Alex's POV

"Alex, you gotta come look at this."

I looked up from the infant sleeping on my chest as Nick burst through the door.

"What is it? Have they found her?"

His face was grim.

"Not exactly but your father has sent a message. It's bad."

I quickly stood and quickly but gently laid Elijah down in his crib so that he could finish his nap uninterrupted and grabbed the baby monitor on my way out.

"What'd he say?"

Nick sighed deeply before he spoke. He looked almost as if it pained him to think about it.

"It's not what he said it's what he did."

That did nothing to either comfort me or answer my question to my satisfaction.

The scene that greeted me in the living room was grim, to say the least.

"What happened?"

The agent that I'd chewed out earlier walked forward with an envelope in his hand.

"Your father's sent a message, he has her."

I took the envelope from the agent, it was thicker than I'd thought it would be.

"So what, did he write a fucking dissertation or something?"

I pulled out what felt like a stack of photos and my eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Not exactly." The agent spoke.

I could feel it in my bones that I wasn't going to like what I saw once I flipped the stack over but needs must I guess.

My stomach rolled as my eyes took in the first photo. It was a close up of Anna's face. Her eye was swollen shut and her face was badly bruised and littered with little cuts, her lip split.

There was more of the same throughout the next few pictures but from wider angles. She was tied to a chair in what looked to be a warehouse from the limited bit of the surroundings that I could see. I flipped through two more pictures with the hope that I could better see the place she was being held in. But the final picture in the stack made me stop breathing and my hands shake. The position she was in was so familiar, making me sick to my stomach as I came to several realizations at once.

She was lying on the floor curled in on herself, it looked as if her c-section scar had come open in some places and the blood had seeped through her shirt, almost a callback to the photo I'd seen of her from when she was younger, covered in blood and heavily pregnant, curled in on herself.

I fought back nausea as I processed the fact that this could only mean one thing. My father had apparently gotten the help of her husband and I knew that that made the situation that much more dire. I was unsure if my father would actually kill her but I didn't believe that her husband would be so restrained in his actions toward her.

I turned to the agent.

"He's not working alone."

"I beg your pardon?"

I took a deep breath in an attempt to stamp down nausea.

"Her husband, ex-husband. He's working with my father."

The agent seemed reluctant to believe me.

"What would her ex-husband want with her?"

"He's been after her for nearly a year and before now he's been abusing her since she was a teenager. This picture."

I waved the picture I still held in my hand.

"He took one just like it years ago, he liked to take pictures of her after he'd assaulted her. It's him."

"Mr. Rush, I need more than just your word that her ex-husband is involved in this and with any abuse in the past."

I swallowed hard. I knew what needed to be done, she would hate it but it needed to be done.

"Anna told me about an email that he used to store pictures that he took of her, I can show you."

The agent nodded.

"I'll be glad to look at any evidence you have Mr. Rush."

"Follow me, my computer is in my office."

Everyone in the room seemed to move at once.

"No, just him."

My family and friends looked surprised.

"Listen, I know all of you care for her but she wouldn't want you to see her like this. It's...brutal to say the very least and she hasn't even spoken to me about it so just for her sake I can't let you see this."

My mother nodded in understanding.

"Well, if you say she won't want us to see it, then we won't just do what you must to help her."

I nodded stiffly and motioned to the agent to follow me.

I closed the door behind the agent and moved over to my desk.

"I want to warn you, these images are brutal so if you can't handle it you need to send in someone that can."

"With all due respect Mr. Rush, I'm the lead on this operation, I've seen some dark things, I can handle it."

I huffed as I logged into the email.

"If you say so."

**

The agent couldn't handle it.

"I've never seen such carnage before."

"Now you see why it's imperative that we find her."

He nodded solemnly.

"I'll do what I can."

That wasn't a promising statement.

I stayed behind in the office once the agent left with a flash drive full of the photos pulled from the email account. I was letting that agent walk away with information that Anna had shown me in confidence, to be used only if necessary in her divorce proceedings but the situation had changed drastically. Her life was in more danger now than it had been over the last year because now he had her, He had a years worth of anger to unleash on her while she was in such a physically vulnerable state.

I had given the agent explicit instructions that the contents of that flash drive were to be revealed only under necessary conditions and that upon the closing of this case, they wold be immediately destroyed.

I sighed and sat heavily on the office chair.

I was exhausted. There were too many things going on at once. Anna was in an unknown location being tortured by my father and the man that I'd promised to keep her safe from. My house had fallen into complete and utter chaos. There were FBI agents and cops crawling all over the place, my friends and family were constantly present, and Elijah, none the wiser to the absolute dire situation we were facing still needed to be tended to. I felt like I was floating above my body like I was watching the events going on around me but not like I was experiencing them. But even feeling like this, I knew that I had to hold it together. For her. I could rest once she was home.

Anna's POV

I was in pain.

Correction. I was in a ton of fucking pain.

My face hurt, my legs hurt, everything just hurt.

I was alone in the room, no longer strapped to the chair and I hadn't been for a few days now. I wasn't quite sure how long I'd been here but I could tell that John and Alex's father were losing patience with one another. I didn't really know what the endgame was here. I knew why Alex's dad hated me but I don't know what he planned to do with me. I guess he could be using me to blackmail Alex to make certain decisions within the business but even if he accomplishes that I don't know what he would do with me once that happened. I suppose he'd hand me off to John, let him take me away, and do whatever he wants to me.

I didn't know what they had planned for me but I did know that I needed to find a way out. I knew Alex would try his best but I needed to get myself out of this. I was injured but not as bad as I thought. My main concern was the large amount of blood soaking my shirt a few stitches had been ripped out while I was being tossed around but the wound had only opened about half an inch so I thought that I would be okay for a little while.

I managed to roll over onto my hands and knees, almost falling back down with the stabbing pain radiating from my abdomen but I pushed on until I was able to stand if I used the wall for balance.

The room was empty, save for the chair I had been tied to. There was nothing that I could use as a weapon nor was there anything that I could use to climb up to the windows. All I needed is something, anything that would help me get out of here or at the very least something to defend myself with.

Just then the door slammed back into the wall with a loud bang.

It was Alex's father.

"I see you've found your footing girl."

I just stared as he walked over to where I was still leaning against the wall.

He was about an inch away when he stopped and spoke again.

"You know, I think I can see what my son sees in you."

He reached out a hand and gently stroked my bruised and swollen cheek.

"Yes, I see what he sees in you. Pretty, submissive."

His eyes raked down my body.

"I'm sure once you're cleaned up you'd be truly stunning."

The gentle stroking turned into a firm but surprisingly not painful grip on my neck.

The silence dragged for a moment before he spoke again.

His voice was low, guttural maybe even an attempt at seduction. Regardless, I was deeply uncomfortable and afraid. I didn't know how far he was willing to go with this, kidnapping aside he hadn't been much of an active participant in hurting me. Sure, he was more than willing to slap me around when he was particularly frustrated that day but for the most part, he left me in John's hands. He was an unknown factor and I've learned that when dealing with men, abusive men, in particular, the unknown was something to be feared.

"Your husband says I can have a go with you. I'm thinking of taking him up on that offer. See what all the fuss is about."

I swallowed hard.

I would die before I let another man hurt me that way. It was a constant pain that I was forced to endure for far too long I had been free of that pain for nearly a year and I refused to live through it any longer.

"But not today, you stink. Maybe once you get clean I'll do you a favor and bend you over, show you what a real man can do."

He once again raked his eyes down my body before he released my neck and turned away.

As he left the room, John quickly filled the space, a slimy smile on his face.

"It's just me and you this week Annie. We can reminisce on old times."

Shit.