Chapter 1 - That’s who Im keeping safe

Watch over me

Chapter 1

That’s who I’m keeping safe

 

As I lay in bed drifting in and out of sleep, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

 

You know the feeling, when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you can sense someone’s standing at the end of your bed watching you. Before you start to freak out, you tell yourself your just dreaming and roll over to go back to sleep.

 

So I went back to sleep, only this time I wasn’t dreaming.

 

He was there, watching me.

 

***

 

Until now, I’ve never thought of myself as exciting. In fact, my life was so predictable it was verging on mundane.

 

Eight years ago my mum and dad died in a car accident and I became the sole guardian to my 11 year old little sister. Becoming a sudo-mum at 20 forced me to be predictable and sucked the exciting right out of me.

 

Its times like this when I was scared shitless and had no idea what to do I missed my scheduled boring life.

 

But its not just about me anymore, its about my sister Kenzi, that’s who I’m keeping safe.

 

***

When I was younger I was always the good kid. I mean my mum would have locked me in my room till I was 40 otherwise.                             

      

I never got to be the reckless teen sneaking off to parties instead of studying before an exam. Or the heartbreaker going out on dates every weekend with a different guy.

 

Nope. I was a good girl, I was the responsible one, I was the one who mum and dad trusted to look out for my little sister.

 

I remember visiting home from university one weekend wearing a Pearl Jam T-Shirt my friend had given me. The look my mum gave me practically melted off my face. She always had a way with looks my mum. She never needed to lecture, one of her looks said it all. The look I got that day told to “focus on my studies, not boys and partying” and she was crazy scary when she had that look.

 

***

 

If I could pick a spirit animal for my mum it would be a lioness. That woman could be fiercely protective of her young. I remember when I was 10 and this boy from school was teasing me. When I told my mum she went to this kids house and I have no idea what she said to his mum. But every time that kid saw me he ran.

 

My dad was more of the strong silent type, never saying much but when he did it would always be what you needed to hear weather you wanted to hear it or not. The other great thing about my dad was his hugs. I swear those hugs could cure the incurable.

 

They were great together my mum and dad like two sides of the same coin. I remember watching them growing up, they were always kissing or touching one and other in some small way. I mean they argued constantly, but even then you could tell even, they were in love.

 

Mum told me once, the story of when they first met. She said after their first date when he kissed her goodnight she felt tingles, and just like that she knew.

 

Its not that over the years I hadn’t tried to fall in love, I just knew that after all the heartbreak I had already endured. I had to be careful who I trusted with what little heart I had left. I had to weigh the “pros and cons” consider the consequences. I hadn’t yet found someone worth the risk.

 

My sister looked a lot like my mother, her gentle face of porcelain was constantly overpowered by her eyes. You could always tell what she was thinking with just one look.  It was a superpower she had unfortunately inherited. Lucky for me, my dad had given me a mean poker face.  My dad thought I looked like my grandmother, from the pictures I’d seen of her at my age she was a babe. She had wavy raven hair and curves just like mine, which I knew from experience couldn’t be hidden under any amount of clothing. No matter how hard my mother tried.

 

In my early years I was a bit of a romantic and fell for all kinds of flattery. I soon learnt that most guys were sweet to start then they quickly turned to a******s. So I slowly developed a bit of a shield towards men.  My mother once said to me, that if I put myself out there I’d never find someone. I guess she was right, but my trust issues were well justified.

 

When I was 23 I learnt the hard way that love isn’t always roses and rainbows.

That's when I met Henry Caldwell. Henry and I met at a work Christmas party he was crashing. His father was a friend of the owner of the company Theodore Fitzgerald. And his buddies thought it would be a great place to “hook up” with free drinks.

 

Henry and I were complete opposites, he was a trust fund kid, and had spent the last 4 years of his life travelling all over the world drinking and partying. He valued relationship only by what they could get him and when he found out that I had Theo’s favor. What I could get him was his fathers respect, something he hadn’t yet experienced.

 

After a year of Henry charming me I thought I was in love. I mean there were no tingles but he doted on Kenzi and I, taking us to the movies and out to dinner. Being with Henry taught me how to escape, that I didn’t have to work 60 hours a week to be happy. He showed me a whole world out there that I had been missing.

 

When he asked me to marry him I immediately said yes. Not because I had dreams of living the "high life" or because his good looks could make underwear models swoon. I said yes because I thought he loved me, and at that time in my life, I needed someone to make me feel loved.

 

4 months into our engagement, I caught him with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar that was Selena Roe, my assistant. The next day Selena was reassigned to the dungeons, where she could spend the time on her knees doing something useful like the alphabet instead of my ex-fiancé. 

 

I heard later on that she had broken up with him and left the company, but I never heard from Henry again.

 

***

 

The one good thing to come out of that time was the relationship I developed with Theo Fitzgerald CEO and President of Fitzgerald Technologies or FiTech for short. Mr. Fitzgerald was only relatively new on the tech scene. However with a innovative Internet security platform created by his son, his company rapidly expanded to the U.K selling the product worldwide.

 

Theo had “discovered me” when I was 21 my first year at FiTech. I impressed him with my amazing sales abilities. The way Theo told the story I was a tech sales prodigy. The reality of it was I worked hard and was always eager for new opportunities. In the short time I had been with FiTech I had turned my consulting team into the most successful team in the company, bringing in an average of 100 grand in revenue per quarter. 

 

After helping uncover my newfound tech savvy, and recognizing my talent with people. Theo had mentored me from my position as head of my sales division to Vice President of the company at the ripe age of 29.

 

I loved my new job, but after being in my position for just 2 weeks, Theo suffered a major stroke and passed away. I was devastated it was like losing my parents all over again.

 

***

 

My name is Natasha Tarasov (yes I’m Russian, but I only speak Russian when swearing at my little sister), known by friends and family as Nat. When I was 7 my parents moved to Melbourne, Australia. It was no St. Petersburg, but brick faced buildings, old school trams and fluctuating weather patterns made it feel like home. Since half the neighborhood thought we were KGB spies, I didn’t really make friends till about 8th grade, coincidently when I grew b***s.

 

The good news was the KGB rumors didn’t last through high school, the bad news, my curves attracted a lot of attention from the guys at school, which brought out the inner Rambo in my dad.

 

When I lost my parents my little sister Kenzi took up the challenge of vetting my potential prince charming’s.

 

Lucky for me thanks to my “man free” diet, they were now few and far between.

 

***

 

A few weeks after my parents funeral, I moved Kenzi from our parents home in Caulfield to live with me in my apartment in Brunswick, North of the inner city.

 

Kenzi loved my apartment, she thought it was great that I lived above a café and everything you needed was within walking distance. It wasn’t much, but it had 2 bedrooms and it was clean.

 

When I got promoted to VP of FiTech it came with a few perks, including a new car and apartment. By then Kenzi was 21, she had no plans to attend university and was flitting from job to job every few months.  She was currently unemployed and lacked direction, I decided she needed a change and to help her be more responsible.

 

So I started to formulate my plan, I needed to find her a great new job that was exciting and had opportunities for her to advance. I also announced, when I moved out she would be staying in our old apartment and paying all the bills by herself. I learnt my “throw you in the deep end” parenting technique from my mum.

 

So far she was doing great! She had ditched the blasé attitude, and I hadn’t had any calls from the neighbors saying the place had burnt down. Marcus, one of my contacts from work had helped me set her up with a kick a*s new job. I had met him a few years back stealing his business from one of our competitors. We hit it off straight away, he loved our software and we’ve been friends ever since.

 

Marcus Shaw was a few years older than me at 36 and was built like an action hero, not surprising being that he was retired SAS and worked for a security company. He sported shaved head and every time I saw him he was always working a V-neck T-shirt and cargo pants.

 

When we met I asked him how he kept so fit expecting him to throw me a cheesy line like “he had a special push up technique he could show me”. But surprisingly, he just told me he worked out at a Martial Arts gym near his loft. I went to check it out with him once, 3 years later I was addicted to it. I loved the rush of adrenaline I got from the class and punching something after a s****y day at work really helped to relieve the stress. I usually ran into him 3 of the 4 nights I went. It was on one of those nights I mentioned my Kenzi predicament and he offered her the job at Stryke Force Defense.

 

***

 

"She's not going to shoot anyone is she," I said wondering if it was a good idea to put my baby sister in the hands of a team of commandos.

 

"What exactly isit’ you think I do" Marcus was from Yorkshire in the U.K, which is one of the reasons I loved our little chats before class. What can I say I'm a sucker for a gravely voice with an accent.

 

"Er, 90 percent of what you do is either sensitive or classified and the 10 percent I do know about is why I’m asking" I said sitting on the mat on the floor to stretch my legs out before class.

 

"Well, first off your clearance level isn’t much lower than mine” this part was true, I’d recently acquired 3 defense contracts for the company. We mainly did computer security and malware protection nothing too exciting.

 

“And second she's just gonna’ be on reception, how much trouble could she get into" he said while lying on the mat next to me, his hands behind his head and his ankles crossed in a state of utter relaxation. Obviously he hadn't met Kenzi.

 

"Ok, you make sure your commando's stay away from her, all I need is her falling in love with one of them " I said wondering how the man never seemed to have a girlfriend even with all that ripped muscle. Sigh!

 

“Sweetness, once I tell the guys who's little sister she is, it'll be as if she's invisible," he said looking over to me and giving me a wink.

 

"What’s that supposed to mean!" I said placing a hand on my chest in mock offence. "Have you been telling your comrades about our play dates?" I asked giving him a fake glare.

 

"You know how much they laughed at me when I told ‘em it was a girl givin’ me these bruises," he said pulling up his shirt to show a bruise I gave him last week. At my insistence Marcus had been helping me with some self-defense moves. It was a lot of fun, but Marcus could still easily beat me.

 

"Awe poor Marcus," I said pouting my bottom lip at him. “For a badass commando your kind of a wimp” his eyes glared at me, I held in a chuckle. "You know, I’m sure that cute nurse you live next door to would be happy to kiss it better,“ I said smiling and wagging my eyebrows at him. I got up off the floor to get ready to start the class.

Once when I had stopped by Marcus’s I had bumped into a girl he’d just dumped. She tracked me down and claimed I had stolen her man. After that I hadn’t bumped into any of Marcus’s girls.

 

“You need to focus on me not kicking your a*s instead of finding me a date," he said moving to the center of the mat flashing me a cocky grin.

 

I asked him once why he took this class. I don’t know what Marcus got out of it, (probably the amusement of watching me fall on my a*s). He told me the guy who owned the gym was a friend and it was a good work out. I liked to think it was because he enjoyed our little back and forth.

 

Marcus was a nice guy, but we were just friends. I'm could do friends with guys, dating not so much. We would occasionally grab a bite to eat after class with each other, but after class tonight he got a call from work and had to go. I suspected he had to rescue a pretty journalist from unknown forces in Uganda. Although it was probably more likely someone forgot to turn on the alarm at his office.

 

Dinner with Marcus was always an experience. Every time I tried to peel back another layer of his badass bravado. So far my intelligence mission hadn’t uncovered much. I knew he moved here at the behest of his boss Gabriel Striker, I also knew that he had severed in Afghanistan with Gabe in some super secret joint task force with the U.S where Gabe had saved his life and taken a bullet for him.

 

Marcus’s work was something I knew very little about. His simplest explanation was that our government recruited Gabe to develop training for our Special Forces. All that info told me a lot about Gabe, but in 3 years I had yet to get very deep with Marcus.

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Updated version 2

Reviews

[chris bevington]

This reads really nicely; very professionally done :)

[Forest Green]

Nice work, building interest, character development, and plot introduction.

Will read on.

[yerusalemwork]

Great description of people and emotions. You leave the reader in suspense sometimes. Wonderful narrative voice. I felt expertly guided throughout the story .