by James, E L
“Okay. I’ll report back when I’ve heard from my contact.”
“Great. Thanks.”
I check my e-mails. There’s one from Sam letting me know that he’s been inundated with press inquiries about last night. I respond, telling him to send all inquiries to the King County PD press office.
Taylor enters. “Good morning, sir.”
“Did you get some sleep?”
He blows out a breath. “A few hours. Enough.”
“Good. We have a great deal to cover.”
He pulls up a chair and we run through my to-do list.
“…and, finally, get a carpenter to fix the door.”
“Will do. Briefing at ten with the entire team. I’ll let them know,” Taylor says.
“Please.”
“Sawyer and Ryan are in their racks. I’m assuming they’re still asleep. Prescott is sifting through the CCTV from last night to find out how Hyde got into the building.”
“Good.”
“Sir,” he says, in a way that gets my immediate attention.
“Yes?”
“I’m grateful we came home last night. Maybe you have a sixth sense or something.”
I’m taken aback. “Taylor, I was just mad at my wife.”
His sudden smile is wry and world weary. “Happens to us all, sir.”
I nod, but his words are not reassuring; he’s divorced.
Don’t go there, Grey.
“Thank God Ana and Gail are safe,” I add, as I get up. I’m hungry for my breakfast.
“Yes, sir.” He follows me out of the study.
“I’ve made you an omelet,” Gail says to me, and she gives us both a huge smile.
Maybe Taylor and Gail will tie the knot.
Who knows?
Ignoring them, I take a seat at the kitchen counter, and once Taylor has left the room I ask Gail if Ana ate. “She did, Mr. Grey. An omelet, too.”
“Good.”
As if I’ve conjured her by mentioning her name, Ana appears in the doorway wearing her jacket.
“You’re going?” I ask in disbelief.
“To work? Yes, of course.” She moves closer. “Christian, we’ve hardly been back a week. I have to go to work.”
“But—” I rake my hand through my hair, feeling anxious.
What about yesterday? Hyde! The kidnapping!
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Gail leave the kitchen. “I know we have a great deal to talk about,” Ana continues. “Perhaps if you’ve calmed down, we can do it this evening.”
“Calmed down?” I whisper and I’m immediately incandescent again. This woman is pressing every single button I have this morning.
She flushes, embarrassed. “You know what I mean.”
“No, Anastasia, I don’t know what you mean.”
“I don’t want to fight. I was coming to ask you if I could take my car.”
“No. You can’t,” I snap.
“Okay,” she says, quietly.
And just like that all the wind is out of my sails, and I’m no longer mad, just tired. I was expecting a battle. “Prescott will accompany you.” My tone is softer.
“Okay,” she says, and she steps toward me again.
Ana. What are you doing? She leans up and kisses me, sweetly, at the corner of my mouth. As her lips press against my skin, I close my eyes, savoring her touch. I don’t deserve this.
I don’t deserve her.
“Don’t hate me,” she whispers.
I grab her hand. “I don’t hate you.” Ana, I could never hate you.
“You haven’t kissed me,” she whispers.
“I know.” But I want to.
Damn, Grey. Carpe diem.
Standing abruptly, I grasp her face between my hands and raise her mouth to mine. Her lips part in surprise and I pounce, pushing my tongue into her mouth, tasting and testing her.
She tastes of heaven, and better times and minty toothpaste.
Ana. I love you.
You. Just. Drive. Me. Crazy.
I release her before she can properly respond. I know she’ll never get to work if I don’t back away. I’m breathing harder. “Taylor will take you and Prescott to SIP.” I fight to recover my composure and dampen my desire.
Ana blinks at me, her breathing labored, too.
“Taylor!” I call.
“Sir.” Taylor is standing in the doorway.
“Tell Prescott Mrs. Grey is going to work. Can you drive them, please?”
“Certainly.” Taylor turns on his heel and disappears.
Feeling more myself, I look back at Ana. “If you could try to stay out of trouble today, I would appreciate it,” I mutter.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Her eyes shine with amusement, and it’s impossible not to respond.
“I’ll see you later, then,” I reply.
“Laters,” she whispers, and leaves with Taylor and Prescott in tow.
After breakfast I head back into my study and call Andrea. I tell her I’ll be working from home, as I wasn’t planning to be in the office anyway. She puts me through to Sam and we have a tedious discussion about “owning the message” with regard to Hyde’s break-in.
“No, we don’t, Sam, not in this instance.”
“But—” he protests.
“No buts. This is a police matter. All press inquiries about this incident to them. End of discussion.”
He sighs. Sam is such a publicity whore. “Very well, Mr. Grey.” He sounds sullen, but I don’t care. I hang up and call my dad to tell him about Hyde. We agree to keep up the security for the next week just in case.
“Will you tell Mom?”
“Yes, son. You take care.”
“Will do.”
I hang up and my phone buzzes with a text from Elliot.
ELLIOT
Yo Bro! You ok? Hyde! Fuck!
He’s brief and to the point, as ever. He must have seen the news, or Ana’s told Kate. I call to fill him in on events, and we agree to meet up over the weekend. He wants to talk about something, but not over the phone.
“Whatever, dude,” I say. “And by the way, your girlfriend has been leading my wife astray. She should have been here in the panic room—instead, she was out getting drunk with Katherine.”
“Katherine, eh?”
“Kate.” I roll my eyes. “Whatever.”
“And you’re telling me this why?”
“I don’t know, dude, just sharing my thoughts.”
Elliot sighs. “You’ll have to take it up with her.”
Oh. Have they split up? What does that mean?
He continues before I can ask any questions. “This guy who follows me around. Do I still need him?”
“Let’s see what happens with Hyde over the next few days.”
“Okay, hotshot. It’s your money.”
“Laters, Elliot.”
Ryan and Sawyer give Taylor and me a full debrief. I can’t decide if Ryan is a hero or an idiot for letting Hyde into the apartment. His face is pretty battered, and he has a cut over one eye after their “altercation.” Judging from his bruised face, he must have had quite the skirmish with our intruder. He says he only let Hyde in because Ana wasn’t here. I glance at Taylor, whose mouth is set in a grim line. Ryan put Gail at risk, panic room or not.
The good news is that Prescott, before she left this morning, located the CCTV footage of Hyde arriving in the basement garage. His van is still down there.
I ask Sawyer to let Detective Clark know.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that all?” Taylor asks Ryan and Sawyer.
“Yes, sir,” they say in unison.
“Thank you. For everything,” I tell them. “I’m grateful you caught the bastard, Ryan.”
>
“I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction knowing I brought the guy down.”
“Let’s hope the police charge him,” I add.
Ryan and Sawyer leave.
“I have a carpenter arriving in about half an hour to repair the broken door,” Taylor informs me.
“Good. I’m going to scour what was on Hyde’s computer to see if I can find any further clues as to what could be behind all this.”
“Sir, we have a potential problem,” Taylor says.
“What?”
“Technically, Ryan did grant Hyde access to the apartment.”
I pale. “Only under unique circumstances. And Hyde was armed.”
“True. But it’s something to bear in mind when speaking with the cops.”
“Yes. Agreed. Talk to Ryan.”
“Will do.”
“Taylor, take the night off. Gail, too. In fact, all of you.”
“Mr. Grey—”
“You had a very late night and little sleep, as did Sawyer and Prescott, watching my wife last night.”
Taylor looks grim. “I’d like to leave Ryan on lookout. He’s in no fit state to go out.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you, sir.” Taylor nods and exits while I turn my attention to my computer. Specifically, the files that Barney recovered from Hyde’s hard drive.
At 10:45 I stop combing through his creepy, obsessive collection of all things Grey, and log on to WebEx. Vanessa is online, too, and we start our conference with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s a brief and convivial chat, and GEH is co-opted onto a task force that will examine the issue of conflict minerals in tech.
When we hang up with the SEC, Vanessa informs me that she’s located Sebastian Miller, the truck driver who rescued Ros and me when Charlie Tango went down. She’s introduced him to our logistics team and he’ll shortly become an affiliate with the haulage contractor that GEH uses.
“That’s great news.”
“Mr. Grey, he was stunned to get the call.”
“I bet. Thanks for tracking him down.”
When that’s over I call Senator Blandino.
Our conversation is short and we resolve to have lunch next time she’s in Seattle.
Taylor is standing in the doorway when I finish the call.
“Yes?”
“Detective Clark is here, sir.”
“Show him in.”
Detective Clark has a firm handshake and a curmudgeonly, hangdog appearance. “Mr. Grey, thank you for seeing me.”
“Please sit.” I direct him to the chair in front of my desk.
“Thank you. I was hoping to get a brief history of your dealings with Jackson Hyde.”
“Of course.” I explain that I own SIP, and that Ana used to work for him, until he was fired, and all the circumstances around that, including my run-in with him at SIP.
“You assaulted him?” Clark’s eyebrows are raised.
“I taught him some manners. He attacked my wife.”
“I see.”
“If you check his employment history, he has a track record of being fired for assaulting his female colleagues.”
“Hmm… You think he’s behind the GEH arson attempt?”
“I do. We have the CCTV from Grey House.”
“Yes. I’ve seen it. And thank you for the CCTV from the garage. The forensic team have been examining the van.”
“Did they find anything?”
“This.” He pulls out a plastic evidence bag. In it is a note. He shows it to me so I can read the note through the bag. It’s scrawled in black Sharpie:
Grey, Do you know who I am?
Because I know who you are, Baby Bird.
I look at the words blankly.
What a weird note.
“Do you know what this means?” Clark asks.
I shake my head. “No idea.”
He slides it back into the inside breast pocket of his jacket.
“I have some more questions for Mrs. Grey. How is she?”
“She’s good. She’s remarkably tough.”
“Hmm… Is she here?”
“She’s at work. You could phone her.”
“I see. I prefer a more hands-on approach. I’d like to talk to her again, face-to-face,” Clark grunts.
“I’m sure I can make that happen. Given the intense press interest in my wife and me, I would request that you go to her office.”
“I can do that.” He nods and sits quietly while I send a quick e-mail to Hannah to see when Ana might be free.
“Hyde had a gun. Does he have a license for it?”
“We’re checking.”
“Have you spoken with the FBI team investigating the sabotage of my helicopter?”
“We’ve been in touch.”
“Good. I suspect he might be behind that, too.”
“Hmm… He does seem a little obsessed.”
“A little.” I tell him about Hyde’s computer hard drive, and all the information he had accumulated about my family.
Clark frowns. “Interesting. Can we have access to that?”
“By all means. I’ll ask my IT people to send it to you.”
My computer pings, announcing a response from Hannah.
“My wife is free at three this afternoon at her office.”
“Excellent. Well, I won’t keep you, Mr. Grey.”
He stands, as do I. “I’m relieved you have him. And hopefully he’ll stay behind bars for a long time.”
Clark’s smile is menacing, and I suspect he’s thinking the same. “Great view you have from up here,” he says.
“Thank you.”
Taylor shows him out and I compose an e-mail.
From: Christian Grey
Subject: Statement
Date: August 26 2011 13:04
To: Anastasia Grey
Anastasia
Detective Clark will be visiting your office today at 3 p.m. to take your statement.
I have insisted that he should come to you, as I don’t want you going to the police station.
Christian Grey
CEO, Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc.
I go back to searching through the contents of Hyde’s computer. An e-mail arrives from Ana.
From: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Statement
Date: August 26 2011 13:12
To: Christian Grey
Okay.
A x
Anastasia Grey
Editor, SIP
At least I get a kiss.
I open up Hyde’s files once more. He has a great deal about Carrick in one of the files. Why is he so interested in my dad? I don’t get it.
Notification of an e-mail from Ana pops up on my screen.
From: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Your Flight
Date: August 26 2011 13:24
To: Christian Grey
What time did you decide to come back to Seattle yesterday?
Anastasia Grey
Editor, SIP
The kiss is missing. I respond.
From: Christian Grey
Subject: Your Flight
Date: August 26 2011 13:26
To: Anastasia Grey
Why?
Christian Grey
CEO, Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc.
From: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Your Flight
Date: August 26 2011 13:29
To: Christian Grey
Call it curiosity.
Anastasia Grey
Editor, SIP
What is she trying to find out? I send a glib answer.
From: Christian Grey
Subject: Your Flight
To: Anastasia Grey
Curiosity killed the cat.
Christian Grey
CEO, Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc.
From: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Huh?
Date: August 26 2011 13:35
To: Christian Grey
What is that oblique reference to? Another threat?
You know where I am going with this, don’t you?
Did you decide to return because I went out for a drink with my friend after you asked me not to, or did you return because a madman was in your apartment?
Anastasia Grey
Editor, SIP
Hell. I stare at the screen, uncertain what to say. It wasn’t a threat.
Jesus.
She knows I came back before I knew about Hyde. If she doesn’t, she hasn’t done the time-zone math.
What can I say?
I’m staring blankly out of the window when Mrs. Jones knocks on my office door.
“Would you like some lunch?”
“Yeah. Sure. Thank you, Gail.”
“Very good, Mr. Grey.” With a polite smile she leaves me with my thoughts. I’m still trying to think of something to respond to Ana, when I hear the ping of a new message arriving from my iMac.
From: Anastasia Grey
Subject: Here’s the Thing…
Date: August 26 2011 13:56
To: Christian Grey
I will take your silence as an admission that you did indeed return to Seattle because I CHANGED MY MIND. I am an adult female and went for a drink with my friend. I did not understand the security ramifications of CHANGING MY MIND because YOU NEVER TELL ME ANYTHING. I found out from Kate that security has, in fact, been stepped up for all the Greys, not just us. I think you generally overreact where my safety is concerned, and I understand why, but you’re like the boy crying wolf.
I never have a clue about what is a real concern or merely something that is perceived as a concern by you. I had two of the security detail with me. I thought both Kate and I would be safe. Fact is, we were safer in that bar than at the apartment. Had I been FULLY INFORMED of the situation, I would have taken a different course of action.
I understand your concerns are something to do with material that was on Jack’s computer here—or so Kate believes. Do you know how annoying it is to find out my best friend knows more about what’s going on with you than I do? And I am your WIFE. So are you going to tell me? Or will you continue to treat me like a child, guaranteeing that I continue to behave like one?