There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch, it's bringing me out the dark
Finally I can see you crystal clear
Go 'head and sell me out and I'll lay your shit bare
See how I leave with every piece of you
Don't underestimate the things that I will do

Rolling in the Deep - Adele

Maryland, 1987

Eight o'clock and there was no dinner, again. When Kate started to cry because she was hungry and tired, he went in search of their mother. She was asleep on the sofa.

"Mama. Mama." He nudged her shoulder gently with the certain knowledge that she would not wake up. He removed the cup from her hand and sniffed the contents, screwing up his nose. Cups were deposited strategically all over the house and none of them ever held coffee. He had no idea what his mother was drinking but it didn't smell nice. In the cup, or on her breath.

He knew how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so he had made them for he and his sister and they had eaten their food with large glasses of milk in the makeshift tent in her room. At first, this routine had been a fun adventure but now it made him sad and angry. It wasn't always like this. Sometimes his mother was well enough that she would suddenly fill the kitchen with the smells of good food and fresh baking. Then they would laugh and dance around the house until late at night. But there were more and more days like this, where she never left the house or got dressed, leaving him to decide what to eat and how to get to school. Sometimes, she would try to drive him and that was worse than if he walked by himself.

Locating a blanket, he draped it over her as she lay on the couch. She had murmured and then began crying in her sleep. The sadness that permeated the house, was punctuated by his father's anger. His friends' parents were happy, laughing people. He wished that his parents could be like that. He remembered when they were. He was sure that Kate had never seen that happiness in her short life and he didn't think it was right to tell her that once, it had been different.

She stirred, and when he had asked her what they were having for dinner, she rolled over, turning her back on him and told him to leave her alone.

"Mama, please. Please get up. We're hungry." He shook her shoulders.

"Go and ask your father," she murmured with an angry edge.

Something in him broke. All the months of taking care of Kate when he wanted to go and play with his friends. The nights of hiding with her under the blankets in their room when their parents would fight, pretending that he wasn't scared so that she wouldn't be. The scrounging for something to eat when his mother wouldn't get up off the couch. He grabbed the blanket and tugged as hard as he could, pulling his mother onto the floor with a hard thump. Standing over her, he screamed as he pummeled her shoulder with impotent six year old fists and hot angry tears.

"I can't ask Daddy, because you sent him away. You made him angry and he won't come home. Why did you do that? Why did you make him go?"

Seattle, Thursday July 7 2011

The room is dimly lit with only one piece of furniture in the center. The young woman is strapped over the bench, face down, unable to move much more than her head. A blindfold is over her eyes, depriving her of at least one sense. Another sense had been diminished by the wearing of earbuds connected to an iPod strapped to her upper arm. Her body is relaxed, breathing even.

From behind the glass, I can hear and see everything. Cameras pick up the action from the corners that the one-way glass doesn't allow me to see clearly. The music she is listening to is streamed quietly into the viewing booth and sensitive microphones pick up the other noises in the room, even the rise in her breath. A computer screen in the booth gives out a constant stream of data, including readings from her heart monitor and that of her dom.

Christian has refused to put himself directly in the position of demonstrator on the basis that his relationship with Ana is exclusive, private and sexual in nature. I admire that about him. He has, however, made arrangements for me to watch demonstrations with other doms at a club called the Jade Stalk, which I do under his supervision.

"Watch how he brings the blood to the surface, never pushing her past what she can stand." They have talked about this at length. How to read the body and push the limits without breaking them. It is not unlike interrogation techniques except that the torture is consensual and the limits are harder. In most cases. I observe but don't take notes. Christian will put me on the receiving end of this demonstration in a little while and that should be the extent of the note-taking I require.

I don't want to think about the type of therapy we will both require after he has played dominant to my submissive for a few weeks. More importantly, he is introducing me to the set. Once I have become a fixture in the Seattle scene, it will only be a matter of time before he can sponsor my membership to Orpheus. At that point, I would imagine my need for Christian's services will be somewhat diminished.

Seattle, Thursday July 7 2011

Later, over drinks, he pushes me further. We try not to talk at the club but in a crowded bar, more can be discussed. The trouble is how do you solve a problem like my Mia.

"You need to be more careful with Mia than I will be with you." There is an edge of disgust to his voice and a grim line to his mouth that I can't miss. The tension is about all the things he doesn't know about his little sister. I decide to throw him a bone but it won't make him any happier about who she really is.

"Mia can take more than I can. She underwent her interrogation training with an ex-KGB operative." He doesn't look at me but the white skin of his clasped hands is a pretty fucking strong indicator that he's not happy. Not happy at all. "What I mean is that pain is not the issue."

The silence stretches out.

"How can you stand it?" Still not looking at me, he speaks low and quiet.

"What?" I could guess at what he's talking about but the dude needs to open up. He's going to blow a gasket, he's wound so fucking tight.

"She's your wife. How can you put her in danger like this?" Now we're getting somewhere. I can imagine what a riot Christian would be in group therapy.

"The agency is all that she knows. Whether you and your family like it, or not. She's been in since she was 15 years old so it's not like I have any choice in what she does."

Frustrated, I am torn between reminding him constantly that it's her job and that this shit storm started a long, long time ago, with him. He and his sister have both been manipulated in different ways. They're both victims but neither of them have chosen to see themselves that way. Keeping their secrets safe is a heavy burden and I want to confide in Christian but it just doesn't seem worth the risk. A little knowledge could, in his case, be a dangerous thing. Like lighting a powder keg.

"You said that you need some introductions." We have talked about this a few times. It has become known around Orpheus that Mia was being prepared for the slave auction. Elena seems to have a key role in slave preparation with a number of submissives and Mia's inclusion has been accepted but perhaps not quite condoned. Our knotting scene has gone a long way in getting Jenna to back off but she still seems intent on blocking us. Since nobody outside of the agency and the family knew that Elena is Mia's mother, there is no suspicion cast on her working with Elena, just another celebutante with a fixation on a kink itch she'd like to scratch. As for me, since the knotting, I am one of a number of potential doms who have expressed an interest in her. She is not being taken seriously as a viable submissive, one that can be trained. However, simply purchasing her doesn't give us the 'in' that we need. For us to find out who will be included on the next cruise out of Seattle, we both need membership and we're a long way from that happening.

"Yeah, there are a couple of people who have climbed to the top of our need to know list." Christian raises an eyebrow. Yet, another piece of information that I would need to strategically drop on him and probably soon. "We need contact with the power brokers at Orpheus."

"I have my reservations. These are not people that I would invite into my home. I certainly wouldn't introduce them to my sister, even if she is becoming known at Orpheus."

"We need someone with a weakness. Someone with something to lose. Someone we can manipulate." I already have the name of the person I most want to connect with but a simply introduction as a consituent is not the way to do this. He needs to know that I have the right sort of connections.

"McClusky?" Christian is no idiot. I nod. "You planned on him all along."

"He's an easy target." The good senator is a relationship broker, with 'business' and political associates all over the globe. He is treated as a bit of a running joke in the halls of power; a bumbling idiot who knows everybody but is easily purchased. If you want to swing a vote, McClusky is your man. I suspect he is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for, after all, swing votes come at a pretty hefty financial cost and McClusky has holiday homes in some of the most beautiful spots on the planet. He gets to use them regularly, too. He has one major weakness though. Kink. He likes leather, masks, anal plugs with fluffy tails and any combination of underage boys and girls. If we didn't need his services, he would have been thrown behind bars years ago. The lack of ethics around that decision isn't lost on us. Another reason, Mia and I will walk after this is over. "But he needs to see me as more than a potential media leak. Being Sam Kavanagh's son carries too much risk. I want him to take me seriously but not be threatened by me."

Christian nods as he takes another sip of his drink. "Are you going to tell me what the hell happened yesterday?"

He's talking about the incident at the bar when he and I were having drinks with Elliot. For anyone on the outside, it looked like Elliot couldn't hold his drink. But Christian and I were there and although Elliot was drinking a lot, things turned too goddamn fast for it to have been a case of a couple of drinks too many. Unfortunately, the tension between Elliot and Christian can be cut with a knife at the moment and Christian, being the arrogant bastard he is, wasn't up for hearing any home truths from Elliot. That, in the end, was probably a good thing.

"Remember the waitress?" I hold my hands cupped in front of my chest. Christian looks at me through narrowed eyes. Yep, everyone remembers the waitress, well her tits at least, except for my brother-in-law, who only has eyes for his fiancee. Another good thing. "She got waylaid by some guy on her way to the table with that last round. I'm figuring the guy slipped a little something, something into Ells shot glass."

"Shit! Why?" Christian had been there with Jason Taylor, standing guard over us. Jason had been the one to notice the exchange, Christian had noticed the residue powder in the glass, after I had wrestled Elliot and his dog, Zeus, away from the bar. However, finding the evidence and connecting the dots weren't going too well. The way that their lives had been plagued by nutcases and looneys in the past few weeks, Christian would easily swallow the potential lie.

"I'm figuring it was either a warning shot for him or it was meant for you."

"Me?" Oh, Chris, the shit I could share with you. But I don't. Christian Grey is a study in arrogance. The term Master of the Universe was invented with him in mind, and no matter what agencies are breathing down his neck, he thinks he can solve this thing on his own. I figure he could probably come close but in doing that, our big fish won't end up fried and the CIA is all about the end game. Time for some misdirection.

"You're a man of interest, dude. And now you're about to take your most eligible status and park it for good. Maybe someone wants to see you reconsider."

"You knew this was happening and you did nothing?"

"Nah. I'm not that stupid. My focus was on getting Elliot back to my sister in one piece. She's scarier than some roofie-laden witch trying to cast voodoo over your sorry ass."

"You really think it was for me?" Statement rather than question. Score.

"I dunno, man. I dunno." But I'm pretty sure I do. The waitress hadn't been very forthcoming when I went back to question her. That's because her body had been found this morning, floating in the bay. Neither Christian nor Elliott needed to know that. Hell, I'm not even sure I was supposed to know that. Helen Manders had no priors and had been a member of the bar staff for six months. A bit of digging on Mia's part revealed that she was also known as Yelena Chmerovskiy, formally of the Ukraine and sometime employee at Club Orpheus She had married Harold Manders a year ago to gain her green card before poor old Harry had been found curling up his toes on an abandoned trail in a local national park. He had been a contractor for Lincoln Timber and someone Linc owed a lot of money too.

Earlier in the day

Back at Elliot's Tree House there had been some deep intense discussion about the latest developments. Kate began with pontificating on Elliot being drugged before told us that Linc approached her at the night club and tried to get information about Christian's latest deal in Asia by threatening to hurt her. If Elliot wasn't already sick with the after effects, he certainly looked ill when she dropped that bombshell.

Although nobody in the room knows it, Christian is in talks with a major shipbuilding venture in Qingdao, China, hence his connections with the Jade Stalk. A major Japanese shareholder is selling up assets and GEH looked set to take over, gaining both the shipbuilding and the container port access that goes with it. It is one hell of a deal and the port access opens up all sorts of avenues for future growth. Mia had shown me the projections about a month before we left Paris but that shit bores the crap out of me. Multi-billionaire makes big overseas investments and finds ways of making himself more fucking money than he needs in ten lifetimes, ya da, ya da, ya da. It was the trade routes that interested me because of the proximity to some of our favorite hot spots. If Lincoln thought he could get in on any of that action, he would be opening up a hornet's nest of shady deals the likes of which the Western seaboard had never seen before.

As I listen to her speak, I watch Elliot. Lincoln has threatened Kate, threatened him and now Lincoln is threatening to take surveillance tapes to the police that show Elliot and James delivering a very beaten up Lincoln to the emergency department doors of Bellevue Hospital. The threat to Kate is the one that would land Elliot in jail if he found himself in a lonely alley with Linc and an electric drill. Linc put a choke hold on Kate so hard that she's been sporting big fucking ugly bruises for days. While my brain is protesting at bullies who leave marks on women, I'm wrestling with the mission Mia and I are preparing for and feeling just a touch of vomit in my mouth at what marks that will leave on her.

But right now, I have to keep my mind in the game and Lincoln's game is blackmail. You see, Linc Lincoln likes to beat up women. Five or so years back he beat up a dancer at Siren's so bad that she couldn't move properly for six months. She never really danced again swapping her pole for the choreographer's gig. What's more, the head injuries were such that she can't remember any of it. The dancer, Stella, is a good friend of Elliot and his boys, who took it upon themselves to visit a little retribution on Linc as payback when Stella was too scared and too vague due to the head pounding she took, to press charges. Only, they couldn't leave the bastard to bleed out in some dark alley, instead, delivering him to safety and getting caught on CCTV for their troubles. Somehow, Lincoln got hold of those surveillance tapes and has been waiting for the right time to put them into circulation. Seems the right time is now.

To make it worse, the history with Lincoln and Elena goes deep and far. Some of their shit, Elliot and Christian don't have a damn clue about but there is just as much crap that they do know. Lincoln and Christian have been playing corporate chicken for years but its so much more than just mergers and acquisitions. Linc sabotaged Christian's Harvard career when he sent him a sub to play with and then after a night of drugs and booze, left her for dead in a motel room. Elliot cleaned up that mess with the help of Taylor, long before Taylor went to work for Christian, but it ensured that Christian could not return to college. Elena added fuel to the fire by using the proceeds of an out of court settlement for domestic violence to fund Christian's first foray into business. Lincoln has had to watch his back ever since. Now it seems Lincoln is going to use Kate in his next move and that means that he wouldn't be above using Ana either, or for that matter, me. We're all just fucking pawns in his little game of Destroy the Greys and one way or another we're going to have find a way to fight back. Some of the Grey family secrets are going to need to be revealed.

Convincing Kate and Elliot to go to his father for some much needed legal advice is easier than I hoped. Carrick Grey is pretty damn good at what he does. He's even better when a few CIA documents fall across his desk that implicate Lincoln in some other shady deals around town. Nothing that will put him away but enough that will hurt him financially. Given the stranglehold Christian currently has on Lincoln Timber shares, Linc can't afford to pursue this angle but we also don't want to tip Christian off and give him any excuse to shut Lincoln down. Not if we are going to get to the bigger players.

Seattle, Sunday July 3 2011

Jensen taps his fingers against the table top while he studies my report from the Iconic opening event last night. A stressful evening wrapped up in 24 hours of hot and heavy sex with Mia means we're both exhausted and running on empty. Plus Mia had to get to a family brunch this morning at Bellevue which ended up being a shitfest of its own. Consequently, the dripping tap effect is getting on my last nerve.

"You're sure that Linc saw you together last night?" Everyone fucking saw us sexing it up with Christian's ex-sub on the dance floor so even though Linc had left the club by this stage, he would have heard it from someone. Mia steps in before I say something stupid.

"He saw us. He knows me." Her face is impassive. The type of expression that her brother has mastered.

"What are the chances that he has cultivated your friend to get to you?" He's talking about the connection with Mia's friend Lily. Stupid little twat has no idea what she has got herself into and now it looks like we're going to have to get her out of the way.

"I'm fairly sure that's exactly why." Again, no expression, as if she feels nothing. I know Mia. She might hate Lily's guts but she wouldn't want the girl to get seriously hurt by that animal.

"Can she be turned into an asset?" Mia glances at me. I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her but Mia knows her better than I do.

"Lily is flaky, at best. I've known her a long time but she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer and she doesn't know the definition of loyalty. She doesn't need money but the notoriety might be enough to keep her on a leash."

To my surprise, Jensen looks at me and then he says the one thing I hoped he wouldn't. "Okay, profiler, do your thing."

"Lily is pretty much as Mia described her. She has narcissistic tendencies. She's the youngest and an only daughter, spoiled by her parents over-indulgence but destroyed by their emotional unavailability." I could be describing Kate and a million other girls across the state. "She defines herself by the men she's involved with and tends to covet what she perceives others to have. Lincoln will appeal to her on a paternal level which makes her the ideal submissive to his dominant trait. While she has a calculating personality when it comes to dealing with other women, there is a chance that she will readily submit to his harder core kink. She has intricate tattoo work on her inner arms indicating that she has a history of cutting and that she is likely to crave the hard core element of kink to feed her pain addiction."

I can't look at Mia. The sharp intake of breath and rigid set of her body tells me that she had no idea about Lily's habits. That shouldn't change the fact that Lily is capable of being a manipulative bitch and I would rather Mia stayed away from her but I figure that horse just bolted.

"This situation with your sister. Can we use that?" I'm going to thump him. This time, Mia speaks up to save me from myself. For a smart shit, Rory doesn't read his agents very well. He'll be lucky to walk out of here alive, the rate he's going.

"Kate will step up to protect Elliot. We're sure of it." Kate has been on the About Town team since she joined Kavanagh Media. While it was supposed to be a random allocation, Dad was ready to step in and pull her off the assignment. Kate wouldn't want any special favors and at the time I saw it as a plus. Now, it presented us with an opportunity to slow Lincoln down but it had put her directly in the path of the shit storm.

"Let's go through what we know about Lincoln, again." Rory brings Lincoln's ugly mug up on the big screen and starts to read through the file with an unemotional voice.

"Linc Lincoln, born Ilia Likhachyov in Odessa, Russia, 1958. He was thrown in prison for murder and extortion in 1980 and then mysteriously released and entered the US in 1986, through a loophole, as a refugee. Initially based in Cleveland, he ran a small prostitution ring. That same year he entered into an arranged marriage with Vladlena Tomaschek, also known as Lena Marie Thomas in Cleveland. Lena was the 16 year old daughter of Vladimir Tomaschek, also a Russian national and under his father-in-law's mentorship, Linc went legit. They were immediately sent to take over her father's business interests in Seattle that same year, where they befriended Carrick Grey in 1988. Lena left Lincoln in 1989 only to return in 1990, changing her name to Elena. Even though he was indicted for importing substandard materials a few years ago, no one has been able to pin anything more than a parking fine on Lincoln since he moved to Seattle."

Rory sits back and gazes up at the screen and pulls up the picture of a young Elena. Fuck, she looks like a blond Mia. I've seen Mia in a blond wig and make a mental note to cross that off her list of possible disguises. Rory gets up, breaking into my thoughts, "Mia - analysis."

Mia takes over, "We're sure that Kazanskaya, our local organised crime ring has financial interests in Lincoln Timber and Sirens and uses both as a cover for illegal activities out of South America and Asia. Various cells of Kazanskaya have been prosecuted for sex trafficking and more recently arms smuggling. The FBI also has Lincoln under surveillance for fraud, tax evasion and employing illegal immigrants. They suspect he is part of a larger network of fraud that may or may not include Grey Enterprises Holdings. GEH, and Christian Grey specifically, have been under Bureau surveillance for the past 8 months. The Asian shipyard deal has peaked their interest, as has the stealth takeover of Lincoln Timber by GEH shelf companies. There is no proof that the Lincolns have any connection with Kazanskaya's illegal operations."

What do we know about the Lincolns? Jensen looks at me. I refer to my notes.

"Elena and Linc split finally in 2004 after she was admitted to hospital with substantive physical injuries. Both the assault and the divorce were settled out of court. However, they have been, and continue to be, kink brokers at Orpheus. They have ties to some very powerful people on the Western Seaboard including foreign diplomats, local businessmen and politicians. Elena is in a relationship with ex-model turned interpreter, Isaac Mirov. Lincoln has had a string of women in the past decade and has currently begun a relationship with Lily Thomas."

I push out of my chair, fed up with this endless recycling of intel. We keep hitting brick walls with this shit and I'm getting anxious about going undercover. I can't hold back my frustration.

'We're rehashing shit we've known for a while. Don't we have anything else we can use?"

That arrogant speculation in Jensen's eye has me ready to leave the room. He's holding stuff back and we all know it. Finally, he slides a new folder across the table to us.

"This has been confirmed by our ghost. GEH shelf companies and Casey-Grey Construction started to buy into a range of building suppliers and technologies four years ago. The portfolio was diversified and nothing of particular interest until July 2010 when a subdivision of GEH bought a company called Berrick Tech Industries. BTI's subsidiaries were broken up and sold but the part that was retained was a controlling interest in Berrick-Cad which in turn is a major shareholder in Lincoln Timber."

"Not long after this, emails and photographs started to be leaked to Kavanagh Media, implicating the Grey family in a range of scandals. While we can only trace the origin of some of the photos back to Lincoln, it would be safe to say that this is his attempt at taking the family down. " It really is like some decades-old turf war. One day, Lincoln's going to wake up with a metaphorical horse's head in his bed courtesy of Christian Grey.

"What's the connection to Jack Hyde?" How I would love to nail Hyde to the wall.

"An unhappy accident from what we can tell. Hyde has his own axe to grind with Grey and he's been trying to find an angle. When he stumbled across the corporate interest with Lincoln Timber he approached Lincoln about using his contacts in publishing and journalism to leak information to Sam Kavanagh." Only, my dad, unlike Grandpa, is one of those rare media moguls who can't be bought or coerced. "Hyde has no idea that Lincoln has been cultivating him. Only, I think Lincoln might have bitten off more than he can chew. What do you think?"

I swing around and look at the photograph of Hyde on the evidence board. Standing, I approach and look into the fucker's eyes. This is the photograph I removed from the treehouse, one of Christian with his last foster family, just before his adoption by the Greys, the one I didn't want Kate to pursue.

"Hyde is unhinged. He's carrying around a 23 year old grudge against Christian Grey for being the one who got adopted by the good doctor and her husband. Lincoln might have primed him to attack but Hyde is following his own agenda here and he's become unpredictable. Lincoln will cut him loose soon, if he hasn't already."

We're all patently aware that the agency has lost track of Hyde, and that makes him more dangerous than the Bratva right now.

"We've got to hope that he does something to put himself back on our radar before the shit hits the fan."

"So, how do we stop Christian from going after Lincoln. Do you have him under control enough to get him to reign it in?" Rory's question is directed at Mia. She doesn't flinch but I see the tick in the corner of her eye.

"He's sidetracked by his wedding. That's only a couple of weeks away." She doesn't even blink as she speaks but one glance at her knuckles tensed and white has me moving quickly back to her side.

Watching her getting more and more churned up inside about the way she and her family are being used is breaking my fucking heart. She's so goddamn strong but no one should have to deal with this much shit in their lives and whatever we think we know now is just scratching the fucking surface. I turn to Rory, effectively blocking his view of Mia.

"Kate and Elliot are going to offer some revelations to Christian over the next few days. Elliot is going to tell him about the assault on his friend Stella and how he and James Casey put Linc in hospital. Kate is going to tell him about the threats made to her at Iconic the other night. Unraveling the blackmail threats should keep him busy trying to dream up little plans to help them get out of Lincoln's firing line."

And when they are out of his sights, we better make sure we've got all of our guns lined up because he will be only a whiff of scandal away from being taken out by the FBI and that could mean game over for us.

"What about the membership plans?"

"I'm going to the fundraiser on Friday with my parents and on Christian's advice I'm going to try to get a meeting with McCluskey through one of his aides."

"And you?" Jensen looks at Mia.

"Yeah, I'll be there, although Sean cancelled out on me." Mia's gone to a few events with her friend Sean since she got back to Seattle. Knowing he's safe helps but I'd still rather that she was there with me. Only, we're back to playing it cool again so that Lincoln isn't tempted to look at us too closely.

"I'll take you." Mia and I both do a double take. Jensen doesn't look up from the file he's still studying. "I'll pick you up at 8. Dismissed."

"Rory, I don't think…" I'm biting my tongue so hard right now that I taste blood but he cuts Mia's protest off with a raised hand. I'm booked solid playing catch up with training this week so I would have to go out of my way to get back here to shred his balls over this decision and he knows it. Lowering his folder while holding her silent, he glares at her. Like the good girl she's becoming when faced with a dominant alpha order, she shuts up. Sometimes I really want the old Mia back but today, Jensen isn't entertaining any discussion about this.

"I said, dismissed." Mia throws a silent tantrum as she closes her laptop and flounces out of the office. All I can do is follow her. At least if Jensen is with her, there will be one more set of eyes watching her back.

A/N: Welcome to a 2016 Revised Chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Again, there are some stylistic edits and also some minor adjustments for the new version. Significantly, taking the training between Christian and Ethan out of Orpheus, seemed really important until Ethan gets his membership in place. Second, I wanted to bring Rory Jensen into the next chapter so he has a different response at the end of this one. By the way, google Jade Stalk. That bit of reading was fun!

Sasha xxx