2

Bella was standing in front of the stove, stirring a pot of stew, when she heard the door to the guest room open. When she looked back, she saw Edward Masen stumble out, his eyes squinting away from the glow of the fireplace. He braced himself against the back of her sofa before looking around, his eyes landing on her. For some reason, she hadn't expected his eyes to be such a vibrant shade of green.

"How did I get here?" he asked, placing one hand on his ribs. "And where is here exactly?"

"I found you passed out on the side of the road outside Belcourt, North Dakota. Decided not to let you freeze to death. You're welcome, by the way."

Bella placed the ladle on the paper towel next to the stove and walked around the bar, stopping in front of him. She pushed his hand away from his ribs before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling it open.

"What the fuck, lady!" he quipped, trying to take a step backward.

"Oh, calm down; I'm just checking to make sure you didn't break your ribs." Bella rolled her eyes as she pulled on the two sides of his shirt and tugged him back toward her. She reached in and placed her fingers along his ribcage. He winced but didn't move from her. "I don't think you broke them. Probably just bruised. You're lucky you didn't kill yourself, Masen."

"How do you know my name?"

Bella scoffed and walked back into the kitchen, picking up his wallet and tossing it to him. He caught it, wincing as he again clutched his ribs. "You must not have paid attention when they taught defensive driving at the academy."

Edward opened his wallet, his eyes flickering from his badge to her. "You're Agent Bella Swan?"

"I used to be, and you should have told him no."

"He didn't give me much of an option."

"What'd you do? Sleep with his wife?"

"No," he grimaced.

Bella laughed. "I was teasing. Trust me, nobody would make the mistake of sleeping with the boss's wife. She's . . . spunky, I believe is the word we are using nowadays."

"Oh."

She picked up the ladle and began to stir the stew again. "Are you just going to stand there?"

"What?"

"I asked if you are just going to stand there?" she repeated, looking over at him. "You should probably change your clothes."

"What?"

"Do you have brain damage?" she asked, dropping the ladle before walking over and leaning against the bar. "You need to clean yourself up, Agent Masen. You stink, and my place isn't that big. It's starting to cause me to lose my appetite, and I've been looking forward to this stew all day."

"Oh, okay." Yet, he just stood there.

"The room you just left?" She gestured toward the guest room. "There's a bathroom attached. I put towels, soap, and shampoo inside. I rifled through your bag, but you had nothing but slacks and dress shirts inside. You really need to be better prepared when he sends you on secret missions. Always pack what you least expect to need. It's like secret mission one-o-one. Anyway, I left you some sweatpants and a T-shirt, too. Sorry, I don't have any underwear, so you're screwed there."

"Oh, um, okay." And again, he just stood there.

"What are you waiting for?"

"He told me once I found you not to let you out of my sight."

"He did, huh?" Bella laughed and shook her head. "Look outside, Agent Masen. Neither of us is going anywhere for a while."

Edward kept his eyes locked on hers as he took several steps backward until he hit the wall behind him. He then spun to the side, pulling back the thick, black curtains that hung around her front window, and looked outside before he turned back to her.

"Oh."

"Yeah, you kind of picked the wrong weekend to come fetch me, Agent Masen."

"We couldn't wait."

"So, I heard, you know, when I called him and told him I wasn't coming back. I'm afraid he sent you back for nothing, Agent Masen."

"It's Edward."

"I'm sorry?"

"You keep calling me Agent Masen, but my name is Edward."

She smiled. "I know, Agent Masen. Go shower, put some clean clothes on, and then we can eat. I'm starving."

Edward opened his mouth but then closed it and hurried into the guest room, closing the door behind him. While he showered, Bella pulled two bowls from the cabinet, and placed them on the counter. She then grabbed two bottles of beer from the fridge and put the cornbread in the oven, which had already been heated. She had just pulled the pan out of the oven when the door to the guest room opened, and she looked over, finding him leaning against the framework. He had put on the black sweatpants and gray T-shirt she'd left him, and his hair was still wet, wild looking like he'd just spent the last ten minutes running his fingers through it, which he probably had. The cut on his forehead had stopped bleeding but was still red and irritated.

"Sit down," she said, gesturing toward the small table in the corner.

He did as she said, and she dug under the sink and pulled out her first aid kit. She walked over and placed it on the table before tilting his head backward. He winced, but didn't say anything.

"Sorry. I'll get you some pain relievers when I get it cleaned up. Thankfully, it doesn't need stitches, but it will be tender for a few days."

"How'd you get me into the house by yourself?"

"Didn't have a lot of choice, did I? I couldn't very well leave you on the side of the road to freeze to death. Wind chills alone are well below zero, Masen."

"Suppose you're right."

Bella cleaned the wound before covering it with a white bandage. Once done, she cleaned the table, washed her hands, and started ladling stew into their bowls. She put them on the table before she cut the cornbread into squares placing the pan between them. Once she'd grabbed their drinks, she sat in the chair across from him and held her beer up in the air.

"How long have you been with the bureau, Masen?"

"Six months."

She nodded before she took a sip. "Explains why he sent you."

"Why?"

"The others know better."

"He said to tell you he's active again."

"So I've heard. Not my problem."

Edward reached out and picked up his beer. "He killed your husband, didn't he?"

"He did."

"Then that makes him your problem."

"What did he tell you?"

"Nothing, just that the man we're after is responsible for seven murders, including the death of your husband."

Bella swallowed against the lump in her throat before she took another swig of her beer, her eyes never leaving his. "What'd you do before he recruited you to his team?"

"I worked homicide."

"Where?"

"Austin."

"Texas, huh? Explain why you didn't think about the weather before you came out here. How long were you with homicide?"

"Seven years."

"Arrest rate?"

"Sixty-two percent."

"Conviction rate?"

"Eighty percent."

"Why not one hundred?"

"Incompetent prosecution."

"Oh, so it's their fault you bumbled the investigation."

"I didn't bumble anything, Bella."

"You don't get to use my name, Masen."

"Should I call you Agent Swan, then?"

"No."

Edward leaned forward and placed his beer on the table. "I can't leave here without you . . . Swan?"

She smiled and tilted her head to the side.

"Sorry, I don't know what else to call you since you won't let me call you Bella, or Agent."

"That's fair." She took another pull of her beer before she placed it on the table and picked up her spoon. "Are you married?"

"No."

"Engaged?"

"No."

"Girlfriend?"

"No."

"Boyfriend?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No!" he exclaimed. "Why are you asking about my relationship status?"

"Just curious why you think it's okay to mention my husband's death so casually."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"Hmm." She dipped her spoon into her bowl, blowing on her stew before she took a bit. "You don't like stew?"

"I do. I was just raised that you don't eat until the host begins."

"The host?" Bella nodded. "I don't think me saving your ass counts as me being the host, do you?"

"Maybe not, but it's still how I was raised. My momma might beat my ass if I did otherwise."

Bella laughed. "Scared of your momma?"

"Hell yes, I am. She's tough as shit."

"Does she know you're here?"

"No."

"How do you think Momma Masen would have felt if you'd frozen to death on the side of the road outside Belcourt, North Dakota?"

"I would imagine she'd be pretty pissed."

"Why'd you agree to come for me, Masen?"

"He told me to."

"He can't order you to fetch his kid. Kind of a conflict of interest, don't you think?"

Edward nodded before he shifted in his seat and picked up his spoon. "Fine, I volunteered."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to meet you."

"Why?"

"Because you're legendary."

"Legendary?" she scoffed, shaking her head.

"Everyone speaks very highly of you, Swan."

"No, they don't."

"Okay, most of them do."

"Better."

"Come back with me. We need your help."

Bella simply stared at him as she took another bite, and then another, and another, and another. Eventually, Edward seemed to have taken the hint and started eating. Once they were done, Bella was on her feet and cleaning their dishes. She had just put the leftovers in the fridge when she turned and found him leaning against the bar, staring at her.

"I'm going to bed. You can either stay up or go to sleep. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Just don't do anything stupid, like go for a walk outside. You will freeze to death, Masen."

She walked past him and down the hallway to her bedroom. When she turned to close the door, she saw him standing outside the guest room, watching her. She reached over, wrapping her fingers around the edge, and pulled the door closed.

—^—

Bella hadn't been able to sleep, not that she ever did. She was lucky if she'd managed three, maybe four hours a night before her nightmares woke her. So, instead of lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and replaying the night her world came tumbling down around her, she found herself pacing back and forth in the living room, her fingers flexing in and out of tight fists.

"You going to do that all night?"

She stopped and looked at Edward, who was standing near the doorway of the guest room. "Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't."

She nodded and started pacing again.

"You do this a lot in the middle of the night?"

"Only when I'm saving idiots from certain death," she quipped before she turned and sat on the edge of the sofa.

"It stopped snowing."

"How deep is it?"

"A few feet. Not nearly as bad as they were expecting, so that's good."

The sofa sank as Edward sat on the other end. She looked over at him. "Tell me about your mom."

"My mom?

She nodded.

"Why do you want to know about my mom?"

"Because I'm barely keeping myself together right now, thanks to you and my father deciding it was time to barge back into my life. So, please, distract me by telling me about your mother so I don't do something stupid, like go back and beat my father's ass."

Edward leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together before he smiled and started speaking. "My dad died when I was fourteen, so my mom had to raise me and my sister by herself. She worked two jobs. Sometimes three when times were rough, but she never stopped smiling, never stopped encouraging us to follow our dreams, even when our dreams mirrored Dad's."

"He was a cop?"

Edward nodded. "Had twelve years on the job before he was killed in the line of duty."

"Is he why you became a cop?"

"Partly, not entirely. I mean, law enforcement is kind of the family business — my dad, his dad, his dad before him. But I didn't just want to be a police officer. I wanted to be in the game."

"You wanted the FBI And was it all you expected it to be?"

"No, it's a lot more paperwork, actually."

"They always make the noobs do all the paperwork."

"I knew it," he muttered under his breath.

Bella laughed. "Don't take it personally. It's just tradition."

Edward nodded. "Tell me about your husband."

She stood and shook her head. "You already know what happened to him."

"I know what the file says, but I don't know who he was."

"Who he was," Bella murmured. "He was my person, Masen. He was my favorite person in the entire world. And he knew it, and he killed him to get my attention."

"We could stop him. If you'd come back with me, we could stop him once and for all."

"Oh, God, you're so naïve." Bella walked to the mantel and picked up their wedding picture. "I thought I could stop him, too, Masen. I did, but . . . I took on his case, and I vowed to take him out. By the time we got wind of him, he'd killed two women, and the third was missing. I was going to break the case; I was going to stop him. Instead, she lived, but he killed Garrett."

She placed the photo back on the mantel before she turned and looked at Edward. "I can't let Phillip Dwyer lure me back there, not when I barely survived the last time I went after him. I told my father I would bring you back, Masen, but I'm not staying. My answer is no."

Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews for the first chapter! Thank you to Sunflower Fran for helping to clean up my mess. She's the bomb! Do me a solid and leave me a few words for this chapter, and I'll see you next Monday!