Taylor sat down at his desk and reached in the drawer for the bottle of Advil. He shook two into his palm and shoved them into his mouth and dry swallowed. He pushed his chair back and rolled it over to the mini fridge and grabbed a bottle of water and took a long swallow. His head was pounding. He pushed off back towards his desk and grabbed his ipad, frowning at this latest news. Having an eleven year old female involved in this was not going to go down well with the boss or Ana.

Speaking of the boss and Ana, Taylor felt his phone vibrate and sure enough it was the boss requesting his presence. He stood slowly, his back aching from too much tension. The quick, hot shower he had managed to take on arrival had done nothing for his sore muscles. The bear hug from Levi's guy hadn't helped. He adjusted his tie and walked smartly to Grey's office.

"Ana will be ready to leave some time in the next ninety minutes. So let's go."

"I haven't met Mara yet."

"Do you personally know Mara?"

"Yes sir, but she wasn't even married then."

"I need a nurse. Get Levi on the phone and find out where the hell she is."

"What about your mother, sir?"

"That won't work right now. My mother has not forgiven her for not going to the memorial."

"Understood, sir. " Taylor stood and headed for the door when Grey called him, "Taylor?"

"Sir?"

"Did you go?"

"No, sir. I stayed with Ms Steele, sir. "

Grey muttered something under his breath and Taylor opened the door, grateful he couldn't make it out.

Ten minutes later, Taylor and Levi were introducing Mara to Grey. All Grey seemed to be interested in was that she was not carrying a gun and was indeed a certified Register Nurse.

At the hospital, Christian and Mara entered Ana's private room and found Ray there. Christian offered him a guest room at the penthouse but Ray declined. He needed to go home. He was happy with Ana's recovery and the security measures Christian had in place. He offered to come down on the next weekend and stay in a guest room then. Grey agreed

After a flurry of last minute checks and updated vitals, a seemingly endless stack of discharge papers, all requiring signatures and a doctor giving Mara orders for at-home care as well as scripts for medications and follow up blood work, finally the Grey entourage was able to make their way to the Audi SUV waiting by the elevator in the parking garage.

Taylor and Sawyer traveled in the front seat with Taylor behind the wheel. In the back seat, Christian sat behind the driver with Ana in the middle and Mara by the passenger side.

In the SUV that trailed them were Sullivan, Levi, and the big gorilla that held back Taylor earlier in the day. Everyone but Ana and Mara were tense. Thankfully, the trip to Escala was uneventful. Ana fell asleep on Christians shoulder and he carried her to bed.

That evening after dinner, the senior security teams , Levi and some of his people, Barney, Shelly and Grey met in the great room.

Taylor coordinated summaries of both his and Levi's teams. He looked over at Barney whose fingers were typing rapidly on the keyboard of his laptop. Taylor called his name twice with no response and shook his head. "We'll come back to Barney later for a more current update. So far as I know, he had been able to breach Schneiderman's firewalls undetected.

"Levi?" Grey asked, "What do you have to add "

My team has been working on motive and opportunity. With Barney's help, we have confirmed that Jack Hyde worked with both Schneiderman and Elena Lincoln. Schneiderman holds a grudge against Mr Grey that goes back several years. When Mr Grey went missing, his original plan was just to swoop in and grab it in a hostile takeover. However, greed took over and he went with Ms Steele's offer. He has always publicly refuted any rumors that refer to the contract and denied its existence, claiming his actions in the search for Grey were just those of a Good Samaritan. We know better.

Schneiderman's financial success has not been based on smart decisions or good financial savy, it's been based on smuggling ; weapons, drugs and people. His smuggling operations are finally starting to draw attention from the Feds but his connections are so tight, his information so accurate, they have not been able to find anything. Now, it's reached the point where he can claim harassment. The Feds are very leery of searching any ships belonging to Schneiderman. Instead, they have been pointed in Grey's direction.

My team has discovered that a cargo ship, the Greyheart, that is scheduled to leave the port of Miami next Tuesday is scheduled for a routine inspection. Schneiderman plans to make sure they find contraband and lots of it. "

"That's ridiculous. That ship is carrying grain to Africa. There is no room for contraband. "

"Schneiderman has plans to plant weapons on board hidden in the grain."

"How could you possibly know that?"

" For a plan like this to succeed, the crew must be all in. Recently, four long time crew members transferred to different ships. This sends up a red flag. All four were approached by my team and one came forward. He said they were told only that in the future, contraband would be aboard. They could leave or they could stay and receive triple their normal salary. He chose to leave, as did three others. Two of the replacement crew are mine. The other two are low lifes looking for just such a vessel. "

Grey sat back, stunned at this newest revelation. His lips thinned and then he snarled. "Two can play at that game. Welch, you and Levi look into what ships Schneiderman has arriving in port and what they might be carrying. If he smuggles out of the country, he smuggles in. "

Then Grey looked over at Barney and Shelley to see Shelley fingers literally flying over the keys and Barney bent over her laptop watching excitedly. Suddenly she stopped and let out a yell. Barney broke into a wide grin.

"Barney?" He asked.

"We're in, Mr Grey. Tell me exactly what you need. "

"Any scheduled events involving GEH or emotes thereof or my family, anything involving The Greyheart or the crew thereof anything involving my aircraft in any way, everything involving Jack Hyde and Elena Lincoln. ""Yes, sir. We're on it. Can we leave?"

"Go ahead " replied Grey when Shelley excitedly said "No! wait!"

Furiously she typed into her keyboard and the gasped. Barney, who had been bent over her laptop following her every move, gasped as well.

Taylor and Welch moved behind Barney who pointed at something on the screen. Immediately, both men started using their phone.

Something about the way Welch and Taylor reacted to the information on Barney's screen was very disconcerting. Part of Grey wanted to know what the hell was happening. The other part hoped he never found out, because that part of him was sure it was something awful, something that would totally devastate him, something he might never recover from. So he said nothing. The room grew quiet except for the muffled voices of Taylor and Welch and the busy sound of typing.

After a while, Grey reluctantly asked "Welch, what's going on?"

"Have you spoken to your mother today?"

"Why?"

"Shelley just intercepted a text that says,"Dr aboard. Send coordinates for rendezvous. "

Grey picked up his phone and dialed his Mom but it went immediately to voicemail.

His worried eyes looked over at Taylor. Seeing the concern on his security chiefs face was not comforting.

"Call her CPO," he commanded.

"I did. It went to voice mail. I tracked your mothers phone. It appears to be in the hospital."

"Call the hospital and she if she's clocked in or out."

Taylor got busy on his phone again. The minutes went by slowly. Finally, he put his phone down. He looked at Grey and explained, "She clocked in at nine am for her usual shift. She clocked out after three hours, saying she had a personal emergency. She left with her security. Ryan is there and will check into it further. I am waiting for hospital security to confirm her car is not there.

Just then Taylor's phone rang. "Taylor," he snapped abruptly and then just listened. His expression grim, he finally spoke. "Thank you. No. We'll look into it on our end."

Taylor's email alert went off and he quickly looked at it and paled. He showed it to Welch. Both men looked at Barney, then at Grey, then back at each other.

Taylor looked at Grey again. This time Grey stood and silently followed him into the study.

Levi looked at the others still seated in the Great Room and said, "That can't be good news. "

Inside Grey's study neither man spoke as Taylor poured two fingers of scotch into a crystal tumbler. He took the in breakable decanter the scotch was housed in and left it beside the tumbler that he placed in front of Grey.

Grey steeled himself for whatever Taylor was about to tell him. It was bad. He knew that; the question was, how bad? Grey's hand trembled as he reached for the glass of scotch and swallowed the fiery liquid. He closed his eyes and concentrated on staying calm. Then, perhaps a tiny bit calmer, he opened his eyes and met Taylor's.

Taylor nodded ever so slightly and began to speak.

"Her car is there, so was her security, Eckers. They found him unconscious, barely alive. He had been shot twice but the vest he had on caught one of the bullets. He's been rushed to surgery. They found your mothers phone on the ground beside him. It was smashed and bloody.

Grey's heart began to pound in his chest as he felt himself begin to panic. Taylor quickly poured more scotch into Grey's glass as he waited for the inevitable reaction. Grey's eyes were now dilated, his breathing rapid and shallow. His face held a haunted look. "They have her?" He whispered harshly.

"It would appear so, sir. "

Grey threw back his head and let out a primordial scream, while both hands tugged at his hair.

Taylor said nothing as he refilled Grey's glass and waited for Ana.

She had heard the scream. Hell, half the fucking building heard Grey scream. She stood quickly. Too quickly. Everything was spinning all around her. Unsteady and nauseous, she moved to the door. Immediately, Mara was beside her. Mara reached out a hand and Ana clung to it.

"Did you hear the scream?" Ana asked Mara. "That was Christian. I need to go to him."

Mara slid one hand behind Ana's back to gently support her and they went in search of Christian.