Fifty Shades Trilogy 03 - Fifty Shades Freed

help with the bags and two security guards to supervise. If you could follow me?”
    “I have one more favor to ask you.”
    “By all means, Mrs. Grey.”
    Two minutes later my entourage and I are out on the street, heading over to the Dodge. Its windows are blacked out, and I can’t tell who’s at the wheel. But as we approach, the driver’s door swings open, and a woman clad in black with a black cap pulled low over her face climbs gracefully out of the car. Elizabeth! She moves to the rear of the SUV and opens the trunk. The two young bank clerks carrying the money sling the heavy bags into the back.
    “Mrs. Grey.” She has the nerve to smile as if we are off on a friendly jaunt.
    “Elizabeth.” My greeting is arctic. “Nice to see you outside work.”
    Mr. Whelan clears this throat.
    “Well, it’s been an interesting afternoon, Mrs. Grey,” he says. And I am forced to observe the social niceties of shaking his hand and thanking him while my mind reels. Elizabeth? What the hell? Why is she mixed up with Jack? Whelan and his team disappear back into the bank, leaving me alone with the head of personnel at SIP who’s involved in kidnapping, extortion, and very possibly other felonies. Why?
    Elizabeth opens the rear passenger door and ushers me in.
    “Your phone, Mrs. Grey?” she asks, watching me warily. I hand it to her, and she tosses it into a nearby trashcan.
    “That will throw the dogs off the scent,” she says smugly.
    Who is this woman? Elizabeth slams my door shut and climbs into the driver’s seat. I glance anxiously behind me as she pulls out into the traffic, going east. Sawyer is nowhere to be seen.
    “Elizabeth, you have the money. Call Jack. Tell him to let Mia go.”
    “I think he wants to thank you in person.”
    Shit! I glare at her stonily in the rearview mirror.
    She pales and an anxious scowl mars her otherwise lovely face.
    “Why are you doing this, Elizabeth? I thought you didn’t like Jack.”
    She glances at me again briefly in the mirror, and I see a fleeting look of pain in her eyes.
    “Ana, we’ll get along just fine if you keep your mouth shut.”
    “But you can’t do this. This is so wrong.”
    “Quiet,” she says, but I sense her unease.
    “Does he have some kind of hold on you?” I ask. Her eyes shoot to mine and she slams on the brakes, throwing me forward so hard I hit my face against the headrest of the front seat.
    “I said be quiet,” she snarls. “And I suggest you put on your seatbelt.”
    And in that moment I know that he does. Something so awful that she’s prepared to do this for him. I wonder briefly what that could be. Theft from the company? Something from her private life? Something sexual? I shudder at the thought. Christian said that none of Jack’s PAs would talk. Perhaps it’s the same story with all of them. That’s why he wanted to fuck me, too. Bile rises in my throat with revulsion at the thought.
    Elizabeth heads away from downtown Seattle and up into the hills to the east. Before long we’re driving through residential streets. I catch sight of one of the street signs: South Irving Street . She takes a sharp left onto a deserted street with a dilapidated children’s playground on one side and a large concrete parking lot flanked by a row of squat, empty brick buildings on the other. Elizabeth pulls into the parking lot and stops outside the last of the brick units.
    She turns to me. “Showtime,” she murmurs.
    My scalp prickles as fear and adrenaline course through my body.
    “You don’t have to do this,” I whisper back. Her mouth flattens into a grim line, and she climbs out of the car .
    This is for Mia. This is for Mia. I quickly pray, Please let her be okay, please let her be okay.
    “Get out,” Elizabeth snaps, yanking the rear passenger door open.
    Shit. As I clamber out, my legs are shaking so hard I wonder if I can stand. The cool late-afternoon breeze carries the scent of the coming fall and the chalky, dusty smell of derelict buildings.
    “Well, lookee here.” Jack emerges from a small, boarded-up doorway on the left of the building. His hair is short. He’s removed his earrings and he’s wearing a suit. A suit? He ambles toward me, oozing arrogance and hate. My heart rate spikes.
    “Where’s Mia?” I stammer, my mouth so dry I can hardly form the words.
    “First things first, bitch,” Jack sneers, coming to a halt in front of me. I can practically taste his contempt. “The money?”
    Elizabeth