Chapter 11

It felt like an eternity. In truth, it must have been a week. Ana could feel herself wasting away slowly. The only thing that kept her going was knowing that Christian could be in trouble. If they had replaced her with an imposter, which at this point seemed the only explanation, then Christian, Teddy, Phoebe and everyone she loved was in danger.

A few days before she got on the jet, Ana had allowed herself an uncharacteristic twinge of vanity. She'd looked at her body in the bedroom mirror, she was going to be thirty five in a few years, she'd had two children, she'd been running Grey Publishing, albeit a bit in the backseat, letting Hannah do the heavy lifting, but she was still the CEO. Not bad, Grey, not bad at all. Christian walked in just as she started getting dressed.

"Don't change on my account," Christian said with a mischevious smirk.

"I wasn't planning to..." Two could play at this game.

He covered the distance between them in three quick strides. Never breaking eye contact... he ran one finger down her neck, caressing her skin... Ana leaned into him, her body was urging him...

"Eager as always, Mrs. Grey..."

Ana bit her lip...

"What have I told you about that lip Mrs. Grey...", he placed soft kisses on the offending object, in between whispered words, "that delicious... delectable... tender... tantalising... lip."

Christian's fingers continued their path down Ana's body. Her breath hitched as they found their way to her navel... further down, barely touching but still igniting every nerve in her body. All her synapses were firing at once... Christian... he could do this to her... he was the only one. His fingers left comet trails of desire in their wake, as they found their way further and further down Ana's body... her body was his playground... Ana leaned closer in to him, she could barely speak through the intense desire his fingers were drawing out from her... she wanted to feel his skin, she needed to have him inside her... she wanted him ... all of him...

"Too many clothes...", she murmured in his ear.

Christian laughed as he pulled her close and whispered, "Why Mrs. Grey, I do believe you're naked!"

He held her at arms length for the briefest of seconds while he took off his pajamas with a swift move. The years had been generous to Christian, he was as glorious in his late thirties as he had been when they'd met. Ana stepped back to admire his nakedness, she loved seeing his body, loved every scar, every story, every inch of him. They embraced each other and Ana enveloped Christian with herself, she took all of him and he gave it willingly... he surrendered without question to his goddess, his... Ana.

The door to the cabin opened with a sudden jerk and Stringbean walked in with Tattoohead. They need something, Ana thought to herself.

"Up"

It was an order with no question as to compliance. Ana rose slowly with the help of the wall. Tattoohead grabbed her arms and put them in handcuffs. He removed the restraint on her left foot and pulled her forward.

"Where are you taking her?", Jason had managed to stand up with the wall as support. It was obvious he couldn't stay standing much longer.

"Jason, it's fine... I'll be fine"

Stringbean turned to Taylor, "Listen to your friend", he said menacingly. But Taylor was not going to compromise with Ana's life. With surprising strength for an injured man, he rammed Tattoohead with the full force of his body. Ana, Taylor and Tattoohead were all in a heap on the ground Stringbean reached for his gun, but wasn't fast enough to avoid Taylor's good leg tripping him over. The gun fell behind Stringbean and Taylor picked it up before anyone else could... he pointed it at Tattoohead and screamed to Ana... "Run!!!"

Still handcuffed, Ana raced out of the open door with barely a thought, Jason was right behind her. The narrow passageway was dimly lit and came to a stop at a staircase, she'd only made it up two steps when she came face to face with the barrel of a gun... Jason stopped behind her, turning his back to hers... he was pointing the gun behind them at Tattoohead and Stringbean. They had caught up. Ana and Jason were trapped. The man on the staircase addressed Jason calmly.

"Lay down your weapon man, or she'll be paying for your stupidity..."

"You're not going to kill her... you need her...", Jason was still facing the two underlings, this guy was obviously the boss.

"Of course, I need her... but whether I need her whole is a completely different question. Now, lay down the gun, and I'll let her be... if you don't... well let's just say, Mrs. Grey is not going to be running any time soon... But it's completely up to you young man."

Jason assessed the situation, they were trapped, and from the looks of it, their prison was somewhere underground, the only way out had to be the stairs here. He couldn't risk Ana's safety, there was no way he could guarantee that the man wouldn't shoot. He lowered the gun slowly... A punch to the gut from Tattoohead and Jason let himself fall to the ground with a grunt. They needed to think he was more wounded than he let on. Stringbean grabbed Ana by her handcuffed arm and pushed her up the stairs, while Tattoohead took Jason back to their prison.

The upstairs area had been set up akin to an interrogation room, with one small light shining on a wooden table and two chairs on opposite sides of the table facing each other. Ana tried to keep her calm as Stringbean sat her down roughly on one of the chairs. The events with Jason had made him unhappy. He undid her handcuffs from her back and cuffed them again in front of her. The man with the gun took the chair opposite her.

"That was a very stupid thing you did Ana...", he started, "admittedly, there were some extenuating circumstances... still ... very stupid."

Ana looked around the room, it looked like an old holiday cabin of some sort. They must be keeping us in the basement. The man noticed.

"Formulating your next plan already? And here I thought we could get to know each other a bit."

"I don't socialise with kidnappers."

The man laughed, a full throaty laugh... In another life, another circumstance she may have found him charming, comforting even... Knowing he was the reason her family was in danger, she found his niceness psychotic to say the least.

"We will get to know each other Ana, but there is something I need to address first...", he turned to Stringbean, "Kissaki... you know what to do."

His voice was calm and friendly, but something in the way he addressed the man, filled Ana with a sense of dread.

Kissaki blanched and stepped forward. He had a short knife in his right hand. He put his left hand on the table fingers splayed out. With one quick motion, he brought the knife down on the little finger of his left hand, severing the digit. There was a spurt of blood and the sound of a scream... Kissaki hadn't uttered a word.