Chapter 9: Jacob
"You WHAT?" Paul roared, launching himself to his feet. For once, Sam was spending more effort trying to control his own actions than he was worrying about Paul's.
The pack was seated around the table at Emily and Sam's house, enjoying the cinnamon rolls that had just come out of the oven. In the kitchen, Emily glanced warily at Paul, rightfully concerned for the table.
"Jake, Embry," Sam said finally. "That was incredibly dumb. Do I really have to forbid you from doing anything but running patrols?"
A week had passed since we paid the Cullen's old house a visit and there was no indication that the leeches had noticed anything to do with the credit cards. And to top it off, Bella continued to dodge actually speaking to us on the phone. The one time Billy had managed to talk to her, she had hung up on him. This meant we had to bring in the pack.
"It's an abandoned house," Embry protested. "It was fine"
"You broke the treaty" Sam ground out. "If any of them show up before your scent fades we're screwed."
"We had to leave them some kind of message" I yelled. "If it works and it helps Bella then it's worth it." Sam sighed.
"Get out of here, Paul. Go run patrol" he ordered. Paul, whose shaking had become worse every time Embry and I opened our mouths, bolted for the door.
"What kind of message did you leave them, Jake?" Sam asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Two actually," I admitted. "I left them a note on their door letting them know that Bella's in danger…" Here I hesitated.
"And?" Sam prompted warily.
"Well I figured they wouldn't be back to find the note anytime soon but they had left some stuff for Bella, including a credit card. Embry and I tried to use that to send a message." Sam closed his eyes.
"So you stole from them too." It wasn't a question. Embry winced.
"Technically?" He said hesitantly. "But it wasn't much and we can pay it back after."
"What kind of message could you send with a credit card?" Jared asked.
"Oh that bit was easy," I answered. "When Embry went to Seattle on Saturday he took the card with him and he visited a few stores so that the first letters of the stores would show up on the statement spelling HELP."
"Clever," Sam said dryly. "And I'm assuming they left a PIN with it?"
"Kind of. The clue was Edward's birth year. Bella would know it of course but we didn't. We might have been screwed there except that Charlie's friend in Chicago had already found the birth records for Edward Masen. There were apparently a couple of them but the most recent was born in 1901. Turns out it was the right Edward Masen." Sam groaned.
"I can't decide if this was good luck or bad luck." He admitted. "It would definitely be easier for me if you hadn't figured all this out."
"But for once, the stars aligned perfectly," I finished triumphantly. I did feel bad for Sam. If the Cullens caught on to what we did, he as Alpha would have to handle the situation. But still, I couldn't be anything but happy that we'd come a step closer to keeping Bella safe.
"Jake, what's going on," Sam said seriously, leaning towards me. "You hate the Cullens more than any of us for what they did to Bella. Why on earth are you fighting so hard to rope them into this?"
"I do hate the Cullens," I said slowly, thinking about my words carefully. "But I love Bella more. If the choice comes down to letting that redhead chase her around the country or having the Cullens go find her and bring her home, I know a hundred percent that I'd rather have her with the Cullens."
"Especially since I'm sure at least one of them still cares for her," Embry cut in. "Alice left things to help her. If we can reach the Cullens, at least she will help Bella."
"Wait, you want to bring the vampires back here?" Emily asked. She was wringing a towel nervously in her hands and Sam reached out to hold both her hands in one of his.
"They lived here for years with no issues, Emily," he said. "All will be well. Jake and Embry are sure that they'll help us find Bella and then they'll move on."
"We left a phone number for them," Embry said. "I'm hoping we can just coordinate over the phone from where they are and then they'll be too busy running around looking for the redhead and Bella to come here." Sam nodded thoughtfully.
"Which phone number did you leave them?"
"Billy's. They should already have it since they gave him a call when they were moving back to the area." Sam nodded again.
"Jake, make sure you let your dad know they might be calling if you haven't already," Sam instructed as he got to his feet. "We don't need any-" Sam's words were interrupted by a frantic howl coming from outside. We knew it well.
The four of us were out the door and running in an instant, leaving Emily wringing her hands in the doorway.
Paul, what's going on? Sam demanded.
Leeches, at the border. Two of them, Paul thought urgently.
If they're waiting for us at the border, they must be Cullens, thought Embry triumphantly. Paul hadn't approached them yet, but he peered through the underbrush towards where the vampires were waiting.
They were Cullens. I was surprised to find that I was slightly disappointed to note that Alice wasn't with them, although I was grateful that Edward wasn't either. Instead, it was the other two "sons". Their names escaped me but the shorter blonde one and the big, burly one were waiting at the border like statues.
What are they waiting for? Sam thought. They must know by now that Jake and Embry broke the treaty and that's why they're here.
Sam was right of course. If they knew that I had broken the treaty, they would be within their right to cross the boundary.
"It's just them," Paul pointed out. " If it was me I wouldn't want to move aggressively, even if we were the ones to break the treaty first."
"Fair point," Sam conceded. " I'm going to phase and step up to the river. The rest of you keep your heads cool and stay with me." I whined but he had already phased. Sam tugged on his shorts and nodded to the rest of us and together we stepped into view.
Across the river, the two leeches finally shifted to look at us. The smaller one stepped forward.
"I'm Jasper, and this is my brother, Emmett," he said politely. "Members of your pack crossed into our territory recently."
"You had left, which puts Forks under our protection," Sam said firmly. The blonde - Jasper - raised an eyebrow.
"Forks, not our residence. There should have been no need for you to defend there."
"There has been a situation," Sam admitted. "We are handling it but we may have crossed into your territory in pursuit." Jasper reached into his pocket and pulled out a post-it note. My heart leaped. I couldn't see the writing from this distance but I was almost positive it was the note that Embry and I had left them. It worked! Paul tilted his face to glare at me.
"This was left on our door. Your brothers weren't simply passing by the area, were they."
"Just enough to place the note. Like I said-"
"They were inside our home," Emmett cut in. "We could smell them from a mile away." I couldn't take it anymore. This wasn't Sam's fault and I couldn't let him take the heat for this. Making a snap decision I turned and bolted into the woods. Sam's voice called after me but I ignored him. Ducking around a tree I threw on my shorts and jogged back into the clearing.
"It was me," I offered. "Bella's in danger and we need your help to find her."
"When you were inside our house, did you by any chance find a folder containing some - sensitive information?" Jasper asked smoothly. I ground my teeth in frustration.
"Yes, but-"
"What did you do with it?" I had no idea if the leech was being deliberately frustrating but I saw red.
"Who cares about your stupid folder! Bella's in trouble!" Even as a wave of calm took away the shaking in my limbs, I recognized that I may have gone too far. Jasper was just staring at me with an eyebrow raised and I understood the message. In a contest of patience, a vampire would win.
"Yeah, I took it. I didn't know how quickly you would be back to check the house and I needed to get your attention another way."
"So you committed identity fraud?" I barked a laugh.
"Says the guy that made a pile of fake documents for his brother's girlfriend." I couldn't be entirely sure at this distance, but I thought I saw a tiny smile flit across his face before he forced a neutral expression back into place.
"I need to be sure. It was you who opened the envelope and used the credit card?" I nodded. This time I was sure of the look of relief that the two vampires shared. When Jasper spoke again, his voice was just slightly warmer.
"Not that I condone using another person's credit card, but I was expecting a bigger complication than this one," he admitted. "That envelope could have done a lot more damage if it had fallen into other hands."
"I can pay you back if it helps," I offered.
"Don't worry about it. Now what did you need to talk to me about?" This was not the reaction I had been expecting but Jasper was right. There were more important things to talk about.
"Not you specifically. I was actually kind of hoping Alice would come."
"Alice?" He and Emmett shared a look I didn't quite understand. "Why did you want to talk to my wife?"
"She's the one that wrote Bella the letter right? I figured if any of you would be willing to help us find her, it would be her." Emmett let out a loud, booming laugh that made a flock of birds flee from a nearby tree.
"Look, the mutt has Alice all figured out!" He said, delighted. Jasper rolled his eyes.
"You're right, she would. That's why I came instead." I opened my mouth, probably to yell at him again, but he cut me off. "-You don't need to worry though. We're aware of Bella's - er - travels." I felt my jaw drop.
"You are?" I whispered. He nodded.
"My wife is keeping an eye on her and while she has concerns, Bella is in no danger at the moment. Despite what Edward wanted, our family would step in if she were truly in trouble." Emmett muttered something that I couldn't hear but prompted Jasper to glare at him.
"If that's all then, we can forgive this breach of the treaty since it was out of concern for Bella's safety," Jasper said formally and he and Emmett turned to go.
"You can't be serious. A bloodthirsty vampire is hunting her across the country and all you're doing is 'keeping an eye on it'?" I growled furiously.
"Jake!" Sam hissed a warning, but harsh words did what I wanted them to. The two vampires stilled and then turned back around.
"Alice hasn't seen any other vampires around Bella," Jasper said. His voice was calm but could sense the tension running underneath the words.
"Well, I don't know if the other vamp's around her right now," I admitted. "But Bella is pretty sure she's hunting her down. That's why she ran away. She didn't want anything to happen to Charlie."
"That does sound like something Bella would do, Jazz," Emmett said. Unlike his brother, Emmett's face was openly worried.
"That's something Bella has already done," Jasper said softly. "Why would Bella have any reason to think another vampire was after her?"
"She didn't say in her letter and we haven't been able to talk to her and ask her to explain more fully," Sam cut in. "But it fits based on the redhead's patterns. Before Bella left, she spent a month ducking in and out, trying to get close to Forks before leaving and coming back. After Bella left, she hung around for about a week and then we haven't seen her since."
"Did you say she had red hair?" Jasper asked, sharing another alarmed glance with his brother.
"Yeah, she has a head full of curly red hair and she's pretty short. Like, about here." I indicated on my chest somewhere around Bella's height.
"I'm gonna kill him," Emmett growled, clenching his fists. The effect on my brothers was instant. Sam and I instinctively stepped back while the ones who were phased snarled and stepped forward. Once again, an unnatural calm swept through the clearing.
"He wasn't talking about you," Jasper said impatiently. "He's talking about Edward. Emmett's been…upset with him."
"The redhead you're talking about? Edward was supposed to be tracking her. Last we heard he followed her down to South America," Emmett said angrily. "If the vampire you're having issues with is Victoria - and it sounds like it's her - then Eddie screwed up big time."
"Is there anyone left who isn't mad at Edward?" I blurted out. Emmett chuckled darkly.
"Not really," Jasper admitted, then his expression hardened again. "If Victoria is involved, then that changes things. I wonder why Alice didn't…" he trailed off, staring into the trees. Then suddenly his eyes snapped back towards us.
"I have to speak with my family," he said. "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We'll take it from here." Sam nodded.
"Thank you for hearing us out-" he started, but once again I cut him off. Maybe I had a death wish or something.
"Hang on, we're not done yet. We're not just passing this off to you."
"Jake," Sam said warningly.
"No Sam. Bella's my friend. Even if the Cullens are getting involved again, I'm not just going to stop trying to find her." Jasper raised an eyebrow at me.
"Are you suggesting we work together to find her?"
"No-"
"Yes," I said firmly. "She promised us that she'd call about every three days. Unless you know exactly where to find her, it's the best we have." Jasper stared at me for a long minute, his expression carefully neutral.
"Alice can see that she's somewhere down south, but we don't know exactly where she is," he said finally. I'll talk to my family and let you know. I can reach you at this phone number?" He waved the post-it note. I nodded. "We'll keep in touch," he promised. And this time, neither of them wasted any time in leaving.
On the way home, Sam tried to chew me out for getting involved, but I barely heard him. My entire body was thrumming with relief. Surely, between the whole pack and now a coven of seven vampires, Bella was as good as found.