CHAPTER 23

The cellar was just as dank and musty as Bella remembered. The corners of the ceiling had grown new cobwebs since she'd last been down there and the recently whitewashed walls were already turning faintly yellow in patches from the damp.

She stared at the rack of wine which was the only thing in the room, badly wanting her warm bed. She still felt dizzy and disorientated and had to fight a growing need to sit down on the floor and fall asleep.

She swayed on her feet and James took a stronger hold on her arm, before glancing backwards to see what was taking Mike so long. He'd been right behind them a minute ago.

As Mike arrived at the bottom of the stairs he jumped when he saw James standing waiting for him. The phone in his hand beeped and his eyes flew towards James in alarm.

'Uhhhhh, that's Jess texting me.' He mumbled sheepishly.

But James had already dashed the phone out of his hand and as they all watched, it smashed against the stone wall and dropped to the floor with its screen shattered.

An odd sound like a strangled scream came out of Mike's mouth, 'You bastard, Jess gave me that for our wedding anniversary and she's texting me later to go and pick her up.'

James had already pounced on the phone and he easily fended Mike off when he tried to grab it back.

'I'm not having you wheedling your fucking way out of our fucking game, you owe me too much money already. Whatever that bitch fucking wants can wait and I'm not letting you out of my sight 'til we're finished.'

Mike continued to try to wrestle the phone out of James's hands, while James laughed and swore at him and kicked and elbowed him away, but meanwhile Bella had seized her chance while James was distracted and was halfway up the stairs.

James's reprisal was quick and terrible. With a roar he slapped James away, shoved the offending phone into his pocket and leapt up the stairs behind her.

'Oh, no you don't. If the cellar isn't good enough for you, you're forgetting there's somewhere a lot less pleasant I can put you. It's such a pity you're so afraid of the dark.'

Bella screamed from the pain in her chest when he grabbed hold of her hair and yanked her back down the stairs, then with her arm trapped in an armlock behind her back, he pulled her across the room and into the next one.

Dazed as she was and almost sobbing with the pain, Bella was still trying to fight James off as he dragged her towards the entrance to the smugglers' tunnel, but she knew it was useless. With a threatening look he dared her to try to escape again, while he held on to her with one hand and with the other, searched for the key on the ledge above the metal gate which barred their way.

A cold draught set the bare light bulb in the ceiling swinging and the circle of light swayed and dipped across the bare cellar walls, making Bella feel so dizzy again that she had to close her eyes for a moment.

At least the pain in her chest had woken her up a bit, but she was beginning to feel really cold and for the first time in a while she remembered she was only wearing her nightclothes.

James's eyes were on her bare shoulder and she glared at him and pulled the dressing gown back over it.

He smiled an appreciative smile, 'I've half a mind to come back for you, but it's not worth the aggravation of setting your boyfriend off. His determination has always been somewhat exhausting, even as a child.'

His gaze slithered to Bella's cleavage and she pulled the lapels of the dressing gown together and held them tight around her neck. The look in James's eyes made her feel even more sick.

He seemed undecided, 'It's a pity I couldn't persuade you to come to Italy before Christmas, you would have been such a success. Alec has particular tastes… which Alice was about to find out, before she took such drastic action.'

Bella's eyes swung towards his face in surprise.

'Oh yes, she'd really caught his eye. And of course after all those years, I had Alice trained so well to do anything I told her, that it had become quite boring. She was so devoted to Edward you see. The smallest hint of any threat against him…'

His expression betrayed no regret at all, merely irritation. 'I'd just given her a couple of grams of coke too, the remains of which I had to search her room for afterwards, which was extremely annoying as you can imagine.'

Mike looked almost as shocked as Bella to hear that the most harrowing aspect of his half-sister's death as far as James was concerned, was that he'd had to retrieve the drugs he'd been supplying her with.

Perhaps realising he'd been indiscrete, James's attention snapped back to the present and he looked at Bella coldly.

'So much for the useless devotion of friends and family. And you on the other hand had no one to protect you. How long would you have been able to hold out, with no money, no passport and no family to rescue you, once you found yourself trapped in a strange country?'

He looked at her from eyes which gleamed with excitement at the thought of how defenceless she would have been, before his expression turned sour, 'But you were nothing but a whore after all. You seduced Carlisle then Edward and you've been a thorn in my side ever since. Perhaps I should make you pay after all?'

He twisted the arm he was still holding.' Shall I make you scream again, my beauty? I know a million ways…'

It was Mike who interrupted, 'James for fuck's sake. It's not worth it and you're wasting time. Just lock her up and let's go.'

James sighed loudly, 'Yes, you are right. I have more important things to do and after all we have what we came for,' and he patted his pocket where the diamond necklace was concealed.

Seconds later he'd unlocked the padlock, wrenched the gate open and thrust Bella into the gaping mouth of the tunnel with such force that she fell onto the floor. Picking herself up she crawled to the gate. She didn't want to beg, but the panic was mounting and she had no choice.

'Please James, don't do this. Let me out of here. Put me back in the cellar, or take me with you even. I won't try to get away, I promise.'

The coldness in his eyes was chilling as he ignored her hand on his arm, closed the padlock and tossed the key into the corner of the room.

'Sorry, you should have thought of that before you misbehaved yourself. Unfortunately the way out is blocked by roof falls and the high tide. But if you can dig your way through, you could always try to swim for it, like Alice.'

Shocked again by his callousness, Bella let go of his arm and sank to the floor in defeat. And completely unperturbed, James hustled Mike out of the door, bowed mockingly towards Bella and left the room.

She heard their footsteps echoing across the next room and continuing up the cellar steps. Then the lights went off and the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut and she was left in complete darkness.

-ooo-

Immediately it felt as if a hand had curled around her throat making it hard to breathe and her heart began to beat so loud and fast that it was all she could hear. With a shaking hand she blindly felt for the stone wall of the tunnel behind her and sat with her back against it, so at least nothing could jump out of the darkness from behind her.

Still struggling to drag in every breath, as shivers rolled and up and down her spine and her whole body shook with fear, she stared out into the pitch blackness all around her with every muscle tensed and rigid, cursing James and wishing he would die a horrible death.

Suddenly she remembered the torch in her dressing gown pocket and sobbing with relief, she pulled it out, felt for the switch and turned it on. But to her utter dismay nothing happened and no amount of shaking, fiddling with the batteries or swearing made any difference – it must have got broken when she'd fallen down the stairs.

Closing her eyes as despair mixed with the fear, she leant back against the wall and the terrifying darkness closed in all around her. No one understood how petrified she was of the dark and this was like being in her worst nightmare. She was sweating and shaking uncontrollably now and she could hear her heart thumping erratically through the buzzing in her ears.

She'd never had a full on panic attack before, but when her fingers and lips began to tingle she realised that was about to happen, which scared her even more. Somehow she had to get the panic under control. She took a deep breath, which made her dizzy, then held it and slowly, consciously, tried to clear her mind and just concentrate on relaxing every muscle as she breathed.

By a huge effort of will she managed to slow her breathing down and cut out everything but the act of breathing and relaxing and gradually the hammering of her heart and the rushing sound in her ears began to be replaced by the sound of the sea surging against the rocks at the other end of the tunnel.

But when she opened her eyes and the darkness swarmed back in, she had to start the whole process again, until slowly, gradually, she found that if she faced the fear and refused to give in to it, her brain began to understand there was nothing to panic about, although a small icy sliver of fear remained somewhere deep inside, which she couldn't completely erase.

For what felt like hours, she struggled, testing herself by keeping her eyes open for longer and longer until she knew she could do it. Although she'd still rather be almost anywhere else in the world, she knew she wasn't going to die of fright at least, and exhausted from the effort, she closed her eyes again and slumped back against the wall.

But now that her fear of the dark wasn't blocking out everything else, other things began to worry her. For the first time she really noticed how cold and damp it was down here. Although it had been sunny during the day it was still only the end of March and summer was a long way off, and realising she was shivering from cold now not fear, she tried to wrap the dressing gown more tightly around herself.

As she bent to cover her bare feet, which felt like blocks of ice, she was shocked by the sudden pain in her chest, which really hurt every time she moved or breathed. Adrenaline must have been keeping her going, but perhaps she'd been more seriously injured in her fall down the stairs than she'd originally thought?

She flinched when she gingerly felt her ribs on the right hand side, then checked her head and found a painful lump which extended down over her cheek. Yep, broken ribs and concussion probably; she must have cracked her head and side against the banister as she fell.

The earlier feeling of having cotton wool in her head and ears had also returned, as well as the desperate desire to sleep, which she was certain wasn't a good idea. The throbbing headache was still there somewhere too, but muffled by the cotton wool and soon her teeth were chattering and she was shivering violently all over.

She wasn't sure whether the fall or the cold would get her first, but either way things weren't looking good. She wondered what Edward was doing, but thinking about the life she'd felt so hopeful about only an hour ago was too painful and she couldn't bear to think of the look in Edward's eyes when he'd kissed her goodbye earlier.

She tried to think of something less sad to think about and feeling some small stones on the floor beside her, she picked them up and decided that for every one, she'd go along the rows of books in her bookcase in her mind, then the clothes in her wardrobe and so on, to try to keep her mind alert.

How odd though, when she began to trail the stones through her fingers she found they were actually shells. But after wondering for a moment how they'd got there, she got on with the task of remembering what was on the top shelf of her bookcase, starting from the left…

-ooo-

Bella had no idea how long she'd been down there in the cold and dark.

She was almost too tired now to be afraid. When she opened her eyes the darkness was full of moving shadows as her brain tried to make sense of her surroundings, and the sound of the sea at the other end of the tunnel was very loud, mixed with strange murmurings like far away voices.

She'd just had another coughing fit which had sent daggers of pain into her head and make her wind her arms around her ribs in agony. At least the pain had helped to keep her awake, but as time went on and the cold took hold, the fuzziness in her head spread and a creeping numbness begin to take over her whole body.

At some point she's toppled over and she found she was lying huddled on the floor. She was still holding onto the shells as if they were a lifeline, but she couldn't remember what she was supposed to be doing with them, perhaps if she just counted them as she let them run through her fingers that would be enough.

The next time she opened her eyes she would have thought she was dreaming if she hadn't still been able to feel the shells, hard and sharp against her palms, as her fingers wrapped tight around them to keep them safe. Suddenly the tunnel had opened out into a huge underground cavern dotted with swirling multicolour lights, like the disco lights on Edward's face on her phone earlier.

Her eyes filled with tears at the thought of him, but before they could fall, slowly, out of the remaining shadows, two figures appeared and moved towards her – Lady Mary and Alice.

Bella didn't feel at all afraid, because she knew they'd come to help her. She smiled back at them as they bent over her. She could hear someone desperately trying to breathe and was shocked to realise it was her own rasping breaths. She wanted to sleep so badly now, but she couldn't give in and leave Edward all alone.

Gathering all her strength, she slowly managed to pull herself back up into a sitting position against the wall and while Alice smiled at her encouragingly and Lady Mary hovered nearby, Bella picked up another handful of shells and started counting again. One, two, three…

-ooo-

Edward had been enjoying his evening at the wedding much more than he'd anticipated. The food had been unexpectedly good, the atmosphere had been light-hearted and he'd had a chance to not only catch up with some of his old friends, but also some of Carlisle's, who'd been anxious to give their commiserations and reminisce, which had been surprising enjoyable.

The only thing which would have improved the evening was Bella's presence and mindful of his promise not to be too late back, he'd just booked a taxi to take him home. The hour's wait was a bit annoying given that the journey would take almost another hour, but after all it was a Friday night and the wedding venue was rather out of the way.

As he disconnected the call, he glanced over to the bar area and saw Jess was making a spectacle of herself as usual and with a sigh he decided he'd better go and intervene. He knew their friendship might seem odd to some people, but only Jess really knew what a state he'd been in after Alice drowned and if she hadn't taken him in that night and looked out for him for weeks and forced him to talk about things, he wasn't sure how he'd have made it through.

Halfway across the room though, his phone vibrated with a text which stopped him dead in his tracks. He had no idea why Mike's name was even in his contacts list and when he read the text he was even more perplexed. He wanted to assume he'd been sent it by mistake, but he already had a sick feeling when he rang Mike back. His eyes stayed on Jess, as Mike's phone rang and rang then went to voicemail again.

He tried ringing the pub phone next, but that was constantly engaged as if it had been taken off the hook, and then he remembered about the card game and realised they wouldn't want to be disturbed, which would also explain why he couldn't get though to Mike. After a few seconds' hesitation he decided to ring Bella. He didn't want to wake her, but the bad feeling he had wouldn't go away.

Emmett strolled past just as Edward was calling Bella for the third time without success and Edward grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly walked him out of the room.

Emmett raised an eyebrow, 'What's up?'

'I've had this odd text from Mike. I know it's probably just a misdial and you'll think I'm crazy, but I can't get hold of him, or Bella, and I've got this horrible feeling that Bella's in trouble.'

He showed Emmett the text on his screen - all it said was 'J'

Edward looked embarrassed,' I know it's stupid but I need to get back. There's an hour's wait for a taxi, but I was thinking you might be able to help with that?'

Emmett's voice was reassuring as he took out his phone, 'Don't worry, I'll pull a few strings. I've got a couple of friends who owe me a favour. Go back inside and ask Rosalie to keep an eye on Jess and I'll be with you in a sec.'

A couple of minutes later Emmett was able to give Edward the good news, 'Your taxi will here in ten minutes, so we'd better go and wait outside the gates.'

And with a goodbye kiss to Rose, Emmett hustled Edward towards the door, 'Hurry up mate, it's going to take a good three quarters of an hour to get there, even at this time of night. And no, you're not getting rid of me; you might need some help to deal with James.'

-ooo-

Bella thought she was dreaming when she heard voices in the distance calling her name. As she turned her head, Alice and Lady Mary merged back into the shadows and a moment later a light went on and footsteps were running towards her through the cellar.

The light dazzled her eyes for a moment, but her heart leapt when she saw Edward, then Emmett, appear in the doorway and seconds later Edward had found the key to unlock the gate and was holding her in his arms.

Immediately realising how cold she was, they both took their coats off and wrapped them round her, then Edward spoke quickly and quietly to Emmett as if he didn't want to scare her, 'Can you go upstairs and dial 999? It's no use down here, there's no signal. Then go and get the duvet off our bed, while I get her out of here.'

Emmett nodded and moved away, while Edward turned his attention back to Bella. She was still so cold that she couldn't move, but a tiny flicker of warmth began to seep into her body from where he was touching her and a tear of relief slowly trickled from her eye.

She tried to concentrate on what he was saying and managed to shake her head minutely when he asked if her back or legs were injured. He grimaced when she cried out as he lifted her into his arms then sank back into the almost comatose state she'd fallen into.

'I'm so sorry Sweetheart, but I have to get you somewhere warm.'

He sounded furious, but he gently lifted her into his arms and carried her upstairs, then along the passage towards the sitting room.

Emmett met them in the hall carrying the duvet and an electric heater from the bedroom, which he plugged in, while Edward put Bella down on the sofa. Edward folded the duvet in two then tucked it tightly around her on top of his coat; after removing Emmett's coat and handing it back to him.

Emmett had tried to hide his shock when he'd first seen Bella under the lights and he still looked grim as he hurried off to the kitchen to make her a warm drink, while Edward talked quietly to her and continued to hold her hand. She hadn't moved or spoken since he'd carried her upstairs, but every so often her eyelids flickered open for a second before drifting shut again and at least her pulse seemed to be getting stronger.

Suddenly there was a flurry of calls on Edward's phone and a couple of minutes later Mike appeared in the doorway.

He stared at Bella in dismay then looked at Edward apologetically, 'My god, I didn't know she was injured. Did that happen when she fell down the stairs? I'm so sorry. I was trying to text you, but there was no signal in the cellar, then James smashed my phone.'

'No wonder I couldn't get through to you then. But why didn't you try again when you got back to the village?'

'James made everyone switch off their phones before the game and he wouldn't let me out of his sight for a second. I phoned you as soon as he left and came straight up here.' Mike couldn't take his eyes off Bella and he was clearly distressed, 'She looks terrible. Is she going to be ok?'

'I certainly hope so. No thanks to James. Someone should have called an ambulance when she fell downstairs.'

'I'm so sorry I was even there. He forced me to go with him.'

'Well it's a good thing you did, otherwise there'd have been no one to raise the alarm.'

Mike suddenly looked puzzled, 'How did you manage to get into the cellar though? I thought James locked it and put the key in his pocket.'

It was Edward's turn to look puzzled, 'No, the cellar door was wide open, so we found her straight away. Which was just as well, because I have a horrible feeling we only got here just in time.'

Just then Emmett came back with a cup of tea for Bella. There was a hurried conversation between the three men and Mike was sent off to wait outside for the ambulance, while Edward sat down next to Bella and began coaxing her to drink some of the tea. With his support, she managed to sit up slightly and in between sips of the warming drink, she stared at Edward's face thinking, not for the first time, that it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Meanwhile Emmett had put his coat back on and with a nod towards Edward he'd disappeared. But not before Bella had seen the look that passed between them. And suddenly she was very afraid, because she knew Emmett was going after James.

-ooo-

Not long afterwards the ambulance arrived and Bella was wrapped up in a foil blanket and whisked away to hospital, with a relieved Edward by her side. Apparently he'd done the right thing in trying to warm her up, because the hypothermia had been a bigger threat to her life than either the head injury or the broken ribs, which luckily hadn't punctured a lung or done any serious damage.

After a few uncomfortable hours in A&E she was found a bed and allowed to sleep and when she next woke it was late afternoon. She immediately looked round for Edward, who was sitting in an easy chair at the side of the bed.

He'd already noticed her eyes were open and he smiled at her and squeezed the hand he was holding on top of the bedcover,' Welcome back to the land of the living. How are you feeling?'

She groaned at the bright sunlight, then realised she was aching all over,' The land of the living dead more like. I feel terrible. What time is it?'

'Nearly five. You've been asleep all day and they want to keep you in for at least another day or two, because of the head injury and the pneumonia.'

'Pneumonia?' Bella lifted her other hand and realised it was attached to a drip.

'Those are intravenous antibiotics. You must have been feeling terrible for ages, why didn't you tell me how ill you were?'

'I didn't really feel that ill, just exhausted. I was going to go to the doctor's on Monday, once I'd got my dissertation in and everything.' Bella suddenly looked worried and tried to sit up, 'Oh, the deadline, I need to get it posted.'

'Hey, I'm supposed to be making sure you rest.' Edward smoothed the back of her hand with his thumb, immediately distracting her, 'Don't worry, all dealt with, Rose took it to the post office this morning.'

Bella relaxed and smiled up at him in gratitude, 'It's sort of ironic that in the end I was the one who was locked up in the cellar while James made off with the spoils. Where is James by the way? I can remember being terrified that Emmett would find him and you'd both get yourselves into serious trouble.'

Edward's eyes had clouded with anger at the mention of James, 'You needn't worry. He'd already got away. Alec picked him up and they were well on their way to London before Emmett could get anywhere near him.'

'Thank god you didn't get a chance to do anything stupid then.'

The gaze he turned on her was completely guileless, 'Bella, someone in my position couldn't possibly afford to take that risk. I have the utmost respect for the rule of law, otherwise I would never have entered the profession. Emmett just took one or two of his rugby team-mates to ask James a few questions.'

She rolled her eyes, 'Hmmm, I can see that wouldn't get out of hand at all. But I don't understand why you and Emmett had to risk that now, after holding back for so long.'

Edward looked at her in complete disbelief,' For chrissakes Bella, I never had the slightest proof of anything before, but this time James almost killed you. Don't you understand how lucky you are to be alive?'

Bella thought back to the nightmare James had put her through and silently thanked her two imaginary companions, Lady Mary and Alice. Even if they'd been complete fantasy, she didn't think she'd have been able to hold on for so long without them, especially Alice, who'd ended up counting shells along with her and refused to let her stop.

Bella wondered whether to tell Edward what James had admitted about Alice. He needed to know the truth finally, but not now, maybe later when they'd been to the police and James was safely locked up. But that was what worried her. Even if they managed to get James extradited from Italy and charged, would anyone be able to make anything stick?

He'd been uncharacteristically careless lately, perhaps because he was so badly in debt, but he'd always been so clever at avoiding incriminating himself. What if there was no real legal case to answer? After all she'd fallen down the stairs on her own and concealed the fact that she was injured, which Mike could easily confirm.

Maybe James could get away with claiming that locking her in the cellar for an hour or so was a minor family disagreement or a prank and he'd been about to go and let her out. If they couldn't prove intent, he might not even get a caution. As for the necklace, there was nothing to prove they hadn't been arguing over one of the items Carlisle had left him, in which case James might even claim she was the one who'd been trying to steal it.

She wondered again why something so valuable had been forgotten about. Perhaps Edward remembered it?

When she looked back up at him, he was looking at her so tenderly that she almost forgot her question, 'Do you know where Alice got the necklace from? James said it wasn't Esme's and Alice told him she bought it with her pocket money.'

'I've no idea where it came from. All I remember is Alice pretending it was buried treasure when we played pirates, then wearing it for weeks on end. I assumed she'd found it in the dressing up box.'

'Oh well, it's gone now and to be honest I never want to see it again. I got a really horrible feeling when I first touched it and after what happened to me because of it…'

She looked at Edward and suddenly wondered what he'd be doing and feeling now if he hadn't rescued her in time. None of it bore thinking about and if James managed to escape again there would be no justice in the world. 'So what's happening about James?'

The smile that appeared on Edward's face was completely unexpected, and chilling, 'Don't worry, James is being taken care of.'

Bella was mystified, 'But how can you be so sure of that? I haven't even made a statement to the police yet.'

Edward laughed, 'Haven't you even noticed you're in a private room?'

Bella wrinkled her brow, 'Oh. What?'

'When Emmett came back empty handed as it were, I decided to pursue a different avenue. I'm sorry, I had to raid your wallet to do it.' He removed a card from his pocket and gave it to her.

'Aro? I don't understand…'

'I've suspected for some time that Aro Volturi is someone to be reckoned with. I made a few discrete enquiries – apparently he claims to have turned his back on the old ways and to a certain extent he's managed to distance himself from his more unscrupulous and unsavoury competitors. But if you scratch just below the surface, I'm pretty sure things aren't quite as squeaky clean as he would like everyone to believe.'

Several things suddenly fell into place for Bella as realisation dawned, 'Oh… but won't that just mean he'll pull strings again to get James out of trouble?'

Edward smiled. 'No, not this time. It seems Aro's patience has completely run out.'

'He did seem to be quite annoyed that James owed him so much money and that he'd managed to attract so much attention while he was here. I can see now why it would be important to be discrete. But I can't quite believe Aro's as bad as you say.'

'Oh much worse. And unfortunately for James, he was completely unaware that Aro had put you under his protection, which it would have been a matter of honour to uphold.'

'So Aro's really, really, cross with James now?'

'The word he used was 'disappointed'. But I certainly wouldn't like to be in James's shoes when word gets out that he's on his own. Even if Aro decides to take no further action, once everyone knows Aro's washed his hands of him, they'll be queuing up to settle old scores.'

'I wish I could feel sorry for James, but it's not as if he's ever shown any remorse.'

'If he's lucky the police might get to him before anyone else does. Perhaps Aro will even give them a tip off, after all, it sounds like James was really high up in the organisation at one point. Anyway, one way or the other I'm sure he'll get what he deserves this time.'

'It still feels odd that Aro's come to our rescue though.'

'Yes, how does it feel to be something of a principessa della mafia?'

'A bit weird but I think I can overlook that, as long as James never ever comes near us again. Plus I've got this private room of course.'

'Aro was on the phone to the consultant immediately, to check up on your injuries and make sure you got the best care available. And according to Mrs Cope, half a florist's shop will be waiting when you get home. So personally I'd make the most of it while you can.'

'Ok, I'll just try to pretend this doesn't all feel like a dream for a bit longer then.'

I've no idea what's working and what's not at the moment - so if I don't answer any reviews, PMs or emails it's because ffic is stopping me, or I haven't received them!

Anyway, the next chapter will absolutely, definitely, be the last, & I can say that with confidence because it's 90% finished and says 'The End' at the bottom.

As always thanks for reading and reviewing - final chapter will be posted in 2 weeks.

x Sue