After Jack had caught his breath, he propped himself up, still above her he caressed her face with his hands as his eyes sought hers again.
“Doing okay?” Jack inquired.
“I’m doing great considering.” Amelia smiled and gives Jack a quick peck on the lips.
Holding her face in his hands, Jacks starts to envelop her in another kiss and starts to thrust into her slowly for a second round. Determined to take his time.
“Good night Mel,” Jack whispered later as he laid there for an extended period of time holding Amelia in his arms contemplating recent events. He hadn’t thought about women in years; he hadn’t let anyone get close enough.
He rarely ever looked at other women and contemplated sexual thoughts about them, not the way she did. Sitting there, listening to her breathe, hearing her heartbeat and feeling her warmth. He laid there content to hold her and eventually closed his eyes.
Amelia woke up the next morning covered in a thick black on the same love seat from the night before, but where was Jack?
Suddenly she heard voices outside. She got dressed quickly and quietly walked to a window and saw Jack outside talking with Agent Greyson Clarke.
“I thought he was on vacation,” Amelia said to herself. Just then her phone vibrated. It was from an unknown sender. The text read: One for One. The deal is not done. It ends tonight. It must have been the work of Aleksandr Baladin or one of his henchmen.
Amelia looked up as Greyson and Jack talked. They both glanced up at her, and she backed away from the window and went to sit back down on the love seat.
Just then she heard the two men come inside.
“What’s going on?”
“Uh. Maybe you should tell Mel.” Greyson said.
“Smith is gone,” Jack explained.
“What? What do you mean gone?”
“He’s dead.”
“How? What happened? Tell me!”
“We think it was Baladin. Smith was investigating a tip alone last night and was determined especially with what happened to both of you yesterday. He didn’t tell anyone. They found his body this morning in an alleyway near where anyone last saw him.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah I know. We’ve got to get back to the office and get the team together. Mel, you stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
“Come on, let’s go.” Greyson urged as Jack grabbed his holster, badge and suit jacket.
“I’ll come back for you, I promise,” Jack said quickly and kissed Amelia on the forehead before he took off with Agent Clarke.
Amelia didn’t know what to do. For the first time, she was unsure. Her entire plan was unraveling. She came here with every intention of taking care of this but not only were her parents in town, but Baladin and his men were as well.
And now, the CIA will be going after all of them, including her parents. What will Jack think when he discovers her true identity and her entire plan. He will find out that was the daughter of Russian assassins affiliated with the KGB, which made her an accomplice as well.
What will he think? But she couldn’t betray her family. She was expected to side with them. But she didn’t want Jack, Greyson, and the team to come into any harm. She had to do something, and she had to do it quick. She had to stop everything from being destroyed tonight.
Amelia had just hung up with the cab company when heard a knock on the door, Jack must have forgotten something. Amelia opened the front door, “What did you forget this time?”
It was Natasha.
“Mama, what are you doing here?” Amelia said surprised.
“I could ask you the same thing, Myshka,” Natasha said as she walked into the living room.
“I-I…” was all Amelia could say.
“Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on, lucky for you, we took care of it.”
“Took care of what?” Amelia asked.
Natasha didn’t answer right then and surveyed the living room instead, looking at the belongings that made up Jack West’s psyche.
“Took care of what, Mama?” Amelia pleaded.
“Took care of what you couldn’t, Amelia. Two of our men were killed yesterday, and it infuriated Aleksandr. Your father and I had to take care of it quickly.”
“It was you, wasn’t it? You killed Agent Eli Smith didn’t you?”
“He was responsible for the death of those men and for your Uncle Nicolai, we heard it on surveillance.” Natasha nodded towards Amelia’s pocket.
Amelia reached in into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. “You put a bug in my phone.”
“It wasn’t my idea. We are all tracked remember.” Natasha had reminded Amelia before she opened the front door to leave. “Amelia, promise me you’ll remember which side you’re on, and you need to end whatever you have going on with Jack immediately.”
“Mama…”
“Immediately, Amelia,” Natasha said as she shut the front door and took off.
Taking the cab back to headquarters, Amelia rushed to find Jack. He was standing around the conference room table with other agents, most Level 6 except Greyson, Johnson, and Woods looking at copies of the Baladin dossier and engagement plans. Remembering what Jack said about being a bystander, Amelia paced around frantically.
A few minutes later they emerged from the conference room, loading up their glocks and badges.
Amelia ran to Jack. “Let me come with you!”
“Mel? What are you doing here? I asked you to stay at my house.”
“I couldn’t just sit there. Take me with you please.”
“Mel-”
“Please!” Amelia pleaded.
“Fine. Clarke!”
“Yeah, Jack?” Greyson said as he jogged over.
“Accompany, Woods and Johnson and check out the intel on the Warehouse on 3rd and Wilshire. Mel will investigate the Langley Inn with me.”
“Alright. Be careful out there.”
“You too.”
A few minutes later, Jack and Amelia were on the road.
“You haven’t told me what is going on,” Amelia said.
“We are going to the Langley Inn. We received the word, Baladin and his men had rented rooms there for the past several days. We are going there to check it out.”
When they arrived at the Langley Inn, Jack parked on the far side of the lot, to ensure they were unnoticed.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” Jack said as they slowly got out of the sedan. They both pulled out their glocks and slowly made their way to Room 231. Jack slowly peeked through the window.
“I don’t see anyone in there,” Jack whispered. “Ready?”
Amelia nodded as Jack kicked the door in and prepared his glock as he scanned the room. There appeared to be no one in the main living area, and Jack gestured at Amelia towards the bed. He wanted her to check it out as he nodded towards the bathroom. His way of saying he was going to investigate it.
As Amelia verified that there was no one hiding under the bed and Jack emerged from the bathroom unharmed, Jack holstered his gun and shut the motel room door. Amelia put her glock away just then.
Jack looked around and said, “Looks like they left some time ago. They either are long gone or reconvened elsewhere. Let’s take a look and see if they left anything behind.”
Jack began to explore the rest of the room, and he assessed the various objects stacked around the room – jewelry on the end table next to the bed, various newspapers on the desk, and discarded waste in the small trashcan in the bathroom.
“What are you looking for exactly?” Amelia asked.
“I’ll know if I find anything,” Jack said. “Hey, there is a post-it note near the bed next to the legs of the end table there. See it?”
Amelia knelt down and reached under the bed and pulled out a crumpled, yellow piece of paper.
“What does it say?” Jack asked.
“I can’t tell. The words seem to be faded. We will need to have forensics
team try and make use of it.”
“Good idea. What else can we find?”
Jack opened various drawers in the motel room desk and pulled out what looked like a leather-bound journal. Jack opened the book, and it was all in Russian. None of the writings amounted to anything, just various numbers and times. Jack was about to disregard it until he noticed the named Denis Petrovich, Natasha Petrovich and various others he recognized on one of the back pages, written in smeared blue ink.
Amelia looked in the other drawers, and there were a couple of items left behind, one of which was silk, white lingerie. Jokingly, Amelia picked it up and held it up.
“Ooh la la.” She teased.
Jack looked up at that moment and was mesmerized by how innocent and sexy she looked standing there holding the piece of lingerie. Jack couldn’t help but realize that it had been a long time since he felt sexual attraction to anyone. The feeling was so powerful; he didn’t know what to say.
Amelia caught him looking at her and at first, she felt shy, but then a voice inside her convinced her to take advantage of the opportunity while she still had it. She walked up to him and started to caress his shoulders, arms, and chest.
“Amelia...”
“Shhh. Don’t speak. We don’t need to talk.” She whispered before she put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled her to him. Jack hesitated at first and then kissed her.
His kiss was sweet, slow and gentle and it made her heart turn over. Jack wrapped his arms around her pulling her closer. Amelia felt Jack come alive as the years of neglect seemed to fall away. Amelia relaxed and gave herself to him, because she knew she was safe at that moment, with him.
The kiss turned more passionate as his tongue swirled gently across her lips – exploring and seeking, swirling around in her mouth and playing cat and mouse.
Jack pressed his lips harder, putting in his tongue deeper. The kiss started to turn hot and possessive, and his blood was thundering in his veins, and he began to groan as he couldn’t get enough of her and wanted to go on and kiss her forever.
The kiss lasted mere minutes, but it seemed like they had stood there in the motel room forever as time had gotten away from them. Jack had reluctantly let her go and was out of breath.
“I can’t believe we just did that.” Jack uttered. “I can’t believe what you are doing to me.”
“My heart is beating so fast,” Amelia whispered.
Just then, Jack’s phone rang. It was Greyson Clarke.
“Yeah?” Jack answered.
“They’re gone.”
“What do you mean they’re gone?”
“All of their possible locations didn’t pan out. What about the Inn. Did you guys find anyone or anything?”
“Just a few things. We’re bringing them in now. It looks like we missed them by a couple of hours.”
“Alright, I’ll see you back at base,” Greyson said before he hung up.
“We better get back,” Jack said as he cleared his throat.
“Right.”
Chapter Eight
The items Jack and Amelia found useful, and forensics were able to deduce that something was going to be planned tonight at a shipyard in New York, 3 hours away.
Over the next hour, Jack and the rest of the Level 6 team gathered to discuss how they were going to intercept and foil whatever plot Baladin has planned.
They split up amongst various black tinted SUVs and North to the shipyard, hoping they did not miss them by an hour again. From what Jack could gather they should be right on time unless Baladin had changed his plans.
In a few hours, Baladin would be receiving an illegal shipment of military-grade weapons and bombs that they had planned to use on various governmental facilities including the agency building Jack and Amelia occupied.
When they arrived at the Shipyard, the others split up into teams as well as teams included Greyson with Amelia, Woods with Johnson, and Jack on his own. Amelia wanted to go with him, but this was one decision she couldn’t force.
Jack ran into the east side of the shipyard and slowly made his way through step by step until he felt something metal strike him on the back of the head, and then he blacked out.
He woke up some time later and realized he was tied to a chair in an empty room, probably in one of the shipyard buildings.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
Jack heard a familiar face behind him.
Maria Antonov.
“Maria? Maria is that you? What are you doing here?”
Natasha walked around and stood in front of him to face him.
“Hi, Jack,” Natasha said as she smiled.
“Maria, what am I doing restrained and what are you doing here?”
“Oh dear. I guess I do owe you an explanation. Let me start by introducing myself. My real name is Natasha Petrovich.”
“Natasha?”
“That’s right. You see, when I had first met you so long ago. I was on assignment and unfortunately you got in the middle of it. I returned home when I completed my job.
Jack’s mouth dropped in shock.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked, Jack. Would it make a difference if I told you that you were a fantastic alibi? That’s right, Jack. It was all a ruse, I never really did love you. Things would have been easier for me if I didn’t ever meet you but in the end, your presence saved the day. So I do have you to thank for that.”
Just then gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance.
“Ah sounds like your little friends are in quite the dilemma. You should have just stayed away instead of meddling in things that were none of your business. Sorry, it had to end this way. It was just business, but after you murdered my brother. It became personal.”
“Completely personal.”
“Pardon?” Natasha said smugly.
“So personal, Mel is out there in the middle of your so-called dilemma. How does it feel to betray your daughter?”
“Oh, you mean, Amelia. I forgot to mention that too. Her real name is Amelia. Amelia Petrovich. How does it feel?”
“How does what feel?” Jack growled.
“To be misled and lied to? Oh come now, Jack. Don’t think I know about your little fling. I’m sorry to break it to you, like mother like daughter. She’s probably out there right now, taking care of your team.”
“She wouldn’t. She’s nothing like you.” Jack growled.
“Oh no? Why do you think she came to Virginia? For fun? Do you believe it was a mere coincidence she joined the training academy? Did you ever notice how she excelled at security systems? Jack, do you realize that everything was real and not just a part of our plan?”
“Jack! Jack! Where are you?” Amelia shouted in the distance.
Natasha quickly ran to Jack and pointed a gun at his head as Amelia ran in.
“Mama, what are you doing?” Amelia asked horrified.
“To do what you couldn’t! I knew it. You were always weak, reckless and fragile. You could never do anything right.”
“Mama! Don’t say that!” Amelia cried. “Let him go please!”
“What about Nicolai, huh? What about revenge? Did you forget about that or did you betray your family.” Natasha said as she put her finger on the trigger.
“LEAVEEEEEEE HIM ALONEEEEEEEEE,” Amelia shouted and swiftly aimed as quickly as she could, but Natasha beat her to it and fired and struck Amelia in the shoulder as she fell backward.
“Mel!” Greyson ran up and started shooting at Natasha who ducked and ran out of the room through the back door. Greyson quickly untied Jack.
“Go after her; I’ll check on Amelia.”
“Who?” Greyson asked confused.
“Go now!” Jack shouted as Greyson took off after Natasha Petrovich.
Jack ran to Amelia who was still lying on the ground.
“Jack?” Amelia said
Greyson came running back.
“Looks like escaped. Along with Denis Petrovich and Baladin.”
> “Everyone else?”
“Deceased or caught. How are you doing, buddy?” Greyson teased Amelia.
“I’m okay. I think it’s just a surface wound.” Amelia chuckled as she slowly sat up and winced in pain.
“Come on let’s get you back to the car,” Greyson said as the two gentlemen walked her back to the SUVs where most of the surviving agents were waiting.
Jack (Secret Revenge #1) Page 8