Chapter 28

~Tick Tock~

~*Edward*~

"Someone was arrested for the fire. His name is Anton Weyler, and he's done time for arson before." Rose angled the laptop so we could get a better view, but adrenaline was already coursing through my veins. The name was familiar and so was the mugshot. Anton's calculating eyes stared back at me from the screen, a small, crescent-shaped scar on his right cheek and full lips that could curve with humor or twist with cruelty. He was a thug for hire—one of the men I was with in the alley the night I met Bella. Fuck.

"I know this guy." I shared a look with Emmett. I'd only recently told him of my exploits when I came back from abroad, and he hadn't been thrilled. "Get Monty to post his bail before someone beats us to it." Aro also had a vested interest in questioning Anton. We had to be lightning-fast if we wanted to get to him first.

"On it." Emmett pulled out his phone and left the room.

"What? Why would you do such a thing?" Bella asked, her tone incredulous.

My insides hardened to stone as my Mafia boss persona deployed. I turned and looked through Bella instead of at her, my voice matter-of-fact. "We need answers, and the cops aren't going to get them." I cracked my knuckles, my mind already jumping ahead. We were good at extracting information, and I didn't intend to give Anton a chance to spill information about my extracurricular activities to anyone else.

Emmett returned with a determined look. "It's in the works, E. Nobody will know it was us, so . . ." He punched his palm and grinned at me.

"Let's do this." My tone was clipped. I pulled Bella close and kissed the top of her head. It was all I was capable of at that point; "Tony" was tucked away deep inside me.

I saw the fear in Bella's eyes as we left. She wanted to reach out, to stop me, but she must have sensed that I was already gone.

In the car, Emmett side-eyed me. "You realize this is fucking bad, right? One of the thugs you were hanging with is fingered for the Paradise fire?"

I sighed, glaring out the passenger window. "Tell me something I don't know."

While we were racing down the highway, my cell rang. "Masen."

"Bad news." The tension and frustration in Cricket's voice was palpable. "Monty posted bail, but Anton Weyler was snatched before he hit the street. Pretty sure Aro has him."

"Fuck. How sure are you?"

"I'd bet a steak dinner on it. What should I do, boss?"

"Nothing for now. I'll let you know if I need anything." I hung up and slammed my fist on the dash, letting loose a string of expletives.

Emmett cursed under his breath, shaking his head. "What now?"

Rather than answer him, I dialed Aro.

"Volturi."

"Aro, it's Edward. Do you have Anton Weyler?"

"Who?"

I gritted my teeth and fought to control my temper. "I thought we were beyond games. I know this guy. Let me handle this."

"I'm not handing over the fuck who set the fire that nearly killed Bella."

"I'm not asking you to—just let me question him. I'm pretty sure I can get him talking."

There was a long silence on the other end followed by a deep sigh. "Only because of who you are to my daughter."

"Thank you, Aro." I blew out a long breath.

"But, Edward?"

"Yeah?"

His tone was low and dangerous. "Don't make me regret this."

"I want to get to the bottom of the fire as much as you do."

"Someone will meet you behind my hotel. Be covert. Don't use your own car."

"See you soon." I hung up and turned to Emmett. "We need a car that can't be traced back to us. We should probably take a page from Bella's book and wear disguises."

Emmett grinned and banged on the steering wheel. "Hot damn! I love covert shit!"

Forty-five minutes later, we pulled around to the back of The Paradise in an old junker. We wore baggy hoodies and sweats, the best we could do at a moment's notice. Felix leaned casually against the side of the building. When he saw us, he inclined his head toward a garage at the back of the parking lot. We parked the car and followed him through a side door into the cavernous building.

Felix faced us, halting our progress. "Gentleman. Weapons?"

I pulled my hood down and glared at him. "What do you think?"

"Recording devices?"

"No."

He patted us down, making note of guns, knives, a taser, and brass knuckles. "Put these on." He tossed a blindfold to each of us.

Emmett laughed. "For real?"

Felix glowered back. "For real. Aro's putting a lot of trust in you, but he's not a fucking idiot."

We put the blindfolds on, and Felix led with my hand on his shoulder and Emmett's hand on mine. The way was long with several turns before I heard the bleeps of a keypad. Felix guided us into an elevator, punched a code in, and we started to descend.

"You can take them off now."

Slipping off the blindfold, I squinted in the garish light of the elevator and shoved the scrap of material into my pocket. We entered a damp concrete hallway lit by bare bulbs. We eventually came to a T and turned left. Felix stopped outside a small room, indicating we should go in.

Aro stood in front of a rectangular two-way mirror. On the other side, a hooded figure was strapped to a metal chair in the center of an enormous concrete room. I stood next to Aro and pointed. "Is that where you held me?"

"It is." He turned to face me. "Do you want to wear a mask?"

"No. I want him to know who he's dealing with." I clenched my jaw and swallowed back bile. "But first, I need to change my clothes."

Fifteen minutes later, I strolled into the room, walking slowly, methodically. The sound of my dress shoes echoed. I stopped directly in front of Anton and didn't say a word. He titled his head, so I knew he'd heard me.

"Who's there?"

I remained standing there in silence.

"Yo! I know you there."

I waited.

Anton started to squirm. "I heard you, man! What the fuck you want from me?"

A smirk of satisfaction spread across my face when his voice went up an octave. I walked away for a moment to grab a chair that was against the wall and dragged it loudly across the floor. I straddled the chair and leaned forward, yanking the hood off Anton's head. He squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of the scene. I leaned my forearms on the back of the chair and stared him down.

"Tony? What . . ?" Anton shook his head. Then his gaze dropped lower to what I was wearing. "You . . . who are you?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the brass knuckles, casually slipping them on. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Anton."

"What we doing, man?" Anton's brown eyes were wide, his gaze roving around our surroundings and coming back to me. "This is a kill room. I haven't done anything to you!"

"Not directly, but you got nicked for setting a fire." I leaned forward, letting the brass knuckles clink against the back of my chair. "I want answers. The who, the what, the why, the how."

"Shit." He looked down and shook his head. "I got nothing to say. The pigs can't prove jack, and I'll walk."

"In case you haven't noticed, there are no cops here." I swept my arm, inviting him to look around. "I need answers." I tightened my fist, the weight of the metal satisfying.

Anton glared back defiantly. "Yo, what happened to you, man? You fucking disappear, and then you show up dressed like . . . like one of those Mafia assholes, brass ones and all."

"I am one of those Mafia assholes, Anton." I backhanded him hard enough to get the message across. His head rocked back, and he spit blood on the floor. I lifted up, nudging my chair even closer and stared him down. "There are only two ways you leave here. You give me what I want, or you go stuffed in a barrel of sodium hydroxide. Personally, I prefer the first option."

A dawning acceptance filled his eyes. He was finally starting to realize the predicament he was in. I watched him for a few seconds, working the details out in his head. "Shit."

"Did you set the fire at The Paradise?"

"Yeah."

"Did you lock Isabella Volturi in the office?"

Anton's eyes widened. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I ain't no murderer!"

I backhanded him harder this time. "Tell me something I'm going to believe."

"Nah, man, seriously! Thinking about it now, what I did couldn't have caused all that damage."

My stomach clenched, and adrenaline started flowing faster. "Explain."

"I sparked a small fire in a garbage can and then bolted. I've set fires before, and that ended up being a lot more than a can fire. Somebody set me up."

"Who hired you?"

"I can't." He shook his head. "You know what happens if I squeal."

"I also know what happens if you don't. Give me what I need, and I'll give you enough money to take your little sister and start over."

Anton leaned forward, looking me in the eye. "Nissa's my life, man. We got no father—loser split when we was little. Our mama died when I was seventeen, and I been taking care of Nissa ever since."

"There are only two ways you leave here. My offer is generous—theirs won't be."

"Fuck! Okay, okay. This curvy, blonde bitch tried to hire me, but I ain't never seen her fine ass around before. No trust, you dig? So I tell her it's a no go and get out my face. Then a known associate of the Corins pays me a visit, says it's a legit job."

"Fuck. What was the job?"

"Just cause a smoky, little diversion. They paid me double my usual fee. What the fuck happened? I heard on the news the whole wing of the hotel collapsed and . . . and Aro Volturi's daughter was killed." Anton's forehead was beaded with sweat, a rivulet dripping down the side of his face. "I don't kill people, Tony. I didn't lock nobody in no room. I lit a pile of rags and got the fuck out."

I stared into his eyes for a long time. Then I stood up, tucking the brass knuckles away. "Give me the name of who hired you, and I'll see what I can do."

"Who's got me?"

"The less you know the better. Name."

"Gorgeous George."

The name might be amusing, but George was a tough fucker, and he was authorized to speak on Marcel's behalf. "Hold tight. I'll be back."

I returned to the room where Aro and Emmett were watching. Emmett fist bumped me. "Personally, I was hoping for more blood."

I shot him a look.

Aro turned around and shook my hand. "Great work, but I'm not paying for that thug to be relocated."

"No, that's on me."

"How do you know him?"

I grimaced. "It's a long story, but if you knew it, you'd agree." The night I met Bella, Anton was the only one of the guys I was with who didn't want to hurt her. I'd never known him to rape or physically harm an innocent. He did the job, got paid, and went home.

"Cut him loose, and then we need to talk." Aro's expression was unreadable.

I called Cricket and tasked him with making sure Anton and his sister were relocated safely. Aro brought Caius in and advised him where to meet Cricket with Anton. Caius raised a brow but didn't argue.

Aro told us to forget the blindfolds and follow him. We took the elevator up two floors and traveled through a network of hallways. We passed through two metal doors with keypads before entering the area we'd been taken to the day of our meeting at the strip club.

Aro ushered us into his office and shut the door. He folded his hands, looking grim. "Do you know who the blonde is?"

"Tanya fucking Denali."

"How sure are you?"

"I'd bet my left nut." I clenched my fists. "That bitch! I've never considered killing a woman before, but she's gone too far."

"Not yet. We can't let them know we're onto them. This isn't just about the fire—that was done to distract me from what's really going on. Denali came here to meet with me, but it seems he's aligned himself with your father."

Emmett held his hands up. "Aro, all due respect, my father didn't order the fire. The old man is a lot of things, believe me, but that's not him."

Aro nodded. "I'm inclined to agree, so where does that leave us?"

"Tanya is having an affair with Lou D'Angelo," I said.

"You think or you know?"

"Showing her proof is how I got out of marrying her." I told him about my visit to her hotel room and the photo evidence of her betrayal.

Aro drummed his fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "Yes, the D'Angelos fit—they knew enough to hire someone to set the fire but didn't know about the safe room. The fact they used an unaffiliated thug tells me they meant to pin this on Anton all along. Maybe they'd threaten his sister, or he'd conveniently die in jail."

For the first time, I considered that my father might not be the evil don I thought he was. Our family was part of the Corin empire through blood, but my father might not be as high up as he seemed. Certainly the Denalis and the D'Angelos were vying for their piece of the empire. What a tangled, fucking web.

When we got back to the car, there were a bunch of texts and missed calls from Bella on my burner phone.

Tony? ~B

Where are you? ~B

Please answer me. ~B

I'm worried. ~B

I texted back right away.

I'm here. What's wrong? ~T

There was no response. "Get back to the penthouse!" I yelled.

While Emmett drove like a bat out of hell, I tried to call Bella, Alice, Jasper, Angela. No answer from any of them. We careened into the parking garage, and I was out of the car while it was still moving.

"E, slow your roll!" Emmett ran over and grabbed me by the shoulders. "We can't go in half-cocked." He popped the trunk and grabbed a bag from a secret compartment that held a compact semi-automatic rifle.

We hurried to the elevator, checking and prepping our weapons on the way up. I pressed myself against a side wall, and Emmett crouched in the back corner of the elevator. When the doors slid open, we were ready.

Finding the foyer deserted, we covered each other as we methodically swept each room. Nothing was out of place. Nobody was here. There was one room left. Emmett gestured to Jasper's office. The door was open and a shadow moved inside.

We counted to three and stormed the room, guns raised.

An ear-piercing shriek came from the sofa in the corner. Rose put her hands up. "Don't shoot!"

Emmett lowered his rifle. I dropped my arm, allowing the gun to rest against my thigh.

"Where is everybody, and why isn't anyone answering their phone? I got a bunch of missed calls and texts from Bella."

Rose breathed a sigh of relief, pressing a hand to her chest. "You scared the shit out of me. Jasper and Alice went out, Angela left a while after, and Bella said she wasn't feeling well, so she went to lie down."

"Bella isn't here. When's the last time you saw her?"

Rose sputtered, her face turning red. "I—a few hours ago. I told her to let me know if she needed anything." She got up and started pacing. "I'm so sorry! This is my fault."

I shook my head. "No blame. I just need to find her."

I raced back to Bella's room, this time looking closely at details. Her bed was made, and the burner phone was on her night table. There was a pile of clothes on the carpet next to her closet, and the door stood open. A few garments littered the floor, which suggested Bella changed in a hurry. She obviously didn't want Rose to know she was going somewhere. The fact she left her burner phone behind worried me.

My phone rang. "Masen."

"Hey, man!" Jasper's voice came over the line. " Sorry we missed your call before. We were doing some star gazing at a scenic overlook."

"Bella's not here. Rose said she wasn't feeling well and went to her room, but that was a lie. Her bed is made, and there are clothes—I can tell she dressed in a hurry. She might have been gone for hours!"

"Take it easy. We're on our way. Keep trying to call her."

"She left her burner behind." Panic clawed at my insides..

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes."

There was a scuffle, and then my sister came on the line. "Don't worry, Silver. We'll find her. It's probably something silly."

"Thanks, squirt." I smiled, calming down slightly. Being in a panic wasn't going to help the situation. My phone beeped. "I've got another call coming in. Gotta run! Love you."

"Love you too!"

I accepted the new call. "Masen."

"I'm s-sorry." Bella's tearful voice filled my ears.

"Where are you, princess?"

A keening wail came over the line.

"Baby, what's wrong? Talk to me!"

A voice straight out of a nightmare answered instead."I'm afraid your princess is unable to speak at this time."

My heart skipped a beat and started pounding hard. No, no, no, no!

"Are you there, Edward?" His tone was taunting.

"I'm here." I closed my eyes and slid down the wall to a seated position. "What 's going on?"

"You've been a naughty boy, Edward. Does Volturi know you've been banging his baby girl?"

"Alec."

"Does Aro know she's alive? Well, at least for now."

"Alec, don't do this." I gripped my hair and pulled hard, using the pain as a way to keep my mind sharp.

Emmett stalked into the room looking for me and stopped short when he saw me on the ground. He tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders, mouthing, "What's going on?"

"Begging is for losers, Edward. Don't you want to be a winner? You have three hours to find me. If you make it in time, we'll play a game. If you win, the beautiful Bella walks out of here unharmed. If you lose . . . well, I'll leave that to your imagination. Tick tock."

He hung up.

~oOo~

A/N: My continued apologies for the slow updates. I still have a lot going on, but I'm doing the best I can. I appreciate every one of you and your support more than I can say.

We're going over the cliff, guys! Strap in because things are about to get pretty dark. Thoughts? Theories?

Fanfic is not sending out email updates AGAIN. The fanfic app usually posts updates, and you can check story alerts to see what's been updated.

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Thanks and gratefulness as always to my awesome betas, SassySue (chayasara) and Wendy (wmr1601). These ladies make my stuff much more presentable! (Translation: save me from sounding like a blathering fool)

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