Trigger Warning - violence
Authors Note: a polite notice for anyone reading, this next chapter contains some mild violence. I would like to add at this point that there were ill be no rape or sexual assault of any kind in this story. There will be violence as well as physical and emotional abuse towards Ana.
Approximately 12 months ago
I shouldn't have come to work today, it's pointless me being here, I can't concentrate on anything. Christian had emailed me this morning to let me know he had business to attend to in Portland, we still haven't spoken since I blew up at him for seeing Elena. I pick my phone up to check for any mail but find there's nothing, I'd usually have a email letting me know he arrived there safely. My eyes prickle with tears and I quickly blink to try and keep them at bay, I hate fighting with Christian but I refuse to back down, I have let Christian know enough times how I feel about that woman but yet again he chose to disregard it, like my feelings mean nothing to him. There's a knock on my office door and I take a deep breath before inviting whoever knocked in.
"Hi Ana, I'm just about to phone a lunch order into the deli down the road, can I get you anything?" Hannah, my assistant asks me.
"You know what, that sounds great, I'll have a salmon and crème cheese bagel please." She nods at me before retreating from the office, closing the door behind her. I open the laptop on my desk and quickly check if it's safe to eat salmon whilst pregnant before answering a few emails, ten minutes pass before there's another knock on my door.
"Come in." I say as I close the laptop. The door opens and Hannah steps in my office before shutting the door quickly behind her. I look up at her and resist the urge to laugh loudly when I take in her appearance. The cream shirt she arrived in this morning is now splattered with black, she looks like she just finished sweeping chimneys. The black has splattered over her face and there are lines around her eyes where she's obviously squeezed her eyes shut.
"What.." I start to say but have to clear my throat as a giggle starts to escape. "What happened?" I manage to ask before erupting into a fit of giggles, it feels so good to laugh.
"It's not funny Ana." She says with a pout, which just sets me off laughing again. "The printer jammed on me and as I tried to pull my paper out it just spewed all this toner at me. What am I gunna do." She asks whilst wiping at her shirt. I manage to calm down enough to answer her.
"Stop doing that first of all," I say to her. "You'll just make it worse. Why don't you use your dinner hour to run home and change, and maybe shower." I add. Hannah lifts her fingers up to her face before pulling her hand back and groaning loudly.
"But what about your lunch, it's ready to be picked up from the deli." She says and I raise my hand to dismiss her.
"It's fine I'll send Sawyer to grab it, now go before that stuff starts to stain your face." A look of panic fills her face and she turns and rushes out of the door. I giggle to myself again before grabbing the phone from my desk, I ring the IT department and ask someone to come and take a look at the printer before grabbing my blackberry and ringing Sawyer. When there's no answer I grab some money from my purse and make my way towards reception to see if he's there. After a quick glance round I see no sign of Sawyer, I decide to just nip to the deli myself, it's only down the road and I'll be back before anyone even notices I've gone. I leave through the main entrance and head right down the street. It's not that busy on the sidewalk which isn't so unusual, SIP isn't located on a main road and aside from the deli and a small shop the only other buildings are offices. As I step off the curb to cross a small road that leads into an alley I feel someone grab my arm, I'm swung around and feel a hand hold onto the back of my head, I can see a wall coming up fast to my face and pain explodes across my forehead before everything turns black.
I groan as I slowly start to come to, my head is throbbing and my whole body feels stiff. I open my eyes slowly, blinking a few times to try and rid the darkness before I realise that the reason I can't see anything is because it's so dark. I slowly sit up, groaning as I go, before looking around, I try to find any source of light but quickly find none, there's nothing but pitch black in every direction. I take a few deep breaths and will myself not to panic. I try to remember what happened, I remember walking to the deli and I remember someone grabbing me, I think hard and try to see if I managed to glimpse a face before blacking out but all I see is the wall and darkness. I raise my hand and gently push my fingers over my forehead, I wince as my fingertips make contact with a sizeable lump protruding from my hairline. I place my hands on the floor and touch what feels like cold concrete, I push my arms out as far as I can in either direction but find nothing but the concrete floor. I decide against getting up and walking round in fear that I'll injure myself in the dark room. Instead I pull my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them and proceed to think things through. I've obviously been taken by someone but for what reason, money maybe, I could be being held to ransom. I try to think about who could possibly want to do this, Jack Hyde is still in police custody, maybe someone with a grudge against Christian. I give up trying to guess as I realise I know very little about the threats in Christian's life, not that he would tell me anyway. Scanning through his emails the other night let me know there is a lot Christian keeps from me when it comes to security.
I sit there long enough for my behind to go numb before I hear the sounds of footsteps, there's the scraping of metal and light floods the room. The light is blinding after spending so long in the dark and I squeeze my eyes shut before slowly blinking against the bright light, as my eyes adjust I look over to the source of the light and find a large man standing in a small doorway. I try to look past him but see nothing but a concrete wall, the light coming from behind him seems to be too white to be daylight so I assume it's an electrical light of some sort. The man starts walking towards me and I instinctively cower away from him, scooting backwards until my back collides with something hard. The man comes to a stop in front of me and drops something on the floor, it collides with the floor with such a loud clatter that it makes me jump. I don't take my eyes of the man until he turns to walk back out the door. I look down at what was dropped on the floor and see a plastic plate containing a sandwich with a bottle of water lay next to it. I look up in time to see a large metal door being swung shut before the room is plunged into darkness again.
I sit there for a long time before I give in to my thirst and open the bottle of water, I hadn't wanted to touch anything I had been given, with no way of knowing whether it had been laced with anything I didn't want to take my chances, eventually my mouth became painfully dry and I found myself reaching for the bottle of water. I could hear the sound of the seal breaking as I opened it in the dark and took that as a good sign that it hadn't been tampered with. I had almost drank half the bottle before I stopped myself, with no way of knowing how long I'm going to be in here and when I was next going to receive any water I decided I'd better reserve what water I have. As I sit there I start to think about Christian, I have no idea how much time has passed and I wonder if he knows I'm missing yet, surely Sawyer has rang him to let him know I didn't return from lunch. I panic slightly when I realise that I never let anyone know where I was going, I'd told Hannah I'd send Sawyer to pick up the lunch order but I never found Sawyer to tell him. Surely they must have protocols in place for when something like this happens. My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of scraping metal and I close my eyes to protect them from the blinding light. As I slowly open my eyes I see the same man making his way towards me, again I try to back away from him but I'm still pressed against the wall so I press my legs tight against my chest and try to make myself as small as possible. The man stops just in front of me before bending over and grabbing hold of my arm, his hands seem huge and they easily wrap around the top of my arm and he pulls hard, wrenching me to my feet, he then proceeds to drag me from the room.
"Where are you taking me?" I ask and though I try to keep the fear out of my voice to come across as though I'm not scared I fail miserably, my voice trembles and comes out as nothing more than a whisper. I receive no answer and proceed to be dragged out of the dark room into the bright corridor, I'm then dragged down a corridor which contains four metal doors all of which are identical to each other. I quickly glance around hoping to see some form of escape but there are no windows and no way of knowing if any of the doors lead outside. At the end of the corridor the man reaches forward and opens the last door and I quickly glance behind me and notice some stairs leading up before I'm pulled forward then pushed into the room, I stumble forward slightly and the sound of the door slamming shut makes me jump slightly, I spin round and see that I have been left alone in the room. I turn around and see that I'm in a small bathroom, there's a toilet and a sink but no windows and no door other than the one I just came in through. I glance around looking to see if there's anything I could use as a weapon, the man holding me looks immensely strong and could no doubt easily restrain me with one hand but I'm hoping if I can stun him slightly I can make a run for it towards the stairs, I'm hoping they lead up and out of this place. I may not be strong but I'm a lot smaller than the guy and I'm hoping I can outrun him. There's nothing in the small bathroom that screams weapon, there's not even a mirror to smash, the only loose item is the roll of toilet paper sat on the back of the toilet. I walk over to the toilet and see that the lid of the water tank can be removed. I remove the toilet paper and slowly lift the lid off, it's very heavy in my hands but I can lift it above my head and bring it down fast, hopefully hard enough to knock the man out. I slip my heels off and kick them to the side of the toilet and move to stand next to door, I stand so that I'll be hidden when the door is opened. After a few minutes I hear footsteps stop outside the door and see the door handle being lowered, I raise the heavy lid above my head, I take a deep breath and hold it as I wait to put my plan into effect. The man takes a couple of steps into the bathroom and I don't hesitate to bring the lid down as hard as I can. It makes an awful sound as it collides with the back of his head but I don't wait to see what effect it has on him, I throw the lid to the side and hear it smash against the wall before I take off running out of the room. I sprint down the corridor keeping my eyes trained on my the pathway so I don't trip on anything and as I hit the stairs I take them two at a time, I make it about eight steps up when someone grabs hold of my ankle. I fall forward and smash my chin on the concrete step and pain radiates through my jaw. I turn round and see the man with a firm hold on my foot. I move my other foot up and bring it down on his face as fast and hard as I can, my foot collides with his face a fourth time and I hear as well as feel a sickening crunch, the man screams in agony and releases his hold on my foot. I quickly scramble to get myself upright and continue up the stairs. There's another flight of stairs that lead of to the left and I make my way up them, at the top I can see another metal door similar to the others and I throw myself at it. I try the handle and push and pull for all my worth but it doesn't budge.
"Help!" I scream, as I start to bang on the door. "Please somebody help me." I pound my fist on the door trying to make as much noise as possible. A small chuckle from behind me causes me to spin round, I press my back against the door as I see the man round the corner.
"Well that was dramatic." He says as he comes to a stop in front of me. There's a small amount of blood coming from his nose, which is now twice the size it was before, and his eyes have started to swell making it look as if he's leering at me.
"What do you want?" I ask as tears start to stream down my face. I watch as the man brings his hands in front of him and slowly makes a fist, he stares down at his hand for a bit and I start to wonder if maybe I injured his hand, when so quick that I almost miss it, his fist flies towards my face and pain explodes from my nose and my head slams back and bounces off the metal door. My head spins and I close my eyes as I will myself not to pass out, I groan loudly as I bring my hands up towards my face and instinctively go to cradle my nose but the when my hands make contact pain erupts all over my face.
"Just returning the favour." I hear him say, I open my eyes and see him standing there with a smirk on his face, he reaches out towards me and I instantly cower backwards, this makes him chuckle. He grabs the top of my arm with a tight grip and drags me down the stairs. Blood has now started to pour from my nose and my hands being there are doing very little the stem the flow of blood. When we reach the bottom of the stairs we turn into the first room and the man pushes me forward, I stumble slightly before righting myself and turn round to face the door.
"If you pull anything like that again I will not hesitate to kill you, do you understand?" He says to me and the calmness in his voice sends shivers down my spine. I nod slightly in answer.
"Do you?" He screams at me causing me to jump, the look on his face is terrifying.
"Y-yes." I answer whilst hiccuping on the cries stuck in my throat. He walks backwards out of the room and slams the door shut leaving me in darkness once again, my legs give way beneath me and I sink to the floor and let the tears flow freely down my face in the dark room. My whole face aches and the telltale signs of a headache are beginning to make themselves known. Very gently I lay my head down on the concrete floor and bring my knees up to my chest, my eyes refuse to stay open and by some miracle I manage to slip into a restless slumber.
Christian's PoV
I reach up and loosen my tie and unbutton the top of my shirt, I glance down at my phone once again in hopes of seeing a reply but there's nothing. I had emailed Ana this morning letting her know I had business in Portland but I have yet to hear from her, it shouldn't surprise me, I've been a dick to her, she has every right to be angry with me. I hate fighting with Ana and I know now that this is all down to me, I behaved appallingly when she told me she was pregnant. I was in shock, who wouldn't be, children is not something I had planned for anytime soon. It took me a lot longer than I am proud to admit to realise that this is just as much as shock for Ana as well, I should have been there for her when she so obviously needed me but instead I ran off leaving her alone whilst I behaved like a child, hiding away at work. I am interrupted from my thoughts as I hear Taylor calling my name, I look up and meet his gaze in the rear view mirror.
"Mr Grey, have you heard from Mrs Grey at all today?" He asks. I shake my head as I answer.
"No, why, is something wrong?" I ask, my mind instantly thinking the worse. Taylor ignores me and resumes talking into his earpiece, I can barely hear what he's saying though I pick up snippets like check the building and ring Kate. "Taylor what the hell is going on." I'm on full panic mode now, something must have happened. Taylor lifts his hand up to his ear, ending the phone call, I don't miss the fact that we have sped up slightly.
"Sir, that was sawyer, he says he is unable to locate Mrs Grey."
"What the fuck do you mean unable to locate. Where the fuck is she?" I yell at him.
"We're trying to find that out sir, she's not in her office and her assistant is also not at her desk, we were thinking they may have had lunch plans but Hannah is not answering her phone and Mrs Grey's phone is still in her office along with her purse." I growl under my breath, if Ana has left without her security detail once again there is going to be hell to pay.
"How the hell did Sawyer not see them leave?" I growl at Taylor. I'm now feeling antsy, it seems to be taking forever to get to SIP, the scenarios that are currently running through my head are not helping the situation, each seems to end up with Ana leaving me for what I've put her through.
"Sir we believe they may have left whilst Sawyer was on a bathroom break." He looks at me briefly though the mirror before focusing back on the road. I grip the seat as we fly through the streets of Seattle, I'm now thankful I flew back from Portland as soon as my meeting finished, I'd have been going out of my mind if this had happened whilst I was so far away.
"Sawyer." I glance up as I hear Taylor speaking and realise Sawyer has called him back, I lean forward, sitting on the edge of my seat as this will somehow help me hear what Swayer's saying through Taylor's earpiece. "And did she mention anything else?" He asks. "Okay ETA is around seven minutes, depending on traffic." He reaches up and cuts off the call, he doesn't wait for me to ask before briefing me on the call. "Hannah has just returned from lunch, alone." He adds and any elation I felt is instantly gone.
"Well then where the hell is my wife?" I yell, I am now furious, why the hell would she leave without telling Sawyer and why would she leave her phone. A very apparent reason is glaring me in the face but I quickly shove those thoughts to the back of my mind.
"Sir Hannah went home for her lunch hour, she says Mrs Grey was still in her office when she left."
"Just get me to SIP fast." I say to him.
As we pull up outside the building I throw my door open before the car has even stopped. I throw one of the main double doors open and storm straight through the lobby, ignoring the greeting I receive from someone at reception, I walk straight through the open office glancing briefly at Ana's PA before I open the door to Ana's office. Inside I find the office empty, part of me was hoping Ana would be sat behind the desk, mildly annoyed at the interruption to her day, but the only indication that Ana has been here today is her bag placed on the desk with her phone beside it. I walk over to her desk and pick the phone up, I check her call log and see she rang Sawyer almost an hour ago, there are no other calls and no messages in or out that would help reveal where she's gone.
"Get Hannah in here." I say to Taylor who is currently standing in the doorway, he turns round and leaves the office and I take this time to glance round, nothing seems to be out of place. Taylor returns with Hannah following closely behind. "Do you know where Ana is?" I ask her, trying to keep the obvious panic out of my voice.
"No Mr Grey, I'm sorry but as I told Mr Sawyer, Ana was here, in her office, when I left." She says.
"Did she mention any lunch plans, whether she was meeting anyone." I ask, as Ana's assistant she should know of any meetings or plans Ana may have had.
"No Mr Grey, she had nothing planned, in fact I had ordered her lunch from the deli down the road, I was suppose to pick it up but I had to run home and change after a mishap with a printer. Ana said she was going to send Sawyer to pick up her lunch for her. Is Ana okay?" She asks at the end, concern lacing every word of her question.
"Yes everything's fine Hannah, you can go now." I tell her and dismiss her with a wave of my hand, she leaves the room and Taylor joins me.
"Get Sawyer in here now." I bark at Taylor, as he leaves the office I take a seat at Ana's desk and open her laptop, it opens on her email program and I skim through them to see if there's anything in them that might indicate where she's gone. I find nothing but work emails and the email I sent this morning, I slam the laptop closed and place my head in my hands. I try to tell myself that she wouldn't just leave me, not without telling me but there's a part of me that believes this is nothing less than I deserve. The office door opens and I look up to see Sawyer walk through the door followed closely by Taylor, Sawyer's wise enough to not say anything to me, he must know I'm ready to tear into him for losing sight of Ana.
"Ana phoned you, about an hour ago, did you answer?" I ask him wondering why he wouldn't tell Taylor he'd spoken to her.
"No, I missed the call, I was using the bathroom and when I saw the missed call I came here to see what she wanted but she wasn't here. I checked the building inside and out but there are no signs anywhere." His eyes shift all over my face as he tries to avoid eye contact with me.
"Hannah said Ana was going to ask you to pick up her lunch order from the deli, did you." I ask him.
"No sir, this is the first I'm hearing of it."
"Taylor, go to the deli, check to see if the order was picked up." He turns and walks out the room with a slight nod to acknowledge that he heard me. I breathe in deeply, I can only hope Ana decided to pick up the food herself, maybe she decided to eat in and she's sat there now, blissfully unaware of the hell she's currently putting me through.
"I'm sorry sir." I can hear the remorse in Sawyers voice as he says this but my anger is clouding my better judgement and the last thing I want to hear is him apologising for not doing his job.
"Don't, just don't." I say to him with the anger very clear in my voice, I stand up and lean forward placing my hands flat on the desk. "I pay you to do one thing Sawyer, one fucking thing, and that is to watch my wife. So where is she Sawyer, how was she able to leave this building without your knowledge, I pay you well enough to ensure my wife is within your sights at all times." I'm yelling by the time I finish but I don't have it in me to care, he should be grateful I'm only yelling at him. "You better hope Ana is at that deli." I hiss at him, the unspoken threat evident in my voice. I sit back down and grab my phone from inside my jacket pocket, I dial the number for Welch and wait for him to pick up.
"Welch." I say as he answers. "I need you to get me the security footage from the last ninety minutes at Grey Publishing." I rush out before he can say anything.
"Yes sir, any particular area you're interested in or do you need the whole building?" He asks me and I can already hear him tapping away on a keyboard through the phone.
"Just the main office and the lobby should be fine, send it over to Ana's email, I've got access to her laptop."
"No problem I'll get right on that."
"And Welch, I need these files as of five minutes ago."
"Do I ever disappoint Mr Grey." He says with a slight chuckle but I'm in no mood for his humour, I hang up the phone and open Ana's laptop once again and wait for Welch's email to come through.
Taylor arrives before the email does and a firm shake of his head tells me all I need to know, Ana is not at the deli.
"Fuck." I shout out in frustration as I bang my fist against the desk.
"No one turned up to collect the food order sir, but Hannah's story adds up, she placed an order of two sandwiches to be collected." I glare at Sawyer, a part of me knows I shouldn't really blame him, he can't help going bathroom but I am so mad that I can't see reason and right now he is the sole reason I don't know where Ana is. The ping of a new email saves me from ripping into Sawyer and I pull my glare from him to glance down at the screen. I click on the email from Welch and open both attachments. I place the two windows side by side so I am now looking at the main office and the lobby from ninety minutes ago. The camera in the main office is located just above the door from the reception and is angled towards Ana's office, I can see the whole office including Hannah's desk. I watch as Hannah gets up from her desk and knocks on Ana's door, she pops her head inside for a brief minute before coming back out and shutting the door, Hannah then goes back to her desk and makes a quick phone call before walking out of the cameras range. I fast forward the video slightly and resume normal speed as I watch Hannah come back onto the screen walking quickly towards Ana's office, she appears to be covered in a black substance and I can only deduce that this is a result of the printer mishap Hannah mentioned earlier. I watch Hannah knock on the door before entering quickly and slamming the door behind her. I find myself cursing under my breath at the fact that I did not have a security camera installed in Ana's office, I had deliberated doing so but the thought of how Ana would react if she'd found out I was even thinking of doing such a thing had put me off. I fast forward the video again and watch at high speed as Hannah leaves the office, grabs her bag and leaves the building. I slow the video down once again as I watch Ana leave her office, my breath catches in my throat as I watch her on the small screen. Even on the low resolution image she looks radiant, I didn't get to see her this morning, choosing instead to rush off to work to avoid another confrontation with her. She's wearing a navy blue fitted dress with sleeves that stop at the elbow and a pair of heeled pumps. I watch as she walks through the office into the lobby, when she gets there she glances round before making her way over to the double doors and out on to the street, I can see through the glass that she heads to the right, towards the direction of the deli. Where the hell did she go then.
"I want you both outside now, I want you to look everywhere from here to the deli, I want some sort of clue as to where she went when she left this building." They both leave without a word and I find myself rewinding the security footage and watching it just see Ana again.
I would personally like to thank everyone that leaves a review, I wish I could personally thank you all individually but I have chapters to write to keep you all happy. With this being my first ever story constructive criticism is more than welcome, I would love to know how I can improve, other than updating more frequently. The story will now be set approximately 12 months before Ana and Christian met up again and follow on, hopefully telling the whole story of where Ana has been.
Thanks for reading