Ana's POV – 13 July 2011
Oooh, I could strangle Mia, the last thing I've ever wanted to do is go to a nightclub and I am definitely not going to a nightclub without Christian but I can't believe she just won't understand the security risk. Granted, she has no idea about what we have been going through but I wish I didn't have to see her tonight. I just never feel safe when Mia is around, she is a true firecracker and I hope Macy isn't being led astray by her, I can see how her excitement and enthusiasm for life is good for him but I wonder what she is teaching him.
Anyhow, there is no time for thinking about Mia when I hit work, I desperately want to get all my work done and I continue all morning until just after lunch when once again I feel the hackles rising on the back of my neck and surreptitiously look around the room to see if I can work out what the common factors are when I feel this way. I make our predetermined signal to Sawyer so that he knows that I am feeling concerned and he goes into alert mode without showing any external change, checking the environment and the only people in the office which are Kay Bestie who is the vice president and Claire the receptionist.
Grace calls to say that she would like to come over tonight and then Mrs Kavanagh calls about coming too to try on some wedding dresses while Christian is away and I feel better about the night, the ability to control Kate and Mia with their mothers there is now not such a huge task so I call Gail to tell her and continue my work with a smile on my face.
It is mid-afternoon after I have had my head buried in my work that I feel it again but this time it hits me almost like a wave and I try not to look up, to see if it becomes stronger, I jump when there is a knock on the door and Kay Bestie is standing there, the smile on her lips not reaching her eyes.
"Ana, is it really necessary to have Mr Sawyer here in the office with you all the time? Is there something going on?" She says, her voice calm but her eyes darken as she speaks.
"They are Mr Grey's instructions," is all I can manage and she sniffs and turns on her heel and walks back to her desk.
A minute later my phone rings and I notice that it is Carrick and he says without any preamble, "Ana, you need to be very careful, very careful, Jack Hyde was released this morning from jail without anyone informing me, we don't know where he is. I have just spoken to Welch, can you please let Sawyer know, do not let him lose sight of you, please."
I have gone numb and his urgent "Ana, did you hear me?" has me nodding and then realising that he can't see me, I clear my throat.
"Yes Carrick, thank you, I will," I croak, hanging up I call Sawyer in quickly and quietly let him know, the look of shock on his face, which he quickly hides, is enough to tell me that the situation has just become extremely dangerous and I desperately wish Christian was here.
I text Christian, I know he is probably in a meeting or sleeping but I need to let him know that I love him, my gut is twisting badly and I know, I just know something bad is about to happen, it isn't co-incidence. I let him know what Carrick said and that I love him and that I intend to stay safe and then I decide I need to speak to him but it goes through to voice mail and I whisper how I feel and that I love him and hang up quickly and get back into my work.
Just as my phone rings I see Kay Bestie walking into a meeting room and closing the door so seeing that it is Gail and what Carrick said earlier, I put it onto speaker phone and Sawyer comes in closer and I look at him with concern as she sounds so unusual. How and what she is saying doesn't sound right, I can hear the tightness in her voice, her formality is uncharacteristic and then she says she has the SUV and Sawyer is shaking his head, even I know that she can't drive the SUV. Something is terribly wrong, when she mentions Grace and Carrick in the one sentence and I hear a groan and a muffled "ouch" I know one or both of them are in trouble too and with her. Sawyer keeps looking out around the office but is nodding and running some app on his phone.
Given what Carrick said about Jack being out of jail, I make a point of saying his name disparagingly and I hear it, a faint curse so I know that he is there and my stomach clenches in fear, I know how disgusting and dangerous he is and I can't bear the fact that Gail and possibly others are in danger.
I say that I will be there and hang up, Sawyer looks at me and says he's let Welch know, that the trackers have all been turned on for the vehicles, the phones, he then tells me that Grace's CPO was overpowered and I feel sick, Grace must be in that vehicle and I know my intuition was correct, something bad is about to happen if it hasn't already.
I decide that I am not going to tell Kay Bestie that I am leaving, I don't trust her and tell Sawyer, who takes one look at me and agrees, we leave via the stairwell as he madly communicates with Welch, his voice is strained when he says, "Ana, I can't let you go to the bank, Taylor will kill me after Mr Grey has skinned me alive."
"I have to Sawyer, I have to go. They are expecting me but surely we can use me safely to get the others back, you know, Welch knows, we can do this, the police should be able to be called and organised, what was the name of that police officer that came last time, she didn't like Jack and I'm sure she'd help."
Sawyer nods and is speaking to Welch as we reach our vehicle in the car park and I'm glad that I'd brought clothes to change into before meeting Gail to go shopping. Sawyer turns away while I quickly shimmy out of my skirt and into a pair of pants, replacing my skyscraper heels with a pair of boots and I hear Welch agree that I continue but that I am not to move out into view until he gives the go ahead and despite the massive knot in my stomach, I all but giggle when Sawyer desperately says, "I can't do it, I can't let anything happen to Ana, the Boss will have my guts for garters and rightly so."
There is a slight pause and then "Shit, if he has Gail and Grace and anything happens to them …. Ok, you give me the go ahead but I want to know that we can shoot to kill if anything happens."
I feel like throwing up but plaster on a fake smile and Sawyer looks at me and completely uncharacteristically, reaches over to squeeze my hand saying, "Nice try kiddo but you don't need to pretend to me, this shit has suddenly gotten real, real quick, you're allowed to be scared. Just know I will kill Jack if he does anything to any of you and we don't know who else he has and who he is working with, we can't get hold of Ryan at the moment so we don't know if Mia is in there as well. Kate, Elliot, Macy and Carrick are accounted for but that's it."
"You know I can shoot don't you? Can I have a gun?" I ask quietly and he shakes his head.
"I do know and I'm not allowed to give you a gun, you are just going in to distract and while he's concentrating on you and making whatever demands, the rest of the team will swing into action. I can't give you an earpiece because they'll see it, it'll be the first thing that they check for and it has to seem as if you are just happily meeting Gail. Can you do it? We can come up with a better plan if you can't, you don't have to do this. I wish we'd been able to stall them for longer than 15 minutes but it's what we've got and we'll make it work. They must be after money otherwise there's no way they'd be sitting out in the open in a bank car park, this is really weird, I hope the ladies are ok." His stream of words doesn't calm me at all as it is obvious that we are just playing this by ear.
"I'll do it." Is all I say and as we reach the parking lot I can see the SUV and Sawyer informs me that everyone is in place, Lisa Maxwell the policewoman is heading up the police team and Welch is actually in a vehicle with direct line of sight of the SUV and the plan is about to spring into action, the hairpiece tying back my hair has a tracking device and Sawyer attaches a listening device to it as well.
I can't help but arch my eyebrows at him and joke, "Baubles? Sawyer, really? You carry these around with you, do you have your hair up in pigtails often." He doesn't appreciate me joking but it's all I can do, my other option is to burst into tears as the nerves are starting to get to me.
He gives me a magnetic listening device that he attaches to my watch, instructing me to lean my wrist against the vehicle and transfer it if I can so that they have a listening device in the vehicle as well as on me.
"Go kiddo, don't do anything stupidly brave and know you have everyone backing you. Be safe please." And I can hear the plea in his voice and I know he knows that he's probably just lost his job as Christian will be so angry that they didn't come up with some other plan.
"Thank you Sawyer, tell Christian I love him." I say, hearing him groan as I jump out of the driver's seat of the car and start walking towards the SUV, trying to look for the world like I know nothing about the situation and turning on a smile as I reach the vehicle. Just as I reach the side, the door is opened and a woman I don't recognise although she looks familiar steps out and smiles at me.
Confused I smile back and she says, "Oh, I am a friend of Gail's, get in."
As I clamber in, resting my wrist against the edge of the door, I feel the gun being jabbed into my side, and at the same time I am also assailed by the smell of Jack Hyde, his hideous smell will be burned into my brain for life and the snarling voice, as he runs his hands over my body checking for equipment. "Ah Miss Steele, we meet again, this time will be the last time, I promise. Your little friend here," and he points down into the darkness of the SUV that my eyes are still acclimatising to and I can see it is an unconscious looking Gail, "Couldn't keep her mouth shut so we have even less time than we had, where is your stooge?"
"Sawyer? I don't know, he was in the bathroom when I slipped out." I lie hoping that Jack and the rest believe me, I know he'd already have left the vehicle but I don't want them going and checking.
Without any preamble Jack snarls at me, "You are going into that bank and you are going to withdraw 10 million dollars of your precious," and his lip curls, "fiance's money and you are going to do it quick otherwise one of these gets it" and I see Grace trussed and gagged, her eyes flashing angrily and I gasp.
I protest, "What have you done? Let Grace and Gail go, I can't take out that sort of money, I am not a signatory on any accounts, the only person that can sign for that sort of money is Christian and he's in Taiwan."
Then I hear that voice and every orifice tightens, "Fuck Jack, you are a fucking idiot, you had one thing to do and you fucked it up!" and a sharp slap rings through the vehicle and then she is on the phone, "Christian is overseas, this skinny bitch says she isn't a signatory….what? Oh...Ok,…..you knew?...It's arranged?... Yes…. Yes…. You'll get your share…. No you won't get to kill the bastard as he's overseas…..in Taiwan….12 hours….yes, plenty of time to get away…..Right, I'll let you know."
How did she get out of jail? Why weren't we informed? My god, whoever she was talking to was intending to kill Christian, my heart clenches in fear. "Skinny bitch, you need to get yourself in there, and you need to speak to Nicole Bestie." As I jerk my head up in surprise she says, "Yes, she's your boss's sister, she's expecting you, 10 million dollars and thankfully for all of us you'll never see us again."
I doubt it but I can't do much else but nod, someone has had this well planned and somehow I don't think they'll let Grace, Gail and I go off free into the night..or day as it were. "Don't try anything, skinny bitch, Jennifer here has no qualms about dropping you with a single bullet, the gun is silenced, you will walk next to her, you will do exactly as you are told, and you will do it quickly, do you understand?" and again I nod, I wonder who Jennifer is and why she feels so compelled to be part of this.
I can't believe that they are being so brazen, here I am in the middle of the car park of the main bank in Seattle being held hostage and about to withdraw 10 million dollars, surely there must be video surveillance. My mind is racing, surely there are some sort of controls at the bank to stop such a large transaction going through, does the bank even have that much cash? What on earth is going on that Kay Bestie and her sister are obviously complicit as well?
My head is spinning with all the questions and just as we are about to start to walk toward the bank, I am surprised even further to see a van pull up next to the SUV and Elizabeth Morgan jump out, throw the keys to Jack and casually walking over to stand on the other side of me.
"Shut your mouth or you'll catch some flies," Elizabeth sneers and I hurriedly close my mouth, shake my head and now flanked by the two women, walk into the bank wondering if I am going to wake up from an awful dream and if this isn't a dream, where and when our much vaunted security is going to make a move.
Entering the bank, Elizabeth Morgan asks for Nicole Bestie and an office is pointed out to us, I am steered in that direction without seeing anyone else and am worried as to whether security can see me and what is happening outside. I am hoping there are some police or security staff about to jump out because I don't know how much longer I can hold my nerve, if they swap Gail and Grace out of the SUV, the trackers will be gone and I am scared stiff for myself as well, every time I slow down I can feel the gun barrel in my ribs, I am sure I am going to be bruised there tomorrow, if I live.
Walking into her office I feel the same wave of anxiety and feeling of impending doom that I now realise I felt every time Kay Bestie came near me, it's like their strange surname was an ironic warning, two people who are definitely not besties to me.
"Ah, Miss Steele, nice to meet you, are you ok?" her voice is smooth and calm and I wonder how much she knows, Jennifer was the one that introduced me but didn't introduce herself or Elizabeth, somehow they all seem to know each other.
"I feel a bit unwell," I manage as I feel like I am about to be sick and I'd rather not do that and give them the satisfaction and while I expect that she'll get me a glass of water, she simply moves her trash can closer to me and I can't believe the heartlessness of this nasty web of people.
"Ooookay," I say in disgust at her total lack of empathy, taking a deep breath I ask, "I need to withdraw 10 million dollars today… in cash… is that possible?" ever mindful of the gun which is being pushed hard against my rib, I really hope that she says that it isn't possible.
This Bestie woman cocks her head and then smiles at me, "Sure, the amount is high but we've had a few hours to pull it together since you called earlier." I must show the confusion I feel but she continues as if I hadn't reacted, "Mr Grey opened an account in your name just last week and deposited 15 million dollars in it." At my gasp this time, she smiles and says, "Did you not know? He had all the right forms with your signature on it, he said it was an engagement present and he made you the sole signatory so you can withdraw that amount right away, here are the forms to withdraw."
Oh Christian, he said he was going to set up an account for me to pay for wedding expenses and played straight into their hands because without this account, they would have had to had him sign and no amount of coercion of me would have made the difference but here I am with a gun hurting my side, possibly signing away 10 million dollars, the sheer amount makes my head hurt and to know that someone has impersonated me…. If I make it out of this particular situation alive, I am sure that Christian will ensure that the bank will be changing their processes so this can never happen again.
She continues, "It will take a few minutes to process the forms but we should have it within five minutes, I will have security bring it out."
"There is no need for security, we will deal with it," Jennifer says harshly, "Just get it in here and we'll deal with it, you can help carry it out," and Nicole gulps and nods her head and leaves the room. Ha, somehow I don't think she is getting out of this alive either, these people are evil with a capital E, the thought for some reason makes me feel better.
I really hope that our security have caught the exchange and will be waiting, so I innocently ask, "Who else is in the SUV?" and watch Elizabeth's eyes go wide as Jennifer responds and says, they'd have been transferred to the van by now.
"Who are you?" I ask as it is bugging me that Jennifer looks familiar but she isn't anyone that I know.
She cackles and the sound is just like the other one and I clock the resemblance, "I am your fiancé's second," and she continues chuckling to herself as I look at her with disgust.
"What are you going to do with us?" I ask, I might as well, what have I got to lose? The security staff could do with that information and am surprised when Jennifer says that they have a jet ready and waiting but she doesn't say what their intentions for us are, I can't imagine that we are going to be left alive.
"Why are you involved Elizabeth? Why is Kay Bestie involved? Is Jack the link with all of you? What sort of hold does that scumbag have on you all?" I ask with anger rising in my voice, desperate to know why all these women are at his beck and call.
"Shut up bitch, you have one role, you've screwed up that many lives so far, you need to be gone," snarls Elizabeth and I am shocked to my core, what have I done to her?
"Shut up both of you, we're running out of time," Jennifer snaps and then quickly shuts her mouth as Nicole Bestie walks back in with an assistant carrying the four bags. I am surprised that 10 million dollars takes up that little space and with each bag weighing about 50lbs, each of us picks up a bag and we head out towards the back doors.
We reach the doors and looking out, my heart almost stops when I see that the SUV is now sitting with the doors open and appears empty while the van that Elizabeth drove is right by the exit door, with all the windows darkened, I can't see in but the engine is running and the door opens as we approach.