A Steele Love

Prologue

Ana's POV

Sunday, May 7th, Grey Brunch

Taylor and Sawyer have both exited the car. I know Christian isn't happy to hear that his dad called the pentagon asking about me. Hell, neither am I. I must have faith that no one would rat me out. There aren't many with the security clearance to access my files anyway. I am sure we'll be fine. I'll have to call Finn and Frank otherwise.

"Christian look at me." I try and talk to him calmly, in a way that I know will ease some of his tension. When he looks at me, I place my hands on the sides of his neck, stroking his jaw with my thumbs. "Everything will be alright. Taylor and Sawyer are here and will be on the ready. I've sent Finn a standby message. Your dad might be a big deal in Washington state, but I'm a bigger deal in DC. He shouldn't have been able to find anything out. It will be alright." I place a gentle kiss to his lips and release him.

"Okay Snow White, but at the first sign of trouble, we're out of here." He knocks on the door signally we're ready to exit the car.

Walking to the front door hand in hand, Mia greets us. She's chattering away so fast that only Christian can seem to keep up. I feel him tense next to me and when we enter the sitting room I can see why. What was supposed to be a family brunch has turned into a business affair. There are three men and their wives here, along with Christian's grandparents, and two of Mia's friends, Lily included.

"Dad, I thought this was a family brunch." Christian is already on the defense, and I am not sure why. I don't think Carrick is classless enough to bring up personal matters in front of guests like this.

"Well it was supposed to be, but we won an important case this week while you and your girlfriend were galivanting around the globe. Your brother won't be here either, but your grandparents wanted to come and see Anastasia again." Okay, he's not even going to hide his sudden dislike for me. The way he said girlfriend and alluded to us traipsing around like teenagers leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. This is going south fast.

"Ana and I spent a lovely three days in the Maldives. I liked is so much I'm thinking of buying one of the islands that are for sale." Christian is ready for his father to say what he needs to say.

"Speaking of Ana, why don't you and I have a private chat. She can sit here and talk with the women while the men move to my study." Oh, no. He wants to tell him something without me being able to interject.

"Just spit it out dad. We know about the phone calls you made this week. Just tell us what you think you know." Please not in front of everyone, my cover could be blown and my career will be ruined.

"Carrick, maybe Christian and I can join you in the study and we discuss whatever it is you need me to clear up."

"I don't need you to clear anything up. I just need you to get out of my house and my son's company." What?!

"What the fuck Dad?" Christian is bristling now.

"She told you she worked for the government, it was a lie. I have the files to prove it. She's what is called a black hatter. She hacks into companies, pretends to go in and fix them, and then robs them blind. I have the reports from three companies she's worked for. Her so called government work is more like community service. She hacked a boy that filed an assault charge on her as a teenager, stole is trust fund and then planted evidence to send him to prison. Just yesterday my company was hired pro bono by him to file an appeal and get him and his family set free and get their money back." What? How can he know all this? What the hell happened? I press the panic button on my phone, Finn needs to get here now.

I listen to Carrick tell Christian all about what a dirty lying thief I am, I count the witnesses, fifteen not including Carrick, Christian and myself. There is no telling who else he has told.

Christian's fists are clenching, his father is walking toward him and then suddenly turns toward me. "And I know you set up Elena. She might have taken advantage of my son, but she's not a sex trafficker." What the hell is he talking about? Grace must see the confused look on my face, because she finally decides to speak.

"The FBI put out an alert looking for Elena. She seems to have disappeared and is wanted for a host of charges for crimes against children and human sex trafficking. We thought we knew her. I understand what we had been told before," she pauses to look at Christian, careful not to reveal the nature of what he told them, "but it is very hard to think that she was that kind of person and we never knew." Grace doesn't sound as convinced as her husband, but I can see that she wants it to not be true. I'll have to contact the FBI tomorrow and find out what is going on.

I see Carrick pick up a glass from the side table he's standing next to and down the amber liquid before he moves toward me a couple more steps. I use my phone to send an alert to Sawyer, he'll know the 3n7r, means to enter immediately. I need them to keep Christian off his father.

"You weaseled your way into my son's company with your duplicitous computer skills and your skirt. You've gotten him to buy you clothes and jewels, take you on two expensive trips already, and now you've secured the job of Chief Security Advisor. Next, you'll tell us you're pregnant with not one, but two of his babies. I'd advise a DNA a test immediately. I already have one illegitimate grandchild, I don't need another." I thought Christian would punch Carrick at that moment, but it was Grace's slap that reverberated throughout the room. At that, Mrs. Trevelyan suggested that Mia and her friends and the partners and their wives all leave. Before they could get to the door though, Carrick cemented my fate.

"You all make sure you tell everyone my son was taken to the cleaners by the Blacksmith and his father tried to warn him about it." My world as I knew it toppled in that moment. Carrick had no idea what he had just done and then Christian hit his father, dragged away by Taylor before he could do it again. We had to get Sawyer to stall the others from leaving before Finn got there.

My team arrived with six other agents, each one having a stern talk with a guest or member of Grace's staff before allowing them to leave. Didn't matter though, the damage was done. I couldn't work as the Blacksmith anymore, someone had sold me out.

A/N: I know that many of you have a few burning questions leftover from A Steele Heart. They will start getting answered when chapter 1 is published and be answered throughout the story. Just stick with me.

Thank you to everyone that was ready A Steele Heart before this. It was my first story and the response has been overwhelming. Almost everyone has been positive and I can't thank you enough for your kind words. It's what has inspired me to keep writing.

Most of you know that I have a couple other stories going right now. A Submissive Beginning and my new story Grey Vitals will be updated weekly along with A Steele Love. However, there will be no posted updates next week due to the holiday. This will be the first year my kids are able to celebrate the 4th of July with family and not on a military base, so we will be surrounded by family watching our ten and seven-year old children so more than black cats and sparklers for the first time.

I know that this isn't my usual chapter length, I had originally intended for this scene to be a flashback, but it didn't flow the way I wanted it to. So here it is a prologue instead. I'm reworking Chapter 1 and then sending it off to my beta. Whenever she finds the time to get it done this week, I will go ahead and post it, but there are no guarantees of when that will be. She is pretty amazing though and I have to give a shout out to Gate Park for the way she has worked this past week. I appreciate it. She however did not beta this chapter. I wanted to get it up so there would be no delay on the question of what happened at brunch. Ana's struggle for a new identity for herself will be a main focus in this part of the story. A Steele Love will likely be 25 chapters like its predecessor, and I have two stories planned for after as well before I'm done with this Christian and Ana's story. And before you ask, I can't tell you the titles for stories three and four, that would way to telling for the major plot points of each. The Steele Quartet won't likely end for good until the new year.

Once again, I thank you all for the encouragement. I wouldn't be writing without it. I hope to update each story once a week, whether it's a different day of the week for each story, or if you get all three stories in one day, I'm not sure yet. What do you want?

As always, I don't own FSOG, but I certainly love turning EL's Ana into one badass chick.

Until next time,

Laters.