"Ana... Ana wake up," I hear Christian's sweet voice coming from someplace within the room.
Squeezing the pillow tighter, I moan exhausted. We've been going at it all night and my body demands more than an hour to recover from my last orgasm. Grabbing the covers, Christian pulls them off me, making me shiver.
"Christian, I'm exhausted. I can't go at it again, give me another hour," I say as I pull the cover up.
"I wish that were the reason I was waking you up, but something has come up and we need to get to the airport."
My eyes open immediately at the sound of urgency in his voice. "Wait, what's going on?" I ask.
"I'll explain in the car, here get dressed." Passing me my jeans and a plain black t-shirt, I grab them and begin to get dressed.
My brain is racing with multiple scenarios. I haven't heard from Gail; is Jacob okay? What was going on that had Christian so worried? I need to know.
"Wait, we need to pack," I say as if it's the most important thing right now.
"It's already been taken care of." He tells me and hands me a sweater. "Here put this on, it's cold outside."
"Christian you're scaring me. I demand to know what's going on."
"There's been a fire at your apartment."
I stand still trying to take in what he just told me. A fire?
"I will answer your questions, but the sooner we get out of here, the better."
I nod, find my shoes and quickly put them on. I take off after Christian.
~.~.~.
"What do you mean there has been a fire? What happened?" I ask as we get inside the black SUV and make our way to the airport.
"I don't know much right now, Taylor called an hour ago."
I panic. Is this why Gail hasn't gotten back to me? I make a decent attempt to keep my tears back. "Is Jacob alright?" I ask terrified.
"Yes, Jacob and Gail are okay." Christian places his hand on top of mine on an attempt to calm me down. "Hunter got them out before it got bad."
Hearing that calms me down a bit, and confuses me why was Hunter there to begin with. "Hold up, what was Hunter doing there?" I ask.
"I presume he was there to see you," Christian says with resentment in his voice.
"Oh god, is he okay?"
"Yes, Ana he's okay. Would it matter if he weren't? "
"Of course it would," I shout, "This is not the time to be jealous Christian."
"I'm sorry you're right, but I just hate that guy," He tells me giving me a weak smile.
"I know you do, but after everything that has happened between us do not see you're the one I want."
"Ana-"
"Stop. This is not the time to talk about this," I cut him off mid-sentence not wanting to talk about that right now. "So everything is okay, right... Aside from not having a place to live now."
"No... Things are a lot more complicated than that. When the cops showed up to investigate, they began to take everyone's information... Ana they took Jacob."
"No... Wait... what they took him?" I am full on panicking now.
"Ana, he's a 13-year old runaway, they show him as a missing child."
"Please tell me, I will get him back." Looking into his eyes, I pray that this is all a dream.
"I don't know Ana, but I will try my hardest to get him back, I promise you that."
"This can't be happening..." I shout, breathing hard.
"Relax Ana, you're pale. Breath baby, everything will be okay."
How can he say that, Jacob has been taken away from me? I want to be with him right now, he must be so frightened not knowing what the hell is going on. I tilt my head back and close my eyes. I need to think for a minute. What's going to happen now? Will they place him into the system again? No, I can't let him go back in there. I hate that were so far away right now. I'm full on sobbing; I need to try and figure out a way we can fix this.
~.~.~.
The flight home felt ten times longer than it probably was. I can't wait to get off this plane and down to the police station. I want to know where they had taken Jacob. I was sure they would hand him back to me. We had a stable home and he was as safe as he could be with me.
The apartment had burned down while I'd been away and now we didn't have a place to live. However, deep inside my heart I hoped this would work out in our favor.
"Eva will meet us down at the police station."
"Eva?" I ask.
"Elliot's wife, she's a great lawyer. She will help us see what we can do about Jacob."
"Thank you." That's all I can manage to say, I was thankful when Christian doesn't push me to talk more.
As soon as we were given the okay, we unbuckled our seat belts and headed off the plane. Taylor waited for us as he stood beside the black SUV. I am walking ahead of Christian. I don't care to wait for Taylor to open the door for me. I quickly get inside the car. Christian follows right behind me and in a matter of seconds we're driving away from the airport.
Taking two steps at the time, I rush inside the police headquarters needing to know what was going on. My eyes catch Hunter sitting in the waiting area. Without thinking twice, I rush over to him hoping he has some answers.
"Hunter." He stands up as he sees me.
"Ana." I draw him into an embrace, thankful for what he has done for Jacob. He held me tighter. His clothes were dirty and his hair was pulled into a ponytail. The sweet smell of Hunter invades my senses and flashbacks of what we used to have come rushing back.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine," He says as he pushes a string of my hair to the back of my ear. This causes me step back as I remember that Christian is behind me.
"What are you still doing here? And why were you at my apartment?" I ask.
"They been questioning me like crazy. Apart from Gail and Jacob, I was the only one who saw everything".
"And I wanted to see you, I wanted to return this to you." In his hand is the beautiful necklace my adopted mother had given me before she had passed away. I thought I lost it, but he had it all along.
"Where did you find it?" I ask reaching for it.
"You left it behind the night we broke up. You ran out so fast, you didn't even notice when it fell off."
"Thank you. I thought I'd lost it."
"Here let me." Hunter takes it and I turn around. I'm now facing Christian.
Our eyes meet and I know he's furious. "Thank you, I should go see what's going on with Jacob." Taking Christian's hand I squeeze to reassure him that he's the one I want.
When we are a few feet away from Hunter when I turn around and face Christian, "I'm sorry about that. You ought to know that Hunter doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Thank you for not overreacting, I know you don't like him."
"Ana we'll discuss this later... let's go see what's going on with Jacob" I make a decent attempt to disregard his lukewarm reaction as I head toward the reception area.
"What do you mean you can't tell us anything?" I shout to the woman standing behind the desk.
"Ma'am please watch your tone with me. As I said, a detective will be out to speak with you shortly, please have a seat."
Rolling my eyes, I go to the waiting area. "Can you believe she won't tell us where they have him?"
"We'll just have to wait and see what this detective says," Christian tells me.
"I really want to know how this fire started, do you know where Gail is right now?"
"She's at the hospital. She had a hard time breathing, but she seems to be okay now. They are keeping her for the night just in case."
"Can we go see her later?" I ask.
"Yes, as soon as were done here we can go see her."
"Miss steele?" The woman's voice stands out just enough to be noticed and I turn around quickly.
"Yes." I look up at the incredibly tall brunette with really green eyes who's wearing a grey pantsuit. "I'm Miss Steele," I add.
Her eyes take in Christian and I fight the urge to pull him closer. I roll my eyes trying to push back the annoyance.
"Detective Johnson," She says and put her hand out for Christian to shake. How rude, she totally disregarded me.
"When can we see Jacob?" I ask attempting to break her staring at Christian.
"Unfortunately you won't be able to see him right now. He's in the process of being placed at a temporary orphanage while we arrange a foster home for him."
"No. He can stay with us, we're his family," I say.
"Miss Steele, you're lucky you're not being charged for kidnapping as you have known where he's been for quite some time. " Looking through her yellow folder she says, "How old are you Miss Steele?"
I want to scream at her, what does it matter how old I am. "Twenty-one."
"You're too young to take care of Jacob, you need to think about what's best for him. "Turning a page she says, "Is there someone who would want to harm you?"
Yes, actually there is one person, but I can't tell her without having to tell her everything, "No. Not that I know of. Why?"
"The fire at the apartment wasn't an accident. Someone purposely set the fire. "
I reach for the chair as I feel my legs are ready to give out. Someone did this on purpose? Christian grabs my arm to help me sit down. Did Blake do this? Had he seen me at a party and now he was out for revenge? Oh god, will he ever leave me alone?
"Miss Steele, are you okay?"
Before I am able to answer, my vision gets blurry and I am having a hard time catching my breath. I try to stand; Christian quickly grabbing me is the last thing I remember as I slump over.
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