CBWR? Chapter 26

Doing some serious multi-tasking today! Ha!

Have at it!

"I know how to shoot."

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Chapter 26

"One more ought to do it," Jasper Hale said as he snapped another picture of Bella.

I had to admire her ability to actually smile for a good picture under such circumstances. It didn't quite hit her eyes, but it at least appeared genuine enough – as good as any driver's license picture, anyway.

Emmett and Rosalie were standing over her laptop, bringing up dozens of schematic layouts of Aro's primary residence, where he housed his operation. Alice was attacking my wet-bar, and I was going over the lists of names of the people we were going to kill.

All in a days work.

"I'll get these forwarded on to my contact," Jasper continued. "He should then have everything he needs, and we should have these back to us by tomorrow."

"Good," I said. "We need to discuss more about Aro's layout."

"I got it," Rosalie said. It was the first words she actually spoke responding to me directly. I let Alice explain what was going on to Jasper, and Jasper explained it to Rosalie. He still had to hold her back when she got in my presence, but she had since resorted to near silent treatment instead. She activated the projector, and her laptop images displayed on the wall in my great room.

For the next few hours we went over the layout of the building, mapping out just how many people we were going to need to both infiltrate the building and eliminate all the key players. There were nine people at the top of Aro's organization, and we'd have to take them all out. Once eliminated, it would just be a matter of divvying up the remaining low-rung people between my organization and the Hale's. Only the big players cared about which team they played on – the others would go to the highest bidder. It happened the same way when I eliminated Marcus and his cronies, with Alice's help, and it would be the same this time.

Laurent's group was also tied to Aro, though only when it came to drug running, illegal imports, and money laundering. Laurent didn't do slaves. There were only four in his group with loyalty to Aro, and we were counting on Emmett McCarty's own greed to solve that for us. He was loosely associated, but also in competition when it came to some of the importing Laurent's group did. He wanted the whole group to himself, which made it easier – a hostile takeover versus elimination.

"We'll use The Pack to go after Aro," Emmett said. "They should be more than enough. I can use my boys to get Laurent – they'll love it."

The Pack was the group led by Alice – there were ten of them, and they were the best of the best of the best. With honors.

"That leaves Italy and Paris," Alice noted on the screen.

"I've got Paris," I reminded her. "I can handle them."

"Alice and I will take Italy," Jasper said. He winked at Alice. "We should be able to take half The Pack and get it done without a problem. They're not near as well guarded as they think they are."

"What are you going to do with Bella?" Alice questioned.

"I'm taking her with me," I said. "She's chipped, and we need to look into removal when this is over, because I don't know who outside of Aro's group will have access to the slaves' whereabouts. She stays with me."

"Fuck you, Cullen," Rosalie stood up and poked me in the chest. "What makes you think she's going anywhere with you?"

"She's coming with me," I said, but I kept my eyes on the screen, not looking at either of them.

"How about you give her a choice in the matter, asshole?" Rosalie poked me again. "Why the fuck would she want to be anywhere near you now?"

"I'm taking her with me," I muttered, and I shoved Rosalie's hand away from my chest. I finally looked over at Bella where she sat on the couch and stared at us. She looked from me, to Rosalie, then back to me. Alice jumped up off the stool in the kitchen and walked over to me, pushed Rose away, then sucker punched me…again.

"Owww! Goddamnit, Alice!"

"You are an asshole," she said with a shrug.

"Amen to that," Rosalie echoed.

"Will you all cut this shit out?" Emmett growled. "She should stay with him, because fuck if she is coming with me, and he's right – this is his fuck-up in the first place. Let him deal with her. It's not like we can leave her on her own at this point."

"I'll stay with Edward," Bella finally piped up. She was looking at the ground now, and I went over to her and sat down next to her on the couch. She looked up at me. "What do I need to do?"

"First, you learn how to shoot," I said. "You shouldn't need it, but it's best to be prepared."

"I know how to shoot."

"Good," I said, somewhat surprised. Slave with a gun – who would have thought? "What can you shoot?"

"Most hand guns," she said. "I've fired a few shotguns as well."

"Fuckin-A!" Alice cheered. I narrowed my eyes at her, and thought about asking Bella just how she knew about guns, but figured that could wait for another time.

"You're with me," I told Bella as I glared over at Rosalie. She shot a few eye-daggers in my direction before slumping back down next to her laptop and growling under her breath.

I couldn't say exactly why I was important, but I was going to be the one to get Bella out of this. I wasn't going to ditch her with one of the others to drag her through cleaning up my mess. As long as Aro lived and she was chipped, she was in danger. I had to make sure both Bella and her mother were safe. I started it, and I was going to end it.

She was my responsibility, right?

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Chapter End Notes:

Hey - the gang's all here!

Maybe you should ask her how she knows about guns, idiot.