41

Jasper was tired of Sam Uley and his bullshit. That was all he could think as he and Garrett left the courthouse with Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle, once more on a mission to save Bella Swan from Sam Uley's grasp. There was no way in Hell their 'marriage' could be legal.

First of all, she was only sixteen, which would have made her fifteen when he supposedly married her. Washington Law was pretty clear: individuals needed parental consent to get married if they were under the age of eighteen, unless they had permission from the court, which Bella Swan didn't, because a) her parents had been viciously murdered, and b) if she had petitioned the court to marry Sam Uley, she would have been flagged in their system as a missing person, and well, needless to say, there was no way in Hell the marriage was legal. So how, and why, was Eleazar Santiago using spousal privilege to keep Bella from testifying against his scumbag client?

"Goddamn, motherfucker!" Jasper roared, slamming his hands against the side of his truck, his fingers curving the side of his trucks bed. He gritted his teeth together before he turned and looked at the men around him. "How the fuck did he marry her?"

"It's bullshit, right?" Edward asked, his eyes filled with disgust. "It has to be bullshit."

"Does it?" Emmett questioned, causing them to look at him. "He's a fucking psychotic, pedophile, who thinks he owns her. Right? He stole her away from Rosalie, killed their parents, because he wanted her. Why wouldn't he marry her, too?"

"But he can't have married her," Garrett argued. "She's a minor. Legally, he can't have married her, especially seeing as she would have needed parental permission."

"Unless . . ." Jasper shook his head as Carlisle, Emmett, Carlisle, and Edward looked at him. "Unless that's why the Tribal Council covered for him. He thinks it's his right to take these girls as his: raping them, marrying them." Jasper looked at Garrett. "What'd he write on the pictures he'd left Emily?"

"You'll always be my girl," Garrett whispered, blowing out a deep breath. "What do we know about Quileute tribal history?"

"I mean, not a lot," Jasper admitted. "None of us are Native American, are we?"

"Well I guess it's about time we learn some, don't you?" Garrett suggested. He turned to Carlisle, Edward, and Emmett. "I know this is a lot to ask, and I really don't want to ask it, but . . ."

"You want us to ask her about it," Edward murmured, causing them to turn to him. "Don't you?"

"I don't want you to, but . . . we need to know what . . . what he did to make this asshole lawyer believe their marriage could be legal. I've worked cases where Eleazar Santiago defended the scumbags, okay? He's ruthless and will stop at nothing to get his clients off." Garrett paused. "Please, Edward, just . . . just talk to her."

"Why not?" he said, dryly. "Not like we haven't broken her spirit enough. Let's tear it apart a little more."

Jasper wanted to deny the accusation, but he couldn't, and when Edward turned and walked over to Carlisle's car, leaning against the side, he knew it was pointless to argue, anyway. Besides, Edward was right. All they had done was make that little girl talk about him, tell them about him, about what he had done to her. She was never going to heal when they kept throwing him in her face all the time, but what else could they do? They had to lock Sam Uley away for the rest of his life, and his attack on James Swan just wasn't going to do it alone. They needed to make the rest of the charges against him stick.

"We'll see what can find out from her," Carlisle said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. "Marcus was planning on stopping by, too. He thought maybe it might be easier to transition her into trauma therapy if he came to her for a while, and then get her to come his office when she's ready for more. He's worried about how far he can push her, how quickly he can push her, but at the same time, he's worried that giving her too much time will cause her shut down entirely. He said we're at a crisis point with her, and have to be careful how we proceed."

"Keep us updated, okay? And, um," Jasper shifted his eyes toward Edward. "Watch him. I'm worried."

"Me too," Emmett said, placing his hands on Jasper's shoulder, pulling him into a hug. "Be careful, okay? We worry about you, too, Jay."

"I will." Jasper returned the hug before he pulled back. He and Garrett waited as Emmett hurried over to his car and Carlisle joined Edward, who seemed to ignore their brother when he spoke to him. "Think it's time we pay the Tribal Council a visit ourselves, Cap."

"I couldn't agree more, Cullen."

"I'll drive," Jasper said, yanking the driver's door of his truck open. "Should we call Yorke and get permission?"

Garrett laughed. "Fuck no. It's time to shake some shit up, and seeing as the Forks P.D. can't get their heads out of their asses, I guess it's our job."

Jasper couldn't agree more, and as they climbed inside and headed for the highway, he worried about his family and what would happen if Sam Uley managed to beat these charges? Saving Bella Swan became even more important than ever.

—SfH—

The four hour trip from Seattle to Forks felt like it took twice as long. Neither man spoke much, mostly just asking each other again and again how Eleazar could even consider defending someone like Sam Uley. Both of them, Jasper knew, were scared of what they are going to find out. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had been right, that the Tribal Council had more to do with what happened to Bella Swan than they wanted to believe. But why? Why would they have pushed off Emily Young and Leah Clearwater's claims that Sam Uley had raped them? Those were their girls, their children, and they willfully ignored sexual assault claims. Why would they have let him get away with it? None of it made sense, not to Jasper at least.

Jasper parked his truck outside of a small, two-story white house that sat on the edge of town, nestled into the woods. As the two climbed out of the truck, Jasper shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress pants, his eyes locked on the home where Bella's nightmare started. If he closed his eyes, he could almost picture her running around the front yard, a smile on her face while her father chased her. Charlie Swan seemed like the kind of father who would chase his girls through the yard.

"James kept the house for almost five years," Jasper said, knowing Garrett was listening. "He wanted the choice to be Rosalie's, but when she was seventeen, she told him to sell it, that she could never come back here. So he sold it and put the money toward Rosalie's college fund that Charlie and Renee had started when the girls were born. Nobody lives here, though," he added, gesturing to the house. "The man who bought it lives in New York, only bought it to use as a tax write off."

"Guess he won't mind if we go inside, then, will he?" Garrett suggested, and before Jasper could stop him (not that he wanted to), he was halfway to the door.

Jasper followed and the two managed to open the front door without breaking the lock. Garrett simply gave him a look that said not to ask how he learned to pick locks, and in that moment, Jasper didn't care. The house was empty, dark, and musky. It reeked of mold and mildew. It was dank and dark, void of any type of life.

"Renee was here," Jasper said, surprised by how emotional he felt as he walked over and squatted in the middle of the living room. "They found her on her back, fifteen stab wounds to her abdomen, chest, and arms. Her nails were torn, and they had feared that she'd been sexually assaulted, but there wasn't any indication that he violated her like that. She had bruising on her arms and face, probably from where he hit her when she fought him. Fought to save her little girl. She was a good mom, the kind of mom who never gave up on her children," Jasper whimpered, blowing out a deep breath before he stood up and walked over to the stairs. "Charlie was here. He had almost two dozen stab wounds, also to his abdomen and chest, but Sam slit his throat from ear to ear."

"He was angry," Garrett said. "Because Charlie had told him to stay away from his girls. He took it personal, because she was his, at least in his mind. Charlie didn't make easy for him, either. He fought, tried to stop him, tried to keep her safe. His wife was dying, and he still defending his little girl, but he wanted her, and when he wanted something, he got it. No matter who got hurt."

"Fucking psychopath," Jasper muttered before the two men walked upstairs and into what they knew was Bella's bedroom. Though he tried to stop them, the tears that had been burning his eyes, fell down his face and he leaned against the wall, sliding to the floor. "This was supposed to be a safe place for her. She went bed that night not knowing that everything was going to change for her."

"She was a kid, Cullen," Garrett said, walking over to the window, placing his hands on the frame as he leaned forward. "She wasn't supposed to worry about the monsters in the world. She had good parents, who loved her, who fought for her. They did fight for her until they . . . until they couldn't fight any longer."

"How could he look at her and want to do that to her?" Jasper asked, shaking his head. "She was a baby, Cap. A fucking baby, and he . . . he lusted after her. How? Why? Just why do people prey on children?"

"If I had the answer that question, Cullen, we'd be able to save every child from pedophiles." He turned and walked over to him, holding his hand out. "Let's go. We've got work to do."

Half an hour later, the two men were parked outside of a small, brick building in La Push. There was a black sign with white letters that read Quileute Tribal Council. The two climbed out of the truck, but before they could head inside, movement to their left caught their attention. An old man with the same creamy tan skin and long black hair that Jacob Black had gestured for them to come toward him.

They shared a look before they walked over to him. He didn't say anything as he turned and opened the door to the building next to the tribal council office. They were in a small, bar that was empty with the exception of two other men. They were elders, Jasper knew, but why they were waiting for them was something he didn't understand.

"My name is Ephraim Black. This is Collin Littlesea and Brady Fuller. I believe you have questions for us."

"We do?" Jasper asked, tilting his head to the side, folding his arms in front of him.

Ephraim nodded, almost matching his stance. "You want to know how Sam Uley married his child bride."

"We do," Garrett admitted. "What can you tell us?"

Ephraim shared a look with Collin and Brady, both men encouraging him to continue. "Two decades ago, the three of us were . . . overthrown, pushed out of our positions on the council after we kicked Jared Uley and his wife off the reservation."

"Why did you kick them out?" Jasper asked.

The three men once more shared a look before Brady said, "Our ancestors believed in arranged marriages, forced or unforced. Some families would barter their young daughters to the highest bidder, one could say, but our councils were very strict about the age of consent, and they never tolerated sexual abuse of children. By the early nineteen hundreds, we'd outlawed the practice of arranged marriages, but occasionally, one of ours would learn of the old tradition, and try to resurrect the practice."

"Jared Uley was one of them," Collin said, continuing where Brady left off. "We had concerns when he and Claire got together, seeing as she was only fourteen years old when they started seeing each other. Jared was twenty-eight, but he seemed to love her, so we looked the other way. And then we found out that he'd been physically abusing Claire. He'd broken her arm, two ribs, and, though she never confirmed, we suspected that he was sexually abusing her, as well. We offered her and Sam refuge when we made the decision to throw Jared off the reservation, but she refused. Said he was her husband, and she'd made a commitment to him. We couldn't let him stay, so they left. For eight years, we didn't have any contact with the Uley's. And then we found out that Jared and Claire had been killed in a fire."

"Sam was only ten at the time," Ephraim continued. "My brother and his wife were Sam's only remaining family, so they agreed to take him in. I cautioned Billy and Rachel, but the boy was her only connection to her sister. At first, things with Sam were normal. He was withdrawn, but that's to be expected seeing at his parents were taken from him so suddenly, isn't it?"

Jasper nodded, thinking about him and his own brothers, how much losing their parents had hurt them. Edward especially.

"By the time Sam was fifteen, we saw what nobody else wanted to see in him. That he was trouble, that he was . . . sick," Ephraim murmured, covering his mouth with his hand. "We were there the night Emily Young and Leah Clearwater told the council what Sam Uley had been doing to them. They called those girls liars, said if anything had happened, they had asked for him to it. They were little girls, and they made excuses because they didn't want to admit that Sam Uley never should been brought back onto the reservation. After the girls left with Harry and Sue, the tribal council banned anyone from speaking of what they had been told."

"We believe Sam Uley learned of our old customs, and used them as a way to excuse his pedophile urges," Collin added.

"Why would the current council allow Sam Uley to get away with raping two little girls?" Garrett asked before Jasper could.

Ephraim, Brady, and Collin shared a look before Ephraim spoke. "Understand that we do not have any proof that supports our theory, but we," he said, gesturing to him and the two men next to him, "believe the current Tribal Council believe that Sam Uley had the right to take who he wanted, when he wanted. That as a male member of our tribe, it was his right, no his duty to claim his bride."

"That's insane," Jasper said. "How could you just sit back and allow that to happen?"

"We didn't allow anything to happen," Ephraim argued, putting his hand up. "Charlie had expressed his concerns about Sam to Billy, who then shared them with me. Billy defended Sam, didn't want to believe that his nephew would ever do anything inappropriate with a child; however, I knew better, but I was bound my duty to the council to keep the accusations against Sam to myself. Charlie and Renee were murdered the next week, and Bella was gone. We knew Sam was the one responsible," he said, shaking his head. "But nobody believed us. Nobody."

"Why didn't you tell the police?" Jasper asked. "The officers from Forks who came to talk to Billy about Sam. Why didn't you go to them?"

Ephraim frowned as he looked at Collin and Brady. "I did."

"You did?" Garrett asked, though his tone was tight, forced, angry. "When? Who? What exactly did you tell them?"

"The day after Charlie and Renee were murdered, I went to Eric Yorke, told him what I knew about Sam, that he'd been accused of raping Emily Young and Leah Clearwater. He told me Sam had no bearing on their case and sent me away. I tried to speak to Detective Newton and Detective Crowley, as well, but Eric Yorke refused to allow me access to either man. He told me to go back to the reservation, where I belonged. We didn't know who else to talk to, Detectives."

Jasper and Garrett shared a look, before Jasper asked, "Would the council have facilitated a marriage between Sam and Bella Swan?"

The three men shared another look before Ephraim said, "Not only would they have facilitated the marriage, but they would have . . . participated in consummating the marriage."

Bile filled Jasper's throat. "Are you saying what we think you're saying?"

"Yes, after they performed the ceremony to marry Sam and . . . and Bella, they would have had sexual relations with her to welcome her into our tribe."

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! When you start to question why she didn't tell them this part, think back to chapter 29, after she'd told Garrett about the box, how she said Edward didn't want to be her friend anymore because of what she had been through, and I quote, "she hadn't even told them everything, and now, she never would. How could she when the easy stuff caused him to turn away from her?"