Rolph heard a gasp and turned towards the noise to find a young woman staring at him in shock. He immediately pulled his gun from where he had tucked it in the back of his pants and pointed it at her. "Shit Donnie, you promised the place would be empty!" Rolph yelled in anger. Bella instantly froze where she stood and immediately decided to tell Alice about this the moment she saw her again, praying it would trigger her best friend's particular talent.
"It should be, I don't know who the bitch is, she sure ain't one of the doc's kids!" Donnie shouted back. "No shit man, she's the chief's kid" and that was all the warning Rolph gave before he pulled the trigger.
Bella had barely registered the explosive sound of the bullet leaving the weapon when she felt as though a sledge hammer struck her in her side. Pain bloomed instantly as she was spun around by the force of the blow. She felt her forehead strike the corner of the kitchen entrance and then darkness took over.
"What the fuck man?! We could've just knocked her ass out or something!" Donnie stared in shock at the young woman who was as pale as death and now laid still in a puddle of her own blood.
"Told ya, she's the chief's kid. No matter what she would've talked. The bitch has seen our faces. Plus, she's bound to have seen me at the diner – her old man eats there alot. Quit your whining and finish bagging all that silver" with that, Rolph walked past the girl he had just callously shot and headed up stairs to see what jewels or cash he could score.
Donnie figured at this point there was nothing else to do but what Rolph had ordered. He scoped the rest of the silver wear into his knapsack and followed him upstairs to the bedrooms. He couldn't believe the haul of jewelry, cash and designer handbags they found in each room. Even the library seemed a treasure trove of relics. The two attempted to finish ransacking the house quickly, but the house was so large it was a good half hour before they finished making multiple trips to their car with all the gaming consuls and laptops and tv sets they found.
Bella awoke to a blinding pain in her side. She didn't know why, but some instinct kept her from crying out in pain. She took a deep breath and attempted to think past it. Slowly, she began to recognize that she lay on the Cullen's kitchen floor. She remembered thinking Carlisle was home and instead finding two human men digging through Esme's kitchen drawers, seeing a gun and feeling a hammer blow to her side. The one with the gun must have shot her. That explained the why her shirt felt wet - she was bleeding. Bella could hear objects being slammed into the floors upstairs. Obviously the intruders were still here and searching the house for whatever they thought they could sell. She took stock of her body. She lay on her side with her legs twisted around each other. Her wounded side faced up, with her arm laying down her side. Her head was pounding – she figured must have hit it on the door jamb as she fell. Looking down at the pool of blood she lay in, she could tell she was bleeding badly. She pressed her arm down against the wound as tightly as she could without shifting her position. She had recognized the one who shot her as the bus boy who worked at the diner she and Charlie frequented. She knew he intended to kill her with that shot and playing dead was her best chance to survive long enough for help to reach her.
She slowly slipped the hand she lay on into her front pocket. She breathed a quiet prayer of thanks – her cell phone was still where she had stashed it when she headed down stairs. As carefully as possible, Bella pulled the phone out of her pocket, ensured it was set to silent and rested it under her where she could type but if the men walked by her they would fail to see it. Pulling up the texting screen, she typed Carlisle's name in.
Carlisle Cullen was looking forward to the end of his shift. Just two more hours to go and he would be home with Bella. Although she had readily forgiven his family for abandoning her, Carlisle still felt he owed it to Bella to ensure she knew she was just as much his child as Edward was. He couldn't help but feel that he had chosen one child over the other when he allowed Bella to be left behind, even if he had believed it was for her own good. Carlisle knew better than anyone that the path to Hell was paved with good intentions.
Looking forward to spending the rest of the weekend rebuilding his relationship with Bella, Carlisle had just finished his patient rounds when his phone indicated he had a text message. Retrieving it from his lab coat pocket, Carlisle froze in horror at what he read:
DO NOT CALL. 2 men in house. Shot. Bleeding badly. Bella
Already rushing for his car he sent a reply: I'm coming for you sweetheart. Can you get out? Where is the wound?
It seemed to take forever to receive Bella's reply, but in reality Carlisle was only halfway across the lot to his car when his phone dinged: Shot in left side. they think Im dead – can't move or will kill me. Scared – too much blood…weak. Quickly Carlisle considered calling Charlie and an ambulance. But if Bella's wound was a bad as she indicated then she wouldn't survive a standoff between her attackers and the police. If he only called for an ambulance and took care of the bastard's himself she might not make it through surgery. No, there was only one option he could accept. Take care of those who dared to harm his daughter himself and treat her at the house. If her injuries were mortal, then he would change her. As he thought this through, he already had his Mercedes speeding through the downpour. Almost there honey. Keep pressure on the wound. Carlisle could have sworn he felt his stone heart tearing into pieces when more than five minutes had passed without a reply from Bella. Sweetie are you there? Pushing the Mercedes to its considerable limits, he was turning onto the road that would lead him to his driveway when he finally heard her response. sry. men cam dwn - hurts tird. Lv u all. It was reading Bella's profession of love that scared him the most. Obviously she was weakening far too quickly. He finally stopped the sedan in front of his home and was speeding inside in the same moment.