Hello, readers . This is NOT a new story. I am simply trying to revise and re-proof my old stories before I move them over to my new page bluesky5679.
Computer issues forced me to open a new FanFic site…bluesky5678 is no longer operable. However, it is accessible…just drop down to Writer and enter the old page…5678.
All stories after #20 will be published on page bluesky5679.
To readers new and old, I hope that you enjoy this story. Thanks for your support and if one review at the end is not enough for you, please PM me.
In Part II, there are 30 chapters and 1 epilogue. All praise to E. for inventing the Freed world and for generously allowing amateurs like me to enter that world. Not all authors are so kind.
Christian Grey has never had to pursue a woman in his life. They've always been delivered to his door, chosen and vetted by his former dominatrix. However, this new woman he has found on his own. To win her, he'll go down a dark road. Can he win his prize and if he does, can he keep her?
Prisoner of Love Part II
CHAPTER 1
Ana was awake! She knew him! Christian began to breathe again after months of despair and desperation. Of course, all was not perfect. She was still hospitalized and there were issues with her memory…but her doctors told him that her recovery was a miracle. Now he wondered if he would welcome home a child or the woman he so needed. After a disappointing conference with Dr. Albright and a child psychologist, Christian was hurrying down to Ana's room in hopes that his woman would be waiting for him.
However, that wasn't all that was waiting. As he approached Ana's door, he froze in his tracks. The voice he heard coming from Ana's room chilled him to the bone while simultaneously bringing his blood to a boil. How the fuck did she dare come here?! How did she even get in? And where the fuck was Ana's CPO?
He didn't want to alarm Ana. He didn't even know what kind of shape she'd be in when he walked in. How long had she been at the mercy of this harridan? He softly pushed open the door…his arrival going unnoticed.
"I'll speak to the doctors and see how soon we can get you out of here and back home, darling. You need to be with family now," rasped out the smoke-damaged voice of Carla #5 or # 6 or whoever she was now.
"Yes," cackled the familiar voice of Elena Lincoln, "that will certainly be for the best. At a time like this a girl needs her mother, don't you agree, Ana? I'm only sorry that it took me so long to locate her and get her here to you but everything will be all right now."
Neither hag realized that Christian was in the room until Carla moved around to the other side of the bed and Ana was able to see Christian's face. Her eyes were wide open and filled with fear. She reached out her arms to him and he moved quickly to her, knocking Elena off to the side. Christian leaned down, kissing Ana and then moved to sit behind and wrap his arms around her. Ana was trembling as he gently rocked her and murmured soothingly to her.
Both women stared at him with blatant hatred, their faces plastic and painted, with yellow bouffant hair, blood-red lips and claws. Two vicious beasts who meant nothing but harm to Ana.
"Get out," Christian ordered, keeping his voice calm and low for Ana's sake.
"Christian, darling, shame on you for keeping a loving mother from her daughter. Her little girl has been missing for months and she had no idea."
Christian spoke with a bitter tone as he pointed out that Ana had been "missing" from Carla's life since she was 9-years-old when Carla signed away her parental rights to Ray Steele.
"Yes, well, if she had known that her daughter needed her, Carla would have been here for her. You kept them apart but she's here for her now. Time to say goodbye, Christian," Elena smiled with a voice filled with bile.
Oh, how he wanted to smack that red grimace from her face but he needed to keep Ana calm. She'd begun to relax in his arms. She felt safe and was now just watching the grim little improv in front of her with curiosity. This was her mother whom she hadn't laid eyes on in 13 years. Her memories were of anger, despair, beatings, hungerand a loathing of her by her mother that she'd never understood. Ana felt tears brimming and beginning to trickle down her cheeks.
"She's my daughter, Mr. Grey. She needs to come home with me. I'll take care of her until she's well. Then she can take care of me in return. I'm all alone now. My husband left and my health isn't the best anymore."
It was true. Carla was not yet 40 but she looked like a haggard old lady of 70…wrinkled, dry skin, lips thin and her mouth lined from sucking on cigarettes. Her eyes, maybe once ocean blue like Ana's but now faded and watery. She was quite thin except for a pot belly due to her love of beer.
"Ana is not going to devote herself to caring for a woman who gave her nothing but grief for the first nine years of her life. Ana deserves to be cared for and cherished," Christian asserted as he smiled down into the deep blue eyes of his beloved.
"And you were a fool to trust that this she-witch, Elena Lincoln, could secure you a caretaker.
"Neither of you is on the visitors list. I am having you both removed immediately and barred from returning to this hospital or to our home. And, Elena, I will deal with you later. You have proven yourself to be a danger to my girlfriend and will be dealt with accordingly."
At this, Christian took out his phone and notified both security and Taylor.
"You can't get rid of Ana's mother quite so easily, Christian. She has legal rights that you do not have," Elena screeched, her face as red as her talons.
"Ana is not a child. She is of legal age, an adult, who can speak for herself."
Christian looked down at Ana. "Do you want to give your mother legal custody of you or do you want to stay with me?" He was confident of her answer.
Ana looked at the pathetic figure before her. She remembered her mother as a pretty woman in her twenties and this thing in front of her was a ghastly stranger…but still…
"Christian, can we do something for her? I don't want to be around her but I feel bad for her. Please?"
He could refuse her nothing…even though he wanted her egg donor to feel half the suffering she'd put Ana through. Glaring at Carla with eyes narrowed to slits, he conveyed what he'd like to do to her.
"Do you realize who I am, Carla? Hmm? Do you know what I could do to you…what I'd like to do to you every night that Ana wakes up screaming with nightmares thanks to you and the brutes you unleashed on your tiny daughter? But Ana is not like me. She wants only good for others, even for people who've hurt her. I wonder if you'll ever understand what you've lost?"
Christian look back down in the ocean of Ana's eyes. He smiled lovingly at her. "Okay, baby, whatever you want. I'll see to it that Carla is taken care of…for your sake," Christian acquiesced. "But you'll never have to deal with her again."
At this point, Taylor and hospital security burst into the room. Without a word from Grey, Taylor firmly gripped Elena's arms and dragged her from the room as she screamed that she owned Grey…he belonged to her and she'd be back for what was hers.
Carla leaned in to embrace her daughter but Ana shrunk from her. Christian called Sawyer and instructed that Carla be put on an economy seat back to Georgia asap. He also instructed him to call Andrea and have her arrange for a monthly stipend to be deposited into Carla's account. Carla was to have only his cell number and no access to Ana.
Carla was removed from Ana's room with the same care as Elena had been…whimpering that she needed her daughter. Who would clean the house, buy the groceries, drive her to the casino?
Christian slid down on the bed on his back, drew Ana's fragile body into his arms and looked into her eyes. His own began to tear up. "Do you realize that this is the first in a very long time that we've lain like this, close and looking into each other's eyes? And do you realize how very much I love you, Ana?"
Ana smiled and snuggled against Christian, yielding to sleep.
CHAPTER 2
Ana awoke to the warmth and scent of Christian. With his arms around her and his left leg over both of hers, she felt safe and protected but confused. When did he come to Mac's diner and how had he found her there? And why wasn't she upset about it? She'd spent so long hiding from him and now she lay happily in his arms. The room was dark, too. Where were the street lights and why was it so quiet?
Suddenly, Ana felt frightened and her head ached badly. She needed to move, to run, to find her father. She struggled to get out Christian's grip. He was trapping her! She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out.
"Ana, Ana, baby, you're having a nightmare! Please open your eyes! Look at me, Ana! You're okay…you're safe!" Christian pleaded.
Ana's eyes flew open, wild with panic. She was shaking violently, terrified beyond reason. Christian eased her unto her back, took her face in both of his hands and forced her to look at him. "Who am I, Ana? Say my name."
Ana stared at him for several moments. Christian felt her own fear. Was this going to be their future? Ana waking up in terror every morning, not knowing who he was? His heart ached for her.
Slowly her breathing eased and the fear in her eyes turned to recognition. "Are they here, Christian?" she asked. When she saw the question in his gray eyes, she tried to reassure him. "It's okay. I know they can't hurt me if you're here. Can you make them go away? Mom told them that I said the wrong thing to the police so now they're really mad at me."
Christian knew that Ana was talking about her mother's husbands and his heart broke a little. It always did every time that Ana woke up screaming because he knew better than anyone how she felt. Yet, he couldn't help her as she had helped him and that broke his heart even more.
"Honey, they aren't here. It was just a bad dream. Do you understand? Those men will never get within a mile of you ever again."
Ana looked around the room. "Where am I and where is dad?"
Christian signed. "He'll be here later. Are you hungry? How about pancakes? Any special kind you'd like?" The distraction worked and he breathed a sigh of relief. He ordered pineapple pancakes, bacon and orange juice from the Mile High Club and called his mother.
Dr. Hadley came in a while later and was pleased that Ana was at ease and fully in the present. This was better than he'd expected. He'd been prepared to deal once again with a child.
"You slept with her all night, Mr. Grey? Hmm…I suspect that waking with a familiar person must have brought her back to reality rather more quickly than usual. I was afraid that yesterday's upset with her mother would have set her back. This is a good outcome. I will be certain that the night staff doesn't give you a hard time about sleeping with Ana. Nonetheless, let's not call it just yet. She is only at the beginning of her recovery and we could find ourselves being thrown a curve ball. It can take up to a year to fully heal from her severe condition."
Dr. Hadley smiled at Christian and Grace.
"Without reservation, I can say that I've never been blessed with such an excellent outcome and I'm sure that Dr. Albright would be in agreement with me."
As Dr. Hadley said goodbye to Ana and told her to "keep up the good work", she stared after him, puzzled. As he closed the door behind her, he nodded to Grey and Grace who burst into laughter as Ana asked them, "Who was that guy and what good work did I do for him?"
"Nothing, dear. He's just a pissant with a big ego who is congratulating himself for something in which he had no part," Grace smiled as she smoothed Ana's hair.
"How are you feeling this morning? Those pancakes looked scrumptious. I'm going to have to try those soon."
Grace had told Christian that if Ana referred to "those bad men", he should just assure her that they were gone for good and if Ana asked for her father, he should say that Ray would be by later. By the time that 'later' rolled around, Ana would have forgotten all about it. It was a trick that Grace had learned while working with dementia patients…don't argue, just agree and the patient would soon forget.
It had worked this morning but they still weren't certain when Ana would understand that Ray was gone.
CHAPTER 3
It should have worked. Her sources had told her that Ana had the mind of a child. If so, Carla should have been able to take control of the little shit and Elena could have arranged to have the two of them shipped back to Georgia that very day. Even if Christian tried to have the doctor refuse release, Elena had more than one judge in her pocket who would uphold the rights of the mother to have her child moved to a hospital close to home. What really tickled Elena was that Christian would probably have arranged for the flight to be on his jet in order to ensure his trollop's comfort. Damn, that would have been a hoot! Had it worked, that is.
Now she would have to come up with something else. Her source told her that Ana would be released by the end of the week and then it would be harder to get to her. Christian would have her locked up in his tower and surrounded by an army of security. Even if Elena were able to bribe someone at Escala to get the elevator codes, she'd only be able to get as far as the 19th floor.
Still, the brat had to leave the penthouse sometime. Elena would have to find a way to get to her on one of those occasions. That would mean enlisting some muscle, some really dirty muscle. No problem, she chuckled to herself. After more than 30 years of moving through the gritty underbelly of BDSM circles in Seattle, she had the goods on hundreds of people who'd do her bidding or else.
Through her association with the elite of Seattle, thanks to her dear friend, Grace Grey, she'd been able to hold her head high. And most people still thought that she was the dearest of friends with the prince of Seattle as well. He'd never expose her since it would mean his own exposure as well. Thus, she'd been able to handle affairs more delicately in the past. Now, since the fool she'd trained so well to ask "how high, mistress?" had lost his common sense to a useless little girl, she'd have to get her hands dirty.
Very well, then. Whatever it took to bring him to heel she would do. Once he no longer had his little princess to blind him to who he was, Elena would offer her shoulder to comfort him and her subs to bend to his will and he would finally rediscover the Master Dom she'd raised him to be. She would find her way back into his bank account and his family's good will and fancy galas. In no time at all, she would once again be society dame Elena Lincoln…invited to all the right parties and asked to join all the best clubs.
She'd begun life dirt poor and worthless in the eyes of others but she'd climbed her way to the top of society and then she'd looked down at the scum beneath her. The ice in her veins began to boil when she remembered the last night she'd walked off the elevator of the 20th floor of Escala to find her boy playing scrabble with his housekeeper! She'd been horrified at such familiarity with the staff and the way that woman he employed treated her without the proper respect. Then to find that after she, Elena, had worked so hard for such a long time to find and train perfect subs for him…subs without limits, no less…he had gone behind her back to take in a silly, untrained, impertinent bumpkin? The girl had tried to shake her hand! And when Elena had simply behaved as any woman of breeding and refused the thing's touch, it had threatened to shove her out the door with a broom! Of course, Christian had intervened and shown her out like a gentleman but still…he should have dumped the girl on the street.
Later, returning several days after, Elena had found that pass codes had been changed and she had not only not been informed of the new codes, she was "invited" to leave and never return by that goon squad that Christian employed. Elena assumed that the insolent smart aleck had indeed been dismissed and the codes changed to prevent her sneaking back in and, thus, had called Christian to get the new codes and the security guards fired.
Her shock was almost disabling when he ignored, nay, refused her calls and would not answer her voice mails, texts or emails. From there it had only gotten worse. He took the sub out in public! He held her hand and put his arm around her scrawny shoulders. They took walks down by the water and fucking fed freaking ducks, for god's sake!
Christian even took her to his mother's annual charity gala and paid half a million dollars for a dance! And Grace hugged the girl and told Elena that "she" was just fantastic.
No, there was no doubt about it. This debacle must be handled and handled with all due brutality. Heads must roll.
CHAPTER 4
Ana had been home a couple of weeks. Her bangs covered the marks from the surgery and the stitches and her bruises had faded. To look at her as she chatted with Gail, you'd never know all she'd endured…unless you knew her body like Christian did. He saw her shiver with cold in warm rooms. He had to keep her from broiling herself in the shower. The water was never warm enough for her. He put out thermal underwear and sweatpants and sweatshirts for her in the morning. She questioned the need for all the clothes but wore them to please him. He put extra blankets on the bed and turned up the thermostat. He wrapped himself around her at night. Even though he was often awake at 3 a.m., he stayed put…no piano playing. She needed body heat. Ana was thin and fragile. Her frailty frightened him.
He and Gail worked constantly at finding foods that Ana would eat. She never refused but she would eat slowly and often just push the food around on the plate. Sometimes she would simply sit and look at her dish with her mind a million miles away.
Christian would invite Dr. Flynn to make house calls in the guise of friendly visits but Ana was a smart girl and she knew that she wasn't well. She would cooperate with Flynn, answering his questions, but the confusion swirling in her brain continued anyway.
She knew a few things for certain. She knew that she had little energy. She knew that something was missing. She knew that she needed to be with Christian but she wasn't certain as to why. She couldn't seem to find answers to questions that she couldn't even articulate. She felt stupid.
Christian had shown her books that she'd read but she didn't remember them. He told her that she'd graduated from WSU in just three years with a 4.5 GPA. That was smart, wasn't it? Yet she'd find herself standing in the middle of the living room not knowing how she got there. Once she'd begun to sob because she needed to go to the bathroom but she couldn't remember where it was. Gail helped her and tried to reassure her that her brain was still recovering. Christian reminded her that all the doctors said that she was a miracle but she didn't feel like one.
She tended to cling to Christian more and more. He knew that her extreme need wasn't healthy but it was the same for him. Having to leave her to go to a meeting made him anxious, not just for her welfare but his own. He texted every 5 minutes to Gail or Sawyer. They usually lied to him. If they'd told him that Ana was just sitting on the couch, watching the elevator and wringing her hands, he'd have dropped everything and come home.
Ironically, his desperate need to get home made him concentrate much harder and work harder so that deals could be sealed as quickly as possible. The toughest deals he nailed in record time. Ros was very pleased and Andrea was enjoying the efficiency of it all. Of course, competitors were frustrated and the businessmen who were accustomed to slow and protracted deal making were dizzy, wondering what had hit them. Grey had always been a fireball but now he blazed right thru negotiations like he was ordering fries at McDonald's. He hit them with what he wanted and what he was willing to do to get it and if they hesitated, he was willing to call off the deal immediately. They soon learned that he meant what he said and that there would be no further discussion so sign or get lost. They signed.
Ros grinned and wanted to sit around the office afterward, replaying the meeting, laughing and gloating. That had always been the fun part of the deal but now Grey scribbled his signature, handed off the details to his #2, nodded goodbye to the stunned executives that he'd just bulldozed and was in the elevator before they'd gotten up from their chairs.
Grey had always been known as a ruthless but fair operator but now his reputation became fearsome. People knew that he did deals fast and furiously. There would be no cocktails at one of his clubs, no dinners to establish camaraderie. No 28 holes to feel each other out, learn each other's strengths and weaknesses. Grey had no strategy, no tricks up his sleeve, no give a little to get a little. He called CEOs in, presented his demands and expectations and held out a pen. If a CEO wanted to think it over, discuss the proposal, Grey would sternly ask why the CEO had come to a meeting unprepared and willing to waste Grey's time. The fury in his eyes alone would make someone think twice about defending their position. Grey would hand the person a pen and tell them to get to it or get out. Rarely would they get out because it was known that no matter how badly Grey wanted the deal, he'd never propose a second meeting.
Christian Grey had only one deal that he was willing to negotiate for as long as it took…getting Ana well. He needed to get to that elevator, to that garage, to that SUV and to the elevator that would take him to Ana. He would walk into the penthouse foyer, drop his briefcase just in time to catch a flying Ana, wrap his arm around her waist and cradle the back of her head while he kissed her like the desperate man that he was. They'd stand in the foyer, Ana pressed against the wall with her hands in his hair, madly kissing for 15 minutes until Christian picked her up and carried her into their bedroom. He'd make love to her as gently as he could, mindful of her delicate body, but she had no qualms as she unhesitatingly claimed his body any way she could. She was as desperate for him as he was for her. It was as if they'd been dying of thirst all day.
Their bed, their bodies entwined, connected…this was the only time when Ana felt certainty and clarity. He'd say her name over and over. He'd tell her over and over that she was everything and that he loved her so much. Then Ana felt peace, her mind at rest.
CHAPTER 5
Christian didn't know how long they'd slept but day had turned to night. He was hungry… but for food or more Ana? He drew her tighter, her slender body blending into his. He could never get close enough. Did other men in love feel like this? He could ask Elliot. Elliot had been 'in love' often enough but, of course, it never lasted before his current girlfriend, Kate Kavanaugh.
Christian had noticed Kate's expression whenever Elliot kidded him about being unable to stop looking at or touching Ana. It wasn't jealousy. It was more like…sadness.
He knew that Elliot loved Kate. He'd told Christian that Kate was the 'one' but still he didn't crave her as his brother craved Ana. Maybe it was because Elliot didn't worry about Kate the way that Christian worried about Ana. Maybe it was because Kate seemed so strong. Maybe it was because being in love wasn't new to Elliot whereas Christian felt like he'd discovered air. He was in awe of this woman, this gift in his life, this state of bliss that he'd never believed would happen for him. And he finally had her back. Safe. Home.
"Christian," Ana whispered, "are you hungry?"
"Hmm, starving," he whispered back, nuzzling into the crook of her neck, his hand caressing her soft breast.
"I meant," she giggled, "for food, maybe dinner?"
"I guess we could eat food, then shower, then fuck 'till dawn. How's that for a plan?"
"I'd like to eat and then go for a walk."
Christian stiffened. Ana felt it, leaned on one elbow and looked down at him. "It would be nice to go down by the water. In the dark, maybe the paparazzi wouldn't notice a couple in hoodies. And I could hold onto you and snuggle close and we could sit on a bench and make out like teenagers." Even in the dim light he could see her beaming at him.
Christian didn't want to say no to anything Ana wanted but he knew being out, especially in the night, wasn't safe. Christ, all she wanted was to be a normal couple and that was the one thing he could never give her. They couldn't go out for a simple walk without being tailed by at least a half dozen covert operatives in addition to Taylor following them and Sawyer scouting in front of them. So often he felt angry at the selfish man who struck a devil's bargain with a spirited girl who might instead have one day met a normal man who could give her a normal life. Yes, he'd changed but it was too late. He loved her now and couldn't let her go even when she'd tried to leave him.
So, he took a breath and then brushed his fingers across her cheek. "Would you mind making out in front of a bunch of guys with guns and night vision goggles?"
Ana surprised him by laughing instead of groaning. "As long as you don't get carried away and start sticking your hand up my shirt or down my pants!"
Twenty minutes later, Christian and Ana were on the walkway by the marina, with arms linked, looking at the boats and eating cold pancakes out of a brown paper bag packed by Gail. Ana leaned her head against Christian's arm and he leaned over between bites to kiss her head. It was a beautiful night and Ana was happy…that was all Christian wanted in life.
"Christian, can I ask you a question? It's one I've been meaning to ask you but I was afraid you might not like it."
Ana's memory was still touch and go. She often repeated inquires and sometimes the questions were trivial, like did she used to wear her hair straightened or curled? Still, Christian was wary about every one of them. Since she'd come out of the coma, they'd never talked about how they met or how she came to live with him or who was the lady who came with her mother and tried to take her away or how come her father never came to see her? Good lord, there were so many landmines to tread on but they'd made it this far so maybe Ana already knew the answers to those questions. He certainly wasn't going to open Pandora's Box.
It seemed that Ana was.
CHAPTER 6
"A couple of days ago I saw Gail go into a room carrying cleaning supplies. I was bored so I wanted to ask if I could help her but when I tried to open the door, it was locked. I thought that that was odd, you know, that she'd lock a door behind her and I realized that I'd never been in that room. Anyway, I knocked but she didn't answer even after I called her name and I couldn't hear her moving about…like she was trying to be quiet. So, I just sat on the hallway floor and waited.
When she came out, I got a glimpse of red and then she quickly closed the door behind her and locked it. That was really weird, I thought. When I asked her about it, she said that I'd have to ask you. Christian, she looked really nervous. At first, I decided not to ask because I thought I'd get her into trouble but then I had a dream about the room." The deluge of words stopped as Ana took a breath.
"What did you dream?" Christian asked anxiously.
"Well, I was in the room and I was very scared. Someone else was in the room with me but I don't know who. The person wasn't scary, tho." In fact, I got the impression that the other person was scared , too. Isn't that strange? Oh, and the room had a bed and there were a lot of things hanging on the walls and from the ceiling but I couldn't tell what they were…only that they scared me for some reason."
Shortly after Ana disappeared, he'd intended to dismantle the playroom. He hadn't been in there since he'd asked her to move in…check that…ordered her to move in and Ana had never mentioned it again. He had no intention of ever taking her in there ever again and he also fully intended to somehow make Ana's residence permanent so why keep a room dedicated to BDSM? He had a very happy vanilla-flavored love life, one he preferred to the cold lifestyle he'd been brainwashed into believing was all he could have.
However, Ray's illness, propping Ana up while she dealt with it, trying to tend to GEH business…all that put the playroom on the back burner. Heck, it wasn't even on the stove anymore. He'd disentangled himself from doing business with Elena and considered her to be out of his life and he never gave his playroom another thought. He was surprised to learn that Gail was still going in there to clean. Probably hadn't dusted in a while, like he gave a crap if the room was buried under. Well, he guessed that he should have given a crap because now he had to deal with it and all it meant to Ana. Damn. It was one giant Pandora's Box full of shit.
They finished the pancakes and he tossed the bag into a trash can. Then he led her over to a bench and they sat quietly for a bit, not speaking, watching the boats. Ana waited patiently. She instinctively knew that this was a difficult question for Christian. She cuddled his arm with both of her hands and tried to reassure him silently that she'd be okay with whatever he told her…even though she'd wasn't so sure that she would be.
"That room hasn't been in use for a very long time, Ana. Do you remember the word, 'playroom'?
"Playroom," she mused. The word made her a little queasy but she couldn't think why. "Umm…no. I guess not."
"It was a room that was important to me until I met you. The room and the things that I did in there were things that stopped having any meaning for me shortly after I met you. Looking back I deeply regret that it ever played a role in my life." Christian paused, waiting for a reaction.
"What did you do in your playroom?" Ana asked so innocently that Christian felt himself breaking into a cold sweat.
"Do you really want to know?" he said, hoping she'd let it drop…knowing she wouldn't.
"Sexual things," he gulped.
"We do sexual things," Ana responded, "…those kind of sexual things? And how come you did them in that room instead of in the bedroom?" She was killing him, just killing him.
"Things with rope and handcuffs and blindfolds," he choked out.
Ana got very quiet, for a long time. He wondered if she was starting to remember. Oh, please god, don't let her remember, he begged a deity he doubted existed.
"Did I go into the playroom, Christian?" Her voice was so small.
"Yes, just a few times, Ana. You didn't like it so we stopped. Other women I'd taken in there wanted to be there. They found pleasure in the playroom but you didn't and I wanted you to be happy so I locked the door and never went in there again. And before you ask, no, I never missed it, not for a minute. With those other women I needed it to enjoy sex. With you, I need only you and nothing, absolutely nothing else, understand?" Please understand, he thought, please believe me.
"If you didn't have me, would you go back in?" Again, her voice was so small.
"No. If, god forbid, I lost you, I'd be done. The whole time you were gone I had the sex drive of a eunuch."
Ana giggled and his heart flipped. "You're the only one for me, too, Christian."
Christian made a mental note to have the playroom dismantled as soon as possible just in case Ana forgot about it again. He want to avoid any future discussions…like the one about to happen.
"I ask Gail how I came to live with you and she told me that I had to ask you about that, too." Ana asked this with enthusiasm as if she anticipated a cute story. Yeah, real cute. Okay, he asked himself, how do I spin this tale of horror?
CHAPTER 7
He leaned forward with his head in his hands and groaned like a man developing the symptoms of appendicitis. There was no way around this and she was going to walk out on him for sure. Ana leaned over and began rubbing comforting circles on his back, asking if he was feeling sick. Yes, he admitted, he was. He knew he could divert her tonight but eventually he'd have to fess up. It would only be worse for him if she figured out that he was dodging.
"Ana, what I'm going to tell you is something of which I am horribly ashamed and wish I'd never done. My only excuse is that at the time I didn't know any other way. I'd known only one way to get what I wanted since I was 15 and to do things in an honest and honorable way didn't even occur to me. I knew deals, that's all. And even though you were a human being and I liked you immediately, I treated you like deal."
"In my defense, although I really have none, you disliked me from the moment we met and I was determined to have you the only way I knew, do you know what I mean?" Christian pleaded.
"No. Why didn't I like you?" Now she was looking at him with a definite lack of sympathy and a definite load of suspicion.
"We met when I bought the publishing company you worked for. You can stop me at any point if you remember this," he said hopefully.
"I don't remember. Go on," she pushed.
Shit. Shit. Shit. He was going down for sure.
"You were independent, feisty and had a mouth on you. I was used to women doing my bidding, being subservient to me. Still I was instantly and deeply attracted to you. I made up an excuse to have you meet me at my club for coffee which I intended to be dinner. I behaved like an arrogant arse and you walked out on me. I was stunned. No one had ever walked out on me. So, naturally I wanted you more. I had you come to my office at GEH to ostensibly discuss your future at the publishing company."
To his astonishment, Ana threw her head back and laughed. Christian stared at her, flummoxed.
"No. No. Go on," she insisted, giggling like a lunatic.
"You almost walked out on me again!" Christian said, still stunned at her audacity.
"Ok, what did you do that time?" She continued giggling and though he usually loved her laughter, he knew it wouldn't last long once he got to the point of the story.
"You asked what I wanted and I said…you…badly."
"Wow," Ana gasped, "you actually just came right out and announced that you wanted me? And I didn't fall at your feet?"
"No, you rolled your eyes at me and stood up to head for the door. Told me that if I wanted to fire you, you could be found at your desk at 8 a.m. and goodbye jerk. Well, not that last part but it was implied."
"Oh, Christian, how ever did you get women to go out with you before me?" Ana was almost out of breath from laughing.
Ouch, thought Christian, could this conversation get much worse? Oh, yes, it could.
"Well, then, in desperation, I invited you to my penthouse for dinner with promise of a deal you couldn't refuse and you agreed on the condition that it not involve anything personal between us."
Then Christian took a deep breath. "I lied, Ana. It was the first and only time I've ever lied to you. It was a very personal deal. Very personal and crass and one I regret. In fact, I came to regret it that same evening.
"Can I get you to promise that you won't leave me when I tell you the truth? Try to keep in mind that we love each other and that I'm very, very sorry," Christian begged.
And looked troubled and moved a few inches down the bench from Christian. He figured that he should have initiated all that making out before he began true confessions.
"I'd done a little investigating. I learned about your father's illness and that you were desperate to help him so I offered you a way out. I would…" Ana's face seemed to go white under the streetlights as she raised her hand to halt him in his explanation.
"…take care of my father if I would agree to be your sex slave," she finished his sentence. "I was in your playroom because you extorted my cooperation in exchange for my father's medical treatment. You made me sign a non-disclosure agreement and wanted me to sign a contract listing what sexual acts I would be willing to engage in. You said that it was my choice but I thought that if I objected to anything, you'd withdraw your offer. You took me to bed and took my virginity. Then you took me into that, that room and trussed me up like a Thanksgiving turkey and you spanked me.
"You made me your prisoner, swapping my freedom for my father's life."
CHAPTER 8
Christian didn't even realize that there were tears in his eyes until Ana reached over and wiped them off his face with her sleeve.
"You remember? Just this minute, you remembered?"
"Your face. Something about the angst on your face just now. I had a flashback of that night when you were making your 'offer'. You had the same expression…a mixture of shame…and fear. I knew that you were embarrassed and afraid that I would reject you.
"I knew that you were not just afraid of being turned down. You were truly afraid that I would leave…kind of like a teenage boy asking a girl he really liked to go out with him and being terrified that she'd say no and break his heart. It was a strange moment.
"I knew nothing about the BDSM world but I knew that you were a wealthy and powerful man who was trying to buy me yet you were shy and scared.
"I was overwhelmed with emotions…fear, confusion, pity, attraction. Hell, I even recognized feelings of gratitude and relief that you were offering me a way to help my father when I'd spent the last few years tightly wound up in worry and…and terror.Every morning since Dad first coughed up blood, I'd woken up from the bad dreams to the daily nightmare of losing my father, the only person who loved me. All day, every day, my life revolved around trying to find a way to save him, to find the money to get him what he needed. That's what college was all about…not learning or meeting people. It was about getting a good job as soon as possible. And then you came into my life and offered to carry my burden for me.
"And I knew that I should be angry and disgusted and revolted and I was deeply shamed that I was really none of those things. In fact, the only emotion I was clear on at first was fear. I knew that your offer was ugly and horrible…still, it was impossible to turn down."
Ana was standing now, her back to Christian, leaning on the walkway railing. He sat on the bench… still, stunned at her words.
They were not at all what he expected. True, she'd never shown him anger or disgust or revulsion but he figured that she definitely felt those things. Now he finds out that she'd turned every rotten emotion inward.
"Ana, did you know how I felt about you? I know that I never told you that I was in love with you but I was from the start and I kept trying to show you…I guess to make up somehow for coercing you into living with me because I was living with some pretty heavy duty personal revulsion toward myself."
Christian needed to be next to Ana. He only hoped that she wouldn't push him away from her. He came to stand behind her.
"I knew," he began, his voice wavering, "that the only way to redeem myself was something that I could never bring myself to do."
Carefully, he slipped his arms around her, embracing her and kissing the top of her head.
"I needed to release you from your "debt" to me. I needed to tell you that I would take care of your father and you were free to go if you wanted to leave me. I almost said so many times but I just couldn't do it. And the sicker your father got, the greater my need to keep you with me so that I could take care of you. Maybe my need to take care of you was greater than your need to be cared for…I don't know."
Christian breathed a sigh of relief when Ana relaxed back against him.
"So you kept me so that you could take care of me?"
"No, not just that. I just needed you. I've always needed you. I just didn't know it until the moment I looked down that conference room table into those killer blue eyes that seemed to look right through me. I felt so many emotions that I couldn't identify them all. I was the great Christian Grey, wunderkind of industry and Master Dom of Seattle, always in control and I had to sit down immediately because my legs had turned to jelly.
"Also," he chuckled, "I had an instant hard-on that needed hiding."
Suddenly, something slammed into Christian, something that burned. He instinctively grabbed Ana and brought her down to the ground with him and covered her with his body. There were popping noises and people running as he tried so hard to stay aware. He heard Ana scream his name from far away and he tried to tell her to just stay down but then he felt too weak to continue to hold her. He willed himself to open his eyes, to look into her eyes. Those killer blue eyes.
CHAPTER 9
The Waterford crystal vase smashed into a million glass shards that flew everywhere, as the banshee-like scream of a woman thwarted nearly burst the eardrums of the two burly men cowering nearby.
"You ignorant, useless ass wipes!" she screeched at them. Just the latest in a series of insults that they'd endured for the last hour. She had real staying power but her aspersions were lessening in vulgarity. They half expected her to haul out a thesaurus to refuel but she was panting and losing wind now. She was not a young woman and regardless of her dedication to hair, makeup and wardrobe, she was not inclined toward physical exercise…unless you counted wielding whips and canes.
With a sweaty brow and gasping breath, she bore down on the men in her six inch stilettos. Raking a red claw across the cheek of the one who neglected to duck, she glared with the power of a laser into his petrified eyes.
"Who," she rasped, "were you supposed to shoot with your little gun, Yeti?"
"Hmm…the girl, ma'am," he mumbled, head down.
"And WHO did you shoot instead, Sasquatch?" she bellowed as a red claw dragged through the skin of the other very large man.
"The man, ma'am, but it wasn't our fault. We weren't expecting much security. There were two guys, you said, but there were half a dozen other guys hiding all around them. We barely got away." He reached up to dab his shirt sleeve at the blood she'd drawn.
"Did it not occur to you that you could have used the element of surprise to get off a second shot… one that would have hit your actual target?"
"Ma'am?"
"Silencers, you ninnies!"
"Silencers! Whoa, hey, that's a real good idea, ma'am!" Yeti grinned broadly just before the woman scraped four red talons over his already wounded face.
"If he dies," the woman didn't finish the sentence but they knew where she was going with it.
"I waited for weeks for my opportunity and now he'll have her locked up tighter than Fort Knox. If she ever leaves the penthouse again, she'll be wearing head to toe Kevlar. Meanwhile, my salon is failing thanks to the loss of my investor. I used to able to charge sizable fees to subs who wanted to work for the Master Dom but that income source has dried up. Marketable information has gone missing from my safes, I've discovered. I don't even know how long it's been gone but I suspect that little bitch had a hand in that after she had me banned from the penthouse."
I devoted more than 20 years to the boy, thought the woman. I knew from the time I met him that he would be my best long-term investment. All I had to do was plant an idea here and there in his vulnerable little head, wait out all the shrinks his parents sent him to, get to him as his hormones kicked in and begin his training. I knew that I could grow him into a rich man although I underestimated just how rich. All my hard work paid off for five years. I was closer to him than anyone and always would be no matter how much his sweet mama Grace and devoted family tried to 'reach' him. I deserved every cent he gave me and I had plans for even bigger rewards in the future until she turned up out of nowhere. Yes, he'd been drifting before but I could have brought him around again if only I'd had time.
"Never mind, you can't keep a good woman down," Elena cackled as the men slowly and quietly backed out of the room.
CHAPTER 10
The house was quiet. Grace was upstairs with Mia. Carrick was in his study. Elliot and Kate were strolling hand in hand toward the dock. Ana was alone sitting in the family room off the kitchen, trying to get her thoughts in order. After having to accept her father's death for the second time, Dr. Flynn had taught her how to meditate. He told her that the whirlpool in her brain would begin to slow and then become calm waters in time. She tried but it was hard. She'd been seeing him almost daily and had begun to understand that the swirling eddy in her brain had begun long before the tumors, long before her wonderful and insane bargain with Christian.
"Children need to grow in a stable and consistent environment with love and care, Ana. Children who face constant turmoil, fearing for both themselves and others in the family are forced to use all their emotions and intelligence to deal with the deluge of threats coming at them. Try to imagine attempting to build a house in a valley below a dam break. You couldn't. You could only use everything in you, every ounce of courage and ingenuity, to try to survive. Long after the waters had passed and you physically remained, you would have nothing left to support you. You could do no more than put one foot in front of the other. A life of survival only…do you understand?" he asked.
Ana had always thought of herself as strong. All her life, as far back as she remembered, she'd had to struggle. While her mother screamed at her father and threw her beer bottles at him, Ana had to protect him. She tried so hard to be the best little girl in the world so that her mother would be happy.
When she saw the tears in Ray's eyes as her mother pulled Ana out of his arms, she tried to tell him that it was okay, don't worry.
When the men her mother brought back to their crummy apartment would want to cuddle the cute little daughter, she'd smile so her mother would be pleased and when those same men often got drunk and tried to hurt her mother, she'd try to fight them off and later told the police that she fell down the stairs because then her mother wouldn't be so angry with her.
Even after Ray brought her home, she never lost the fear that if she wasn't a good girl, if she didn't do things just right, she'd have to leave again. Ray did everything he could to reassure her but the die was cast. She had to be good. She had to do everything right. This is how it is with children. They're easy to train with fear. They learn how to navigate the world in ways that protect them and those they love. Survival is number one.
Ana handled the bullies. She didn't play…she studied. She took care of the man who loved her…he was all that she had. When he was threatened by a disease that she didn't understand, she applied all her energy to get him well. She devoted herself to getting a scholarship to WSU and worked 30 hours a week to support herself. Her plan was to get through college as well and as quickly as inhumanly possible in order to get a good paying job in a tough economy. Then she could buy Ray what he needed to heal.
In all her 22 years she'd learned little beyond how to survive and how to protect. When Christian Grey came into her life, if he'd stopped to ask her to describe herself, she would have been at a loss. She would have said that she was Ray Steele's daughter. She couldn't have told him her favorite color or her most beloved childhood toy.
And when Ray was gone and her brain was bleeding and the tumors were growing, all she knew was survival and survival meant flight. Now her brain was healing, so they said, and yet the urge to flee again was strong but she had to stay. All these nice people who loved Christian now needed her there. And so she stayed.
She rose from the sofa and began her walk up the stairs to Christian's boyhood bedroom.
CHAPTER 11
Ana sat on the edge of the bed and gazed out the window toward the water. She felt the warmth of his hand before he touched her back.
"Lie with me," Christian asked her. "I'm cold without you."
"Do you want an extra blanket?" Ana asked as she began to get up to go to the closet.
"No, I just need you, just you," Christian answered. "I just need my girl in my arms."
Yeah? Thought Ana. Your girl is going to get you killed.
Ana took in a breath and kicked off her shoes while she lifted her dress over her head. She pulled back the covers and eased herself into the bed next to Christian, curling against him with her hand on his heart. Her mind began to calm as she inhaled his scent and his arm gathered her tightly to him.
"I want to love you so badly, Ana," he breathed against her head. She raised her head to look into his shining gray eyes. The way he looked at her… He said that he worshipped her and she knew that he did. She didn't doubt his devotion to her. She didn't doubt that it consumed him. How could she ever leave this man?
"The doctors took two bullets out of you. One of them nicked an artery and you nearly bled to death. You were in a coma for two weeks and hospital for four total. Sex should be the last thing on your mind," she whispered softly, brushing his lips with her fingers.
"You forget. This is me you're talking to. With you, sex is always the first thing on my mind. I've been stuck in this bedroom for a week, sleeping chastely with my heart-stoppingly beautiful girl. I think my heart seized twice on the table because it could see into my tortured future in this bedroom with the plaid wallpaper," he groaned.
Ana giggled and kissed his neck.
"Oh, yeah, that helps," Christian whined.
"Well, I could leave you to get more sleep then. Should I come back later, m'lord?" she teased but Christian looked at her, his eyes dark and serious.
"Don't leave me, Ana." Ana was startled to see fear in Christian's eyes.
"Christian, I was kidding. Christian? What are you thinking?"
He enveloped her in his arms, entwining their legs, as he usually did when they slept, like he was afraid that she'd get away. He'd begun holding her so closely when she'd have such bad nightmares that he couldn't calm her unless he literally imprisoned her in his arms. Screaming and thrashing in terror, she would burrow into him until she felt that nothing could get near her. When she finally calmed, he couldn't relax until he heard her even breathing and knew that she was at peace.
Sometimes he'd cry for this woman…this perfect, kind, loveliest of people who'd given so much and had so much taken from her. Somehow he'd make her world safe and filled with joy and lack of want.
"I was thinking of how much I wanted to give you, of how happy I wanted to make you and how much I failed. I don't know why you're still here. That night I was shot all I could think was that I'd never see you again, that I'd taken too much of what little peace you'd been able to find in this life. While I was in the coma, I could hear you talking to me, reading to me and I kept trying to tell you that you didn't have to stick around. I knew that I was in a hospital and I didn't want you to feel obligated because I was ill."
"Well, now you tell me," Ana sighed with fake exasperation. "You know, there was this really cute orderly who asked me to coffee while I was holding your hand and telling you about some business deal that Ros was excited about. I had to pass on his offer because, you know, you were unconscious and all and well…it would have been unseemly."
Christian was gaping at her.
"What? You think I should have gone on the date?" Ana asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.
"Who was the little shit? Who the hell hits on a woman holding her comatose boyfriend's hand?" Christian was incensed.
"Then there was the physical therapist who came in every day to work your muscles. He had dreamy eyes and the flirting got pretty intense. He had such strong hands." Ana continued to keep a straight face while Christian's was turning purple.
"He gave me his number. Do you think that I should call him?" She was starting to lose it, giggling like a loon at the outraged expression on Christian's face.
He moved her onto her back, holding her face as he covered her mouth with his, dancing with her tongue and deepening the kiss until neither could breathe, breaking away for a breath and then beginning again. His hands began roaming her body and then his lips sucked deeply around her nipples as his fingers reached down into her panties and slipped inside her, teasing her g-spot.
Ana arched her back, her fingers dragging thru his hair, gasping for breath and gasping his name until she let go and dropped back down unto the mattress, her face red and sweaty.
Just as Christian was about to slip inside of her, to be where he needed to be, to be home…there came a tiny knock at the door. He looked down at Ana, bent his forehead to hers and begged her to tell him that she'd locked the door. She was still breathing hard but managed to shake her head no. He slipped off her and pulled the covers up just as the door quietly opened.
They kept their eyes closed, trying to look like two people taking a nap. Mia, ever sensitive and delicate, tip-toed over to the bed and poked at Ana. "Are you awake, Ana?" she whispered. Ana sighed, opened one eye and said that she'd been just trying to get some rest.
"Hmm…we've had barely a minute to talk today. Want some girl time before dinner?" Ana was struggling with the effort to not laugh. "Perhaps in 30 minutes or so. Christian is so peaceful that I don't want to disturb him. He sleeps better when I'm with him."
Mia didn't looked convinced but Ana simply closed her eyes again and Mia finally took the hint.
"Okay, I'll be back in half an hour."
Then she left the room, softly closing the door behind her. Ana waited until she was sure that Mia had gone back down the stairs and jumped up to lock the door. Christian laid on his back, not laughing, eyeing her body lustfully.
"Rotten little cock blocker," he muttered.
Ana pulled back the sheets and then climbed atop Christian, sliding his solid cock inside her and leaning down to put her mouth on his.
"You're not well enough to do all the work so you'll have to let me take over," she declared.
He wanted very much to just pound into her until she roared with pleasure but he knew that she was right. He drew in the sight of her naked body on top of his and closed his eyes to concentrate on the feel of her, the warmth and wetness that he missed for so long. She could have him any way she wanted and he would take her anyway that he could have her.
Like clockwork, 30 minutes later, the doorknob began to turn, sticking at the lock.
"Ana, the door seems to have locked behind me," Mia called out.
"Oh, well, I'll meet you downstairs after I get dressed, Mia, okay?"
"Hmm…okay, then. See you in the kitchen."
Ana leaned down and kissed Christian softly on the lips. Suddenly, he grabbed her hand before she could walk away.
"You didn't answer me."
CHAPTER 12
"What was the question?" Ana wondered.
"It was implied," Christian said. "I've put you through hell. Are you going to leave?"
"It's all been quite complicated," she replied. "My life, my thinking…so complicated. I can tell you this, however. I'll never leave you for lack of love. That much I know, especially after watching you nearly bleed out on that walkway and praying by your side during two weeks of coma, never knowing if you would come back to me. Whatever the circumstances of our coming to be together and the pain we've caused each other, I know that I love you. Now get some rest."
As Ana descended the staircase, she spied the armed men walking the grounds. She and Christian had been questioned multiple times, the police always hoping for new information. Christian had been at Grey Manor only a week and they hadn't talked about the shooting together. Ana had her suspicions but needed to speak with Christian first. Meanwhile, the entire family was on lockdown while paparazzi swarmed the gates and were frequently apprehended sneaking unto the grounds.
Elliot had pulled his best crew from his current project, infuriating an important client, in order to surround the entire estate with an electric fence and sensors in the woods. Christian was almost well enough to leave his bed and join the family on the terrace and around the grounds so it was important that no one be able to get close to him again.
Mia rushed up and grabbed Ana's arm. Although Christian's little sister was the same age as Ana she was light years less mature but Ana didn't hold that against her. She was happy that Mia had led a pampered and sheltered life. She was such a light, cheerful presence. There could be no darkness to sour the mood Mia brought to a room. Ana wished only that Mia was able to better appreciate her good fortune.
"Come into the kitchen. I've shooed Gretchen away for the night and you and I are going to make dinner! With red velvet cupcakes for dessert! I'm sure that Christian can be lured down tonight. We're making his favorite! Beef stew, baked potatoes and salad." Mia's enthusiasm almost made Ana forget for a moment that she couldn't cook.
"Uh, Mia, I don't know how to make any of those things. In fact, I don't know how to cook at all."
Mia looked askance. "No wonder there's nothing to you. What have you been living on all these years?"
"The lord's good will?" Ana suggested…not far from the truth.
Suddenly, there was a throaty laugh behind them. Carrick stood leaning in the doorway and grinning at his stunned daughter.
"I think that Ana is being a bit modest," he chuckled, "but not by much, eh? I know from the little Christian's told us that you kept house for your father from the age of 9 until college, Ana. What did you cook for him?"
"Well, I'd boil noodles but daddy had to keep an eye on them so I didn't burn them. I used sauce… from a can, of course. I could boil rice and I'd mix in peas and canned tuna. He loved that. I tried pancakes a lot but generally I burned them. Dad caught a lot of fish which he'd clean and grill. Usually anything in a can I could heat up so we ate a lot of soup. I guess that's pretty much it. We never had desserts except when we'd go down to the Dairy Queen for a soft serve cone."
"For a what?" Mia asked.
"For soft serve. It's an ice cream. You've never? Don't you have a Dairy Queen around here?"
"We have a couple of gourmet ice cream shops?" Mia smiled.
Ana sighed. "Of course, you do."
Mia did her best to keep Ana in the cooking loop and Ana did her best to stay there. Sometimes, Mia would gasp and grab something out of Ana's hand before disaster befell them but gradually the meal came together. Elliot wandered in periodically looking for his dinner and marveled at the mess on the massive counters and the kitchen floors and then snuck out again. Kate wasn't much of a cook and he guessed that he'd be doing most of that but he figured that Ana had her beat in the incompetence department. Oh, well, Kate pleased him where it counted most, he had to admit. And she did know how to do laundry and clean up around the apartment…when she was in the mood. His business was doing really well so he could always hire his own Gail.
Finally, Ana set the table, mixing up the forks and confusing water with wine glasses but that was hardly important, thought Grace. What Ana did well no one else had ever come close to doing…bringing Christian out of his shell, making him smile.
Speaking of, Christian was trying to make his way down the stairs, leaning against the wall, breathing hard, one step at a time.
Elliot raced up to him and wrapped a strong arm around him. His little brother being shot had really kicked him in the gut though he tried to not show it. Kate had found him squatting against a hospital wall, his head down, sobbing in fear the night that Christian was brought in. She'd wrapped herself around him and promised him, fiercely promised him, that Christian would make it. Who cared if she couldn't cook? Elliot thought.
CHAPTER 13
The family sat around the table, holding hands and Carrick related a little sort of prayer/philosophical saying having to do with the family's good fortune and then everyone made a fuss over the girls' cooking. Mia sweetly pointed out everything that Ana did though it was really more of a what Ana didn't destroy. Ana hovered over Christian, wanting to butter his potato and cut his beef stew and Christian let her. She made him feel cherished. Grace held back, smiling at Carrick as he rubbed her back.
No one stopped when the doorbell rang. Gretchen would get it and it was probably one of the security detail wanting to use the powder room. They were a necessary nuisance. The family was surprised when the reason for that necessity, strutting in six-inch Louboutins, shoved past Gretchen as if she were invisible and into the family dining room, dressed in a black leather jumpsuit and looking completely comfortable with interrupting their dinner.
"Good evening, everyone! I do hope that I'm not disturbing your supper."
Elliot muttered something under his breath.
"I was on my way to drinks with a colleague when I decided to make a detour to see how everyone is doing since that horrible incident down by the marina. I didn't realize that you'd be eating so late," she said, scowling at her diamond-encrusted Rolex.
Grace had heard about Elena's attempt to abscond with Ana and did not approve at all. However, as far as she knew, Elena was trying to do the right thing by reuniting a mother and daughter. Grace accepted her excuse that she thought that Ana would need her mother and she was dismayed at Christian's reaction. She tearfully apologized for her well-intentioned interference and had been forgiven by the good-hearted Grace.
"Elena, do come in. I'm sorry that you have plans but do take one of Mia's red velvet cupcakes with you for later.
"I think you know everyone here. You have met Christian's girlfriend, Ana. We are thrilled to welcome her to our family. She is something special."
"Well, of course, she is. To be with Christian, one would have to be special. Christian, darling, how are you feeling? You look quite pale. I'd even say ashen. Perhaps your girlfriend shouldn't have pulled you out of bed yet."
Her voice fairly dripped honey but she wasn't fooling most of the table. With the exception of Grace and Mia, the others cringed at her presence.
"Oh, don't worry, Mrs. Lincoln. I'll be getting Christian back into our bed right after dessert." Ana sneered as sweetly as she could manage and she enjoyed Cruella De Ville's furious look at Ana's deliberate use of 'our'.
"Well, I'm relieved to know that Christian survived this attempt on his life and will soon be back on his feet. Ana, you're quite the little magnet for drama, aren't you?...having suffered your own bout with ill health recently, your poor father dying after a long illness and now Christian is shot while out with you." Elena fairly drooled venom.
Christian put his arm around Ana's shoulder and pulled her close. Grace looked appalled. She took Elena's arm and steered her toward the front door.
"Elena, that was most inappropriate. Ana's been through quite a lot and needs all our support."
"Oh, Grace, I understand and sympathize with her troubles but my first concern is Christian. You've seen what she's put him through all these months…supporting her through her father's illness only to later be deserted by her and then weeks after of dealing with her hospitalization. Finally, while out with her, he is almost killed. Grace, I worry that she isn't good or safe for him."
Elena managed to fake a deeply concerned expression.
"I understand that you've always taken a special interest in Christian but I can assure you that he is happy for the first time in his life. Nothing before Ana has made him glow like this. He's even become closer to us. Don't worry. Enjoy your evening. I'll see you Tuesday for lunch," Grace smiled kindly, closing the door behind Elena.
CHAPTER 14
Sitting in her BMW a block beyond the Grey Mansion, Elena pounded on her steering wheel in a rage.
"Nothing before Ana has made him glow like this!" she mimicked Grace in a simpering voice. She leaned her head back and began to laugh like a hyena. She wished she had a picture of Christian "glowing" after a session in her basement dungeon. That would certainly shut Grace up and show her the truth about her little boy. Maybe a recording of him screaming in pleasure as she allowed him to slam into her like a jackhammer.
Her connections in the Seattle PD informed her that the case was cold. There were no leads except for a couple of shell casings that had been traced to stolen .45s. Motive was assumed to be business-related rather than personal. The target was, thus, assumed to be Christian Grey and not the woman he was with since he was blocking her with his body. There was suspicion that this was a professional hit.
Yeah, scoffed Elena, real professional. Without leads, the police assumed that Grey was still in danger. Perhaps if Christian himself was convinced of that, he would be less inclined to hide his new toy away. Soon Christian would be well enough to leave his parent's home. He would have to go back to work, surrounded by his army. Ana didn't strike Elena as a woman who would tolerate being locked away in his penthouse indefinitely. But even if she stayed put, there must be a way unto the 20th floor.
And Elena would think of that way. This time she'd take care of things herself. She wanted to see the look, the raw terror in that little brat's eyes when she looked down the barrel of Elena's untraceable Glock 20. A bullet from that gun would break her face into a million pieces. Christian wouldn't be able to identify her even by dental records…but he would know.
Elena wanted a plan that would give her unlimited time with sweet Ana. She would take her into the Red Room and hang her from the ceiling. She would whip her and use the cane with extra special care. She would jam the largest butt plug she could find up Ana's innocent little ass and then belt her until she bled. More and more delightful ideas came to Elena. Finally, she would pull the trigger and blow her face away. Yes, that was a good idea. Much better than simply shooting her. That would be over instantly and Ana wouldn't feel a thing. Elena wanted her to feel pain like she'd never known.
And then Christian would come home, wondering why his darling Ana wasn't there to greet him. Maybe Elena could leave a trail of rose petals up to the door of the Red Room. She wondered if there was any way to plant a video feed in the room so that she could enjoy Christian's reaction to the horror that would greet him when he opened the door…expecting the lovely Ana waiting to sub for him and finding a faceless, bloody pulp of a thing hanging from his ceiling.
The picture in her imagination made Elena so pleased that she clapped her hands together, her face breaking into a great Joker-style grimace. Let the mighty Greys sit around their elegant yet homey dining room, enjoying their red velvet cupcakes. In the not too distant future, they'd be attending a closed-casket funeral, everyone in black and in tears.
Someone would have to hold up Christian and that ninny, Mia. Elena would stand on one side of Grace with Carrick on the other. Elena's friendship and devotion would be needed. She would be expected to return to the Grey mansion for the post-funeral reception. Everyone in the better circles would see her importance to the Grey family. She would once again be Christian's only true friend and he would once again be her generous banker.
Happy days would be here again…the skies above would be clear again and we'll sing a song of cheer again. Happy days will be here again…Elena sang as she glided through the streets of the well-to-do toward her own unfortunately foreclosed but soon to be mortgage-free mansion…her face one of utter and deluded bliss as she tossed the red velvet cupcake out the window.
CHAPTER 15
Christian gave Ana his hand as he helped her out of his new, bulletproof Mercedes SUV. He gazed up at the shiny, red and retro exterior of Mac's Diner. Taylor and his men had made a sweep of the area and were assured that they had not been followed from Escala. Ana looked up at the building with no sign of recognition in her blue eyes but then, reasoned Christian, he didn't recognize the place either.
The door flew open and two people rushed out and threw their arms around Ana.
"Oh, my gosh, girl, we thought that we'd never see you again." Oh, you look so beautiful, so healthy. Christian, it is so good to see you as well. You've been taking good care of our Rose!" Mac and Margaret gushed. They'd been sitting in a window both waiting on her arrival. They beamed at her until they saw no sign of recognition in her eyes. Their smiles faded in disappointment.
"Guess we're strangers, eh?" they concluded.
"No, no. Please don't feel badly. I just feel a bit overwhelmed. You are Mac and Margaret. Christian showed me pictures of the diner and the apartment in which I lived while here. I'm sorry that I don't and will probably never remember you because I met you when I had the tumors and brain bleed. Much from that time is gone."
"Well, never mind, dear," consoled Margaret. "Come inside and have lunch with us. Now we hope the crowd won't worry you."
Crowd? Ana looked at Christian. He squeezed her hand and smiled in encouragement. Inside, the diner looked the same to Christian. Shiny yellow walls, a mismatched selection of tables and chairs. Every table was covered with blue-checkered cloths with cheap plastic vases filled with dandelions. He knew it meant nothing to Ana but to him it meant the place with hope and the day before he found Ana again. Except for an empty table in the center, every chair and counter stool was occupied. All rose as one when Ana walked in the door, grinning at her with joy. They applauded as she stared stunned around the room. Mac showed the couple to the empty table and then waved at the crowd to settle down and sit.
"Now, as I told you all, there would be a good chance that Ana wouldn't be able to remember this place or any of us due to her brain surgery but that doesn't change the fact that we all remember her and what she means to us. So, now my special mac and cheese on the house!...with Margaret's own homemade bread and everybody drink your milk, understand?" Mac ordered.
Despite Mac's warning about Ana's memory, she was deluged with pats and hugs and even cheek kisses. Christian's own cheeks ached from smiling as he watched the tsunami of affection wash over a giggling Ana. People who didn't know him were thanking him for bringing her by for a visit. He winched through a dozen pats on the back but it was worth it. These people loved her and it was beyond a delight to watch and to be a part of it.
Finally, the excitement died down and everyone settled in to eat their lunches. Each table already had place settings and now two waitresses in matching uniforms, with the word MAC'S written on the aprons, placed large bowls of mac and cheese and baskets of bread and pitchers of milk on the tables. With a command from Mac to "dig in", all chatter was replaced by the oohs and aahs of appreciation.
Christian watched Ana's eyes light up at her first taste. Mac and Margaret didn't begin eating, though. They just wanted to look at Ana. Mac reminisced about their first meeting out back by the dumpster and how he'd worried that she wouldn't be still there in the morning.
"Worried sick I was about you all night long. Slept barely a wink. Right from the first moment you looked up at me from the ground behind the dumpster, I was a goner. Betcha' know what I mean, don't cha', Christian?" winked Mac. Christian was too busy gulping down spoonsful of his favorite dish to do more than nod vigorously.
"Yep, right from the start. Ana, drink your milk." Mac couldn't take his eyes off her. "I guess I have to get used to that name, eh? Didn't know what this guy," Mac gestured toward Taylor who stood watching out the window, "was talking about when he called you "Ana".
Ana, knowing how deeply she'd hurt Christian, all he'd gone through, reached up and gently brushed his cheek in silent apology. He took her hand and kissed it, then motioned for her to keep eating, with a fake stern expression. She smiled and went back to listening to Mac describing her time working for him. She marveled that she meant so much to so many and felt sad that she'd never remember them.
She apparently knew their favorite dishes, their spouses and children, patched up their cuts and put ice on their bumps and bruises. A couple of the men told her that they still washed up before eating and made sure that new guys did as well. The new regime she'd insisted upon, polite language and behavior, was still in effect as well. Mac's was the finest place to eat in the whole area.
Ana remarked on the diner's charm and Mac winked again at Christian.
"Well, the inside is all yours but the exterior was a gift from your fella here. He made the offer and, of course, I turned him down. So, I showed up one morning and there's a couple construction semis out front labeled Grey Design and Construction and all these guys are unloading equipment.
This big blond dude introduces himself as Christian's big brother and invites me into his trailer office to show me the plans for my approval. I tried one more time to say that all that wasn't necessary and this guy put a paw bigger than my own on my shoulder and says that his brother and the rest of his brother's family figure I kept you alive. He tells me that I can either let them go ahead and do their jobs or they and their semis will just sit out front until hell froze over."
Mac roared with laughter and slapped Christian on the back. Ana watched his face turn white and reached out to squeeze his leg.
CHAPTER 16
Mac, Margaret and a dozen regulars ushered Christian and Ana to their car, exclaiming over the luxurious automobile and urging the two to return soon. Always a free meal, assured Mac. Ana shyly embraced Mac and Margaret, noting that they were holding hands. She smiled and waved at everyone else and thanked them all.
Christian waved once more as Taylor pulled out of the new parking lot that Elliot had built and turned back to Ana, alarmed to see her head bowed and tears on her cheeks. He quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her unto his lap, wrapping his arms around her as she tucked her head into his shoulder. He let her cry for a bit before he spoke.
"Baby, what is it?" he gently inquired but she didn't answer. Christian looked helplessly at Taylor through the rearview mirror.
"I think that Gail would tell us that Ana is feeling sad that she doesn't remember all those people who love her, sir," Taylor guessed.
Ana nodded her head as she wrapped her arms around Christian's neck and continued to softly sob. "Oh," Christian said. "Okay, then." He held her still tighter.
"Hmm, Taylor" Christian said.
"Sir?"
"Keep in mind that Ana is unbuckled, right?"
"Oh, I'm well aware, sir," Taylor frowned.
"Oh and Taylor?"
"Sir?"
"Look into some kind of seat harness contraption that can be used for a situation like this,"
Taylor nodded and was silent for a moment.
"Sir?" he asked.
"Yes, Taylor?"
"Just a concern, sir. I'm wondering if the existence of such a seatbelt for two might lead to, hmm, a consistent disregard for normal safety precautions, vis a vis, backseat seating arrangements, sir?"
"You have a point, Taylor. Still, look into it. Oh, and Taylor? I think I might have forgotten, in all the excitement of the past few weeks, to thank you for stemming my blood loss and saving my life."
"Just doing my job, sir."
"Nonetheless, I think I tend to take your services for granted. After all, I do recall offering a kidney to Sawyer for throwing himself on top of Ana even though I think the fucker enjoyed it."
There was a very uncharacteristic chuckle from Taylor.
When Taylor checked his rearview again several minutes later, he saw that both his charges were sound asleep in each other's arms.
CHAPTER 17
Christian woke up as Taylor pulled into the parking garage. Taylor gestured through the window for Christian to stay put. He wanted to sweep the garage and the elevator. He barked orders to the rest of the security detail and strode over to the office to question the guards regularly stationed there. He stood for several minutes perusing video footage of the garage, elevator and stairwell taken over the last few hours while he and the boss were gone.
Christian leaned down to kiss Ana's soft lips. Her blue eyes opened and she reached out a hand to brush his lips with her fingertips. Then she pointed to her lips again. His heart swelled as he placed his mouth on hers again, this time touching his tongue tenderly to hers. She gathered his hair in her hands and pulled his head tighter to hers and deepened the kiss. By the time that Taylor had finished his security check and reached the back door, the couple were in full-on make-out mode.
Taylor had to make a judgement call…interrupt and possibly incur the boss's wrath or wait it out. Of course, waiting it out meant that matters might progress to a far more serious situation which could lead to embarrassment and more wrath.
Shit. These two were never easy. He wondered what Gail would do.
He chose the path of lesser wrath and standing next to the door but above the line of vision, he knocked gently on the window. He waited. Oh, for crying out loud…he knocked again, more forcefully.
Finally, a knock was returned and Taylor opened the door. He reached in and helped Ms. Steele off of Mr. Grey's lap while his boss adjusted his pants to hide his erection.
Oh, brother, thought Taylor, why bother? I live with you. I lived with you all through the sub years. I know you'll have Ana's panties off the minute the elevator doors close even though you know the security cameras are recording everything and the second they open I'll have to look at the floor while she climbs off you and then I'll have to sweep the penthouse and check the videos in the security office. Then I'll return to the foyer to allow you entry while I again stare at the floor while you tear each other's clothes off on the way to your bedroom. After, I'll have to alert Gail so that she can collect all your discarded clothing, at least as far as the bedroom door. I'd pick them up for her, 'cause I do love my gal, but by then I'll be in too big a hurry to get safely into my own place, get a shower and ambush my wife when she gets back from the laundry room.
.+.
Christian's elbows gave out and he collapsed in a sweaty heap on top of his girl. He reluctantly rolled off of her but immediately rolled to face her and wrap his arms around her, entwining their legs.
"You didn't have to move, you know. I like your weight on me," Ana answered.
"Baby, I'm almost double your weight. I'm afraid I'd crush you."
"You've been treating me like I'm made of glass ever since I left the hospital, Christian. I miss when you couldn't control yourself."
"You're mistaken. I haven't been in control since that first day in the conference room but I have to watch how rough I am with you."
"I've recovered from my brain surgery, Christian."
"I'm talking about my surgery," he said with a straight face. Ana stared at him for a moment and then deliberately flipped over and straddled him hard, knocking the breath out of him.
"Geez, woman, you nearly broke a rib!" Christian protested.
"Now, how is that possible? I'm so dainty and delicate and damn near weightless," she smirked at him.
He mock-glared at her and then flipped her back onto her back, lying fully on top of her. He scooped her legs up and over his shoulders and wrapped his arms completely around her body, their faces nose to nose.
"I want to bury myself inside you as deeply as possible," he breathed into her mouth, "and crash into you over and over until you come, screaming my name."
"Who's stopping you, Mr. Grey?" Ana dared him.
"And even then, I don't want to ever pull out of you."
"Could I at least lower my legs after before I black out?" she grinned at him. "One can take being doubled over only so long."
"So, deal? You can lower your legs but I don't have to ever leave you?"
"Deal, stud," she breathed into his mouth before he crashed into her lips as well.
CHAPTER 18
Taylor had sex-talked his wife into staying in bed for the rest of the day and night and morning. He knew Mr. Grey and Ana would rarely emerge from their bedroom and Gail had left several casseroles for them to reheat over the weekend.
Gail was sighing contentedly as she snuggled against his chest and for the first time…well, he couldn't recall actually…everyone was safe and sound. When his phone buzzed, Gail groaned and it wasn't the good kind of groan.
"Sorry to interrupt your time off, Taylor." It was Ryan in the security office. "Someone's been trying to hack their way past the elevator sensors and the stairwell electronic locks. The monitors are stuttering. The backups are blocking every effort but the hackers are not backing off. I figure it's amateurs pretty much since they're so clumsy at it and are leaving themselves wide open to detection."
"Well, Ryan," Taylor tried to disguise his sarcasm, "if they're wide open to detection, have you detected their identity?"
"Ah, no, sir. No. I wondered if you wanted me to bother since they're not going to succeed?"
Taylor held the phone against his stomach since his chest was occupied and asked for strength.
"Well, Ryan, since someone is still out there trying to kill our boss, perhaps we should look into their identity, okay?"
"Just what I was thinking. I'll get back to you," Ryan said, ringing off.
"Yeah, right," Taylor sighed.
"Do you have to go into the office, honey?" Gail complained.
"I should. Ryan's thinking."
Gail's laughter rang out behind him as he pulled on his pants and a t-shirt.
"Stay where you are," he growled at Gail. "I'll be right back for you." She continued to giggle as he feigned having trouble walking.
Stomping into the office in his angry bare feet, he snarled at Ryan. "What do you have?"
"Like I said, the hackers keep trying. They either don't care if we know what they're doing or they're too stupid to care if we know. I don't get it. And every time I catch a signal, another one comes in from a different place. I pin one down and another pops up."
"They're either trying to get us to give up or think that we have equipment issues and lock down instead," Taylor said.
"But why? They certainly can't get in if we're locked down."
Taylor looked down at Ryan, annoyed. "Because we can't stay locked down forever. And the second we start up again, even long enough to get the boss down to the garage, they can slip their code right in and halt their hacking in a split second, counting on us to not notice the tiniest of blips on the monitor. Yeah, these guys are amateurs, all right.
"They're not aware of how state-of-the-art we are up here. They don't realize that we update almost daily whereas most security systems lag by months. "Course, other systems aren't protecting Christian Grey. For now, continue what you've been doing. We don't want them to know that we're on to them. I'm going to have to confab with Welch and Grey, dammit."
Taylor left the office well and truly pissed off. He was going to have to drag both himself and his boss away from their beds and their women and it was a toss-up which man was going to be madder about it. Of course, at least Grey was allowed to be irate while Taylor would have to be the cool professional. He'd better take a really cold shower before he got dressed.
Meanwhile, tucked blissfully inside his girlfriend, Christian Grey had forgotten all about the dangers of the outside world. Ana was breathing softly, curled against his chest with his arms holding her as closely as possible. She was well and safe and he'd regained enough strength to love her. Nothing could mar his happiness this day.
CHAPTER 19
Nothing could mar Christian's happiness. Nothing, that is, except the knock on the bedroom door. Christian decided that he hadn't heard a knock. Then his cell buzzed. He knew immediately who it was, of course. It was set to buzz only for the guy with the buzz cut…Taylor. Damn. Grey knew that Taylor would never call unless it was serious. They had both intended to spend their weekend off with their women so Grey figured that Taylor would be just as pissed.
Carefully, and with great reluctance, Grey pulled himself out of Ana and eased his arms from around her and slid out of the bed. He looked down at her, feeling overwhelmed with emotion.
.+.
"Taylor, I don't care that you saved my life. I'm going to kill you," Grey grumbled as he shuffled barefooted across the marble floors in just his pajama bottoms. Taylor stood in a t-shirt and sweatpants, equally put out as he motioned Grey toward the security office.
"Someone is trying to hack into our sensors. I believe that their penultimate goal is for us to lockdown the system." Taylor explained as he yawned into Grey's face. "Assholes," he concluded. To hell with professional demeanor, he thought, as he flopped down on the sofa.
Grey flopped down beside him and silently considered the situation. "Welch, are you with us?" Welch's face appeared on screen and his voice came through the speakers clearly as he replied.
"Yes, sir. Barney is linked in as well. To answer your unasked question, no, there isn't yet a way to avoid having these hackers slip in a code when we restore the system. To answer your next question, Barney's been working on a way to stop such an intrusion but it is a tough one to fix. To answer your demand that we get it done yesterday, we're trying, sir. Just like a few dozen other geniuses have been for some time now. It is a weakness in the system for which no one has yet found a solution."
"Then let them in."
All heads snapped to the doorway. Ana stood there in pink flannel pajamas decorated with little ducks wearing raincoats, boots and holding umbrellas as they splashed about in puddles. She wore pink socks and carried a pair of socks and a t-shirt.
"Please put these on, sweetie," she smiled sleepily. "You're not well enough yet to go about with bare feet on these cold floors."
She tossed the socks and shirt to Christian who obediently pulled them on while the other men were gobsmacked. The Christian Grey, tamed like a stallion happily awaiting a saddle. Then they went back to staring at the adorable little woman in the doorway.
"Ms. Steele, hmm, I'm afraid that you don't understand…" Barney began before Ana cut him off.
"It seems quite simple to me, gentlemen. Someone, and I believe I know who, wants to gain access to this penthouse in order to do harm, probably murder, to someone who lives here."
"And," Welch finished, "we'd like to keep them from accomplishing their ultimate goal."
Welch liked Ana and didn't want to insult her but he wasn't used to women questioning his skills. Rather he was accustomed to using his expertise to protect people and, of late, a particular woman…the boss's girlfriend. He was both amused and irritated as he gazed upon Ana in her ducked out pajamas.
"Does it not make sense that if a murderer is willing to present themselves to you for capture that you should accept their offer," Ana politely inquired.
CHAPTER 20
The men all looked at each other a bit dumbfounded. It was a simple and obvious idea and they all felt a little stupid.
"Umm…I am an idiot," confessed Welch.
"Ditto," agreed Taylor.
Christian just grinned with pride. "Ana, you said that you think you know who is doing this?"
"Well, yes. Elena Lincoln, of course. She believes, fervently so, that you belong to her, that you owe your success to her, that she made you. She sees me as an interloper who has taken what is hers."
"Okay, Ana. I'll agree that Elena is possessive of me and thinks that hers is the only opinion that I should honor. And yes, she's tried to persuade me to break up with you…but I don't think that Elena is a killer. I don't think that she is dangerous," Christian said, shaking his head.
Ana crossed the room and settled herself in Christian's lap as she began explaining her position slowly and simply as if she were addressing a roomful of small children.
"First, she came to my hospital room with my cray-cray mother in an attempt to, in effect, kidnap and move me across the country. She went mad with fury and indignation when Taylor physically removed her, screaming that she owned you and that she'd be back for what was hers.
"Next, she tried to shoot me, missed and nearly killed you instead. I think that her dismay over that misadventure shocked her into inaction for a time," Ana yawned.
"Wait, wait…," Christian exclaimed, "you think that you were the target that night? Why am I first hearing this?"
As he stared at her in astonishment, Ana shrugged.
"I suspected from the first that I was the target but I didn't want to say anything until you were stronger. I mean, you freak out when I sneeze. Knowing that someone was trying to kill me might have set back your recovery. Don't be upset now. I was going to tell you eventually. I think that Elena seeing us together at your parents' hour spurred her to once again move forward with her plans to eliminate me."
All the men were staring at her, dumbstruck.
Taylor, already knowing the answer, stared at the floor for a minute and then looked carefully at Ana. "What makes you think that you were the target, Ana?"
"The bullet's trajectory, Taylor."
Silence again filled the room. Ana curled up into a ball on Christian's lap, taking her arms from around his neck and snuggling into his chest. She yawned again and shivered. Christian motioned to Ryan to hand him the throw on the arm of the sofa. Ana got cold so easily these days. He wrapped the throw around her and held her close as she began to fall to sleep. Then he looked at Taylor.
"She's right," Taylor confirmed. "I don't know why we didn't see it. We just assumed that you were the target because you were the one who got shot but if you'd actually been the target, it would have been much easier to shoot you in the back. The shots came from the side. An inch to the left and it would have been Ana. If you hadn't knocked her down and covered her body with yours…if you'd just fallen over, the second bullet would have hit Ana. The railing curves around the walkway. The shooter was to the left and slightly in front of Ana as she leaned over the railing.
"I feel like an idiot. Our assumption that you were the target blinded us to the fact that the shooter took his shot from what seemed like such a bad position. We just thought we got lucky with a couple of amateurs."
Taylor glanced over at Ana. He smiled. "If she weren't asleep, I sure that Ana would also enlighten us as to why the hackers are trying to force a lockdown and it isn't just because they, or rather, she wants to slip in a code."
Welch's eyes lit up as he suddenly understood. "Elena expects that the only person we'd unlock for would be Mr. Grey."
"I'd leave for GEH but I'd never allow Ana to go out," Grey concurred. "I'd make her stay here because I'd believe that she would be safer. After I left, Elena could get in to get to Ana. Shit, that murderous bitch!"
Taylor smiled. "I'm sure that Ana will be delighted to know that you've finally seen the light about Elena. I can only imagine what she would do to her while you were gone for eight hours. For sure, she would ultimately kill her."
Christian beamed with pride as he looked down at the woman sleeping in his arms.
"That's my little 4.5 GPAer!"
CHAPTER 20
Long after Christian had carried Ana off to bed, the other men had stayed up to strategize. Taylor had been dead on his feet but Ana's revelations had energized him, She was right…he knew it. Unfortunately, courts still required proof. He chuckled to himself…he'd just have to discuss that with Ana in the morning. The other problem was that even if they found a way to prove Elena's involvement, if she couldn't shoot Ana, she would surely start shooting off her mouth about Grey's former lifestyle.
Again, thanks to Ana, Taylor and Sawyer had been able to gather up all of Elena's possible, rather probable, blackmail material. Nonetheless, there were 15 former subs out there along with possible witnesses from BDSM clubs who could present problems for Grey. All Elena would have to do is give the tabloids something worth digging into. Taylor would like to have blamed Grey for his privacy issues but he had to give the guy a break. He was only 15 when Elena turned him into a perv. He didn't know any better for the next 12 years…until Ana. Now the damage was done and there were plenty of business rivals who would love to blacken his name.
Taylor would never have admitted to anyone but he secretly wondered about the advisability of disposing of Elena himself. He knew that he could pull it off. He could make it appear that when suspicion had fallen upon her, Elena had decided to disappear. After all, he knew, he himself had a horse in this race. It wasn't just Grey's reputation at stake. His bitch ex would love nothing better than to take his daughter away from him. A lot of judges would agree that a man who'd been helping his boss cover up perverted, though legal, activities was a man who deserved to have his parental rights terminated. His ex-wife's current husband had even tried to persuade Jason that he would make a better father for his little Sophie…had tried to guilt Jason into letting him adopt her. Jason wanted so badly to deck the bastard but that would have only given the ex the ammunition that she wanted to severely curtail his visitation rights. It was only due to Grey's money and influence that Jason had any rights at all.
No. Jason had to concede, he had no clue what to do about Elena Lincoln.
.+.
Jason awoke to the sound of piano playing. It was 3 a.m. and he'd fallen asleep on the security office sofa. Ryan was sitting at his desk, drinking coffee and keeping an eye on the CCTV. Jason felt bad. Poor Ryan had been monitoring the situation for hours now and was probably exhausted. Since the boss had been shot, Taylor had decided that the security office should be manned 24/7.
"Any changes, Ry?" Taylor asked as he swung his feet off the sofa and unto the cold floor.
"Nah. The hackers are still at it, probably counting on us being less vigilant at night. Too bad for them. This is the first night I haven't had to fight to stay awake. I'm too wired waiting for them to make a mistake. Grey's been up playing for a while. That's unusual since Ana's been home. 'Course, finding out that his woman was supposed to bite that bullet instead of him no doubt has him on edge. Why don't you go back to bed?"
"Yeah, Gail will be up in a few hours and then I can't sleep anymore. Reynolds will be in at 5. Let me know if there's anything to report. Goodnight, Ry."
As he left the office, Jason knew that he should take a left to his apartment but instead, worried about Grey, he took a right for the living room. He stopped when he heard Ana screaming. The piano went silent as Grey raced back to his bedroom.
Jason sighed and turned around, heading for Gail. He found her awake.
"What are you doing awake, honey?" he asked, concerned.
"Well, let's see. First, you get an alert and you don't return so I know that it's serious. Second, Mr. Grey begins with the piano playing again. Third, Ana starts screaming. I don't know, sweetheart, maybe I'm just high-strung," Gail laughed.
"Well, as long as you're having trouble sleeping, let's see if I can wear you out a little," Jason leered as Gail giggled in agreement.
CHAPTER 21
Ana was sitting up, eyes open and wild with fear. Christian gathered her up in his arms, one hand holding her head against his chest, rocking her. Five minutes later she was still shaking violently. He shouldn't have left her but he just couldn't sleep and he was afraid that his tossing and turning would wake Ana. His beautiful girl had night terrors but he usually woke up before they got really bad and he was able to calm her just by rocking her a little. Tonight he wasn't there for her and who knows how bad it got before she started screaming.
He said that he was sorry over and over even though he knew that she couldn't hear him. Finally, she began to calm down and her breathing slowed. He could feel that she was soaked with sweat and it wasn't because she was wearing flannel pjs. Once he was certain that she was again sound asleep, he gently changed her out of the wet pajamas and into a dry t-shirt. Her head was also wet so he carefully dried her hair with the setting on low just like he'd done that night so long ago. He'd learned his lesson. He wouldn't leave her to sleep alone again, ever.
And tomorrow morning he was going to pay Elena a visit.
.+.
Elena stood in her basement 'classroom', her latest trainee having just left. This one was promising…not like Christian Grey had been, of course. He was one in a million. And, things had been different then. She was in her 30's and still a natural beauty whereas now "beauty" took a bit more work and the results weren't as appealing to young boys. She had to work harder to find good candidates as well.
She'd worked so hard for years to groom Christian and it really seemed for a while that she'd struck gold. He was her pension plan. He would always take care of her, she knew. Yes, it was true that he'd been drifting from the life even before that Steele girl had come along but he'd still remained her "friend". She had him convinced that she was his only friend, the only person that he could talk with about his problems. He supported her salon and never noticed that she was skimming off the profits. A few more years and she would have had enough money socked away to allow her to never worry again.
Now it had all gone to shit. Even if she got rid of the girl, she wasn't sure if she could con him into providing her funds anymore. Still, it was the only plan she had so she had to go for it.
Those idiots that she hired to kill the girl had screwed up beyond belief. Good grief! They'd nearly killed the golden goose instead! Oh, well, perhaps it was for the best. With her new plan, she'd be able to have all the fun of killing Ana herself!
She was sure that her training had left Grey unable to have a life without his playroom and that eventually he'd need a new sub but he had left her in such dire financial straits that she was running out of time. She couldn't wait for Christian to tire of his new toy. She would just have to take it from him. Grief alone would drive him to need a distraction. Elena was sure that within a month of Ana's demise, Christian would need a sub. That was cutting it close. She had managed to raise enough money to hold off on the foreclosure of her home. She knew people who were willing to "help" her keep their secret. Still, she needed to get into that penthouse, get Ana alone and soon.
Upstairs, she could hear the doorbell ringing insistently. Someone really wanted her attention. Maybe it was good news about Escala because she was chomping at the bit to have fun with little Anastasia.
CHAPTER 22
"Well, what the hell do you two want? It's late and I was just getting ready for bed." Elena was not happy to see Yeti and Sasquatch. They looked nervous.
"Well, we have some news and you ordered us to always come by after dark, Ma'am."
Elena chuckled to herself. She always enjoyed frightening men and these two were more easily scared than most. This visit would cheer her up, she thought.
"Well, come in before someone notices you. I hope that you had the good sense to park away from the house."
They assured her that they had but she still looked to be sure. They were sharing a brain so she had to be careful.
"Do you have any news for me?" she demanded. "I want to get into that penthouse and soon, do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am. Our contacts tell us that Grey is planning on going into GEH on Monday morning. He always goes in…"
Elena sharply cut him off. "Christ, I've known him since he started that company. I know when he goes in. Have we managed to slip in the new codes?"
"No, ma'am. The good news is that his security is convinced that their system is wonky so they're going to do a lockdown Sunday night and a restart when Grey leaves Monday morning. Our contacts tell us that you should have the new codes shortly after Grey leaves the garage. He'll want the system up again as soon as possible. We'll be right around the corner, ready to enter. As soon as we've tied up the housekeeper and taken care of the lady's CPO, we'll call you."
"No. No. Taser both the housekeeper and the CPO and then slit their throats. I want to enjoy Ana's company without any chance of interruption. For god's sake, remember to use the stairway. Tase the brat. I want her to wake up hanging from the ceiling. On, the expression on her face when she opens her eyes!" Elena was filled to overflowing with glee thinking about Ana's fear.
"Yes, ma'am. Umm, we were wondering if we might have a little fun with the girl before you arrive. She is a really pretty girl and we've taken so many risks and will be taking so many more so we thought that we maybe deserved a bit of fun, too."
Elena's eyes narrowed to slits like a crocodile as she slashed out at Yeti with her red claws. He yelped in pain as she dug deep into his already wounded cheek.
"RISKS, RISKS!" she screeched. "I've taken all the risks just hiring you two goons!"
It was at that moment that she saw something in Yeti's eyes that put her on guard. He picked up a pashmina throw from her sofa and wiped the blood from his cheek. As she began to hell at him for using her expensive throw to mop up blood, he backhanded her, knocking her into a chair. He liked the fear in her eyes. He looked over at Sasquatch and nodded. His buddy pulled a length of rope from the bag he'd brought along with him. As Elena tried to rise from the chair, Sasquatch shoved her back down and began wrapping the rope around her, taping her to the chair. The fear in her eyes increased and tears began to spill. Sasquatch liked that.
"We talked to our contacts at the SPD today, ma'am," Yeti snarled. "It seems that they've had some luck in tracing that .45 that you gave us to shoot the girl. You weren't as smart as you thought about buying it off a street dealer. The SPD had CCTV footage of the sale. The cops know it was a woman making the buy and they think they've got a good lead on the dealer. It's only a matter of time before they connect the dots. Then they'll come looking to talk to you and they'll connect you to us. Heck, you'll probably just give us up. We know that you have a lot of important people in your pocket thanks to your little hobby. They'll get you off if they know what's good for them, won't they, ma'am?"
"Yeah," Sasquatch agreed. "We already figure that you'll give them some cock and bull story about buying some self-protection because we threatened you. Next thing you know, we're up for attempted murder of an important guy like Christian Grey and you're testifying against us."
"No, no," Elena swore. "I'd never do that." Her head flew back as Sasquatch backhanded her other cheek. "I really want to punch you but that would probably knock you out and we want you very much awake for everything that we're going to do to you tonight before we leave."
"Yeah," Yeti growled. "We want you conscious and pleading for mercy. Though we're a little concerned that we won't be rough enough for someone like you."
"Oh, you forget, buddy. Elena doesn't like getting pain. She likes giving it."
"Oh, yeah, you're right. Are you excited, Elena? ' Cause we sure are," Yeti laughed maniacally.
Elena had never known such terror after decades of enjoying dishing it out. She felt a warm stream of urine trickling down her leg and hoped it would all be over quickly. They were, after all, amateurs and were sure to accidentally kill her.
She was wrong.
CHAPTER 23
Christian opened his eyes to see a pink dawn shining through the bedroom windows. He felt the warmth of Ana's back tucked against his chest and the fragrance of her skin with his nose nuzzled into her neck. With their legs entwined and his arms wrapped tightly around her soft body, life was perfect. Life was complete…until he remembered. Elena wanted to destroy his life. She wanted his Ana cold and dead. He held on to Ana tighter, his heart clenching with fear. That could never happen. The prospect of a day without Ana sent chills through him. Today he would hire more security and today he would confront Elena.
He would make her understand that her life would finish with Ana's. He didn't know if he could get through to her, however. He considered that Elena was no longer a reasonable human being. Maybe she never had been. Her inhumanity had just been disguised as long as she got exactly what she wanted. Hundreds of hours in her 'classroom' being beaten, his flesh flayed…that could not be described as human behavior. Still, talking to her today was a last ditch effort. If he felt that he hadn't gotten through to her, he would have to contemplate more desperate measures with which to deal with her. He would do anything, anything at all, to stop her from taking away his reason for being.
It hurt to disentangle himself from Ana but he knew that her nightmares came only in the dead of night and that she would sleep for several more hours. He hoped to return soon enough to shower with her. He almost had to laugh at himself…even showering without her was no longer an option.
He knew that he would soon have to go back into the office. Ros was happy and was doing a great job but her wife was ready to kill him. He understood, of course. He'd feel that same way if the absence of Ros meant that he had to be away from Ana 12 hours a day. Gwen had emailed him numerous times, ordering him to get his ass back to work and send her wife home. He determined to put them both on one of his jets and send them to his house in Aspen for at least 2 weeks. Maybe he should make that 3 weeks. Gwen was really pissed.
He also knew that Ana was mostly recovered from her surgeries and traumas. Any day now she was going to want to return to work. Thus, both of them would soon be facing reality, normal life. Ugh.
But, first, he had to remove the threat hanging over their heads. A death threat, no less. He'd done everything he thought necessary to remove Elena from his life. She had no more blackmail material. Pleasant, non-threatening visits by his lawyers to his former submissives had reassured him that none held ill will toward him, all were settled into comfortable lives that they didn't wish disrupted and none had been contacted by Elena to help with her revenge. Even the ones who'd been dismissed because they wanted love from Christian had gone on to other partners and were happy. Members of BDSM clubs that he had frequented no more wanted exposure than he did so they were not threats.
All that remained was Elena's intention to kill his lover, his life, his future. Yeah, that was all, he smirked to himself.
His phone buzzed…the buzzed one himself calling to rouse Christian.
"Yeah, Taylor. I'll be out in 15, okay?"
Heaving a great sigh, Christian left the bed, turning back only to tuck the covers around Ana and kiss her forehead. Maybe when he returned, they'd make love. The promise of holding her lightened his load.
After showering and dressing in his most intimidating CEO attire, Christian settled into the backseat of his Mercedes SUV with Taylor at the wheel. Having opened the lockdown, whoever was hacking the sensors would have now slipped in the necessary code for entering the penthouse. Thus, Christian had left a small army of operatives guarding all entrances. Sawyer was stationed outside the bedroom and Grey knew that he'd give his life for Ana.
He momentarily wondered if he should have driven his R8 as it was the more awe-inspiring vehicle. However, he'd seen his reflection in the glass of GEH when he stepped out of the Mercedes and he liked the impression of chilling power it gave. He never before had had to bring his powers of intimidation to bear on Elena to the degree that he had to today.
As Taylor opened his door and Grey topped the steps of Elena's mansion to ring her bell, he froze. The door was slightly ajar and then was blood on the knob.
CHAPTER 24
Taylor, standing right behind Grey, firmly moved Christian to behind him.
"Stay, Mr. Grey." Taylor drew his weapon and gently nudged open the door with his shoe, stepping inside.
Minutes passed like hours and a dozen possible scenarios flashed through Grey's mind as he waited on Taylor's return. It was barely 7 a.m. Elena was an early riser which was why Grey was here now but she would usually be puttering around her kitchen, making coffee and breakfast and fueling up for a morning session in her classroom with her latest sub. However, it was too soon for her sub to arrive and anyway, she wouldn't have left her door open to him to walk right in.
Such freedom and familiarity was not becoming the dom/sub relationship, especially with Elena's superior attitude. She would make the sub wait. He wasn't allowed to fidget either. He must stand stark still until she deigned to open the door and acknowledge his presence after which she would indicate with a dismissive wave of her hand that he was to go around to the back, the "service" door…more schooling in humiliation.
Had she changed her modus operandi? Perhaps added a smear of blood to heighten the sub's fear of what was to come? He recalled quaking as he stood in her driveway, both in fear and excitement, as he wondered about the hours to come and what she had planned for that day's lesson.
After much too long a time, Taylor reappeared on the front steps. Grey had never seen him truly disturbed except for the time that Gail had appendicitis. Now his face was pale. He walked down to Grey to report.
"Sir, at first appearance it would seem that there has been a burglary although I think that is merely a ruse. The house is completely trashed and to do that to a house of this size would have taken quite some time. Burglars won't usually chance spending that much time in a home. There are also traces of blood everywhere but I've been unable to find a source. I mean, I assume the source is a human body but I haven't found one anywhere. How do you wish to proceed?"
There was a tremor to Taylor's voice. He thought himself impervious to violence and its results but it had been many years since his days on the force and even more since his time in the service. Between Gail and Ana he'd probably gotten soft, he guessed.
"You say that you've been through every room and every closet in your search for a body?" Grey asked in a voice stronger than he felt.
"Yes, sir," Taylor answered…"even the basement."
"Not all of the basement, I'm sure," Grey replied. "Is it safe to go in?"
"Yes, sir. Any intruders are gone."
"Very well. Follow me," Grey ordered. He knew of one room that he was certain that Taylor had not searched. He didn't want to check it out himself but no one else, including the police, would know where to look. He had to look inside even if it was a place he had never again wanted to venture. It would also be necessary to leave the hidden door ajar for the police.
What he walked into made him feel ill. It was as if a tornado had torn through Elena's usually immaculate house. There was not a single piece of furniture left intact. The doors on the kitchen cabinets were torn off their hinges. Every expensive knick-knack smashed. Her cabinet of precious Waterford, Baccarat and Lalique crystal obliterated…shards of it covered with blood as if they'd been used to stab and slash. He continued walking through the hallway as quickly as possible to the basement door, down the stairs and through the 30-seat theatre room to behind the screen where he reached up to a hidden lever. Covering his hand with his jacket sleeve to avoid leaving fingerprints, he turned the handle and a portion of the wall slid back to reveal a room twice the size of his red room and filled with a thousand more instruments of torture.
Elena called herself a dominatrix but she practiced a form of BDSM that would have made the Marquis de Sade blanche. For Elena there was no masochism in BDSM. It was all sadism. This room was used to torture. He hadn't been in here for more than six years and, looking at it now, he wondered how he'd survived, how he'd kept his injuries secret from his family.
Turning away from the scene before him…and the sight of Elena, no longer recognizable, hanging from the ceiling…Grey used his elbow to push a button to raise the theatre screen, leaving the secret door exposed. Then, using all his inner strength to avoid vomiting, he led Taylor back up the stairs. They'd been careful to avoid stepping in anything that could leave footprints. Now he and Taylor were trying to avoid leaving vomit. They didn't want the police to know that they'd been in the basement….that they'd seen what they had seen.
CHAPTER 25
Even though he'd left a note for Ana to let her know that he'd be late getting back to the penthouse, she instinctively knew that the reason for his late homecoming wasn't good. She'd been pacing back and forth in front of the elevator for hours and Gail had cleaned the kitchen repeatedly. Neither of them knew where their men had gone so early but after last night's meeting they suspected that it had something to do with the threat from Elena.
There were security men in every corner of the place. Sawyer seemed glued to her side. Gail had explained to Ana that thesensors had been compromised since Christian had left that morning and, hence, the extra protection.
When Christian exited the elevator, Ana instantly jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Gail's greeting for Jason was no less enthusiastic even if she did keep her feet on the floor. Christian sat on the couch with Ana on his lap, holding on to her for dear life while Jason sat at the breakfast counter with his arms around Gail.
"Sawyer, could you check in with Reynolds and report back?" Taylor asked. "I'd like to think that we're in the clear but…," he trailed off.
"Christian, where did you go this morning and what took you so long to return? Gail and I were going crazy with worry!" Ana chided.
Christian drew in a ragged breath. This really was a conversation that he did not want to have but it wasn't avoidable. Ana would never let go, he'd learned. So, he began by explaining that they'd gone over to Elena's in hopes of discouraging her from continuing her efforts to get rid of her rival…by murder or otherwise.
"The police are under the impression that we got no further into the house than the foyer and then called them to report a possible break-in. Should they ask to speak with either of you, that's the story, ok?" Grey cautioned.
"Well, what reason did you give them for being there in the first place?" Gail asked.
"A version of the truth. Elena was angry with me for withdrawing my financial support and blamed me and Ana's influence on me for her failing salon. She'd been making threats so I went over there to talk with her and to offer her monetary aid for the sake of her longtime friendship with my mother. They bought it, we're sure, because then they told us what they'd found in the basement."
"Elena?" Ana suspected.
"What had once been Elena." Christian gulped. "Do you want to hear this?"
Ana kissed his lips softly and leaned into him. "My Mr. Grey is gray. So, I'm guessing that it was awful."
"It was," allowed Christian, "like nothing I've ever imagined. I don't know if even Elena deserved what was done to her. I always thought that she was malignantly inventive but whoever did this to her took maliciousness to new depths. My guess is that her attacker or attackers were former subs, people with deeply serious mental damage and anger issues due to Elena's treatment of them."
"With Elena gone, will security be lifted?" Gail asked hopefully.
"No, no," Taylor jumped in, "and when you go for groceries, you're going to have to ask the security ring to part so that you can see the broccoli. There are still maniacs out there and we don't know if they're done. In fact, we're hoping said maniacs will still walk into our trap."
"Taylor, I'd like to ship Ana and Gail out to Aspen until this is over," Christian suggested.
"So would I, sir," Taylor said, "but we can't count on these guys believing that their intended victim is still available. They won't break in if they think Ana isn't here. I'm all for Gail being flown out, though."
"As if," Gail scoffed. "I'm not leaving Ana. Besides, if they see me going, they might think that you somehow smuggled Ana out, too." Taylor looked displeased.
"You're being stubborn, honey."
"Yep," Gail agreed.
"Christian," Taylor looked to Grey pleadingly, "change her mind! You're her boss. Order her to get the hell out of Dodge!"
Christian sighed. "I'm her boss? Since when? How about this? Gail, go to Aspen or you're fired!"
Ana and Gail roared with laughter while Christian and Jason looked defeated.
CHAPTER 26
While Ana and Gail remained strong and seemingly unafraid, Jason and Christian were increasingly worried and anxious. Maybe it was because of what they'd seen in that basement and, thus, knew what these men were capable of doing. Maybe it was because they felt the responsibility of protecting their women.
They were ready for intruders. The had made certain that there were plenty of armed men littering the apartment. They wanted to hold on to Ana and Gail constantly. Gail had never known her husband to be so clingy.
After all she'd been through, her own traumas and Christian being shot, Ana was accustomed to Christian following her around. She'd spent her life being mostly alone and now she had a wonderful man who needed to be with her all the time. She wasn't afraid of being alone but understood why Christian was always so desperate to be with her. She felt such a deep and abiding love for him that all she wanted to do was protect him as well.
She heard him and Taylor discussing the ways and means of ending this torturous wait. Every idea came up and was shot down again. They all seemed dangerous, too risky. They hoped that the police would find the killers but the SPD seemed as helpless as them. They hadn't told the police about the intruders having a way into the penthouse. They didn't trust the police to not screw up.
It was increasingly apparent to both men that if the killers wanted to get to Ana for whatever reason, maybe just the fact that they were crazy, they would not attempt an attack as long as Taylor and Christian were home. However, there was no way that either man was going to leave.
Ana and Gail wondered aloud to them about the possibility that these killers didn't even want to get to Ana. Ana theorized that they had worked for Elena but had decided to turn on her. If she was gone, wouldn't they now lack motive to go after Ana?
Yes, Christian and Jason agreed, that did make sense but after what they'd seen in that basement, they didn't believe that these men operated on sense. If they and Elena had been working so diligently to find a way in, maybe even with her dead, they would continue to move forward with their plan…sort of like being on autopilot. Perhaps they had their own reasons for getting to Ana.
Even if none of it made sense, what remained was that very bad men were out there and until they were stopped, Ana was in grave danger of being their target…again.
Christian slept very little. He wanted to get out of bed and play the piano or meet with an equally sleepless Taylor in the security office to stare at monitors together but he also didn't want to leave Ana. He needed to hold on to her and be there when she had her nightmares. He even considered putting a bed in the security office or moving all the equipment into the bedroom but Ana nixed that notion.
They made love for hours, much of it of the desperate kind for Christian. He needed to bury himself inside of her as if that would ensure that she was safe, that they were together. He wanted to watch her come, over and over. It soothed him. And Ana tried herself to drive her man to distraction, to make him forget for a while. She kidded him that once the killers were behind bars, Christian would relax and maybe they'd get separate bedrooms. He'd groan at the ridiculousness of that idea and then she'd start a faux argument about who would get the master bedroom. He'd tell her that he was there first and she'd say that a gentlemen would yield to his lady. Then Christian would growl, throw her legs around his waist and order her to yield to him. She'd say no and he'd use all his sexpertise to get her to beg him to take her. She'd try to resist. He'd tease her g-spot and her nipples until she screamed his name. For a while, he'd be lost in her but in the end, loving her would only remind him that he could lose her…again.
Ana would be worn out and would fall asleep, enveloped fast in his arms, while Christian would think back on the months that she was missing and the grief and depression that had consumed him then. Even living through her surgery and coma and recovery was better than not having her with him at all. No, whoever they were, they would not take her away from him. He simply could not be without her again. He knew he wouldn't survive it and wouldn't want to anyway.
Keeping Ana was all that mattered.
CHAPTER 27
It would be tricky. Taylor was doubtful that it was doable. Still, it was the only idea, out of all the unworkable ideas that they'd come up with, that had a chance. When Ryan had sheepishly presented it, they'd only stared at him as he regretted speaking.
"So, sirs, I was thinking that you have to leave for the killers to come in and yet you can't leave so obviously you have to be in two places at once." His boss's just looked at him. He figured that he wasn't being clear or convincing. He wanted to crawl into the nearest hole.
"Ryan, I think you're on to something," Ana said. "You're suggesting imposters, aren't you?"
Gosh, he liked Ms. Steele. She never made him seem like a dummy with muscle. She always said hello to him and asked him about himself.
"Yes, ma'am. We have to convince the bad guys that you've left the building."
Taylor and Christian sat with Ryan and talked through the idea. It was the first time that Ryan truly felt a part of the team. So, they realized, the bad guys wouldn't believe that Christian was being driven away by Taylor if they left via the garage. The tinted windows could easily be hiding imposters. No, Taylor would have to drive the car around to the front, get out and open the door for Christian. It had to be convincing. Ryan suggested that luggage be involved to make the intruders believe that they had a lot of time.
They gathered all the men together in the living room and chose the two who could possibly be them with the magic of disguises.
One poor fellow lost his thick locks to a buzz cut along with a dye job to match Taylor's reddish hair. The put him in one of Taylor's suits and then used padding to fill in the missing muscle. The makeup artist than went to work adapting his face to resemble Taylor's. The man chosen to imitate Christian needed a dye job as well but the suit fit a bit better. The weather report promised a rainy morning, meaning that both men could be wearing their collars up.
Fake Taylor would pull the car around to the front and wait for a while. They didn't want the intruders to wonder why Christian didn't get into the car in the garage. They had to make it look as though Christian was just lagging behind.
Then Ana came up with the idea to kiss fake Christian goodbye in the lobby, clearly visible through the glass walls and doors. It was a good idea and real Christian hated it. Taylor had to convince him by telling him that fake Christian would have his back to the street so it would only appear that Ana was kissing him. Real Christian was still not happy. He thought it only fair that Gail bid goodbye to fake Taylor in like fashion. He reasoned that it would look like the fakes were leaving for an extended period of time which would afford the bad guys a lot of time to do their dirty work. Brilliant, Gail said. If they think they have several days to choose from, they're more likely to use that time. She ignored the dirty look from Taylor.
With an umbrella obscuring his face and then fake Christian's face, they could get into the car without allowing the killers to look too closely.
"Oh, god," Christian sighed. "This is such a sorry idea. It's never gonna work." He really hated it when Ana insisted on rehearsal. When she encircled her arms around fake Christian, real Christian's face turned an unbecoming shade of red and he put his arms out to put space between the two bodies.
"Just lean in," he demanded. "You don't have to be up against each other. Can't tell from the back."
"Yeah," Taylor said to his double and Gail, "what he said." Ana and Gail just snickered. They knew that when all this faking was taking place, their men would be glued to the monitors upstairs, faces purple with jealousy and ridiculous rage.
Ana threw her arms around a sour Christian and batted her lashes at him. Then she pointed to her lips. He tried to ignore her but he had to give in. Any opportunity to kiss Ana… she placed her lips softly on his, letting her tongue slip gently over his lips and into his mouth, breathing out a whisper, "Who loves ya, baby?"
Christian groaned and deepened the kiss as he picked up his girl and carried her toward their bedroom.
"Well," Taylor quipped, "I think that rehearsal is over for now. We won't see those two again until dinner. Gail, I think you get the idea, right? Space between you and lean in."
"No tongue?" Gail asked innocently as fake Taylor cringed.
"Honey, you are at least a foot taller than me. If I put a foot between us and lean, I'll be kissing fake you goodbye on your belly button," Gail laughed. Fake Taylor laughed, too, and after a look from Jason, immediately clammed up and decided that he was needed elsewhere.
"Ah, wait a minute you two," Jason commanded. "Don't forget that you're parking the SUV in the GEH garage, just in case you're followed. Then you get out of your disguises, put on the maintenance suits we'll have in the trunk and drive the fake service van back here. We'll need you up here if this crazy plan pans out."
"Gail," Taylor coughed, "I need to, um, speak with your privates….I mean, in private, please."
He grabbed her hand and fairly dragged her back to his lair…Gail giggling all the way.
Suddenly fake Taylor really missed his girlfriend. Those bad guys had better break in to kill Ms. Steele pretty darn soon, he thought.
CHAPTER 28
As promised by Holly the weather girl on station KOMO, the day dawned gray and raining. Maybe no one else in Seattle was happy about that but it suited a couple of killers just fine.
Yeti and Sasquatch looked out the window of their motel room and then grinned at each other. They had figured on having to break in at night but a day like today was even better. It was Monday, a workday. With the mistress out of the way, Christian Grey probably thought that his problems were over and he'd be off to work. There was no sign that his building's security had noticed the few extra bits of code that would allow the men to slip through the service entrance.
Yeti and Sasquatch were in agreement on most of their plan except for Sasquatch's desire to have a little fun with Ms. Steele before drugging her and dragging her back down the stairs to their van. Yeti figured that once they were safely away there would be plenty of time to play. He was more cautious than Sasquatch. He also wanted time to cut the throats of the housekeeper and the guard. Wasting time raping Ana Steele just put them more in danger of being caught. Oh, well, he supposed that Sasquatch could do the girl while he had his fun slitting jugulars. He really liked that but Sasquatch always wanted to toss in a little mayhem. He sure had fun with Mrs. Lincoln.
They wanted to hit the road early and be parked across the street from Escala by 7 a.m. to make sure that Grey and his CPO really left the building and left Ana vulnerable. As they sat in the van, watching Escala through darkened windows, they were almost giddy at the thought of their plan coming together. By this time tomorrow, they'd have Steele and the promise of a 5 million dollar ransom by evening. Of course, Grey wouldn't be getting his money's worth but Yeti would get to enjoy slitting another throat.
Suddenly the garage door of Escala went up and Grey's fancy SUV pulled out and up to the curb. It sat there for a while and then the driver, impatient, got out and ducked quickly under the overhand and into the lobby. Yeti and Sasquatch watched through the glass as Grey and his girl emerged from the elevator and stood kissing goodbye. The bodyguard was also getting some from a blonde half his size. Huh, thought the two killers, big goodbye for an ordinary workday. Then they noticed the luggage and turned to grin happily at each other. Grey and the big guy were not just leaving for the day. They were going out of town. Sasquatch slapped his buddy on the back.
Now Sasquatch could take all the time he wanted with Steele and maybe Yeti could play a little bit with the blonde. They had to laugh at how cooperative Grey was being.
With the housekeeper and the pretty little Ms. Steele waving goodbye, Grey and the driver made for the car under an umbrella and drove off down the street and out of sight. The two women returned to the elevator and rode up to their doom.
Yeti and Sasquatch began singing "Happy days are here again". Mrs. Lincoln had loved that song. While they were hoisting her up on that contraption in the classroom, they made her sing it for them. Her voice wasn't bad but it was strained somewhat after an hour of "lessons". After another hour, she couldn't sing or even scream anymore. That was too bad. Sasquatch had tried to apply all he'd learned from her in her classroom in order to have more time to spend with her but she wasn't a young, sturdy boy of 14 and, therefore, didn't have his stamina. She was only able to stay alert for 3 hours and he had promised his buddy that he could very slowly slash her windpipe and then her neck until it was dangling by a thread…of skin, that is.
After waiting and watching for an hour to be sure that the coast was clear and observing nothing but a couple of maintenance men arriving, the two left the van, carrying a pile of drop cloths with which they would cover Ms. Steele as they returned to the van later. She was small enough that it would look like the same pile of drop cloths when they left with her.
And on the 20th floor, a dozen armed guards positioned themselves around the penthouse while Ana and Gail sat in the panic room watching the action nervously on several screens as Grey and Taylor watched the same action on the monitors in the security office, pleased that the killers had chosen today to make their move so that they didn't have to repeat that whole kissing goodbye business.
Everyone, killers and victims-to-be were thinking the same thing.
Showtime!
CHAPTER 29
Taylor, observing the perps, alerted his men through their earpieces.
"We have 2 men, possibly maintenance workers, accessing the building through the service entrance on the north side. Could be legit, however. Hold your current positions and stand by," he said tersely.
"Remember, Mr. Grey. You promised me that when we have a confirmed sighting, you'll go to the panic room. I don't care how many miles you run or how many rounds you can go with Claude Bastille, you are not trained for this. It is my job to protect you. We are not a team, understood?"
"Geez, Taylor," Christian whined. "We have a small army of CPOs up here. I think that I'm safe."
"It is not your safety in particular that I'm concerned about. It's mine. If you so much as scrape a knee, your girlfriend will have my nuts in a vise for not insisting that you hide out in the panic room. And if the bad guys get into the apartment and you're not in the panic room with Ana and Gail, where do you suppose that Ana is going to be next, huh?"
"Out in the open heading for the security office…yeah, you're right, Taylor. Sorry."
"Huh, interesting…those two maintenance guys took the service elevator to just the 15th floor and now they're walking up the stairs. That's odd. Unless they don't want to alert anyone on the 20th floor to their presence. Maybe they're afraid they'll be heard if they get off on the 19th floor.
"Now, Christian. Go to the panic room now. No argument or I'll tell Ana on you," Taylor grinned. "Speaking of, she's blowing up my earpiece asking for you."
"It's okay, Ana. He's on his way," Taylor reassured her.
Christian headed out to the panic room just as he heard Taylor advising his men that they were to close ranks around the north service entrance and move on his order. As Christian entered the room, behind him he heard gunfire and in front of him a tearful Ana sobbing.
"Where were you? Why weren't you here? They were so close and there are guns being fired," Ana was crying and terrified, all because he had to be macho man. He enveloped her in his arms, attempting to calm her. She was shaking so badly that it was almost as if she were having a nightmare. He felt like shit.
"I'm sorry, baby. Forgive me, okay. I'm sorry."
"Gail," he asked, "are you okay?" She was standing with her back to him with her eyes glued to the monitors, watching and listening for signs of her husband. Ana quickly left Christian's arms and wrapped her own around Gail, telling her that everything was all right. Gail was trembling. "I don't see him, Ana. I don't hear him. I heard the shots."
"It's okay, Gail," Christian consoled her. "The shots were fired while Jason was still in the office. He's probably…" Before Christian could finish his sentence, he heard Taylor's voice. It was loud and unintelligible. Then there was more gunfire. Christian moved to the monitors and adjusted the camera angles. Where the hell was Taylor and where were the shots coming from?
Then he caught a glimpse of a man in a maintenance uniform. It wasn't one of his men, he knew. He whirled around, realizing that he had not shut the panic room door. Before he could slam it shut, it flew wide open. There stood the man he'd glimpsed a moment before.
He was bloody and angry and armed with a large blade. He looked wildly around the room as he stood just on the other side of the threshold. His crazed eyes landed on Ana just as Christian stepped in front of her and Gail. He was panting and sweating, a great beast of a man, well named Sasquatch by Elena.
"You killed my friend so I killed yours," he roared.
Gail gasped and fell to the floor in a heap, hysterically sobbing. Ana knelt and held Gail in her arms. As the hulk of a man came closer, Christian waited for his moment and then squatted on one leg and balancing on one hand, swung his leg out, knocking the Sasquatch off his feet. As the big man tried to get up, Christian brought his fist up under his chin. Sasquatch crashed backwards to the floor, momentarily stunned but still able to get onto his hands and knees. Christian coupled his hands together into one fist and slammed into the back of the giant's neck at the same time as he brought his knee up into his throat. Just then Taylor came sliding across the doorway, blood trickling down his cheek. He stopped when he saw the man on the floor, unmoving. Gail jumped to her feet and ran to her husband.
"It's okay, Gail," he said, crushing her to him. "It's just a scratch. The other guy is dead. Everyone else is okay."
He bent over to check Sasquatch's pulse. "He's alive. Nice job, Mr. Grey. Next time close the damn door behind you, for Christ's sake. A panic room with an open door is just a room," he growled at Christian. "Why'd we build the damn thing if you're not going to use it properly?"
Christian, still breathing hard, pulled Ana to him and smiled at Taylor. "I'm sure that you're being insubordinate, Jason, and you're bleeding all over my floor."
"Fuck off, boss," snarled Taylor.
CHAPTER 30
Taylor's "scratch" was caused by a bullet grazing his skull but Christian figured that he was going to have a more painful, scrotal injury to deal with if Gail caught him up and moving around again. Ana was still angry with Christian for lingering in the security office a little too long. So, being big heroes for their women got the both of them exactly bupkis. For the last two nights Ana had horrific nightmares about Sasquatch slashing Christian with the knife. Turned out that their women preferred them alive, well and cowering in the panic room.
Sasquatch, real name Leonard, recovered and would not stop talking to the police. He really enjoyed slicing and dicing Mrs. Lincoln and wanted to share every detail. Officers had to take turns interviewing him because he was turning their stomachs. He did stop now and then to bawl for a while because he missed his best friend, Howard.
A few days after the big home invasion, Ana and Gail were able to enjoy an excursion to the grocery store with only Sawyer. They giggled that it was like Christmas and no one was trying to kidnap or kill any of them for a change. Of course, Grey and Taylor were still nervous, justified or not. It was an adjustment, especially for Christian. He insisted that Ana call him every 15 minutes and when she didn't, he called her. He was overprotective and he wasn't sure if he would ever relax. After all, she was everything in the world to him and that wasn't ever going to change.
Grace called frequently and kept insisting that Grey and Ana come to brunch. He'd been making excuses but now he had none.
The only thing holding him back was his own fear. He'd lived with it for so long that he was having trouble accepting that Ana was safe now…safe from tumors and Elena and her henchmen and even the truth of what he'd done to have her.
Ana still had her usual nightmares and he hated Carla for that, yet because of Ana's good heart, he was still financially supporting her. After everything she'd done, Carla still had the gall to call, trying to guilt Ana into coming for visits, and Ana was weakening in her resolve to avoid that particular poison. Carla had even hinted that she wanted to come to Seattle. Perhaps she and Ana could live together. After she'd left Ana in tears, Christian had his lawyers visit Carla in Georgia to inform her that further attempts to contact Ana would result in support being withdrawn. It was no surprise that money meant more to Carla than being with Ana.
Elliot complained that his brother was never available for hikes and beers and ball games while Mia whined that having a girlfriend didn't mean that he no longer had a little sister. While Ana was so ill, Christian rarely saw his family except for Grace. And then with the threats from Elena, he'd been afraid to have Ana leave the confines of his fortress in the sky. Now he could breathe again but he wondered if he'd forgotten how. As in all things human, he leaned on Ana to show him the way.
Grace, Ana pointed out, was going through a terrible time dealing with Elena's horrific murder and the revelation that she was not the woman that Grace had considered her friend for decades. He'd had to explain to his mother that Elena was jealous of Ana but Grace didn't understand why or how it came to be so all consuming that Elena would resort to murder. When she learned of Elena's particularly heinous demise at the hands of those fiends and that she'd intended that sort of death for Ana, she broke down. She doubted her own judgement that she could have been so blind for so long to the kind of person that Elena really was.
Although Ana was urging him to share his own story, to no longer allow Elena to separate him from his family, he couldn't do it. Seeing his mother's current grief, he knew that she'd blame herself…that was certain. He feared that she might never recover.
He did what he could to mitigate the damage. He sent his family to Aspen for a week to relax and when they returned, he sent Ros and Gwen for a couple of weeks. Next he planned to send Taylor and Gail. The exhaustion, the strain of worry for months and months through Ana's disappearance, her illness, his being shot and that horrible last day at Escala showed on both of them.
Taylor joked that it was ironic that after years of those subs coming and going, he thought that there was light at the end of the tunnel when Ana came to stay. Instead, it was only the beginning of a year of hell. He admitted, however, that none of it was Ana's doing and that he'd come to feel a real affection for her.
So, on Sunday, Christian put his fears aside and left Taylor and Gail to pack for Aspen while he drove Ana to his parent's in the R8. No security detail. Just lunch with his family. Although he still had trouble taking his eyes off Ana and he needed to at least hold her hand, lunch went well.
Yes, his family wanted to talk about Elena and recent events but Ana was patient and calm. She frequently squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek and that helped him to be calm as well. Seeing the pain in his mother's eyes hurt him terribly, however. She'd lost a dear friend, in more ways than one. Ana gently suggested that Grace get some therapy. She told Grace that John Flynn had been a great help to her and Grace promised to call for an appointment. Apparently she hadn't been sleeping and Carrick could not persuade her to seek help.
As they left, Ana assured them that there would be regular lunches from now on and even offered to host a family night at the Mile High Club. Also, she wanted them to meet Mac and Margaret who were now a couple. Perhaps they could all go to Mac's for lunch. Elliot cheered that idea.
Normalcy. Maybe from now on, Christian thought, there could be normalcy. All he wanted was a quiet life with Ana, always and ever, Ana. He had the ring in his pocket, next to his heart.
EPILOGUE
Ana returned to Grey Publishing as a fiction editor, a job she loved. One day when she arrived home, she found the penthouse filled to overflowing with flowers and candles. Christian was sitting at the piano, singing a love song to her. As she stood in amazement, he got up and went down on one knee.
"Love of my life, woman of my dreams, please promise to never leave me. Marry me?"
Christian had the sweetest, little boy look in his eyes. Ana fell to her knees and threw her arms around his neck.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you. I love you so!"
Mia planned a lovely, simple and elegant wedding for the backyard of Grey Manor. Seeing her children so happy healed the wounds in Grace's heart. She had a second daughter and within three years, she had her first granddaughter and a third daughter when Kate married Elliot. He had tears in his eyes as he watched her walk up the aisle.
Leonard made friends in prison, entertaining them all with his grisly stories. However, late at night, when the prison chaos had calmed to a dull roar, he cried and talked to Howard.
