Who Shot the Bitch Troll?

Chapter 13

Taylor

Have you ever heard the expression when it rains it pours? Well, right now it is fucking pouring. It was supposed to be an easy, laid-back kind of week for us. Mr. and Mrs. Grey are in Aspen and under the watchful eyes of Sawyer and Ryan. Gail and I got married in Las Vegas over the weekend, and Grey wanted us to have some quality time together before they returned.

No sooner had we hit the ground, than I got a phone call from Carrick Grey telling me about Lincoln's visit to his house last night. Why the bastard had to pick last night is beyond me. He should have known that we were never going to let him take the fall for the bitch's murder. No, I think that he was all about getting his last licks in, causing as much trouble as he could for Mr. Grey before he took the money and ran.

Then, while I am trying to deal with that shit, Sophie calls Gail because she can't get through to me. It turns out that Jeannine is planning to move out of state and take Sophie with her. To add insult to injury, Jeannine caught her on the phone and now she is being punished for breaking the "never use the phone rule." It's a stupid rule and only exists so that Jeannine can completely control her access to me.

I'm afraid that I was so angry that I smashed Gail's iPhone into the wall. It's not as bad as it sounds though. She was due for an upgrade anyway. I can now see where this thing is going with Jeannine and it's not going to be pretty. To make the divorce as amicable as possible, I sold out on a lot of my parental rights. At the time, however, I really didn't have a lot of money to legally challenge her. Now, I do.

I obviously cannot stop her from moving. And I don't want to put Sophie in the middle of a custody struggle, but I am also not going to sign away all my rights. Even if I don't have physical custody, I know that I can try to regain legal custody. I also know that I need a firmer visitation agreement, one that she can't manipulate just to suit her purposes.

Sophie is now old enough to know who her Daddy is and to want to see me of her own accord. My primary concern is keeping her out of the line of fire. Jeannine knows this and I have a feeling that she is going to use this against me anyway that she can. For a while, she has been alluding to the fact that I don't see Sophie much, so why don't I just give up and let Patrick adopt her. She can dream on. It ain't happening, bitch.

After that mess, my next call was to Flynn. We have a pretty solid relationship regarding Grey that goes way back. We both share the duty of keeping him safe. I take care of his physical safety, while Flynn takes care of his emotional safety. Until Elena started up this most recent trouble, things had been moving on a steady trajectory upwards for both of us. Neither of our jobs are easy, but Grey makes it worth our while to stick with him. And we don't admit it, but after all the shit that he's been through, it will be kind of nice to be there for the happy ending.

My job to guard the multibillionaire and his family was pretty much par for this kind of work. There were always threats to safety involving kidnapping, unhealthy obsessions, attempts on their health and well-being, even death threats. But Grey has always provided me with the best technology and staff to handle anything we might run into. It is my job to make sure that threats to his safety don't interfere with his job.

Not having to deal with these wacky female subs has been a treat. At least they aren't n and out of the apartment every few months. Fifteen! And each one, her own brand of crazy. We even have to watch out for the former ones. I would never say this to Grey, but any woman who gets her kicks by having some guy tie her up and beat the shit out of her is a whack job, in more ways than one.

I think that Flynn has actually had the tougher job, trying to keep the man himself on his own two feet. Grey is a control freak from the word go, not to mention an obsessive-compulsive when it comes to his job. Other than his subs, he never had much of a life outside of making money. His relationships with his family members were fraught with lies and deceit.

Dating and marrying Ana changed all that for him. She has not only helped him to come to terms with his past, she has really mellowed him out. He is more relaxed and less work driven. He interacts much more positively with his family, in fact with both of his families. Sawyer has told me that the Aspen trip has been a great success.

Grey and Price are more like buds than father and son, but that's okay. Price is a good man and has gone a long way towards proving his mettle as a loving and protective man. It must be tough for him. After all, he is the guy's biological father, but he never got the chance to raise him.

I don't see how he cannot think of him as a son, but that tie just isn't there. And that is exactly what I don't want to happen to Sophie and me. I don't want to be the outsider looking in on my daughter's life. I really feel for Price. He is a very strong man to be able to handle it all, so close and yet so far from the son he never knew he had.

But now, I think that that distance may be working in his favor. He is better able to emotionally handle all of the previous shit with Elena Lincoln and the lifestyle that she dragged a defenseless kid into. It was his life before he met him, so he doesn't have the same degree of guilt as the Greys do. And they have it in spades, especially his mother, who was practically best friends with the bitch.

This business of Lincoln making a full revelation Grey's lifestyle with Elena and his subs is a huge mess. Carrick had learned about it earlier, thank goodness. I cannot imagine what a bad scene it would have been if he had been shocked too. I feel bad for the others. I know that Dr. Trevelyan is going to want to discuss it with him, probably to seek a denial. Not going to happen. Grey doesn't lie. Even for his Mom, there is no way that he will cover up the sordid truth. Withholding information is not quite the same as lying. If she confronts him with what Lincoln told him, he will no doubt affirm it.

As usual, Flynn picks up quickly. He must have my number on some kind of direct, priority line.

"Flynn," I say abruptly. "What the hell are we going to do about Lincoln's revelation? I talked to Carrick and he wants Price to tell Grey before he leaves Aspen."

"I've already talked to Price," he answers. "And I told him not to do it. I don't want Christian walking back into this mess until we've managed to do some damage control. He's doing very well right now. However he needs more time to pull himself together and he needs time with Ana. He is on the cusp of a great breakthrough. If he can make it, it will give him the strength to endure this."

"Do you think it would be possible to pay Lincoln off?" I wonder.

"No," he replies. "Eventually Lincoln will get his wife's money. He sure doesn't deserve it, but there's nothing that we can do about it. In the long run, it is better that way. he gets his money and crawls back into whatever hole he came from. If he gets the idea that he can blackmail the Greys there will be no end to it. Besides, he really does not want the entire story to come out anyway."

"Why is that?" I ask.

"Because when he caught them together, he was coming off of prostate surgery," he says. "Sooner or later, if he opens up that can of worms, word would get out that he couldn't get it up anymore. His wife was doing it with a young buck while he was permanently on the disabled list.

"The man has his pride. I think that he feels that he has gotten his back by outing Christian to the family. You know Christian. He can tough out any publicity storm. He's got a set of brass balls. But facing his family is a whole different ball game. Why do you think that he let them think that he was gay for so many years?"

"I figured that it was something like," I reply. "But when is this shit going to end?"

"It will end when Clark finally realizes that no matter what, he is not going to find the murderer," he answers. "He knows that pursuing Lincoln is a shot in the dark and if the word gets out that Carrick Grey is representing him, I don't see how he can get an arrest warrant, let alone an indictment."

"And the family?"

"Will have to ride it out. They have another week to decide if there is anything to be gained by confronting Christian about the past," he says. "It's ancient history now. Christian has turned his life around and married a lovely girl who is expecting a son. It's everything that they could possible want for him. There is no benefit to dredging through past mud."

"What would you tell them?" I ask curiously.

"I have told Carrick that Christian's progress has all stemmed from him turning his back on his past and focusing on his future," he says. "We all know why he was so fucked up. So does he. He was recently confronted with information regarding his origins that shed a new light, a more positive light on his past. Learning that his parents were just messed up high school kids rather than say a crack whore and a pimp, improved his self-image, a lot.

"Revisiting that darker portion of his life, that shadowy existence of only living half a life while he engaged in self-destructive behaviors taught to him by a hard, unfeeling woman would have no positive impact on his future. Ana has worked very hard to drag him out of the darkness and into the light. There is no reason for him to go back there."

"And so what do you recommend that I do?" I ask.

"Enjoy the fact that Christian is away and you don't have to obey his every whim," he says cheerfully. "Enjoy that time that you and Gail have together. By the way, congratulation! It's about time that you too finally did the deed."

"Thanks, Flynn!" I reply. "And thanks for all your support and advice. I'm glad that we are on the same side."

After I hang up, I sit and stare into space thinking, and they all lived happily ever after. Maybe. But this isn't a fairy tale. There will always be some shit to deal with, especially if I continue to work for Christian Grey.

Note to my faithful readers: Yes, this is a short chapter, but the next chapter reveals the killer.