Chapter 114

Darius

After speaking to The Major I decided to take Charlie with me, it would be a chance for him to get a little payback although I knew it wouldn't make up for the fact we had killed Alonzo without him even speaking to the monster. We would also take one more person but I wasn't sure whether that person should be Peter or Emmett but then Garrett approached me.

"Rumor has it you're going after Alonzo's brother. Want some company?"

"I thought you were busy with Alice."

"Yeah but Emmett has Skye to think about now and we both know Peter's nervous of Felix around Kat so your choices are limited and I am more experienced than both of them although Peter would never admit it."

"OK then, we leave tomorrow morning, I'm gonna set up some surveillance, see what our quarry is doing about his security these days, He's sure to have tightened it since our last visit."

Bella

I knew something was going on when Darius went quiet, hunched over his laptop and ignoring everyone else. It wasn't difficult to get the truth out of Jazz, he just shrugged and murmured "loose ends that's all."

There were only two loose ends I could think of, finding Phil's body and Mendoza's brother.

"They're going to kill him aren't they?"

He looked at me and nodded as if it were an everyday occurrence and I knew Jasper would have killed Alonzo and his brother without blinking. Then Charlie told me he was going with Darius and Garrett,

"Why don't you leave it to the others dad?"

"Because I lost out on getting revenge for your kidnap and Renee and Phil's death, this is all I have left."

I could see there was no going back for Charlie, this was important to him so I just nodded.

Thinking about Phil reminded me of his poor body undiscovered and without a decent burial so I returned to Jazz,

"I want to take you to where we dropped Phil's body. He must be found."

Of course he vetoed that right away but this would help me recover from the trauma I was sure, so I spoke to Carlisle and after a lengthy discussion he agreed to talk to Jazz for me. That conversation was lengthy and heated at times but eventually Jasper agreed I could go but on the condition I stayed in the truck. I agreed happily, I didn't want to see what was left of Phil's body, just to know he wasn't still laying out there all alone.

We left the same time Darius and the others did taking Carlisle with us, supposedly to check the body but really he was there to watch me, along with Esme who joined us at the last minute. I felt as if I were being wrapped in cotton wool like a cherished breakable object and I guess to an extent that's exactly what I was. The first few miles I felt fine but I knew the closer I got the more uptight I would be and I had agreed if it became too much for me they would drop Esme and I off at a hotel and go on without us. I wanted to do this because I knew in the long run it would help but right now all I wanted to do was to curl up and hide myself away.

I knew both Esme and Jazz were keeping a close eye on me but I was fine…...until Carlisle started to slow down. I moved forward to peer between the seats and my heart began to pound, my mouth went dry and I screamed at Carlisle to keep going,

"Don't stop please Carlisle, go, keep going."

He looked over his shoulder,

"Its OK Bella, it's just someone broken down."

I lost it completely then screaming at the top of my voice,

"DON'T STOP!"

Jasper took me in his arms and spoke commandingly to Carlisle,

"Drive!"

The car sped up and he calmed me but I couldn't help that I was sobbing in fear.

"Bella you're safe, we're not stopping. Just remember Mendoza is dead. I'm here and I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."

Eventually I dozed, exhausted by my emotions.

Jasper

I waited until I knew she was soundly asleep to discuss her panic attack.

"Jasper, Bella has to come to terms with her emotions and the longer we shield her from them the worse it is for her. I know you hate to see her distressed, we all do but she knows what she wants and it appears she wants to get over her fears. All we can do is to help her cope son."

I didn't like it, Carlisle was right, but I did understand and vowed to be there as she worked her way through her fears.

When she woke she looked a little better, not so tense and thanked us all for not turning back or dropping her off.

"If I can't find a way through this I'll never be myself again."

Bella

I watched carefully the closer we got to the area we had thrown Phil over the edge and still almost missed it. I wasn't a hundred percent sure I was right but I thought this was the spot.

"You stay in the car with Esme Bella. I won't have you seeing what we might find."

"You will find him Jazz, you have to. Why hasn't anyone found him before? I don't understand."

"We'll see, just promise me you will stay here."

I nodded and in truth I really didn't want to see what they would find. Instead I sat with Esme discussing the latest news. Charlie and Jenna were going to be married and we were organizing things. It felt strange to think of my dad getting remarried but I was happy for him, he'd been alone too long.

Jasper

We looked over the edge but the ground below was hidden by thick vegetation and trees.

"We'll have to go down if we stand any chance of finding a body."

I nodded and waiting for the road to clear I leaped down, onto a ledge about fifty feet below the road.

"Let me get down then follow, the face of the rock is really uneven so there's probably more shelves as you go down. Maybe Phil's body got stuck on one of those."

Carlisle nodded and I started climbing down carefully looking all around me.

The trees grew in graduated levels, some almost hidden from view by others and I thought it might be that the body had become caught in the canopy out of view from above and below. Carlisle appeared at my side climbing a few feet to my right when I smelled it. Not so much a rotting corpse so much as the smell left behind after wards, a kind of dry musty smell.

Looking around I could see what was left of poor Phil hanging between two trees growing from a crevice in the rock too far up to be seen from the ground but far enough down to be invisible from above. Carlisle pulled out a body bag from the small rucksack on his back and nodding to me I climbed down to the bottom to check the way was clear. It would be almost impossible to reach this spot on foot, for a human anyway so I called up to him and he threw the bag down then dislodged the body which fell among the thorny vegetation.

Following it down he helped me to manoeuvre the body into the body bag, mainly bones as the scavengers had been at work although when moved the smell became more apparent, some flesh still clung to the body caught in the clothing.

"I'll go back and drive into the nearest town, rent a car and drive back in mine. We can put the body into the trunk and take it back with us while Esme drives Bella home. I won't have her in a car with the body. Once home we can decide what she wants to do with it. Maybe bury it in the grounds, at least we found him for her."

"OK I'll wait here for you, as soon as it's dark we can bring the body up."