A special thank you to Stargazer93 and Philaenis- amazing ladies and even more amazing authors!
After multiple, deliciously toe-curling orgasms, I was lying on top of Christian, enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning. For the first time in a while I felt truly relaxed. But sex with Christian was bound to do that. He broke the silence first.
"What were you planning to do after graduation before Sawyer roped you into all of this?" he asked softly, trailing his fingers up and down my bare spine.
I turned my head, my chin resting in his chest. "I wanted to go into publishing. But no one hires English majors."
He chuckled. "I did."
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, but we both know there were other things at play."
"I don't regret it though," he said seriously. "I can count on one hand the number of people who are truly loyal to me and whom I trust with my life. You're one of them."
I frowned. I was loyal, but I was too loyal. "I'm too loyal, Christian. When will you realize that?"
He shrugged. "As long as no one gets hurt, it's not a problem."
I sat up, grabbing the sheet. "People have been hurt! You let me kill for you."
"I never asked you to kill Sawyer, Anastasia. That's on you," he said harshly. I scoffed in disbelief.
"What the fuck?"
He shook his head, standing up from the bed. "Now we might have to deal with fallout of an FBI investigation. I don't blame you for killing him."
I frowned. "You need to decide what role you want me to play here, Christian. I can't be kept in the dark anymore. In case you didn't notice, I've been wading through shit for months. I'm surprised I haven't been killed yet. What am I to you Christian? A fuck buddy? An experiment to see if you can be with a normal woman instead of a submissive? Or am I just an employee you like sleeping with?"
He sighed and sat down on one of the arm chairs across the room after slipping on a pair of boxers. "I like having you around."
I rolled my eyes. "You need to spell it out."
Exhaling heavily, he ran a hand though his hair. "I don't know what to call this, what kind of relationship we have, but I see you by my side, every step of the way. In both capacities. I can't imagine being without you, Anastasia. I know you're planning to wait until Gwen comes back from her maternity leave to quit, but I don't think I can let you. You're too good at your job. And I know it's selfish to keep you here, under my roof, but I don't want to let you go."
I felt my face soften at his words. Christian needed more friends in his life. "What are you planning to do about Elliot?"
Christian sighed. "My parents are giving him one last chance. He had to build a new warehouse for one of our Mafia connections. If he fucks it up, or anyone gets wind of what he's building, he's out."
I raised an eyebrow. "So we just have to set it on fire?"
Christian shook his head. "I'm going to move some people from The Jungle and tell them to live there. Then, I'm going to kill our Mafia contact. We don't need any more from them and our business relationship has run its course. It's profitable for them to have us do their construction work, but their job of disposing bodies for us is a redundant service."
"Jesus," I said sitting down. I knew that the Grey family business was regarded as one of the most dangerous crime families or organizations in the world, but I never really made an effort to peer behind the curtain like this. "How involved is this person in the Mafia?"
He shrugged. "An associate would be the best word. It's just going to be a standard drive-by in a stolen car. Nothing that Clayton or Paul can't handle."
"What about Elena? Who killed Mia? Who bombed my apartment? Hell, who came after you that night at the bar?" I asked, struggling to wrap my mind around everything.
"Elena killed Mia," he said, defeated and with a tone of finality. My heart broke for him all over again. "The bar incident was an attempted assassination. But that was dealt with. As for your apartment, we still don't know anything. And as usual, the police are incompetent fuckers."
"What's the play?" I asked softly, walking over to him and gently lifting his chin up, forcing his eyes to meet mine.
"She has so much leverage, so many contingency plans if she gets killed. One of my past submissives claimed that she would leak images and documents if anything happened to Elena," he said. "I'm not sure I can even trace the trail, if I were to kill Susannah and Elena. She knows exactly what she's doing."
"Issac is coming back," I said. "We just need time, Christian. We'll figure this out."
He nodded and sighed. "We should get ready for work."
I nodded in agreement. It was going to be a long day. "Christian, you know you didn't have to buy me so many clothes, right?"
He chuckled. "Force of habit. I don't do things halfway, Anastasia. You should know that by now."
I left his bedroom and up to my white room to get dressed. I made a mental list of all of the things I had to get done today. I needed to talk to Barney and ask him if I should tell Christian about the mystery phone calls. And I needed another way to figure out what Christian's endgame was.
I was tired of operating from half-truths and guesses. And now there was a potential threat from the FBI, I needed to know everything. And with Grace panicking about losing control over her children, I really needed to know what Christian's true goal was.
I slipped into the elevator with him, both of us dressed in suits. I bit my lip.
"Christian, what will you do once you are in control of the family business?" I asked. He had never revealed his goal. Just that he wanted to take over.
He sighed. "Since Mia was killed, I'm going to do what I do best. I'm going to take it apart and sell the pieces to the highest bidder. That's why the Martinez Cartel is involved. They'll take over the coke running and meth cooking. As for the gun running, there's been interest from the IRA resurgence in Ireland to have contacts in the United States. They can get guns from Russia, but it's cheaper for them to be shipped from the US. Especially if they're dirty guns in the US, it will take them much longer for the Irish police to find out where they came from than if they came from Russia. So as it stands, the IRA is very interested in taking over the illegal gun business for us."
I was sure that my mouth was open in shock. "You're going to be selling guns to terrorists?"
He nodded. "I can't just stop the business. The suppliers from the Philippines will kill me if they have no one to distribute their guns to."
I frowned, but followed him into the Audi. There had to be another way. A different group that wouldn't do as much damage if they had got their hands on a direct pipeline of illegal weapons.
"Don't overthink it Anastasia. I need one clean shipment to go through, then I step away. Then, I can tip off the government about shipping routes and methods," he said, sensing my stress and fear.
I nodded. That was a risky option, but it was clear Christian was growing a conscience after Mia. "That's risky."
He nodded. "My hands are tied with all of this. Right now, I need to drop everything and focus on how to get Elena out of my life."
"You remember that I pulled Mia's phone records before the police right?" I asked him gently. He nodded, allowing me to continue. "I think Sawyer told her what Elena did to you. Mia went after her on her own. I killed Sawyer when he approached me at the funeral, probably trying to explain. I didn't let him talk, though."
Christian inhaled sharply. "Thank you for killing him. He deserved a fate worse than death."
I shivered at Christian's cold words. "I draw the line at death, Christian."
He chuckled darkly. "Then it's a good thing you weren't with Taylor when he picked up Flynn. Taylor was more than happy to take care of that fucker."
I bit my lip, under what to say or how to react. I appreciated Christian's honesty, but I still had to process everything. Speaking to Barney was the number one priority.
I waited patiently outside of Barney's office as soon as we arrived at GEH. Christian had legitimate business meetings to take of and he needed to show a little more involvement, especially with the FBI sniffing around.
"Anastasia, what can I do for you?" Barney asked, ushering me into his office, waving at me to sit down.
I smiled at him. "Christian explained much more about the family business."
Barney nodded. "About time. As I've mentioned, I am completely loyal to him, not to anyone else. I'm assuming you have a lot of questions."
I nodded. "I need some advice first. Should I mention the phone calls the Christian?"
Barney nodded. "The mysterious called never mentioned that you couldn't let anyone else know?"
"They just said 'we're always watching' as a cryptic warning," I explained.
"No harm in it. We've already enlisted Welch to help, but he's a dead end, so I don't see any dangers in tell him," Barney said. "Have you received any more calls?"
I shook my head. "Nothing has really happened. do you think Grace trusts me?"
Barney frowned. "Flynn never got a chance to reveal to her what he knew, further than a hunch he had about you. She won't trust any outsider though. But she does trust Christian, and by extension you. Tread carefully around her, Anastasia. She won't hesitate to hurt you if she thinks that you are influencing Christian in any way."
I nodded, heeding his warning. Grace was a formidable woman and that scared me. What scared me more was her ability to allow her son to be molested and raped without doing anything about it. Thinking about it, there was something fishy about her connection to Elena. I made a mental note to look into that option with Gwen. "What about the press and media attention, is there any way to control it?"
Barney shook his head. "There's no way to disprove the rumors about the crime family, and Christian is such an influential figure, they'll always be around. If you two are planning something, please tell Christian that he and I need to have a chat about planning."
I chuckled. "Everything he says sounds good on paper, but we both know he doesn't like to think about contingencies. I'm glad he has someone like you, Barney. He needs all the help he can get."
Barney nodded solemnly. "It's time he moves away from the less legal side of things. He can't afford to lose much more."
I gave him a sad, small smile as I left his office and nearly collided with Gwen.
"Oh thank goodness! We've got a situation," Gwen said hurriedly, dragging me back into Barney's office. He looked up at us, slightly surprised, but waited for Gwen. "Sorry Barney, we needed somewhere to talk. And, do you have your gun?"
I nodded, digging around in my bag and pulling it out.
"Great, we've got to go!" she exclaimed, about to open the door to the office.
"Gwen, what's going on?" I asked, concerned.
"Elliot has gone after the cartel. And this wasn't approved by Grace or Carrick, so we have to stop him before Christian deicides he's too much of a liability and kills him himself" she said impatiently. She pulled open the door, leaving me to follow her. "I'll explain more in the car, but we really have to go. You can think about this on the drive over."
I nodded and chambered a round, shoving my gun down the back of my pants, making sure my blazer covered the outline.
Wow! Thank you so much for the support! The response to this story has been and continues to be incredible :)
I will be starting the concluding chapter of this story soon, so here's fair warning. Don't worry, all of your questions will be answered, mysteries will be solved, and Christian and Ana will live happily ever after...
Please check out my other story, La Femme Fatale!
Also check out the amazing ladies I mentioned at the start of this chapter! This story would be no where without them!
And a special thank you to the amazing group of ladies in the best Facebook group ever- much love.
Find me on Facebook: Mosaic Twenty-Three
Find me on Pinterest: search /mosaic23/
