Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

For God And Country

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 03:

BPOV

The shower felt so good. It was good to be home. Kevin still couldn’t understand how I got away. He was minutes away from sending in an extraction team when I used Garrett’s phone to call him and tell him I was on my way out.

I admit the escape could have gone smoother.

Okay. If not for Garrett, I would have been fucked. He really was sweet. I’m pretty sure he would have opened the fence even if I hadn’t agreed to go on a date with him. I’m pretty sure.

My neighbor was currently across the hall getting ready for our date. He gave me a day to relax. But I couldn’t hold him off much longer.

I really didn’t want to.

I mean the guy has pretty much stalked me since we first met in the Mall parking lot. He has followed me on jobs. He paid my neighbor to move out so he could move in. He drops food off at my door when I get home late from working out at the gym or working at the firing range. He learned my favorites. Of course he probably learned by following me but it was still kind of sweet. I was kind of irritated that he followed me on jobs but in a strange way it was kind of cool. It made me feel, comfortable. Not so alone. He was so different than the Cullens. He had this way about him that just made a room light up when he entered it. The Cullens were… nice. Garrett was exciting. The first guy that had ever really got me excited about life in general. Unlike Edward he didn’t seem to be looking for reasons to leave me the entire time he was with me. Instead he seemed determined to be in my life.

And damn if he wasn’t fucking hot. That long reddish brown hair. That perfect dark goatee. His lean tall build. I usually slept like a baby at night. But lately I have been having dreams. Dreams about him. Dreams where we do… naughty stuff to each other.

But this couldn’t go anywhere. He was a vampire. I was a human. The only thing we had in common is we both killed people.

At least we would have something to talk about. Not that he ever was at a loss for something to talk about.

He told me to dress casual. Casual for me means jeans and a tee shirt. That wasn’t happening. I haven’t been on a date since High School. It has been a long damn time. I did my nails, I put makeup on. I put on my brown leather skirt and a white button up top that was pretty snug. Some two inch heels. I strapped my small Glock .40 to the inside of my upper thigh so it wouldn’t cause a bulge in my skirt. Small dagger in the upper band of my skirt around the back tucked inside. I think I was ready. Hell, I even shaved my legs for this.

He knocked on my door right on time. Opening the door I held back a little gasp.

Damn.

He was wearing a black button up silk shirt hanging out over some stone washed jeans. He had black cowboy boots on. His hair was in a ponytail.

“You look beautiful Bella.”

“You look pretty beautiful yourself.” I whispered. Dammit. Don’t go there Bella. One date. One. Thanks for saving my ass. Glad to have you as a friend. Thanks for the good time.

“I’m glad you approve. Are you ready?”

He held out an arm. I took it and we walked to the elevator.

“Where are we going?” I asked, kind of nervous. I’m not used to girl stuff unless it involves seducing a guy I’m about to kill.

“Dinner first. I know you love Chinese and I know of an excellent restaurant over the Beltway.”

“Oh. Okay…”

“What’s wrong Bella?”

“Nothing. That sounds great. I just… nothing. It sounds wonderful.”

“No. I can tell when something is wrong. Be honest.”

“I just don’t like to eat in front… I mean…” Damn. How to put this without being offensive.

“You don’t want to eat with someone who is going to only watch you eat, correct?”

“Yes.” I said, relieved. I looked up and saw he was smiling.

“Don’t worry Bella. I love Chinese food.”

“You do?” I asked doubtfully.

“Yes. I had a Chinese man not long ago. He was quite delicious.”

I looked up quickly and saw he was smiling. I had to laugh. Asshole.

“Seriously Bella. No worries. I plan to eat more than you will.”

“Garrett, you don’t have too.”

“I wouldn’t dream of not eating. I had to follow you to Mexico to get you to agree to this date. I am not going to screw it up by not eating with you.”

“Okay.” I whispered. I was not going to fall for him. We could be good friends. That would be it. No room in my life for romance. I gave that up when I agreed to join the CIA. But at least Garrett knew what I did. He didn’t judge me for it.

We didn’t talk much on the way to the restaurant. The traffic was light for a Saturday night. We arrived at the restaurant in 40 minutes. We walked in and sat. The waiter took our orders and he looked at me and smiled his beautiful smile.

“So Bella. Tell me about yourself.”

“Uh. Well, I grew up in Phoenix with my mom, moved my junior year of high school to Fork’s Washington to live with my Dad, graduated from there, joined the Army after high school graduation, spent a couple years in Army Intelligence doing minor security briefing reports, took a psychological profiling test, got recruited by a guy named Kevin Brooks to join the CIA as an operative, spent a year training for my new profession and have been active for the last three years. That’s pretty much me. How about you? What’s your story?”

“Oh no. There is a lot more to your story than that.”

I sighed. Fine. I said I would make an effort on this date. I would. I owed him that.

“What exactly would you like to know?”

“Tell me about the bite on your arm.”

I knew this would come up.

“You know Edward Cullen?”

“Emo Ed? Of course. I know all the Cullens… oh I see… Forks right? You met the Cullens?”

“Yes. Edward and I… dated I guess you could say. Anyway, we were hanging out in this field with his family. While we were there three vampires came up. One thought it would be fun to hunt me. Jasper and Alice Cullen took me too Phoenix. Edward tried to stay back with Carlisle, Rose and Jasper to lead the nomad away. He found me in Phoenix anyway. He convinced me he had my Mom. I snuck away and he bit me. Tried to kill me. Edward stopped him and Jasper and Emmett killed him. Edward sucked the venom out of me.”

“Let me guess? A few months later Jasper tried to take a bite out of you and Edward freaked and he and his family left without a word?”

“So you have heard the story?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Yes. I had no idea it was you. Emmett Cullen told me the whole thing a few years ago. He was quite upset that Edward made his family leave you. I told him he was a pussy for following that asshole. He didn’t like that but he couldn’t very well deny it. I should have put it together when I saw the bite. Not many humans survive that. Only one that I had heard of. You. I promise you Bella, I had no idea that was you.”

I believed him. I could usually tell when someone was lying. I shrugged my shoulders. “No big deal. Past is past. We move on. Honestly, the Cullens leaving almost destroyed me at first but then it made me stronger. I’m not sure if I would be the person I am today if they had stayed. I didn’t like who I was then. I like who I am now.”

“I like you a lot too, you know.” He whispered.

“Thanks.” Damn, who knew I could still blush.

Our food arrived and true to his word he ate every bite. I smiled at him.

“Is that good?” I asked. I felt so bad. I knew that had to come up later.

“Absolutely. It is a unique dining experience.”

“Garrett you really don’t have to.”

“Well it seemed like a good idea at the time and I am already half way through so I may as well continue.”

“So tell me about you.”

“Oh, I was actually in the Army as well. The first one.”

“Revolutionary?”

“Yep.” He winked at me.

“Nice. How did you get turned?”

“Gut shot. Vampire bit me on the field as I lay dying. He didn’t completely drain me though. I have no idea who he is. I haven’t seen him since. I woke up three days later as a vampire.”

“So what have you done since then?”

“Oh, when I was younger and had my blood lust under control I started running bootleg whiskey during Prohibition. Opened a few bars afterward. Made some good investments. I was one of the original investors in Microsoft, so I am pretty much loaded now. Do you like X Box?”

“X Box?” what the hell?

He saw my confusion and clarified. “Yes. I love X Box. Would you come over sometime and play X Box with me?”

“Isn’t that a video game or something? I don’t really play video games.”

“I could teach you. It’s the neighborly thing to do Bella. I mean you can’t spend all your days off practicing martial arts and running and shooting at the range.”

“How do you know that’s how I spend my days?” Got you, vampire stalker.

“I… would guess that would be how a CIA operative would spend her days.”

“Nice try. You really have to stop following me, Garrett.”

“I miss you though.”

“You miss me?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. It’s boring without you around.”

“Garrett I’m hardly ever around.”

“Exactly my point.”

I rolled my eyes. Only Garrett could make stalking someone seem cute.

We finished our meal, to his relief, and he took me to a jazz club.

We sat and made small talk while the band played. We danced to a couple of slow songs. I remember how bad I used to be at dancing. Dancing however, is a part of seduction, so I was made an expert.

To his credit he didn’t make any inappropriate advances. He just sat there talking softly telling me stories about his life. I told him stories about mine. It was… fun. Relaxing. He told jokes. Some were very dated but I think he knew that and was just doing it to make me laugh. I hadn’t had this much fun… ever. I had a few drinks and we left. I couldn’t believe it was 1 AM already. As cheesy as it sounds I really didn’t want the date to end. I wasn’t tired. I was wired. We arrived back at our apartments and prepared to split to our separate living spaces. Garrett bent over and kissed me on the cheek. It sent shivers down my spine.

“Bella, I haven’t had this much fun ever. Thank you for a wonderful night. I hope we can do it again.”

Damn. I mean…

“Garrett I had a wonderful time tonight as well. But, relationships aren’t really good for me at this point in my life. I mean I never know when I may go out on a job and not make it back. It’s a fact of my life. I am glad that we are friends though.”

He smiled. Not a sad smile. More of a smile that told me he wasn’t going to let this go. A small part of me was glad.

“Of course Bella. I will always be here, whether you need a friend, or anything else.”

“Thanks.” I whispered and turned toward the door. I walked in and went to my bed laying on my belly I tried to debrief what went down tonight. I expected… hell I didn’t know what to expect. But I like him. I really liked him. I stood up and took my weapons off. Along with my clothes. I pulled a pair of pajama pants on and a night shirt and went to lay down. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to sleep. I laid for an hour. The clock read 3:00 AM. Fuck it. It’s not like he is asleep. I walked across the hall and knocked on his door. He opened it and smiled. He had some sort of headphone microphone combination on his head and a game controller in his hand. Damn. He didn’t have a shirt on. We would just be friends. Right?

Garrett POV

If she thinks we are just going to be friends she is out of her mind. If I wasn’t in love with her before tonight I damn sure am now. No way is she getting away from me. I can’t believe her excuse for wanting to be friends. I don’t know if I will make it back from a job Garrett. My ass. She was making it back if I had to kill a hundred people to get her out. I do need to be a little more careful about her discovering I was following her. I heard her door open and her tiny feet walking across the hallway. She just knocked on my door. For a second I was afraid she got called out on a job. I had a death match to win. But that paled in importance to making sure she made it back alive. I walked to the door and then shook my head. What the hell am I thinking?

I took my shirt off and ran it to my bedroom.

There. Now I was ready to open the door.

“Bella? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I uh couldn’t sleep. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some more, or something?”

She looked so adorable in those pajamas. She is the cutest little killer I have ever seen. She was staring at my chest. Damn right she was.

“Of course. Come in.” I stepped to the side and she walked into my abode.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No! Actually I was about to play a death match. Want to join in?”

She smiled that cute little shy smile of hers. I briefly wondered how many men have had that smile be the last thing they saw on this earth.

“A death match? What the hell is that? Not that it doesn’t seem appealing.”

“Call of Duty. I play friends online. You take your avatar into a simulated city and run around killing each other. I have two friends playing against me and a computer avatar. I could use a second. The computer avatar sucks.”

“Show me how.”

Yes!

I made her a X Box account and name. I showed her the controls and how they worked. How to shoot. How to run. How to knife someone or throw a tomahawk into their back or chest. After ten minutes she had it. I gave her a headset and told her how to talk to the other players if she wanted.

“Okay, you ready?”

“Lead the way.” She grinned.

The timer counted down and the battle began. Bella and I worked side by side. She picked it up quickly. Very quickly. She shot Peter in the head twice before he got a shot off. Oh shit. I forgot to tell her.

“Who is Bearkiller 101? That guy sucks.” She asked.

“Uh… Emmett Cullen.” I braced for her reaction but she just laughed. My account name was Revolutionary216. Hers was HellsBells 913. Peter was using Dirkdiggler12.

She started laughing.

“Turn on the microphones. I want to talk some shit to these losers.”

Okay. I guess we were good then.

Bella’s avatar ran up behind Emmett and knifed him in the back. She blew Peters head off for the third time as he came around to help his teammate.

“Hey boys. Do your mothers know you are staying up this late sucking at video games?”

“Who the hell is this? Who the hell is this Garrett? Did you get a fucking ringer?”

“This is the first time I have played Dirk.” Bella replied.

“Bullshit!” Emmett yelled. I popped him from behind while Bella distracted him with a flash grenade.

“Dammit!”

“No way you haven’t played this before! Garrett where the hell… who the hell is this?” Peter asked.

“You are the one who “knows” shit, asshole. You tell me. I would watch out for that sniper though right now.”

“Goddammit!” Peter yelled.

Bella popped him in the back from the top of a house. She was very, very good at this game.

“I don’t play video games boys. I do this shit for real. Seriously, you boys should probably get some sleep. You are embarrassing yourself.”

I saw Emmett peeking around a corner. I turned to fire and Bella knifed him in the back, continuing to run to me. She got to my side and we climbed a set of stairs. One side led to a deck on the second story and one side led into a room at the top of a staircase.

“Come on Bearfucker. Come to momma.”

Bella appeared to be having a great time. She was talking a little deeper than normal. I guess that and the headphones and wireless distortion made her voice unrecognizable to Emmett.

She was on a 28 straight kill streak when she popped Peter again. He screamed and exited the game. Emmett was quickly behind him signing off with a few curse words.

“Night Bearfucker!” Bella said giggling.

“Fuck you lady!”

Bella broke down laughing. I joined her.

“I thought you had never played before? You were amazing!”

“I had to train in simulators that were pretty similar. No big deal. It’s all about positioning and creating a tactical advantage. So what do you want to do now?”

“You aren’t tired?” I asked amazed.

“No, not really. I slept a lot yesterday.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“We can watch TV.”

“Sure find something.” She agreed.

I turned on a cheesy sci fi movie from the 60s prepared to make fun of it. I felt her sit next to me. And lay her head on my shoulder.

“I can’t believe how bad the effects are on these movies…”

I looked down and her head was leaning into my shoulder, legs curled underneath her. She was sound asleep. I thought briefly about taking her to her apartment but I didn’t want to wake her. I decided it would be best just to sit here and watch TV quietly.

She woke at noon. She drooled a little on my chest. I must be in love. It didn’t even annoy me.

“Oh my God. Did I fall asleep on you? I am so sorry…”

“I’m not.” I told her honestly. We both turned surprised when we heard a knock on her door across the hall.

“You expecting someone?”

She was very tense at the moment.

“Do you have any guns in here?”

“No. Why would I need a gun?” I have super strength, deadly teeth and great abs. What else does a man need?

“Good point. Sorry.” She ran to the door and looked through the peep hole. Whatever she saw made her relax.

“Stay here. Please?” she asked me without turning around.

“Okay…”

She slipped out the door. I heard her talking to a man outside. What the hell is this? Nobody ever comes to visit Bella besides me. I walked to the peep hole and looked. Bella was talking to a man who was shorter than her and a whole lot wider. Bald on top with hair on both sides. Looked about 50. She called him Kevin. This was Kevin? He looked like Danny Devito. I listened carefully.

BPOV

“What the hell were you doing over there?” Kevin asked.

“My neighbor needed some help moving a couch. What are you doing here?”

“I tried to call you but you didn’t answer your phone. I was afraid you got hit so I came to check on you.”

Oh yeah. My phone.

“I must have turned my phone to silent before I fell asleep. You know how tired I have been. Sorry Kev.”

“Hey no problem kid. I know how hard you have been working. You scared the hell out of me in Juarez. You won’t get put in that situation again. I bitched out the agency guy who sent you into that, under gunned and outmanned. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“Nah it’s cool. Part of the job, you know?”

“Hey lets go inside. I need to talk to you about something.”

I opened the door and Kevin had a seat on my couch.

“Can I get you anything?”

“No Bella. Have a seat, dear. We need to talk.”

“Okay…”

“Don’t worry kid. It’s nothing bad. But you are going to have to lay low for a while.”

“Why? How long?”

“Not long. Maybe three weeks or so. Just enough time for things too cool down from the Juarez job. Every free agent out there is looking for the bounty on the brown haired, pale hit woman who took out Victor Cortez.”

“They don’t know who I am. I’ll go blond. Get a spray tan. Big deal.”

“Yeah, and last year I would have said no problem. But we… I almost lost you there kid. I don’t want you at a job and some other son of a bitch happens to be hanging around who notices you. There aren’t a lot of hit women working out there. Lay low. Take some time off. You have had 17 kills in the past 14 months. That’s targets, not counting the security you usually have to take down. Relax. You haven’t had a vacation in a long time. You earned it.”

“Kevin I need to work. I got nothing else. I can disguise myself.”

“It’s not worth the risk, Bella. You are too hot right now. Taking out Cortez was enough. Taking out half his personal guard, well, let’s just say the underworld is talking about you right now. You got family. Go visit them. Go see your Dad in Forks. Go to Jacksonville and see your mother. Stay away from jobs for a few weeks. This will pass over and no one will think twice about you. Then we can get back to work. Do some European jobs for a while. Get you working out of the States. Stay the hell away from Central and South America.”

I can’t believe this shit.

“No changing your mind is there Kevin?”

“You know I love you kid. I want you to retire from this business, not be retired from this business. I gotta go. Keep your phone on you so we can stay in touch. Keep your head down.”

Kevin hugged me, the short little bald bastard, who was like a second dad to me.

“Fine. I will leave tonight.” I told him, knowing there was no point in arguing.

“Where you think you are gonna go?”

“I saw Mom, last year. I guess it is time to go see Dad.”

“Great. Have fun sweetie. Kevin loves you.”

“I love you too Kevin.”

I watched him walk out and collapsed on my couch. Dammit. My life was built around a routine. Train, kill, train kill. What am I supposed to do now? Did I really want to go to Forks? I hadn’t been back there since High School. I didn’t have any friends. Jake and I had been friends. At least I thought we were before we went to that movie together and he pretended to be sick afterward then told me we couldn’t be friends. I wonder if he is still there in La Push? Of course he is. Where else would he be. It has been 6 years. I should see Dad. I talked to him often enough. He thought I was still in the Army living here and working in the Pentagon pushing papers.

Shit. I had to spend time in Forks. Maybe this is what I needed. I can’t believe I fell asleep on Garrett last night. I never fall asleep anywhere where other people are around. Especially without a gun nearby. He was getting in my head. I needed space. I needed perspective. I needed to tell him I was leaving for a while.

I prepared myself to walk across the hall and let him in on the news. I opened my door and he was standing there smiling.

“I have the plane tickets ready. We fly to Seattle in four hours and catch a connecting flight to Port Angeles. Not much time to pack but I figured we may as well get this show on the road. I’m so excited. I’ve never actually been to Forks. Plus I get to meet your father. This is going to be a blast! I’m packing the X Box. Your Dad has wireless right? If he doesn’t I have a hot spot on me at all times so it won’t be a problem. Don’t just stand there. Start packing. I’ll be across the hall. Meet you here in two hours so we can get to the Airport early. This is going to be so fun.” He kissed me on the cheek and walked back to his apartment before I could say a word.

I should be annoyed he was listening.

I should be irritated that he has invited himself.

So why was the only thing I was feeling was… kinda happy?