24

THIRTEENTH HOUR

"Baby, I've let you sleep for twenty-two more minutes already." He shook her awake after making sure that everything was prepared and checked in with Taylor. "You can sleep in the car, it's a long drive."

"Where ever the fuck we're going must be worth it, because, damn you motherfuckers have to be so precise down to minutes." She uttered the longest sentence that she was going to say before she was fully awake. Heaving a long sigh, she sat up and rubbed her eyes, failing to rub out the weariness that she was feeling.

"I did tell you that we're going to get up really early." He reminded her while tossing her the clothes he picked out for her and wrapped her in the jacket that she wore yesterday which belonged to him. He almost gave her his rowing hoody when she asked to borrow a jacket from him. With her, everything that he was used to just ceased to exist, he had never been possessive about another person before, let alone a girl but now he wanted her to wear the hoody with his name on the back, telling every fucker out there that this girl was taken by the luckiest son of a bitch.

The sky was still dark when they went out, her eye lids were still droopy and he would chortle at her conscious level from time to time whenever he saw her yawn. He knew she wanted to comment on how dark the outside looked but didn't because she was too tired. She was out the moment she got comfortable snuggling against him in the back of the SUV.

...

"Jason?"

The voice of his boss jolted him out of his focus on the empty road ahead of him, it was rare for him to use his first name, and even rarer when he sounded like he was going to start a conversation with him. In fact, it was the first time that Grey had used tone with him.

"Sir?"

"Forget about the rules for now, just answer me honestly." He requested, and Taylor could nod in acknowledgement. From the rear view mirror he could see Anastasia coddled to his side, his palm splayed on her hip possessively. "Why didn't you tell me that Ana's father is married to an ex of mine?"

Taylor's eyebrows were lifted so high in surprise that it almost looked comical. The question was asked so out of the blue that made Taylor wonder just how much did Ana tell him about herself and her life.

"With all due respect, Christian." Taylor sighed, he knew Grey was feeling out of control at this moment and was probably seeking an outlet since he didn't have the heart to wake up the girl next to him to confront her. "I'm only aware of your acquaintances in the past four years." He reminded.

"Fuck," he pulled at his hair feeling stupid for even blurting out the question, but since he had started the questioning, he wasn't going to stop until he had gotten some satisfying answer from Taylor regarding this girl next to him. He knew he should've just asked her, but hearing everything from her wasn't going to be easy, so he thought hearing it from another person might be better for his poor blood pressure. "Can you look into it?"

"I can, but personally," Taylor replied, deciding to include his own input since the Boss had started this conversation off in a friendly setting not an employer and employee setting. "I think it's better if you talk about this with Ana."

Christian sighed loudly, disappointed from the response he got but knew that Taylor was right. "Speaking of Ana," he moved onto the next subject that he wanted to get out of the way.

Taylor gulped subtly, wondering if the Boss had found out about Sawyer and her history or it was something that she had done with them during their days off.

"Do you know about her carrying permit prior to the contract?"

"Yes," he answered honestly, there was no way around it and he didn't see a reason to hide it.