"Listen to me, Alice. I saw his mind. Tracking is his passion, his obsession - and he wants her, Alice - her, specifically. He begins the hunt tonight."
"He doesn't know where -"
He interrupted her. "How long do you think it will take him to cross her scent in town? His plan was already set before the words were out of Laurent's mouth."
I gasped, knowing where my scent would lead. "Charlie! You can't leave him there! You can't leave him!" I thrashed against the harness.
"She's right," Alice said.
The car slowed slightly.
"Let's just look at our options for a minute," Alice coaxed.
The car slowed again, more noticeably, and then suddenly we screeched to a stop on the shoulder of the highway. I flew against the harness, and then slammed back into the seat.
"There are no options," Edward hissed.
"I'm not leaving Charlie!" I yelled.
He ignored me completely.
"We have to take her back," Emmett finally spoke.
"No." Edward was absolute.
"He's no match for us, Edward. He won't be able to touch her."
"He'll wait."
Emmett smiled. "I can wait, too."
"You didn't see - you don't understand. Once he commits to a hunt, he's unshakable. We'd have to kill him."
Emmett didn't seem upset by the idea. "That's an option."
"And the female. She's with him. If it turns into a fight, the leader will go with them, too."
"There are enough of us."
"There's another option," Alice said quietly.
Edward turned on her in fury, his voice a blistering snarl. "There - is - no - other - option!"
Emmett and I both stared at him in shock, but Alice seemed unsurprised. The silence lasted for a long minute as Edward and Alice stared each other down.
I broke it. "Does anyone want to hear my plan?"
"No," Edward growled. Alice glared at him, finally provoked.
"Listen," I pleaded. "You take me back."
"No," he interrupted.
I glared at him and continued. "You take me back. I tell my dad I want to go home to Phoenix. I pack my bags. We wait till this tracker is watching, and then we run. He'll follow us and leave Charlie alone. Charlie won't call the FBI on your family. Then you can take me any damned place you want."
They stared at me, stunned.
"It's not a bad idea, really." Emmett's surprise was definitely an insult.
"It might work - and we simply can't leave her father unprotected. You know that," Alice said.
Everyone looked at Edward.
"It's too dangerous - I don't want him within a hundred miles of her."
Emmett was supremely confident. "Edward, he's not getting through us."
Alice thought for a minute. "I don't see him attacking. He'll try to wait for us to leave her alone."
"It won't take long for him to realize that's not going to happen."
"I demand that you take me home." I tried to sound firm.
Edward pressed his fingers to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut.
"Please," I said in a much smaller voice.
He didn't look up. When he spoke, his voice sounded worn.
"You're leaving tonight, whether the tracker sees or not. You tell Charlie that you can't stand another minute in Forks. Tell him whatever story works. Pack the first things your hands touch, and then get in your truck. I don't care what he says to you. You have fifteen minutes. Do you hear me? Fifteen minutes from the time you cross the doorstep."
The Jeep rumbled to life, and he spun us around, the tires squealing. The needle on the speedometer started to race up the dial.
"Emmett?" I asked, looking pointedly at my hands.
"Oh, sorry." He let me loose.
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, you take the outside of the house. Alice, you get the truck. I'll be inside as long as she is. After she's out, you two can take the Jeep home 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 going to 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 said 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."
"No, I'm not," she said calmly.
The unintelligible stream of profanities started again.
"We can't all fit in my truck," I whispered.
Edward didn't appear to hear me.
"I think you should let me go alone," I said even more quietly.
He heard that.
"Bella, please just do this my way, just this once," he said between 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 you acted tonight. He's going to think you're with me, wherever you 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 you 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 you 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 you where?"
"Phoenix." Of course.
"No. He'll hear that's where you're going," he said 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 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 Phoenix?" 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, or you 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 brave 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 you let anything happen to yourself- anything at all - I'm holding you personally responsible. Do you 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."