A/N The previous chapter was easily missed again (fanfiction didn't update the updating time so it stayed on the same chapter. If you haven't read the previous chapter in last 13 hours or so, check that one too.
Christian's POV
A few minutes after leaving Portland my phone started playing tune I assigned to Ana's messages.
Don't be too mad! Can't find Gail. Please!
What the fuck was going on? I quick dialed Gail.
"Find Alanna! Something must be wrong." I told her. "And let me know what it is as soon as you can." It was strange to use name Alanna but we were bound to it until the police developed a new action plan.
"Of course Mr. Grey!" she answered. "I'm already on my way."
I ended the call, answered Ana and put my eyes back on the road.
"Taylor," I was digging for support, "you should come in with me. As ex-military you two might find common language easier than I would."
"Mr. Grey, I would be honored. Even if in my opinion, you would do just fine." I frowned. Well I was going to meet father of the girl who lived with me. Show me a man who finds that easy! Even more, I wanted to tell her father that his daughter was tortured and humiliated. I wanted to tell him she spent her days in captivity, locked in a penthouse apartment, and cried her eyes out over physical and mental pain.
"I just hope he doesn't have a gun," I muttered.
"He most probably has one," Taylor grinned. "You can count on it if a person have license to own a gun that he will carry one with him. He also has a membership in a local shooting range. Sir, Alanna is also a member." He stopped for a moment, letting me absorb his words.
"But guns were one of the reason you hired me, sir," Taylor reassured me.
By that time Gail texted that Ana had a minor accident and she had cut her hand a bit. But it was all right already. Gail bandaged her hand and Ana was pressing hard on the word accident. I cursed; but that was all I was able to do at that point. If it had been worse, I would have told Gail to fuck the police and take Alanna to the hospital but I was glad she didn't have to. These fuckers deserved jail and worse.
We parked in front of a nice small house. The front yard looked a bit abandoned but clean nevertheless. The house was small but kept in perfect condition. I sighed and exited the car. Taylor followed behind me.
I knocked. A middle aged man opened the door.
"Mr. Steele!" I greeted. "My name is Christian Grey and behind me is Taylor. Would you please let us in? We really should talk."
Mr. Steele looked at me and then at Taylor who nodded reassuringly. He opened the door wide and we went in.
"I'm sorry for all the mess," Ray Steele started to apologize. "But my mind had way bigger things to work with."
"I understand that," I nodded.
He offered us some coffee and while he was busy with boiling the water; I took the liberty to look at pictures on the wall and on chimney. There were tens of pictures of Ana as a small kid and from elementary school. Her teenage pictures, high school graduation and few from the college. had all that sad visage I saw every day. She was so beautiful on all of the photos; but her smile in real life was over the top.
Mr. Steele came back and we had a strange conversation. I told him about Kate and Ana's boxes. He explained few of the photos and when the first hour was gone, I sighed.
"Mr. Steele, when we came here, we didn't know what to expect. Yes I've run the background check on you, but the thing I want to discuss with you is way too serious to trust some papers."
"Go on," he encouraged.
"Sir, your daughter is alive and she has been found." I pulled few photos out of my pocket. I made these in last few days. Yes, she was sadder than in the pictures that covered the walls. She was slimmer and a bit given up, but still gorgeous.
He sat silently, just motioning his hand for me to continue. So I explained. I told about being an asshole and the proposition I received. I told how I recognized his daughter and bought her. I told how police fucked up and I couldn't even tell Kate, who was my brother's love. Kate was way too much as a public figure. Even one careless photo on some random newspaper could give everything away. I hated that I had to bring my parents in, but it was the only way to get proper medical help.
"What do you owe to these bastards?" Mr. Steele asked when I finished. "You put your company at risk, you put your personal image at risk. So, don't get me wrong, but why?"
"I don't owe anything to those bastards. Or if I have to answer, then I owe them a proper punishment." I sighed, shoving my hands through my hair and continued. "Sir, I was adopted, but before that I had already gone through the humiliation and abuse that the prostitution industry provides to an inside child. I won't elaborate; but I would be more than happy if the legal system can reach more than few slave traders or pimps."
"That's a good answer." Ray put his mug down to the table. "Can I speak to my daughter?"
"Sir," Taylor stood in. "We don't know whether it's a good thing to do. Your daughter knows the story behind scenes but before we can get her some psychiatric evaluation, I wouldn't risk with it. She is way too fragile at the moment and we have to make sure she is in safe environment."
"Okay, I can understand that."
"But I was going to offer you a phone," Taylor continued. "It's untraceable and number belongs to Mr. Grey's company. If I was you, I wouldn't use it any other reason. However, each day I'll be waiting for a call from you, so I could report your daughter's recovery."
"Now it's my turn to learn how Carla must had felt when the only communication to her recovering daughter went through me."
"You mean the time she ran to you at age thirteen?" This was my opportunity.
"Yes and no. She was like a frightened wild animal when I hound her on my porch. Carla didn't even know Ana ran away until she came back home a week later. She was so relieved when she heard her daughter was here with me. But soon enough she was beaten; hospitalized and that was the day when everything started to change."
He stopped and brought more coffee.
"Carla was terrified," Mr. Steel continued, "and signed the papers letting Ana stay here. She also asked me to get medical examination for Ana. Carla said she believed Ana was violated. But when I asked Ana, she simply stressed she wasn't raped and refused to say another word. She definitely was abused in some ways but I was more concerned with her feeling safe here. So I didn't press the issue.
"But a few years later when I was assigned to work away from here for a summer. Ana heard our phone conversation. I asked Carla if she could take Ana in for the whole summer and she backed away. She was still afraid and thought she wasn't able to protect her own daughter, but Ana interpreted it wrongly and thought she wasn't wanted or loved. So the whole year Carla called to me in order to know how her daughter was doing."
"Mr. Steele," I started and was cut down.
"Ray would be better, don't you think? You brought my daughter out of the hell, you shouldn't mister me."
"Ray," I nodded. "I saw a scar on Ana's thigh. Can you tell me how she got it?"
"A scar? What kind of scar?"
"A burn mark; like cigarette burn."
"Sun of a bitch!" Ray yelled and cursed some more after that. "If he wasn't dead already, I'd kill him myself. We thought she was raped because she walked strangely. But one would walk just as strangely if there is a fresh deep burn."
"I thought, it was from that period," I sighed. "But I wasn't sure."
We talked a few more. We tried to regain a positive view of the world, even if it was hard. After we carried her boxes into the house; Taylor and I left. It was a silent drive to Seattle.
When we got there; I put my laptop in my study. There was a letter and piece of sharp glass in it. Ana was bleeding through her soul more than her body. I walked into her room and found her sleeping.
She was hugging her bathrobe for comfort and her wrapped hand was on the covers. It looked more and more like a suicide attempt. She was crying for help and I was angrier than ever. Her eyes bore the marks of tears.
She needed answers and I needed answers. More than that I needed to know that she was safe and wouldn't harm herself in any way. I knew she would be afraid of me if she saw me in this state. I knew I wanted to put her over my knee and spank some sense into her. If she would have been awake at that moment I would have explained that I owned her and she was forbidden from self-harming.
Despite the motherfuckers, she slept. I left her room, knowing I needed to calm down. I went into my study again, lifted the piece of glass. She was crying for help. So I made searched online and found some nice things.
"Taylor!" I shouted into my phone an hour later. "I sent you some links. Make sure that you get one of those before the day starts."
"Yes sir!"
"And we'll be leaving early tomorrow morning. Somewhere around six."
