Chapter 20 ~ Your What Hurts?

CULLEN POV

“Get. Off. Of my fucking.  Knobs.”

It really wasn’t as much fun bantering with a psychopath, as it was with Swan, regarding Eleanor’s radio.

I’m referring to fucking James, of course.

I mean, beside the fact that he’s an ass hole, he’s also a dick.

He’s an ass dick.

Not to mention, the fact that if he eye fucked Swan one more goddamn time, he was gonna find himself in the goddamn Hadley School for the Blind

“You’re taste in music sucks, Cullen.”

And yeah, that was when I lost my shit.

‘Cause you just don’t diss a dude’s music when he’s giving you a goddamn lift to a gun fight.

Am I right?

“If you touch my fucking knobs again, I don’t care how much we need you, I swear to fucking god I will blow your hand to pieces faster than you can wack off that kiddie sized dick of yours.”

I pulled the Colt out and cocked it, just for good measure.

“Edward!” Swan whispered yelled at me, trying hard to hide the giggle fest she was having for some reason at my expense, and then eyeballed the girl in the back seat.

What?

It’s not like she was a minor.

Technically.

Jesus.

“Touchy,” James said, sarcastically, leaning back into his seat next to Kate who was now giggling.

Lucky for him, he knew when to step the fuck off.

Not so much for me.

I really wanted to shoot his ass.

Hand.

Whichever.

I turned the radio off and turned to our merry band of unexpected partners, as we sat in the alley furthest away from where Kate had asked Alec to meet her.

“We need to hash this shit out before Alec gets here.”

“Good idea,” Swan agreed and James pulled out the tracking device we’d purchased, handing it to Kate.

“This is almost a hundred percent un-detectable, Kate, almost…unfortunately, not full proof and if they find it, you’ll probably die.”

“You are such a fucking dick,” I told him, shaking my head, full on scowling like a motherfucker.

“Just tryin’ to keep it real, Cullen.”

“Keep it real?”

Was he shitting me?

“Keep it real? I’ll give you real,” I warned him, reaching for the Colt but Swan stopped me, making that eye contact that only she could.

Kate piped in, then.

“It’s okay, really…I…need to know these things.”

Not in my humble motherfucking opinion…but if it made her feel better…

I relaxed.

Okay, I didn’t exactly relax, but I resisted the urge to put James out of my misery, one more time and then assured her, “We won’t ever be more than a mile or two behind you, Kate, if anything goes wrong…anything…”

“I know, Edward, I trust you,” she said, smiling at me and my heart did a nose dive.

I knew I’d do my damndest to keep her safe, but…things do go wrong sometimes. 

I don’t think I could handle that shit.

The three of us continued to talk to Kate, while we waited for the pickup, to make her feel comfortable, confident, about how this would go down.

I didn’t share the information I had in my back pocket with regards to Emmett, or what we’d discussed would happen if things didn’t go the way we were planning and hoping to the fucking gods they would go.

Not even Swan.

We hadn’t had the luxury of face to face quiet time, since the day had started and I wasn’t risking James overhearing us.

So…

What?

It was a good plan and if things went right, she didn’t really have to know, anyway.

If they went wrong.

It wouldn’t do her any good to know, anyway, so I figured, you know…

Anyway…

Onward, my friends…story to tell, people to rescue.  Assholes to take down. 

You know the drill.

When Alec arrived, Kate was waiting at a bench, next to the phone booth she’d called him from and he seemed….caring, when he got there.

He was alone, which led me to believe he was either, there for Kate…

That was a joke, that dick wasn’t there for anyone but himself.

Or that he was just trying to instill some false sense of fucking security for her.

Throw her off his scent.

And perhaps anyone who might be there, with her.

“You’re alone?” we heard him ask her through the one way we’d rigged her with.

I’m not gonna lie, here, I was nervous as shit.  If Alec found that fucking wire, we were dead in the water.  And quite possibly, Kate was dead.

Literally.

“My parents used to take me here, I thought I’d be safe but…”

Kate was doing remarkable for someone with zero fucking experience.  I had to admit.  She didn’t sound anything but happy to see Alec and he kissed her on the cheek before opening the car door for her.

I started Eleanor up and we followed them, using the GPS, not visual, because as stealthy as people seem to think they are when tailing a perp.  They can see you if they’re trained.

And Alec was most likely trained.

And by the way.

Psychopathic hired guns are way fucking worse as back seat drivers than any woman I’ve ever met in my entire goddamn life.

No lie.

If ass dick told me, one more time how fucking fast I was driving over the speed limit and that I was gonna pull attention to us that we didn’t need or want, he was gonna be finding my fucking Colt up his ass.

The only downside to that scenario was that I’d lose my Colt.

‘Cause…fucking ewe…wouldn’t want it back after that shit.

Literally.

 But I di-motherfucking-gress.

The good news was, there was no need to lose my Colt.

Because, a couple of hours, a tank of gas and a few threats of James’s life later, we pulled up to an old ass hell office building that looked pretty much abandoned, except for the fucking fact that about five Hummers and a fucking semi were parked outside of it.

Perfect place to hole up.

Or keep a bunch of drugs.

Or people for sale.

I had no idea how in the Hell they’d found that place, it was in the middle of goddamn no where, but something told me, it was the sole property of one, Aro Volturi, and that he used it for shit I didn’t even wanna fucking think about.

Much less follow a fuck load of gun totin’ dick weeds in to my untimely death.

Hypo-fucking-thetically speaking, that is.

We split up to make sure no surprises would be waitin’ for us, once we made it inside.

Somehow.

When I was out of direct eye shot of his royal prickness, I texted Swan.

I could see her from where I was.

She was stealthy, sexy and utter fucking professional.

Why she felt like she needed me, was beyond my comprehension.

Did you get a hold of Jasper like I asked you to, earlier?

The look she shot me from fifty yards away said, yes, yes I did, fuck head, stop micro managing me.

I hid the smirk and texted her again.

He’s on stand by?

She nodded, looking off at nothing in particular, pretending she was just freezing her ass off so James, who was about fifty or so yards away from her on the other side, didn’t suspect anything.

My next text was to the Jazz man himself.

It was a simple text, nothin’ special.

To let him follow the technological trail and hopefully, save our asses from a world of hurt.

From what I could tell, we’d headed back in the direction of DC so at least I could rest assured, we weren’t too far from civilization.

As in, if a bomb happen to go off, for example…people would hear it.

Hopefully.

Once we met back up at our original parking spot, hidden away, where we weren’t seen, we analyzed the situation.

“Two guys on the south side,” I told em’, reporting in on my finds.  “Just watch towers, I think.”

James nodded. “Same on the North face, they didn’t look too alert, if ya ask me.”

“Ditto.”

“They’ve got three from the windows, keeping an eye out, about three stories up,” Swan told us.  “They…did look alert.  And have big guns.”

“Everyone’s got walkies, we’ll need to disarm ‘em.”

“And any entry ways are gonna be locked.”

“We’re covered there,” I said, eying Swan.

It’d be nice to be able to tell you we knew exactly where Kate was in that fucking hell hole of a building.

It really would.

But we’d had to turn the one way radio off when we arrived, so that no interference would be picked up on from inside. 

And since we had no idea what kind of technology they had, we were on our own as far as knowing where they were keeping her.

“Okay, I don’t know what’s goin’ on in there, but I don’t want Kate to have to deal with these assholes for too long, let’s get in, find her…get her out and hope to fuck the call I’m about to make to Muldoon doesn’t fall on deaf ears.”

James’s face went from pumped up ready to kill people, to…what the fuck in about two point three seconds.

“Wait…you’re not calling the police in on this, are you, Cullen?”

Uh…yeah I’m calling the fucking police…and everyone else I know that can kick some ass.

“What the fuck do you propose I do, asswipe?  Take on the thirty or so gun carrying assholes in there myself?”

“Well, there’s three of us…not to mention Kate…”

I held a hand up.

“First off, fuck. You…and…I’m calling Muldoon.”  I started to dial again.

“I don’t think so.”

He pointed his…well, what some might call a hand gun, at me and then Swan pulled her Heckler out and pointed it at his ass.

“He’s calling Muldoon, James.”

“Bella, what do you really know about this guy,” James said then, still eyeballin’ me and I was thinkin’ okay, what the fuck is this guy up to now?

But Swan…being Swan…reminded me, it didn’t really fucking matter what he was up to.

“I know he’s calling this in,” she said.

Nice try, ass hat.

Have I mentioned lately how much I fuckin’ love that woman?

“He’s not thinking straight, Bella.  He’s letting his heart run his decisions right now, there’s a little girl in there and he doesn’t want more blood on his hands…only…” he cocked his head to one side, then.  “You figure if the police get involved, and something still happens, at least then you can blame someone else, don’t you, Cullen?”

And that was it.

I was done.

Done listening to this fuck tard try and manipulate the goddamn playing field.

Done with his insessent…fucking…annoying….blabber.

So I decked his ass.

Gun or no gun.

He flew back, his hand flew to his nose and I stood there, refusing to hold my hand even though my knuckles were on fucking fire from that shit and Swan…she almost laughed.

Almost.

But she stood there, steady, Heckler on James…who was now smiling.

“You’re decision, Cullen,” he said.

A little too goddamn complacently, if ya ask me.

“Let’s see how long these idiots go between check ins…then I’ll take out the two on the North side, you two love birds, take the South, that should give us some time to get in, find Kate and get her somewhere safe again.”

I grabbed his arm before he had a chance to take off.

“Then what?  You milk her dry till the money’s gone and then she’s on her own?”

‘Cause, screw that noise.

James pulled away, but not enough to show any sign of annoyance and told me, “Maybe you should leave that decision up to Kate.”

My head, inadvertently shook from side to side…a tad overly dramatic, okay, yeah, but shit…could ya blame a motherfucker?

I proceeded with my fucking call while he left Swan and I to go spy on the Northern idiots.

“I do not fucking trust that guy,” I said to Swan, as he walked away and Swan raised one of her sexy as fuck eyebrows at me.

“Who does?”

Good point.

I rolled my eyes.

At the phone, not Swan.

Because I of course got Muldoon’s goddamn voice mail.

Hey, he’s a busy guy, he was probably too busy shakin’ someone down or…eating fucking donuts.

“Muldoon,” I breathed, as Swan and I made eye contact and there was a part of me.  A small part, that was just praying to fucking god that this shit didn’t go to hell in a poorly woven hand basket when it came down to it.  “It’s Cullen…we’ve got Aro’s location...”

I gave my best guess at where we were, roughly, and told him if he contacted my sister, she’d be able to give him coordinates.

There was no way I was givin’ that asshole Jasper’s name.

“And Muldoon,” I said, just before hanging up. “If you’re on the wrong side of this shit, and you double cross my ass…pictures, or no pictures…you’ll regret it.”

I hung up and then Swan and I made our way to the Southern side of the building to get our shit together.

“I think you’re our best bet, here,” I said to her.

We’d timed their check ins via walkie and figured if we took them both out, that gave us about fifteen minutes to get in there, find our girl and leave before DC Metro arrived.

If they arrived.

If not, plan B was to call it into the FBI…or, some crazy shit like that.

They’d give a goddamn if they thought girls were getting sold.

Right?

Anyway, Swan agreed with the plan and waltzed up to the idiots, who looked nothing but dumbfounded at a woman approaching them, in the middle of bum fuck, asking for directions.

By the time she’d let them in on the fact that she indeed, wasn’t a lost puppy, she’d taken goon number one down and I was right behind number two, clockin’ him over the head with my trusty steel.

The Colt, people.

We tied ‘em up as best we could and hid the unconscious bodies behind some trees not too far away, then ran over to James’s side of the building to help him out if need be.

Which, yeah, he definitely needed some fucking help.

“You shot them.”

“Yeah, didn’t you?”

“You didn’t need to fucking shoot them, asshole.”

“You didn’t?”

Oh my fucking god.

“Let’s hide these, and head in, we have about thirteen minutes.”

Inside, we split up and I noticed James stopped Swan for just a moment or two before they separated. 

If I’d have the fucking time, I’d a asked him what the fuck he needed that moment for, but as it was, I didn’t, so I kept moving and made the mental note to ask him…nicely, later on about it.

What?

We were good.

We were really good.

We had Kate, she was alright and still time to get the fuck outta dodge  before…

James pulled a gun on us.

Wait.

What the fucking…?

FUCK.

I reached for my Colt but it was gone and when I looked back to the ass dick, he was holding it.

Mother of.

Swan noticed the sitch and checked for her’s, which was gone also.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked because, let’s face it, even when you know the answer to questions like that, you ask ‘em anyway.

It’s a time waster, while you’re thinking of possible ways out of the situation.

I wasn’t thinking of any.

Which kinda pissed me off, but hell, I had a lotta shit on my mind, okay?

“I’m saving my own ass, Cullen,” he told me before he set the guns down by the door, while keeping an eye on us. “I’m not a complete ass, despite your theories, Cullen, you’ll need these.”

“Gee. Thanks,” I dead panned and tried to calculate just exactly how quickly I coulda made it to the door before he got a shot off.

But those odds weren’t exactly in my favor.

Un-fucking-fortunately.

“Sure you don’t wanna come with, Bella?” he asked Swan, teasingly and if I coulda reached him, he’d a been dead, trust me.  “I sure could use someone like you.”

He eyed me before looking back to Bella and my mind went into over fucking drive.

“James, you can’t. Do this,” she told him.

“Oh but I can,” he said, then turned to me and smiled.  “Don’t take it personal, Cullen…it’s just too risky for me to be seen with the likes of you.”

The likes of me.

The likes of me, he says.

Like I’m the fucking a-hole who kills people for no other reason that the paycheck I’m receiving for the deed.

Ass dick.

“By my count, you have about ten to twelve minutes before they’re up here, good luck.”

And then to Kate, “I mean that.”

He closed the door and locked it behind him and we were screwed.

We were so.

Fucking.

Screwed.

Kate was crying, then, we were one man down and it was still unknown as to whether we had help on the way.

No better time than to argue about shit.

Right?

“So,” I started, puckering my lips up a tad while I scowled like a motherfucker at Swan.

“Would this be a bad time to say I fucking told you so?” I asked my co-hort.

“Probably,”  she answered, looking for another exit.  Another way we might possibly have been able to avoid a gun down.

“Well, then in that case…I fucking told you so.”

“Not helping, Cullen,” she sang at me.

Like she was doing Spring cleaning, as opposed to trying not to die within the next half hour or so.

Give or take.

I checked the window.  We were round about five stories up. 

Ledges.

I don’t like ‘em as a rule, but I’d done ten stories before and survived.  I could do five.

The question wasn’t how far up we were, though.

It was how many guns would be pointing at us, had we climbed out onto that ledge, at that point in time.

It was a no go.

“Okay, let’s think about this logically, shall we?” I told them, hiding the hysteria behind my words.

“We’ve got some time.  It’s a big fucking building and they don’t know what room we’re in…”

I was winging it, I’ll admit it.

I’m a big boy.

But hell if I didn’t want Kate thinking for one second that she was gonna get taken by these dicks.

“From the time they enter the building, to the time they find us, let’s say, we have…roughly…”

Five minutes?

Ten?

“Ten minutes, minimal.”

Swan knew where I was going with this, and I could tell, she didn’t like it.

Not one…fucking…bit.

“Once we see the last guy enter, Bella…you take Kate out onto the ledge and lead her…”

And it was like, fucking immediately, the tears that formed in her eyes as she looked up at me…pissed off.

“Stop it.”

“Stop what.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“Stop calling you what? Bella?”

“Yes, I hate it when you do that.”

I was pretty sure, that crazy talk that was comin’ out of her mouth was ‘cause for a time out so I stopped boarding up the door, crossed my arms and asked her, “And that’s because….?”

“Because you do it every time you think someone is going to die.  Just…stop it.”

I did?

“Swan, I …”

“No, Edward, I refuse to let you this.”

“Do WHAT?”

It wasn’t exactly the time for lectures, my friends. 

If ya get my drift.

“Send me off somewhere to SAVE me while you sacrifice yourself for the greater good because you have some…GRANDIOSE idea in that STUPID man head of yours that this is all your fault…”

“I wasn’t…”

Okay, maybe I was, but good intentions, people…good…intentions.

“Bullshit!”

Okay first of all, she was hanging out with me, WAY too much, and secondly, she was getting hysterical as I’d ever fucking seen her.

I needed her to calm the fuck down, I needed cool calm and collected Swan, not, I’m a bust a cap in yo ass, Swan.

I grabbed her by the arms and looked her in the eyes.

And lied like a motherfucker.

“Listen. To. Me.”

She stopped talking.

Fucking finally.

I glanced at my watch.

I probably had, seven, maybe eight minutes tops before they would be there, then.

“Nothing’s gonna fucking happen to me Swan.”

“No?”

I smiled.

“Hell no is more like it, Swan.”

She didn’t look convinced, so I added a chuckle or two and told her, “Look, the Jazz man’s on his way…”  hopefully.  “And he’s got his shit wrapped up together, tighter than Muldoon’s ass with an elephant making a nose dive for it, nobody’s getting’ near me.”

I think.

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

“Then why do I need to leave?”

Fucking stubborn.

Shit.

Think think think think think…

BINGO.

I did what I had to do, ladies and gentlemen…I played the only card I had left.  One that Emmett had brought to my attention, when we were discussing how he’d gotten Rose to leave the area for a while.

Kids.

“Because Kate needs you.”

Her eyebrows lowered and her face fell a fraction and I knew I’d had her.

And I felt like a complete dick.

A big dick.

Like, John Holmes sized.

Ya know what I’m sayin’?

“And I can hold ‘em off for a while, give you a head start, take some assholes down and then I’ll head out, too.”

Bada bing, bada bang.

“Okay,” she said, defeated.

Thank you god.  Whoever the fuck you are.

Five minutes.

“I’ll call you when it’s over, we’ll meet up, it’ll be fine…just, get her as far from here as possible.”

“I love you”

I kissed her.

Hard.

And swallowed the fucking lump in my throat as I tasted her goddamn lips on mine.

Like it was the last time they’d be there.

Three minutes, asshole.

I pulled away and kissed her forehead, then she proceeded to crawl through the window, just as the footsteps sounded at the stairs to our floor.

“Don’t stop, no matter what.”

“Cullen…”

“Don’t.”

Didn’t wanna hear a goodbye…didn’t wanna go there.

Wasn’t gonna happen.

Not if I could fucking help it.

“Okay.”

“And if you run into anyone…”

She pulled her gun out.

She understood.

As Bella disappeared with Kate,I felt like my fucking heart was gonna eat through my chest.

When I couldn’t see her anymore, I closed the window up and leaned against the wall under it, checking my watch again.

One minute.

I heard doors opening and shutting and voices calling out to each other.

I checked the Colt’s clip and readied it.

Four shots left, Cullen, make ‘em fucking count.

When the sound of their footsteps stopped for the last time, I aimed the gun at the door.

No matter who came through that fucking thing, four of them were doing goddamn down before I did as far as I was concerned.

It quieted at the bottom of the stairs and I felt a drop of sweat bead up against my temple, then trickle down the side of my face.

I didn’t fucking dare wipe it.

Whispering made its through the crack of the door jamb and I simply waited.

The door knob turned.

I pulled the hammer back, closed an eye, looking down the site as the sweat dripped from my face to the floor and as the door opened, I squeezed the trigger.

It ripped through the air just as the face of my brother came into view, from behind the door…eyes widened, sucking in a breath of air as the bullet flew toward him. 

My world stopped.

I lowered the gun.

My mouth opened to say something, but nothing was coming out, as I reached for him, but it was useless.

And so the fuck was I.

Mother.

Fucker.