Genesis [Emmett Cullen] (2)

[16- Retribution]

Esme put the phone on speaker.

"What happened?" I asked as I attempted to steady my voice. My mind was jumping to conclusions; if Bella got hurt, then maybe something happened to one of us. My Emmett. God, I hoped he was ok.

"Alice, Bella, and I were meeting Carlisle, Edward, and Emmett at the airport..." Jasper began recounting what happened. He told us how Bella managed to slip away at the airport and take a taxi to the ballet studio where she believed her mom was being held. By the time they got there, Bella had already suffered multiple injuries from James. Emmett and Jasper destroyed James and covered their tracks with fire. Though he never implicitly mentioned it, I assumed no one else got hurt. Thank god.

"And where are you now?" Esme asked.

"Emmett and I are heading to a hotel to create Bella's alibi. The story we are going with was Alice and Carlisle accompanied Edward to Phoenix to convince her to return to Forks. When Bella came to meet them at their hotel, she tumbled down two flights of stairs and fell through a window." That seemed likely, given Bella's poor coordination.

Jasper continued, "El, we need your help on the digital end of the story." Finally I could actually make a huge difference.

"Yeah, no problem. Leave it to me."

"Thank you. I'll see you both soon." Jasper ended the call succinctly.

"It looks like you have your hands full. I'll watch over Charlie," Esme said.

It took me three minutes to run home, the whole time my mind was occupied on Emmett. I was worried about him. As much as I wanted to hop on a plane and fly down to Phoenix to see him, I had an obligation to Bella to protect her dad. Victoria was still out there and leaving Charlie defenceless was too dangerous. From Jasper's call, Emmett was fine but I needed to hear it from him. I promised myself I would call as soon as possible.

At home, I fired up my desktop and a quick Google search of the hotel Alice messaged me revealed it had quite a few complaints of guests injuring themselves so it wouldn't have been completely out of the blue. After remotely accessing the server, I put Carlisle's name in the system as a guest so it looked like he actually booked a room.

Next was the security footage. Digitally fabricating the footage from the camera pointed at the stairs could take days that I didn't have. Plus, I had no idea how to even attempt that. So instead, I deleted some footage of the stairs up to threee weeks ago. Hopefully they would assume it was a malfunctioning camera that had been going on for a while. And just for good measure, I randomly deleted security footage from around the hotel so it didn't look like it was tampered with.

In the next two hour, I scoured Forks for Victoria but to my surprise, came up empty handed. The most recent scent was no more than four hours ago and led up to Seattle. Damn, she got away. And knowing her ability of self preservation, she wasn't coming back anytime soon.

I informed Esme of Victoria's latest movements and finally called Emmett.

"Come on, come on. Pick up already," I silently pleaded. Finally on the third ring, Emmett answered.

"El," his deep voice filling the empty void. Hearing his voice made me realise how much I missed him.

"Oh Emmett, thank god! Is everything ok? I heard from Jasper but I need to hear it from you." The words rushed out in one breath.

"It's fine. I'm fine." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at Phoenix airport now but everyone else is staying a little longer."

"And Bella, how is she..." I trailed off.

"She's got a broken leg, four broken ribs, and a couple cracks in her skull. But don't worry, Carlisle is certain she will make a full recovery." I exhaled deeply. That girl was tough.

"And James?" I asked through my teeth. 

"I tore his head off." I could imagine Emmett was pretty pleased with himself. I felt no remorse for James, he was the source of our problems.

In the background, I heard an announcement for the final boarding call for a flight to Seattle.

"That's me," Emmett said softly.

"I'll see you when you land. Love you."

"Love you more." And the call ended.

Three hours later, I was at the arrivals hall, Esme elected to stay in Forks. When I saw Emmett, I barrelled over at an above average human speed and threw my arms around his neck. He looked completely shocked, wrapping his arms around my waist. His scent was intoxicating.

"Are you ok?" I managed to ask.

"Never better."

I exhaled deeply; every time we parted, I felt like a piece of me was being ripped out. The void in my chest gaped open painfully when we separated and healed instantly when we reunited. A small part of me felt calmer, stronger, and more resilient because he was here. I unwound my arms and smiled at him. My Emmett.

"You still need a better car," Emmett commented as we got into my R8.

"Buy another one for me. You know my color, matte black." He rolled my eyes, I missed our banter.

When we got back, Emmett filled in both Esme and I. Jasper and Alice were driving the Mercedes back up from Phoenix, stopping along the way to pick up Emmett's Jeep that was parked at the end of an abandoned logging road.

"How's Edward holding up?" Esme asked.

"He's a wreck. Carlisle keeps telling him that she'll be alright but he feels so guilty. But she hasn't woken up yet."

"That poor boy," Esme said with only a mother's love.

Emmett and I retreated to our room upstairs.

"Just out of curiosity, what's in bag?" I asked, motioning to Emmett's carry on duffel he threw on the bed. I didn't recognise it as one of his.

"Have a look." I unzipped it and found clothes, money, passports, some toiletries, and a couple of books and magazines.

"Nothing looks more suspicious than boarding a plane without luggage, especially on international flights," he explained. Ah, that would explain the odd combination of random Eddie Bauer and Burberry clothing items.

He crossed the room and joined me by the bed.

"You kept asking if I'm ok, but are you ok?" He asked, his eyes staring directly into mine.

I debated telling him how I really felt; responsible for getting us in this mess by not doing my job of monitoring Victoria properly, but instead I shrugged.

"I guess so, I just wish I was out there with you," I lied smoothly.

"You were with me the entire time," he said softly. I put my arms around his neck. He leaned over to kiss me, pulling me close with one arm on my waist and the other at the back of my neck. I breathed another heavy sigh of relief and rested my head on his chest.