Midnight Secrets (Midnight Dynasty Book 4) Read online

  Midnight Secrets

  Midnight Dynasty 4

  Copyright 2021 by C.R. Robertson.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons—living or dead—is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Contact Information:

  [email protected]

  www.CRRobertson.com

  https://geni.us/RobertsonsOtherworld

  https://www.facebook.com/CRRobertsonauthor/

  Publication Date: 16th September 2021

  Cover Artist: Raven Designs

  Thank you so much for reading my eBook. I really hope the characters touch your soul, and make your mind wander to a different realm for a few hours. If you enjoy Midnight Secrets, please consider leaving a review and have a look at my other romance novels.

  Books by CR Robertson

  The Otherworld Chronicles:

  The Gates of Hell Trilogy:

  1 – Elements of Flames

  2 – Elements of Dragons

  3 – Elements of Fae

  ***

  4 – Elements of Karma

  5 – Elements of Light

  6 – Elements of Souls

  7 – Elements of Redemption

  The Gaian Otherworld:

  1 – Dragons of Destiny

  2 – Dragons of Fate

  3 – Dragons of Chaos

  4- Dragons of Retribution

  Dark Princes of Purgatory:

  1-Curse of Seduction

  2-Curse of Darkness

  3-Curse of Deception

  4- Curse of Vengeance

  The Vendetta Brotherhood:

  1-Nicklas

  2-Samson

  3-Kristian

  Midnight Dynasty:

  1-Midnight Seduction

  2-Midnight Danger

  3-Midnight Legacy

  Contemporary Romance:

  Stronger Than Love

  A Note on Language

  Please note CR Robertson is from the UK.

  Therefore, spellings and some turns of phrase will appear in British English.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the teacher who taught me the importance of grammar… No, not my English teacher who never once referred to a verb, noun, or adjective.

  My Latin teacher, Margaret Kelly, taught me that grammar mattered or she made you draw the nihil who haunted all our homework’s and adorned her classroom walls. She made mythology come alive in my imagination and helped me realise that every great story needs a baddie that the hero has to kill.

  There is a fine line between genius and madness and she taught me that it was okay to cross that line every single day...

  ***

  Chapter One

  Ash (Ten years ago)

  His fist connected with my jaw and my head snapped back. My balance teetered before I fell back and landed on my ass on the floor.

  “You put your guard down.” Dad sneered in my face, his spittle hitting my cheek. “You should never let your opponent close enough to you to strike.”

  He was my dad, not an opponent. I arrived back from school yesterday, and after glaring at me for what felt like an eternity, he claimed that I’d gotten fat and lazy and that I’d spend my summer becoming worthy of being his heir. Right now, he could shove the keys to his kingdom right up his sanctimonious ass.

  “Get up!” Dad snapped and I scrambled back onto my feet.

  My two closest friends at school were Xavier and Jordan. There was no way I was either fat or lazy because that asshole Jordan dragged our asses out of bed at the crack of dawn for a run before we trained for an hour. If he saw me right now, he’d go mental, but how was I supposed to hit my own father?

  I stumbled back into the post at the corner of the boxing ring when Dad kicked me in the chest. Raw fury bubbled free and my hand clenched into a fist.

  Fuck this.

  I dodged his next kick, grabbing his ankle and bringing his leg down on my knee as I brought us to the floor. The crack echoed around the room and my brother’s chatter stopped to leave an eerie silence.

  Dad glared up at me, his teeth biting into his bottom lip and his jaw set. We spent hours training at school, and the top of our list was how to immobilise an enemy. Instinct had taken over. If your enemy had a broken leg, they couldn’t track you.

  I slowly moved back and held my hand out to him. A feral smile curved his lips up and his eyes filled with dark emotions that terrified me. He grasped my hand and allowed me to pull him to his feet, wincing as he leaned his weight on the ropes around the ring.

  “It looks like you might have the killer instinct to be my heir after all,” he muttered. “To be on the Council, you need to be able to stare into the face of your enemy or your closest friend and vote to end their life. We are not ruled by emotion, but by the duty we owe our families and the legacy they leave.”

  I wanted to feel pride, but instead, nausea swam around inside me. My father was the last person in the world I wanted to become. He was a monster in a black fancy suit and silk tie; a tyrant who played God. His butler raced forward to take care of the situation, Ivan already talking into a device in his ear to arrange the private doctor to attend the house.

  Father chuckled darkly while Ivan helped him slip under the bottom rope to avoid him having to climb through. “I knew we could make a Blackwood out of him.”

  My gaze moved to my three brothers standing watching me. Oliver and Aaron looked pale and worried, but Michael watched with a devious glee in his eyes. He was the youngest of us but the most bloodthirsty. Dad took him hunting and shooting with him to our family estate in the highlands of Scotland and boasted of the way he controlled a gun. He was the Blackwood Father was searching for. The rest of us preferred to avoid those bonding weekends.

  I silently climbed out of the ring, casting a look over my shoulder at the scene behind me. Jordan always said to never show weakness, even when you were shitting yourself. His presence walked beside me as my back straightened and I left the room. I refused to show fear to the man who sired me. He scented it in the air the same way an animal did.

  Inside my room, I slid to the ground with my back to the door as if I could keep all the demons outside by my will alone. When I went to boarding school, I’d been terrified of being away from home. Now I dreaded coming home at holidays. Inside those freezing, crumbling walls I had finally found the family I’d always craved. Three lonely boys who found each other and formed an alliance. Xavier was the son of Father’s friend Hugh. Jordan wa
s the renegade grandson of a man who he frequently compared to the emperor from Star Wars. If he raised a badass like Jordan, then he had to be a demon ascended from Hell and living here in the mortal realm.

  I rolled my eyes at myself. Maybe I played too much Dungeons & Dragons at school.

  My heartbeat sounded in my ears as I replayed what had happened in my head. I’d let him beat me to a pulp in the past, rarely trying to defend myself. Today, something had snapped inside me and there wasn’t a doubt in my head that Father would seek his revenge since it happened in front of his precious son Michael.

  Shit.

  My arms wrapped around my knees and I set my head on top of them. Minutes ticked by as I awaited my fate. A rap at the door made my stomach churn.

  “Ashton?” Mum said from the other side. “Open the door, sweetie.”

  I crawled forward and stood to open the door to her. She held her arms out to me and crushed me in a hug that was designed to break bones.

  “Aaron told me what happened,” she whispered. “I phoned the housekeeper at Hugh’s house. She’s arranging for you to go and stay there for a while.”

  Mum was the one person in this whole twisted mess who knew what Father was like. She protected us as best possible, but every time I’d returned home from school, her eyes were more haunted and her pallor paler than before. He drained the life and soul from those he touched like a demonic vampire.

  “I can’t hide from him forever,” I said.

  “I know, sweetie, but you can today. He’ll forget his pride and, in its place, will come his vengeance. We both know it’s better that you’re gone when that happens.”

  I sank onto the side of the bed and Mum sat beside me. “Helga said that Xavier is going to visit his Uncle Lucas for the summer. She said she’ll organise Jordan to go as well so you can all have a holiday together.”

  Xavier talked about his Uncle Lucas as if the man were a movie star. He was the stuff of myths and legends. Both Jordan and I had wanted to meet Lucas Black for a long time.

  “He’ll take out his anger on one of you,” I said in a miserable tone with my head down. If he couldn’t strike me down with his anger, then he would direct it at Mum, Aaron, or Oliver.

  Mum gave me one of her too bright smiles. “Apparently, my sister Melanie is under the weather. She phoned this morning and I agreed to go and look after her for a few weeks. Kate is already packing my bag and she’ll sort the boys out next. I told her that I’d help you since Helga is sending a car for you now.”

  She moved around the room, adding clothes to a bag she pulled out from my walk-in closet. Slowly, I came back to life to help her. I added my toiletries and some T-shirts. She handed me the passport that was kept in Father’s safe and cash since I already carried a card with access to my bank account.

  “Thanks, Mum.” I leaned in to her as she hugged me.

  “Promise me something, Ashton.” I leaned back to look down at her since I’d grown this past year at school and was now taller than her. “No matter what happens, promise me that you’ll never enter into an arranged marriage.”

  It was common knowledge that Mum had been selected from a suitable list because of her family background. She was married into the Blackwood legacy and bound to Father before she ever met him. Marriage in our world was for alliances, not love.

  My lips came up in a half smile. “What else is there to marry for?”

  “Love,” she automatically replied. “Money doesn’t buy you happiness, Ashton. It buys you possessions, and yes, those possessions can be a wife. But if that wife hates you, then all you’ve done is condemn both of you to a living hell.”

  I stared at her and saw the broken shadows in her eyes. He was a horrendous father, but what must it be like to live your life beside a man that you didn’t love?

  “I promise.”

  She gave me that tight smile that meant she was close to tears and patted my arm. “Your father is already looking at suitable brides for the Blackwood line. Young, vulnerable women who can be moulded into his vision for the future.”

  “Maybe I should scupper his plans and remain single the rest of my life?” I smiled at her as I packed the last of my stuff. Italy was warm and I doubted I needed fancy clothes. If I was on holiday, I was going to live in shorts and T-shirts.

  She cupped my cheek in her hand. “My boy is too beautiful to hide himself from the world. You get your looks and soul from my side of the family, never forget that.” She zipped up my bag. “Sometimes love is where we least expect it, and sometimes it needs to nurture and grow.”

  “Mum!” I groaned. “You’ve been reading too many of those romance novels again.”

  She grinned at my reaction before her expression darkened. “I always wanted a daughter to teach to bake and knit, but some fates have been stolen from me. So I need you and your brothers to find them for me. Until then, you’ll have to put up with my ramblings about love and my hat collection.”

  I rolled my eyes at her and pretended to grimace when she kissed my cheek. “Not the hat collection.”

  Our family home was regal and ancient. The walls were infused with the history of the Blackwood legacy, our coat of arms on the wall where the two sides of the staircases met in a middle landing in the entrance hall before they branched off to create the balcony on the first floor. Black and white tiles decorated the floor where Oliver and I used to pretend to play human chess when we were younger.

  Bags sat neatly packed beside the front door.

  “Ivan, can you take them out to the car?” Mum asked. “I’m worried about Melanie and want to be on the road as soon as Ashton has left.”

  Our butler never said a word, but he saw everything with his hawk-like dark brown eyes. He nodded once and lifted the bags. I never knew if he was friend or foe, a confidante or a spy.

  Tension rippled through the hall as my brothers appeared one at a time. We all knew there was a timebomb ticking that could explode at any minute. Aaron paced the hall, his eyes darting in the direction of the west wing of the house where Father tended to reside. He received the brunt of his anger when I wasn’t home.

  All eyes moved to the huge wooden front door when car wheels crunched over the gravel outside. I flung the door open as Xavier got out of the car driven by his housekeeper. He waved and strode into our home with his self-assured confidence.

  “Hey, Ash. You ready for a summer with Uncle Lucas?” His grin was infectious, and everyone started to relax.

  “I guess I should see what all the hype is about from the stories when you return to school every September,” I replied and grabbed my bag.

  Aaron and Oliver started to move toward the door and the freedom that was outside.

  “We’re picking up Jay on the way through. He was going to drive down until I pointed out he didn’t have a licence. I think we all want to meet his infamous grandfather.”

  Mum followed us out, pushing Michael out in front of her. Father never punished him, and he relished in our reprimands. He was the apple that didn’t fall far from the poisoned tree.

  “Stay safe,” Mum whispered as she hugged me one last time.

  As I moved to Xavier’s car, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I looked up and Father stared down at me. His expression was savage, his smile predatory. A shiver of fear rippled down my spine. A summer wouldn’t be enough to allow his anger to cool. He would find a way to punish me for besting him in our sparring match. Fear uncoiled deep in my stomach at the thought of his revenge.

  ***

  Chapter Two

  Lucrezia (Five years ago)

  I sat opposite my two sisters in the private jet that was taking us home for the summer break from school. Sofia had her nose buried in a book, while Catarina flicked through a fashion magazine.

  My stomach was in knots, my heart trying to escape from my chest with every mile closer we got to home. It had become a tradition that my cousin Xavier and his two friends stayed at our home in Tuscany every summer. T
hey were the sons Papa never had, but last year, one of them stopped being my big brother.

  Ash.

  For the past year, he had been front and centre to every fantasy I created. For the first time in the past five years, I realised that Ash was a man and that left me shy and tongue-tied. Catarina thought my reaction was hilarious since she was beautiful and confident. She had her bodyguards wrapped around her little finger and they allowed her to do whatever her heart desired. Sofia had always been quiet, sitting sketching on one of her art pads. She loved architecture and planned to create buildings in the future. She’d just completed all her A-levels and her results would be released in August. It would take a miracle for Papa to let her go to university.

  The jet landed on a private airfield a half hour drive from Papa’s villa. My stomach lurched as the wheels hit the tarmac and the pilot applied the brakes to bring us to a halt near the huge metal warehouse that housed our two jets.

  Papa stood waiting for us, an indulgent smile on his face and his arms outstretched. He was both Mama and Papa to us since we lost our mother around twelve years ago. Vague memories of her remained, but Sofia remembered her most, telling stories and singing songs that she’d sung to us. Sofia thought it helped, but it merely replaced the fragmented memories with images and sounds of Sofia.

  “My girls!” Papa dragged us all into a group hug, kissing the tops of our heads and swinging from side to side until my head spun. His scent washed over me and sent pulses of security through me. Nothing bad could ever happen to us when Papa was here.

  “You’re wrecking my hair!” Catarina complained and wiggled against the group hug.

  Papa ruffled her hair and smiled down at us. “You have all gotten taller again. I told all of you to stop growing up. My babies are to remain little forever.”