“My apartment burnt down.”
“What?” she shrieked.
“The cops think it was arson,” I growled.
“James. He’s getting closer,” Bella whimpered. Her knees
buckled. I ran to her and scooped her up, placing her on the island of the
kitchen. Turning off the veggies, I hugged her to my chest. Bella’s sobs filled
our home. I held her as she broke down. James needed to go the fuck away. Asstard. “Why can’t he just go away?”
“I know, love,” I soothed. Bella’s hands clutched at my
shirt as she sobbed against my shoulder. “I wish I could take you away and
never come back.”
“Someplace tropical sounds nice,” she mumbled, playing with
my hair. “Edward, I’m scared. He’s gone after me. Now he’s after you. You’re
not safe.”
“Bella, I’m stronger than I look,” I said, pulling away,
looking into her cinnamon eyes. Bella pursed her lips. “I’d do anything for
you, love. Even die for you…”
“No, you won’t,” she spat. “I’ve finally found the one
person that I want to be with and you’re not going away.” She crossed her arms
over her chest and shook her head petulantly. “If you die, I die. Simple as
that.” She wrapped her arms and legs around me, pulling me to her warm body. “I
can’t lose you, Whip.”
“I can’t lose you, either, Bella,” I murmured into her skin,
gently kissing her ‘E’ tattoo. We were pulled from our little bubble by a loud
buzz from the telephone. We jumped apart. Sullenly walking to the phone, I
picked it up. The police were here and the front gate was informing me that
they were here. I allowed them entry into the subdivision and waited in the
foyer. Bella stood with me, gripping my hand tightly. The police officers
arrived and asked us both a few questions. I was surprised that the
investigating officer didn’t have any knowledge of the restraining order on
James and Victoria.
That raised huge red flags for me. After some searching, ‘Barney
Fife’ managed to find the paperwork on the restraining order on the computer.
As he read the information, his fat face paled at the description of Bella’s
attack along with his menacing that he had done with the help of Riley.
“Mr. Cullen, we’ll increase patrols in your neighborhood.
Erm, rather around your neighborhood. In addition to that, we’ll add more
police presence around your place of work,” ‘Barney’ sputtered.
“What about while you’re at school, Edward?” Bella asked,
gripping my arm.
“Are you a student?” Barney asked.
“I’m enrolled at University of Washington,” I answered. “Working
on getting my degree in psychology.” Barney nodded and added that information
to his notes.
“Now, apparently this James character is out for blood,”
Barney said nervously, shifting uncomfortably on my couch. “You need to keep
your eyes peeled and if you see him, call 911 immediately. Inform your friends
and family to do the same. Is there anyone else that is working with him?”
“Riley Biers and Victoria,” I answered. “But, her last name
is slipping my mind right now. She’s got red hair and was a doctoral student at
UDub. Or least pretended to be.”
“Ah yes, we have a picture of her. Her name is not Victoria,”
Barney said. “It’s Virginia and she’s James’ sister. Same mother but different
fathers. Virginia Thomas or Ginny likes to change her name. Victoria is one of
her twenty known aliases. She’s wanted by the FBI for identity theft and grand
larceny. She’s a genius and quite slippery when it comes to being caught.
Evasive, that one.”
No comments:
Post a Comment