Ana had just finished blow drying her hair and was applying moisturizer cream to her arms and legs when she hear the knock on the door. She grabbed her robe and heard Gail call out her name.
Slipping her robe on, she called for Gail to enter.
Gail smiled. "Ana, Mr Grey and Mr Welch have asked if you could join them downstairs as soon as possible. They have some photos they need you to look at."
"Of course, Gail. I'll get dressed and be right down."
Gail nodded with a smile and left. Ana dressed quickly and went downstairs. A shaved and showered Taylor was waiting for her. It looked odd to see him in casual clothes, He was wearing a white undershirt under an open zip up jacket fleece jogging jacket, the bulge of his shoulder holster clearly evident and a pair of Elliot jeans and sneakers.
He smiled warmly and said, "If you would follow me, Ms Grey." Ana fell in behind him and soon found herself in a warm, bright study. Mr Welch was standing in front of a computer monitor and Mr Carrick Grey was beside him. She looked around for Christian and realized he wasn't there.
"Please, sit." Carrick gestured towards an empty chair in front of his desk. "I apologize for the subterfuge. Christian is still with his mother. We really do need to speak with you but I have it on reliable authority that once together, it is unlikely anyone will see you before sometime tomorrow afternoon."
Ana blushed beet red and spun her head to look at Taylor who was blushing as well. "Taylor!"
"I do apologize Mame, but quite frankly, I intend to do the same with Gail. I can tell you right now, for sure she will not be preparing breakfast and if I have my way, she won't be down for lunch either."
Ana's blush deepened as she openly grinned at Taylor. "Okay, you guys. Ask away because when Christian comes, he is going to insist on feeding me. He has this thing with food..."
The entire room burst into laughter. "We are aware of his obsession with food. Unfortunately ately. We took the precaution of setting up a buffett in the corner."Carrick replied with a smile.
Just then, a casually dressed Christian strode into the room without knocking. He stood behind her, hands resting comfortably on her shoulders and announced, "No questions until she eats."
"Christian. I can't eat right now. I'm too on edge. I need to know what's happening. Please. Your father has set up food in the corner. Go. Eat."
Christian frowned then pulled a chair over and sat down beside her, murmurring, "I can wait."
"Are you sure, Christian?" Carrick asked.
Christian nodded yes, if a bit reluctantly.
"Very well." Carrick then looked at Welch, and the two men exchanged places. Carrick sat in a chair next to Taylor and Welch sat down behind the desk.
"Ms Steele, " he began, "We are going to show you so some photos and ask you if any are familiar." Welch explained. With that he opened a manila folder and slid a handful of large glossy photos across the desk towards Ana.
Ana stared at each photo and then went to the next until she suddenly gasped. "Him! I know him! He was our waiter the other night when we had dinner with Mr Li and his family."
"How can you be so sure?" Welch asked
"His name is Sarawut. I had a conversation with him in Thai. He is a student at the University of Malaya. He is from Bangkok and studying medicine. Why?"
"Actually, he is the facilitator for the biggest international slave ring in Thailand. He goes by the name Yak Sang. Barney's facial software picked up on him immediately. He was in the hotel lobby as well. We know he fired the shots that hit Sawyer, not Elena Lincoln. Its on the surveillance tapes. What we are not clear on is who was his target."
Ana sat, bewildered and perplexed, trying to imagine some reason, hell, any reason, why her relationship with Christian would make her a target for an International slave ring. They had to be wrong. The shooter had to be aiming at Elena. Nothing else made any sense. She reached for Christian's hand and held it between both of hers. It was ice cold.
She looked over at him, but his eyes were closed. His face wore a painful grimace. "Stop that!" She whispered harshly. "Stop blaming yourself for every damn thing that happens."
Welch had stopped speaking and everyone was looking at them. Embarrassed, she felt herself blush as she explained, she'd more or less tuned out after finding out she may have been the target.
"What to you think Ana? Do you feel like you were the target?"
"I really find it hard to believe a slave ring I never knew about in a country I have never been to would want me dead. It makes no sense, especially when there is no connection to Christian. It had to be Elena."
"I understand, that was our original presumption as well until we discovered the slave ring uses Li's containers to ship slaves all around the world. They have a vested interest in seeing that Christian does not purchase the shipyard."
Ana was horrified, "Does Mr Li know?"
Welch explained how it would be naive to think that he is receiving enormous sums of money from Thai traders known to be part of the slave industry in Thailand and not know.
"That is so disgusting! And I had dinner with him? Yuck!"Christian spoke then, his voice cold and unemotional, his face devoid of expression. "Are they responsible for the events that took place in Seattle?"
Welch looked Christian right in the eye, "I am sorry, sir, but Seattle is still under investigation. The only new information I have received is that we were able to obtain the photos and video you wanted from the Lincoln home."
"Not good enough, Welch!" Christian shouted angrily, standing up abruptly. "I want to know who fucked with my family and I want to know today, not fucking yesterday. Where is Elena Lincoln?"
"Sir, we have been unable to locate Ms Lincoln."
"And just what the fuck is that supposed to mean Welch? Where is she? Who's hiding her?"
"Unknown sir, at this point we can't tell if she's still in Malaysia or if she's left. Her Thai connections with the slave ring could easily get across the border with no questions asked. Barney has been searching for her through the traffic and security cameras in Kuala Lumpur but it's a very small system. They have, maybe, fifteen hundred cameras for the entire city whereas London has forty thousand cameras. She hasnt turned up anywhere, for all we know, she could be dead. We can't draw any more conclusions until we have more updated intel.
"Are all of my people out of Malaysia?"
"Yes sir. Sawyer and Ryan were flown out this morning."
"When do you expect new intel?"
"Information has been streaming in quite rapidly. The situation changes from hour to hour. the latest intel we have is that Li's son was the insider who tipped off the kidnappers. Whoever arranged the kidnapping knew what was going down in Seattle."
"Do you think it was Li?"
"Too early to say, sir. There are a lot of players. You have Li, the other Chinese who only want a sale to another Chinese. Then there are the government players, the unseen hand of the royal family that will only approve a sale to a Malaysian muslim. Its no secret either side would be happy to see you out of the way. Then there's the slave ring and lastly Elena Lincoln. There could be others. Over the years, you have made many enemies and every one of them would like nothing better than to see you fall on your face, to see you lose what you hold dear and to bankrupt you anyway they can."
Christian's temper fades away as he acknowledged the truth of Welch's words. He stopped pacing and stood still, one hand clenching his hair. Welch was right and all Christian was doing was wasting his time. He sighed, long and hard as despair washed over him. Then Ana was standing beside him, sliding an arm around his waist. She didn't say a word, she didn't need to. Her touch comforted him. It felt so good, yet at the same time, so foreign and strange. He was so used to going it alone, it was hard to believe she actually still wanted to share his life. He pulled her close, holding her tight.
"How long can we expect to be here?"
"Unknown sir. We need reports from our engineers, not the fire department."
"How safe are we here?"
"It's a chateau, a french castle sitting on top of a hill overlooking sixty acres. It's been designed to be an exclusive retreat for royalty and heads of state as well as the extremely wealthy. The only way it could be attacked is by air. Needless to say, the entire sixty acre estate is a no fly zone with exception of the helicopter you flew in on."
"We are taking nothing for granted. No one is allowed outside for the time being. All we can do is hunker down and sift through all our sources and Intel and figure out the who, what and why's."
"Good job, Welch. I appreciate what you've done so far. Thank you for keeping my family safe. Please enjoy the food you set up. Ana?"
Ana just shook her head no and whispered, "Later."
"I really don't think I can eat right now either. We are going to get some rest. Taylor, you are off for the next 24 hours."
"Thank you sir." a surprised Taylor gratefully replied.
Christian looked around d the room to see his father, Welch and Taylor all smiling. "What's everyone smiling about?"
Taylor quickly replied, "Everyone's been dreading this meeting and now it's over. We're happy"
Christian looked at Taylor like he had two heads. "You've been up too long Taylor. Get some sleep."
"Don't worry, sir. I plan to be in my bed real soon."
"Good, Taylor. You deserve to rest."
Ana couldn't hold her giggles in any longer. She and Taylor took one look at each other and they both lost it. Soon the whole room was laughing, even Christian.
As he tried to catch his breath between gales of laughter, he asked Ana "Why am I laughing? I don't even know!"
She hugged him then and whispered huskily in his ear, "It doesn't matter, as long as you can still laugh, everything will be alright."
Christian looked down at his petite love and suddenly the old expression made sense, laughter is the best medicine. He held her away from him then and looked down into her blue eyes, eyes that shimmered with tears from laughing so hard and suddenly the need to laugh faded as a deeper need became more apparent.
"I need you." He whispered softly amid the loud laughter in the room.
"Me too. Can we go?"
"Come on!" And hand in hand the two walked quickly do the door.
