Disclaimer: Any recognizable Twilight characters and ideas are property of Stephenie Meyer. I am not profiting from the distribution of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed my little labor of love during my three year absence. I appreciate hearing from you and knowing that you're enjoying reading as much as I'm enjoying writing.
That having been said, I know it's been forever. Years. Grad school stole all of my time and losing my story notes until just recently demoralized me. I promised I wouldn't give up on my baby, and I wasn't lying. Here I am! Three years later, but here I am.
I joined NaNoWriMo for the first time this year to shake the cobwebs off NATWWAL and get my head back into being a writer. I'm happy to say I won NaNo, which means I already have 50,000 words over six chapters ready to go, save for editing. Look for them to come out every month. I don't want to update too often so that I can stay ahead of the current chapters I'm writing. Thank you so much for your patience. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you came back! Love to you all!
The story so far…
When Billy died, he left Charlie with a handwritten message – "She didn't die, Charlie." Could it be possible that four and a half years after the bear attack that claimed his daughter and son-in-law's lives that she could still be out there? Charlie begins by writing a letter to Alice via a PO Box he thinks she gave him and interrogating Rachel and Jacob get him nowhere. Police records leave Charlie suspicious, including a discovering that there was a missing wedding photo from Bella's wallet that had gone with her wherever she went. After beginning to compile a list of the weird inconsistencies with the accident and general oddities about the Cullens themselves, Charlie realizes, along with the help of a mysterious photo from the wedding, that the Cullens are not normal.
From Chapter Five: Wedding Bells…
I forced myself out of the chair and grabbed the wedding photo. Hopefully, it would be okay out of the envelope. I sure as hell wasn't going down there with the PO Box number and note because honestly? I wasn't sure I completely trusted that information with my best friend's son.
Since Renee left Forks with Bella, my life had been about waiting for Bella to come back. I had waited for to her come back every summer. I waited for her while she flitted off to Phoenix junior year and California her senior year. Now, Bella was out there…somewhere. Time for waiting around was over. Time to go get her back, if I had to go to the farthest corners of the earth to do it.
Starting with La Push.
Chapter Six – Bound and Gagged
Present Day
Charlie POV
I threw the cruiser's gear shift into park before she had even come to a complete stop in front of now the third house at La Push where I would look for him. Dust had kicked up all around the car clouding up the windshield, but I could still make out Sam and Emily's home, complete with a pack of Quileute boys on the small patio.
Gotcha.
Seeing the group looking nervously at the cruiser and sharing glances with one another was all the proof I needed. Jacob would definitely be here, and I was finally going to get some damn answers.
"Jacob Black! You get your ass out here right the hell now, son!" I yelled, slamming the cruiser door shut behind me.
"Sorry, Chief. He's kinda busy, right now," Embry began as I strode up the gravel driveway.
Giving the boy my best cop face, I asked, "Do I look like a give a good goddamn if he is? He could be skinning a deer barehanded with the Pope, for all I care. Just get him out here!"
Embry traded looks with little Quil and Jared, but was smart enough to not argue with me any further. But of course, Embry wasn't exactly going to help me out, either. Rather than going and getting Jacob, he just crossed arms and set his jaw, despite the fact that his eyes told me he was definitely worried about my reaction to his completely ridiculous bravado.
Well, whatever, kid. At least it told me that even though they had all started looking like they could be playing for the Seahawks years ago, I still could make the Quileute boys anxious.
But honestly, I didn't have time for their posturing bullshit. I turned back to the house. "JACOB! NOW! I'm done playing these games!"
Still a wet sack of nothing in response.
Not able to hold still any longer, I started pacing back and forth across the gravel driveway. A ring from my cell temporarily drew my attention away. The station. Whatever it was, it was gonna have to wait. Dealing with work was the very last thing I could handle, right now. I wasn't sure how much longer I could contain myself from seriously blowing a lid, and I sure as hell wasn't in the frame of mind to problem-solve for my officers just yet.
After what seemed like forever, Jake finally showed his face, but it was with Sam and Paul hot on his tail. They walked as a unit over to where I had been pacing on the driveway, and I couldn't help but immediately notice that all three of them looked like utter crap. Cuts and scrapes of all sizes were scattered across their bodies. The beginnings of some seriously nasty-looking, purplish bruises covered their heads and chests, which were bare, of course. Again.
I'm sure I must have looked like a trout fresh out of the water staring the way I was with my mouth hanging open. What the hell happened to them?
"What's up, Charlie?" Jacob asked with the kind of weary voice that I would expect to come out of someone looking the way he did right now.
"Jacob, I…Jesus, are you boys alright? What happened? Who did this to you?"
With a small nod that almost seemed to knock him off his balance, Jacob replied, "Sure, sure, Charlie. We're fine. What do you need?"
"No, seriously, never mind that right now," I said stepping closer to him. "What happened to you? Do you need me to call this in?"
Sam moved in closer towards Jacob until he was practically standing skin to skin with him just behind his left shoulder. He didn't say a thing. Didn't have to. Sam's message for Jake came across loud and clear – a stern warning for him to stay quiet about whatever the boys had gotten into.
Ignoring Sam, I spoke directly to Jacob. "You boys in trouble?" He looked away. "Look, I get that maybe you feel like you can't say anything to me. I'm a cop. But you know your dad would have wanted me to-"
I stopped abruptly when Jacob's bruised face pulled just a little at my use of the past tense and Billy in the same sentence. "Ah, damn it, Jake. You know I didn't mean to pull your dad into this, but you can't just expect to walk out here looking like that and not concern the hell outta me."
"Well, it's not like we were expecting company," Jake replied, this time with the gall to sound kind of annoyed. "Besides, like I already said, we're fine. It was an accident. No biggie. Now, what do you need?"
He finally met my eyes, and I wasn't sure what I was seeing in them, but it definitely wasn't "fine."
So it was lies. More goddamn lies. Because if he was fine, than I was jolly old Saint Nick. I had had it up to here with the end-arounds and heaping piles of bullshit. If the boys wanted to dance, then we'd dance. Seeing them looking the way they did when they walked outside had momentarily doused the fire in my gut that had been blazing since I'd gotten into my cruiser, but with the latest round of game-playing, it quickly flared back to life.
"What do I need, Jacob? What do I need? How about some damn answers for a change?"
I held the wedding photo up in one hand for the boys to see. "Anyone wanna tell me just what the fuck this is?"
To his credit, Jacob barely missed a beat before asking, "Where did you get that?"
"Where it came from doesn't matter. What matters is just what the hell it's supposed to mean."
"Well, it looks like it's one of the wedding pictures from Bella's wedding, right? What exactly do you think it's supposed to mean, other than a nice memory, of course?" Sam asked.
Jacob looked over his shoulder at Sam for a moment before rolling his eyes. Even though I was teetering between calling the stubborn ass an ambulance and adding to the bruises myself, I had to agree with him. Sam was laying the bullshit on a little thick.
"Don't play games with me, Sam Uley. This is my daughter we're talking about here. I know you all know more than you're letting on. You're not exactly good at hiding that. So, I'm gonna need some answers, and I'm gonna need them right now."
Nothing. Not a word.
Something snapped in me.
"No, no, I'm not going to let one more person on this reservation feed me another line. Look! They're all the same!" My restless legs started their pacing back up. Once I lost control of my cool, more crap just kept bubbling right on out. "These-these kids – they're supposed to be adopted. I mean, they are. Their-their paperwork checks out. But just look at them! Carlisle, Esme, the kids. Look at them! They all look alike. How is that even possible with an adopted family? They look exactly alike, and you all know what I'm talking about, don't you? Billy. He knew. I know you do, too. So someone had damn well better start talking! Now!"
By the end of my little outburst, I'm pretty sure I sounded like I belonged on a street corner in Seattle with a megaphone in one hand and a cardboard sign in the other yelling about how, "The end is near!"
One crazy, old fool, coming right up!
In a desperate attempt to seem a little more with it, I forced my feet to stop their wandering about and chanced a glance at my little audience.
Huh. I may have snapped, but that sure got their attention.
Each one of the boys stared openly at the photo in my hand, save for Sam. While the others tried and failed to covertly make eye contact with each other, I was stuck interpreting the odd expression, maybe almost a pleading one, on Sam's face. Pleading with me to do what? Drop it? He couldn't really think that was even possible for me, did he?
I guess it didn't really matter one way or the other. The others' shifty glances at one another and tensed postures told me everything I needed to know. Silent communication wasn't exactly their strong suit, and I knew I had them.
But even so, none of them had anything to say for themselves. Well then, it was time to swing for the fences.
I loaded up my knuckle ball at pitched it to them right above them plate. "I need someone to do some talking, here, guys. The Cullens - what are they?"
There. Take that.
When I didn't get a response, I repeated myself. "What are the Cullens? This isn't normal. We both know it's not. I know you guys know what's going on, here."
Still wasn't getting any response out loud, but plenty was being said. The look on Sam's face had changed to something unreadable behind his suddenly hard eyes. I'm guessing I had pissed him off something good with that line of questioning. Good. Maybe it was finally get us somewhere if we could stop tiptoeing around the truth. Next to him, Paul was definitely starting to get jumpy, like all of his muscles had decided to take turns twitching.
And then there was Jacob.
No doubt about it, Jake looked guilty as hell. I'd known that kid his entire life, and most of it he'd spent doing what all good boys do – doing stuff they shouldn't, but feeling really bad about it later. Whether it was playing with Billy's live bait in the yard or having an empty can of Rainier roll out from under his bed, that kid was always getting into some kind of trouble. He'd hang his head and take a tongue lashing from Billy without too much arguing. Seeing the same sad eyes he'd turned on Billy more times than I could count, I knew the crocodile tears wouldn't have been far behind if he were younger.
That boy was definitely guilty. Excellent. I could work with guilty.
"Jacob, listen to me. If Bella…If your dad was right and she's out there in trouble somewhere, out there at all, I need to know what I'm dealing with. Please, Jake. It's Bella. Please," I said.
Jacob opened his mouth and tried to respond, but Sam interrupted him. "Jacob," he commanded in a low, firm voice.
I had taken a step back from Sam before the movement even registered. When in the hell did the scrawny, little Uley kid become so huge and intimidating?
Sam turned to me. "Charlie, I'm not sure who sent you that photo, but I can guarantee it isn't someone you want to be associating with. This needs to end now."
"Sorry, not happening."
"Charlie," Sam began with a gentler voice, "please try to understand that we only want to keep you safe. There are things in this world that you just cannot get mixed up in. I won't let that happen to you."
Almost immediately, Sam's words made me recall those same words of Billy's that had been haunting me since he'd spoken them on his death bed. "There's still a bunch of stuff out there in this world you haven't learned yet. Make it your mission to find out."
Billy was right. No matter what Sam was trying to keep me from, I had a duty as a father to figure this shit out. "Billy would have disagreed with you, Sam. In the end, he wanted me to know the truth. I'm only here because I'm following his last wish."
"And that's where you've got it all wrong. Billy's last words to me went a little differently." Sam looked over his shoulder at Jake. "Jake was there. His last words to me, Jacob?"
I turned to Jacob, who was working his jaw and looking away from Sam. Whether it was out of anger at being thrown under the bus or the grief that he still wasn't dealing well with, I couldn't tell. Either way, Jacob wasn't talking.
"Jacob, his last words to me," Sam repeated, with a little more force this time.
"Dad said that he wanted Sam to protect you," Jacob finally said. "He said, 'Jake here is strong. He can take care of himself and his sisters. But Charlie? Charlie is gonna need someone to watch over him. Keep him safe.'" After a short pause, Jake added, "But Charlie, he was-"
"Thank you, Jacob," Sam interrupted. When Jake glared over his shoulder at Sam and turned back to me to continue talking, Sam repeated, "Thank you, Jacob."
Jacob clenched his jaw tightly and stood down, and I couldn't help but wonder just how much they really knew. Or what Sam had on Jake to make him respond the way he did.
"See?" Sam asked, as though the little altercation between he and Jake had never happened. "His last wish for me wasn't about the tribe or even his kids. He was already quite secure in the knowledge that they would be well-protected. Not so for you. Billy was very worried about the kind of trouble you might get into and keeping you safe from it. Please listen to me. Looking for Bella is definitely not going to keep you safe. Especially not now."
"What do you mean, 'Especially not now?'" I asked.
"I just mean that now is not really a good time for you to go waving that picture around." Sam replied as he held his hand behind him to silence the murmurs that had started up from the peanut gallery.
"But you're not denying it? You're saying a whole lot of nonsense about keeping me safe, but I can read between the lines just fine. You haven't once said that she isn't out there. I really am on to something with the Cullens, aren't I?"
Not one of those boys had the balls to answer me, but they didn't need to. I already had my answer. I looked at the glossy wedding photo in my hand. It seemed innocent enough, but I was on the right track. Whoever had sent it to me had to have anticipated this outcome.
When I looked back at the boys, each one was staring back at me like I held a grenade in my hands with the pin long since tossed to the side. They may have been weaving all sorts of lies covering up what they knew, but I could tell they weren't joking about not wanting me to call attention to the photo. "Who don't you want knowing about this? The Cullens? Or someone else?"
"Charlie, drop it," Sam warned.
Behind Sam, Paul's jitters were becoming full blown shakes. The kid had been a smokestack ready to pop since the time he hit his teens, but I had hoped that becoming a father would have mellowed him out a bit. No such luck, apparently. "Sam, this has gone far enough," he growled.
Jared and little Quil each grabbed an arm to restrain Paul. Restrain him from what? Would he honestly take a swing at Sam? Over what? What the hell was going on?
"Paul," Sam warned. "Calm yourself. Now."
Almost instantly, Paul's trembling wasn't so bad, but his temper hadn't calmed one bit. He pulled his arms from his buddies' grasps and said, "You know it's true."
"Maybe it hasn't gone far enough," Jacob said.
Before Sam could say anything to stop him, Jacob continued with a louder voice, "No, I mean it! I've had it with this crap. It's getting worse, and you know it. Look around you, Paul! Us? We were lucky, today. Seth wasn't so lucky. Who do you want to see hurt, next time? Who do you wanna see dead?"
Dead? What the hell?
The bruises and cuts that had almost faded into the background were now all I could see. What the hell had happened to all of them? What had happened to Seth? Short of belonging to some sort of La Push Fight Club, I had nothing. Nothing to explain why they were all injured and not at the hospital. Nothing to explain why I still couldn't get a straight answer out of any of them.
Nothing.
My head was swimming. I could still kind of hear Jacob's voice yammering away, but it sounded more like that teacher in the Peanuts movies. The more I tried to figure out the individual words they were saying, the more they seemed to blur together. What I needed was to get myself back in the game and try to wrap my head around all the crap they'd throw at me. Bella needed me to focus if I was going to get to her, and I had to get to her.
That was all the inspiration I needed to shake off the fogginess. I strained to hear what Jacob was saying, but what I was getting made little sense out of context.
"…their help, Sam. I know you don't want to admit it, but we don't have this on our own."
Sam stepped forward. "Yes, we do. We just need-"
"What? What, Sam?" Jake challenged. "What's it gonna take to get control of this by ourselves? Cuz the way I see it, we're kinda screwed, right now. This isn't like all the other times, and now it's getting worse. People are gonna get hurt. So if Charlie can somehow find them and get them here, I say we-"
"I said no, Jacob," Sam said. "We don't need their help, and we don't need Charlie to get any more involved in this than he already has been."
Jacob's eyes narrowed. "Charlie has a right to know if his life is in danger."
"JACOB! You forget your place!" Sam yelled.
Two steps backwards this time without thinking. That kid could be scary as hell when he's mad.
Jake stood his ground. "I'm not the only one who thinks this way."
All hell suddenly broke loose before my eyes. Paul flew off his feet and lunged at Jacob, who lowered himself into a fighting crouch and braced for impact. The rest of the boys moved quickly to pull them apart, but I couldn't figure out which arm or leg belonged to who. It was obvious that I didn't have enough the pieces of the puzzle to figure out why they were fighting, but honestly I didn't think I could follow the fight even if I did. I was just having too trouble processing much of anything.
My old, rundown brain had finally caught up to the rest of the party. As I watched a bunch of kids pulling their friends from what looked like way more than the wrestling Billy and I had done in our youth, something Jacob said started to play on a loop in my head.
Charlie has a right to know if his life is in danger.
Charlie has a right to know if his life is in danger.
Charlie has a right to know if his life is in danger.
Was it? Was my life in danger? If everything I thought I had figured out was true, then did Bella feel like she needed to fake her own death rather than tell me the truth? What was she protecting me from? I couldn't imagine what would be so terrible that it could make Bells think having us believe she were dead was the better option. I would have forgiven that little girl anything. She knew that.
So was it just the truth about the Cullens she'd been unable to tell me? Or was there something else that was dangerous out there? Something that she was afraid of, even though her old man was a cop?
Or was it the Cullens, themselves? Were they the danger Billy had always warned me against?
They were big, fat liars. That was a given. There was clearly something wrong with them. That was another given. Sam had all but come right out and told me as much. But as much as I wanted to punch Edward right in that cocky face of his, my cop's gut was telling me that whatever they were wasn't what she was running from.
But whatever they were played a part in why she left. I knew that as sure as I knew what fish would be biting come Saturday. These boys were in on the little secret, and I sure as hell wasn't going to give in until finally broke. I would rather die than drop this now.
Whoa.
Would I?
Since I'd been the one to think it, I supposed it must be the truth. Guess I'd always known there wasn't anything I wouldn't do to get down to the bottom of Bella's accident, or whatever the hell it was that happened out there in those woods. But if my life was really in danger looking for answers, was I okay with actually dying for them?
I guess I was. Of course I was if it was for her.
Whoa.
A haze settled in behind my eyes, a kind of woozy, buzzed feeling like I'd had one too many Rainiers. I sort of heard the muffled sounds coming from the boys' fight, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what was actually being said. All I wanted was some answers to what happened to my little girl, but no matter what information I seemed to uncover, it only made my situation more confusing, and apparently more life-threatening. Every time I thought I had a lead, shit like this happened.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and gave my head a good shake to clear it. Unfortunately, all I succeeded in doing was almost losing my balance and falling on my ass.
So, that didn't work.
The funny, flailing old man did at least managed to catch everyone's attention, so I had that going for me. Almost the whole pack of them stood frozen staring at me, Paul and Jacob with chests heaving and faces just inches away from each other. Both boys had at least two sets of the others' arms wrapped around their upper bodies. Sam was the only one not looking at me. He stood behind Jacob with his mouth gaping like a trout on the hook from God only knows what.
Dammit, I missed something again.
My temper flared seeing them looking at me with concern and pity in their eyes. I threw my arms out to the side and asked, "What? Is my life in danger, right now? Gotta watch the crazy old guy. Never know what he's going to do to himself."
No one responded to my little outburst, but as I struggled to get my legs solidly back under me, it did break the spell holding the boys frozen. Paul jerked his arms out of Quil and Jared's grasps and stormed towards the house. He knocked right into Leah on the way in, who had at some point while I had been lost in my own head had come out of the house and was leaning against the doorframe. Leah slung a couple sentences at him in Quileute, some of words being ones I easily recognized as curse words Billy taught me on a different porch long ago.
Leah turned back to Sam. "What the hell is going on out here, Sam?" She pointed over in my direction without looking my way. "What's he still doing here? I thought you were going to get rid of him."
"Classy, Leah," Jacob muttered as Sam and Embry dropped their hold on his arms.
"Jake, that's enough," Sam ordered with a hard edge in his voice. "You too, Leah."
Right back to the bossing everyone around, then. Guess he had recovered from whatever freak out he'd been dealing with. Wish I could have said the same.
Leah put her hands up. "Okay, fine. God. I'm sorry, oh Great One. I just kinda thought that what's going on in there with our brother would be more important than dealing with Charlie…yet again. Seth comes first. We come first."
"Charlie is an extension of this tribe," Sam responded plainly.
As she rolled her eyes halfway into her forehead, Leah said, "Yeah, well, not tribe enough to know about the C-"
Whatever Leah had wanted to say caught in her throat as she suddenly decided against saying it. If Sam was looking at me the way he was looking at her, right now, I'd have probably rethought speaking, too.
"We've talked about this, Leah," Sam said. "Whatever your opinion on the matter, Charlie is considered a part of the tribe. We promised. I will not allow anyone to break that promise," Sam said, his eyes darting quickly over to me for a moment.
"Promised who?" I asked.
"Billy," Sam said and the same time Jake said, "The Cullens."
Sam narrowed his eyes at Jacob, whose already puffed-out chest inflated even more. When Sam made eye contact with me, the question must have been all over my face, because he explained, "Of course we assured Billy that you'd always be welcome here. But we…Carlisle Cullen also came to us on Bella's behalf when they were preparing to move and asked us to protect you. And that protection extends to what's happening here, today."
"Protect me?" I asked. "What the hell did Carlisle think I needed to be protected from?"
Leah rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter what that leech wanted."
"LEAH," Sam barked.
"Well, it doesn't!" Leah shouted back. "Like I said, when are we going to start putting this tribe, first? And not letting things like that-" she said, pointing to the house, "happen again."
Without another glance at Sam, Leah spun on her heel and headed back into the house. She called over her shoulder, "Whatever. Seth is awake, by the way. You know, for anyone who cares about him."
No one spoke for a few very awkward moments. Most of the boys were trying to look anywhere but at Sam and Jacob, who were glaring at each other. Finally, Jacob broke the silence and said, "You're losing control of this, Sam, and you know it."
Sam didn't say anything in response, but was just staring weirdly out over Jacob's shoulder into the dense woods beyond the house.
"You have to do something," Jake added.
"I don't answer to you, Jacob."
"Maybe you do, now," Jacob fired back.
I didn't quite understand that one, but it sure got Sam's attention. From the looks of it, he was picturing all the ways he wished he could pummel Jacob into the ground and halfway to China. Must have been part of what I missed during my super manly blackout.
When Sam didn't respond to his cryptic crap, Jake continued, "Come on, we need help."
"We don't."
"We do!" Jake insisted. "Every time, it's getting worse. Look at what happened, today. One here and there we could handle, but that was not one. You know we can't go on like this. Think about what could be coming."
I couldn't take their back-and-forth any longer. No one had bothered to answer my question the first time I asked it, and it was still playing on an unending loop in my mind. "Sam, is it true? What Jake said? Is my life in danger, here?"
Sam started to deny it, but when Jake looked like he was going to put up a fight, Sam ordered, "Everyone, go inside. I'm sure Seth would like to see all of you right about now."
Jared smirked. "Yeah, especially since Leah's his only company."
"Not helping, Jared." Sam caught Jake by the arm as he started to head inside, too. "Not you. You need to understand what I'm about to say just as much as Charlie needs to hear it."
Jake held Sam's stare for a few moments before taking a deep breath and a step back. After a glance my way, Jacob turned so that I was now standing just off his left shoulder, which placed him just slightly between Sam and me. Great. Being protected by a kid whose diapers I'd helped change. Really did wonders for the ol' self-esteem.
I rolled my eyes at Jake's playing guard dog, and he at least had the decency to look a little guilty about it. He turned to Sam and tossed a hand up at him. "Alright. Fire away, I guess."
"Charlie, first of all, I feel compelled to apologize for Jacob having said what he did," Sam started. Jake tried to jump in, but Sam held both hands in front of him and continued, "Stop. Jacob, please. Let me say what needs saying."
"Fine," Jake muttered. "But I have something I need to get off my chest when you're done."
"Fine. Within reason, of course," Sam responded before turning back to me. "Your life is only in danger should you continue to walk down this path Billy set you on. Please understand that by telling you to stand down, Charlie, we are choosing to keep you safe. I won't ever apologize for that. I'm honoring a promise I made to our chief on his deathbed to do what it takes to protect you. So help me, I'll be keeping my word so long as I'm in a position to do something about it. And to do my job, I need to you leave this alone. Permanently."
I shook my head. "I can't do that. I won't."
"I'm asking you to."
"Sam, I can't."
"This is stupid. He's not going to back off," Jacob said.
Sam's eyes narrowed at Jacob. The hostility between them was clear as day to me. Had it always been like that? "He has to."
"No, he doesn't. He shouldn't," Jake challenged. "And we shouldn't be turning him away, right now, either. He needs us. Screw the fucking treaty, Sam. I'm done with-"
"Enough," Sam said in a way that didn't leave any room for negotiation. "Jacob, you will trust my judgment in this. Charlie, you have to drop this immediately."
"The hell I'm dropping anything. Not as long as my daughter could be out there, Sam," I said. "You can't ask me to do that. You can't."
"Let me set the record straight. She's not out there, Charlie. I cannot begin to understand what you went through four and a half years ago-"
"You're damn right you can't," I interrupted.
Sam paused a moment before responding, I guess to let me try and cool off. Fat chance of that happening. I was so sick and tired of this secret shit.
"Charlie," Sam finally said, "what you're doing is dangerous. The questions you're asking are even more so. If you won't leave this alone for your own sake, please at least consider my people's safety. Should your actions attract the wrong attention, it wouldn't just be you that suffered the consequences."
My free hand clenched up into a fist and the one holding onto the photo itched to do the same. I had never felt so frustrated in my entire life. All I wanted to do was act, but I was trapped under the weight of feeling completely out of my depths. And to top it off, I was still having a hell of a time reconciling the weird crap I was unearthing about the Cullens with what my experiences with them had told me. After how much they clearly loved my daughter and had been there for me in the days after the accident, they couldn't really be the things threatening my life, could they?
"Look, I don't know what the Cullens are or how wrapped up Bella was in all of it, but are you really saying that I should fear them? Just don't know if I can buy that I need to be looking over my shoulder for Esme Cullen."
Sam's jaw tightened. "The Cullens…are not something I'm going to talk about to you. Let it be enough for me to say that it wasn't necessarily them I was referencing. Remember, it's under an agreement we made that I promised Carlisle Cullen your safety. I doubt he'd be any happier with your actions than we are. We're all just trying to make sure you stay safe."
I had looked at the ground as soon as he began talking again and started shaking my head back and forth over and over. What he was asking of me was just too great. Just as I was about to say so, Sam continued, "And speaking of keeping you safe, I'd like you to consider coming to stay with us here on the rez. Just for a little while."
The hell?
"This has to do with your little La Push Fight Club, doesn't it?"
"Really not the time for jokes, Charlie," Sam replied.
"Not joking," I said correcting him. "Whatever trouble you boys are in, you know I'm still the chief of police in Forks. That counts for something. I can help. Just gotta know what I'm dealing with."
"No," Sam said simply.
What the hell was finally going to get him to crack?
Before I could find a way to reword my offer, probably just for Sam to turn it down again, my phone rang loudly from my pocket.
"Just the station, again. I'll call them back in a bit," I said after glancing at the screen. I took a break in the tension between us to come up with a new tactic. "Look," I continued as I slipped my phone back into my packet, "I know you don't want my help. Stubborn as sure as the mountains are high, all of you. Just know that the offer is always on the table. But as for hiding out here on the rez? Not my style, Sam."
"I wish you would reconsider," he said.
I shrugged. "And I wish you'd help me with this," I answered, holding the photo up for him to see. "But I'm thinking neither of us is getting what he wants, today."
When Sam didn't say anything further, I turned to Jacob. He'd been awful quiet since Sam had put him quite handily in his place, but I knew something had to be stirring around that head of his, by now. Jake wasn't usually the one to let things go easily. The pining after Bella thing sure as hell proved that one outright, although my having been an ass encouraging it may have contributed to that one. Jacob was just as concerned as I was about whatever fight the boys had gotten into, and something told me that it was Sam's having him by the balls that kept him from helping me with Bella. Otherwise, I just knew he'd be helping me.
Time to poke the bear.
"What about you, Jake? Just gonna take the company line and not budge on this, either? Come on, son. Whatever they are, it can't be as bad as I'm imaging it."
Jake shook his head, but didn't say anything.
I rolled my eyes. "What happened to the kid that wanted me, practically begged me to reopen Bella's file?" I caught Sam glaring at Jake for that one out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored it. Had to seize this opportunity. "You were right to help me, then. What's changed? Just because Sam here tells you not to say anything, you just follow along? That's not the Jake I know."
Jacob opened his mouth once, twice, three times to say something, but looked like he was almost choking over the words. After struggling to get his words out several times, he had apparently had enough.
"God dammit!" he yelled as he skulked off a few paces to the old Douglas Fir that stood in front of the house. Emily's wind chimes were the first casualties, ripped from the branches. When taking his anger out on the tiny pipes wasn't enough to cool him off, Jake turned to the old tree itself. When the first kick landed, I expected Jake to start hopping around on one foot, cussing up a blue streak like his old man had when goaded into doing something similar more times than I remembered.
Trouble was, Jacob wasn't exactly hurt.
The tree moved.
A gigantic fir tree that had stood on that ground for God knows how many years had actually shaken a bit with the force of his kick. Driving my patrol car head-first at sixty miles an hour into the trunk could have probably gotten the same result, but one kick from a kid had also somehow done the trick. Another two quick kicks and the fir tree started moaning against the disruption of her roots.
If Jake didn't get a hold on himself soon, I had a feeling that the whole thing was going to be leaning harder than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a ridiculous thought to have. Clearly no twenty-one-year-old should be able knock over a tree with a foot. And yet, there it was.
I definitely hadn't been expecting the tree to be the one taking the damage, but my prediction was right-on about the swearing up a blue streak thing. Just like his father before him, it seemed to me that Jacob was quite capable of coming up with just about every combination of every curse word he'd ever heard. His hands flew up into his hair and started tugging away while swearing just kept on going.
"Jacob, control yourself, now!"Sam yelled as he held up a hand to little Quil and Embry, who'd both shown up on the little porch with all the commotion.
Probably not a bad thing to send the others off. They didn't need to get pulled into this power struggle. The two boys stepped slowly back into the house, Embry not able to resist muttering, "Okaaaay, well…Good luck with that."
Sam hadn't even taken his eyes off Jacob for a moment. As soon as the others were back inside the house, Sam repeated, "You need get control of yourself, Jacob. This isn't an option."
I had used Jacob's pride to try and piss him off enough to go to the line for me. Looking at the way his shoulders heaved with every pant and the muscles under his unfortunately bare chest twitched all over the place, I started to worry that I may have done my job a little better than I was going for.
The only thing I couldn't figure out was what exactly had been the thing to set him off. One second Jake was trying to find the words to answer my question, and the next he was going all Jackie Chan on a damned tree. Well, Jackie Chan if he'd somehow found a way to steal some strength from the Hulk.
I'd wondered many times if the La Push boys were hitting the riods. From the way Billy used to fawn all over all of them and call them "protectors," it was easy to see that they were important to the Quileutes. Maybe they took their position a little too seriously and hit the juice to be the beefed-up hallway monitors I'd come to know.
Of course, even a ball player like Mark Maguire when he was at his peak of performance enhancing drug use couldn't have taken on a tree. I still wasn't quite sure just what in the hell to do with that information.
What I did know is that I needed to help Sam try to calm Jacob down quickly. He'd been practically ordering him to stop freaking out, but it didn't seem like Jake was in any sort of mood to be ordered around. He had always listened to me, though, even when he was in a teenage funk and wouldn't do the same for his dad. Couldn't hurt to try and get through to him before the Pacific Northwest lost yet another tree.
Besides, this whole mess was probably my fault.
"Sam is right, Jake," I offered, but cringing when his glare turned on full force at me. "You need to take a serious step back."
He didn't respond to me, but thankfully, the jittering all about seemed to be coming to an end. With shoulders heaving like I'd expect from someone who just tried his damnedest to level a tree, Jake said, "Something's gotta change, Sam. What happened today can't happen, again. We tried. We did things your way, but it's just not working."
When Sam didn't have a word to say back, Jake added, "Like I said, I'm not the only one who thinks this was the last straw. I mean, come on. You had to have heard us. Stop being so fucking proud. If Charlie finds a way to get a hold of them, they could help us."
"The Cullens?" I asked.
Jacob nodded, not looking away from Sam.
Thought so.
I tried another one. "Does them being able to help you more than the police have anything to do with whatever the hell they are? That's why you'd rather talk to them than file a report, isn't it?"
"Don't you dare answer that, Jacob," Sam said at the same time as Jake said, "Hell yeah, that's why."
Now we were finally getting somewhere.
"Okay. So the Cullens can help you with the…fights that you're getting into?" The connection between how Billy always used to talk about the boys with a kind of reverence and what I had seen today snapped into place. "You're protecting the reservation from something, aren't you? Someone?"
Sam shook his head, but it didn't seem like he was disagreeing with me. More like he couldn't believe I'd actually come up with that one on my own. "That's quite astute of you, Charlie."
I rolled my eyes. "I've been an officer for longer than you've been alive. I'd damn well better be able to put a puzzle together when the pieces start kickboxing Douglas Firs right in front of my face."
The more I said, the more Sam's shoulders started to drop further and further. I had him right where I wanted him, and I wasn't about to let up until I'd completely cracked him.
"See?" Jacob asked Sam. "This is exactly what I've been trying to tell you for the past week. Charlie isn't gonna let this go. We can keep him safe. He deserves to know. You've said yourself how many times that he's an 'extension of this tribe.'"
Sam was quiet for what had to be some of the longest minutes of my life. His eyebrows were creased heavily in the middle from whatever silent war he was fighting with himself. When my patience was just about to snap in half, he finally said, "It pains me greatly to say that you may very well have some valid points, Jacob."
"Wait, seriously?" Jake asked, the disbelief clear in his question.
"I said 'may,'" Sam clarified. "This isn't something I'm about to get into as a kneejerk reaction to what happened today, though."
"If it's the treaty you're worried about, I'm pretty sure they threw that one out the window when this all went down in the first place," Jake said, his voice taking on that edge to it he only got when talking about the Cullens.
Something about what Jake had said caught my attention, though. The Cullens threw a treaty out the window. He had mentioned something about a treaty earlier, too.What damned treaty was he talking about?
Sam shook his head. "It's not that. It's just not wise to have any distractions with…what's happening so close to our homes." Turning his attention to me, Sam continued, "Alright. I'll strike you a deal. You're not going to like it, Charlie, but it's the best I've got for you. We can't afford to be anything less than completely focused, right now. Distractions from any outside source would be bad enough, but the added element of the Cullens would be especially challenging. They'd only make matters worse, despite what Jacob seems to think."
"And what Jacob seems to think is that Sam is a proud ass for not bringing them in, now," Jacob muttered.
"So, here's my compromise," Sam continued without stopping to give Jake a second look. "Let us take care of some business close to the rez for a while. When things have calmed down in a month or two, I will address the Elders and see what we can do about your questions."
Well, hell.
Could I really take Sam up on his offer? Could I sit back on my haunches twiddling my thumbs for months knowing that Bella could really be out there somewhere?
One thing that I had always found annoying about myself was how easy it was for people to read me. Whatever I was thinking usually projected pretty loudly across my face. I wasn't exactly going to be winning any Texas Holdem tournaments any time soon. Sam must have noticed my hemming and hawing written all over my face because he added, "Charlie, I'm not saying no. Jake is right. He's been saying that you're not going to let this go all along, and perhaps I'm beginning to see that. I'm just asking you for some patience for a little while. Let us make the situation safe, and we'll open up a conversation with the Elders about that photograph."
"It's not exactly like you're giving me a real choice, is it?" I asked.
Sam shook his head. "You're wrong. There's always a choice. In this case, you have the choice to decide to leave here today and go live your life. Let the past rest in peace."
"Well, that's not even a real choice. I can't do that. Not if you're saying that she's still out there."
"Charlie, I never said that," Sam was quick to reply.
I rolled my eyes. "You sure as hell didn't disagree with me when I came in here raving like a crazy, old man. Say the words."
Sam's shoulders set further back as he lifted himself up into his full height. "No."
There was no way I was going to let a kid who once cried and cried because Harry wouldn't let him keep eating the worms we'd set out as bait throw his muscles around to intimidate me. "It's true. Billy would never have said anything like that to me if he wasn't absolutely sure it was true, so just say it."
"I can't. I wish I could for you."
Jacob was getting antsy again. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, and the constant movement was making me just as anxious. I tried again, "Just say the words. Jesus Christ, throw me a bone and just say the words, Sam."
"I can't do that," Sam said. "I wish nothing more than to be able to tell you what you want to hear, but your daughter did die, that day." He paused and waited for Jake to finally stop his constant shifting around before continuing, "Now, can we agree to drop this until everything calms down a little?"
Jake snorted. "I still can't believe you really think that's gonna happen."
"I do think that because I trust Charlie," Sam said. "Just like I trust you to stop encouraging a dangerous situation. You and I will need to discuss what's been going on here. You shouldn't have been able to do what you've done, today."
I was about to ask what the hell that meant when my damned phone went off for the second time. The station, again.
After gesturing at my phone to the boys, I took a couple steps away. "Yeah, Swan."
"Charlie? Oh, thank God. We got a hold of you," Maggie, our dispatcher, began. "We really need you to come down and join us. We…found something."
If they were calling me in to take a look when I was supposed to be off, it couldn't be good. I could only hope it had to do with the ongoing boulder issue rather than Brian's disappearance. "Whatcha got? More of those damn boulders?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line that immediately set me on edge. "Umm, no. It…They…Charlie, Stokes found Delany's squad car about an hour ago, but it…They just really need you to go down there right away."
God dammit.
There was only one reason they would need to get down there quickly.
"I need to know, Maggie. Brian?"
"No sign of him on scene, yet. But the CSI team was a little slow getting out of the gate. They only just got there a little bit ago and are starting to take a look, now," she replied.
My stomach clenched up in knots. With the kinds of wild animals we had living in the forests just beyond our houses, I knew not having remains didn't necessarily mean that we were in the clear. Four and a half years ago, there was another scene without…bodies that had been enough to make the state boys send unis to my front door. I sure as hell didn't want to have to give the same order for Brian's wife or anyone else anytime soon.
I laid the wedding photo on the ground next to me. One edge was already crumpled beyond saving from what my hand had done to it. A little dirt wasn't going to hurt anything. I held my cell phone between my ear and shoulder while I dug around for the notepad and pen that were always jammed into my jacket pocket. "Maggie, tell them I'm heading over immediately. What's the location?"
After Maggie rattled off the directions, I had to have her repeat herself because I was pretty damned sure I'd misunderstood.
"Maggie, isn't that-"
"The Cullens' estate?" Maggie finished for me. "That's correct. Of course the property is pretty boarded up."
Son of a bitch. While I knew intellectually that what had been going on the last couple weeks didn't have nothing to do with them, but I couldn't believe that the universe was sending me there, of all places.
But there was something else I also couldn't figure out. "Maggie, Brian went missing checking out a disturbance off the 110, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why the hell is his car parked at the Cullens'?" I asked.
"Your guess is as good as anyone's, Chief. According to Martinez, the patrol car was found parked on the driveway. Tracks indicate whoever was driving it went into the woods. We've stationed the investigation team and search and rescue in the driveway further back from the car. Martinez is advising you to park there, as well. He'll meet you and take you to the car and then to the…Well, the second part of the crime scene. There was also a disturbance in the woods."
I felt my forehead scrunch up at that news. "Wait, what do you mean there was a disturbance?"
"Martinez says it's easier to just show you."
Of course it was. So that meant I had to go there – the place I'd had to say goodbye to my little girl forever. Between the incredibly bad memories of the kids' memorial and all the shit that was going on surrounding the Cullens, their place may just be the last place on this earth I wanted to be, right now. But duty called. "Alight, Maggie. Tell 'em I'm on my way."
I hung up and turned back to Jacob and Sam, only to find them exchanging some very heated words. With everything spiraling out of control with this photograph and now the scene I needed to cover for work, I just didn't have time to mess with their posturing.
As I walked over, I called out, "Alright, alright. That's enough of that, boys. I gotta get going, but this isn't over."
"Everything okay, Charlie?" Jacob asked.
"Eh, not really," I began. "Got a call on a patrol car we've been looking for. Belongs to a missing officer of ours. Guess I'm actually supposed to head to the Cullens' place. The cruiser was found on their driveway, and there's…I don't know. Something else? They've set up shop on property and need to me to take a look right away."
Sam crossed his arms in front of himself. "I know you well enough to know that you're just going to shoot me down, but can I talk you out of going down there?"
I was really not in the mood for the hateful bullshit, right now. Not with a cop's life on the line, and not after the afternoon I'd just spent. "Sam, if this is about it being the Cullens' old property, I really don't have time to-"
"It's not. Not really," Sam assured me. "But I'm asking you to reconsider. It's not safe."
"Of course it's not safe. It's a potential crime scene. But this is my job. I can't just not do my job. My people need me, right now. And quite frankly, I know what the hell I'm doing."
Sam nodded slowly. "I understand." After pausing to consider his words, he added, "I'd like to come with you."
"Absolutely not."
"I'd feel better about you going onto the Cullens' property if I was there. Or even Jake," Sam said.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and if I hadn't dealt with Billy and his cockamamie theories for years, I might have considered hauling Sam into the station for a mental wellness check. "Sam, you do understand that that's just not going to happen, right? You boys may be some de facto cleanup crew around here, but in my world, you can't waltz onto a crime scene without the proper credentials."
Before Sam could say whatever the hell he was starting to tell me, I said, "Now, listen, I came down here for answers, and all you did was dance around and make pretty promises. So, no, you damn well better believe I'm going this one on my own. It's my job. I've got this."
"Alright. I'll be in touch then, Charlie. Stay safe," Sam said.
"This isn't over," I said, picking up the photo from where I'd laid it on the ground. "Not by a longshot."
Sam sighed. "That much is clear."
I turned and walked towards my car a few paces before Jacob called out, "Hey, Charlie?"
When he had my attention back, Jake looked at Sam and said with a smirk, "Tell them we say hi."
Every time I thought I had started to gain a little ground with this whole freak show of a conversation, one of them went and said something that knocked me off kilter, again. "What, the guys?"
"The Cullens," Jacob replied, again, not even looking at me.
Weirder and weirder by the minute. I needed to get out of here.
"Uh, sure, kid," I responded.
As I drove down the winding roads leading off the reservation, my mind was still having trouble wrapping itself around everything I'd just witnessed. But one thing was for sure – there were finally some chinks showing in the boys' armor, and I was sure as hell going to find a way to exploit them to get some answers. For her.
So like I told the kid, sure. If anyone in the Cullen family actually responded to my plea for help through means other than a wedding picture, I would play along. Maybe I'd even do Jake a solid and ask them to come help the boys fight whatever battle they had taken upon themselves to fight. After all, it seemed like maybe he was doing everything he could to help me out.
But if I did that, I sure as hell would be demanding that Jake give me a better explanation for the letter and more importantly, the truth about the Cullens. It was long overdue.
I wasn't sure, but I couldn't shake the distinct feeling that I witnessed something fairly significant happening between Sam and Jacob. Billy had been the rightful chief, but his son was never exactly excited about learning to lead, one day. With his dad's passing, it seemed like maybe Jacob was starting to take the stand that Billy was afraid he'd never take. I had a feeling that the power struggle between those two boys was only just beginning.
Things were definitely changing in La Push, and I had every intention of using it to help me get my little girl back.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a little love, if you have time. Want updates on chapters or read my general ridiculousness? Follow me on Twitter _Horizon77_. Until next month, darlings! Much love!