“More fun than Sean?”
“Bridgette, about Sean. I think he’s meant for someone else.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, what if a guy never actually sees the real you, because he doesn’t want to ruin the fantasy he created.”
“Who are you talking about, Sean or my secret admirer? I’m sorry to bring it back to me, but you know Sean is really special, right? Men like him don’t come around every day. I’d just hate to see you do something you regret.” Beth pleaded.
“Yeah, I’m trying not to.”
A few minutes later, when Bridgette reached her cubicle after the meeting, she contacted Monica who was now in Chicago and took her up on her offer in joining her there.
On the other side of town, Patrick finds out that they got selected for the Maddison Hotel marketing campaign. Patrick told Sean excitedly and strongly urged him to thank Bridgette. Sean wanted to thank her in person.
When he arrived at the office building, he found Beth talking with Bridgette who was now holding a box full of her belongings.
“So you’re actually leaving?” Sean asked.
“Yeah, when they throw you a going away party, there’s no turning back.” Bridgette joked. “Oh, hey guess where I’m taking Kyle.”
“Where?”
“Water Zone, for his birthday,” Bridgette said excitedly.
“Oh my god, he’s going to flip there. Man, I wish I could be there to see that excitement on his face. Anyway, safe travels. Tell Kyle I said goodbye. He’s going to be a ball player in no time.” Sean says and hugs Bridgette goodbye.
“Goodbye, Sean and thank you, Beth, for the great going away party. Good luck around here.” Bridgette says before she leaves the office to her car.
Later that afternoon, while Kyle and Bridgette were finishing uploading the travel before they left for Chicago for good, Bridgette sees Beth running to her quickly.
“Beth, what is it?”
“I know who your secret admirer is.”
“What?”
“Bridgette, it’s Sean.”
“Sean?”
“Everything he loved about me, was actually you the whole time.”
“Does he know about this?” Beth asked.
“I wanted to tell you first.”
“Um, can we just keep it that way. Look, there’s so much I gotta do so I’m going to say goodbye.” Bernadette’s eyes start tearing up as she hugs Beth goodbye and walks back into her house.
Desperate, Beth drives to Sean’s house to tell him the truth.
“So I was emailing Bridgette the whole time? How’d that happen?”
“You know, for a guy that’s interested in all the little details, there’s one you didn’t notice. I spell my name with an e-n, not an o-n. Like Bridgette does.”
“BJohnson…” Sean whispers to himself.
“Look, Sean. I don’t mean to be mean or anything, but we don’t exactly belong together.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“That’s not to say that you’re not the nicest guy I have ever dated or that I didn’t enjoy the time we spent together, but I need to be with a guy…well, like me.”
“And I need to be with a woman…”
“That knows your favorite color, likes cheesecake and Chicken Alfredo and most importantly, someone who believes in true love. Who’s probably pulling out of her driveway as we speak.” Beth pleaded.
“Oh my gosh.” Sean stands up quickly and runs calling for his dog to tag along. “Corey! Corey!”
While on the road, Bridgette and Kyle stop by a diner and celebrate with a hearty lunch and a birthday cake where the waiters and waitresses sang him a happy 11th birthday.
“Do you know what I wished for?” Kyle asked.
“If you tell it, it won’t come true,” Bridgette advised him.
“Says who?” Kyle challenged.
“I don’t know, but that’s what everyone says.” Bridgette shrugs.
“Tell me what you would have wished for mom, you can tell me.”
After lunch, they hit the road until Kyle noticed that they were on their way to Water Zone.
“Mom, look its Water zone! Thanks, mom. This is the best birthday ever!” Kyle shouted from the back seat.
Thirty minutes later they arrived at the entrance.
“Kyle, sweetheart. I just want to make sure that since you built this place up in your head for a long time that you won’t get disappointed.”
“I won’t! Come on.” He said running towards the entrance until he runs into an all-white dog barking at him. “Mom look!”
“Don’t tell me you saw a shark.”
“No mom, come here. It’s a dog and all white one.”
Bridgette catches up with Kyle to see him on his knees petting an all-white dog. She wondered where she heard of it before and as she glanced up, she saw Sean standing there at the entrance.
“Sean!” Kyle shouted as he ran to hug Sean.
Hugging Kyle and then lifting him high into the air before putting him down, “Hey, kid. Sorry for crashing your birthday but I do remember that you had invited me.”
“Okay cool! I’m going to go play with the dog.” Kyle said and ran after the dog.”
Sean turned to look directly at Bridgette as he approached her. He then said, “So…do you believe in true luck or true love?”
“I’m starting to think I believe in a little bit of both?” She guessed.
“Good,” Sean said in a hushed tone and pulls her into his arms and kisses her for a long time. It felt right.
“Shall we check this place out?” Sean suggested to Bridgette and Kyle.
“Yeah.” Kyle agreed. “Hey mom, my wish came true.”
“About Water Zone?”
“Yeah that too!” Kyle giggled.
The End
I wanted to thank you for taking the time in reading One Little Letter. We hoped you enjoyed the first part of the Hot Under the Collar series and look forward to seeing how the cliffhanger concludes in the sequels.
It brought me great joy to write this as I love writing stories that entertain readers and draws them into another world with characters you love and hate. They say great books are those that evoke emotion out of you and I hope that’s what it has done for you.
Thank you once again, and I’ll see you in the next one.
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Secret Revenge: Jack
Book One
A Contemporary Romance Story
By Robin Edwards
© Copyright 2016-2017 by Robin Edwards
and Second Chances Press
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.
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, my 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 option 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. Y
ou 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?”
One Little Letter: A Bad Boy, Second Chance Romance (Office Escapades Book 1) Page 6
