“I see. I suppose you’re Mel Antonov. The recruit.”
“How in the hell do you know who I am?”
“An educated guess,” he replied staring at her with a penetrating, sidelong look.
“My superiors already debriefed me about you. You are the ‘talented, pain in the ass with the smart mouth’ they said.” He grinned.
“Wow. Well, it’s good to know that I am recognized here.” Amelia rolled her eyes. “What else do you know about me?”
He seemed on the verge of telling her some backhanded comment designed to insult and rile her up, but he held back. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a handkerchief and stepped within a foot of her. “Your lip is bleeding.”
The man was very tall, around 6’1”; his calloused hand touched hers briefly as he handed the handkerchief over. As Amelia pressed the fabric to her lip, he said, “I also know that you have impressed a lot of people in the agency.”
“That’s a first. I’m used to being told I’m fragile or careless. Most of the time, both.” He took that as an invitation to observe her more closely. He studied her face and demeanor that showed she was either trying to make a statement or prove herself.
It was an attitude she expressed that made her feel good about herself. She was ambitious, robust and wanted people to know that she could do anything to anyone. She wanted to be feared but mostly respected. She was tired of not being taken seriously.
“You seem like you’re careless and I hear that you have a tendency to be careless too.”
“Who are you, judge and jury?” Amelia retorted.
The mysterious man shrugged, “I am not the one losing focus. You are.”
She gave him another unamused grin and rolled her eyes.
“From what I hear, when you lose your cool, you get frustrated and sloppy. So far, it seems to be an accurate analysis, if you ask me.”
“Well, I didn’t ask you for your opinion, asshole. Just who in the hell are you, anyway? I told you who I was.” Amelia asked angrily.
“I’m Jack West,” he said holding out his hand. “Senior Director Agent of Field Operations and you are in my division.”
“Woop de doo, Mr. Senior Directing Agent of Field Operations. You must be doing a fantastic job obviously,” she cracked and stepped away from him. His standing so close pairing with him staring directly at her was making her uncomfortable. “What are you supposed to be in charge of, besides being the cigarette police and all?”
“That is none of your business and out of your classification,” he retorted, dropping his voice into a rumbling growl.
“Are you injured?” he asked then. “Besides your lip and jaw?”
“I’m fine, I guess. Besides this.” Amelia said as she held up the fabric. “Do you think I will need stitches?”
With one swift move, he reached out and grasped her chin and tilted her head as he took a closer look. At that instant, Amelia got goosebumps as she felt the warmth radiating from his masculine body. She subconsciously sucked in her breath and closed her eyes and stood there under his gaze in the sunlight.
Amelia opened one eye and took a peek at him, and for a grumpy guy, Jack wasn’t too bad to look at. He seemed like there was no sense of humor there or he did not do a lot of laughing, however. The look in his eyes told Amelia that he probably led a hard life outside of the CIA. Almost as if time had been on hard on him. As tall, built and assertive as he seemed, she wasn’t afraid of him.
She wasn’t afraid of anything, yet she felt almost unworthy and defensive in his presence. As if she wasn’t good enough and wanted his respect.
“Nope,” he said releasing her gently as he took a step back. “No stitches, at least I don’t think so, but you may want to stop by the medic’s office and get checked out as a precaution. What’s wrong?” he asked suddenly.
Amelia had goosebumps and started shivering. “Nothing is the matter. I’m trying to leave anyway. Could you help me with my car or do you have more cigarette policing to do?” she asked defensively.
“I’m not busy at the moment.” He said ignoring the taunt in her voice.
“What are you doing back here in the first place? Someone could get hurt you know, with you sneaking up on them and all.”
“No one usually hangs out behind the building, let alone in a parking lot.”
“Who do you think I am? Invisible?”
He put his car keys into his pocket and walked towards Amelia. “No, but you could have been seriously injured accelerating in the parking lot like you did. What were you trying to do speeding like that?” he said as he grabbed her car keys out of her hand.
“What is wrong with the way I drive? I always drive like that?”
“Reckless you mean? Why anyone would smoke also, is beyond me. I could smell it all the way from my car.”
“Look, West. Why don’t you just leave me alone?” Amelia said annoyed as she tried to grab her keys back from him.
Moving his hand out of the way before she could grab the keys back, Jack put his hand on the small of her back, “Come on, let’s go inside and you can call yourself a tow truck from there before anyone puts out a missing person’s report on you. Why anyone would want to live recklessly like that…”
“There is nothing wrong with the way I choose to live my life,” Amelia said as she shrugged him off.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Ms. Antonov. Are you naturally defensive all the time?”
“Ugh! You know what? If you don’t like it,” Amelia said, fed up at last, “Then you don’t have to be in the same room as me!” and she turned towards the stairs as she stormed inside.
Jack West heard a lot about Mel Antonov since she had joined the agency several weeks ago. Either she was a pistol with a chip on her shoulder, or she was regarded very highly. Her file stated that she hightailed it out of Virgina after high school for her college studies in London and only returned to the states a couple of times over the years. She wanted her independence.
She was incredibly beautiful as everyone said, he admitted and seemed to be as tough as the stories claimed. She was lean and toned mixed with the look of a supermodel. She’d be a great catch for anyone, but her attitude killed it.
Her auburn-brown hair shined in the sunlight, and she had a mesmerizing smile he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off. Her cold stare challenged his, and her cocky demeanor somehow exhilarated him. She probably was the only one who could match his stubbornness and need for control.
She regularly tapped her toe, swung the mane of her sun-kissed hair and rolled her eyes. All of these qualities bothered Jack enough to want to irritate her.
Her necklace caught the daylight and beamed brightly. The pendant was a silver stake, and he wondered if he should ask her if she used it to hunt werewolves. He didn’t know of course, but he was sure she would have been enraged to hear it, but he was aware that she tried terribly hard and unnecessarily to keep up a bad girl façade in place. Too bad she was defensive all the time.
“Take it easy,” he said, determined not to let her get the best of him. “If you do something reckless, it’ll be me who has to deal with your mess.” As he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
Her look burned into him, “I’d hate to trouble you.”
“Then, calm down.” He took his hand off her shoulder and turned to focus on the damaged vehicle.
She followed him as he walked around the vehicle assessing the damage. “You must have been with the agency for a long time to have such a high position.”
“I’ve worked hard to make it here.” He kicked some of the shattered glass away from the tires before he took a closer look at the front end of the vehicle where the damage was the greatest.
“Have you met the President yet?”
“A few times.” Jack examined the damage to the front end of the vehicle where the hood of the car had bent.
“Does he visit here often?” Amelia asked, standing behind him by the shattered
glass.
Jack glanced at her, “Nope.”
“How is he? I mean is he a cool guy?”
“What is with all the questions? Is this an interrogation?” Jack asked.
“What? It’s just that I haven’t met him before; that’s all.” Amelia said defensively.
“I’m glad. Lord knows what would happen if you did.”
Amelia got flustered as her mouth dropped open. “What is that supposed to mean exactly?”
“Nothing. I wish I could say I read your entire file, but I haven’t. Conversations about the infamous Amelia happen all the time.” Jack kicked more of the glass away from the car and squatted next to the front driver’s side so he could kneel down to get a better look under the car. “I’ve even heard the story about how you decked Agent Woods, Smith, and Johnson all in the same evening. No one knows how you managed to punch all three of them with a straight face.”
She shrugged, “They kept acting like assholes, so I went for it.”
“Alright,” Jack said, guessing that she said that only to test his reaction. He decided not to react and said, “Well, you damaged the car pretty bad. If you try to start the vehicle to move it, you might start a fire in the engine.”
“I want to move it anyway; I have to get home somehow. It’s good to know that people talk about me now and then, people usually despise me quicker. My family always said you can always catch more flies with honey because everything I did wasn’t good enough.”
“Maria Antonov is your mother, right? Your adopted mother?”
“Yes, no matter what I said or did, I was corrected and criticized.”
“Why would your mother do that?”
“It’s the reason why we’re estranged. It means my mother despises me too.”
“I know what it means.”
“We barely talk anymore, if at all. Haven’t spoken in a long time.” Amelia shrugged.
“You seem pretty happy about that.”
“Not happy exactly, but it’s common for our family. She hates me. They all do, I’m not good enough for them.”
“Maria couldn’t hate anyone.”
“How would you know what she hates? Wait a minute. You know her don’t you?” She looked up at him curiously.
“Yes, we’ve met before. A long time ago.”
“My, my my. Pray tell, how?” Amelia inquired.
“Frankly, Ms. Antonov that is none of your business.”
“Is anything my business?”
“In my life, no.”
“Well, can you at least tell me if she ever spoke to you about me?”
“No, it must have been before you were adopted, about 15 years ago,” Jack said as he sighed before he went back to surveying the car. “Besides, mentioning you must cause her pain, and I wouldn’t do that to Maria for anything.”
“Maria, is it?” Amelia asked with a beaming smile. “Well, well, well. You’re a little too vanilla aren’t you?”
“Vanilla what?”
“You know what I mean. You’re a little too dull and are a stick in the mud to have been escorting my mother around town. Plus, she’s probably way older than you-”
“As I said, my relationship with Maria is none of your business, thank you. It was a long time ago, end of story.”
Jack didn’t owe anyone an explanation for his history with Maria Antonov, the only person in the world who affected his life more than anyone in the world and not necessarily in the ideal way. They had met when he was in graduate school, and she was on vacation in the United States from Russia. Jack had courted her for several months and was to elope in Vegas until she left him standing at the altar with no explanation, just a short note saying goodbye. She was amazingly sweet before that, qualities he didn’t see about her daughter at all.
“You don’t really strike me as the adventurous type, and I bet you didn’t meet her at the gym either. I wonder which interests you both had in common.” Amelia eyed him suspiciously.
“We were acquainted, that is all.”
“Oh, that doesn’t surprise me at all. My mother was very friendly with all kinds of men before she met father.”
“I don’t like what you're implying, Ms. Antonov.”
“Why, hurt by the truth?”
He started to give an exaggerated laugh. “I can see that everything I read and heard everyone talk about is true. You like to find a weak spot and attack.”
“In more ways than one,” Amelia said to herself. “Did I find yours?”
Jack didn’t answer the question and returned to the car. “Mel’s always looking to start a fight like she’s got an ax to grind. Probably is your silly, little way of getting attention.”
She laughed haughtily. “In my family, I’d have to die to get attention from my parents. Did you meet my Uncle Nicholas? A big ball of wonderfulness?”
“I didn’t meet a Nicholas. She never actually introduced me to any family members, and now that I think about it, she hardly talked about herself. The one thing that I know is that her family was well respected. I didn’t see any royalty or celebrity status in your file, so I’m assuming it was just by notoriety. But I suppose you are not. Do you get your share of the limelight when you walk around with that chip on your shoulder? Don’t try bullying me like the way you probably muscle everyone else. I don’t give a damn if people say things to piss you off, unlike your mother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Except that maybe you’ll find that Maria probably misses you.” Jack said.
“I don’t care if she misses me. I don’t want to see her or them right now. I have priorities.”
He heard a catch in her throat and glanced up to see a tear in her eye. “Scared?”
“No!”
Jack laughed at Amelia’s exaggerated response. “What kind of priorities then?” When Amelia clammed up, he said: “Yeah, you’re scared.”
“What do you know? At least I have a family.”
Jack didn’t like talking about himself. His past was his own business, and he was allowed to ignore it and hopefully, forget it. So he kept his mouth shut, which seemed to anger the beautiful Mel Antonov.
As he continued to fiddle with the car, she said, “You are infuriating, you know that!”
“Why, because you can’t push me around?”
“I’m not trying to push you around!”
“Oh, yes, you are.”
“I’m not trying to do a damn thing to you. I-”
“Oh please. You make everyone feel threatened by you enough to have them jump through hoops or walk on eggshells, so they don’t upset you.” Jack stood up then and looked directly into her eyes. “Well, you can try and infuriate me all you want, Ms. Antonov. But I’m not going to jump through hoops.”
She leaned against the car and glared back at him. “You can’t be affected by me, huh?”
“No, not by you.”
“Think you won’t jump through hoops?”
“I just don’t like your manipulative behavior is all.”
“Oh really?” She began to smile. “Sometimes manipulation can be incredible.” She then came away from the car and walked up to Jack and grabbed the lapel of his suit with her hands.
She pulled him close but didn’t wait for him to react. She lifted her mouth up to his and caught his lips quickly. She was warm to him. When she slanted her mouth across his, Jack felt his body come alive with sensations he hadn’t felt in a long time, everywhere. A few minutes later, Amelia’s tongue found his and teased it for a little bit.
Feelings and sensations Jack thought were long gone suddenly came alive from a place buried deeply and it surprised the hell out of him. Amelia pressed her body closer to his, and that’s when his mind went blank, and he gave in.
Before he came to his senses about what he was actually doing, he wrapped his arms around her. He felt a rush of exhilaration and softly muttered her name as his insistent mouth kissed her back gently at first and then with an
increasing intensity that made her cling to him. His hands caressed up and down her back and then to her waist as his fingers ever so subtly grazed the skin under the hem of her shirt. He couldn’t seem to get enough, and it was as if the world stood still for Amelia. His lips sent tremors along her nerve endings, evoking sensations she didn’t expect to feel. She just wanted to play a game with him, a silly game.
Amelia’s realization sent her back to reality, and she ended it quickly. She let go of his suit jacket, stepped back and grinned at the point she just proved. “See? Sometimes things that are manipulative can be beautiful.”
Jack (Secret Revenge #1) Page 3
