Greyson (Secret Revenge Book 2)

by Robin Edwards

  The blonde picked up the folded paper, “This?”

  “Yep, that’s the one.”

  “This is a story in itself, but to answer your question it’s actually for Jack, your father. Something tells me you already knew that didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I kind of read it.” I tapped my fingers on the desk nervously. “I figured it was for him, it had his name all over it.”

  “I shouldn’t be telling you this but your father got himself in quite a pickle.”

  “He’s not my father.” I added adamantly.

  Blondie tapped the top of his pen on one of the folders he brought in. He was hesitating or debating, I couldn’t tell which. I didn’t care really, I just wanted to know more about this letter about Jack that I found on blondie’s desk.

  “Sorry, I thought they said…”

  “Well, they’re wrong. My father’s name is Rick Rose.”

  Blondie stood up quickly, “You know what, we should get to your training. I’m Greyson by the way. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when I came in.”

  “Wait…wait…I want to know more about the letter.”

  “No, I already said more than I should. Come on, we need to go to the conference room so we can get you started.” blondie said as he headed toward the door.

  “You can’t just do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “Hint at something and then not explain it fully. What’s with the letter?” I asked.

  “Alright, I’ll tell you quickly but after that we need to get started. Jack will have my hide if you’re not up to speed.” he ran a hand through his hair.

  “Well?”

  “Okay…um…Mel, the woman who wrote that letter was one of our other rookies. A few weeks ago…she…uh, she pretty much did some gnarly things under a guise of sorts. I can’t really say too much because it’s an ongoing investigation but before we found out who she really was, it seems that your dad…I mean, Jack was in some sort of thing with Mel.” he said returning to his desk.

  “What kind of thing?”

  “Oh, you know.” he answered with a wink.

  “What in the hell does that mean? Oh. Ohhh!” I gasped. “Do you mean they were sleeping together?”

  “Well, that I don’t know. I’m guessing they have but I don’t think I want to know what they actually have or haven’t done.” blondie turned toward his computer, tapping a few keys.

  “In my experience, you don’t write something heartfelt like that if there wasn’t something major going on.” I said.

  Blondie took it upon himself to eye me a little, “I see.”

  “What are you insinuating?” I eyed him back.

  “I’m not insinuating anything at all. Anyway, I offered to give that letter to Jack for her today, which explains why it was on my desk.”

  “You’re giving it to him? If she did something bad like you said, why would you want to help her out? You’re not like a double agent are you?”

  That made him smile, “No, I’m not but I owe it to Mel. I know she did what she did but I also know why she did it. I’d like to believe underneath her sins, she’s actually a good person. You believe in second chances, don’t you?”

  “Yeah but she’s bad…like what do you guys call it, she’s …an enemy of the state.”

  “I don’t know. All I know is I believe she’s remorseful about it and she truly cares for Jack. I mean she at least deserves the opportunity to make peace with him, at least.”

  “Did you say you were going to give it to him today?”

  “Yeah, why?” he asked.

  “I just want to be there when you do. I want to see some sort of emotion on his face. Let’s just say I’ve never been in the same room as him.” I crossed my arms.

  “You’ve never been in the same room as your dad?”

  “I told you he’s not my dad and no, we’ve never been in the same room. I just found out about him a year ago. As much as a part of me wants to avoid him forever, the other half of me wants to confront him.”

  “Well, you’re in luck. I was about to deliver some files to him before we got started. I figured it was a good opportunity to give him the letter as well.”

  “Okay.” I exhaled heavily.

  “You ready? We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I can come back and get you when I’m done.” Greyson said as we both stood up.

  “No I’m okay. I can do this.”

  Greyson grabbed a few files, the letter and then placed a light hand to my back and urged me toward the door, “Alright, here we go.”

  Chapter Three

  Greyson

  It took a minute, but Jennifer Rose and I eventually found Jack in one of the open office areas that contained about a half dozen cubicles occupied by other agents. He was standing in the middle of the open room scanning a file and talking to Woods at the same time. Jennifer may have been nervous to meet Jack despite her denials that he was her father, but I was the one that was headed to the guillotine. Delivering Mel’s letter to him and in the company of his daughter, wasn’t particularly smart. I was dead meat.

  “Jack, here are the transcripts of Mel’s interrogations yesterday as requested.”

  “Thank you, Clarke.” Jack said without looking up at first. “Jennifer, what are you doing here?”

  “I was asked to report in today. It’s my first day.” Jennifer answered with apparent fake confidence. I may not know her personally but I’ve been with the agency long enough to be able to read anyone’s true thoughts and emotions. The human psyche was one of the first skill sets agents were required to learn.

  “Ah.” Jack nodded before perusing the files of the interrogations with the letter I slipped inside.

  “Awkward.” Jennifer whispered to me.

  I raised a finger to my lips, “Shh.”

  “Hey, I thought your name was Greyson.” Jennifer whispered again.

  “It is.”

  “Then why did he call you Clarke?”

  “Oh, that’s my last name. I’m Greyson Clarke. It’s Clark with an ‘e’ at the end.” I whispered back.

  “That’s too bad, I was getting used to the name blondie.”

  “Blondie?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Well, you didn’t exactly introduce yourself in the beginning and I had to call you something. I saw you had blonde hair and boom the name came to me.”

  “I guess I’ll take it as a compliment I guess.” I smiled.

  “What are you guys whispering about? Something important I assume.” Jack looked back and forth between Jennifer and I.

  “Oh, it was nothing important. Sorry.”

  “What’s this?” Jack said holding up Mel’s letter.

  “Mel asked me to give that to you. Don’t worry, it’s been checked out. It’s not tainted with anything. She’s doing okay you know. They finished up the interrogations an hour ago. I was able to talk to Mel again, she asked about you.”

  “You did what?” Jack asked. Shit he was angry.

  “Jennifer, maybe you should go back to my office.” I urged as she awkwardly walked away. I wasn’t sure if she knew the place enough to find my office. I’ll have to seek her out later. “Look Jack…”

  “You have no right to…” his nostrils were flaring.

  “I have no right to what? I have no right to talk to the woman you obviously have too much pride to admit you care about? Don’t try to deny it, you have been walking around like you’re comatose for years and as exasperated as I’m sure you have been with her, that’s the most emotion I’ve seen come out of you in a long time. You may act like you’re annoyed but if someone like her can get you to react in the ways that you do, you are affected. Why don’t you just go in there and fix things with her? I know you want to, she deserves that much from you.”

  “Don’t you dare mention her name to me or talk about what happened between her and I. You do not know a god damn thing about her. You do not know her.” Jack started to walk away.


  “And you think you do?” I said as I followed him out of the room. “She’s been in there without anyone on her side, besides me. You are the one person that she should be able to depend on but you’ve done nothing but turn your back on her.”

  “She’s affiliated with Baladin and their connected to the KGB!” Jack argued.

  “Jack, they will fry her and you know it. That woman in there that you claimed to care for did what she had to do but she didn’t kill anyone, did she? She’s not a bad person.” I shouted as I pointed towards the holding cells. “She did what she thought was right despite the consequences. She had no other choice.”

  “She had the option to tell me, I would have found a way.”

  “If you couldn’t find a way, what would you have done then? Criminals or not, if you had killed her parents she would have hated you for that.”

  “It doesn’t matter who she is or how any of us feel about her, we have a duty to uphold the law.”

  ”Fuck the law. Are you seriously trying to justify what you’ve started? This is Mel we’re talking about. Can you honestly say that if she’s convicted and tried that you’d be okay with that and go on living the rest of your life like she’s anyone else we’ve taken down? She isn’t just anybody, Jack. Can’t you see that?”

  You could tell he was debating between deceit and hope. I didn’t know much about what happened to Jack in the past but according to rumors he’s suffered a lot of heartache in the past. I wasn’t sure what kind but it was probably enough to change the man. Knowing that a part of him probably wanted to have hope that there was a bright future for even someone like him saddened me. I didn’t know him too well outside of work because Jack kept things that way but through Mel, I was starting to understand him more.

  Jack sighed heavily, “So, what did she say to you about me?”

  “She said she missed you a lot,” Jack sighed again and looked at the floor. “She also wondered how you were doing. I told her you were as ornery as ever and she thought it was hilarious. She said that it was just like you to revert back to it whenever she wasn’t around.”

  “I’m glad she’s doing okay.” Jack muttered to himself more than to me.

  “She hasn’t been mistreated or anything like that and if everything works out in her favor, she has a chance of being released. It’s a slim chance considering everything you’ve stacked against her but she has a chance nonetheless. Though, if she’s convicted, you know our internal prosecutor is going to seek maximum sentence. You need to go in there and talk to her before it’s too late and you miss your chance. You need to do something.” I urged hoping he’d agree.

  “I can’t. Not after everything she did.”

  “Jack, don’t treat her like an enemy, she’s not Baladin. If she was, then things would have turned out differently in New York.”

  “You know as well as I do that I don’t have enough clearance to save her anyway.”

  “You have to try, Jack. Anything is better than nothing at all.” I begged.

  “Do you think she’ll forgive me?” Jack asked suddenly.

  “I bet you she will say that there was nothing to forgive and that it was you doing the job you were hired to do.”

  “Okay, I’ll go talk to her. Then I will see what I can do to help her.” Jack smiled a little with a twinge of relief. It was the first time I’ve seen him smile in the past few weeks.

  “Thank you. It means a lot to me and to Mel, of course. Good luck.” I patted Jack on the back as he headed towards the freight elevators that led to the holding cells on the lower floors.

  “Do you think she’d want to meet Mel?” Jack asked before he stepped inside.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Jennifer. Do you think she’d want to meet Mel? They both seem like they’re the same mix of hardheaded and opinionated. I’m sure they’d get along fantastically.”

  “I don’t know. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” I laughed.

  “Maybe you’re right. Another time I supposed. I’m guessing at a family dinner or something.”

  “That’s such a better idea.” I gave two sarcastic thumbs up.

  ****

  A couple of weeks later…

  “I really don’t know what you expect me to say, Jack. You were the one that had her arrested, not me.” I argued with Jack for the millionth time as I tossed Mel’s update file on his desk and then stormed out. I couldn’t believe he was making me release her.

  Jack and I had the same argument every single day after he ordered the team to put my rookie agent, Mel, in our secure containment area in the lower floors of the building. She’s been there ever since he discovered she was a mole, or thought she was. I don’t know at this point, I thought I made headway with him a couple of weeks ago and convinced him to talk to her but I think there still was doubt in his mind. When you work for a secret service agency like I did for the CIA, you could never quite trust anyone.

  I’d like to, trust me, but deep down I know at some point or another someone I was close to could end up being a spy or even a rogue agent. I could never really trust anyone until I found out they stabbed me in the back or I’m dead because they really stabbed me in the back.

  That’s what happened with Jack a few weeks ago. During one of our missions, we tracked Aleksandr Baladin and his team to a shipyard in New York and although we were unable to capture him, we were able to apprehend some of their senior members while others were already dead. Although it was a win in our book, we didn’t expect that one of our own would be revealed as a mole. When I first found out as we were loading those that we apprehended into the van, I didn’t quite understand what was going on when Mel was handcuffed and ordered to be taken back to headquarters and into the holding cells.

  We only used those for our most violent offenders, but I didn’t think Mel deserved to be compared to one. According to Jack, she infiltrated our organization posing as an agent and was collecting intel for Baladin the entire time. He didn’t have proof but he strongly believed that was the case until I convinced him otherwise. Looking at her, she was a tough gal but it was all a front. I don’t think she was capable of anything we’ve accused her of beyond what she’s already done, I knew Mel.

  She’d been burned and hurt at some point in her life and the one thing the agency taught me was how to read people. Her tough guy act was a façade and when it came to Jack, she was a complete mess. You could tell they meant a lot to each other and it may have taken a while to convince Jack to visit her, but they were inseparable once again. It’s taken a lot of time and patience to get to where they were now and while Mel was confined to a sell for a long time, she was finally being released. Jack visited her every day, moved mountains to get her released and they were slowly working on building up trust. Once Jack removed the doubts from the back of his mine, in time they will find a way back to where they were.

  If I’m wrong about her, then she’s wiser than what I took her for but I don’t think I am wrong. There’s something about Mel’s innate anger that you couldn’t act your way through and the way she was when Jack was in the room, I don’t know. It was the behavior of someone in love wanting his attention if I ever saw it. Not that I knew what love was. It had been a long time since I spent a good piece of my life with someone. Being an agent for the CIA made it virtually impossible to form a relationship because you didn’t know who you were approaching at a party or a bar and whether or not your approach was a desire they planted in you. That’s how good some of these criminals were. Actions that came naturally to a person were sometimes actions you didn’t realize they encouraged. The field I was in was a big mind fuck and throwing love into the mix would make any sane man crazy.

  “Glad to finally get out of that death trap?” Jennifer asked a few hours later as she and I walked Mel out of the CIA headquarters. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been alternative my time between training Jennifer Rose, checking in on Mel and going on local assignments Jack sent me on. Jennifer
was getting the hang of things but often times it would be because she wanted to do it her own way. For whatever reason, I was having a hard time getting through to her. More often than not, I knew how to relate to a person, regardless of the personality but I couldn’t quite get through to Jennifer. Not to mention Jennifer and Jack avoided each other as much as possible and if they were in the same room as each other and I was often defaulted to being the mediator. It was the most awkward thing I’ve ever had to go through.

  “Yeah, I didn’t realize how much I missed the sunshine and fresh air until I lost it.” Mel smiled.

  “It’s a shame that the powers that be are thinking of having you blacklisted. Only time will tell but I thought you were an amazing agent-in-training.”

  “Thanks, Greyson. I’m just happy I was acquitted of all charges, I’m fortunate I think.”

  “What will you do now?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Start over I guess, I can’t go home obviously but I’m happy Jack and I are working things out slowly. He suggested I stay with him for a while until I figure out what I wanted.” Mel shrugged.

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

  “You don’t have to, but thank you. For everything, I mean.” Mel said as she gave me a hug and Jennifer after.

  “I’ll miss you too.” I chuckled.

  “You’re such a dork.” she rolled her eyes at me. “It was nice getting to know you too, Jennifer. During the brief moments we’ve had. I hope it’s not awkward that I’m kind of seeing Jack…sorta…”

  “Yeah, well...different strokes for different folks I guess. As long as I don’t hear about anything specific that you two do, then I’ll be cool with everything.”

  “Well said.” I really didn’t want to know what anyone did behind closed doors especially Jack’s doors. I’d never look at him the same way if I knew, so whatever I could do to prevent my ears from hearing such evil things I was going to do.

  “Alright, I see Jack headed this way so I think it’s I leave you two. Take care of yourselves, I’ll see you guys soon.” Mel waved one last time and approached Jack where he stood waiting for her by his sedan on the other side of the parking lot.