Christian's POV

She hasn't called. Not once. I specifically told her to call me when she reaches the apartment and when she leaves and she hasn't done either of those! I knew that this was a terrible idea. Why in the fuck would I allow her to go back to the one place that this fucker could surely find her? Oh, yeah, because I'm a fucking idiot! I shouldn't have given into her so easily. She should be kept back at Escala chained to the bed if that's what it took to keep her there.

"Mr. Grey, could you please elaborate on your ideas?" I'm brought back to reality. Here I am sitting at the head of a meeting with some very important business partners and all I can think about is Ana. I collect my thoughts long enough to explain myself and then go back to thinking about what the hell I'm going to do about this girl. While the others are discussing, I pull my phone out of my pocket. If Ana doesn't call me, then I'm going to call her. My thumb hovers over the call button when a loud pounding scares the crap out of me. The others quickly stop what they're doing and glance from me to the door where the noise is coming from.

"I didn't know that we were expecting someone." One of the partners says.

"We weren't." I reply coldly. What the hell could they possibly want?

The office door swings open and there stands Andrea, my assistant, with a panicked expression on her face.

"Mr. Grey, I'm so sorry to disturb you, but she keeps demanding to see you and you said no calls and she won't stop-"

"Who, Andrea?"

Before she can reply, in rushes a tiny brunette. Her large, brown eyes find mine and she stops dead in her tracks. Her long hair is wild and her face is flushed bright red. She glances around the room and realizes that we're not alone.

"Ana?" I'm shocked out of my seat. I quickly stand and meet the confused faces of my guests. "Ladies and gentlemen, we'll have to continue this some other time. I'm sorry for the disturbance. I'll have my assistant set up something for next week." They quickly pack up their things and file through the double doors. Once they're gone I slowly turn my body towards Ana's. She stands at the far end of the table with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Her eyes are cast down as she stares at the glass table. For some reason my anger quickly rises and I can feel the rage boil to my skin.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" I bark harshly at her. I see her flinch, but she still doesn't look at me. "Do you have any fucking idea about how worried I've been about you?" I move from my chair and go to stand on the other side of the table so I'm directly across from her. She still stands the same with her arms around her and her eyes refuse to meet mine. "Ana, look at me!"

Her eyes slowly move up and become wider than ever when she sees my furious expression.

"I told you to call me when you got there and you didn't do that." I feel as if I'm reprimanding a child. "I've been sitting her for an entire hour worrying about you and was about ready to fuck the meeting and go find you myself." She looks down at the table again. This isn't going to work. Not is she refuses to acknowledge the fact that she fucked up and is deliberately putting herself in harm's way. I walk around and stop when I'm standing right in front of her. I take her pale face in mine and move her head so she's looking directly into my eyes.

"Do you want me to keep you safe? Or do you want to go back to him? Because right now, I'm finding it extremely difficult to figure out what you're doing here, Ana." I try my best to keep my voice low. Ana's face crumbles at my words. She looks like she's about ready to throw up.

"Christian, I," She starts to speak. I can see her chest rise and fall rapidly as she struggles to control her breathing.

"Ana! This is no time for games. I can't help you if all you do is go against what I say." When she doesn't answer me I grab her elbows and hold her tightly. She immediately goes rigid and tries to twist her way out of my grasp. I find it hard to see why she wound react in such a way. It's not like I was causing her any pain. She manages to yank her arms back, but I'm able to grab ahold of her hand to stop her from running away. Her skin is wet. And not in the way it would be if she just washed her hands. No, this is sticky and slightly thicker than water would be. I drop her hand and turn my palm over. Blood. The red, sticky stuff is layered over the palm of my hand.

What the fuck…

I feel my eyes budge out of my head as I look back up at Ana. She still standing in front of me, but with both of her hands pressed firmly against her side.

"Ana, what is this?" She shakes her head back and forth and I watch her eyes flood in unshed tears. Oh, no. There is no way that she's going to cry her way out of this one. I reach out, grab her hands, and peel them way from her body. There, on her lower stomach is a pool of darkness that has managed to seep through her clothing. My mind pieces the puzzle together as I grab the bottom of the fabric and push it up to show her skin. I gasp in horror as my eyes meet a two inch gash in her porcelain skin. It doesn't look deep, but blood lightly trickles out of the wound. I'm not idiot. This would is fresh.

"What happened?" That's the first of many questions that escaped my lips.

Ana takes deep breath. Her body starts to shake almost violently. "Ana," I try again. "You need to tell me what happened."

Before she even answers me, I can already guess what has happened. I can see the fear in her eyes and the way she refuses to look at me is a dead giveaway that something bad has happened.

"He was there." She whispers so quietly that I have to lean in to hear her correctly. "Kevin. He was at the apartment."

I don't even fully process the information. My first instinct is just to react physically. My fist slams down of the table so hard and so fast that a large crack spiders through the glass.

"Fucking hell!" I scream. What the fuck was I thinking? I should have never ever allowed Ana to go back there. Of course Kevin would be waiting for her. Why wouldn't he? He's a fucking psychopath who enjoys beating women, one of which is Ana. My fucking Ana! I pound my fists solid against the table and throw around whatever I can reach as Ana shouts from behind me. "Christian, please! Please stop!" She cries over from the end of the table.

She's scared you idiot! My conscious screams at me. I pull away from the table, my hands looking a bit rough, and see Ana. She's moved to the far end of the table, her arms are wrapped tightly around herself and fresh tears streak her face. She's terrified of me.

I take a few, much needed deep breaths and try to analyze the situation. Kevin found Ana. He found her and he's obviously hurt her. With slow movements I go over to her. She watches me with guarded eyes as I gently hold her by her waist. I need to focus on her right now. Everything else can wait until I'm one hundred percent sure that she's alright.

"Let me look at this." I lead her over to my desk and sit her down in the large office chair. I open a couple drawers until I find the small first aid kit. "Here we are." She's hesitant at first, but she lets me raise her shirt high enough so I can see her wound. The nasty cut mocks me as I gently clean the skin and apply a bandage. This should have never happened.

"Christian," I hear her whisper above me. I glance up and see that her eyes are sealed shut, but tears slowly drip down her face. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have, I didn't know, I never-"

"It's not your fault, Ana." I stand and take her hands in mine. "This wasn't your fault."

"But it was!" She cries. "I should have known that Kevin would find me. Im an idiot!" She flies out of the seat and her fists fly to the desk. She begins to pound her hands over and over on the wooden desk. She chants the word "stupid" repeatedly. I let her get a couple of good hits in before I intervene. I wrap my arms around her upper waist, making sure I don't touch her injury, and pull her away from the desk.

"Ana, Ana, stop." She twists around in my arms and starts to beat my chest with her tiny fists. I'd much rather her hit me than her hitting the desk. She needs to get whatever this is out of her system and I'm willing to help in any way possible. I can tell she's tired when she stops hitting all together and she sags against my chest. I can her muffled sobbing and my heart breaks for her. I don't know what to do. For the first time in my life, I'm completely lost on how to handle this situation. When her crying slows down, I softly rub her back and lean down to whisper in her ear. "Let's go sit somewhere and talk, okay?" She nods and I lead us over to the lounge area where we sit on the couch. She carefully sits next to me, our knees barely touching. "Start from the beginning, Ana."

She tells me everything from when she arrived at the apartment until this present moment. As she's talking, her eyes are down the entire time, her voice shakes, and she curls in on herself. When she gets to the part when Kevin was in the kitchen I have to force myself from getting off the couch at that very moment and finding that son of a bitch. Then she goes on to tell how he attacked her. She barley gets through the entire story until she begins to cry again. Even through her tears, she proceeds to finish what happened. When she's finally done, I can't pinpoint what I'm feeling. So many emotions run through my head at once that all I can do is sit in shell-shock.

"I'm sorry, Christian." She whispers and wipes away her tears. "I should have listened to you. I just forgot and then…well, then it was too late."

"This should have never happened." I say. "Someone should have protected you." Ana chews on her lips and an important piece of information comes to light. "Wait. Where was Taylor? Wasn't he the one who drove you?"

"Yes, but he stayed in the car while I ran inside."

I'm pissed. I'm off the couch before I know it. "Why in the fuck would he not go inside with you?" This makes no fucking sense to me. I hired Taylor to be a body guard, a protector. He should have gone inside with her and made sure that no harm came to her. "His ass is so fired." I pull the phone out of my pocket and press a single button.

"Christian, no, please." Ana jumps up and swipes the phone out of my hands.

"He didn't do his job, Anastasia. As his employer, I need to take care of this."

"It wasn't his fault. We all thought it was safe. I didn't want him to come with me anyway." She doesn't understand. "Firing him now isn't going to change what already happened." I take a deep breath and lean up against the desk. Ana calms down as well and moves to stand in front of me.

"What are we going to do now, Christian?" She sounds as tired as I feel. What are we going to do? I should call the police. I should have his ass thrown in jail for life for doing this to Ana. But, that won't work for me. No. I want to be the one to make him suffer the way he's made Ana suffer. He deserves to have his ass handed to him by someone his own size.

"We're going to end this once and for all." I say.