Author Note: Took me longer than I wanted to get this out. Between real life and getting this chapter the appropriate length...it was a struggle. Also when a story has sat for so long it's hard to remember all the details- and I don't do the written outlines…..but maybe I should…

Also this chapter is brought to you by Monsta X who I listened to repeatedly while writing this chapter at ungodly hours.

Previously…..

Emmett came busting into my office out of breath and uttered the one sentence I did not want to hear.

"Bella's gone."

She's gone.

Bella's gone.

Bella is….

"Edward!" I blinked and turned to Emmett who was looking particularly frazzled. "Snap out of it!"

Then it hit me. Like really hit me.

"Get her guards in here now! I want answers! Lock down all locations! How the fuck did this happen?!" I was up and out of the chair with hands gripping the edge of my desk. Anger had overtaken shock and it was taking everything in me to keep it together.

The next few hours were agonizingly slow.

Trying to locate the the guards

Getting security footage.

Trying to figure out just how Bella was able to leave.

And we didn't notice it until it was too late.

People came in and out of the office. But no one gave me the answers I wanted.

It wasn't until Jasper came in looking as if he had seen a ghost that everything really went to shit.

"She's gone," he said breathlessly.

"No shit. What do you think we've been busting our assess over for the past hour," I said with more venom than intended.

Jasper reached over and grabbed my jacket- something that would normally get him killed, if it wasn't for the feral look in his eyes- and for the next words that left his mouth.

"I'm not talking about Bella," he uttered painfully.

The realization hit my system like an electric shock.

Bella wasn't the only one missing…..then who…

"Jasper ...who…."

The pain was evident in his voice as he whispered, "Alice."

Fuck

No.

No. No. No.

A strange sort of feeling overtook my body. Like being numb but at the same time felling like every nerve in my body is in overdrive.

Fuck.

Fuck it can't be…

I shoved him away. "How the fucking hell? How? When?"

Jasper looked as if he was going to throw up. "I… I don't… I don't know…"

My fist connected with his face and Jasper stumbled back until his body hit the wall.

"You were supposed to protect her! I trusted you! Fucking hell! I thought you were a soldier! Now you're standing here and can't even get out a sentence. I should have never-"

"What the fuck guys?!" Emmett was now in the room and looking between us with an emotion I wasn't sure how to describe. "Stop fighting and-"

"Alice is missing."

The color drained out of Emmett's face. "How?"

My thoughts exactly.

If it chaos before, it was mayhem now.

A top team member missing was one thing.

But having a member of the family missing was something entirely different.

Especially when it was sister of the boss. Who was also pregnant at that.

All other activities were suspended.

Everything was put into locating Alice- who may or may not be with Bella.

"The tracking device on her is jammed. And all other tracks are covered. Covered too well," Jasper stated with a grimace.

"Which means?" Though I could probably already guess his answer.

"That it was a Bella." Jasper's mouth was a in a hard line. He had snapped out of whatever funk he had been in earlier. I had never seen him like that. It was the polar opposite of what Jasper was.

"So you're telling me…. That Bella has Alice."

"No."

"But you just said-"

"I believe Bella is behind Alice going missing but I don't think Alice is still with Bella." Jasper stated evenly.

"Why is that?" He was fucking confusing me.

"Think about it. Why would Bella want Alice with her? What would it benefit her? If anything it would put a bigger target on her back"

"Maybe," I licked my lips while trying to will the lump in my throat to go down, "maybe she wanted to use her as leverage. You know, for when we found her."

Jasper shook his head. "No. No, I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Bella wouldn't put an innocent life at risk like that."

"You think she views Alice as an innocent? I know Alice really doesn't do anything on the illegal side of things but-"

"I meant the baby." Jasper stated.

Oh.

"You heard the story of when we were overseas. Bella has a lot of regrets, especially with what happened to those pregnant women. It's part of what caused…"

Right.

Shit. Now what?

"So why did she take Alice? If not, to keep her with her?" I asked, more confused than ever.

"I have two theories. The first being that if Alice is missing then we will automatically put all efforts into her and not Bella. Even if we realize that they're not together, Bella would know we would automatically go after Alice's location first."

"The perfect distraction," I murmured.

"Exactly."

"What's the second theory?"

But before Jasper could answer, Emmett was busting into the office. Again.

I believe it was the third time today?

"Landford's dead," he stated evenly although shock was on his face. Well as much shock as he had left for one day. It was one thing after another it seemed.

"How?" Jasper asked, sounding more calm than I expected he felt.

"We think it was a heart attack or maybe a seizure?"

"What?"

"Let me show you the footage." And with that Emmett plugged in a USB drive and clicked on one of the folders.

The footage first started earlier this morning. As Emmett fast forwarded a few hours, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he stopped and the timestamp read an hour previous. Landford appeared fine then his body started to jerk. He cried out in pain and the screams were so ear-piercing that the guards came in. His condition worsened to the point that the guards had to perform CPR. But it was all to no avail, they eventually had to call it quits when it was obvious that Landford was dead with no chance of being revived.

"What are the chances that this was purely natural?" I questioned out loud.

"If both Alice and Bella weren't missing, I would most likely chalk it up to natural circumstances." Jasper answered flatly.

"And since they are?"

"Either Landford found a way to put himself out of his misery or…."

"Or?"

"Or Bella killed me."

"How?" Emmett asked, jumping back into the conversation.

Jasper laughed darkly. "She's a former military doctor. You don't think she knows how to kill someone and make it look like natural causes?"

"Right…. Dumb question…"

"But the real question is… why? And why now?" I asked to neither one in particular.

Jasper snorted. "It's not 'why now.' She's been planning this. Ever since she woke up from whatever state she was in when Ladford dropped that bomb of information on her, she's been planning ever so carefully. And apparently now everything was in place for her to carry out her plan."

"How did she get access to Ladford though?" Emmett questioned.

I was wondering that myself.

"Good question. They were supposed to report if Bella tried to make contact with him," Jasper stated while clicking out of the video and then browsing through the rest of the folders. "These are labeled wrong."

"What?" I asked confused.

"The labeling on these video files are wrong. This almost looks like ..."

"Like?..."

Come on Jasper you're killing me.

"Bella."

Of course.

"The labeling looks like… okay I won't get into the semantics of it all but I'm 95% sure that Bella is the one who labeled these files. Which means they are possibly altered ...or something important is in these files. There is even an order system to how they should be viewed."

I wasn't sure how he was making sense of that but decided to trust him at his word.

"Bread crumb trail?" Emmett offered.

Jasper swallowed. "Maybe."

"Click on it," I ordered.

And Jasper did.

The first file had a video and several PDF documents. The video was of Bella with Landford's guards and appeared to be going through routine doctor exams. The PDF documents were summaries and doctor notes. Completely standard. The personal in charge of Landford were not supposed to leave the premises. Anything or anyone needed were supposed to be brought to the facility. Standard protocol.

But why wasn't I informed that Bella was there?

The answer was in the next document- clearance papers. From yours truly.

"Are these legit?" Emmett asked.

I swallowed, "Yes."

Jasper raised an eyebrow.

I rubbed a hand over my face,"We all know how clearance papers work in this family, this business. They're based on level not location. Bella's clearance level was pretty high due to needing access to people and equipment for medical reasons."

"You never reconsidered changing the level?" Jasper's voice was even but I could detect a hint of frustration underneath.

"No, she had to do her job. I figured if she started going to places or people out of the norm then her guards would inform me since that's there fucking job."

"She was technically still in the boundaries of her job," Emmett interjected, "No reason to think this was suspicious."

Oh I knew that. That's why it was so fucking frustrating.

The video wrapped up and we moved to the next file. One of the guards appeared to have come down with a virus or something and needed treatment. It was a little over a week after the standard examinations.

"Fuck," Jasper muttered.

"What?"

Jasper went back to the previous folder and fast forwarded the guard's exam. "You see that?"

"No," Emmett answered for the both of us.

Jasper sighed, "I guess if you didn't know what to look for you wouldn't notice."

"Notice what?"

"Bella planted the virus."

"Say what now?" Emmett asked, clearly out of his element.

"Nothing life-threatening. She introduced it while taking the standard samples. It enters the body system and the first few days you feel fine. But then it surfaces with a bang and you feel like you're dying even though your not."

"And she did this why?" Emmett was a little slow on the uptake.

"Gives her a reason to come back," I stated.

"Exactly," Jasper confirmed while clicking on the next file. "She didn't diagnose it as a virus of course. Kept the guard quarantined and ran tests." He then clicked on the next file. "Looks like another guard got it so Bella administered boosters to everyone else to help prevent it from spreading further."

"Wait! Doctors can administer booster to help-"

Jasper cut him off,"If a doctor said something would help prevent you from getting the thing that's made your colleague look like he's on the brink of death, would you question it?"

"Uh no. I would believe it, that's why I was so excited. Thought there was a new medical breakthrough."

Jasper snorted. "While they're are boosters for certain vaccines, a doctor can't give you a magical booster to prevent an already active virus."

"What about the flu vaccine? That's a virus?"

"But it's better if that's administered before a-"

"While all this medical discussion if fascinating, can we get back to the issue at hand?" I stated quite roughly.

"Right," Jasper murmured while looking embarrassed. He clicked on the next file, "Looks like she got access to Ladford to administer a booster since the one guard had been in direct contact with him. Due to Ladford's poor health, additional boosters and vitamins were administered to help prevent the virus. At least that's what the file says."

"Video footage?"

Jasper opened the next file and there it was. One the surface it looked like a routine doctor exams, but in reality, Bella was interrogating Landford. We couldn't hear what was being said but the subtle signs that Jasper knew to look for were there.

"So you're telling me that during routine exams for a locked down location, Bella introduced a virus for the sole purpose of having a reason to come back. And then made it seem worse than it was so she could treat everyone therefore having access to Landford, who she then subtly interrogated while being undetected by the guards. And then proceeded to kill Ladford but made it look like natural causes…. Oh and made that happen after she was already gone," Emmett stated sounding more intrigued than confused.

"Yes."

"Okay. Just wanted to make sure I was up to speed…. Oh! Were the routine exams actually scheduled for that time or did Bella change it? I'm just curious if it was dumb luck or…."

"She for the most part makes her own schedule for those since we have so many people. I mean if she was doing routine exams for the same people back to back ... then yeah... that would be suspicious."

"We still should have been notified that she was there."

"Clearance papers, remember?"

Fucking hell.

"But why put all this together in files? Why explain it all to us?" Emmett asked.

"So that way Edward wouldn't put a bullet in both her guards and Landford's guards' heads."

"What?"

Jasper sighed, "Really there are two reasons. One -she didn't want more blood on her hands. So she wanted it to be very clear that everything was by the book. The guards did nothing wrong. Nothing that could justify Edward killing them."

"I still might though."

Both Jasper and Emmett turned towards me.

"We all know that it wouldn't be right."

"What's the second reason?" I asked instead.

"Buying herself more time. We just spent how long looking through all these files and were not even done yet."

Fucking hell.

"What could be in the other files?" Emmett asked. "Any chance it's what Landford told her?"

"Doubt it," Jasper asked while clicking on the next folder.

It got quiet. Real quiet.

"Alice…"

It as a live stream to Alice's tracking device- the necklace she always wore- that was only trackable by the family.

"I thought it was jammed."

"I…."

"She's so close by."

"Get the location down now."

"There's one more folder."

Silence.

"Could it be Bella's location?" Emmett asked.

"Doubt it," Jasper answered before clicking on the folder.

Then shit really hit the fan. The computer was flooded with documents, videos, and who knows what else.

"Shit. A virus?"

Jasper was rapidly clicking. "Sort of. It's planting while deleting."

"Since when is Bella an IT expert?!"

"You pick up a thing or two when working closely with one in the past!" Jasper practically yelled while working with lightning speed.

The computer screen was still in chaos when a guard came in looking frazzled, "Sir, we have company."

"What the fuck do you mean we have-"

But then a woman pushed past the guard letting herself in the room.

We were all on our feet. "Who are you? And why the hell are you in my office?"

Someone was getting a bullet between the eyes today.

She showed a series of papers, "A warrant to enter and search the premises."

Fucking hell.

"Edward Cullen."

"Yes?"

She pulled out a pair of handcuffs, "You're under arrest."

Author Note: Oh snap.