Break Away

by Robin Edwards

  After loading my car, Sam went into the Foundation office. Sam figured he would do some work inside since he was already there. Owen was still outside roaming around, sniffing the dirt and plants that surrounded the exterior of the office before running back to my car.

  “Well boy, this is as far as you can go, you need to go back inside,” I petted him one last time. I would have to walk him back into the office to make sure he stayed put.

  A critter running down the sidewalk a distance away caught Owen’s attention and he pulled out of my grasp and barked excitedly and took off after it.

  “Owen! Come back here!” I ran after him. Owen had never ventured far from the office when he was there let alone took off down the street unless Sam was with him. I was worried for Owen, and if I didn’t catch up to him, he might get lost and not find his way back.

  “Owen! Damn dog.” I called as I ran after him. Owen chased the little squirrel in circles and sometimes zigzagged in and out of the street. Fortunately, it was during a slow period on Saturday morning when cars weren’t as frequent.

  I finally caught up to Owen when he stopped to bark at the squirrel up a tiny tree planted on the center island in the street.

  “Owen, come on. You aren’t supposed to be this far from the office.” I said as I tugged him by the collar until Owen noticed another shiny object and escaped from my grasp and started running towards the direction of the office.

  That’s when it happened. All I heard was a loud screech, felt pain and then everything went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  SAM

  JAMIE HAD BEEN IN THE ICU in a coma after being hit by a delivery van several days prior. I heard the loud screech and went outside to see what it was. That was when I saw Owen running towards me playfully, not noticing the commotion.

  It wasn’t until I rushed to the scene did I realize it had been Jamie lying on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. The ICU doctor had notified her family that she not only had severe lacerations but she also had several fractures, internal bleeding and a slight hemorrhage in the brain. They also had her on a ventilator and showed no signs that she would wake up or was responsive to anything they said to her. They stated that Jamie had a small chance of survival and it was best to prepare for that. Everyone that knew her refused to give up on the fact that Jamie was a fighter.

  It was the first time I had met her parents and family or anyone in her life at all, and they were kind enough to update me. I officially met her band mates and Felix, students from the training center and along with the staff at the Foundation were all there for her.

  I also met friends that she had that I didn’t recognize and everyone came as soon as they heard about what had happened to her. She had a lot of people that cared about her, and I didn’t think Jamie ever realized how important she was to a lot of people in her life.

  The hospital staff did not let anyone visit with her as long as she was in critical condition and asked everyone including her family to return home. They also stated that if anything changed, they would alert her family and in turn, they can update everyone else.

  I had stayed at the hospital every day that Jamie was in the hospital, sometimes talking to the police, talking to those that knew where but I was mostly there because I wanted to be there when she finally woke up. It took an enormous amount of convincing by the hospital staff that I couldn’t be there 24/7 but I eventually agreed to go home.

  I couldn’t help but feel to blame for this happening to her and I wanted to fix things, but there was nothing I could do. Before I went home, I ran into one of her best friend’s, Lisa and we had a long conversation in the hospital cafeteria about Jamie and how much she cared about me.

  I found out that Jamie had gotten hit by the van that was probably meant for Owen when she had chased him down the street. I also learned from Lisa that Jamie had cared about me more than I could have ever realized despite our many arguments about the subject. She had put her heart and soul into everything she pursued, and I had expected her to just understand where I was coming from. As much as I cared about her, I never really tried hard enough to understand where she was coming from. I kept pushing her away.

  I made sure I remained busy the months after her accident. The last time Jamie and I spoke, I had told her I needed time to think. I kept tabs on her condition whenever they were provided to me. Through Felix and the grapevine, Jamie had woken up from her coma a month into being admitted to the hospital and was started to regain more of her memory each day that passed. She even began to talk more coherently.

  I chose not to visit her or even when they allowed her to go home because I did not want my presence to cause her any more pain. I worried about her, but I knew that she was getting better by the minute without me and she would be back to her old self in no time as long as she took it easy and went to her scheduled physical therapy sessions.

  As a result of their presentation to NSK, they had agreed to the partnership and therefore finalized the process of placing their branded products on retail shelves and in restaurants throughout the country. The NSK executives decided to partner with Ellis Enterprises was because of Jamie’s idea of branded BBQ and seasonings, an idea that Amy and I were unaware of that she threw in at the last minute when NSK seemed hesitant throughout most of the presentation. Jamie’s idea had clinched it for us at the last minute, and because of her, we formed a significant partnership that will vastly improve the Jerry Ellis brand. My father was not only a music legend, but he was well-known for being a food and beverage connoisseur.

  Once finalized, things had gotten even busier for the organization, and we had to hire three more staff members, and it still didn’t feel like enough. When Jamie worked there, she was so efficient, and her idealism helped us make headway, but now we were starting to slip behind again. I had spent every week traveling, and when I was in town, I spent long hours in the office and often did not get home until well past midnight.

  It wasn’t until the following week did it start to slow down a tad as we had finalized the logistics of our retail and big box shelf placements. Things weren’t expected to pick up again for a while, but I wanted to take the opportunity to catch up on some long overdue paperwork when I heard loud commotion come from the front office.

  What was going on?

  Curious as to the nature of the noise, I opened my office door to see a crowd of staff members surrounding Jamie and her friend Lisa. She stood there with a cane to keep her balance while Lisa held her purse in one hand and had her hand on Jamie’s back to help her balance. The staff excitedly bombarded Jamie with questions and light hugs. They made remarks about how much they missed her and asked her how she was doing. I walked out of my office hesitantly to join the commotion, but I wasn’t quite sure what to Jamie’s state of mind was about me.

  Jamie looked up and noticed me despite the commotion and chaos and her smile instantly turned expressionless, “Hello, Sam.”

  “Hello Jamie, how are you?” I asked cautiously as the room went silent.

  “I’m doing well, considering.” Jamie nodded towards the cane as she limped forward a couple of steps.

  “Looks like physical therapy is helping.” I smiled.

  “It is. Slowly but surely.”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I wanted to talk to you. Can we, for a minute?”

  “Absolutely, I’ve only got a few minutes, though. I was just finishing up some paperwork in my office, but I need to go home early and pack. I have an early flight in the morning.” I adverted her gaze. I tried to not look at her, but I couldn’t help it.

  “I wanted to talk to you about what I had said at the victory party at Felix’s house, among other things,” Jamie said as I closed my office door.

  “Please, sit.” I gestured towards the guest chairs.

  “No, thank you. I’ve been doing nothing but mostly sitting. I’d like to at least try to stand up for a while.”

  “Jamie
, what happened to you was my fault. If I had been paying to Owen’s whereabouts…I guess I thought he was in the office with me.”

  “None of this was your fault or Owen’s fault. It just happened.”

  “If he hadn’t run away…”

  “Sam, I missed you.”

  “What?”

  “Sam, I don’t want you to stay away. I missed being around you, and it hurt when I didn’t see you after I woke up in the hospital. It broke my heart but then my parents told me that you personally covered the entire hospital bill and that you offered to cover my physical therapy as long as I needed it. You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I knew it was going to be a burden to you and your family to cover all that.”

  “You didn’t have to do it, we would have figured it out,” Jamie said.

  “How?”

  “It doesn’t matter, but we would have,” Jamie explained.

  “I wanted to do it because I cared, I’d do anything to help you. When I walked away from you in the parking lot that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. When you had gotten into that accident, and I ran out there and saw you lying unconscious, it killed me. I felt angry, helplessness, fear, anxiety and sadness. All at once, Jamie. I have never felt that intense as I did that day, seeing you lying there. God, to feel that helpless, I hadn’t felt like that since the day my father died. I have never cared that much about anyone since my dad’s death until now.”

  “Until now?”

  “I know I need peace and time, but I want you to know that it has nothing to do with you nor is it anything you did. I have a lot of self-reflection to do because I spent years being in the limelight around prying eyes and my privacy always invaded. I have always been approached, and I never know when someone was actually interested in me or because of where I come from. I spent many years trying to get away from that, I did it so successfully I never let anyone in. That’s why I need to think.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “What?”

  “I said I don’t care. You can go think all you want, but you’re not going to ‘disappear.' I’m not staying away.”

  “What?”

  “I never meant to put so much pressure on you, Sam. Dealing with my anger and tears must have taken such a toll on you, and I am sorry for the way I’ve behaved, but if you think for one damn minute, I’m going to let you ‘go’ and think. That’s not going to happen. You are going to think and go see a therapist, but I’m not going away. You are going to see me constantly!”

  “Do I have a choice?” I teased.

  “Not in the least damn bit. I’m tired of this back and forth, shit! I missed you a lot, damn it!”

  “I missed you too.” I chuckled. I liked it when she was feisty. “Now, can I come over there and hug you.”

  “Lightly.”

  “Good enough.” I pulled her into my embrace as softly as I could. It felt right, to hold her as we stood there in my office. Everything was silent, peaceful. There were no cameras, screaming fans, phones ringing, meetings – none of these things existed whenever Jamie was around.

  All that existed was her and me in whatever moment we shared and maybe that’s what it was all along. Maybe it was the moments we were together, just the two of us, wherever we were that was the escape we needed. When the rest of the world was hazy, if we just focused on each other, everything else would fall away silently.

  I never knew that the answer had always been twelve miles away.

  The End

  I wanted to thank you for taking the time in reading Twelve Miles. This is book one of a 3-part Serendipity series that follows the lives of Sam Ellis and Jamie Winters.

  It brought me great joy to write this as this book is based on a true story that is still occurring as we speak. It should continue to serve as a basis for the rest of the books in the Serendipity series. If you can do me a favor and take the time to review my book. I would like your honest feedback that I will take with me as tools to improve this book’s future drafts and the follow-up books in the series.

  Thank you once again, and I’ll see you in the next one.

  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 r
escue 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.