Her steps are hollow, they were the only noise evident in her condo building. Only hearing the rising rainstorm that once was at bay. She takes out her phone, clicking on a contact and putting it to her ear.
It rings for a moment, before the person on the other end answers. Letting out a light hello, Amelia speaks. "Rachael, I need a car out front. Please be here within fifteen minutes." Back to her stern tone, even with the pain of walking coursing through her entire body.
There's a pause, "Is everything alright ma'am?" Her driver and security asks, her words light. She was concerned, Amelia could tell.
Everyone was asking her the same questions: was she fine, was everything alright. Nothing was alright, everything felt far from okay. Yet she couldn't say a word of it to anyone, only if she wanted their lives cut short due to her mouth. She wouldn't let the innocent be slain for her.
"I'm completely fine, don't worry. I will make sure to explain somewhat when you arrive." Amelia pauses in front of the elevators, leaning forward to click the downward arrow button. "Can you get here within fifteen minutes?"
She wasn't really asking her, it was her job to come to her side with security and transportation after all. Amelia wouldn't be so cold to her, she was coming so late for her to do her job. That was one of the things she was grateful, having Rachael.
"I'll get my coat on, I will arrive in the time frame."
There's a ding on Amelia's side of the call, her boots thumping as she walks into the elevator. Clicking onto the lobby bottom, then closing the doors.
"Thank you, I will see you momentarily. Drive safe." With that, she hangs up the phone. Putting it back into her pocket, she looks straight ahead at the steel doors.
All she can hear is whirling sounds of the box shifting lower, and lower through the floors. It wasn't a calming feeling, yet it didn't arouse anymore fear in her. There was nothing more terrifying to people than silence, being entirely alone in a familiar setting.
Amelia relished in the silence, or the electric whirling of ropes and wires. A part of her hoped the elevator would get stuck for a few minutes, freezing time for her. Be able to think of what she was going to do once she got to New York, how she was going to face Leo.
Someone she had not seen in almost a decade, there was no doubt Amelia would not recognize him. Nor would he recognize her. A complete surprise for him, a strategic move for her.
The elevator dings, feeling the shifting downward stop under her feet. Amelia takes a deep breath as the doors slowly slide open, stepping out of the metal box. The doors close behind her, and for a moment she pauses in front of it. She wanted to turn back, maybe she did want to curl into that blanket and sleep away this entire fiasco.
Amelia knew she couldn't, she had to get herself together. Get her head into the deal, be the best version of training she had.
Shaking her head, the grip on her suitcase handle tightens as she walks forward. Exiting the building, being met with the smell of rust against the pushing storm. It had gotten worse in only a matter of minutes, it had begun to rain more often in California. No warm sun, no gleaming rays. Just rain, and sorrow.
Rain was becoming sickening to see, thunder unnerving to hear, and lightning angering to lay eyes on. She never thought moving to one of the sunshine states would consist of such gloomy and disgusting weather. Maybe it was surrounding her, Mother Nature must be angry with her.
Amelia could be digging too deep into something as simple as the weather. It was second nature, but it was bringing more strain to her nerves.
She places her suitcase down on the ground, pulling the umbrella off of her wrist. The velcro is pulled to hang down, before she opens the umbrella in front of her. Over her head it goes, the pitter patter of little raindrops hit the front of it. Amelia steps out from under the shield of the building, the rain thumping now against her umbrella.
It was dark, foggy, the street lamps providing barely any light to the fast cars that go by. Looking out into the distance to nothing but humanity, people go about their daily lives in urshing cars. Technology had advanced clearly throughout the years, but the human roots were still growing even now.
She's not in her thoughts for very long, as a sleek black car pulls up in front of her. Pulling to a halt, Amelia steps off of the sidewalk and grabs onto the back door. Swinging it open, she sets herself halfway into the seat. The umbrella is closed outside of the open door, then tossed down onto the car floor. Having the wet umbrella out of view, she slams the door.
No words are exchanged as the car begins to zoom off, the view of her condo moving out of the window. Here she was on her way to the airport, on her way back to her birth state. Amelia was going for all the wrong reasons, that was what made going home so horrible.
"Is everything alright, Ms. Reston?" Her eyes peer up to look at her driver, Rachael's eyes looking directly at her through the rear view mirror.
Rachael had already asked her this question, but it seemed the looming silence had her concerned. Silence was a virtue but alas, some didn't feel that way.
Amelia leans back into the seats, legs crossing over each other. "Of course Rachael, I just have a business trip to go on. I need you to escort me to the airport." She pauses, watching Rachael's eyes flicker from her to the road. "Dallas can not know, please. It's a surprise for him and his team."
"Of course ma'am." Easy conversation, easy confirmation. Rachael was paid to do as she was told and not ask questions that overstepped boundaries.
"Thank you." For once her voice is soft, calm. Looking away from her driver, aiming her eyes out the window.
Watching the scenery move around her was the only thing she could do on the silent car ride. She wasn't going to call her agents to tell them where she was going, nor her partner. It was her journey and hers alone, something she was all too used to. No backup once again, being on the move in the shadows.
For once, she wanted to be able to have backup, have someone know what was happening to her. To be able to feel at ease that someone had her back, yet it never was going to be that way. Her loved ones would always be left in the dark, her colleagues would continuously stand in her shadow, life would be one long trail of loneliness.
Her coat pocket begins to vibrate, quickly shuffling to grab the phone. She had gotten a burner phone on top of her own phone, the burner phone buzzed in her hand. An unknown number, but she knew who it was already. The devil of the hour had ordered her to get a burner phone for communication, it was his way of making sure neither of them could be tracked to connection.
"Hello."
"I'm assumin' ya got my emails, correct?" Straight to the point as always he was, not that Amelia wanted any sort of conversation with him. The sound of his rough voice and New York accent had her skin crawling. He was disgusting, completely revolting in her eyes.
There's no space in her words, answering him immediately. "Yes, I'm on my way to New York City now."
She wanted to kill him more and more with every passing moment. So many ways in her mind that she could wipe him off the face of the Earth. The world would be a much happier, positive place without such a maniac on the streets. Amelia would be doing a service to the entire world, making sure no one else crossed paths with such a monster. Jake had her in his clutches, but the moment she could wriggle free he was as good as dead.
Torture was on the bill first, there was no way she would let him die slowly. An easy death by a bullet to the skull was too good for him, too kind of her to grant.
"Excellent, ya doin' a good thing for your father." Jake chuckles, even a snicker can be heard on his end of the phone. "Rather have others die than ya dear old daddy."
Jake was mocking her, she could hear it in his tone. He knew he had her vulnerable, using her love for her father against her. Dangling his life over her head, knowing she would do anything to keep him safe. Just picking out the biggest weak spots of her personality, her character, the past they both had once shared. It was clever, it was shameful she had not caught onto it sooner.