Hi guys... so, this chapter has been ready for a while now, but I was kind of apprehensive to post it... but in the end I went with it...
Chapter 10
Shattered
Ana
I'm nervous. Christian had to go to Manhattan for a meeting and even though it has been almost four weeks since we last heard from his father, I'm not convinced that he just took off after he murdered Susannah. I have this terrible feeling that the worst is yet to come and I just can't shake it.
The only thing that is keeping me sane right now are Aria and Emily. Emily couldn't go to the Keys with my mother and children, because Christian is only her temporary guardian right now and we still need to go through all the legal procedures so he can become her permanent legal guardian. Aria was with my Mom and her siblings for the first week, but I got more and more depressed each day fearing that by the time Christian biological father is found, she wouldn't recognize me anymore.
I think I cried for two hours straight when one morning two weeks ago Christian came into our bedroom and was carrying our baby. Secretly, I believe he shared my fears, after all she is just a baby and we had so little time to bond and unlike Teddy, Sam and Phoebe, she is too young to talk to us on the phone. Sam and Teddy are having a blast, after all the should have returned to school last week and now they are still on vacation. Phoebe is a bit cranky, she just misses us, but my mother is great with her and makes sure to her give her extra special attention each day, so she doesn't have much time to miss us.
Staring at my watch I see that only five minutes have passed from the last time I checked. I know that New York traffic can be a bitch, but Christian's meeting was supposed to be over two hours ago, so he should be here by now.
I decide to call him, but it goes straight to voice mail. "Taylor!" I call out. Christian took two of the new security guys with him, because he trusts Taylor the most to keep me safe while he isn't here.
"Yes, Mrs. Grey?" He says and I roll my eyes as he enters the room. Why does he always insist on being so formal when he is on duty?
"Can you call the security guys for me. I tried to call Christian, but the call went straight to voice mail."
For a second I see a frown on his face and he nods before he leaves, leaving me even more worried in the living room, with Emily who is watching cartoon and Aria who is sleeping in her Moses basket next to me.
I get up and start to pace the room. What if something has happened to Christian? What if I never see him again... No I must not think like that, maybe his battery died...
Fifteen minutes pass and I know something is really wrong when Taylor returns not alone, but with Elliot who looks sick.
"What is happening?" I ask and can already feel tears threaten to fall from my eyes.
"Please follow us into Christian's study, Ana. Gail will watch the kids." Taylor says and I know it's bad, but follow him into Christian's study where Elliot ushers me to one of the leather chairs in front of Christian's desk.
"Where is my husband?" I ask and Elliot sits next to me and takes my hand in his.
"Mr. Grey went to the New York offices of GEH. He told the security to wait in the garage for him. He went inside, cancelled his meeting and left the building through the main entrance. Security footage shows that he got into a cab. We are trying to get the name of the cabbie as we speak. His phone is switched of and we can't track him until he switches it back on. But..." Taylor stops looking really uncomfortable or maybe even scared.
"But what?" I snap.
"I was able to download the last couple of message he received on his phone." He says and hands me his I-pad. The first thing I see is a picture of Sam, Teddy, Phoebe and my mother at the beach, for a second I hope it's just a picture my mother sent but my hope is short lived when I see the text that came with the picture.
You cannot hide them from me. Now it's up to you. You or them? The choice is up to you.
Dad.
And I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that my crazy ass husband just went on a suicide mission to protect his family.
"T!" Luke exclaims and storms into the study.
"Did you find the cabbie?"
"Yes, he took Mr. Grey to a car dealership. I've just called them, he bought a pre-owned SUV and drove off."
"FUCK!" Taylor screams and my tears run down my face freely. This is it, we have no way of tracking him down...
"Luke, call Barney tell him where the car dealership is and the time when Mr. Grey bought the car, maybe we can track his movements through the street cameras. I'll call Mr. Cross and Detective Holden." Taylor says and they both hurry out of the study.
"Ana, please they'll find him." Elliot says and I turn my head to face him.
"How? How could he do this Elliot? I mean, lets face it, it's been at least six hours since he was last seen and his biological father is a lunatic... who says that he.. that he..."
"DON'T!" Elliot hisses startling me.
"Now you listen to me, because you know Christian better than anyone else in this world, do you honestly believe that he would just go to meet this son of a bitch without a plan?" He asks and suddenly I feel sick. I leap over to the bookshelf and reveal the hidden safe, entering the code wrong twice because my hands are shaking so badly, finally managing to open it, I look inside and my heart sinks, because one of the two guns I keep here at the Hampton's is gone.
"Ana what is it?" Elliot asks.
"He took one of my guns. We need to tell the police." I mutter my voice lacking any emotion.
"But that's a good thing right?" Elliot says hopeful and I walk over to the bar where I poor myself a whisky and down it. I'm not even allowed to have a drink, because I'm still on meds after the surgery, but I couldn't care less.
"No, it's not a good sign, Elliot. Christian has never even touched a gun before, he hates them. Do you know what happens when you can't handle a gun? You hurt yourself and you give the person you intend to shoot the time to disarm you and kill you. Sad fact, there are almost as many people who get killed by their own firearms as people who use them to successfully defend themselves with them." I explain and leave the study feeling like my life just lost any meaning.
"Gail, please watch the children." I murmur as I pass the living room and it's then when I see Taylor at the entrance yelling at the two security guys who drove Christian into town. I head over to them and I don't know what possesses me, but I slap the first guy I reach in the face so hard that he stumbles backwards.
"Both of you, you are fired, now get out of my house!" I hiss and give Taylor a look letting him know that they better be gone by the time I'm back downstairs.
Slowly I walk upstairs crossing all the family pictures Christian and I hung on the wall by the staircase, wondering if there will be more with him in it in the future or if it will only be our children and me...
In the bedroom, I sit down on the bed and think of this morning, there was nothing out of the ordinary... and suddenly I'm so angry at Christian. How could he do this to us? Why didn't he tell Taylor or me? We could have come up with a plan, instead I have to face the reality that I might never get to see him again... not alive anyway and I can't even imagine what I would do without him. I don't want to. I think of my mother and for the first time ever I fully understand how strong she is, she is happy and she raised me without the love of her life... I don't think I can do that. Oh Christian, what have you done?
An hour passes and I there are no news, they were able to track his movements for about two miles and then lost him, so he could be anywhere...
Kate has come over to sit with me, but I asked her to leave me alone, I just can't deal with people telling me that all is going to be fine when I know it won't.
My phone buzzes and I want to ignore it, but something tells me to answer the call when I see the unknown caller ID.
"Yes?"
"Hmm... you have such a lovely voice Ana... I can't wait to meet you in person." A voice I have never heard before says and I know immediately who it is.
"Where is Christian? What have you done to him?" I ask.
"Oh, he is still here... a bit tied up at the moment, but I guess the Grey's didn't taught the boy any manners, so I had to make him sit and listen."
"If you hurt him, I swear to God..."
"Ana, Ana... don't you see, he is my son, I'm not going to kill him, but like any good father I have to teach him a lesson. Now, if you want to see your husband again you will leave your fancy home without your henchmen finding out, go to the garage, get into your car and drive towards the on ramp of the I-495 once you are close stop and I will give you more instructions." He says and hangs up.
I don't lose any time and quickly change into a jeans and hoodie, but just when I'm about to leave the bedroom I stop. I can't just run off... Christian running off to deal with this himself is what got us into this mess in the first place.
So, I walk downstairs and find Taylor. "Taylor, we need to talk." I say and we walk into the security office.
"Christian's father called me. He wants me to come to wherever he is holding Christian hostage. I'm going, but you will follow me."
"No! It's too dangerous Ana, I can't let you do that."
"Taylor, this is not up for discussion. I'm going, you will follow me from a distance, get police involved and whomever you want to, too, but I'm not just sitting here waiting for him to kill my husband."
"Ana please, this is what the sick son of bitch wants. He doesn't want to harm Christian, he wants to harm you to punish Christian." Taylor begs, but my mind is set, I'm going!
"Taylor, he won't hurt me. I can protect myself and I'm taking my gun with me, the first chance I get I will immobilize him. I can handle this, but I need you to get backup together. If anything goes wrong, I need to know you are there to get us out. Please, I don't want to waste anymore time." I implore him and he sighs.
"You will wear a tracker and a mic. This is not up for discussion, give me five minutes and get your gun." He says and I hurry off to get it.
Ten minutes later, I leave in my R8. There is a tracker in the sole of my right shoe and Taylor gave me a pair of sunglasses with a camera and microphone in it. I have no idea how it works, but as long as they can track me with it, I'm not going to ask questions.
I stop the car shortly before the I-495 on ramp and wait for about five more minutes until my phone rings again.
"Are you there?"
"Yes." I answer.
"Get out of the car, do you see the red pick up truck?" He snaps and I look around until I see it parked about 15 feet from where I have parked.
"Yes."
"Good, you'll find the keys inside the car. Lose your phone and just follow the route of the GPS."
"How do I know that Christian is still alive?" I ask... suppose he has already killed him... I need proof, I need to know that Christian is still alive.
"You want proof?" For a moment there is silence and then I hear muffled noises and suddenly Christian's voice.
"Stay where you are Ana! It's a tr..." and with that the line goes dead. Slowly I leave the safety of my car and walk over to the pick up truck. The doors are unlocked and the GPS has a route programmed. I turn the key in the ignition and follow the instructions of the GPS hoping that Taylor and his team are not too far behind. I drive for more than one hour until I'm in some kind of rundown industrial area and the GPS tells me that I have found my destination in front of an old warehouse.
Getting out of the car I can feel my knees shaking but force myself to walk towards the entrance. The metal door is partially open, so I push it open further and step inside. It's a huge open space and in the middle of it tied to a chair is Christian. His eyes widen in horror when he sees me, but I ignore the look on his face and hurry over to him. First I'm going to safe his ass and then I'm going to kill him for trying to play the hero without any plan.
To my surprise there seems to be no one else, so I untie his hands and rip the duct tape from his mouth.
"Leave now!" He hisses at me.
"How about thanks for saving my stupid ass!" I snap back and start to untie his feet, when I hear someone clapping behind me and turn around. I have only seen Christian's father once in a picture, but it isn't until now that I see him in real life, that I can really see how much Christian resembles him, it's eerie, like looking at an older version of my husband.
"Well, now that's what I call a family reunion. I knew you wouldn't leave your husband in his hour of need. You're a good wife, Anastasia, my son has chosen well." He says with a smirk.
"He is not your son, Carrick Grey is his father. You are merely a sperm donor." I spit back at him.
"Feisty, I like that. In a different world we would have been close, sweetheart." He says and before I can answer Christian must have managed to untie himself, because he is on his feet and shoves me rather rudely behind him.
"I won't allow you to hurt her. This is between you and me, she has nothing to do with it." He says and want to tell him to get out of the way, but I can't be too obvious of the fact that I am carrying a gun.
"Oh son, don't worry. I'm not going to kill your wife. I'm not a killer... Susannah... well she was crazy and a loose end, but the truth is, I have no reason to harm you wife, all I want is to hurt you. So, I have found someone who will hurt her for me." He says and before I get the change to look around to see if there is someone around I feel a hand fist in my hair and I'm being pulled backwards rather harshly.
"Remember me, Ana?" I hear a voice I wished to never hear again in my life and close my eyes.
"Jack, I thought you are still in jail." I gasp.
"I made parole five weeks ago, that's when Marshall found me... helped me out and showed me a way to get my revenge." He tells me and I stare at Christian who stands horrified in the middle of the warehouse while Hyde drags me into a corner.
"Don't do anything stupid, I'm not going to hurt you." Jack whispers in my ear as he pushes me to the ground.
"I fucking kill you if you hurt her!" Christian screams but I'm still trying to figure out what Jack meant when he said he wasn't going to hurt her.
"Shut up!" Marshall screams and I groan when I see him pointing my gun at Christian. "Jack, why don't you fuck her first, I mean a girl deserves to have a good time before she breathes her last. " He then says and I pale and slowly reach for the gun that is tucked into the back of my jeans. If Jack even does so much as breathe too close to me I'll take him down.
To my surprise Jack laughs bitterly, but my gaze is fixed on Christian and I'm begging him with my eyes not to anything stupid, because I know he is trying to figure out if he can manage to disarm his father before Hyde manages to reach him. And then I see it, he has made up his mind.
"Christian don't!" I scream but he has already pounced and I watch in slow motion as he and his father hit the floor with thud. Both men are struggling to get the gun and I see Jack move from the corner of my eyes.
"Stop!" I yell at him and point my gun at him. Oh Taylor hurry!
"Shit, she has a gun Malcom!" He screams and it's then when I hear it. A gun shot and for a few seconds the entire warehouse is bathed in complete silence.
I can't move, both men are not moving and Jack is making a run for it, leaving the warehouse as fast as he can.
And then there is movement and my world comes crushing down when I watch Marshall push Christian off of him. He rolls on his back with a moan and I see it... blood is gushing from his chest drenching his white shirt.
I think I hear a scream... maybe it was me and then I drop to my knees at Christian's side and take my scarf off, pressing it onto his chest to somehow stop the blood from gushing out of his chest.
"A-na... I... love... love... you." He gets out and I know what he is doing.
"NO! Do you hear me, don't you dare to say goodbye!" I sob... why is this happening... where is Taylor and the rest of the security?
"Well, that didn't go as planned." I hear the menacing voice of Christian's biological father and look up at him, he is pointing the gun at my head and mine is out of my reach.
"What are you waiting for, you fucking coward... just do it!" I scream through my tears... this is it, he won.
I fix my gaze on Christian... his eyes are closed... his head has fallen to the side and he is so pale... lifeless... and I know in this moment that my husband is gone; his need to protect his family and my stupid decision to save the day have cost him his life and the only comfort I have in this moment is that I know I will be with him in a few short moments... I hear the click of the gun and close my eyes... silence and then a gun shot... darkness... nothing...
*Finds a rock with a huge hole underneath it and hides* :-/
