by Lisa Ladew
Mica felt a shift in Knox's energy from her right. She pushed on, knowing he was angry again. His anger felt good to her now though, like he was fully on her side.
"The train from Portland to the East Coast leaves at night and he went almost right to sleep in the bed. He left me in the wheelchair to sleep between the far wall and the tiny sink. I slept too, but one time when I woke up I could think more clearly. The drug had started to wear off. I watched him sleep and tried to figure a way out of there. I had no idea if trains had police or if there was a way for me to jump off of it. I sat in the wheelchair and pulled my arms out of the cloth restraints he had used to bind my arms to my chest, watching him for the slightest movement. Just when I was starting to feel even better, an alarm next to him went off. He had set it to wake him up when I needed more of the drug to keep me quiet. I lolled my head and acted still drugged. He got up and put a bottle of water to my lips, encouraging me to drink it. I did, but I acted drugged still and tried to spill as much of it down my front as I could. But still I could feel the drug working on me right away. He got back in his bed and laid down, and I tried to fix one thought in my head and focus on it. When I thought he was asleep I half stood over the sink and shoved my finger down my throat and threw up all of that water as quietly as I could. He didn't wake. I watched him for two hours, until I felt normal, and then I got up and snuck out as quietly as I could. I'd never been on a train before and didn't know how they worked, but my plan was to go to any employee I saw and ask if there were police officers on the train. Problem was I didn't see any employees. It was the middle of the night and everyone was asleep. I walked from car to car to car until I finally reached the very back car that was open to the public. I sat in an open seat and watched the door in the front of the car. That's when I saw you the first time, remember?"
Mica looked at Knox and saw the memory on his face. His eyes were half-lidded, a slight smile quirking his lips.
"I heard the conductor announce a stop in ten minutes and I developed a new plan. I was going to get off the train and disappear. I didn't care what town it was in. The police would have to believe me. I would tell them Bailey kidnapped me and tell them everything, and pray that they would help me. But while the train was slowing down, Bailey found me."
Mica stopped talking and faced Knox squarely. "You know everything else."
Knox nodded. Their eyes locked over the table and Mica felt magic in it. Tingles danced up and down her spine from the connection.
Knox began to speak. "Bailey's a monster. You didn't do anything wrong and you couldn't have done any different. I wish you would have stayed and let me help you though. I wanted to help you. I would have tried to have Bailey found and put in jail."
Mica felt the tears well up in her eyes at his words. She'd dreamed about coming clean to Knox Rosesson dozens of times but had never quite been able to imagine what he would say about what she had considered a shameful secret. Now that he was in front of her, professing that none of it had been her fault, she felt a concrete weight roll off of her chest, freeing her completely for the first time in her life. His hazel eyes spoke volumes of forgiveness and absolution, which she hadn't even realized she needed quite so much.
Mica picked up a napkin and hid behind it, raw emotion tearing at her. But no, she wouldn't cry. Not here, not now. She dabbed her eyes and took a deep breath, then forced herself to drop the napkin.
"So what happens now?" she asked.
Knox smiled at her again and she felt herself melt.
"Now we wait until he makes another move. Eventually, he'll make a mistake and that's when we'll get him."
Mica blinked. "I mean now when you leave me. Who is going to take your place? I-I know you have better things to do than sit here and babysit me."
Knox shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers. "I'm not leaving."
"You're not?"
Knox shook his head. "I've got a locksmith coming first thing in the morning. We'll get your locks changed tomorrow and we'll talk more then. I don't have anywhere more important to be right now."
"I can't believe that Knox. You've got a company to run. You've got a life."
Knox stared at her hard, his eyes narrowing, and Mica felt her gut twist.
"Nothing else is as important as this is to me right now," he said. "There's no way I'm leaving you alone until you're safe."
Mica cast her eyes downward. "Knox, I don't know if I can afford—"
Knox cut her off, his voice sharp. "This isn't about money. This is about what's right. And it's about us, Mica. Let me ask you something. Did you ever think about me? Did you ever wonder if there could have been something between us? Eventually, I want to hear exactly why you left, and I want to know what has happened to you in the last ten years, but more than that, I want to know if what you said on the train was true."
Mica didn't have to ask him what he meant. She knew.
Knox knocked the food containers out of his way and reached for her hands, enveloping her cold and trembling fingers with his own warm, strong ones.
"I meant what I said to you when I thought your name was Rachel, and I've thought about it hundreds of times over the last ten years. I have to admit, I was hurt that you left. I might still be harboring a bit of that hurt in my heart, but I'll get over it. But I have to know, did you leave because you lied about what you felt for me? Or did you at least tell me the truth about that?"
Mica's stomach churned. She hadn't expected this. She hadn't prepared for it. She blurted out the truth as she knew it. "It was true. It's—it's still true. But I'm scared too."
Knox nodded and looked satisfied. For now. He pulled his hands back and lifted his chin. "Why don't you get some rest. I'll stay awake. I still have work to do anyway."
Mica knew she was dismissed.
She was glad. She stood and left the room, not caring about the food, not caring about anything but getting herself back under control.
Chapter 11
Knox
Knox sat on Mica's couch in the dimly lit living room and stared out the bay window at the streetlights. His mind churned with thoughts, each more loaded than the last. He could physically feel the weight of Mica's presence in the same house as him, and it ate at him. He'd let go of thinking of her as Rachel, even using the name Mica when he thought of what she'd said and what they'd done on the train.
He wasn't tired. He was too keyed up to be tired. She was alive. She was here. She was only a few rooms away. The spark that had developed between them still burned. Burned brightly enough that he wanted to go to her. Wanted to find her in her bed, hair mussed, body relaxed from sleep, thoughts unguarded, and take her—make her belong to him. He'd never wanted that before. Never felt an automatic, ingrained trust in a woman that made him want to be there with her, be vulnerable with her, let her be his everything, like he wanted to with Mica.
The thought scared him and exhilarated him. He'd long thought of himself as ruined for relationships. Completely unsuited for them. Watching his father systematically destroy his mother and loving his mother but turning out like his father had done that to him. He never wanted to be that person who destroyed someone who loved him. But thinking of Mica, his heart told him he didn't have to be like his father. He could be someone different, someone better, someone who could have the trust, the companionship, the love, and the passion, with none of the bad stuff.
He knew it was possible. He'd seen good relationships from the outside. None of them existed in his family, but that didn't mean he couldn't be the first. Daxton's relationship with Darcy came to mind. Daxton didn't have their father's penchant for ruin. Daxton had treated that woman like a queen, but then she'd destroyed him.
Knox grimaced. It didn't have to be that way. Some couples made it work, all of it. He—
Movement caught his eye and his head snapped towards the kitchen. Mica stood there, her hair curling around her shoulders. She'd changed into sleep clothes. Skin-tight yoga pants and a tiny tank t
op. Knox's breath caught in his throat. She looked like a beautiful siren sent to lure him. To happiness? Or to destruction? He almost felt like he didn't care as long as he got to touch her again.
"I can't sleep," she said. "I keep hearing noises and I'm afraid he's back with another ladder."
Knox stood up quickly. "I'll check."
He walked past her into her bedroom. It was large and open, a simple bed in the center, with artwork on the walls as bold as in the living room. The light was still off and moonlight shone in the window. Knox crossed to the window and looked out. Nothing. He opened it, then pushed against the screen to see the ground directly below and the rest of the building. Everything was quiet. Good. He had sent Daxton and the other men home for the night, except for one in the hall outside the door. His instincts told him Bailey wouldn't try to get in through a window again, although he was afraid Bailey had something bigger planned for his next stunt. He stared out over the quiet slice of grass behind Mica's place, his eyes traveling along the buildings behind it, and wondered if Bailey had ever wanted money, or if his sole purpose from first contact had been to terrorize Mica. To make her pay for what she had done. Fierce anger for what the man had done to Mica spiked in Knox's head and he had to put a steadying hand on the cool window. He wondered what Bailey's ultimate plan for Mica was now. How bad were things going to get?
Knox swallowed his anger and walked back to where Mica waited in the kitchen. She looked at him with large eyes that made him want to wrap his arms around her and shelter her from every storm in the world.
"Nothing there," he told her, stopping a foot from her.
"Thanks," she breathed, not moving.
Knox felt a rush of emotion as her complete vulnerability became clear to him. He'd been hurt, but she'd been hurt worse. She didn't deserve anything that had happened to her, and she'd gotten through it as best she could. She had been trying to survive, and she'd had no way of knowing that not all men were like Bailey, that some men would sooner die than hurt her.
He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to the couch. "Come sit with me."
She went with him easily, sinking into the crook of his arm as he sat down, then pulled her down next to him. The movement stirred the scent of vanilla and lilacs that surrounded her and his cock twitched at her nearness, her softness, her goodness. He ignored it. Now wasn't the time.
She took a deep breath then let it out and relaxed into him, tucking her legs underneath her in that timeless way that women had of sitting that he thought was sexy as hell.
Knox relaxed, and stared out the window again, but this time with a warm, soft woman pulled tight against his chest.
He'd found Heaven, but he had a monster to thank for it. A monster who was still loose and hungry.
***
Mica slept against him, even as the morning light filled the sky and entered the big window. Knox watched her chest rise and fall, and the way her pouty lips quirked as she dreamed. He dozed lightly, but never let himself fall all the way into sleep.
The sounds of the day crept in the apartment and slowly Mica began to stir. She opened her eyes, looking startled for a moment at where she was. Knox smiled at her, loving the puffy, sleep look in her eyes.
"Hi," she told him, smiling back.
A large crash sounded in the back of the apartment, then a huge thud.
"Sonuvabitch," Knox growled, pulling his arm out from behind Mica and standing. "Stay here," he ordered, not expecting Mica to do anything other than what he told her too. He took one step when another crash tore through the room, making Mica scream and cover her head with her arms.
Glass showered Knox and something whizzed by his head, ruffling his short hair as it went. It hit the dining room table and bounced off. "Goddamn!" Knox shouted, dropping to his hands and knees and eyeing the arrow that had almost pierced his head.
He jumped for Mica and pulled her bodily behind the couch, then threw himself on top of her. All was silent for a few moments. Knox peeked out cautiously from behind the couch. The window was shattered, but nothing more was flying in at them. Shouts and a scream floated up from the street below. A pounding sounded at the door and Knox heard his man out there yell for him.
"We're going to run for the kitchen," he whispered to her. There were no windows in the kitchen. He didn't know if more attacks were coming but they couldn't stay in here forever.
"Just stay behind the couch."
"Ok," she whispered back, her arms still over her head.
He didn't know if the couch would stop an arrow, but it was their only chance. He pushed at it, heaving with his thighs, until the far end swung around enough to shield them from the window. He grabbed Mica and pulled her all the way to the end of the couch closest to the kitchen. "Run for it," he hissed at her, eyeing the three-foot gap that still existed.
She did exactly as he said, up and moving in a wink, then crouched down again in the kitchen, her eyes huge and scared. Knox followed, breathing a sigh of relief once they were both in the kitchen. He shouted to the guard in the hallway, telling him to call the cops now, Bailey had shot an arrow through the window. He didn't let himself wonder if it had been meant to scare him, or to kill him. He was still alive, and that was what mattered. Bailey would pay, somehow.
He had to see what had happened in the bedroom, but he didn't want to leave Mica alone. "Come on," he whispered. "I want to look in the bedroom."
She nodded and followed as he crept down the hallway, happy it had no windows. Once at her bedroom door, he looked in, and saw half of a brick lying harmlessly on the floor next to the bed. A jagged hole in the window told him where it had come from.
Things had gotten serious. He needed to take drastic action before they turned deadly.
***
Five hours later, after the last cop had left and Daxton had shown up to take care of the finer details for him, Knox bundled Mica into his truck, well aware that they were completely vulnerable out here on the street. His eyes scanned the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, his own guess being that the rooftop across the street was where Bailey had fired the arrow from. The police had found no trace of him, except his homemade trebuchet behind the building that had launched the brick through the window. Knox had stared at it, worry eating at him. A man who knew how to build something like that was a man who was an expert at weapons. He wondered what other tricky things the Brotherhood of Saints had been involved in.
"Where are we going?" Mica asked, her sweet voice pulling him back to the present.
"My place. It's a fortress compared to your apartment. You'll be safe there."
Mica sat silent for a few moments. "Oh," was all she said, and he wondered what she was thinking. He didn't think they had any other options. He wouldn't feel safe with her in a hotel.
The drive to his home took only ten minutes and Knox marveled again at how close she'd lived to him, practically right under his nose.
When he finally pulled into his driveway, she still hadn't said a word. He could feel her uncertainty and he understood it, even if he didn't like it.
He stopped next to the guard house at the end of his long driveway. The guard that day was Adam, an eager and competent young man. "Hi Adam," Knox said.
"Hi Mr. Rosesson. It's good to see you, sir."
"Thank you Adam, let me introduce you to Mica Nichols. Put her on the safe list please."
"Certainly."
Adam exited the guard house and walked around to the passenger's side of the truck. Mica flashed Knox a questioning look but he just smiled at her. Adam held up a camera. "May I take your picture, miss?"
Mica nodded, her face still puzzled. Adam took her picture and walked back to the guard house.
"I'll get you her driver's license later," Knox said, then waited for Adam to open the large black gate. Before they drove in, he leaned out of the truck window. "Adam, has Daxton briefed you on Dick Bailey?"
"Yes sir, I've got his picture here," Adam said, holding i
t up. Knox caught a glimpse of the bushy gray beard and nodded.
"If you see him, initiate alert level five," he said before driving through his gate and watching it close behind him.
Mica craned her neck to follow the large white columns at the front of the house to the roofline. "It's beautiful," she whispered, but then turned to him. "Adam had a Point Blank Security uniform on. He's not one of your guys?"
Knox twisted the key in the ignition and turned the truck off. "Nope. Gate guard is a twenty-five dollar an hour job, tops. None of my men do that kind of work. They are all too specialized."
Mica nodded slowly and Knox was struck by her beauty. The realization that he would do anything to keep her safe ripped through him.
Even kill if it came to that.
Chapter 12
Mica
Mica followed Knox into the house, her eyes looking everywhere at once at the somehow sparse opulence. The shock of the arrow through her window had worn off, and even though she was apprehensive about being here, alone, with Knox, in his home, she was glad too. She felt completely safe for the first time that day. For the first time since Bailey had reappeared in her life. And she was thrilled at this chance to peek into his life. Discover who he was now.
Knox led her into the living room, one hand on the small of her back. When they arrived and he put the overnight bag she had packed down on the long, sectional, leather couch, his phone buzzed and dinged in his pocket. He looked at it. "I have to deal with this. Don't worry, it's not about Bailey, but I have to head upstairs to my office. Kitchen is through there. Look around. Make yourself at home. I'll try not to be long."
Mica nodded, feeling the heat from his stare before he turned and disappeared up a white, spiral staircase on the far end of the room.
Mica twirled and took in everything. Huge pieces of furniture, expensive art, a view into the back yard that was lined with ivy and flowers. She thought she saw a pool out there but she didn't investigate further. Now that she was here, all she could think about was the Green Room. Why was it called that? Did it really exist? If it did, it was somewhere close by. Maybe she could even get a look at it.
