*by Stephenie Meyer*



TWILIGHT - chapter 18 - THE HUNT


A few minutes passed in silence, other than the roar of the engine. Then Edward spoke again.
"This is how it's going to happen. When we get to the house, if the tracker is not there, I will walk her to the door. Then she has fifteen minutes." He glared at me in the rearview mirror. "Emmett, toi take the outside of the house. Alice, toi get the truck. I'll be inside as long as she is. After she's out, toi two can take the Jeep accueil and tell Carlisle."
"No way," Emmett broke in. "I'm with you."
"Think it through, Emmett. I don't know how long I'll be gone."
"Until we know how far this is gonna go, I'm with you."
Edward sighed. "If the tracker is there," he continued grimly, "we keep driving."
"We're going to make it there before him," Alice a dit confidently.
Edward seemed to accept that. Whatever his problem with Alice was, he didn't doubt her now.
"What are we going to do with the Jeep?" she asked.
His voice had a hard edge. "You're driving it home."
"We can't all fit in my truck," I whispered.
Edward didn't appear to hear me.
"I think toi should let me go alone," I a dit even plus quietly.
He heard that.
"Bella, please just do this my way, just this once," he a dit between his clenched teeth.
"Listen, Charlie's not an imbecile," I protested. "If you're not in town tomorrow, he's going to get suspicious."
"That's irrelevant. We'll make sure he's safe, and that's all that matters."
"Then what about this tracker? He saw the way toi acted tonight. He's going to think you're with me, wherever toi are."
Emmett looked at me, insultingly surprised again. "Edward, listen to her," he urged. "I think she's right."
"Yes, she is," Alice agreed.
"I can't do that." Edward's voice was icy.
"Emmett should stay, too," I continued. "He definitely got an eyeful of Emmett."
"What?" Emmett turned on me.
"You'll get a better crack at him if toi stay," Alice agreed.
Edward stared at her incredulously. "You think I should let her go alone?"
"Of course not," Alice said. "Jasper and I will take her."
"I can't do that," Edward repeated, but this time there was a trace of defeat in his voice. The logic was working on him.
I tried to be persuasive. "Hang out here for a week - " I saw his expression in the mirror and amended " - a few days. Let Charlie see toi haven't kidnapped me, and lead this James on a wild-goose chase. Make sure he's completely off my trail. Then come and meet me. Take a roundabout route, of course, and then Jasper and Alice can go home."
I could see him beginning to consider it.
"Meet toi where?"
"Phoenix." Of course.
"No. He'll hear that's where you're going," he a dit impatiently.
"And you'll make it look like that's a ruse, obviously. He'll know that we'll know that he's listening. He'll never believe that I'm actually going where I say I am going."
"She's diabolical," Emmett chuckled.
"And if that doesn't work?"
"There are several million people in Phoenix," I informed him.
"It's not that hard to find a phone book."
"I won't go home."
"Oh?" he inquired, a dangerous note in his voice.
"I'm quite old enough to get my own place."
"Edward, we'll be with her," Alice reminded him.
"What are you going to do in Poenix?" he asked her scathingly.
"Stay indoors."
"I kind of like it." Emmett was thinking about cornering James, no doubt.
"Shut up, Emmett."
"Look, if we try to take him down while she's still around, there's a much better chance that someone will get hurt - she'll get hurt, ou toi will, trying to protect her. Now if we get him alone..." He trailed off with a slow smile. I was right.
The Jeep was crawling slowly along now as we drove into town. Despite my Rebelle talk, I could feel the hairs on my arms standing up. I thought about Charlie, alone in the house, and tried to be courageous.
"Bella." Edward's voice was very soft. Alice and Emmett looked out their windows. "If toi let anything happen to yourself - anything at all - I'm holding toi personally responsible. Do toi understand that?"
"Yes," I gulped.
He turned to Alice.
"Can Jasper handle this?"
"Give him some credit, Edward. He's been doing very, very well, all things considered."
"Can you handle this?" he asked.
And graceful little Alice pulled back her lips in a horrific grimace and let loose with a gestural snarl that had me cowering against the siège in terror.
Edward smiled at her. "But keep your opinions to yourself," he muttered suddenly.