38

"Breaking new developments surrounding the house fire at the home of America's Sweetheart, Isabella Swan. Preliminary autopsy results report that neither of the bodies found inside her home are a DNA match to Miss Swan. While authorities are still unsure of the identity of the two people, it is clear Isabella was not home when the blaze started. Her whereabouts, however, are still unknown."

Edward shifted his eyes to Bella, seated on the floor against the side of her bed. For two more days, they had stayed inside her bedroom, away from their families and the constant need they had to smother them. Edward understood why; they were worried. They probably thought they would disappear again. But it was hard enough to process everything that happened with others constantly hovering.

Esme had taken to leaving them food outside the door — food they had barely touched. The only stuff they had managed to eat were the muffins, cookies, and brownies. The rest stayed where it had been left. Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper had all attempted to get them to talk, almost begging to let them help. Help, that's what they said. They wanted to, but they couldn't. They would never be able to change what had happened or make things better.

"Guess I'm not dead anymore."

Edward scoffed. "At least not in the fire. They haven't gotten wind of what really happened, but it's only a matter of time. Sooner or later, Ben and Angela's disappearance will be reported, and it won't take much to link them to you, to us."

"Who do you think was inside my house, Edward?"

"I . . ." He shook his head. "I don't know. Could be anyone, couldn't it? A couple of homeless people, most likely."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because nobody would miss them. I mean, someone would, eventually, but think about it. There's a reason why the homeless are usually the preferred targets of serial killers. If they don't have families, it's not unusual to go weeks, if not months without hearing from them. They might not even realize their loved ones are dead."

"You know a lot about serial killers and the homeless."

Edward smiled — not a real smile, but as close to one as he could muster. "Dad taught me profiling, victimology, and forensic analysis. There was a time when I considered a career in law enforcement, but in the end, I couldn't handle the training. You know the physical aspect of the police academy. So, I went into private security instead."

"Do you regret it?"

"No. I got you back, didn't I?"

She smiled and looked away. "How can you still want me after everything they did to us?"

"Because I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Look at me."

She shifted her eyes back to him.

"I spent a long time thinking you were dead, Bella. I can't — no, I don't want to live another second without you."

"How can you say that after what he did because of me?"

Edward frowned. "I told you: he would have found another way to hurt me, to hurt you. They . . . they wanted us to cry."

"They got what they wanted." Bella brought her hand to the side of her head. "Are there others out there, Edward? Will we ever be safe?"

"I don't know. I just . . . I don't know. Wish I did, but I don't. I overheard Dad and Charlie talking about the backgrounds, about how neither Ben nor Angela's came back with red flags."

"Do they know anything about them?

Edward shrugged his shoulders. "I was too scared to ask."

"Suppose that makes sense."

Their attention was pulled toward the hallway when they heard heavy footsteps, followed by a timid knock. Edward shifted his eyes to Bella, who simply nodded, before he stood and walked over to pull it open. He knew even before he swung the door open that he would find himself facing Rosalie. She'd been the most persistent of all. However, Rosalie wasn't alone. Standing next to her was Tyler Crowley.

Tyler hadn't made the trip to Wyoming because he'd stayed in L.A. to handle Garrett's funeral, they said. His death hadn't made the news, and Edward wasn't sure how they covered that up and wasn't sure he wanted to know if he were being honest.

"What? What do you want?"

"I just . . ." Tyler looked at Rosalie before saying, "I need to talk to you. Alone, please."

"Alone? No, I —"

"Okay."

Edward looked over his shoulder at Bella, who nodded.

Sighing, he took a step backward and waved the man into the room, closing the door before Rosalie could follow. He knew it was crushing Rosalie that Bella refused to speak to her, but right then, he didn't care. Bella was all he cared about, and he would do everything he could to ensure she was safe and keep her in his life. She was the only thing holding him together right now.

"I, um, I'm sorry for intruding. I'm sure I'm the last person you want to talk to right now." Tyler shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against the door. "I just need to know what happened that morning. Garrett . . ." He shook his head. "How'd they get the drop on him?"

"We didn't see them kill him," Bella murmured.

"No, I know. I've reviewed camera footage of the office and outside the building. They snuck up, grabbed him from behind, and cut his throat before he could even think about what was happening. They left him in the car, but he managed to get out before he . . . before he died in the street. I need to know what happened when they got inside the apartment."

"We'd just seen the news report about the house. Dad called and said he would be there in an hour. I hung up, and we were about to get ready when the building's alarm system went off."

Tyler nodded before saying, "They came in through the front door and were waiting in a hidden cupboard under the stairs. There aren't cameras down there, so I assume you didn't know it existed."

"No."

"I saw you come downstairs and search the first floor. That's when they snuck by you and headed upstairs. That's where I lost them. What happened inside your apartment?"

Edward swallowed against the lump in his throat as he walked over and sat on the side of the bed, right next to where Bella sat on the floor. "My phone started ringing as soon as I got back into the loft. I knew it was Dad, but before I could answer, I saw . . . I saw him in the back corner."

"By him, you mean Ben Cheney?"

Edward nodded. "He, um, blended into the background, and I raised my gun, and shot at him, but he ducked, and I missed. I looked around and saw him army crawling on the floor. I shot at him again, and that's when she . . . that's when Angela came out of the bathroom with Bella in front of her. She had a knife pressed against her neck. I . . . I told her to let Bella go, begged her to let Bella go," he whimpered, and Bella scooted closer, wrapping her arm around his legs. "I pointed my gun, but then I saw him stand. I shot him. I fucking shot him directly in the chest, Tyler, but . . . he was wearing a bulletproof vest. He . . . he fucking smiled, and I aimed for his head. But before I could shoot him again, Bella screamed. I looked at her, and . . . and Angela had cut her neck. Ben took advantage of the distraction and attacked me. My gun flew under the bed, and I tried to fight back. I tried, but he pinned me down and injected me with something. I passed out, and when I came to, we were inside that room."

Tyler nodded, his eyes shifting to Bella. "What do you remember?"

"Edward told me to hide in the bathroom when the building alarm went off, so I did. I was inside the shower stall when I heard the bathroom door open. I . . . I thought it was him, and I felt relieved, but then she . . . Angela pulled the shower door open and grabbed my hair, dragging me out. She pressed the knife against my throat and told me he missed me, missed his angel," Bella whimpered. "I was so scared, Tyler. So fucking scared."

"Of course you were, Bella. I mean, any of us would be scared if we were in that situation."

"Angela heard the gunshots and laughed. She fucking laughed and led me out of the bathroom. I called his name. That's why he was distracted because I cried and said his name. When they drugged him, I knew I had to fight back. I knew I had to fight for us, for . . . for both of us. When she leaned down and licked the blood off my neck, I threw my head to the side because Edward had taught me to hit her with my head. That it would hurt, but it would hurt her more."

"That's true," Tyler agreed, sliding to the floor and sitting with his knees bent in front of him. "What did you do next?"

"She threw me onto the floor, and I went for the gun. I needed the gun — needed to stop them, but she grabbed my ankle and pulled me backward. She forced me onto my back, so I raised my leg and kicked her. Kicked her as hard as I could, and she flew backward. I was going to go for the gun again, but Ben started toward me, so I kicked him against the window. The bars kept him from falling, but he slid to the ground, so I ran. I left Edward on the floor, and I ran. I wanted to take him with me, but I knew I wouldn't be able to carry him, and . . . so I ran. I missed one of the steps, though, and fell down the stairs, hitting the wall. I had just opened the front door when she tackled me from behind. We rolled down the front steps, and I tried to scream, but she wrapped her hands around my throat. I . . . I tried to fight. I screamed and begged and pleaded for them to let us go, for them to stop. To just stop, but they . . . they said he wanted us back, said he missed his Angels." She leaned her forehead against the side of Edward's leg, "I tried to fight back, but . . ."

"But they held you down, your arms and legs," Tyler added. "I watched the video. I saw you fighting, Bella. You fought for yourself, for Edward, for each other."

"I tried. I really . . . I tried Tyler, but she stuck the needle in my neck, and that's when I saw Garrett. I knew he was dead. I knew they had killed him."

Tyler nodded. "What do you know about Ben Cheney and Angela Weber?"

"Nothing," Edward replied. "Their background checks came back clear. Ben was born and raised in Texas and went to Arizona State before moving to Los Angeles. Four years ago, he was hired by Sin Records to lead their security department. Angela was born in South Carolina, but her family moved to California when she was ten. She was a normal teenager, played on her high school volleyball team, went to college at UCLA for two years before she dropped out, and started working for Sin Records as a part of their stylist teams just after Bella was signed."

Tyler shook his head. "That is not who Ben or Angela were."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked. "Who were they?"

"Well, first of all, their names aren't Ben Cheney or Angela Weber. At least they weren't until they disappeared at the age of eighteen. They were found abandoned outside the fire station in Elkins, West Virginia, which, as Edward knows, is only about ten miles from the Gathering of Twilight compound. This was about five years after your fathers took out the Volturi Brothers.

"They were only a few months old, but from what I found out, their birth parents were never found, so they were placed in the custody of Chelsea and Afton Martin, who later adopted both of them and raised them in Hazelwood, West Virginia, which is about half an hour from Elkins. They seemed to be normal, well-adjusted teenagers until their eighteenth birthdays, when Chelsea and Afton died in a house fire. A house fire that originated inside their parents' bedroom. There was a lot of speculation that Afton had murdered his wife and then committed suicide by fire, but there was never any proof one way or another. Alec and Jane played the role of grieving children, but a few months later, they left town and were never heard from again. It took a lot of digging, but I managed to pick up their trail when they got to L.A. and started working for Sin Records four years ago as Ben Cheney and Angela Weber."

"If they weren't born until five years after we were rescued, or whatever, are you saying you don't think they were children of The Gathering?" Bella asked.

"That's correct."

Edward tilted his head to the side. "You don't think it's a bit . . . coincidental that they were found just miles away from the headquarters of a known child-raping cult?"

"I didn't say that," he clarified. "I said I don't think they were children of The Gathering in the sense that you, Bella, and Felix were. Look, the whole damn town knows what happened out at that compound. It wouldn't take much for Alec and Jane to get a sense of it. They probably went out there, dug through the debris, and found something. Maybe the tapes that fueled their desires."

"You think they were fascinated by what they saw on the tapes . . . that they wanted to do what the Volturi Brothers did to us," Bella whispered, drawing their attention to her.

"Yes."

Edward swallowed the bile creeping up his throat as he asked, "And they went searching for Marcus Volturi because he wasn't killed in the explosion. They found him, but he was already dead, wasn't he?"

"Yes. Marcus has been dead for at least seventeen years, based on the decomposition of his remains. The people you knew as Ben and Angela left Hazelwood seven years ago, but they didn't resurface until four years ago. Where they were for those three years, I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

"Do you think there are more of them out there?" Bella inquired.

Tyler shook his head. "I don't know. I just . . . I just don't know."

"But you think there are."

"I think we will never know for certain how far the Volturi brother's reach truly went. They . . ." Tyler brought his hand up to the back of his neck. "I've never understood how grown men can look at little kids, no matter the age, and want to do those kinds of things to them. I hope I never understand the way a pedophile's mind works because then I might just have to eat a bullet."

"Do you know who the people in my house were?"

Tyler shook his head. "We're still waiting for a DNA match, but I have my suspicions."

"Who? Who do you think they were, Tyler?"

He stood and reached behind him, gripping the doorknob before his eyes shifted from Edward to Bella and back before he said, "Since the afternoon we questioned them at Sin Records, Kate Denali and Michael Newton have been missing."

And without another word, Tyler opened the door and left them alone.

Edward knew immediately that Ben and Angela had gone after Kate Denali and Michael Newton because of them. He and Bella had put a target on both their backs, and their deaths would be just one more thing they would have to live with.

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews! And as always, thank you for Sunflower Fran for cleaning up my mess. See you next Saturday!