A/N: Ok, I know that these first few chapters are rather short. You are just going to have to work with me on this one. I am trying to get enough in them to make them worth posting but I don't want to over do them at this point. Hopefully they will get longer as time goes on but for now they are probably going to stay a little bit on the short side!

Please R&R and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Josef, Mick or anyone else that you may recognize. Riley and all of the others that come out of my head are of course mine. No copy write infringement is intended.

Chapter 2

I had to get out of here. I didn't know why and I didn't know where I planned on going but I knew that I had to move. I couldn't see anything on either side of me. I felt like I was running down a dark tunnel. All of the sudden I ran into something that was placed directly in front of me. My hands covered the surface, attempting to find a light. I found a cord and pulled. A dim light came from what happened to be a light at the far end of a desk. This wasn't just any desk. This was my desk. I was at work.

I woke with a start. I had diffidently been spending too much time at the office lately. I was starting to have nightmares. I needed a break. Maybe I would ask for a few days off at the end of next week. That was the only time things looked like they might slow down.

9:00 at night. I had some time to shower and get to work without to much hurry today. I walked to the kitchen in my small apartment. I grabbed a granola bar and sat down at the bar stool that I had near the only window in the small room. The sun had just set a little while age and there was still a light glow in the sky.

It had taken me a while to get used to starting my day when most people were choosing to end theirs. I had never pictured myself working the night shift. I was far too social and loved the sun while I was growing up. I had managed to make the transition rather seamlessly, however.

The first few months that I worked for Mr. Konstantin, I had worked during the day. His company functions almost 24 hours a day, for best productivity I was told. I had been hired as an assistant to his day time assistant. I had done good work and was shocked when I was told that I was being 'promoted' to the night shift.

I had been absolutely outraged when I was first told about the change in position. I was sure that I was being demoted and that soon, I was going to be fired. It took me almost two weeks to realize that in all the time I had worked 'normal' hours I had never once seen Mr. Konstantin. However in the short two weeks since I had been moved to the night shift I had seen him almost every day. I soon accepted the way that the hours were arranged here and fell into place quite comfortably with the night staff.

Alicia had quite almost a month ago. She had been Mr. Konstantin's direct assistant. I took over the position almost instantaneously. I soon realized that I had been slightly spoiled up until now. I had only ever worked as long as 10 hours at a time. Now it wasn't unusual for me to work as much as 15 hour days. I was Mr. Konstantin's link to his day staff and as such I had to be there when everyone arrived.

I checked in with the heads of all departments first thing in the morning and before they were allowed to leave at night. I was also the one that was called if something went wrong during the day. I was the one who had to call and tell Mr. Konstantin the bad news if something went wrong and no one could seem to fix it.

And while it seemed as if it was never ending work, which most days it was, there were perks that I never dreamed of. Almost any time Mr. Konstantin went on a business trip overseas, I was the one to go with him. I also had the luxury of not having to pay for rent or food, as the company gave me an allowance on top of my salary that covered all of those expenses. All of those things were worth missing most of the day time world.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts and took one last glance out of the kitchen window. I threw the wrapper from my breakfast into the trash and walked back to my bathroom. I turned on the water to my shower and let it run hot. I stepped in and closed my eyes as the hot water ran over my tired body, slowly waking up all of the senses under my skin. I slowly washed my hair and shaved. With great effort I turned the water off and wrapped my towel around my body.

I stepped out of the shower and brushed out my dripping wet hair. I brushed my teeth and washed my face before walking back to my room. I looked at the clock, only 9:30. I pulled on a shirt and skirt and then walked back to the bathroom to attempt to tame my uncontrollable hair. Short, thin and frizzy, I swear it was totally and completely hopeless. By the time I was completely ready to go it was 10 o'clock. I would be just on time. I grabbed my purse and walked out the door.

I walked into my office a few minutes early. I walked over to my desk and set my purse down while starting up my computer. I then walked over to the closet and hung up my coat. I walked back over to my desk and slipped my boots off and put on my heals. I then went to get a cup of coffee before getting the day started.

I went back to my desk and began to look through the emails that I had gotten in the past few hours. Nothing really out of the ordinary, a few easy questions and a few quickly dealt with complaints, none of which would take me long to sort out.

I worked for most of the morning on paper work and running errands around the building for Mr. Konstantin. Things were going pretty much right on schedule. We all took our lunch break at about 2:00. Work started up again as soon as we were done. This was how most of my days went. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing worth causing a fuss over. I had grown so used to things just going as planned and working in the same way they always did.

I had been working for about an hour since I got back from lunch. There was a stack of paper work that had just been delivered to the office that needed Mr. Konstantin's signature before I could send it out in the mail. I organized everything and walked back to his door. I knocked on to the door and heard a muffled response come from inside. He must really be focused on whatever it is he is doing. I opened the door and stepped inside.

"Mr. Konstantin, I have papers that I need you to sign so that they can be mailed out first thing tomorrow morning." I looked up to see his response. I stopped dead in my tracks. It looked at first like I had interrupted a rather personal moment between my boss and some unknown women. However when he looked up at me I saw what I tried to convince myself wasn't blood dripping from his mouth.

Mr. Konstantin looked up at me, his eyes locked on mine. I took a few steps backwards and reached behind myself, looking for the door handle. His eyes still held mine, looking intimidating and threatening. I finally found the door handle and yanked it open. I turned around and ran down the hallway as fast as I could. I didn't hear any movement from behind me and hoped against hope that I wasn't being pursued. I reached the end of the hall and ran into the edge of my desk, hitting my leg against the corner. I cursed as I felt the sharp corner scratch my leg. I pushed past it and ran down the hall to the elevator.

I had finally picked up on noises behind me. I thought I could pick out Mr. Konstantin's voice yelling to someone one the phone. I also thought I heard the door at the opposite end of the hall slam shut. I reached the elevator and slammed my hand into the call button. I was too afraid to look behind me and continued to wait for the elevator doors to open.

As the doors opened I realized that there was already someone inside. Mick St. John. I pushed inside the elevator and ran straight into him. He looked down at me in concern and asked me what had happened.

"Mr. Konstantin….. office….. blood…… face." That was all that I could manage to get out. I thought that it was the smart thing to tell Mick about what had happened, he had always seemed like someone safe that anyone could turn to. However, I started to panic as a look of comprehension and relief settled across his face. I became even more worried when I saw a smile spread across his face.

"Riley, lets go back inside and talk about this. I know you are upset about what ever it is that happened but I really think we need to go back inside." He looked up and frowned. The next words out of his mouth were some of the last things I remember. "Josef, what the hell happened." I turned my head only to come face to face with the man I wanted to get away from at that moment, Josef Konstantin.

I do believe that was the point in which I passed out.