“Don’t blame yourself Jack. You can’t always take the punishment for me. You have to stop trying to protect me from the world. The only way anyone can learn is if you let them make mistakes, even if it means getting hurt.” Amelia said.
“It’s not your fault either.”
“Yes, it is. I had conscious control of my life, but I was stubborn and chose to handle everything on my own instead of getting help. It was too big of a burden to handle. Being here is what I deserve.” Amelia said.
“Everything is no more your fault than mine,” Jack said.
“Everything is my fault. I knew what I was doing and believed I was doing the right thing. If convicted let me accept it, do not try and appeal. Let me pay for my sins.”
“Amelia, you do not deserve to be in there. If you did, I should be there right along with you. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure nothing happens to you. I am sorry for all of this; it’s my fault.”
“So what does this all mean Jack?”
“I don’t know.”
Chapter Two
6 Months Earlier.
Revenge drove Amelia home.
After hearing the news about her Uncle Nicolai’s death at the hands of the CIA, she took off on a chilly night towards Langley, Virginia. She started out in a rage in Moscow and flew towards the United States with no plan. Not at first. It just felt good to go, with her need to inflict pain and thoughts of sweet revenge blasting in her mind.
Before taking off, she had not notified anyone of her departure: not family, friends or even her godfather Aleksandr. It was a mistake, of course, her family was highly overprotective. Her parents insisted on, especially Aleksandr, knowing everyone’s whereabouts, especially hers. They didn’t trust her, and she was resentful of the notion. She spent the past several years proving herself. The Petrovichs and the Baladins were a family of petty criminals in the country of Russia, and despite being entirely successful at it, Amelia believed they were genuine people despite their behavior.
From what she knew, everyone said it all started with Aleksandr being framed by the Sledkom (Russia’s version of the CIA/FBI) to find a scapegoat to case files that the Central Investigation Department couldn’t solve. Someone needed to go down for past crimes, and Aleksandr was it. Fortunately for him, he was a free man but has been watched ever since, and anyone affiliated with him was watched too. Because of such, he and anyone affiliated were unable to lead a normal life and had to turn to petty crime to survive. Amelia didn’t blame him, what else was Aleksandr supposed to do?
Because he was #1 on the watch list, he went into hiding, and it was a rare sight to see him face-to-face, but you heard from him one way or another especially when it came to the next job. Those that doubted he existed and failed to complete his requests, suffered a vicious and horrible death. Her parents, Denis and Natasha, insisted she would never be able to live a normal life but refused to let her participate in anything other than errands since she was subjected to less scrutiny than the others.
This infuriated Amelia. She has always wanted to be a part of something bigger but was refused to because she was too much of a risk. She wasn’t ready.
But after flying into JFK airport at midnight and driving aimlessly for a few hours along freeways she never knew existed, Amelia found herself in Virginia just a few miles from CIA headquarters. After that, she developed the plans she wanted to execute on autopilot.
In the dark and during the middle of the night and without anyone knowing her whereabouts, she drove the rental car up to the home the family owned for several generations on the outskirts of town. She knew the house would be empty and was glad that she didn’t have to see anybody. The last thing she needed was to have a conversation with someone. Amelia just wanted to be alone.
The sky began to lighten, and the sun was starting to rise as she turned into the long driveway marked by two brick posts and started up the descent under a canopy of century old cypress trees. The air was quiet. Magical, really. A mystical white mist eddied upward from the body of water nearby and engulfed the rental car in an eerie cloud. Anyone who didn’t know the area might have crashed into trees or driven into the embankment, but even though she had not been here since she was a child, Amelia turned confidently. Her heart was still beating with anticipation about how she will make up for what happened to Nicolai.
The rental car’s tires crunched and ground the gravel into a sandy dust as it spun until at last the car burst out of the eerie mist, and the rooftop of the family home appeared through the trees.
The family home was a grand place – a winter wonderland, and the site for lavish entertaining and gatherings – and a few romantic legends. When she was young, they used to string holiday lights throughout the surrounding cypress trees and feast on whatever her babushka (бабушка – grandmother) managed to cook up. Cook up was an understatement. Whenever babushka was around, she would always put together a magnificent feast. She was an artist in the kitchen. Once, they hosted a wedding out on the veranda, and a band of eight played long into the night.
Amelia caught her first glimpse of the chimney and her heart jumped. Visiting the home now brought a lot of heartfelt memories she hadn’t remembered in years. It was no matter, Amelia thought. There was work to be done, and she did not have any time to waste on silly memories. After a good night’s rest, she would continue devising her plan and avenge Uncle Nicolai and the family.
A few weeks later.
“Ah, fuck!”
The field agent’s overhand punch landed her square in the jaw as she tried to swing at him with a shaky hand, and suddenly there was no sound as the lights went out. Nothing but silence and darkness.
“Mel? Mel? Can you hear me? Wake up. Are you okay?”
Amelia’s eyes fluttered open as she woke up in a groggy haze several minutes later and tried to sit up quickly until she felt a wave of dizziness and laid back down. Amelia tasted blood and felt her cut lip. She slowly tried to sit up again as the agent who had punched her tried to stop her.
“Woah, take it easy, partner.”
“Not bad, Greyson.” she said to the field agent as she felt her jaw as she cautiously stood up and walked over to the wall mirror near the training room entrance.
Greyson Clarke, two levels her senior, was the field agent assigned as Amelia’s partner when she first enlisted with the Central Intelligence Agency, weeks ago. Amelia had moved through the screening and background check faster than anyone in agency history. The standard application and investigation process took about a year on average, but Amelia was skilled at computer networking systems belonging to high-level government agencies and was able to alter records to speed up the process for herself and left no tracks. She was one of the best in the world, and nobody even knew it. A talent very few people in the world possessed, yet it was something that naturally came to Amelia.
She was able to undergo the thorough background investigation where the agency examined her life history, character, reliability, and her sound judgment. She also went through coercion, a polygraph, physical fitness tests and medical examinations all in a matter of a few weeks.
As far as the agency was concerned, Amelia was ‘Mel Antonov,' a Russian-American born in Brooklyn, New York with dual education in Linguistics and Forensic Psychology from Kings College London. Her falsified records also stated she was the adopted daughter of Art History professor, Maria Antonov. None of it was true, of course, but it was all a part of the plan she developed when she first arrived in the states. It was her plan.
Looking into the mirror now, she muttered to herself, “As usual, you do everything in a big way, Petrovich.
“Hey look, I’m sorry Mel, but it’s all a part of rookie training. You have to undergo constant physical training. The bad guys out there are extremely tough, and you have to learn how to disable them quickly and efficiently.” Greyson said as he walked up to Amelia.
“It’s alright. I understand. Do you mind if
we call it quits early today? I’m just not really feeling up to it. We can do double duty tomorrow if you have the time.” Amelia sighed.
“It’s no problem. I have time tomorrow. We do need to connect later today, we have to go over a case file that I want you to shadow me on so that you learn how a case file develops and closes.” Greyson instructed.
“Who’s the case file about?”
“Aleksandr Baladin. Heard of him? Must have, since you’re from Russia and all.”
“I was born here.” Amelia lied as she laughed to herself.
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard on the news nonetheless that he’s the #1 on the Most Wanted List of every intelligence agency in the world. The agency has been trying to track him down for years, but fortunately, we’ve been receiving a lot of intel lately and are coming close to his whereabouts. Looks like he’s starting to get sloppy.”
“Or he could be purposely leaving tracks to distract the agency from what he’s really doing?” Amelia suggested.
“Could be, but we highly doubt it but let's go over the history in a couple of hours, okay?”
“Sure thing, I’m going to head out for a smoke break. I need to calm down a little.” Amelia said grabbing her keys.
“Yeah, that’s also what I want to talk to you about. Higher ups know how incredibly talented you are, but they also believe what is holding you back is your tendency to go off the deep end quickly and become more reactionary and frustrated. Being frustrated makes you sloppy and risky, especially to the lives of the other agents. You have to find a way to keep a level head especially when out on the field.” Greyson instructed.
“Got it,” Amelia said as she walked out of the training room doors and headed outside to her used Jeep to assess the damage to her lip. She felt the need to go for a drive and have a long smoke. Amelia did this whenever her adrenaline was running too high, which was quite often. If she didn’t learn to get her emotions in check, her body would generate enough rage to be a force of nature. When she got to that point, other people would suffer in her wake, and some of them were already dead.
These were things that Amelia was trained to do, and if she wanted to execute her plan successfully, she would need to learn how to keep her emotions in check as not to arouse suspicion and she didn’t want to do anything to Greyson either.
Amelia started the Jeep’s engine and grabbed the cigarette pack from the glove compartment. She purchased the Jeep a couple of weeks after she had arrived in Virginia. Amelia took another look at the damage to her lip in the rear view mirror and blew cigarette smoke out of the window. She was a mess – a severely cut lip, bruised face and from embarrassment.
As she put the Jeep in the wrong gear instead of reverse and stepped on the gas pedal too hard, the car drove right into the brick wall in front of her separating the parking lot from the building next door.
“Dammit!”
Amelia got out of her car immediately to assess the damage the grill of the Jeep and the wall. Shaking her head in almost expected disappointment and cursing to herself she resigned to another faux pas that was common in her life. She walked back towards the agency building in her steel-toed boots and climbed onto the walkway railing. Amelia sat there perched, sinking back against the wall to one of the emergency exit doors of the building with her half-smoked cigarette.
She crossed her propped up legs and contemplated how her life was one disaster after another and this incident was just another one on her rap sheet. If her family were here to see what had just transpired, it would definitely confirm what they already knew about her.
“You’re too careless.” Nicolai Petrovich had said. “I’m sorry, but you aren’t doing your best to fit in here.” Uncle Nicolai’s way of saying the Code of Honor
The Petrovichs, Baladins, and all represented families had to follow an unspoken system of ethics their bloodlines kept intact for generations. If you weren’t in the bloodline (born into it) but were initiated in after years of proven dedication, you had to follow it all the same. You had to follow the code and show honor to the family name. If you were asked to do something you had to do it or you were seen as dishonoring the family, and no one dishonored the family.
Family, Amelia learned growing up wasn’t the traditional kind. The family was her father, mother, uncles and aunts of course but it was also the bodyguards, security guards, members of the military or the random employee working for your parents while they were away completing a job. It was also Aleksandr Baladin.
“But I have been trying to do my best work!”
“You’re just too careless and fragile. You’re too much of a hazard.” Uncle Nicolai always said.
“But I can handle anything!”
Nicolai sighed. It was an argument they’d had a million times before. “Take my advice, myshka (мышка - little mouse), will you? Stop fighting your own personality and be who you are and improve on that. Not who you think you should be or what you are not. Try working on the skills that you do have and one day you’ll join us. You have the potential to be very talented. I am sure you will join us one day, but not now. You’re still too careless.” Nicholai suggested.
Careless? Fragile? Amelia scoffed at the words. She wasn’t weak, and she wasn’t a hazard. Amelia could dish out damage though and could control herself. She should have laughed at him, except the situation wasn’t funny at all. No one, let alone her parents, knew how desperately she wanted to join them – the action, the power, the lifestyle – she had wanted it all.
That was the exact moment Amelia made the decision to make her own way through the ranks day after day and prove she had what it took to be at the top where she could help with the crime jobs and eliminate enemies. That is what she did for the next ten years, showing through her ability to keep her emotions in check and defuse situations with ease. She even surprised the family with her ability to navigate through complex network systems without any formal training by anyone.
Now at 26 years old, she had fought her way into some of the best assignments. Sure, it was still a petty crime and nothing too hefty, but she knew deep down that one day Aleksandr and the family would get into bigger things if they weren’t already. Now it seemed, her subconscious mind or maybe she needed to prove herself again had brought her back to Virginia.
Some time had passed as Amelia sat perched there smoking her cigarette down to the filter before she threw it on the ground below her.
Chapter Three
“Careless, aren’t you?”
His voice startled her awake, a kind of menacing growl, behind her. Amelia turned around and jumped off the railing quickly and instinctively. She muttered profanities under her breath clutching her chest in shock.
The mysterious man pointed to the sign next to her that read: NO SMOKING WITHIN 50 FEET OF THE PREMISES.
“Do you want to burn the building to the ground?” he snarled.
“Fuck,” Amelia gasped, still clutching her chest, out of breath. “I didn’t hear you coming. Where the hell did you come from?”
She looked directly at him then. The man was tall, built, had a five o’ clock shadow and was wearing a sharp, black suit with a gray patterned tie and matching black dress shoes. His neatly combed dark hair had hints of gray on both temples. Features that made him seem that much more masculine.
He picked up the cigarette butt and walked over to the other side of the parking lot and dropped it into the ashtray. He walked back to her with menacing body language, deep blue eyes that looked directly at her as he grimaced. She noticed his sharply cut jaw line and cheek bones with blunt facial features. You didn’t start trouble with a man of his looks and self-assurance.
If you also took into consideration the lines on his face, one would think he was in his late 30’s, and that was probably pushing it a little, but it was his voice rather than his appearance that commanded her attention. It was almost like a deep rumble in his chest that finished with a controlled, menacing tone. It was the voice of
a man that did not need to raise his voice or shout to make his point.
“I am in no mood for lectures today, so…” Amelia said matter-of-factly as she eyed him up and down.
“Neither am I, darlin’, but I’d like an explanation just the same. Who are you?” Jack snapped.
“I should ask you the same thing. Who are you exactly?” Amelia shot back.
“Answer the question or leave the premises before I arrest you. Are you trespassing?”
“I’m Amel…uh, I mean Mel.” She rolled her eyes.
“Mel…” he repeated and something dawned in his dark, brooding eyes – something akin to recognition as he looked into her face for what seemed like the very first time. She stood there studying her, and she started to feel self-conscious.
Jack (Secret Revenge #1) Page 2
