CHAPTER 14

Elena got out of the hospital and went home with her nose in a splint. She got in her house and got comfortable dressed in her peignoir nightgown and ostrich feather fringed robe. She was pissed off looking at her face in the mirror of her bathroom. Her nose was splinted and her eyes were swelling and turning black. She went and took a pain pill with a 'scotch on the rocks'. She started drinking heavily to kill the pain and humiliation she felt at being bested by that little bitch once again.

During the night, while Elena was passed out, she never heard the sound of someone entering her house as she was passed out. The figure, all in black, did a few things, went to her computer, logged on, erased and disabled the security software on her computer before leaving. They locked the door as they exited.

—--

The following morning, Ana woke up on the couch with Christian wrapped around her like a vine. He had his arms around her whole body and his legs intertwined with hers. He was fast asleep. The morning sun was peeking through the window shining on them. She shifted and scooted up and started kissing him to wake him up. His lips started responding and he intensified the kiss.

He was in a dream at first then began to wake up. He had morning wood and was instantly turned on by her kissing him and waking up holding her body so close. Christian was moving against her body and started devouring her in his desire. Ana whispered softly breaking the kiss, "Christian wake up baby."

He said back softly, "I am wake, but I want you so very badly."

She said with her breath brushing his lips, "I know. I want you too, but not on the couch. I need to go to the bathroom." She started giggling. He smiled and was disappointed but knew she was right. He wanted to do this right the first time. He unwound himself and helped her stand up.

She looked down at him and smiled softly and said, "Let's do this after we cut ties today with Elena, baby. Then you will be free to call the FTC and I can contact the police. She will be in jail by tonight. Then I will show you how to be touched and made love to." He smiled up at her. She turned and went to the bathroom.

Christian got up and went to the bathroom and got in the shower. He dried off and got dressed in his suit. He went out to the kitchen and Ana was sitting at the kitchen bar having a cup of coffee talking to Gail. He sat down and Gail put a hot cup of coffee in front of him. He leaned over and kissed Ana as she caressed his face smiling at him.

Christian said sipping his coffee, "Anastasia, make sure to have Sawyer pick up some of your clothes today, so you'll be comfortable here."

Ana said smiling, "I'll just have him take me to my place and I'll pack a bag."

Gail asked, "What would you both like for breakfast?"

He said, "White egg omelet vegetable with toast."

Ana said smiling at Gail, "Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and a banana, please." Gail smiled, liking this girl who was respectful and got busy with their food.

He said softly to Ana, "How does your arm feel today?"

Ana said seriously, "It hurts but I expect it to. I will take a pain pill when I finally go to sleep tonight. I have to keep a clear head today. Once she is served and you're notified, let me know, so I can get the ball rolling too today." He leaned in and kissed her as Gail sat his plate in front of him.

Christian said, "I will notify you immediately, I promise, Anastasia. Keep Sawyer close."

She reached out and caressed his face, "I will and I'll be fine, baby." He started eating and Gail had Ana's breakfast placed in front of her.

—--

Elena groggily rolled out of bed hungover. She went to the bathroom and groaned looking at herself in the mirror. She slowly drug herself to the kitchen and started making a pot of coffee. She got a cup and spoon sitting it on the counter. She turned around to go to the pantry and that was when she saw it …

A sign in newspaper words cut out on a string with a dead rat hanging in a noose below it on her stairway down to her dungeon. The sign read…

"Pain is on its way today… I'd get dressed if I were you."

Elena snatched the sign and the rat tossed it into the garbage can beside her house at the side door. She ran up the stairs and threw on her clothes quickly. She didn't want to get caught in her bed clothes. She was nervous looking around her house and outside of the windows in complete paranoia. She grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on her couch wondering how they got in again. When there came a knock on the front door that made her jump.

—--

Christian got into the office and left a message for Mr Thomas to call him when he got in the office, he left a message for his head corporate lawyer to contact him also. He was ready and was going to make damn sure everyone else was too.

The phone rang and his lawyer said, "The papers are on their way with the server, Mr Grey. I will contact you once it has been officially served, sir."

Christian said, "Thank you, Richards." They hung up. Christian now knew it was all a waiting game now.

His phone rang and it was Mr Thomas, he said, "Mr Grey, I have your results that are completed."

Christian said, "Go ahead."

Mr Thomas said, "After the in house audit and the field audit combined, *he cleared his throat, ... we have a grand total of $21,412,331.45, sir. The corporate lawyers already have a record of this audit and said they prepared the paperwork for you on their end."

Christian said seriously, "Thank you for a timely and through job, Mr Thomas at completing this task. I'll have it documented in your file for your next performance review. Good day." Christian hung up and notated Mr Thomas' employee HR file in his laptop. He sat back with his finger crooked on his lower lip thinking.

He thought pensively, 'She dipped seven million more out of my pocket. Twenty one and a half million dollars in six years. That over three million a fucking year. The hole gets deeper every time I turn around.'

—--

Elena crept up to the door and asked through it, "Who is it?!"

The man said, "Mr Rizzo from Devon Park Services." She cracked open the door and saw a man standing there in a fresh pressed suit with an envelope in his hand. She opened the door wider. He handed her an envelope and she automatically took it.

He said, "You have been served." He turned and walked away to his car.

Elena said, "What?! What's this about?!" He ignored her and got in his car putting on his sunglasses and drove off.

Elena closed and locked the door. She sat down on the couch and opened the envelope. It was a complete separation of her business from Christian. He gifted the shares to her, removed all backing and called in all loans to the banks that she would be responsible for paying back. She was completely on her own. She smiled because she knew she made a great deal of money off of him to supply herself. Then she remembered the burglary and ran to her computer and logged in to her offshore account. She couldn't login no matter what she tried. She tried to change the password but when she called support they said there was no longer an account and that it had been transferred and closed by her. She argued and tried to talk to supervisors but it was gone.

She got enraged and started breaking things. The insurance company on her two BDSM clubs said the company would not pay but 25% on the one club for allowing smoking on the premises when the contract clearly had told her that it would pay 100% if a non-smoking establishment. The faulty wiring fire in the one club was an inspection problem. She didn't have the club inspection done by a reputable company and they would not pay for her negligence. The clubs were at a loss and the one 25% check for $210,344.55 was in the mail. The loans totaled $6,144,920.34.

Elena knew that her personal checking of $243,117.34, savings $2,321,556.90 and her business account of $432,899.07 were not enough to pay off the six million dollar loans. She wondered what the hell happened to her offshore account of twenty seven million dollars?

Elena called Christian and called…. and called….

—--

Christian got notified of the paperwork being served and called Ana to tell her. He got off the phone with her and then called the FTC to report the embezzlement and had his lawyers fax the paperwork to the FTC. He faxed back the filed and signed paperwork to them. Once that was all accomplished, he could concentrate on his own company. His phone rang and it was Elena, he blocked her number. He told Andrea that he was not taking calls from Elena Lincoln at all because she is no longer in the company. He also notified security and had them watching the lobby.

—--

Ana got a call from Delmar telling her about last night's warning to Elena. Ana laughed thinking of the look on her face when she saw the dead rat. She thanked him for putting a smile on her face today.

When Christian called telling her the papers were served, Ana got busy on her computer doing things one handed and one fingered. She set up Delmar to have one of his guys anonymously courier over a package envelope to the DA at

King County Courthouse

516 Third Avenue, W400, Seattle, WA 98104

She had everything wiped and the scrubbed thumb drive with a note inside saying…

"This was anonymously discovered and submitted to you on the goings in the city of Seattle by salon and spa owner, Mrs Elena Lincoln, 9125 Lake Washington Blvd NE, Bellevue, WA 98004. She is practicing pedophilia on underage children (thumb drive included). A set of business books of prostitution racketeering and human trafficking (book included in her own handwriting). Please treat this vile person with extreme prejudice. When you watch the thumb drive, think of your own children."

Ana gave the package to Miguel, a good friend of hers and Delmar's. He was a fifty two year old man from her elite group of many friends that were 100% trusted.

She said handing him a rubber glove, "Hey Miguel, Gracias por hacer esto por mí y por todos los niños que tocó. Debería llevarla bajo la cárcel para no volver a ver la luz del día. (Thank you for doing this for me and all the children she touched. It should take her down under the jail to not see the light of day again.)"

Miguel said, "De nada, hermanita. Otra escoria de las calles. Cuida a los niños después, pequeña.

(Your welcome, little sister. Another scum off the streets. Take care of the children after, little one.)" She hugged him, smiling as he kissed her on the forehead and waved and he left on the elevator.

Sawyer said, "Is that it?"

Ana sighed and said, "At the moment. Let's eat lunch, Sawyer, before we head to my place."

He said smiling, "I could go for that." Ana swept her arm out towards the kitchen and bowed, making him chuckle. They went into the kitchen and Ana put Sawyer to work with her making them lunch. Gail was with Reynolds at the store. They had fresh salads with lemon Dijon mustard vinaigrette dressing with olive oil, roasted red pepper, roasted tomato with pesto, chicken and mozzarella grilled panini sandwiches.

Sawyer was chewing and chomping while moaning. When they finished eating, he said, "You were right, these sandwiches are good even if they take a little longer to make."

Ana said, "I wouldn't lead you wrong when it comes to food. I take food very seriously. I spent a month in a flea hole prison they threw women in Kabul, Afghanistan once. I damn near starved to death and came home with malnutrition, dehydration, skin infections and fucking dysentery, but I got the job done. I promised myself to eat healthy and well for the rest of my life after that." Sawyer listened because he had served in Afghanistan too and knew of the type of prisons she spoke of. It was like out of a goddamn nightmare of hell what they did to those women in there.

He said seriously, "I can understand that under those conditions and to survive is a miracle."

She looked at him and said, "No shit fucking brutal when you have to kill to eat. Twenty eight days of that was too much for me and I considered myself tough. Never fucking again, but I killed my target, saved my informants and completed my mission before that happened. One less big bad mother fucker in the world to eliminate in the human gene pool. The escape from there was pretty fucking bloody though. Took me a little bit of therapy to get over that mission. What saved me was my dad, he taught me how to compartmentalize my mind in extreme situations. I thought of a box in my mind of benign things I don't mind sharing and surrounding the rest in titanium. I would go there to the titanium box when necessary for my own mental protection." Sawyer could respect someone surviving a place like that. He had buddies cracking under pressure of seeing the horrors in the bombings, murders, gore and killing over there. He had found a new respect for Ana. She had seen the same shit he had and survived it.

He said, trying to change the subject, "If you make it. I will eat it, deal?" Sawyer stuck his hand out and she shook it.

Ana said, nudging him, "I make killer Greek, Italian and Arabic dishes and more. I'll have to make you chicken or lamb shawarma sandwiches next time with real labneh (yogurt), fresh hummus and pickled lift (pink turnips), lemon, thyme and roasted creamed garlic. I wrap it in a real pita bread and toast it like a panini. Their food is amazing in the Mediterranean. It is a crossover in similarity of the region with some subtle cultural differences. I love the healthy freshness of it all over there and the olive oil. I met many wonderful people in that region that saved my life and I saved some of theirs."

Sawyer said, "I didn't realize you were active in the field."

Ana said seriously, "I was everywhere. I was a kid and could blend in unthreatening. I was proud of what I accomplished. They didn't want me to leave, but when daddy died, I had enough. I not only went on missions but did intelligence too. I better shut it now or I'll cross a line." Sawyer nodded.

She stood up and said, "Let's go to my place and I'll pack up my crap to bring it here. Christian cannot keep me here unless I get to go to work on Monday to start my new job as planned."

Sawyer chuckled and said, "God save him if he tried." Ana laughed. They got ready and went to her apartment.

They walked in and Ana stopped dead and took hold of Sawyer's arm. She pulled out her 9 mm and snapped in the mag. She put her finger to her lip for silence. Sawyer had his gun out too. She pointed one direction to him to go and he nodded. They went room by room until she got to her study. She opened the door and saw someone bent over going through her filing cabinet.

Ana slammed open the door and said, "Raise both your hands or you're dead." The person froze and stood up straight with their hands up. The person slowly turned around.

Sawyer came up behind her and said, "The rest of the apartment is clear. I locked the door." Ana nodded and walked further in the room.

Ana said with authority, "Sawyer, check on the balcony for rappel ropes." He nodded and left to look.

He came back and said, "Yep, ballsy fucker coming in that way. You're gonna need a new sliding glass door that was cut." Ana still had the guy in a kill shot between the eyes.

She said smirking, "Don't worry, he had a lift up there to rappel down balconies on a grapple. Keep him in the kill shot, Sawyer. If he moves, kill him."

Ana went into the other room and called Delmar. She said, "Del, I have a home invasion here… He grappled from the roof of the tower… Yep, Christian's guy, Sawyer, has him in his sights at the moment… Hurry, if I have to get physical I'm winged with stitches… Ok, see you in five." She hung up and called the concierge to allow Delmar up with his friends. Ana went back into the room.

Ana said, putting the gun up in the kill shot and said, "It's going to be a party fellas. Just gonna wait for the decorations to come. Sawyer got any cable ties?" He said yes, started binding the guy behind the back and patted him down removing a knife and two guns. Ana took the guns and knife.

Ana said growling, "Put him on his ass in the middle of the floor. Who sent you? I have nothing. I was cleaned out of any valuable information long ago. I haven't kept files of information with me since I left service. What the fuck could you possibly want in my shit that's of value?" The guy sat there just looking at her with his blue eyes and blonde hair.

Ana said smirking, "Let's play a game. I ask you a question and you actually talk in response." She got on the floor with the gun in her pants behind him. Sawyer had the gun on the guy. She grabbed his crotch and pressed on his pressure point by his femoral artery and squeezed. The guy screamed.

Ana said in his ear, "Who sent you?" She squeezed and he screamed again.

Ana said, "The next one is harder. Who. Sent. You?" She pinched down harder and the guy blood curdling screams again.

Ana said, "One more time and then I do dick nerve damage. Who sent you?" The guy screamed like he was being murdered.

Ana said, "This one will take you to the moon with dick damage. Who sent you?"

The guy shouted in a Russian accent, "Mikal Denisovich. He wanted to know what information you might have on Nikolai Smirnov's business dealings from back six years ago."

Ana said laughing, "You have been played or Mikal Denisovich has. I haven't seen Nikolai Smirnov in… seven years or more. He has had plenty of time to get into other shit I have no idea about." There was a loud knocking at her door. Ana got up and opened it to Delmar and three other men. They came in and closed and locked the door. She showed him to her study.

Ana said to Delmar, "Mikal Denisovich wanted to know what information I had on Nikolai Smirnov's business dealings back six years ago. I told this guy I haven't laid eyes on Nikolai in over seven years."

Del said to Ana, "Have you been doing your pinching torture again to get him to talk?"

She blushed and said, "Yeah. It works so well."

Del said, shaming her, "Yeah but you have destroyed so many dicks doing that."

Ana said, shrugging, "At least I get what I want in the end." Del shook his head and the other three guys laughed.

Delmar and his men collected everything the guy had from Ana's apartment and took it with him with the guy in tow.

When they left, Sawyer asked, "Ana, if you're not active, why do you have a handler?"

Ana shrugged. Sawyer knew he wasn't going to get an answer to that question. She called for a glass door to be replaced. Management said they had one in storage and would just come replace it quickly in a half hour.

Ana started to round up stuff and pull out suitcases and dress bags to put it all in. Sawyer went to clear out her refrigerator of food. She promised him two dozen stuffed chocolate chocolate chip cookies. He tasted two cookies and started packing up stuff in reusable shopping bags she had happily. He even snuck a pastry she had in seal containers in her refrigerator. He decided to definitely never turn away food from her.

—--

They went back to Christian's apartment with bags of stuff and Gail was standing in the living room with the big screen TV on the news. Sawyer had Reynolds go down with him to grab more stuff.

Ana walked over to where Gail was standing watching. Gail said, "It's about damn time that horrible woman got hers."

The clip was cut to the end with Elena being pulled fighting an screaming from her house screaming, "That little fucking bitch did this to me!" She screamed it over and over again kicking and biting. They had to restrain her to get her in the vehicle. Gail kept flicking to each local station to see it again and again smiling the whole time.

Ana said, "They moved on it quick. I didn't expect it this fast but glad they did."

Gail looked over at her and asked, "You did this?" Ana smirked and raised her eyebrows a few times at Gail. Gail started laughing and went back to watching the scene giggling. She said, staring at the TV, "Way to go, Ana." Ana patted her shoulder and pulled her suitcase with the others to one place in the vestibule.

When Sawyer and Reynolds got all of her stuff up, Gail and Ana started putting away the food and stuff. Sawyer had a brown bag walking to the security office. Reynolds asked, "Hey man, what's in the bag?"

Sawyer said, "The best fucking chocolate chip cookie ever stuffed with chocolate inside."

Reynolds asked, "Hey, can I have one?"

Sawyer said slyly, "What will ya give me for it?" The door closed.