Chpt. 14 TPOV:
You're not going to believe what I just walked into in Mr. Grey's room –T
Oh no. I'm afraid to ask –G
NO! Nothing like you're thinking. –T
Then what? –G
Mr. Grey and Teddy –T
Teddy? Ana's Teddy? –G
Yup. –T
As soon as my message goes through my phone starts ringing.
"Hi baby," I answer as soon as Gail's name shows up. "I miss you."
"I miss you too Jason, but tell me what the heck is going on there? When I left Mr. Grey was barely even looking at Teddy and now you're saying Teddy is in Mr. Grey's bedroom? With Mr. Grey?"
"Yes. I walked in and found Mr. Grey on his bed holding Teddy."
"Where was Ana? I know you said they seemed to be getting close…"
"Get this…she was in his office working."
"What? Ana is working for Mr. Grey now?"
"No….I mean I don't think permanently. He said something about needing her help on a project one of his staff couldn't do."
"And this is something Ana can do?"
"I guess."
"And Mr. Grey is watching Teddy when she's working?"
"Yes. He said since he's stuck in bed-"
"Why is he stuck in bed?"
"Oh, he had an accident while we were jogging-"
"An accident? What happened? Do I need to come home today instead of tomorrow?"
"He's fine. We were jogging through the park and a lady was walking with her little dog. The dog must have seen something because suddenly it took off, across our path and the lady had too much slack on the leash. I dodged the leash by jumping over it, but Mr. Grey didn't see it quick enough and tripped."
"Oh no! Is he okay?"
"You know how stubborn he is. He refused to let me call an ambulance, so I had to wait for Sawyer to come with a car to get us. Then Dr. Grey met us at Escala; she thinks it's just a bad sprain but warned him that he needs to stay in bed."
"Oh he must be awful."
"He's broken a phone already."
"Well that's nothing new."
"No it's not."
"But how did he end up with Teddy? I mean I'm sure Ana could have waited until the baby napped or even asked you to watch him."
"I don't know. I walked in to give him the phone and found him with Teddy. Of course I would have watched Teddy if she asked. He's the most well behaved baby ever Gail. He barely makes a sound."
"I can't wait to get back tomorrow; he's probably gotten so big since I left."
"He's moving around quite a bit more too."
"Did he like the excersaucer you bought?"
"It's his favorite place to be by far."
"It'll be interesting once he starts really moving around. I don't know how Mr. Grey will handle a baby crawling around the apartment."
"You know before I would have said there was no way in hell that he would allow it. But now, I'm not so sure."
"You think him and Ana are that close?"
"I don't know. They still meet every night on the balcony. Mr. Grey is very protective of her; he's authorized the use of any resources to help her. And I told you that he bought the baseball team."
"I'm still shocked about-"
"I gotta go Gail. That's the boss on the other line."
"I'll see you tomorrow Jason. Love you."
"Love you too baby."
I click the call on the cell and quickly pick up the apartment phone.
"Taylor."
"Taylor…can you come here?" Mr. Grey's voice is….nervous, something I don't think I've ever heard before.
"Of course sir."
I quickly hang up and rush out of the apartment and to Mr. Grey's bedroom. I immediately look for Teddy; I'm relieved to find him lying on the bed next to Mr. Grey surrounded by pillows and blankets.
"Sir?"
"Teddy….I think he needs a diaper change," Mr. Grey rushes to explain.
"Okay. I can grab the diapers and wipes from the apartment for you-"
"Ana brought those….I….don't…."
"Oh. I can change him sir."
"No!" he quickly argues. "Just….maybe show me how to do it?"
"Uh….of course sir."
Showing my boss how to change a diaper…not something I ever thought I would be doing, that's for sure. I look through the bag that Ana placed on the bed; I take out the blanket to lay him on and then the diaper and wipes. I walk Mr. Grey through taking off Teddy's pants and unsnapping his onesie.
"Holy shit," Mr. Grey gasps when we open the diaper.
"Yup," I can't hold back the chuckle. Mr. billionaire, master of his universe, is turning green over a baby's dirty diaper. "Wait until he starts baby food; the….diaper will turn the color of the food."
"You're shitting me."
"Nope. When he eats peas, it'll be green. Carrots will be orange. Well you get it."
"When does he start food?"
"I think around six months…it's been awhile."
"We should order Ana some baby books…or something. She mentioned Kate…had read every book and magazine when she was pregnant. I think Ana struggles because she thinks she doesn't know as much as Kate did."
"I can order a few and have them delivered sir."
"Good….now how the hell do these snaps go together? And why the hell are there so many snaps that need to be done when babies move this much?"
We both chuckle at the snaps that are done completely wrong, but I have to give it to Mr. Grey, he's patient as I undo them and help occupy Teddy while he snaps them back together correctly…well mostly correctly.
"Do you need anything else sir?"
"No….thank you Taylor. I didn't want to have to pull Ana away from the marketing project she's working on. You should have seen her face light up when she was talking about how she would run the report and what it would tell her…you could tell how much she's missed it."
"I can't imagine how hard this must be for her," I sit down on Mr. Grey's bed, something I've never done before. "On top of grieving for her sister, learning that her sister was murdered, being kidnapped and then becoming an instant parent to baby all while on the run. She's stronger than anyone I know."
"She really is."
"Can I….ask you something that has nothing to do with my job sir?"
"Uh…sure."
"What are you doing with Ana?"
"Fuck Taylor," he runs his hands through his hair. "Honestly, I have no fucking clue."
"I just ask sir…because she's been through so much already."
"I have no intention on hurting her if that's what your suggesting Taylor."
"I'm not….I don't think you would intentionally sir."
"But you think I could."
"Sir….with all due respect she's not like the other women you've…seen."
"Fuck, I know she's not."
"That's why I wanted to ask sir."
"I don't know what's going on between us, or fuck even if something is going on between us. Like you Taylor, I'm amazed at how strong she is. She has overcome so fucking much, when anyone else would have just given up by now. I….care about her; I'll do anything in my power to protect her from anything….even if I have to protect her from myself. And this little boy…no one will ever come close to hurting him again."
"Understood sir," I nod in appreciation. "If I haven't said so already…thank you."
"For?"
"This…." I wave my hand around. "Sir, with all due respect this wasn't your problem. When I brought them on the plane, you could have just allowed me to continue to the hotel with them. You didn't have to get involved. I just wanted to thank you; I wouldn't have been able to find out all the information you have without your resources."
"I…I went years without someone helping me. No one wanted to be bothered to help my biological mother when it had to be obvious we were struggling. It wasn't until she finally died that someone finally took notice. I don't want another child to go unnoticed and suffer for that long. Any resources I have, you have access to. Just keep that fucker and his goons away from Ana and Teddy; no matter what the cost."
"Yes sir."
"We have a call with Welch and Barney later today right?"
"Yes sir. I'm interested to hear what they've found; with Junior's money cut off he won't be able to keep going the way he has been."
"They need to find something to tie him to Kate's….death. Something to put him away for a long time and get him out of Ana and Teddy's lives."
"I'm expecting the results from the blood analysis on the knife that Ana stabbed that…bastard with later today. Hopefully that will give us more clues as well."
"We still have eyes on him?"
"Yes sir, he's in Atlanta."
"Good. Keep me informed if that changes."
"Yes sir. Is there anything else you or Teddy need?"
"No….I think we're good. But…uh maybe stay near the phone just in case."
"Of course sir. Oh…and I spoke with Gail this morning; she's expected home tomorrow."
"Good….although…."
"Sir?"
"Ana mentioned wanting to continue to help Gail; I told her to talk to Gail when she got back but I'm not sure if she will."
"Ana wants to keep helping?"
"Yes…I think she's bored. She said she enjoys cooking and baking so I suggested she talk to Gail about helping her."
"I'll mention it to Gail and maybe Gail can suggest it to Ana if she doesn't bring it up."
"Good thinking."
"If you need anything else sir, just call."
APOV:
I forgot how much fun doing marketing research and planning was; it's been weeks since I felt this…useful. As I expected it took a couple of hours to run the reports but from there the issues was quickly identified and I set out to fix it. The issue was really a combination of factors that I'm not sure how the marketing team didn't catch before now. The company that GEH acquired was blacklisted as a site containing porn. It took a few emails and forms being completing to get the process started to remove the company from that list. The larger issue was that the company remained under search engine optimization as the old company's name and description. The search terms were never updated to reflect that it was now part of GEH or even what the new name was. So if someone was searching for the company they would have to know the old name of it in order to find it. I'm surprised that was something that was done as soon as the acquisition was finalized. That was a quicker fix than getting the company off the blacklist.
I'm shocked at the time when I finally finish the last part of the project; I've been at this for more than 4 hours. I panic realizing that it's past Teddy's naptime but then realize I haven't heard him since I came in here. I quickly grab the laptop and rush across the hall to Christian's room, but what I see when I walk in stops me dead in my tracks.
Teddy is sound asleep, lying on Christian's chest who is propped up on pillows but also sound asleep. I've never seen something so….touching. This man has no connection to Teddy whatsoever, yet he's done everything in his power to protect him. This man could have easily passed Teddy onto Taylor at some point while I working or take me up on my offer to wait until naptime or bedtime to work on his project. Instead, he volunteered to take care of Teddy himself. And instead of calling Taylor to put him in his crib when he fell asleep, he kept him in here with him. It's in that moment I realize that despite the timing being the absolute worst in the world, I've started to fall for Christian. What on earth am I going to do?
"They've been asleep for nearly an hour," Taylor whispers from behind me causing me to nearly drop the laptop when I jump in surprise.
"I didn't realize how long I had been working for; I was certain that Teddy would have been cranky and overtired. I hadn't expected Christian to get him to take a nap."
"I didn't either," Taylor chuckles and guides me to the kitchen where I place the laptop on the breakfast bar. "But it seems they were both tired."
"Do you know…did Teddy give him any trouble? I thought I would have heard him if he got fussy…"
"I don't believe so. I know Mr. Grey gave him a bottle and then changed his diaper. I was in my office or the apartment the entire time so I would have heard if Teddy was fussy and I didn't either."
"We have a meeting with Welch and Barney in a few minutes," Taylor reminds me.
"Teddy should be up soon if he's already been sleeping for an hour; his afternoon naps are usually pretty short."
"Mr. Grey rarely naps so I don't know when to expect him to wake up," Taylor chuckles.
"Have you…heard anything from Barney or Welch?"
"No, but I'm sure they'll update us on the call as to what they've found. Let's go wake up Mr. Grey. Teddy can probably sleep through the call, but I doubt Mr. Grey will want to."
"Probably not."
Christian is already awake when Taylor and I reach his door, in fact he's typing away on his phone despite Teddy still being sound asleep on his chest. If I didn't know any better I would think this man must have children of his own. I don't think I've ever seen someone so comfortable around a baby who didn't have children of his own. I'm so screwed...
"Did you want to do the call from in here sir?" Taylor asks.
"No, I don't want a conference call from my bedroom," Christian grumbles. "But seeing that my mother has banished me to this room I don't have much of a choice."
"I can put him in his crib quick," I offer.
"Nah, he's fine," Christian pats Teddy on the back gently.
"I'll dial in," Taylor says as I clear some space on Christian's bed for the three of us to sit. It only takes a few minutes for the call to connect and for Welch and Barney to come on.
"Tell me you've found something," Christian all but demands after pleasantries are exchanged.
"Let's just say it's been a busy couple of days," Barney answers.
"Meaning?"
My breath hitches as I wait for what feels like hours for someone to tell me what they found; I worry that it means that he's moving or close to finding us or…
"Junior is getting antsy and I think desperate," Welch says.
"What makes you say that?" Taylor asks.
"He's been sending Ana emails-"
"WHAT?!" Christian interrupts and looks at me questioningly likely wondering why I haven't told him about this.
"I…I haven't checked my email. My dad said that they could trace me through it; I haven't logged into my account not since…"
"We've accessed your account," Barney clarifies. "We've been monitoring all incoming emails; you don't need to worry if Junior was smart enough to look into where the emails were being opened at he would find the location pinging across several states before ending in Mexico."
"What do the emails say?" Christian asks. "And how many emails are we talking?"
"Six over the last three days including today."
"Six?"
"Like we said, he's getting desperate," Welch explains.
"What do they say?" Taylor asks the anger evident in his voice.
"They say they know where Ana and Teddy are-"
"Oh God," I gasp.
"We don't believe they do though," Barney quickly says.
"What makes you think that?" Christian asks. "How do you know that they don't know where Ana and Teddy are?"
"There's nothing specific in the email to suggest he knows that you guys are in Seattle. There's no mention of meet us at x place, or even something like you can't hide in Seattle for long. If they knew you were in Seattle we think there would be reference to it in the emails."
"What else?" I ask. "What are they asking for?"
"They claim they want to meet to discuss Teddy, he tries to pretend that he misses Teddy and wants to see him-"
"Bullshit," Christian says.
"He misses the child he wanted to kill?!" I exclaim, Christian reaches over and grabs my hand squeezing it tightly.
"Obviously we think it's just a ploy to get you to meet with him," Barney continues.
"Does he threaten them in the emails?" Taylor asks and I hold my breath.
"Not exactly," Welch answers.
"Meaning?" Christian demands.
"The ones today show the desperation in them; while he's smart enough to not threaten Ana or Teddy outright. Instead he's saying things like contact me so we can meet or you'll be sorry; keeping a father from his child is wrong, no one will see it your way…things like that."
"But you don't think he knows they're in Seattle?" Christian asks.
"No," Welch is quick. "If he did he would have said that he saw them at Escala or at GEH or in some store. Instead he just says I know where you are; you can't hide there forever."
"But it's not enough…" I point out.
"No. He's not threatening you or Teddy so we can't go to the police about it."
"I don't understand; why can't he just leave us the hell alone?" I ask. "He's signed away his rights; I'm not asking him for anything."
"Well, that's where it's gotten more interesting," Barney says.
"Why? What did you find out?" Christian asks before I can, his hand tightening on mine.
"Turns out Braxton senior is a very ill man," Welch explains. "When I say ill, I mean medically…as in he's dying-"
"None of that came up in our research into the team," Christian cuts him off.
"No, he's hiding it very well," Barney confirms. "It took a lot of digging in ways you don't want to know. Outright he doesn't appear sick, but when you look at his appearances over the last year you'll notice he's cut back. He's sent assistant managers in his place to many events."
"What's that got to do with Junior and why he's after Ana?" Taylor asks.
"It turns out that Senior had a will drawn up and it appears that public image is very important to him," Welch answers. "In the event of Senior's death, which we believe is going to be in the very near future, the team ownership is automatically transferred to Junior along with everything that Senior owns. However, there's a clause in there which is the reason we think Junior has tried to…take Teddy out of the picture."
"What clause?" Christian asks. "And why are we just finding out about the will?"
"Again, it was located in ways you don't want to know," Barney chuckled. "Those ways take a little time."
"It seems Senior is a little old fashioned," Welch begins. "If it is determined that Junior had a child out of wedlock at any time, no matter how long before or after Senior's death, Junior forfeits all rights to the estate-"
"Holy shit," I gasp in surprise.
"The will also includes a clause that has the same ramifications if Junior brings any negative attention to himself or his family," Welch adds.
"But he signed over his rights; legally he's not Teddy's father," I point out.
"True, but if someone ever found the documents or the plea bargain he would lose everything."
"Senior is that old fashioned?"
"It seems his father had the same clause in his contract and so on. The Braxton's come from old money; they didn't earn any of it themselves which we knew already. Senior's father's will contained the same clause and Senior felt compelled I guess to include the clause in his will. With his father's health failing quickly, we think reality is setting in and since he can't find Ana and Teddy he's getting desperate."
"Holy shit," I gasp at it all finally coming together.
"What else do we know?" Taylor asks.
"We've planted a bug on both Junior and Daddy's phone," Barney announces. "It's only a matter of time before they talk details on the phone. Junior is getting too desperate especially with Daddy's failing health."
"How long does he have?" Christian asks.
"Based upon his last visit, not long," Barney answers. "Weeks, at most a month is the doctor's guess."
"But that doesn't mean he'll stop because Daddy's gone," I point out.
"No it doesn't," Christian agrees.
"Nope, but we think the timeline is making him desperate," Welch says.
"And desperate people fuck up," Taylor adds.
"Yes they do, all the time," Christian agrees.
"What about the knife? You said you might have the results today?" I ask Taylor.
"My contact is very interested in where the knife came from and the circumstances surrounding it-"
"Why?" Christian interrupts.
"The blood is from someone who has been on the FBIs radar as a quote gun for hire," Taylor continues. "He's a suspected in several murders however he's a professional so there's never been enough evidence left behind to convict him."
"How do they know the blood belongs to him?" I ask.
"They had his blood and fingerprints on record from when he was convicted of assault as a teenager; although his record is sealed, the FBI has access to it."
"And they're interested in the knife because?"
"They're interested in you," Taylor looks at me. "They want you to testify to put him behind bars. If you would-"
"No," I interrupt quickly. "Absolutely not."
"Ana-"
"No, there's enough people after me and Teddy already," I remind them. "I'm not adding to the list. That guy might already be looking for me, but if I testify against him he can have his buddies or gang looking for me for the rest of my life. No."
"They could protect you, maybe even-"
"What? Put me in witness protection? No," I stand from the bed. "I'm practically there right now; I want this over."
"Can't we find evidence to link Junior to hiring this bastard? Then that puts them both away? Junior for trying to hire someone to kill them and ordering the kidnapping and then the bastard for kidnapping, assault and everything else?" Christian says.
"Right now we don't have the evidence for that," Taylor explains.
"Not yet," Welch adds.
"You…you think we can get it?" I ask.
"Yes, they're going to fuck up," Barney answers. "When people get desperate they fuck up. I'd put money on Junior calling this guy and talking about you. They might talk about what happened or what will happen…next."
"It just means hiding out longer," Welch points out. "The FBI's way might end this sooner."
"No," I say firmly. "That only gets the guy who…kidnapped me; that doesn't get Braxton. I want them both. I don't care if I have to hide out longer."
"Then it's settled," Christian announces. "Keep looking for the connection between Junior and the FBI's guy. What about Junior's other hard drive…have you made progress with that?"
"Yeah," Barney says. "That was…graphic."
"Meaning?"
"It contained proof that he was watching Ana, Kate and General Steele for quite some time-"
"What?"
"I don't know if he hired a PI or what, but there were photos of…Kate when she was pregnant, coming home from the hospital, going to doctor's appointments-"
"You're fucking kidding me," I shake my head in disbelief. "We knew he was sitting outside my apartment once she left him, but we didn't know he was having her followed and photographed. Or that he knew where she was for that long before…"
"From the date range, he had someone on you and your father during the same time period," Welch explains. "After…the pictures are just of you and your father."
"Is there anything recent?" Taylor asks and I hold my breath waiting for a response.
"Pictures of Ana entering Kate's apartment on the day you were…abducted-"
"Doesn't that prove he was involved?" Christian asks.
"No, it just proves Ana was at Kate's apartment that day, there's no picture of her being abducted of course," Welch says.
"And my dad?"
"Those stop the same day."
"Thank God."
"Keep searching," Christian says. "Leave no stone unturned; find something to connection Junior and this bastard. Find a way to bring them both down together."
"Yes sir."