Runaway Girl {A Twilight Love Story}

Ceaseless Grudge

I needed to feed.

Edward kept reminding me of that. Over and over he warned me, that if I tried to go after Riley now, before feeding I would absolutely lose all control.

"Good, show that bastard right," Rosalie smirked. "He'd deserve it, just like Royce deserved what he got."

I thought back to Rosalie's story, her smile told me that she spared no pain for her ex fiancé. I understood her perfectly.

"Yes, I agree that he deserves it. But we probably want to return to Forks sometime soon. Remember what happened after you...disposed...of Royce?" Edward reminded her with a clearing of his throat.

Rosalie frowned and crossed her arms. "Fine, I know...We could probably go back now. It's over seventy years and I did kill the last King in town."

"The point is Bella, as tempting as it is to just go after Riley now, we need you to hang back. Just until we know that Ryland is safe. You can't risk hurting your son, just to get to your captor."

I nodded glumly at him. "Fine, what do I need to do before we can leave?"

"Emmett and I are going to start tracking Alec right now. While they're doing that Alice and Rosalie are going to teach you to hunt."

I nodded silently at him as he began to load up the Jeep with supplies. I sat on the porch next to Rosalie, watching our guys go off to try to save my son.

"Hey," I shouted as Edward climbed into the Jeep. Edward paused and I ran over to the door. "When you find them, I mean as long as Ryland is safe."

"We know that Ryland is safe. Alice keeps seeing visions of the future of him in a hotel."

I gave a shaky sigh as I grasped his hand. "It's just...God this sounds so bad...Can you just leave them alone?"

Edwards eyebrow raised. "Don't hurt them?"

"No, I want it to be me. It has to be me," I explained.

Emmett smirked at me. "This guy is fucked."

Edward laughed with Emmett for a moment, turning to me. "We got a deal, babe. I'll leave the carnage to you."

Behind me Rosalie laughed a loud guffaw. My anger was on the back burning, a slow simmer that was going to make those boys evaporate in a cloud of steam.

Edward

How could I have been so stupid?

I had known there was more to Bella's story. There was no way that Bella left Riley simply because he knocked her around a time or two. She was so broken at the time, it took something that she attached to the death of her mother to make her leave.

I didn't take me long to find Alec and to realize my mistake. I tried not to berate myself for completely overlooking information about him. Once I knew his name Emmett and I were off, trusting the girls with Bella's safety. With Alice's visions and Rosalie's well, tenacity, I knew Bella would be safe while we did the reconnaissance.

We tracked Alec down to a shabby apartment complex off Highway 104. He had a criminal record after all. One simple hack into the criminal database and we had an address. Emmett and I sat outside the apartment waiting for Alec to come home for hours before his piece of shit Blazer came around the corner.

The guy got out and I studied him. He was tall and skinny, with close cropped dirty blond hair. He was slightly husky and probably was quite good in the occasion bar fight he got into. No match for me of course, but I could sense how Bella would have been afraid of him. He had the air of an overgrown bully.

I can't believe Riley got me into this shit. How many times did I tell him, don't let the bitches fuck you up. Be a man...where did I put my keys...

"He's going to meet Riley right now, we just need to follow him," I told Emmett.

The trip took us to the other end of town, in a rundown hotel parking lot. Alec walked quickly to the room and knocked in trepidation. I closed my eyes to zone in on Alec's thoughts.

A guy who looked just like Ryland answered the door.

Riley.

He was slighter than his brother, the runt of the two. He had a rounder face, more child like. He didn't look like the type who would do such awful things to the girl I loved, but looks were very deceiving.

Riley leaned his head against the door frame. "Fuck, dude. I thought you were going to use that secret knock or something."

"I forgot I guess," Alec mumbled. He threw the envelope down on the bed.

You better be grateful for all this. I don't even know if it will work either...

"There's the papers for you. It took some major finagling and cost me a shit load of money."

Riley grabbed the yellow package off the bed and ripped it open. Inside were three plane tickets and two passports, for Riley and Ryland Anderson.

This will never work, I don't know what Riley is thinking. He can't just take off with some one's kid and leave a loose end like Jane. Yet another bitch he's giving the benefit of the doubt.

"Does Jane know?" Alec asked Riley, shifting his feet from side to side.

Riley shook his head. "No, and I'm not telling her. I told her that we would be staying with her brother, Marcus in Chicago. By the time she figures out that we left her, we'll be halfway across the Atlantic. She's not smart enough to figure it out."

Riley studied the plane tickets, they were to London.

Tomorrow at five. Sixteen hours left.. Takes four to get to the Airport if we drive around...We can do this. We can get out of here.

I was going to see to it that they never reached SeaTac.