Chapter 21: Perfect Day?

~Jack~

“How much longer is this going to take?”

“You really do need to learn to have a little patience.”

I walk faster to keep up with this huge ass man. “But I want to take Grey down now, and that little whore he’s with.”

“You should also speak a little less crudely about women. Did your mother teach you nothing?”

“I didn’t have a mother.”

“I see. Well if it kills me, I’m going to teach you some manners.”

“Fuck that. I want some answers. You’ve told me absolutely nothing about why we’re doing this or why we’re waiting to take him out. I did everything you told me to so I think you owe me an explanation.”

That stops him in his tracks and he turns to me with an expression I can only assume is fury since I’ve never seen him express any emotion other than a complete sense of calm.

He pushes me up against a nearby building wall. “Hey! Watch—“

“Shut up! You talk entirely too much and one day your mouth is going to get you in a world of trouble. I don’t owe you a damn thing. You work for me and you will continue to do what I say. Grey isn’t an idiot, far from it. By now I’m sure he knows that you’re no longer in jail, but I doubt his knowledge extends any further than that. He’s very protective of the women he cares about and you tried to kill his current one. He won’t stop until you’re either back in jail for good, or dead. I’m counting on his obsession with you to make him make a mistake. He won’t even see me coming. It’s idiocy like impatience that causes pitfalls in even the best made plans. Now shut up and stop complaining. You’re like a spoiled child. I’ve given you everything and treated you as if you were my own son. The least you could do is show a little gratitude.” He releases me and continues to walk down the street.

I quickly follow him. “How do you know so much about him? I know you work with him, but how do you know so much about him personally?”

He was quiet for so long I thought he wouldn’t answer me and, impatience getting the better of me, I was about to ask again when he finally said, “Because he fucked my wife for six years and that bastard is going to wish he never even knew she existed.”

We finally reach his car and he climbs in the passenger side. I shrug and get in on the driver’s side and speed down the street to Bellevue.

~Christian~

“Christian, where are you taking me?” Ana’s small hands are prying at my fingers that are over her eyes. She returned to work this week and I’ve missed her terribly. I decided that Saturday would be for us. It’s late October and the weather is starting to cool but today was made for us. It’s a little under eighty degrees, the wind is blowing ever so slightly and it’s perfect for us. I have Ana in a blindfold and I am leading her to the docks of Puget Sound where my yacht is. Today is a perfect day to go sailing.

“Just hold on we’re almost there. I promise you’ll love it.”

“Do I smell saltwater? Dear God I hope we’re not back at that seafood place you took me to. As if I haven’t been sick enough as it is.” I chuckle softly so she can’t hear me. I took her to one of my favorite seafood restaurants last week. Leave it to Ana to get food poisoning. Of course, I didn’t find it funny at the time. I wanted to fire every son of a bitch that worked there and have the place shut down. I thought it was an allergic reaction at first. She was burning up with fever and I would never have forgiven myself if I had endangered her life. No, what made it funny was the death stare that she continuously gave me every time her head surfaced from the toilet. She was so adorable.

“Would you stop trying to guess? We’re here. Watch your step.” I lead her onto the boat and it rocks gently under our weight. She wobbles a bit and I know she is still guessing by the downturn of her mouth. I stand behind her and gently push her hips to make her walk forward until we’ve reached the railing and can see nothing, but water and sun.

“Christian,” she whispers, nervous now.

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I do I’m just confused.”

“Don’t be. I’d never do anything to frighten you. Relax and I’ll take the blind fold off.” After a moment I finally feel her loosen up against me. “That’s it baby,” I encourage her softly in her ear. “A little more.” Her shoulders ease down from around her ears and she leans back into my chest. As soon as she is comfortable, I take the blindfold off. I she gasps and stand back up completely straight. I laugh because I knew she’d react this way. I step back and let her take it all in. Behind me, Mac has started the yacht and gotten her underway in the water. 

“Christian this is absolutely amazing. It’s so beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful Ana. I wish I had a camera,” I mumble more to myself than her. I take my phone out and while she is staring in awe at the early afternoon sky, I snap several pictures of her from different angles. She’s radiant.

“Thank you for bringing me here Christian. This has been a perfect day.” She looks up at me with such happiness in her eyes. I lean down and kiss her on the lips softly.

“I’d give you the world Anastasia. All you have to do is ask.”

“I don’t want the world. I just want you.” That makes me so fucking happy I can barely see straight.

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you more than my own life Christian.”

“I love you too. In fact… There’s something I want to ask you.” I rub the back of my neck. I want this to be perfect. “Ana—“ I am cut off by my phone ringing in my pocket. Shit! So much for perfection. It stops and I am about to continue when the damn thing rings again. Whoever the fuck this is had better have a damn good reason for calling me right now or they’re going to be staring at the end of a very long unemployment line.

“Why don’t you answer that? I want to see the rest of your boat. You can tell me what it is when you finish.” Ana gives me a sweet smile and starts to explore.

I yank my phone out of my pocket and nearly growl, “What?!”

“Sir, it’s Taylor. I know you had very explicit instructions not to be disturbed today, but there’s been… a situation.”

“What type of situation?”

I hear Taylor sigh as if he really doesn’t want to be the one delivering this message. “You’re helicopter has been tampered with.”

“Taylor this could have waited.”

“Sir there were highly dangerous explosives found on the underside of Charlie Tango. The guard who’s usually up here was out to lunch, but he said that no one had been up here all day and when they did the daily inspection, nothing was out of place. He has still been taken in for questioning. I thought this was a very important matter and I wanted to notify you immediately. I know you had plans for it tonight, sir.”

I did have plans. I wanted to take Ana flying. She’s never been in a helicopter before, or on a damn airplane for that matter. Fuck! This night was supposed to be perfect. “Thank you Taylor. Find out everything you can. Have Barney search the security tapes for anything suspicious. Notify me immediately when you find something.”

“Yes sir,” he says and then hangs up. I rake my hands through my hair, blow out a calming breath and then I make two phone calls. The first one is to my mother.

“Hello dear!” She chirps, a little too happily in my ear.

“Mom? Are you alright?”

“Yes honey I’m fine, your father and I just have a few unexpected visitors. Did you need something?”

I decide to overlook the unexpected visitors because I have a pretty good idea who they are. “I was wondering if it would be alright if Ana and I had dinner with you and dad tonight. We could invite Mia and Elliot if you want.”

“But honey I thought tonight you were going to—“

“I was. There’s been a problem that I need to take care of and it’s caused a hitch in my plans so I can’t take her back to Escala for dinner.”

“I see. I’m sorry sweetheart. Of course you can join us for dinner tonight. We’d love to have you.”

“Thanks mom. I love you.”

She’s silent for a while and then she finally says, “Oh honey I love you too.”

Do I really not say it that often? “I have to go. Bye mom.”

“Bye,” she says a little distractedly. I hang up and dial Gail at Escala.

“Yes Mr. Grey?”

“Have the setup crew come back and clean the apartment and Ana and I will be going to my parents’ for dinner.”

“Um are you sure Mr. Grey?”

I sigh. “Yes Gail I’m sure. Please make sure it’s done before we get home.”

“Yes sir,” she says a little sadly.

“Thank you Gail. Take the night off. I can’t give Jason the night off, but I hope you can have a little ‘me time’ or whatever it is that women do.”

She laughs and says, “Thank you Mr. Grey. It’s much appreciated. Have a wonderful afternoon.”

I hang up with Gail and then go on the hunt for Ana. When I don’t see her on the deck I go down into the cabin and she’s lying on the bed on her belly with her legs kicked up and swinging back and forth playing on my iPad. She looks up and smiles. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah everything’s fine. It’s nothing I can’t take care of.”

“You look tired. Come here.” She puts the iPad on the small table next to the bed and scoots closer to the edge to give me some room. I kick my shoes off and lie down next to her. She starts to roll over to turn away from me so that we can spoon, but I catch her and pull her to me. I take her arm and drag it slowly across my stomach and I intertwine my legs with hers. We lie there, neither of us saying anything while I try to control my breathing, which, surprisingly, isn’t that difficult. This is Ana and my Ana can touch me when and wherever she likes.

“We’re having dinner at my parents’ tonight. Is that alright?”

“That sounds lovely,” she whispers sleepily. I kiss her head and close my eyes and drift off to sleep as we slowly bob up and down with the waves that rock our boat as Mac slowly steers us around Puget Sound.

~Ana~

“Hello Ana dear. It’s so good to see that you’re doing well.” I am embraced by Grace who hugs me so lightly and still so warmly.

“Thank you for having us over for dinner.”

“It’s my pleasure.” A strange look crosses her face.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes dear why don’t you go ahead and go inside. I need to speak with Christian.” I nod and walk past her to see a very pissed off-looking Carrick.

“Um… Hello Mr. Grey.”

“Please Ana, call me Carrick,” He says without actually looking at me. “Go on inside honey, we’ll be in in just a moment.” He sidesteps me to stand outside next to Grace. What the hell is going on? I walk into the house and I see Kate and Elliot sans is normal happy grin, Mia and, shockingly, Ethan are also here, coming to take a seat having just emerged from the kitchen. I am about to ask why everyone looks so pissed when the answer greets me.

“Hello, again Anastasia.”

I spin around to see Mr. Frost and Blake sitting on the couch. Mr. Frost goes to stand and then nudges Blake who seems to remember himself and also stands. “Hello Mr. Frost, Blake. What are you doing here?”

“Well we came over earlier to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Grey about a few things and we overheard Christian’s phone call about coming over for dinner. We wanted to see him so we thought we might stick around for a little while.”

“I see. Well it’s very nice to see you again,” I say and give him what I hope is a warm smile.

“Well at least someone seems to think so.”

Blake takes my hand and gives it a light squeeze. “I’m really glad to see that you’re doing better. Have you been having any nightmares?” He asks me quietly.

I open my mouth to answer when I feel a strong protective arm wrap around my waist. “No I think I chased them all away, right baby?” I look up at Christian, but he’s looking at Blake with a strange expression on his face, like he wants to be angry with him, but not give him all of his normal Christian anger. Blake releases my hand and stands tall.

“Good evening Christian. It’s nice to see you again.”

Carter stepped forward and offered his hand which Christian took after an awkward pause. “Hello son.” I jumped and let out a small surprised squeal when I heard something very close by shatter and then Carrick came around the corner.

“Dinner’s ready,” He said very shortly and walked back around the corner. Everyone grudgingly got up and followed him to the dining room. I briefly saw a curvy read head sweeping up glass in the hallway before passing by. We entered the room and Grace and Carrick had already established their seats leaving us to figure it out. By the time we were all seated I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this night wasn’t going to end well. Carrick sat at the head of the table and Grace took the seat at the other end probably to stop the impending pissing contest between Carter and Carrick. Christian chose the two seats to the right of his father for us and Mia quickly sat next to me and Ethan sat in the last seat on our side. Kate and Elliot chose the seats closest to Grace and Blake and Carter sat in the last two. The arrangement left me facing Blake, Mia facing Kate, Christian facing Carter and Carter next to Carrick. I could almost feel the shit hitting the fan.

~Jack~

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! Have you lost your mind?! I give you money and this is how you choose to spend it? I told you to have patience. You idiot! I can’t believe you paid someone to wire Grey’s chopper with C4!”

I am sitting in Linc’s dark living room, the only light coming from the low burning fire in the fireplace, being chastised like I’m a fucking child. “Isn’t this our angle anyway? To kill Grey?”

“No you dumb fuck! I never said we were going to kill him! I said we were going to destroy him.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“No it isn’t! There’s a difference! I can’t believe your level of stupidity right now. I’m so disgusted I barely want to look at you!”

“So if we aren’t going to kill him, then what are we going to do? I mean, you’ve stolen millions from this guy. It’s a bit pointless to go this far with a person and not kill them.”

He laughs, hard and loudly. “What the fuck is so funny?!”

“You are.” He gives me a cold look. “I stole from him Jack? Really? That’s funny. I don’t remember making any bank transactions, or cashing a check, or spending anyone’s money but my own. You, on the other hand have done all of those things.”

“I did them because you told me to.”

“Exactly. I played no part in your money laundering acts.”

“That’s bullshit!” I yell as I get to my feet. “I’ve had enough of this shit. I’m done.” I turn to leave when I hear a gun being cocked and I see a man step from the shadows.

“No. You’re not going anywhere and you sure as hell aren’t finished until I say you are. I own you. Without me you’re just another asshat with no plan or future and in the next couple of months your murderous obsession is going to land back in jail. You’re trying to kill one of the richest men in the world and his girlfriend. You’re looking at a lifetime in prison or worse, the death penalty. Stick with me and you’ll be free to watch Grey crash and burn and destroy himself. Take away his family, his business, and his new little love interest. Take everything he loves and you won’t have to kill him. He’ll do the job for you. But, if you leave, that man you see there will put a bullet through both of your legs and I will call the police and tell them you broke into my home and show them all the evidence that I have that you’ve been embezzling money from Grey Enterprises and trying to put it off on my company, all the while pocketing it for yourself. Now I don’t think you want to do that now do you?”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Either way it goes, I’m fucked. Once again I’ve been screwed over by another rich asshole. I blow out a breath and look at him. At least this rich asshole wants the same thing I do. Well, essentially the same. “Fine. I guess I’m staying.”

“Good boy. Now go get some rest while I try to figure out how to clean up your latest fuck up.”

I leave and go to the guest room all the while thinking about how, when this is all over, I’m going to make this smug bastard pay next.

Please Review!

~Laters Baby~

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