating in worry as she drove me to my apartment.

"Hey B?"

"Yeah?"

Fuckfuckfuckfuck just fucking say it.

"Do you think we could like, hang out some time?"

"Why?" She asked, not missing a beat.

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you want to hang out with me Hollywood? I can tell you right now that I'm not going to sleep with you." I gaped at her for a moment, but composed myself quickly.

"I think you're cool. I bet you'd be even more fun to hang out with if you weren't working."

I watched her face carefully, but her expression was blank. I held my breath.

"I'll think about it."

I mentally pumped my fist. I was an optimist.

"Okay." I was surprised by how calm my voice came out sounding. She pulled up in front of my building, and stepped out to unlock the back of her truck. "I'm going to come by the club tomorrow, try not to ignore me," I said with a playful smirk. I would have bet money that she rolled eyes.

"I'll stop ignoring you if you stop staring at me all the time and trying to distract me," she said with a knowing smile.

She knew?

"I see everything in that bar Hollywood. Don't ever forget that."

She walked back into her truck, driving away without a second glace. I couldn't help my big grin.

. . . . . . . . . .

I'm not sure what I had been expecting, walking into the club the next night. It was more than a slight nod, but that's all she gave me. Her greeting to my sister was much warmer, Alice skipped over to her and hugged her tightly. B smiled, giving her a light squeeze and whispering something to her. My sister nodded, and B grinned before shooing her away. I went and sat down at our usual table with the others.

"Finally! I thought you guys would never show up," Rose said in an irritated tone. I looked at her curiously, and she smiled before looking up at Emmett.

"What's going on?" Jasper asked curiously. I noticed B walking over, a knowing smile on her face as she looked at the two of them.

"We're getting married!" Emmett shouted.

Alice screamed.

"Oh my god! Seriously!? When did you ask her? Why am I only hearing about this now?" Alice cried. Jasper wrapped an arm around her and kissed her temple affectionately.

"On Monday, we just wanted to wait until you guys were all together before we told any of you," Rose said happily.

"She knew," I said with a grin, nodding to B behind her. Rose looked up and beamed at her.

"Of course she did, I knew better than to try and pick out a ring by myself," Emmett joked, grinning at her too. I was once again struck by how weird the relationship between the three of them was. B rolled her eyes, but there was something very forced about the calm expression she wore, and walked away again without a word. I followed her with my eyes to see her peeling a guy off of the bar, he was arguing loudly with the bartender, and looked about ready to dive over high top.

The five of us got completely tanked on at least as many bottles of champagne, listening to them tell us about how Emmett proposed, and their plans for the ceremony. Rose asked Alice to be a bridesmaid. They wanted to have a fall wedding, and were planning for the fourth of October.

Their excitement was contagious, and I couldn't help watching them with a happy smile. At the same time though, it made me feel… empty. Sitting here with these two couples who were so obviously in love. I looked back over at B, and like she felt my gaze, which she probably had, she actually looked over at me. She attempted to give me a smile, but it came out as more of an awkward grimace, and I spat out my champagne from laughing so hard, much to my sister's horror. At least I didn't hit her with my spray.

She was actually trying though. Despite not wanting to sleep with me, and apparently being aware of my stalker-like tendencies, she was trying to be nice to me. I'm pretty sure this was her version of being nice. I was fucking ecstatic.

I wondered if she'd go to the wedding? Maybe she'd wear her hair down.

Or even wear a fucking dress.

I grinned, it would probably be more likely seeing her come in a tux with a shaved head.

. . .

"Hey Rose, things are all locked up, I'm heading home." She had a habit of just Apparating beside our table when I drank. Yeah, I read the Harry Potter books. They were fucking cool. B looked different tonight though, fucking gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but she looked exhausted. Even in the dim lighting of the club, I could tell that there were dark circles under her eyes.

"Thanks sweetie."

"We still up for lunch tomorrow?" Alice asked excitedly. Shit, Alice had her phone number, maybe she could help me out…

"Yeah, of course. Night guys." My heart soared when she gave me a small smile before she turned.

I watched her walk away, and felt the weirdest twinge in my stomach. Something didn't feel right. Emmett was watching me closely though, so I didn't go after her.

Five minutes passed though, I was starting to just feel sick. I said good night to the others, and went outside to catch a cab.

It was oddly silent out, and I looked at my watch to see it was almost four in the morning. Fuck, no wonder I was so tired.

The silence was broken by an odd ripping sound. I didn't even think as I walked around the corner, following the noise. My feet sped up when I heard this sickening thumping sound, and something similar to a muffled voice maybe.

I froze, my blood running cold from what I saw in the alley in front of me. B was there, with two large men. One was standing behind her, gripping her right arm with one hand and had his other arm wrapped around her neck. His nose was bleeding heavily, and it looked like he was missing a tooth. B's legs were thrashing around underneath her, not touching the ground.

Her left arm was hanging limply, and a little oddly, by her side.

The second man was standing in front of her, partially blocking my view of her. I caught the glint of sliver though as he trailed the knife between her breasts and down her stomach. Her shirt had been cut open.

I didn't think, it was as if I blinked and then I was suddenly there, breaking a glass bottle over his head. In the same second, the other man dropped B, but she sprang at him. My guy was unconscious, and I watched, frozen, as she tackled the other guy to the ground, rolling him over with a knee to the ribs, and dropped down on him.

There was obviously something wrong with her left arm, but not her right. She pounded into the guy's face in some sort of crazed frenzy, and I had to peel her off of him. It wasn't easy.

"Let me go! I'm going to fucking kill them!" She screeched, struggling to get away from me.

"I know you are! I'm trying to keep you out of prison! Shut the fuck up and look at me B!"

I spun her in my arms, and she was staring back at me with black eyes. It didn't look like she really saw me. There was nothing but rage in her eyes, and it was kind of terrifying.

"B? Can you hear me? Are you alright?" I smoothed my thumb over her lip, wiping away some blood, and that seemed to snap her out of her haze. She pushed me away, hard, then looked down at the two guys. She stared at them angrily for two long minutes, her chest rising and falling heavily with her laboured deep breathing, shaking before she turned and looked at me.

"Take my arm."

"What?"

"Take my fucking arm. Put both of your hands on my wrist, tight." She turned her limp arm towards me, and sudden understanding filled me.

"I don't think I can-"

She sighed irritably, and walked over to her bike parked in the back of the alley. I followed after her as she settled her left arm on the seat of her bike, and slowly started kneeling onto the ground with a strained yet determined expression on her face.

"Shit, wait, we can just-"

I flinched at the horrible crunching sound, and watched, feeling sick as she carefully moved around her arm. She ignored me as she pulled something out of her saddle bag and walked over to the two unconscious guys, zip tying their hands behind their backs. She picked her jacket up off of the ground by the door and pulled out her phone.

"Hey, I need you by the club. Now." Pause. "These two assholes attacked some girl in the alley beside my building, found them when I was grabbing the bike. They're unconscious. I need you to come get them." Pause. "Thanks." Pause. "No, I'm leaving, they're out cold though. Thanks man."

She hung up the phone as I walked over to her, and I rolled over the guy I had knocked out with my foot to see his face.

It was James.

"Don't say a word to Alice," she hissed, and walked back to the side door of the building, picking up her helmet gingerly before going through her keys with trembling, bloody hands. I followed closely after her, and she spun to look at me when she heard me next to her. Her mouth was still bleeding, her ripped shirt hanging open showing a black, lacy bra. I was more distracted by the long, bloody scratch going down her stomach though. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not leaving you alone."

"Listen Gladiator, I don't need you to-"

"I doubt even you could beat me up right now B. I'm not leaving you. Deal with it."

She watched me for a long minute, then turned away without a word.

The others were gone, and I watched her as she walked over to the bar, grabbed a bottle of vodka, then walked through the door behind the bar and down the hallway to her office. She slammed the bottle down on her desk, washed her hands in a sink in the corner of the room, then pulled a red bag out of one of her filing cabinets before carefully sitting in her desk chair. I sat down on the couch, watching her carefully.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

She pulled off her shirt, not seeming bothered by my watchful gaze, then pulled on a pair of gloves from the bag. I tried not to stare at the angry pink scar that went over her hip and disappeared below the waist of her pants. If I wasn't so concerned with the dangerous paleness of her face I might have spent a bit more attention to what a fuckawesome body she had. I already knew she worked out like crazy though. She pulled off her belt, and took a very, very long swig of the bottle before biting onto her leather, and poured the liquor over her stomach. She was breathing heavily when she put the bottle back down, but kept the belt in her mouth, as she started cleaning her stomach. I had to look away because her calmness and the whole surrealism of the situation was freaking my drunk self right-the-fuck-out. She was being too damn calm right now, shouldn't she be the one freaking out? I felt fucking useless sitting here.

"B, just let me take you to the hospital, this can't be-"

"I don't do hospitals, no fucking doctor is touching me," she hissed around the belt. I looked away again as she used some sort of glue stuff to go over the cut on her stomach.

I heard her move around a couple minutes later, and she was wearing a baggy t-shirt and a different pair of pants. Her face was impossibly paler, but she brushed away my arm when I went to give her a hand to the couch. She sat down carefully, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.

"Please let me take you to the hospital," I begged quietly.

"No. There's nothing they can do that I haven't already done," she said. It was obvious she was trying to put her usual strength into her voice, but it came out as a tired breath. That terrified me.

"How are you feeling?"

She didn't answer me. I watched her in silence for a long two minutes, and she turned her head to look at me.

"Thank you. Not only for helping, but… if you hadn't stopped me, I would have killed them."

"Don't mention it."

She gave me a tired smile, then closed her eyes again. I watched her for a few minutes, and as her face relaxed I realized that she'd fallen asleep.

I was stunned for a few minutes. I didn't want to wake her, so as gently as I could, I got off of the couch, and shifted her so that she was lying down in a more comfortable position. It was very surreal, touching her like that, but I didn't let my mind wander. After that, I draped my jacket over her like a blanket.

I never really realized how small she was until that minute, cloaked under my coat like a small child. Her attitude and confident posture always gave the illusion that she was much bigger. She looked really young with her face relaxed in sleep like this.

I forced myself to step away from her, and then shut off the lights before lying down on her floor.

I couldn't sleep, wondering if I was doing the wrong thing by not forcing her to go to the hospital. I was playing with the idea of calling my dad to come over, but was pretty sure I would be a dead man if I did. She'd never forgive me.

I did eventually start to drift off, but was pulled back by the soft sound of her voice.

"Wake up," she whispered.

"Hmmm."

"Wake up."

"Yeah, I'm awake, I'm just-"

"Wake the fuck up," she said, voice almost panicked. I sat up quickly, and saw that her eyes were still closed, but her expression was strained. She was talking in her sleep. "Wake up!"

I jumped to my feet, and shook her shoulder to wake her. She obviously didn't want to be asleep right now, and it was fucking eerie. She grabbed onto the wrist of my hand that touched her, twisting in in her grasp and sending me to my knees with a hiss.

"Oh fuck! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No no, it's okay. I was kind of expecting you to do that, if I was being honest with myself," I told her, grinning while rubbing my wrist. "Sorry, but you were talking in your sleep. It seemed like you wanted to wake up."

Her face flushed red as she looked up at me with her big brown eyes, and my heart fucking melted at the beauty in front of me. She turned away quickly. "Thanks," she whispered.

"Don't mention it. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, just pissed off," she said, then shot to her feet. "Fuck! What time is it?"

"Almost seven."

"Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck. I gotta go."

"Hey! Wait, what's wrong?"

"My boy's been by himself all night, he's going to be freaking out, I gotta get home." She paused and looked at me. "Sorry, but I can't leave you here by yourself."

"No no, that's cool. Let's go."

I followed her as she sprinted out of the building, and she gave her bike one sad look before shaking her head, sliding on her shades, and making her way over to the sidewalk where there was a line of waiting cabs.

"Are you sure you're okay to get home by yourself? You dislocated your fucking arm this morning."

"Yeah, I'm good."

"I don't believe you."

"You okay getting a ride?"

"Yeah, could you just do me a favor though?"

"Maybe," she said, looking at me suspiciously.

"Can you just… Text me or something later? And let me know you're okay?"

"I'm fine Batman, don't worry about me."

"If you don't call me, I'm coming by the club to check on you tonight."

"Well, I guess I'll see you tonight then," she said easily, dashing over to the front of the line of yellow cars and ducking into one before they drove out of sight.

I think she just gave me actual permission to come see her at work. I grinned proudly, but it disappeared quickly when I saw the splatters of blood on the pavement next to me.

What would have happened to her if I hadn't come? My stomach sank again.

. . . . . . . . . .

"What's up with you today?"

Alice was fiddling with the silver chain of the clutch in her lap, and she looked close to the brink of tears.

"I think something happened to B," she whispered.

I tensed. "What makes you say that?"

'Don't say a word to Alice…'

"Rose and I met up with her for lunch today, her lip was all swollen, and she barely ate. She always eats everything on her plate. She wouldn't take off her sunglasses either. We asked her, and she wouldn't say anything, just kept telling us to drop it."

"I'm sure she's fine Alice, she's a strong woman," I said, feeling sick to my stomach. "Besides, she's always wearing those sunglasses when she's out."

"I don't know Edward. I'm really worried about her."

"We'll see her soon, I'm sure she's fine Al."

"You know I hate it when you call me that," she said, grinning up at me. I winked at her, making her laugh.

We made our way into the club, and sat down with Emmett and Jasper at our table.

B wasn't at her lookout, and my heart dropped.

"Where's B?" Alice asked in a panicked voice, beating me to it.

"Er, I think she's taking the night off tonight or something," Emmett said, and changed the subject quickly. Alice looked up at me, panic in her eyes. I didn't have the strength to wait a second longer, I had to do something.

"Hey Emmett, can I talk to you for a second? Outside maybe?"

"Uh, sure." He followed after me suspiciously, the bouncer by the bar letting Emmett though the back. We stopped in the alley, my eyes flickering to the dried reddish stain on the ground for a second. "What's up bro?"

"You and B seem really close," I hedged.

"Yeah, so?" He growled.

"Who is her closest friend?"

"That's none of your fucking business, I thought I told you to stay away from her," he spat, turning around. I grabbed onto his arm.

"Emmett, please! This is important, it's not about me," I pleaded, panicking. I should have taken her to damn hospital, I could of just fucking carried her while she was out. Oh god, what if she's unconscious in her apartment, alone, being eaten by that giant dog…

"Hey, Edward, I'm sorry, are you okay?" He looked at me with a gentle, uncomfortable expression.

"No, I have to know Emmett."

He looked at me for a long minute, debating. "I am, I guess."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"So you know where she lives? You know what her actual name is?"

"Yeah, but I can't tell you those things."

"No, I don't want to know. Look, last night when I left, I found her in the alley getting attacked by these two guys. Fucking James and one of his lackeys I guess. They beat the shit out of her, even dislocated her fucking shoulder. And he had a knife and…I think she fixed herself up pretty good but- Man, I tried to convince her to let me take her to the hospital, but she wouldn't let me. I didn't know what to do, I told her I'd come check on her tonight to make sure she was okay, but she's not here. Alice said she looked like shit at lunch today, wouldn't even eat. You have to do something Emmett, I just need to know that she's okay."

I was breathing heavily, my pulse racing with fear. I was gripping onto the front of his shirt with two fists while he looked down at me in shock. His expression quickly flipped to one of raw fury.

"What happened to the guys?"

"I knocked one out, with a bottle, she beat the other one into unconsciousness and called someone to pick them up and deal with them for her."

He rubbed his face with his hands in frustration. "God, she needs to fucking get over this thing with the doctors," he mumbled. He looked back down at me. "Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine. As stubborn as she is, she would have called me if it was bad. I'll go and check on her though."

I slumped, letting go of him as I finally felt like I could breathe. "Thank you Emmett."

"You really care about her, don't you?" I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud, and just nodded once. "Hey Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"You did the right thing, telling me about this. Thank you."

"Can you just let me know if she's okay?"

"Sure. I'll text the others from the cab to let them know I left." He turned and started walking down the alley. I slumped against the wall. "Hey, Edward!"

"What?" I shouted back, looking over at him.

"What I said still goes, this changes nothing. You touch her, and I fucking kill you!" He gave me a bright smile, then walked around the corner.

Fucking weirdo.

I went back and sat with the others. Jasper was doing a better job at calming Alice, and when I sat down next to Rose she smiled up at me.

Something in her expression told me she knew, even if she didn't know all of it. I gave her a short nod of acknowledgement.

"Alice, I told you that she's fine. I talked to her half an hour ago, I just didn't want her working till four in the morning when she's sick."

"I know," she sniffled. The runny mascara look really didn't suit her.

"Hey Jasper, why don't you take Alice home?"

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You want to ride with us?"

"Nah, I'm just going to hang out with Rose for a bit. Get some sleep Alice."

She nodded, and let Jasper lead her away. The sight of her like that broke my heart, but I knew that she was in better hands with him.

"Emmett talked to you?"

"Yeah."

"What'd he say?"

"He didn't give details, but I was able to put two and two together." I nodded. "I meant what I said to Alice, she's fine. I just didn't want her working tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

I sighed, hiding my face in my hands. "She's going to beat the shit out of me for telling him," I groaned.

"Yup. Probably. That or she'll think you're really considerate and offer to blow you." My head shot up, gaping at her, and she burst out into laughter. "That was a fucking joke! Don't look so excited!" She laughed, leaning over and banging her fist on the table. "Oh my god! You should have just seen your face!" She grinned up at me, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Oh man, cousin, you've got it bad."

I chose to ignore her, and went and got myself a strong drink before sitting back down with her.

This club felt fucking boring without B in it. The giant man in black pants and a tight black t-shirt stood out like a sore thumb, and in the place that he was standing he could only see half of the bar. He was watching his phone anyways, not the room.

B would flip when she watched the footage of this night.

Just then my phone buzzed, and I ripped it out of my pocket as quickly as I could.

She's fine, she would have gone into work but Rose wouldn't let her. I'm still grateful that you told me though, thanks man. I owe you one.

I sighed in relief. Even though I'd heard it from Rose, knowing Emmett was next to her right now comforted me. I grinned, and put my phone away.

"Hey Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

"What are you talking about Rose?"

"I've seen the way you look at her, it's obvious. But B, she's… Just be careful, okay?"

"Is there something I should know Rose? Why are you all so fucking secretive about this chick? Is she a fugitive or something?" This was really starting to fucking annoy me.

"We do it because we love her. If you put her in danger, or hurt her in any way, I'll kill you myself."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," I mumbled in annoyance. "Thanks for the warning."

I left not long afterwards, too irritated to sit there anymore. They were all fucking hiding something from me, and I was fed up with it.

B wasn't the only person that knew people.

I started up my laptop when I got home, and sent an e-mail to Aro. I told him what I knew about her, where she worked, what she looked like, and the nickname she went by, telling him that I wanted her fucking name, a background check and her criminal records as soon as possible. Feeling accomplished, I dropped down in my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

. . .

I woke up to a loud pounding on my front door, and looked over at my alarm clock.

It was five in the morning, what the fuck? I'd only been asleep for half an hour.

I walked out of my room in my flannel pants, and opened the door while rubbing my eyes. "What's going-"

Crack.

"Fuck!" I gripped my face with my hand, and didn't even see the second sharp jab to my stomach coming. I crumbled forward, but a quick shove knocked me onto my back. My arms were pulled away from myself, and pinned down at my sides by what felt like someone's knees before my mugger slapped me in the face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" She shouted, and I looked up in shock to see B straddling me, and looking down at me with unveiled fury. I was too shocked to say anything, my body radiating with pain. "Why the fuck were you trying to access my criminal records Edward!?"

"How did you-"

"I got an alert when you sent this-" she ripped out a paper copy of the e-mail I sent to Aro and shoved it in my face. "At first I thought it was some sort of mistake, but that was my own fucking fault for letting my guard down around you, wasn't it? You fucking prick." She looked like she was going to slap me again, but stopped herself. The look of betrayal in her eyes was more painful than any of the hits she'd gotten in anyways, but she covered that quickly with anger once more. "You know, I was actually starting to think you were a decent guy. What the fuck is your problem! Why can't you just leave me alone?"

She was breathing heavily, trembling on top of me, and for a second I almost thought I saw her eyes start to water. She jumped up to her feet, but I lunged forward and kicked the door shut before she could storm out.

"Wait-" I gasped. I could barely fucking breathe, she got me hard in the ribs, and I could taste blood in my mouth.

"Don't make me kick you while you're down," she growled. I leaned up against the door, not backing away.

"You're hiding something, you're all fucking hiding something. I'm sick of the secrets, and I'm not going to let you drag my family into whatever warrant's you're running from."

"Your family? Rose?"

"Yeah."

"You've been gone for five fucking years, you don't know Rose. She may be your blood, but she's my family. I protect her, not you," she spat.

"Protect her from what?" This wasn't the first time they had hinted at that.

"If you knew her, you wouldn't be asking. Now get the hell out of my way before I knock you out."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"You're not leaving me." She grabbed me to move me, and I grabbed onto her shoulder hard to stop her.

Her left shoulder.

She screamed, and dropped to her knees on the ground in front of me before slumping to the floor. I let go of her quickly.

"Fuck! B, I'm sorry, I forgot. Are you-" She wasn't moving. "B? B, talk to me!"

I rolled her over, and she was unconscious. Fuck.

I called Emmett, I didn't even think about it.

"What the fuck are you calling me so early for?" He mumbled.

"I need you to get to my house, like right fucking now Emmett."

"What's going on?" He growled.

"B's kind of… unconscious in my foyer right now. I don't know what to do."

"You're a fucking dead man Cullen."

The line went dead.

I didn't doubt his words for an instant.

I don't know how, but it felt like he was ripping open my door five minutes later, and found me sitting on the tiles in front of her, just watching her. I'd never hurt a woman before, and the fact that I had hurt her, B, enough to make her scream and pass out, even if unintentional, was fucking nauseating. She hadn't moved, but she seemed to be breathing fine.

"What the fuck did you do?"

"I grabbed her shoulder, her left one, and she just passed out."

He shoved me out of his way and went to move her. He stopped when she groaned, and clutched at her shoulder before rolling onto her side. Her eyes opened and looked up at Emmett in confusion for a second, then saw me and her eyes narrowed.

She jumped to her feet, lunging at me, but Emmett caught her and pinned her to the floor.

She couldn't fight that much weight.

"Let me go Emmett! I'm going to fucking kill him!"

"Calm down! We'll all take turns kicking Edward's ass once you tell me what the fuck is going on!" He turned her face to look at him, and their eyes stayed locked for a long, quiet minute.

They were complete opposites, they looked nothing alike, but at the same time there was something so similar about them. My stomach fluttered nervously.

B sighed, and the fight just seemed to slip away from her. She looked over to the side of her, and I followed her gaze to the slightly ripped letter on the ground.

"Read that, and you'll know."

He watched her for a few more seconds, but she seemed calm, and he released her before grabbing the paper. I saw his face burn bright red as he quickly went over it. He looked at me in confusion.

"Why would you do this? I thought you fucking cared about her?"

B laughed sarcastically, and shakily got back up to her feet. Her face was extremely pale, making her bruised eyes and puffy lip stand out even more. There was a faint sheen of sweat of her face also.

"I'm sick of all the secrecy," I said. I wasn't going to apologize to a felon.

Emmett looked back over at B. "Did it get through?"

"No, I crashed his account then cleared the trail. No one read it but me."

"Are you sure? I'm not taking a fucking chance, not again."

"I'm sure Emmett. I just don't know what to do with this asshole," she said, nodding at me. Emmett spun around, lifting me off the ground and throwing me against the wall.

"Do you have any idea how much fucking danger you almost put her in?" He growled, shoving me again.

"Emmett…" Her voice sounded slightly panicked now.

"No! He's not going to drop this, and I am not going to let that fucking asshole find you again," he snapped. She flinched away from his voice, and looked down at the ground as she leaned against the wall.

"What are you talking about?"

"My sister is in fucking witness protection you asshole, that's why she can't tell anyone her fucking name. What you did, you could have gotten her fucking killed! Now, you're going to back the fuck off, you won't even fucking look at her again, let alone talk about her. You won't step a foot into my gym or club, you got that?"

"Your… sister?"

"Yes, my fucking baby sister you asshole. Fuck!" He punched his fist through the wall beside my head in anger.

B was pulling on his arm, and when he looked down at her, the pain in his eyes stopped my breath.

How did I not see it?

"Come on Em, let's go. This is a waste of time. I'll make us some steaks for breakfast," she said quietly, pulling him away from me. He was trembling, vibrating, but he seemed to calm slightly under her touch. He smiled, and wrapped one of his giant arms around her shoulders.

They both shot me a disgusted look, and in that moment, I easily saw the resemblance. It wasn't a physical thing, but a mental one.

They walked out without another word, and after closing my door I fell to the ground, shaking.

It was too much of an over load. B was Emmett's little sister, the woman yelling that day in the cyclist class, who he was always texting and bragging about, but never released any actual personal details about. Why him, Rose and B were all so close.

They were a fucking family. It explained why Rose was so protective of her too, and vice versa. They were like sisters.

Worse than that was the possibility that I had almost gotten her hurt. There was someone looking for her, someone dangerous obviously, and I could have set off the alarms that sent him right after her.

The realization that I may have endangered her was what drained my last bit of energy, and I slid down the wall to the floor. I'd never experienced anything like this, the nauseating, consuming , painful hole that has been ripped open in my chest.

. . . . . . . . . .

Okay okay, just bear with me. Please? It gets better, and some questions will get answered next chapter.

Who are you more upset with? B or E?