Empires Fall (MidKnight Blue Book 2) Read online

  “You too, love,” he replied, giving her an equally serious look. It was obvious he was still worried about her.

  ****

  When Rick pulled up in front of Midnight’s house, Midnight was asleep snuggled under his jacket. He sat and watched her for a few minutes, thinking of the evening’s events.

  Earlier that night, after dropping Midnight off at her house, Rick had asked that an officer be assigned to drive by her house to check on her. The officer had found her front door wide open. Upon further investigation, the officer had found blood on the carpet where she had fallen when Robbins had hit her. The officer had called the hospital immediately. Rick had felt absolutely sick, knowing that Robbins had not stopped with him and Joe, and had moved on to Midnight.

  Rick had steeled himself against the terror that had threatened to overwhelm him and had gotten together with some of the people from the police department, one of whom had been Mike Harlow, who was still in the hospital from his accident. They had decided that Robbins was trying to extinguish FORS. They had tried to kill Joe and were now planning to kill Midnight. The fact that they hadn’t found Midnight’s body indicated that Robbins still wanted something from her. Again, Rick had to clamp down on his own fears for Midnight so he could think clearly.

  Now looking down at her, he cursed himself for not being faster. The thought of Daniel Robbins raping her made him sick, and filled him with rage. He was overwhelmed with the desire to protect her and keep her safe from anything like that happening to her ever again.

  He reached out and touched her cheek, and she stirred. She looked around realizing they were in front of her house. She sat up and opened the door. Rick got out and ran around to help her out of the car, but she shook her head, as she stood. She slipped her arms into his jacket, shivering. She walked up to her front door and then turned to him.

  “Keys,” she said, her brows furrowing as she tried to remember what had happened to them.

  Rick put his hand inside the pocket of the jacket she wore, and pulled out her keys. “The police officer who discovered you were gone found them on the floor.” Rick’s voice was pained at the thought of her dropping them as Robbins hit her.

  Midnight nodded, her eyes wide as she took them from him. She turned to the door and unlocked it. Once inside she noticed that the alarm wasn’t on and it occurred to her then that Robbins must have cut something to keep it from going off when he had gotten inside. She made a mental note to herself to have it checked and repaired later.

  Rick watched her, knowing she was running through a list of things she needed to do, and he was once again amazed at her inner strength. She had just been through hell and yet she was already moving on, planning for the next confrontation. Rick grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him. He leaned against the door, and held her against him. She seemed to melt against him. They stayed that way for a few minutes, but Midnight realized that they better lay down soon before they fell down.

  “Come on,” she said softly, taking his hand and leading him down to her bedroom.

  She let go of his hand and walked into her room. He leaned against the doorjamb watching her. She kicked off her boots, and shrugged out of his jacket, laying it gently over a chair. She was wearing her bloodied shirt, and some sweatpants that Rick had found in her car. She looked very disheveled, but still beautiful to him.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Midnight told him.

  “Okay,” Rick replied. “I’ll be here.”

  Midnight smiled softly. She knew it was his way of telling her that he’d keep watch. Part of her knew that she needed that, but the independent part of her wanted to rebel against needing a man to protect her. Regardless, she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

  She emerged from the bathroom a half an hour later. She’d spent most of that time simply letting the water run over her, trying to remove all evidence of Daniel Robbins. She wore a dark blue bathrobe, her hair wet but pulled up into a ponytail. Her mind continually veered away from remembering what had happened. Instead, she focused on finding him again, and taking him down.

  To her surprise Rick was sitting in a chair; she’d expected him to be lying on the bed. They were both exhausted.

  Midnight looked at him. “Come here,” she said, beckoning to him.

  He walked over to her. She reached up and removed his bloodied shirt. She softly pressed her lips to some of the cuts on his chest. He closed his eyes in response.

  “Night,” he said softly.

  “It’s okay,” she said looking up at him, her green eyes shining in the darkened room. It was her way of telling him that she didn’t want to talk.

  She led him over to the bed. He lay down, pulling her down with him. She rested her head on his chest, his good arm holding her against him. She moved so she could look up at him. Her hand reached up to touch a cut on his cheek. He closed his eyes slowly at her touch and opened them when she moved her hand away. She snuggled closer to him, and his arm tightened around her shoulders protectively. They fell asleep soon after.

  The next morning Midnight was up with the sun, and gone before Rick even woke. When he did wake up, he was alarmed to find her gone. Then he saw the note she had taped to the face of her computer that read, “Gone to FORS.” Rick couldn’t believe that she had actually gone to work, so he called her office number.

  “’Lo,” she answered, sounding distracted.

  “Night, what are you doing there?” he asked, looking at the clock. It was only seven thirty.

  “Working, what do you think?” she answered simply.

  “Babe, don’t you think you should take it easy for a little while?” he asked, his voice concerned.

  “Rick, I’m not like Joe, I didn’t get shot or anything. I mean, the doc released me and everything.” Her voice sounded a little short.

  “Yes, but she said to take it easy.”

  “Well, I promise I won’t do any calisthenics at my desk.”

  “Well, I guess if you’re feeling up to it,” Rick said reluctantly, knowing that she wanted to catch Robbins in the worst way. “I think I’ll head in too,” he said, wanting to be around to keep an eye on her.

  “Oh no, Mr. Debenshire, you are hurt and you do need rest. Just rest, and I’ll be home before you know it,” she said lightly, but Rick could tell it was forced.

  Midnight did not come home until seven o’clock that night, and she brought lots of reports home with her. Rick chastised her for overdoing it, but she just shrugged him off. She told him that she had gone to see Joe, but they were keeping him sedated so he could heal better.

  “Randy was still there, as steadfast as ever,” Midnight said, glad that Randy was so loyal to Joe. Randy loved him and that made it easier for her to leave him in Randy’s care.

  “Yeah, I know,” Rick said, sitting down on the couch next to Midnight. “I went to see him too.” He looked at her, trying to decide if he should talk to her about what had happened to her, but he figured she’d talk to him about it when she wanted to. He didn’t want to push. “Randy’s been great through all this,” he said.

  “Yeah, she has.” Midnight nodded. “And I think she’s in love with him, which is good.” She looked at Rick, seeing the look of longing in his eyes, but trying to avoid it. She knew that Rick wanted her to be in love with him, but she just couldn’t handle it at that point.

  She felt very cold and closed up. She didn’t want to be close to anyone right now, but she was glad he was there. She knew she was once again being unfair to him, but she couldn’t help but want someone around after what had happened last time she was alone in her house.

  “Yeah, well I think the feeling is mutual,” Rick said, smiling, happy that things might work out for Joe.

  He was especially happy that Joe was still alive so things could work out for him. He knew that things could have gone very differently. Rick could see from the look on Midnight’s face that she didn’t want to talk about them, or anything of that nature rig
ht now, and Rick forced himself to drop the subject. They spent the rest of the evening in the living room sitting on the couch. Midnight read reports and Rick watched television, and Midnight out of the corner of his eye.

  He was worried about her working so hard already, but he figured she knew her own body, and if she needed to rest, she would. Rick started to doze off by eleven o’clock. After securing a promise that Midnight would follow shortly, he went to bed. When Rick felt her crawl into bed beside him, he glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost four thirty in the morning. He turned over and found her back to him. He put his arm around her waist but felt her stiffen. He kissed the side of her head, and felt her relax against him. Midnight moved her head so that he could slide his arm under her neck, and she snuggled back against him. Rick fell asleep with his arms wrapped protectively around her, his body curved to fit hers.

  Midnight stared into the darkness, feeling Rick’s breathing become even, as he fell asleep. She was glad that he wasn’t pushing her, but she knew that it wouldn’t last. She knew he’d want to talk sometime, and she dreaded it. She didn’t want to talk about what had happened to her, she just wanted to forget it. By six thirty she was up and gone again, leaving the same note on the computer.

  Again, she didn’t return to the house until seven that evening. When Rick tried to talk to her about the rigorous schedule she was keeping, her eyes flashed angrily at him and he backed off quickly.

  Two weeks passed with the same routine. Rick was terribly worried about Midnight. She wouldn’t talk to him. He tried to get her to, but most of the time he just left her alone, not wanting her to get to the point of asking him to leave.

  The day before Joe was to be released from the hospital, Rick went to see him. Joe looked a lot better, but he knew that the doctor was only releasing him because Joe had threatened to check himself out if the doctor didn’t.

  “Hey, man,” Joe said, smiling at Rick when he walked in. His smile faded as he saw the worry clear on Rick’s face. “What’s going on?” he asked, his brow furrowing.

  “It’s Night,” Rick said, sitting down in the chair next to Joe’s bed.

  “What’s wrong?” Joe asked.

  “I don’t know, Joe, she won’t talk to me. She’s been working herself to death. I swear she can’t have had more than ten hours’ worth of sleep in the last two weeks. She isn’t eating, she just works all the time. I don’t know what to do.” Rick looked at Joe and was dismayed to find that Joe was also worried. Rick had half hoped that Joe would tell him that this was the way Midnight dealt with things, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  “That’s probably why I haven’t seen much of her lately, and that explains why she only comes by at night. It’s usually dark in here by then and I can’t see her as well. Rick something is going on in that head of hers and you need to find out what it is before she makes herself sick.” Joe’s voice was very tense. Again, he wasn’t going to be able to be there for her and it bothered him immensely.

  Rick shook his head miserably. “She won’t talk to me, I’ve tried. She just closes up.”

  “Well, you’re just going to have to make her talk to you, there’s no other way to find out where her head’s at.”

  Rick nodded solemnly, knowing that Joe was right, but dreading a confrontation with Midnight. He had found over the last couple of months that she was a very tough adversary, and he liked being on her good side a lot better than on her bad side. Being on Midnight Chevalier’s bad side was like being in Siberia, and he wasn’t looking forward to being there. But he cared about her, and if it would help her in some way, then he’d risk it.

  That night he waited for her to come home. She finally did at nine thirty. Rick watched her as she sat on the living room couch. He could see that she was exhausted; she had lost weight, and there were dark circles under her usually bright eyes. He knew she had been living on caffeine and sugar for the past couple of weeks, and he could see it taking its toll. Her hands shook when she tried to hold something; she would have to put the paper down on the couch and lean down to it to read. Seeing her so disheveled strengthened his resolve to talk to her.

  “Midnight,” he said, his voice strong and sure, “we need to talk.”

  Irritation flashed in her eyes as she looked up at him. “Not now, okay, I have a lot of things I want to do tonight.” She got up from the couch and went to the bedroom.

  Rick waited a few minutes to gather his resolve; he knew this was not going to be easy. Then he got up from the couch and walked toward the bedroom. When he entered the bedroom, he saw Midnight sitting on her bed. She had her feet up on the sideboards, with her arms resting on her knees and her head rested on her arms.

  Rick walked over to her, and stood looking down at her. She became aware of his presence after a few moments, and her head snapped up. Her eyes were narrow, as if she suspected him of something. “I thought we weren’t going to do this now,” she said, her voice cool.

  “Well, you thought wrong,” Rick said, his voice equally cool.

  “Fine,” she said rolling her eyes, “what is it?” Her tone became businesslike on the last part.

  Rick looked down at her for a few moments. She didn’t seem like herself at all. He reached out to touch her cheek, as if to reassure himself that it was really her. She pulled away sharply, her eyes flashing in anger.

  “Midnight!” he all but yelled. “What is going on with you?” His voice was harsher than he had meant it to be, but her reaction to his touch had alarmed and angered him. He knelt in front of her, his eyes searching her face. “Babe,” his voice was softer now, “talk to me.”

  Midnight looked down at him, her eyes cold. “About what?”

  “About anything!” he said, doggedly trying to hold on to his patience, but he knew she was being difficult on purpose.

  “Rick,” she said, sighing. “I don’t have time for this, do we really have to do this now?”

  Rick stood, his eyes flashing. “I see, what is it you have to do tonight, Midnight?” he said, his voice become harsh again as his anger increased. He wasn’t getting anywhere with her, and it was frustrating him. “What is it you have to do, that’ll keep you from sleeping again tonight?”

  She was obviously taken back by the anger in his voice. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. But then they narrowed. “Back off, Rick,” she said, her voice low and threatening. “I don’t answer to anyone.”

  It was Rick’s turn to be taken back; he hadn’t expected her to respond with so much venom.

  “Well, you’re going to talk to me if I have to make you!” Rick said, raising his voice in anger.

  “Yeah?” she responded with just as much anger. “And what are you going to do?” She laughed then, her face a mask of cynicism. “What the hell do you think you can do to me that hasn’t already been done?”

  Rick drew a sharp breath at the ice in her tone, as well as her words. It took all the anger out of him.

  “Midnight.” His voice was soft, but she was already standing to leave, her face set in a cold mask.

  He reached out, taking her by the shoulders. Lightning fast, Midnight brought her arm up and through his, knocking his hands away from her. She turned again to leave, but Rick wasn’t giving up that easily. He grabbed her upper arm, and had to catch her other hand as it came up to slap him. As he held that hand aloft, he saw that she balled it into a fist.

  “Midnight!” he yelled. He was losing control of this situation and was trying desperately to get through to her. She looked up at him, her eyes boring into him. Her insolent look made him angry again. Without realizing it, he tightened his grip on her arm, to the point where she cried out. When he loosened the grip, she wrenched her arm away.

  “Well, why don’t you just go ahead and do it?” she snapped. She sounded totally foreign to him suddenly.

  He looked down at her as if he didn’t know who she was.

  “Do what, Midnight?” he asked finally.

  “What
men do when they have no control over a woman,” she spat at him.

  “And what is that?” he asked keeping his voice cool, but his eyes were looking for some sign of what was going on in her head.

  She looked at him for a long moment. “Oh just go to hell!” she said and turned away from him.

  Rick stood looking at her back for a few moments, then he moved around her so that he faced her. She kept her head down. He touched her under the chin with his index finger, lifting her face to him. She was crying now, and he knew that this was related to what had happened to her.

  “Babe …” he said then, his voice a soft caress.

  She expelled her breath in a sob and he pulled her to him. He stood holding her for a long time. She cried tears of sorrow and anger.

  After a while, Rick moved to sit on the bed, pulling Midnight down with him so that she was sitting on his lap. Her head was buried against his shoulder, her arms up around his neck.

  “Night,” he said eventually, keeping his voice as gentle as he could. “Babe, talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, please.”

  Midnight shook her head, but after a few minutes she looked up at him. “I don’t think I ever thanked you.” Her voice was a soft whisper.

  “For what?”

  “For coming for me …” Her voice trailed off as she looked away from him.

  He brought her face back to his with a gentle finger. “Midnight, you don’t have to thank me. I came for you because I love you.” Seeing the protesting look she gave him, he rushed on. “Look, I know that you don’t feel the same, and I don’t expect you to, but …” His look bordered on miserable. “It’s true.”

  Midnight looked at him for a full minute before she shook her head. “But how? Why?”

  Rick shook his head at her. “What do you mean why? Midnight, you are the most incredible woman I have ever met. You’re beautiful, intelligent, and feisty as hell. You’re everything. Why?” He repeated her question in disbelief.

  “But why now?” she asked, her brow furrowed.