I muttered. “I don’t want him within a hundred miles of her.”“Edward, he’s not getting through us.” Emmett was frustrated by what he saw as my trying to prevent a fight. He didn’t feel any of the stakes.Alice worked through the immediate outcomes of this decision—a decision she was making now, seeing that I was frozen with uncertainty. There was no version that ended in a fight at Charlie’s house. The tracker would only wait and observe.“I don’t see him attacking,” she confirmed. “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,” Bella ordered, working to make her voice sound more assertive.I tried to think through the haze of panic, desperation, and guilt. Did it make sense to set our own trap rather than to wait for the tracker to set his? That sounded right, but when I tried to imagine allowing Bella to be in closer proximity to him, essentially making her bait, I couldn’t force the picture into my mind.“Please,” she whispered, and there was pain in her voice.I thought of the tracker finding Charlie at home alone. I knew this must be in the forefront of Bella’s mind. I could only imagine how panicked and desperate it would make her. None of my family was vulnerable that way. Bella was my only vulnerability.We had to lead the tracker away from Charlie. That much was obvious. This was the only part of her plan that actually mattered. But if it didn’t work the first time, if the tracker didn’t see our performance, I wouldn’t push our luck. We’d come up with another version. Emmett could babysit Charlie as long as necessary. I knew he’d be happy to take on the tracker alone. I was also sure, given Jasper’s enhancements in the clearing, that the tracker would never willingly put himself within Emmett’s reach.“You’re leaving tonight, whether the tracker sees or not,” I told Bella, feeling too defeated to look up. “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.” I looked in the mirror, meeting her gaze. Her expression was stoic now. “Do you hear me? Fifteen minutes from the time you cross the doorstep.”I revved the engine, then executed a tight U-turn, in a different kind of hurry now. I wanted to get the bait part over with as quickly as possible.“Emmett?” she asked.I could see in Emmett’s mind that she was looking at her fettered hands.“Oh, sorry,” Emmett muttered, freeing her.He waited for me to object, then relaxed when I didn’t.Now that the decision was made, I focused on Alice’s visions again. There weren’t very many options, maybe thirty solid versions. In most of them, the tracker would show up at Charlie’s house about two minutes after we did, keeping a safe distance. In a few, he came after we were gone. But even in those, he ignored Charlie and followed our trail.After that, the possibilities narrowed further. We would go home. The tracker would stay even farther back, not wanting to risk a confrontation. The redhead would be waiting for him there. My family would split up. In no version did Laurent help James and Victoria. So we would only have to split into three groups.The one thing I didn’t understand was how the makeup of those three groups kept shifting. It didn’t make sense.Regardless, the next part was very clear.“This is how it’s going to happen,” I explained to Emmett. “When we get to the house, if the tracker is not there, I will walk her to the door. Then she has fifteen minutes.” I met Bella’s eyes in the mirror again. “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 objected. “I’m with you.” You owe me one, remember?It shouldn’t surprise me he would want that. This was probably why the future groupings were confused.“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.”There was no wavering in his mind. Maybe it was for the best. I let it go.In Alice’s head, it was Carlisle and Jasper hunting in the forest now.“If the tracker is there,” I continued, “we keep driving.”“We’re going to make it there before him,” Alice insisted.It was ninety-nine percent certain, but I wasn’t taking any chances with some outlier version that was less clear than the others.“What are we going to do with the Jeep?” Alice asked.“You’re driving it home.”“No, I’m not,” she said with absolute certainty.The vision of how we would divide shifted around again.I growled a string of archaic curses in her direction.Bella interrupted in a low voice. “We can’t all fit in my truck.”As if we were going to make our escape in that geriatric sloth. I said nothing, though, knowing how sensitive she was about her truck. I didn’t have the energy for a pointless argument.When I didn’t respond, she whispered, “I think you should let me go alone.”I’d missed her meaning again. Naturally, she’d think it was her job to sacrifice herself so that Charlie could have a redundant number of bodyguards.“Bella, please just do this my way, just this once,” I begged, though it didn’t sound like pleading when the words came through my clenched teeth.“Listen, Charlie’s not an imbecile. If you’re not in town tomorrow, he’s going to get suspicious.”There were so many layers of meaning I missed entirely with her. Was this the real reason for her willingness to endanger herself, creating a believable alibi for me?“That’s irrelevant,” I said in a tone that was intended to sound final. “We’ll make sure he’s safe, and that’s all that matters.”“Then what about this tracker?” she countered. “He saw the way you acted tonight. He’s going to think you’re with me, wherever you are.”All three of us froze, surprised by this direction. Even Alice. She’d been paying attention to other futures than this conversation.Emmett embraced the logic immediately. “Edward, listen to her. I think she’s right.”“Yes, she is,” Alice agreed.She could see that Bella was right: whichever grouping I was part of was the group the tracker would choose to follow. It would undermine the plan and make an offensive all but impossible. Worst of all, it would make her bait again, and this time there were too many futures to be sure she’d be safe.But what was the other option? Leave Bella?“I can’t do that.”Bella spoke up again, her voice as calm as if her first pronouncement had already been accepted. “Emmett should stay, too. He definitely got an eyeful of Emmett.”“What?” Emmett demanded, stung.But Alice knew what he was really objecting to. “You’ll get a better crack at him if you stay.”The divisions, fluctuating so wildly before, seemed to be settling. She saw me with Emmett and Carlisle, first fleeing through the forest, and then changing course in order to hunt.Where was Bella in this future?I stared at Alice. “You think I should let her go alone?”I saw the answer in her visions before she could say it out loud. A standard room in a mediocre hotel, Bella curled into a tight ball as she slept, Alice and Jasper frozen sentinels in the other room.“Of course not. Jasper and I will take her.”“I can’t do that.” But my voice was hollow now. I couldn’t see another way. If the tracker was going to choose me as the mark, then I should be far away from Bella. I would have to control the panic, the anguish, and be a hunter. I tried to quash the small amount of pleasure in the idea of destroying the vampire who’d ignited this nightmare. Bella’s safety was the only factor.Bella was not done with her suggestions.“Hang out here for a week,” she said quietly. I glanced at her again in the mirror. How little she understood about what had been started tonight. “A few days?” she offered, seeming to think I was objecting to her timeline. I could only pray this would end in a week.“Let Charlie see you haven’t kidnapped me,” she continued, “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 looked through Alice’s reaction to this plan, and felt the first relief of the night when I saw that this was possible. There were futures where I would find Bella with Alice and Jasper. The particular destiny I traced resolved into going underground in the long term. The tracker had evaded me. But there were many other threads weaving and unweaving in her mind. In some of them, I found Bella to take her home. Again, the brilliant sunlight intruded, disorienting me. Where were we?“Meet you where?” I asked. Bella’s decisions were the ones driving the future. She must already know this answer.Her voice was certain. “Phoenix.”But I’d seen the next act in Alice’s head. I’d heard the cover story Bella would give Charlie, and I knew what the tracker would hear.“No. He’ll hear that’s where you’re going,” I reminded her.“And you’ll make it look like that’s a ruse, obviously.” She drew out the last word, sounding annoyed. “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.I was not so convinced. “And if that doesn’t work?”“There are several million people in Phoenix,” Bella said, her tone still irritated. I wondered if it was fear that was sapping her patience. I knew it had exhausted mine.“It’s not that hard to find a phone book,” I growled.She rolled her eyes. “I won’t go home.”“Oh?”“I’m quite old enough to get my own place.”Alice decided to interrupt our pointless bickering. “Edward, we’ll be with her.”“What are you going to do in Phoenix?”“Stay indoors.”Emmett didn’t have access to Alice’s visions, but the picture in his head was close to what I knew was coming. Emmett and I in the forest, hot on the tracker’s trail. “I kind of like it,” he said.“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…” The picture in his head morphed as he imagined the tracker cornered now, himself closing in.If we could manage it, if we could deal with the tracker quickly, then this would be the right choice. Why was it so painful to make?I would feel better if there was any evidence that Bella was concerned about her own safety at all. That she understood everything she was risking. That it wasn’t just her own life on the line.Maybe that was the key. She never worried about herself… but she always worried about me. If I made this about my distress rather than her actual mortal peril, perhaps she would be more cautious.My control was weak. I spoke in barely more than a whisper, worried that I might scream otherwise. “Bella.”She met my eyes in the mirror. Hers were defensive rather than afraid.“If you let anything happen to yourself—anything at all—I’m holding you personally responsible,” I said softly. “Do you understand that?”Her lips trembled. Had she finally realized the danger? She swallowed loudly and muttered, “Yes.”Close enough.Alice’s mind was in a million places, many of them a sunny freeway viewed through dark-tinted glass. Bella always sat in the backseat, Alice’s arm around her, staring blankly ahead. Jasper watched from the driver’s seat. I thought of my brother, trapped in a small vehicle with Bella’s scent for so many hours.“Can Jasper handle this?” I demanded.“Give him some credit, Edward,” Alice chided. “He’s been doing very, very well, all things considered.”But her mind flashed through a dozen future scenes, just in case. Jasper didn’t lose focus in a single one.I appraised Alice. The tiny exterior made her look fragile, but I knew she was a fierce opponent. The tracker or anyone else would underestimate her. That should count for something. Still, I felt uneasy picturing her having to physically protect Bella.“Can you handle this?” I muttered.Her eyes narrowed in outrage—put on; she’d seen the question coming.I could take you blindfolded.She snarled at me, long and loud, a disturbingly ferocious sound that echoed against the Jeep’s glass and pushed Bella’s heart into a sprint.For half a second, I couldn’t help but smile at Alice’s ridiculous display, and then all humor vanished again. How had it come to this? How would I let myself be separated from Bella, no matter how lethal her guardians?Another unpleasant thought flickered through my brain. Bella and Alice alone, embarking on their foreseen friendship. Would Alice tell Bella her solution to this nightmare?I nodded once, a sharp jerk, to let her know that I’d accepted her role as Bella’s protector. “But keep your opinions to yourself,” I warned.