Jack (Secret Revenge #1)

by Robin Edwards

  “Everyone’s handcuffed and loaded, Sir,” Woods said to Jack. “Johnson and some of the others are going to stick around and wait for the Coroner’s office and forensics.

  “Okay. Good job everyone. But we cannot rest too comfortably. Baladin and the Petrovichs are still out there. Their usual pattern is to flee for months, but we must remain alerted.”

  “Looks like you took one for the team.” Woods joked and walked away before getting into one of the vehicles.

  Just then Jack started to handcuff Amelia while Greyson and the other agents watched.

  “What are you doing?” Amelia exclaimed.

  “Jack, why are you handcuffing Mel?” Grey said puzzled.

  “She’s Amelia Petrovich; she’s one of them. She’s Natasha Petrovich’s daughter. She’s infiltrated the agency. It was a part of their plan all along.”

  “Amelia? Is this true?” Greyson asked.

  Amelia was speechless and unable to defend herself before Jack led her to the vehicle he had driven to the shipyard.

  “Wait, Jack. Listen to me.”

  “I made a mistake,” Jack said. He didn’t even bother to look her in the eye. “I should have realized why you were around. I should have seen that you got into the agency so easily.”

  “Do you think I am here as part of their plot? You think I kissed you because I wanted to make the lies more believable?”

  “Can you honestly deny that you weren’t here to exact revenge or assassinate staff members or agents?”

  “Maybe. Maybe I was, I was so angry when Nicolai died. But God damn it, I didn’t do it, did I?”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because, I found myself being part of something bigger. Something bigger than myself and I loved being a part of it. You idiot, it was because I fell in love with you. We were two people drawn to each other from the first day we met.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Jack said sternly. “Some things I can believe perhaps, but as far as love goes, as you call it.”

  “Oh, what do you know about love? You are afraid of it. You’ve been hiding from it for years, refusing to allow anyone to love you.” Amelia hissed.

  “Mel….”

  “You know what! Maybe you are just incapable of loving someone! You are the one with the problem! Not me.” She shouted.

  “I know I have problems. That is why I didn’t want you around from the start, but you didn’t listen, and now look where you are. I’m sorry, Amelia but I will have to take you back. It was a big mistake being with wanted assassins.”

  “You are a heartless bastard; you know that! One day you are going to realize that I don’t just love just anybody. I may be reckless and fragile, but I’m not stupid. I don’t get involved with a man unless I care about him. Like I cared about you.” Amelia pulled from his grip and sat in the back of the SUV without any help.

  Greyson shut the door. “Want me to drive her back?”

  “Can you?”

  “Sure,” Greyson said and patted Jack on the back as he walked away and disappeared. He didn’t have the guts to take her back to the agency.

  Chapter Nine

  Present Day.

  “Glad to finally get out in the open air?” Greyson asked as he walked Amelia out of the building.

  “Yeah. You don’t realize how much you miss the sunshine and fresh air until you lose it.” Amelia smiled.

  “It's a shame that you’ve blacklisted. I think you made a great field agent.”

  “That’s alright, Clarke. I’m just happy being acquitted of all charges. I’m very lucky. I wouldn’t want to ask for anything more.”

  “What will you do now?”

  “I don’t know. Start over I guess. I can’t go home obviously.” Amelia shrugged.

  “We’ll keep a permanent watch on you, just in case there’s any retaliation.”

  “Thank you, Greyson. Thank you for everything, I mean.” Amelia said as she gave him a hug.

  “Take care,” Greyson said as he headed back into the building.

  Amelia was sad to see him go. She was sad to know that she wasn’t allowed to be a part of the CIA anymore because of her affiliation, but Amelia was lucky to be glad that she was a free woman.

  She turned around just then, and Jack was standing right there.

  “Are you alright?” He quietly asked.

  Amelia stood there hesitantly at first and then walked up to him and hugged him tightly as she started to cry.

  “Shh.” He cooed and wrapped his arms around her. “Easy, darling.”

  “What are you doing out here? I thought you took some time off?” Amelia cried.

  “I came back. I was waiting for you.”

  “For me?”

  “You asked if I’d still have you, so I came back for you.” He said tenderly.

  “Look Jack. I know how hard it is for you to trust me, especially after everything that has happened to you.”

  “Well, I’m still in one piece, aren’t I?”

  He smoothed her hair and tried to find the words to tell her how he felt. “I was sitting there in my living room, and I noticed how empty it felt without you. I missed your laughter and your smart mouth. I mean I can buy anything in life, but I realized how much I didn’t have you. I wanted you in my life. I want to be with you. I need you.” Jack whispered in her ear.

  “I know I have a lot of things to learn and a lot of stuff to change, but I’ll need your help. I love you Jack West.” Amelia said.

  “I have a lot of things to learn as well, and I love you too Amelia,” Jack said as he kissed her right then, out in the sunlight.

  Amelia felt lucky. Coming here was one of those rash decisions born out of anger and revenge, but somehow she found the one place she had been looking for her entire life, and of all the men in the world, she found the one who needed her the most. Just as much as she needed him.

  “You should know, West. I’m not as tough as I appear to be. I don’t let most people see that part of me, most of the time they don’t even understand.”

  “I’m glad you trust me enough to show that side of yourself with me. I know you need freedom and encouragement. I promise to give you everything you need to grow and flourish in whatever it is you choose to do from here on out.”

  Amelia smiled.

  “In that case, you are stuck with me forever.”

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  One Little Letter

  A Contemporary, New Adult Romance

  By Robin Edwards

  © Copyright 2016 by Robin Edwards - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in 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.

  Chapter 1

  Dearest Amy,

  It’s been three months since I last saw you when we broke up and I used to think about it a lot but I don’t anymore. Not until today at least. Although, the break up came as a shock and really hurt, it’s in the past and in the back of my mind now. I’ve been doing really fantastic since then and I hope you are doing great too…

  “Okay this should be it. It’s all done.” Patrick said as he dropped client files on top of Sean’s desk. Patrick was about to walk away until out of the corner of his eye he noticed a familiar name on the open dialogue box of Sean’s email account and leaned in closer to the computer screen. “What the hell are you doing exactly?”

  “What does it look like I’m doing? I, Patrick, and just typing a simple ‘How are you doing?’ email to Amy.” Sean said as he continued typing.

  “More like losing every last ounce of self-respect and dig
nity you may have in her eyes. Did you not learn your lesson about her?” he said as he clicked the delete button on Sean’s email program.

  “Hey! What are you doing? I was about to send that!” Sean said flabbergasted.

  “And the point of that is what?” Patrick asked and when Sean was at a last for words. “See there is none. Haven’t you forgotten that she not only divorced you but she left you for your best man.”

  “I thought you were the best man?” Sean smirked.

  “No, I’m your best friend. Now because I wouldn’t have had an affair with your gold digging ex-wife. Don’t forget she not only ripped your heart out of your chest but threw it to the ground and stopped it into a million pieces.” Patrick said walking away to the break room to grab a cup of coffee.

  “I’ve moved on but it doesn’t look like you have.” Sean joked as he stood up to follow Patrick.

  Few hours later…

  “What’s your score for today?” Sean said as he bit into his ham and cheese sandwich.

  “This sandwich, I’d probably give it an ‘8’, but the women….ugh, a disappointing ‘5’.” Patrick said as he stared at his chicken salad sandwich in and dropped it onto the white paper bag it came in as he sighed.

  Every day during lunch time, Sean and Patrick would have their lunch at Spirwell Park, down the street from their office. The two guys were partners in a marketing and promotions company. During their lunches they would give scores to the quality of women in the park as well as their lunches. They’ve done this every day for the past two years.

  “Don’t you hate it when our lunch is better than the women?” Sean said with his mouth stuffed full of bread, cheese, mayo and deli meat.

  “Well it all depends on how hungry I am that day.” Patrick shrugged and laughed to himself.

  At that exact moment, both men glanced coincidentally at the path way to the right of the benches they were sitting and walking across was a beautiful, blonde hair goddess with a flowing, canary yellow sun dress. Both men stared at her exoticness with their mouths dropped open.

  “Totally better than lunch...” Patrick said in amazement as he continued to stare at the mystery woman.

  “I think I’ve just seen my dream girl…” Sean said in awe.

  Patrick rolled his eyes, “No offense or anything Sean, but the waiting list is probably a mile long.”

  Without even listening, Sean stood up and waved at the mystery woman in the yellow sundress. The woman, active in a cell phone conversation, glanced over and grinned as she spoke to the individual on the other side of the phone call.

  Tapping Patrick on the shoulder rough, Sean exclaimed, “She just smiled at me! Did you see that?!” As Sean sat down to finish his sandwich, “I am a strong believer that nothing can keep you from the woman that you are meant to be with.”

  “Alright. If that’s the case then go catch up to her, sweep her off her feet. Invite me to your wedding.” Patrick exaggerated.

  “Don’t need to. If we are meant to be, it will just happen. You know, naturally.”

  “Yeah, just like all of the women you’ve met over the past few months, naturally.” Patrick laughed.

  “Go ahead and laugh. She’s going to be different.”

  “Right.” Patrick chuckled to himself.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of town, few hours later…

  Bridgette and her son, Kyle, were walking through the parking lot headed back to their car, after Bridgette picked him up from school.

  After noticing a familiar cartoon fish on a car’s bumper sticker, “Mom! Look that car has been to Water Zone. See the bumper sticker!”

  “Yeah, how about that?” Bridgette smiled endearingly at her 10 year-old son.

  “But the fish isn’t blue, it’s red.” Kyle said confused.

  “Well, that’s very mysterious.”

  “Uh huh.” Kyle said as he thought for a minute and then asked, “Mom, do you think there’s sharks at Water Zone. Or maybe dolphins?”

  “Maybe there’s sharks and dolphins.” Bridgette chuckled.

  “Maybe, dad went there too.” Kyle said nonchalant as Bridgette felt a twinge of pain. She did every time Kyle mentioned his father. Kyle’s dad was no longer in Kyle’s life. He had left when Kyle was just a baby and never came back.

  Bridgette tried hard to be both his mother and father but as Kyle had gotten older, he’s been asking about his father more and more and she didn’t have the heart to discuss the matter with him so she tried to brush it off whenever he had the urge to bring his father up.

  Several days later during lunch time…

  “These are just trial ads because we’ve got a budget, but if we get this right…” Patrick said.

  “If we nail this or demolish this…” Sean agrees while looking at the insert promotions.

  “How about more coupons?”

  “Ooh, how about focus groups?” Sean exclaims and as he looks up he sees the mystery woman walking into the outdoor café with what he assumed to be a friend and he watches again in awe. “There’s the mystery woman...”

  “Hello, ladies” the hostess says to the mystery woman and her companion. “Just two?”

  “Yeah.” The mystery woman answers.

  “Just this way.” The hostess says as she leads them into the seating area and pass by Sean and Patrick. Sean stares at her and gives a small little wave as the mystery woman glances in his direction and gives a short smile.

  “You remember what I said? I told you I’d meet her again.”

  “In order to meet her again, you’d have to have met her the first time.”

  “Did you see the way she just smiled at me? An even bigger smile as the first one!”

  “She probably let out a silent one.” Patrick giggled to himself.

  “No, it meant something.” Sean said as he subtly scooted his chair back to eaves drop on the conversation the two women were having. The two women were seated at the table behind Sean.

  “Yeah, sometimes get free tickets to games, passes to all kinds of events. So far it has been a pretty cool job.”

  “Wow.” the other woman said.

  “Oh, you should take down my email address.” The mystery woman says as Sean overhears and quickly pulls out a pen and readies himself to write her email address.

  “Ready?” the mystery woman says to her friend. “It’s bjohnsen@nsk101...”

  “What are you doing?” Patrick asks as he watches Sean scribble quickly.

  “Shh, I’m writing it down.” Sean says as he tries to continue eavesdropping.

  The waitress walks up just then, “Hope you men are hungry.” As she sets down their plates.

  “Oh yeah, I’m starving.” Patrick says to the waitress.

  “Enjoy.” The waitress says before walking away.

  “This is what you would call fate!” Sean said holding up the paper with the scribbled email address of the mystery woman. All he knew was her last name was Johnson and her first name started with a B. Barbara? Brittany? Betty?

  Beth notices that her email was spelled incorrectly on her friend’s notepad, “Oh that’s Johnson with an e-n not an o-n.”

  “Oh, woops.” Her friend says as she corrects the spelling.

  “Why don’t you just go talk to her? She’s sitting right behind you.” Patrick urges his friend.

  “What am I supposed to say? ‘My name is Sean and you are the woman I’ve been looking for my entire life. Will you marry me?’ ”

  “I think, ‘Hi, I’m Sean.’ is enough.”

  “No. This email address here is fate. This is how it is supposed to happen.” Sean exclaims as Patrick laughs at him.

  A few nights later…

  While sitting at his drafting table, Sean is busy trying to prepare for an upcoming promotional campaign but cannot focus as he continues to constantly thinking about whether or not he wants to take a chance and email the mystery woman he calls “B”.

  As he pulls out the paper with B’s email ad
dress on it, he thinks for a minute before heading to his computer. After deciding to go with it, he starts typing his first secret admirer email to her.

  He starts to type:

  The Important Reasons Why I am Your Secret Admirer