AN: i'm a friend of Madison's. I wanted to do something nice for her and her readers. So I have been trying to upload an update to unwritten. For over the last three hours. i'm sorry the update look like it was written in Chinese. I promise I will get it figured out. I just ask that if you have any frustration or negativity in your comments you take them to me and not Madison. is absolutely not her fault that I cannot figure out what I'm doing. But with each mistake I making progress in learning more. I hope this process will go smoother as I upload more chapters. I'd like to thank you in advance for your patience.

Chpt. 9 CPOV:

"Where the fuck is he?" I scream at Taylor.

"He found us didn't he?" Ana whispers and I can see her eyes fill with fear.

"He didn't; there's no way he could know where Ana and Teddy are, right Taylor?" I'm by her side before Taylor even has a chance to respond to her. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing, but I need to reassure her that she's safe here. She finally seemed to be comfortable here; I don't want her to go back to constantly worrying that she's not safe here. I know there's no way they could have found her; Welch and Barney would have alerted us to any chance that they even suspected she was on this coast let alone in Seattle.

"He doesn't know where you are Ana," Taylor places his hand over hers which is gripping the island countertop so hard that I almost expect to see her handprints indented in it. "He has no idea you're anywhere near Seattle."

"Where the fuck is he then Taylor? And how the fuck did you lose him?"

"We didn't lose him," he stresses. "He is currently in the air, aboard a commercial flight-"

"To where?" Ana asks quietly.

"Maine," Taylor answers quickly knowing she needs an answer. I feel her body relax at his words; I don't know when it happened but at some point my hand moved to her lower back. Rather than moving it, I leave it there. "He came home late last night, stayed a few hours and then left this morning. We had someone watching his house knowing that he was expected home this week. We followed him to the airport where he purchased a ticket for the next available flight to Maine which thankfully wasn't for a few hours. Our guy is sitting on the same plane as him right now, expecting to land within the hour."

"He's going to Maine?" Ana repeats.

"Yes," Taylor confirms.

"Why?" she asks.

"I assume to find…you and Teddy," Taylor suggests.

"Obviously," she rolls her eyes and I can't help but chuckle. "But he wasn't around when…when they took me before. Why now? Why Maine?"

"He's getting desperate," I assume. "When…when you got away, it screwed up his plan. Now he doesn't trust anyone, so he wants to be there when they follow the lead."

"That's what I figure as well," Taylor agrees.

"At least for now he doesn't know we're not in Maine," she sighs.

"He's not going to find out you're in Seattle," I say firmly.

"You heard Welch and Barney, they have a plan of where they're going to put leads until we figure everything else out. We will find a way to get enough evidence to turn over to the FBI to end this once and for all. We just need to buy some time while Welch and Barney do their thing," Taylor explains.

Ana nods but doesn't say anything; I know part of her wants to believe what Taylor and I are saying to her. Part of her wants to believe that she's safe and that she can trust us. But I also know that part of her is still fearful and uncertain. It's that part of her that doesn't want to trust anyone completely.

Sawyer arrives a few minutes later essentially ending our conversation. As I leave for work, I feel the need to say something to Ana but I have no idea what more I can say. I've tried to reassure her that she's safe and that no one will get to her here, but I know words can only reassure her so much. She's always going to have doubts in her mind as long as that fucker has access to money to put into finding her. Which brings me to a project I first started last week, over the weekend a few key pieces finally fell into place allowing everything to come together. I've never put an acquisition together so fast, based on such need without having done full due diligence. I'll likely lose money with this acquisition but I don't care in the least.

"Sir?" Taylor arrives at my door only moments after I asked Andrea to send him to me.

"I need a meeting with Welch, Barney and Ana," I announce.

"Sir?"

"There's been a new development that we need to know, but it needs to only be known by the people in that room," I warn. "Have Sawyer bring Ana and Teddy after hours like he did on Friday. Ask Barney and Welch to present anything new they've found."

"Yes sir," I hear the question in his voice even though he doesn't ask it.

He wants to know why I'm doing this; he wants to know why I'm so involved. He wants to know why I've changed my schedule so that I'm not traveling this week. He wants to know…and honestly so do I. I have no fucking idea what's come over me or why I feel such an incredible need to protect Ana and Teddy. I've never made business decisions based on my personal life before but I knew I had the means to help so how could I not? Seeing her bruised skin yesterday when I walked into my room to find Ana standing there with her shirt lifted up nearly killed me. I've never felt so much rage, so much hatred for someone as I did in that moment. If I could have, I would have killed the bastards who did that to her with my bare hands in that moment. Every time I closed my eyes last night, I saw the intense colors of her otherwise beautiful pale skin. The purple, angry red and almost blackness that covered her skin is the only thing I saw.

They tried to get me to tell them where my dad and Teddy were

She had said something similar on Friday when we met with Barney and Welch, but I stupidly just assumed they yelled and screamed at her, maybe restrained her, until she was able to escape. That the extent of her injuries were limited to the bruised eyes, sprained wrist and what I had assumed were cracked ribs. Maybe it was part denial on my end, but I didn't want to think of just how hard they tried to get information out of her. After seeing the bruises first hand, I can only imagine how she got them and how strong she was.

I've never met someone as strong as Ana; someone who could withstand everything she did and still not give those bastards the information they wanted. She hasn't once complained since she's been here; at least not that I've heard. She's essentially trapped at Escala day in and day out, with people who are virtual strangers to her. She receives a random text from her dad once a day, but can't respond to it to even talk to someone she knows. Yet through it all, she remains strong.

"Sir, everyone is in the conference room," Taylor alerts me hours later when I'm finally able to focus on the latest report from a company we acquired earlier this year.

"I'll be there in a minute," I quickly close the file I was working on.

The moment I enter the conference room, my eyes go straight to Ana, ignoring everyone else in the room. She's sitting in the same chair as Friday, bouncing Teddy on her lap as the nervously waits for us to get started. I take a seat quickly knowing she's eager to hear what new information has been found, as am I.

"Barney, Welch…do you want to get us started?" I ask.

"As we know, Braxton Junior is in Maine," Welch begins. "His flight landed earlier this morning and he immediately went to a rundown motel just outside of the town in which Ana was pictured on social media. We know there are at least two other guys there that he is meeting with-"

"Can you identify them?" Taylor asks.

"Not yet," Barney answers. "We haven't received a clear image of either person, as they've remained in the hotel room all day. I expect this to change tomorrow; at some point Junior won't be happy sitting and doing nothing."

"Where will they go?" Ana asks.

"Small local businesses," Welch suggest. "They'll talk to locals about the event and see if anyone remembers seeing you there. Obviously no one will remember you, but they'll follow any leads if someone mentions seeing a woman matching your description there with a child in a stroller."

"And then?"

"They'll probably be there for two, maybe three more days before they realize you're no longer in Maine," Welch says. "At which point they'll either return to Atlanta or follow another lead."

"Did you find anything on his computer?" I ask Barney.

"Yes," he grimaces.

"What did you find?" Ana asks quickly.

"His hard drive was much bigger than I expected, and he has multiple large hard drives," he explains. "As in much larger than someone would typically have at home for their personal use. So far two hard drives have transferred over-"

"Transferred over? What does that mean?" Ana asks.

"Essentially I've created a virus that will copy his entire hard drive to a destination I have set up," Barney explains. "The destination is bounced through several different IP addresses in several different countries before finally ending in Texas-"

"What the fuck is in Texas?" I ask.

"Nothing," he shrugs. "Just seemed like a nice place to have a final destination at."

"So if someone were to track it, they would think you were in Texas?" Ana clarifies.

"Correct," Barney confirms. "We still have the largest hard drive that needs to be copied, but I expect to have that completed by the morning."

"Have you found anything on the first two?" I ask.

"Yes," he grimaces again. "I've…seen some sick shit in my time, but nothing like this. This….man he gives an entirely new definition to porn."

"Oh god," Ana gasps.

"There were images on his hard drives…ones that I will never get out of my head," he shakes his head. "Animals, costumes, extreme violence, murder-"

"I think I'm going to be sick," Ana whispers.

Taylor is on his feet before I am, grabbing her a bottle of water from the fridge. Her face is pale as I'm sure she tries to make sense of everything that Barney is revealing.

"I'm fine…please go on," Ana encourages us when she realizes the meeting has essentially stopped.

"Well…you get the picture," Barney sighs. "While we knew that part of his money was spent on entertainment, we didn't know that he has several paid memberships to websites and chat forums that cater to certain fantasies-"

"How did we not know this?" I ask.

"The charges on his credit card are listed under legit businesses," Welch explains. "It seems all of these websites are linked, owned by the same group or at least the person. Billing is then under a factious name so that if you search the company you'll find it specializes in office supplies and unique advertising solutions. It's a quarterly charge, in one sum, so nothing that would stand out at first glance."

"I assume you didn't find anything illegal on the hard drive?" Taylor asks.

"No," Welch says. "Everything found…while far from the norm, was legal."

"Even the chat rooms?" Ana asks.

"They're supposed to be about fantasies," Barney explains. "So while there are chat rooms focused on….rape…the idea is that it's a fantasy. Either the fantasy of the man or the woman, but still it's a fantasy. While advice is given on how to plan it out-"

"That's not a fantasy if they're planning it out!" Ana argues before I can point out the exact same thing.

"The assumption is that the victim has the shared fantasy of being raped and has agreed to it," Barney says.

"Holy shit," Ana sits back in her chair sighing.

"Tell me you found something else," I request.

"Unfortunately so far that's it," Welch confirms.

"We'll know more when the other hard drive copies over tonight. It's just as large as the first two and according to what I can see, it's nearly filled. It'll take me some time to go through it all but hopefully we'll find something useful on there," Barney adds.

"When Braxton Junior returns to Atlanta he will learn that he no longer has a job with the Braves," I announce.

"What?"

"Come again?"

"How? Why?"

All the questions are fired at once at me as I make my announcement.

"What I'm about to say I need to stress cannot leave this room," I preface the larger picture by saying. "I've taken every liberty possible to ensure that this cannot be traced back to me, to GEH or to Ana. My legal team along with Welch has been working overtime to ensure that it can't be traced. We are all confident that the trail is strong, but they fewer people who know the better. I am bringing you all in because this could very well influence Junior's ability to continue on his current track of searching for Ana."

"What did you do?" Ana asks quietly.

"I am, in a way, the majority owner of the Atlanta Braves," I announce.

"You didn't," Ana pleads.

"A baseball team…that's unexpected," Barney chuckles.

"In a way you're the owner of the team?" Taylor asks.

"As I said, on paper there is no tie to GEH, me, my family or Ana," I explain. "I laid the ground work for this by setting up a private LLC which is listed as the owner of 51% of the Braves. This company is registered in Vermont but from there pings across several different states."

"If you're the owner, but no one can know it, how do you have influence over decision making?" Taylor asks.

"I've appointed someone who arrived in Atlanta over the weekend and will act on my behalf," I clarify. "This person does not know who I am; all communication is completely confidential and untraceable. I make the decisions, they simple carry them out."

"How…how did you buy a baseball team?" Ana asks

"I was surprised to learn that while Braxton senior was acting owner, he was not in fact the majority owner-"

"He's not?" Taylor asks.

"No," I shake my head. "Another gentleman, much older, held 51% ownership of the team. They had an understanding that Braxton senior would handle the day to day operation of the team and would only involve the owner in certain decision making processes."

"You bought out the other guy," Ana realizes.

"I did," I won't apologize for that either even though I can tell Ana isn't happy about it. "And one of my first acts as the majority owner was to look at the financials of the team. I determined that Braxton Junior's position is one that is unsupported and therefore will be terminated as of 11:59pm tonight Atlanta time. As there was no contract tied to his position, no severance is being provided. He'll be cut off at least from a steady income; although Daddy will likely continue to support him it likely won't be in the amount that he earned from the Braves."

"Holy shit," Barney sits back shocked.

"He'll be cut off," Taylor says.

"That's the idea," I nod. "If we can cut off his money flow, he won't be able to pour resources into finding Ana and Teddy. Hopefully that will buy us a little time to find something that we can turn over to the FBI."

"Unfortunately we weren't as successful as we had hoped with the surveillance footage from the warehouse-" Barney begins.

"Surveillance footage? There were cameras?" Ana interrupts and I cringe seeing the hope in her eyes knowing that form Barney's tone they didn't find anything useful.

"They were focused on the main entrance of the building," he sighs. "We've reviewed the entire footage, while we see a vehicle coming in which matches the description of the van you gave us, we never see anyone getting out of it. They seem to go in and out of the back entrance. We see the vehicle leaving the warehouse again."

"Can you trace the van?" Taylor asks.

"It was reported stolen and later found abandoned after being set on fire," Welch reports.

"I can show you what we found if you want," Barney offers looking directly at Ana who nods slowly.

Barney presses a button and the screen on wall shows a black and white image of a large warehouse at the end of a road. The parking lot and surrounding land is long overgrown and the building itself looks like something that should be torn down. When we see the white van speed down the road towards the warehouse Ana gets out of her chair and starts walking Teddy who hadn't made even a sound of discomfort. The van disappears behind the back of the building before we can see anything. Barney fast forwards until we see the van again speed off, this time heading away from the warehouse.

"How much time passed between the van arriving and then leaving?" I ask.

"Thirty three hours," Welch says.

"Fuck," I hiss searching out Ana who is now pacing the floor. I knew they kept her, but fuck how the hell did she survive for that long?

"We were also able to access footage from the gas station," Barney hits another button and a new black and white image appears.

This time it's outside a gas station; a pay phone can barely be seen at the end of the building. It's dark outside, probably the middle of the night though it's hard to tell. After a few seconds of no activity, a shadowed figure runs across the parking lot towards the phone. Although I can barely see her, I know it's Ana. She's clutching her shirt (holding it closed?) as she scans the parking lot. The phone call lasts less than two minutes but the entire time she's searching the area, waiting for those bastards to come for her. When she hangs up the phone, she takes off running, barefoot, in the opposite direction that she came. She disappears from the screen only moments later.

"Do they ever appear at the gas station?" Taylor asks as the rest of the room sits in silence.

"Not that we've found," Barney answers. "We've gone through the footage over the last week, there's no sign of the van or anyone was that looks out of place coming to the gas station. Although it's hard to know for certain if they were there or not."

I'm watching Ana, not paying attention to the conversations going on around me. She's pacing the floor, holding Teddy tight against her. She's not looking at anything or anyone and it kills me. Without saying a word, I walk over to her. She jumps when I put my hand on her back, tensing until she turns to look at who it is. I lead her from the room, nodding to Taylor on my way. He knows I won't leave the building with Ana, besides Sawyer is waiting right outside the door. They can continue their conversations, but Ana doesn't need to sit in there any longer and relive the worst days of her life. I grab the diaper bag from the chair, not knowing if Teddy will need to eat or something soon, and lead Ana out of the conference room. She doesn't say anything, but allows me to lead her next door to my office. Sawyer follows us and positions himself outside of my door.

I open the diaper bag and find the blanket she used the last time she was here; I spread it out on the floor and drop a few toys to it that were in the bag. I can tell she's a little reluctant to let go of him but in the back of her head she must know she's safe here because she settles him on the blanket. She sits back on the floor, watching him.

"Are you okay?" I sit down on the floor next to her.

"Seeing the videos…." She shakes her head.

"It brought it all back," I conclude.

"I see it every night when I sleep," she shivers. "But to see it on a screen like that…it's different."

"It's more real."

"Yeah."

Neither of us say anything; instead we just watch Teddy who is completely oblivious to anything going on around him. He simply plays on the blanket, reaching for different toys and rolling from his stomach to his back. He coos with excitement when a toy comes into his reach.

"Can I ask you something?" Ana asks.

"Of course," my response is immediate.

"Why did you buy the Braves? You didn't have to," she says. "You didn't have to do any of this. You don't know us, you don't know my father, you don't….you didn't know my sister. Why do all this for complete strangers? Why get involved? Why spending millions of dollars on a baseball team that's not even in the state you live in?"

"Honestly?" she nods. "I don't know. Maybe that's not true….you're the strongest woman I've ever met Ana. God…what you must have gone through for all those hours….I can't imagine. But then I look at you…someone who gave up everything and did it with such strength when so many others would have just given up. When I heard what you did, how you protected your dad and Teddy I knew I had to do something."

"So you bought a baseball team?"

"The easiest solution to prevent that bastard from finding you quickly was to cut off his funds, I simply did just that," I shrug.

"Christian," she turns to look at me. "You talk about me being strong, but you're risking so much for us."

"I'm not-"

"You bought a baseball team Christian!" she exclaims loudly. "You're letting us use your resources and your staff for two complete strangers. You just spent who knows how much money all to cut off some bastard's access to money. Someone who has nothing to do with you! All for some girl, that up until a week ago you never met. Some girl who-"

"You're not just some girl," I interrupt her quickly.

"That's exactly who I am Christian! I'm just some girl whose dad happened to know Taylor. Some girl who-"

Without thinking, I cut her off…by kissing her.