Chapter 44 - Bella is Taken, Part 2

BELLA

A little boy, about five or six, led me through the throng of people milling around Pike Place Market as we searched for his... he wouldn't or couldn't tell me who we should be looking for. Mom? Dad? Grandma? Grandpa? A sitter? An older sibling? We walked further and further away from Emmett, my protector and friend. I hoped we found whoever the kid was looking for soon, and before Emmett lost sight of me.

Still the kid pushed forward, not looking right or left. We continued past fishmongers, flower stalls, and produce and fruit stalls until we were at the entrance, the one I entered the market an hour or so ago with Emmett, Rose, and Alice. With glance over my shoulder, I couldn't see Emmett.

The little boy tugged at my hand and pointed. I followed his hand but didn't see anyone in the parking lot at first, then I saw Jacob. He grabbed hold of my upper arm, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Don't panic, Bella. Come with me and I'll protect me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said through clenched teeth.

His hold on me tightened as he leaned an continued in a whisper. "Listen to me. Your life and the life of your baby is in jeopardy. I can protect you, but you have to come with me now."

I tried to pull away from him.

"I'm working with the police, Bella."

"Prove it," I said, struggling against him.

Before Jacob could do as I requested, something hard struck my head and I collapsed. Everything was fuzzy, haloed in a white glow, and then went black.

~~~ Reaching for Love ~~~

The soft hum of tires was what I heard when I woke. My hands were tied behind my back, my ankles strapped together, and a gag was in my mouth. With blurry eyes, I struggled to sit up. Squirming around in the back of a windowless van, caused blinding pain to shoot through my head. I screamed into the gag, as I ceased trying to sit up.

Someone chuckled from the front seat. "Serves you right, bitch."

I didn't recognize the voice.

A hand brushed my head as a whispered instructions came. "Calm down, Bella."

Jacob?

"Look at my phone," he requested.

A message from Detective Hedley was on the screen.

Trust Jacob, Isabella. He's an informant and you are safe with him.

Jacob hadn't lied to me. He was working with them.

"I don't know where we are going or how the cops are going to find us," he continued in a low voice. "But I will protect you."

I took a deep breath, calming myself.

"Now, I'm going to pretend to strike you in the temple."

He unbuckled and moved into the back with me. Squatting down and leaning over me, he leered at me. "Can't have you attracting attention, Bella."

He reached out and caressed my skin, making it crawl. Raising his hand, I stared in fear as he closed it into a fist, striking the van floor next to my head.

"Close you eyes and rest."

~~~ Reaching for Love ~~~

When I woke again, I was strapped to a hospital bed with an IV dripping next to me.

"Ah, the patient awakes," said a strange and unknown female voice.

I whipped my head toward the voice.

"Ah, ah, Isabella."

Who the hell was this person?

She leaned over me. "Let mommy kiss it and make it all better."

All I could do was stare up at the woman. Fear kept me from processing her words. The way I was strapped down, I couldn't even cringe away from her.

"There all better. Now, to give you an injection to induce labor."

I knew what she meant by induce labor. The doctor said I would pop any day. There had never been any discussion of induction. When I saw the syringe, I started screaming again and flailing about, not caring that my head hurt like hell.

She grabbed my hand, attached the syringe to the access point, and started to push the medication into me.

I continued screaming.

She slapped me. "Oh, shout the hell up, Isabella. I'm not hurting you. If wasn't for Charlie, I would have gotten fucking custody of you, but no, he had to lie to the courts about how I tried to kill you. He even got the doctors to lie, too."

As my cheek stung, I blinked up at the deranged woman that claimed to be my mother. There was no way she could be Dad had to me… what had he told me. Fear was fogging my mind, and I couldn't remember.

"Keep an eye on her, Jacob, call me only when it's time," she said to someone out of my line of sight. "And only ice chips. No food."

Jacob slowly approached, his eyes on the retreating back of my supposed mother. When the door slammed and a locked slid into place, he turned his attention to me.

"I'm going to remove the gag," he said. "And before you even ask, I can't do more than that. She took the keys to the locks keeping the straps in place."

"Knife? Scissors?" I croaked, my throat sore from screaming.

Jacob shook her head. "Afraid not. Nothing but you and me and an ice machine."

He offered me a spoonful of crushed ice.

I gratefully opened my mouth, accepting the ice.

"Why are you helping me? Her?"

"I don't like what my uncle and your mother are doing. What they stand for. I've done things I'm not proud of, Bella, and I hate myself. When they told me to help you get rid of the baby months ago, my loyalty was no longer theirs." He offered me other spoonful of ice. "Life is precious. Being a father opened my eyes. Helping you now helps my two girls. I don't want them growing up in this life."

"I don't understand."

He looked toward the door. "I've exploited woman to get in bed with them. To knock them up. My own father did the same. Before I went to the police, I learned he paid the ultimate price. My uncle killed the woman, my mother, and blamed my father for the murder."

"Oh." It was all I could think to say.

"I was lied to all these years. I turned everything I found over to the police and told them I would help bring in those responsible. The only way to do that was to kidnap you."

Shock filled me.

Jacob smiled down at me, offering me another spoon of ice. "Since then, I've been communicating with a handler and feeding them information. I was even able to replace the drugs Renee planned to use on you."

My jaw dropped to my chest. "What are you getting out of all of this?"

"Hopefully a lighter sentence for my part in the whole scheme of things. I know I don't deserve it, the state's attorney said she would work with me after Renee and Felix are in custody…" he shrugged not completing the thought. After a few more moments, he sighed, "I just don't know how they will find us. And even if I had my cell, Felix has cell jammers on."

We both fell silent. My purse was not in the van the few times I opened my eyes, so that meant I didn't have my phone, although it was almost dead.

"We can't give up hope," I said some time later. "They will find us."