Pay attention guys, this gets tricky.
Christian
The tapping on the door woke him. Damn, when had he fallen asleep. He never slept during the day. He'd lay beside Ana, holding her close, and not only fallen asleep but had stayed that way. The sky was the deep purple of full twilight, the first stars and the full moon lighting the horizon over the sound. He carefully disentangled himself from his sleeping wife and padded to the doorway. Straightening his sleep rumpled shirt. He opened the door to see Masters, one of the new security they'd brought in. "Mr. Grey Taylor's in the security office. Some new information on Lincoln."
"Fine. Where's Sawyer?" He didn't like leaving Ana with anyone else.
"Should be here any minute. I'll stay till he gets here."
"Fine, yes." he turned back, intending to retrieve the shoes he slipped off, when he'd gotten in bed. Later, he blamed his sleep muddled mind, for not sensing something was off. He got the niggle of warning just before pain exploded in his skull and everything went dark.
Meanwhile...Somewhere in the night
He moved soundlessly, a dark shadow flowing over the ground. He'd always had the ability to not be seen. It came from growing up a thief in a family of thieves. As a boy of twelve, he could sneak past an entire platoon of soldiers without making a sound. He did so now. One of the men had already been silenced, and he was on to the next. Separating from the night, he rose up behind him, and with a grab and a quick twist, it was over. So easy, he thought as he lowered the man to the ground. Killing had always come easily for him. When he was younger, he would have flashes not of conscience so much, but questions, why it didn't bother him, this easy dispatching of life. Now, he just accepted it. Three more to go. Almost too simple. His father, worthless son of a bitch that he was, had been an excellent teacher. Give them what they want, let them think they've won and they'll never see you coming. It had never failed him. Sometimes, when he lay awake, he wondered just how much more he could have learned from that bastard, if he hadn't killed him.
Ana
Suddenly she couldn't breathe. She struggled awake, to a hand held over her mouth, and a voice in her ear, "Mrs. Grey, time to get up. There's someone who wants to meet you. Don't struggle, I don't want to hurt you. You have the baby to think about."
She nodded, her mind racing, as Masters pulled her from her bed. "Christian," she whispered the word, upper most in her mind, as soon as he released her mouth.
"He's fine, for now. Lincoln wants him alive."
"Why are you doing this?"
"I don't have a choice."
"But..."
"Quiet."
He led her out of the bedroom and down the hall to the great room. Passing one of the bathrooms, she heard whimpering, and the scratching of claws on a door. Trudy.
Then, she hit the living room and drew in her breath. Men, big heavily armed men, three of them, stood in her living room, along with all four McGovern sisters, Lena, Allie, and Christy, sat in a neat row on the couch, hands tied in front of them, and Mckenna lay, curled up in a ball on the floor at their feet.
"Goddamn assholes caught us napping." Lena's dry voice was bitter.
"What happens now?" she looked up at Masters, the man they had trusted.
"Now we wait."
Christian
His face stung. He went to rub his jaw, but couldn't move his hands. Another sharp sting, "Wake up, Grey, come on, or your going to miss the show." The voice is what did it. That arrogant, twisted, nasal voice. His eyes flew open and rage erupted inside of him. He lunged forward, but his body didn't move. "Yes, there you are. Good." The little prick grinned at him. He'd lost weight. His skin hanging on his bones. The blond hair he'd always kept perfectly coiffed, snarled around his head, but it was his eyes that had changed the most, wild and dark - maniacal. The man had slipped from narcissism to depraved insanity.
"Lincoln." He spat out the one word, but it was filled with such loathing and lethal promise, the little weasel blinked, that confidence slipping for a second.
"Grey, so glad you could join me. Have to say this is a mighty nice set up."
They were in the security office. Ignoring Lincoln, he took in his surroundings. Taylor, Sawyer and McIntyre all three were bound and gagged sitting against the back wall. He was tied to the chair in front of the security console, and on every single screen, Holy God! Ana! She stood in the living room with Masters, a gun to her head. The McGovern sisters, with her, Mckenna still asleep.
"Pay attention Grey." another stinging slap.
"If she so much as gets a scratch..." he snarled
"Oh, yes I know, you'll kill me, I'll regret it." the little man waved him off, "You know, I don't think I will."
The fucker was over-confident. Grey noted with satisfaction. That was good. It would work in their favor.
"Now you be sure and watch carefully. I'm going to go out there and enjoy your lovely wife. Then I'm going to take her. I have some business associates, who are very interested in young pretty girls. Now, she's pregnant, but in a way that's just a bonus. Young boys are worth a lot too."
Raging fear, monstrous and cold, threatened to swallow him whole, but with a discipline born in desperation, he beat it back. Forcing his mind to function, he felt sick, oily disgust as his brain put the pieces together. He had known Lincoln was scum, but this..."That's what you and Sorensen were doing, human trafficking."
Lincoln nodded, "It's extremely profitable, way more so than lumbar." He spoke as casually, as if discussing the futures market, "Our operation was rolling along nicely. Really you did me a favor getting the lumbar off my hands. It was becoming cumbersome, but buying Sorrenson up really put a damper on things. No matter, I have plenty of contacts now."
"I'm going to enjoy killing you."
Laughter erupted from him, "You'll never find me Grey."
"I won't have too." The man wasn't leaving his house alive.
"Hmm yes, well you keep hoping, it will be even better when it's completely gone." the man's voice dropped to a gleeful whisper, "You'll know she's out there. Suffering atrocities even your perverted mind can't conceive of, and the boy, I'll get a good price. I'm sure he'll be beautiful." With a sigh and a grin, the insane man turned away, "I don't want to keep your lovely wife waiting. Pay attention now, you have the best seat in the house."
Grey tracked him all the way to the door, picturing his death over and over in his mind.
As soon as the door shut, he turned to the men on the floor, "Well?"
Ana
"Ah, the lovely Anastasia. I don't believe we've been introduced, Art Lincoln."
"You're going to die tonight." Ana had no idea where her confidence came from, but she knew she'd kill this man, who would take everything she loved from her. Her blood boiled with the need to see him dead under her hands. Dimly, a part of her wondered if this came with being a McGovern.
"Ah you and your husband suffer from delusions my dear. Look around you, reality says otherwise."
"Now see, that's what comes from not knowing everything you think you do." Lena's voice.
Lincoln turned, "Ah yes, the wild card. I'm afraid you'll have to die. No one will pay for you, but your luscious twin will turn a lovely profit. My partner will..."
"Your partner won't touch me with a ten foot pole." Allie sniffed. Ana's eyes widened. So it did come with the blood.
"You think not?"
"Oh, please, warty toad? He knows better." Christy this time.
"Warty Toad?" Lincoln seemed curious in spite of himself as were all the other men in the room, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement on the floor. Mckenna was awake.
"Yeah, the guy you're working with." Lena again, "Tell you what, why don't you give him a call and tell him you've got the McGovern sisters tied up on your couch."
"What?" Lincoln's face went from curious to confused.
"Oh, wait,"Lena tilted her head, rethinking, " he might not recognize the name. Tell him Oleander's nieces. He'll know."
Shit! Lincoln didn't seem impressed, but the other guys in the room sure did. They all took a step back. Even Masters.
Allie spoke up then, and Ana couldn't help but be amazed that even now, compassion softened her blue eyes, "Mr Master's it's alright. We know he has your daughter. Auntie won't blame you."
Ana felt the tension seep from Masters, while the other men in the room went white as sheets.
"You fucking idiot you've killed us all." One of the goons spoke up, "Goddamnit, I knew we shouldn't have taken this job."
"What are you talking about?" Lincoln's confusion bled into anger and fear.
"It's a trap, you moron." Another of the men spoke up, moving slowly to the front window.
"No, no.." Lincoln shook his head, his eyes turning desperate.
"Oh hell yes it is," Lena spoke up, "why don't you try raisin' those men of yours?"
"Shit!" Big goon at the window tapped his ear, "Riley...Riley...Shit! We've got to get out of here."
And that's when Ana heard the word she'd been waiting for..."Paddle" Mckenna yelled from the floor, Ana dropped to the ground, Masters covering her with his huge body, and the world exploded over her head.
Over the deluge she heard Lena shout, "No, don't kill the little fucker... yet."
Christian
"You know, they just don't make mercenaries like they used to." Andre's smooth voice came from the other side of the room, where the wall had slid open, to reveal the secret doorway, that had been Taylor's brainchild when they put the room in. Christian turned to see the man pull out a knife, and walk casually over to McIntyre, and none too gently rip the duck tape from his mouth. He immediately started cursing.
"Goddammit, cut me loose, we've got to get out there, it'll be a fucking bloodbath."
Grey heart froze in his chest, "Ana!"
"No Grey, " McIntyre, viciously began working on the binding on his wrists, "Ana's in no danger. But those men in that room are gonna be hacked to pieces. They'll kill them all, in under a minute. We need at least on of them alive."
"Oh McIntyre, you never let those girls have any fun." Andre' waltzed over to Grey and pulled out another knife, cutting through his bindings, "Just let them get it out of their systems. I've always thought Mckenna was much calmer after a good kill. It's cathartic. Look.." Torrill waved one hand carelessly at the screens, where suddenly Mckenna rolled to her feet, a gun in each had, yelling something. Ana dropped to the floor, behind one of those huge chairs she'd insisted on putting in every room, Masters following her down. Mckenna tossed a gun to Lena whose hands were no longer tied. Before the men in the room could process what was happening, Lena had fired, one of the large men dropped with a bullet in his forehead like a third eye. Both Allie and Christy dropped to the floor, Mckenna produced a knife, not the dagger, he noticed, and slid it across the floor, to Chrsity's outstretched hands. The girl sliced through her bonds with amazing speed and went to work on Allie's. Grey made out Lena's violent cursing and Mckenna's shouts of "Stay Down, Dammit everybody just stay the fuck down." She and Lena side by side, crouched low, laying down a consistent spray of bullets. Managing to successfully push the Gunman to one side of the room away from Ana and Masters. Lincoln ducked behind an armoire near the hallway leading to the guest wing. One of the two remaining gunman made it past that armoire, heading for the guest-wing.
"You see, they're doing quite well. That one gunman may even make it to the end of the hall. You can question him." Torril waved a careless hand. That is until the remaining gunman dropped out of sight and came up with...
"ALLIE!" All three sisters screamed at once as the gunman pulled Allie in front of him, a gun held to her head, and Torrill's good humor fled. Dropping the knife into Grey's hands, his face a mask of cold rage, a feral growl erupting from his throat, he tore across the room and through the door, and then he was on the screen, seeming to appear out of nowhere right behind the gunman. He put his hands on either side of his head, with a sudden violent twist, the large man dropped dead to the floor. Torrill snatched the gun with one hand and pulled Allie behind him with the other, backing her into a corner of the room and covering her with his body.
Grey didn't see anything else, hastily cutting through the last of his bindings, he ran from the room McIntyre on his heels. His only goal to get to Ana. He entered the living room and cut left. Distantly, he registered Lena shout Gavin's name and a hand gun tossed through the air to a still running McIntyre, now in the middle of the great room, directly across from the guest wing. He caught it deftly, instantly firing down that hallway. Grey heard a thump, and assumed that was the third gunman going down.
"Grey!"
He turned at the shout from the back of the room, and black rage curled in his gut. Somehow Lincoln had gotten across the room. He was standing over Ana, pulling her up to her knees by her hair, in the other hand a gun was pressed to her head "Say Good-bye."
Both Lena and Mckenna were already turning their guns on him, but the bullets wouldn't reach him in time. Grey saw it in his eyes, the man was going to trade his life for his wife's.
Bitter hopelessness and rage began to fill him. When suddenly, a deafening crash came from behind him, the floor shook beneath his feet, and everyone, including Lincoln froze at the sight coming toward them. The massive creature flew into the room in a blur of movement. Grey barely made out red eyes and a black mouth pulled back into a viscous snarl revealing huge teeth. The animal leapt, sailing a good twenty feet through the air over Ana's head and straight at Lincoln. There was a single shot, and Lincoln went down screaming, under two hundred pounds of enraged beast. The huge jaws closed around the man's neck ripping through muscle and bone like tissue paper. Lincoln's horrible, agonized screams filled the air, followed by a sickening gurgling , then... nothing. Trudy the hell-hound, dropped the chunk of flesh and bone she'd ripped from the mans neck, and whimpering, lay down beside his wife.
Grey ran over, and that's when he saw the blood.
"Christian," Ana's eyes filled with tears, "She's been shot. He shot Trudy."
All the chaos around him froze. Christy was already moving, Grey took Ana in his arms pulling her back. While the little vet examined the wound. There was a lot of blood. "The bullet nicked an artery, I need to stop the bleeding."
Lena was suddenly there with Christy's case, and they watched Christy grim-faced and determined, working to save the brave, sweet, amazing animal that saved his wife.
Mckenna approached them, turning to Maters "My aunt just called. We have your daughter, she's safe,"
"Thank-you." Relief washed over the man's face.
"You should have come to me Masters." Grey looked up at the man he'd trusted.
"It was a very effective threat, Grey." Mckenna answered, "He wouldn't risk his daughter. Besides, he knew we'd stop him." then she knelt by her sister, stroking Trudy's head, "Christy?"
"I've stopped the bleeding, but I need to stitch her up, I don't have everything I need."
"You will." Christian assured her, then he registered the dampness soaking his trousers, "Ana?"
"Oh, I forgot," his wife smiled up at him, "my water broke." She looked up at Mckenna, "It kind of distracted me, that's why I forgot to get the gun."
"The Gun?" What the hell?
"We'd planted weapons all over the house." Mckenna explained.
"What?" he looked between the crazy women, and his wife. What the hell was going on in his own house?
"Grey?" Lena spoke up, "You did hear that part about your wife's water breaking right? I mean, if you want to sit hear and run your trap about what went down it's all good, but your wife should probably head to the hospital, you know to have the baby."
Christian blinked, his mouth falling open, "Right, yes. Taylor, call 911..."
"Ambulance is already on the way."
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