Jack (Secret Revenge #1) Read online

  Jack

  Secret Revenge:

  Book One

  A Contemporary Romance Story

  By Robin Edwards

  © Copyright 2017 by Robin Edwards (Author) and Second Chances Press (Publisher) - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Bonus Books:

  One Little Letter

  Told You So

  Woman in 4B

  Rescuing Her Heart

  Price of Love

  Her Surprise

  My New Boss

  Born of Fire

  Shifted Heart

  Major Chance at Love

  Mistaken Identity

  Hidden Mistress

  Hidden Meaning

  Reunion

  Star Management

  Capturing the Night

  Risky Surprise

  About the Author

  More Books by the Author

  Sign up for Robin Edward’s mailing list and get a FREE copy of the Contemporary Romance story Hot Under the Collar: Twelve Miles

  Click here to get started

  Chapter One

  Dear Jack,

  I started this letter three days ago even as the agent made his daily rounds to check if I was still in here. There is no fault in him; he was just doing his job, as you were doing yours. Today, I finally found the words that have been difficult for me to express for so long.

  When I joined the CIA, I had no intention of falling in love with you, let alone deceiving you. My deceit wasn’t intentional; I had to do what was necessary for my family. I spent my whole life honoring what I believed was right and I spent my whole life wanting to be a part of something bigger and make a name for myself but being labeled as the unreliable one, I was determined to avenge Uncle Nicolai’s death, and I didn’t care who suffered.

  If I could go back in time, I would find some way to reassure you that I would not betray my morality for greed but at the time there was too much risk in letting you know what my purpose was. Since the first day I met you, I struggled endlessly. I never wanted to hurt you Jack; I just wanted to avenge my family and earn their respect once and for all. I hope you can understand that.

  I thought that my family were just small-time criminals and not hired assassins affiliated with the KGB. I never thought they were on Most Wanted Lists. Denis and Natasha Petrovich, assassins working for Baladin, are not my family, they could never be. They never really were, I guess.

  Their plan was to turn me into a destruction machine. Sadly, Amelia’s parents succeeded, but the one thing not expected was the experiment to go wrong. All I ever was to my parents was an experiment. My parents never imagined that I would turn my back against them and to shield me from the truth so that they could be in control of everything. If they were my family, they would not have taught me to cause harm to a lot of innocent people. People I once thought were the enemy. I don’t deserve forgiveness for the lives I’ve ended along the way.

  It’s almost time for my interrogation, so I must finish this letter soon. Whatever my fate is from here on, I deserve. I hope this finds you soon, and I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I wish we could just start all over again, after all, this is over, but I don’t expect you to try. I wouldn’t expect it of myself. I don’t expect to find someone else after this because you are the epitome of what love is and I could never find better than that. I wouldn’t want to.

  The agents are here to take me now, but by the time you read this, I’ll be off somewhere. Starting over either in heaven or hell or maybe in one of the places we talked about many times before. I hope you can start over too. I love you Jack and thank you.

  Love Always,

  Amelia

  Jack stared at the paper he held before him and wondered what to think. Nothing seemed clear to him as he folded the letter carefully along its creases and placed it in the bottom drawer of his desk where he kept all of the things that reminded him of her: the framed photo that was once on top of his desk, a weathered black scarf and various travel brochures. After Aleksandr Baladin’s capture, he wanted to make plans to go to the French Riviera or to one of the many places they would explore together, but that’s impossible now.

  She had been on the side of Baladin since the beginning and had gone against the CIA. For what? To rescue people that weren’t even who they claimed to be? Surely she knew that. She must have, but she didn’t. Jack sighed as he shut the drawer in hopes that it would somehow erase the pain.

  It was now Friday morning; she had been in interrogation for the past several weeks, and he made himself aware of every detail. Jack West was the Senior Director of the Linguistics Field Office and Senior Directing Agent for Field Operations in the European Territories and any decisions or critical information that needed to be known and made went through Jack.

  Any information that might lead to Baladin’s capture proved useful, but no matter how much he tried to deny it, he wanted to know how she was doing but he did everything possible to not know. He worried about her that much he’d admit, but he couldn’t bring himself to trust her anymore and felt like a fool for believing again.

  One of the risks being a federal agent was that everyone he came into contact with, even those that he loved, could be working for the enemy. He couldn’t bring himself to trust anyone but his daughter Elle. He always kept it that way for a long time.

  But the minute Amelia walked into his life, he couldn’t help but trust her. He remembered how he hated her for forcing her way into his heart, for making him believe in love again and he wondered if things didn’t turn out the way they did, would they ever had a future. Once Baladin was out of the picture, would there still be a reason to be together. Their time together was brought on by a series of nerve-shattering events and would they still want each other when that excitement died down.

  “Here is the transcript of yesterday’s interrogation you requested,” Greyson Clarke said as he appeared from behind Jack.

  Greyson has been with the CIA for the past seven years, three of which has been as a Senior Field Agent and Amelia’s case partner for the past several months.

  “Thank you,” Jack said as he stared blankly at the documents.

  “She’s doing okay, you know.”

  “Who?” Jack mumbled as he continued to stare blankly down at the file.

  “Amelia. She is doing okay. They aren't too hard on her.” Greyson stated as he noticed Jack gazing at the documents and stack of papers he held in his hands. He could tell Jack cared for Amelia Petrovich more deeply than he let on.

  Jack often kept his thoughts and feelings hidden to stay in control. He’d never admit fault nor let his guard down, but somehow Amelia got the better of him. She was as opinionated and stubborn as he was and she made him take a good hard look at himself and forced Jack to make a choice between what he was afraid of and what he wanted. Greyson wasn’t sure which choice Jack made anymore
.

  For a while there, Jack was getting better. For the first time in years, he had a smile on his face and managed to express a few greetings to others when he passed when he wasn’t bickering with Amelia, of course. Either emotion, however, had made Jack more expressive the past several months than Greyson had seen him in several years. As Greyson looked at him now, he knew a person wouldn’t believe that such a man could be capable of those things. At least not the way Jack looked now. He was in pain all over again.

  “They finished today’s interrogation about an hour ago. I was able to talk to Amelia, and she asked about you.” Greyson said solemnly.

  “You did what?” Jack said as he awakened from his dreamlike daze. He now held an expression Greyson knew all too well. The face of a scorned man. A hardened man. An angry man.

  “Look Jack…”

  “What gives you the right to…?” Jack enraged as he slammed the file on his desk.

  “To what? To talk to the woman you obviously have too much pride to admit you love? Why don’t you just go talk to her and fix things with her? She deserves that much from you!”

  “Don’t you dare mention her name to me or talk to her about what transpired between her and me! You do not know anything about what has happened. You do not know her. She’s…she’s connected to the KGB!” Jack shouted as he stormed out of his office.

  “And you do?” Greyson chased after him. “She’s in there right now being buried alive with endless waves of questioning from relentless agents, and you are just standing there letting it all happen.”

  “She worked for Baladin!” Jack argued.

  “They will indict her! That woman that YOU claimed to love did what she had to do. She did what she thought was right despite the consequences. She was helpless and had no other choice.”

  “She was an accomplice. She had the choice to tell me. If she did, I would have found a way.” Jack said.

  “If you couldn’t find a way, what then? If you had pursued her parents and there had been bloodshed instead, she would have hated you for that.”

  He could handle her hating him. It was far better than being burned again by someone he trusted and loved. Probably still loves but he refused to continue thinking about it. He did not want to allow himself to fall down that rabbit hole again.

  “What did she say to you about me?” Jack sighed.

  “She said she missed you terribly,” Greyson said as Jack looked away. Greyson saw loneliness in Jack’s eyes and knew Jack felt the same about her. “She also wondered how you were doing and I told her that you were back to your old, grumpy self. She said that it was just like a man to go back to his old habits when left alone too long.” Greyson said as he chuckled.

  For a minute there Greyson could have sworn he saw a smile on Jack’s face. Only Amelia could bring it out of him.

  “She’s doing okay?” Jack asked humbly.

  “Yeah, she is. She hasn’t been mistreated so far. You know, if everything works out in her favor and her information checks out, she has a chance of being released. It’s a slim chance considering everything that you had stacked against her when you had her brought in. It looks virtually impossible for her. It may be suggested that she receive the maximum term of life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted. We need to do something, Jack, and you need to go in there and talk to her before it’s too late and you miss your chance.”

  “I couldn’t, not after everything she did.”

  “Jack, she’s not the enemy. Don’t treat her nor let anyone in the agency treat her like she’s Aleksandr Baladin.”

  “You know as well as I do that even if I did try and do something to save her, it’s too late. I don’t have enough clearance anyway.”

  The CIA Linguistics Field Office, as well as every agency department building, had a 10 level security clearance system. The higher your rank, the more access you had to different floors within each facility and information you had on case files. Everything throughout the agency was provided on a need-to-know basis, and Jack didn’t know who within the agency had Level 10 clearance. Anyone in Level 10 was a ghost. All anyone knew was that they existed and had all the power in the world. They could be anyone including your next door neighbor. They gave case file orders for all agents and personnel to follow.

  Although Jack was in a senior position within the CIA, he only had Level 6 clearance and did not have enough say within the organization to make a case for Amelia. Greyson was merely Level 3. Jack still had to try, though.

  “Do you think she will ever forgive me?” Jack asked.

  “I bet she will say to you that there was nothing to forgive. You turning her in was a part of your job, and she wouldn’t expect any less of you.”

  “That’s what she said to me.” Jack chuckled.

  “What do you mean? Did you talk to her?”

  “No, not directly. I received a letter this morning from Amelia. I’m not sure how she did it, but somehow it made its way to my office. She’s that good.” Jack smiled to himself.

  “You should go talk to her before it’s too late.” Greyson laughed.

  “I will.”

  “Okay. Good luck.” Greyson said and patted Jack on the back as he headed towards the freight elevators.

  Talk to her? He’d never be able to do it. He couldn’t look her in the eye after what he did. A person just doesn’t do that to someone that he is supposed to love. He should have never turned her in after he found out what Amelia had experienced but if they knew, they would indict her.

  He pressed the up button to the left of the elevator doors and stepped inside. Jack allowed the control panel to scan his badge and retinas before it beeped a positive confirmation. A small access panel opened up and revealed a single, unmarked gray button that secretly led to the hidden interrogation rooms. Hesitantly, jacked pressed the button that chugged the elevator up again.

  A few minutes letter the elevator shook as it reached its destination and the doors screeched open. Jack walked a few feet into an empty room before pushing through swinging double doors as his heart beat rapidly. He walked anxiously through the long and silent corridor that led to the holding cell that encompassed Amelia Petrovich.

  What would he say to her? He didn’t know. He’d probably tell Amelia that if she cleared the charges, then she would be released sometime in the next few days but he didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was a very slim chance. He could just head back now, find a way to clear her name and let her do what she intends and disappear once released without talking to her.

  She said that she didn’t deserve forgiveness, but he knew that once he laid eyes on her, he’d end up begging her for forgiveness. He’d never be able to go through with it that would be admitting defeat. Something Jack never did. He didn’t like being vulnerable, but for the first time, it seemed worth it. She was worth it.

  Jack West was now standing before the doors to the room that contained Amelia’s holding cell. On the other side of the door was a two security agents keeping a watchful eye on her. They were taking precautions. Jack mustered up all the courage he could without backing out and opened the door.

  She looked beautiful sitting cell room floor, reading a book. That’s when she looked up and saw Jack with an expression akin to comprehension. For a while, neither said a word and just simply stared at each other until she smiled.

  “Can we have a moment, please?” Jack said to the security agents that were separating Amelia from freedom.

  “Yes, sir. We will just be right outside those doors.” one of the agents said as he pointed towards the outer door.

  “Thank you.”

  “What are you doing here Jack?” Amelia finally said as the agents left the room. It sounded more like a statement than a question.

  “I came to tell you that if everything checks out, then you will be released.”

  “That’s great.” Amelia said and surveyed Jack up and down, “You look terrible. You haven’t gotten much sleep hav
e you?”

  “No.” was all he could say.

  “I can tell. You always had a hard time sleeping. You worry too much.” She said and smirked.

  “I can’t hide anything from you can I, Amelia?” he said placing his palms against the glass.

  “You were never too good at hiding things, Jack. At least not with me.”

  After eyeing him for a few seconds, “What are you doing here?”

  “I wish I knew. I guess, I just wanted to see if you were okay. To see-”

  “There is nothing to forgive, Jack. I’m supposed to ask for your forgiveness. I’m the one that betrayed your trust. I’m the one that kept everything a secret. If I had told you what was going on, we might have found a way to capture Baladin.”

  “No, you couldn’t. It would have compromised everything. You did what you believed was the right thing. I’m sorry I reacted the way I did, Amelia. I pushed you away when I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have turned you in…I could have…”