Protecting You - Complete

Chapter 32 - Ana

I woke up Friday morning wrapped in Christian's arms. After dinner the night before, Christian had disappeared with Carrick, no doubt to discuss what may happen with Elena. I'd expected him to be anxious when he came to bed. Instead, he was playful. He mentioned the apartment and ideas he had of making some adjustments, so it was more our space. We also considered becoming more public about our relationship once I started at Grey Publishing. And as we crawled into bed, we'd talked about my request to see his playroom.

That had led to a frank and honest discussion about what I liked sexually, so far, Christian making a range of suggestions that intrigued me. I'd never be a true submissive, but that didn't mean I was unwilling to play. As I'd explained, I had a man with an entire room dedicated to sex—it seemed wasteful not to at least try things out!

Now, watching Christian sleep, I asked the universe to bring good news his way today. After everything that bitch did to him, he deserved it.

On the dot of 8:00 am, his phone rang. Reaching over him, I grabbed it from his bedside, disconnecting the charging cable, and answered it. The screen announced it as Taylor calling, so I didn't think Christian would mind.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Ms. Steele, is Mr. Grey available?" Taylor sounded relaxed enough, so hopefully not bad news.

"Just a minute," I said, watching as Christian's eyes opened. Giving him a moment to sit upright in bed, pulling the duvet up to cover himself, I passed him his phone, mouthing 'Taylor.'

"How did it go?" Christian asked, referring to the searches of the salons the night before. As he leaned back against the bedhead and flicked his cell onto speaker, placing it onto the duvet, he held his arm up for me to cuddle into his side, which I did.

"Well, sir. Better than well, actually. While there were no lifestyle materials at the salons, when we inspected her desk at the Pike Market salon, we found details of three untraceable offshore bank accounts. Stupid bitch had the account numbers and passwords written on a post-it note stuck to the underside of the desk in her top drawer."

"What's the balance?" Christian asked, playing with my hair.

"Two of them were transfer accounts. She was using them to shift funds from America. Looking at the dates, she'd then wire the money to the third account. That one had just over two million in it."

"You don't say?" Christian said, a lazy smile spreading across his lips. "It would be unfortunate if..."

"Like I said. Had. And numbers and passwords have disappeared."

"Completely untraceable?"

"No. It was actioned via Mrs. Lincoln's laptop. Turns out her Wi-Fi works from halfway down the block. The laptop's been deep cleaned and 'returned' to her outside deck. When it's found, there's nothing relating to you on there."

Christian chuckled. "Genius! And the FBI?"

"Will be at her home in an hour."

"Please make sure you record it for me. In fact, call back with live video. This, I am going to want to see!"

"Shall do, sir," Taylor said, disconnecting the call with nothing further.

As soon as the call ended, Christian was all over me, kissing and laughing. Returning his kisses, I waited for his amusement to subside.

"I only understood about half of that," I admitted, grateful it seemed like good news. Pulling me to sit on his lap, incidentally one of my favorite places in the world, Christian explained.