Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga #5) - Stephenie Meyer Page 0,248

didn’t care.

We were far enough from the house now (though I could still hear Charlie’s frozen thoughts, motionless in the doorway) that Alice jumped up into the Jeep and started the engine. When the headlights came on behind us, Bella stiffened and twisted to stare out the back window, heart thudding.

“It’s just Alice.” I took her left hand now and squeezed it.

“The tracker?” she whispered.

He’s following now. Alice could hear Bella’s whisper easily over the grind of the engine. Emmett’s waiting till he’s clear of the house.

“He heard the end of your performance,” I told her.

“Charlie?” Her voice strained raw.

Alice kept me updated. The tracker’s past the house. I don’t see him going back. Em’s catching up.

“The tracker followed us,” I assured Bella. “He’s running behind us now.”

This did not comfort her. Her breath caught and then she whispered, “Can we outrun him?”

“No,” I admitted. Not in this ridiculous truck.

Bella turned to watch out the window, though I was sure the Jeep’s headlights would blind her to everything else. Alice was watching all the futures related to Charlie that she could perceive. A human she’d never met was not the easiest subject for her. But it didn’t look as if the hunter or his apprehensive companion had any plans to return.

Emmett was running in the road close behind us now. I was surprised at his intentions. I would have expected he’d be itching to catch the tracker in pursuit, to bring this ordeal to a quick and violent end. Instead, his thoughts were focused on Bella. His few moments as bodyguard seemed to have affected him deeply. Her safety was his current priority.

Bella brought out everyone’s protective side.

Emmett was imagining the tracker watching; only Alice and I knew he was carefully keeping his distance, just following the sound of the truck through the darkness. He wouldn’t put himself in closer range tonight. Still, Emmett wanted to make it clear that the tracker would have to go directly through him to get to Bella. He made a running leap that propelled him over the Jeep and into the bed of the truck. I fought with the steering as the truck reacted.

Bella shrieked, her voice rasping with the effort.

I covered her mouth, muffling the sound so she could hear me. “It’s Emmett,” I said.

She inhaled through her nose, slumping again. I freed her mouth and pulled her tight against my side. If felt as if every muscle in her body were trembling.

“It’s okay, Bella. You’re going to be safe,” I murmured. It didn’t feel like she’d even heard me speak. The tremors continued. Her breath came quick and shallow.

I tried to distract her. Speaking in my normal voice, as though there were no danger or terror, I said, “I didn’t realize you were still so bored with small-town life. It seemed like you were adjusting fairly well—especially recently. Maybe I was just flattering myself that I was making life more interesting for you.”

Perhaps it was not the most sensitive observation, considering how her escape had upset her, but it did pull her from her abstraction. She fidgeted, sitting up a little straighter.

“I wasn’t being nice,” she whispered, ignoring my frivolous words and going straight to the painful part. She stared down as if ashamed to meet my gaze. “That was the same thing my mom said when she left him. You could say I was hitting below the belt.”

I’d assumed it was something like that, given the image in Charlie’s head.

“Don’t worry, he’ll forgive you,” I promised.

She looked up at me earnestly, desperate to believe what I was saying. I tried to smile at her, but I couldn’t force my face to obey.

I tried again. “Bella, it’s going to be all right.”

She shuddered. “But it won’t be all right when I’m not with you.” Her words were barely more than a breath.

My arm flexed around her convulsively while the hole in my stomach stretched wider. Because she was right. Everything would be wrong when she wasn’t with me. I didn’t quite know how I would function.

I forced my face smooth and made my voice as light as I could. “We’ll be together again in a few days.” As I said the words, I willed them to be true. They still felt like a lie. Alice saw so many different futures.… “Don’t forget,” I added, “this was your idea.”

She sniffed. “It was the best idea. Of course it was mine.”

I attempted to smile again, then gave up.

“Why did this happen? Why me?” She