CBWR? Chapter 19

Here we go again! I probably won't be posting again today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks again for reading!

"Maybe I lied."

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Chapter 19:

Deciding it didn't really matter at this point anyway, I went ahead and lit a cigarette, breaking my own no smoking inside rule. Alice leaned back on my couch and rested her ankle on her knee. Her eyes narrowed at me as she huffed out her nose.

"What the fuck did you do?" she demanded.

"I bought her," I said sheepishly. There really wasn't any point in sugar coating it. "Kate left. I just…got tired of it, I guess."

"So you figured since you've fucked up every the relationship you have ever had, getting one who didn't have a choice in the matter was the right way to go?"

"I didn't really think of it like that."

"I don't think you have a fucking thought in your head."

I couldn't begrudge her that, so I just shrugged. Alice gulped the last of the whiskey and dropped her glass onto the carpet, daring me with her eyes to complain. At least it landed open side up.

"Why?"

Good question. At one point, I thought I knew the answer.

"I didn't want…I mean, I thought it would be…I…fuck!"

I heard the click of the gun, and looked up to see the barrel pointed at me again.

"You said you weren't going to shoot me," I reminded her.

"Maybe I lied."

"You can't…Alice – shit," I ran my hand through my hair again. "If you kill me, Aro gets her back, okay?"

"Shit," she growled, but didn't lower her weapon. "You've really fucked this about as hard as it could be fucked, haven't you?"

"Yeah," I admitted. It was really, really hard to have a conversation with a gun pointed at you, but I was pretty sure I wasn't getting a choice in that matter. "That's why I called you."

"Why me?"

I shrugged.

"I didn't know who else to call. You've fixed shit for me before."

"I've killed for you before."

"Yeah, and it fixed shit."

She continued to give me the stink eye, and I honestly didn't know what else to tell her except everything, so I just blurted it all out.

"I admit it, okay?" I said. "I wanted to buy a chick to fuck whenever I wanted – one that wouldn't just leave me when I did something stupid. I didn't think about what I was doing, and I don't know what to do now. Please, Alice – just help me fix it."

Her eyes slowly lost their fire, and she placed the Beretta back on her lap, but not away. She shook her head slowly, tossed her cigarette butt into the empty whiskey glass, pulled out another one, and sighed.

"Where's your family, E?"

"I don't have a family," I growled. "You know that."

"Yeah, but you did at some point, didn't ya?"

"Not really."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No ."

"What happened to your parents?"

"Fuck if I know."

"Are they alive?"

"I have no fucking idea, okay?" I finally yelled. "What the hell is with the twenty questions game, huh? We're supposed to be talking about what the fuck we can do to get out of this mess!"

"So what, did you call me in to kill her?"

"No! Shit!"

"Good thing, because if you had said yes, you were going over the balcony. So why did you call?"

"I don't know what to do!" I finally admitted. "None of this is how I thought it would be, and I can't send her back."

"Why not?"

"Fuck, Alice – did you see how she reacted just now? If you kill me, she goes back to him. No fucking way."

"What do you care?" she snarled. "You're the reason she's here in the first place. If you don't like her, why wouldn't you send her back? Try out a new model?"

She was being snarky, I knew. She practically oozed sarcasm when she wanted to make a point. I didn't know what to say to make my point. I didn't know if I had a point. I just knew I needed Alice's help if I had any chance what so ever of making this right.

"She had a nightmare," I said. I turned my eyes to look at her. "She won't tell me what happened, but I heard enough when she was asleep. I'm not sending her back."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to hire you to help me eliminate Aro's organization."

"You want to what?" The snarkiness was gone. The sarcasm was gone. The only thing left was utter incredulity. "Are you out of your fucking mind? Do you realize what you are saying?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Do you realize how deep this goes? How many crime lords you're talking about? It's not just Aro – he's tied to all of Volturi in Italy as well as Laurent's group here. You're talking about twenty hits, and that's just the big guys. It will end up being more."

"I know."

"What are you going to do with her?" She nodded her head towards Bella's room, her eyes narrowing again.

"Once they're gone, I can tell her she's free. She can go back to her family, if she has one. Whatever she wants. I buy her a fucking house. I'll set her up for life. Whatever she wants, I'll make it happen."

"You don't have enough money to pay me for this job," she said definitively. "So I'm not doing it for you."

It felt like my heart stopped beating a few times, and the pressure in my chest was threatening to push me right through the bottom of my chair. If she didn't help me, I had no fucking chance. I wouldn't be able to set this right. Forget passing Go – without Alice, I wasn't even on the fucking board.

"But I will do it for her."

Everyone needs a partner in crime, right?

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Chapter End Notes:

I dunno, Doofusward. She might still off ya for fun.