A Shattered Life Read online

  A Shattered Life

  By Edward Kendrick

  Published by JMS Books LLC

  Visit jms-books.com for more information.

  Copyright 2020 Edward Kendrick

  ISBN 9781646564118

  Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

  Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

  All rights reserved.

  WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

  No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

  This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America.

  NOTE: This book was previously published through Silver Publishing as You Can’t Change the Past, plus Part 2 of New Beginnings.

  * * * *

  A Shattered Life

  By Edward Kendrick

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 1

  “Vance Montgomery, get your ass in here right this minute!”

  Vance cringed, wishing he had the guts to run. But his mother would find him, or if not, she’d send her present boyfriend looking, and that would make things worse. Straightening his shirt, tucking it into his tattered shorts, he made his way across the browned grass and up the dirt path leading to the battered trailer which served as their most recent home.

  He hesitated, trying to gauge from the tone of her voice whether he should face her down or be servile. As the trailer door swung open, he stood as tall as his five foot five inch frame would allow.

  “Yes, Mother,” he said deferentially, hiding the fear he felt as she stood there holding an almost empty bottle of beer in one hand, her hair ratty and scraggly around her thin face.

  “Where the hell have you been? School let out over an hour ago.”

  “I stayed after to do my homework.” He scuffed the worn toe of one tennis shoe in the dirt.

  “Boy, don’t lie to me. You were off with those damned Powers kids, getting into trouble.”

  Shaking, he lifted his head to look at her. “I wasn’t, I swear.” Which was the truth as far as it went. He’d been with two other boys from his class, trying to talk Mr. Smith at the grocery store into giving them jobs for the summer. The man said he’d think about it.

  Grabbing the doorframe with one hand to steady herself, she took a long pull on her beer, tossing the empty bottle in the vicinity of the open trash barrel a few feet away. Then she grabbed his arm before he could back away, dragging him into the trailer.

  “You know how I deal with liars, Vance?”

  “Yes, Mother.” His voice trembled and he took a deep breath before saying again, “I wasn’t lying.”

  Her hand flew out, landing hard on the side of his face. “Give me your belt.”

  “Mother, please…”

  Her grip tightened painfully on his arm. “It’s the belt or the chain.”

  He fumbled with one hand to get his belt off. His mother snatched it from him, spinning him around, forcing him face first onto the sofa. He closed his eyes, praying the beating would be brief.

  * * * *

  Three years later

  Vance leaned back against the rough tree trunk, staring up at the stars above him. His friend Walt handed him the bottle and he took a long pull, coughing as the rot-gut whiskey burned a path down his throat.

  “You should get home you know,” Walt said, concerned for his companion.

  “Soon enough. I’m just waiting ‘til I know she’s passed out. Not that she’d lay a hand on me now, but she might set that bastard on me.”

  “Which one this time?”

  “One of the mechanics from the garage. He’s a mean son of a bitch when he’s been drinking.” Vance handed the bottle back and stretched his arms up to grab the tree branch above him. At five foot nine his hands were just barely able to close around it but that was enough. He pulled himself up then dropped down again, doing pull-ups on the branch until his arms ached. He was fourteen, lean and muscular, more than a match for his mother but still not strong enough to fend off her current boyfriend.

  “You still thinking of leaving when school’s out?” Walt asked.

  “Thinking on it, yeah. Just gotta get some more money together. I still got a month.” He stared off into space again. “And I gotta find out where my dad’s at.”

  “She doesn’t know?”

  “If she does, she’s not letting loose of the info but she’s still getting payments from him for my upkeep, not that she uses it for that. I just gotta be there when one of the checks comes and get hold of it before she does. His address has to be on it. Right?”

  “Right. How come you haven’t done that already?”

  “‘Cause the mail comes while I’m in school?” Vance gave him a duh look. “So I’m figuring next month I’m going to be sick on the first. Too sick to go to school.”

  “She’ll still get to the mail before you can.”

  Vance smiled tightly. “I’ll figure out some way to beat her to it. Maybe ask her for soda or something we don’t have around. Or hide her cigs so she has to go out for more.” He shrugged. “I’ll make it work. I gotta. He’s my only hope.”

  * * * *

  “You’re who?” The man looked across the desk at the kid standing there.

  “Your son, Vance.”

  Charles Montgomery frowned as he looked the kid over. He was dressed in worn jeans and a tattered button-down shirt over a black T-shirt, from what he could see of it. His hair was too long but at least it was combed. When he’d come into the room, he’d been carrying a battered backpack over one shoulder that he’d dropped on the floor by the door. The more Charles studied him the more he could see their resemblance, but he wasn’t ready to buy into that yet.

  “So tell me something about yourself to convince me this isn’t a con.”

  “I was born April first, nineteen eighty-six in South Philly. Well, that’s where Mother said it happened. Since then I’ve lived more places than stray dog, mostly in trailer parks with her and whatever boyfriend she has at the moment.”

  “That’s stuff anyone could find out. Tell me something they couldn’t.”

  Vance frowned. “Anything someone else couldn’t know you wouldn’t either.”

  “You might be surprised.”

  A startled look crossed Vance’s face for a second before he shut it down. “Okay,” he said after a moment’s thought, “when I was twelve we were living with a man who had two kids. He tried to get Mother to marry him and he started whatever it takes to adopt me but dropped it when Mother decided to take off. She didn’t want to be married to anyone every again, she said.”

  Charles nodded. “I know, but that’s still information someone could have found out, though it would have been harder since the papers were never filed. What else?”

  “Damn it I don’t know. Man, I’m barely fifteen. It’s not like I have any big secrets I’ve kept from everyone. Even how she treated me is something everyone knows about who knew me.”

  “Tell me about your twelfth birthday. What did you get?”

  Vance thought and then snorted. “And new shirt, ice cream, and a beating.” He paused as he remembered something else. “And a book. That’s why she beat me, she though I stole it, but I didn’t. It was there on the doorstep when I came home from school. A package with my name on it. I thought Mother was trying to surprise me so I opened it and then went inside. I was going to thank her, but she took one look at it and went ballistic. She was drunk, of course. Or half way there. Even when I showed her the wrapping it came in she still didn’t believe me. She took it and the book, threw them in the trash and then used my belt on me.” Vance winced, remembering. “I couldn’t sit down right for three days after.”

  “And you never told anyone about that?”

  “No.” Vance shrugged. “Getting beaten happened so often that it never seemed worth talking about as I got older. No one cared. We were…itinerates?”

  “Yes,” Charles said quietly, a deep frown on his face. “I didn’t know.”

  “Know?”

  “That she abused you. I
tried to keep track of you as best I could, but half the time my checks went to post office boxes. It was rare that she let me know where she was living.”

  “Good thing she did last time. That’s how I knew to come out here. I sort of stole the check so I’d have your address.” Vance pulled a much-folded piece of paper from his pocket and spread it out on the desk.

  Chapter 2

  “There were times when I had my doubts, but you made it through,” Charles said, gripping Vance’s shoulder hard in lieu of the hug he wanted to give him. He was well aware after three years that his son didn’t want anyone, even him, that close. For that alone he’d have willingly killed his ex-wife if she wasn’t already dead from a drug overdose.

  “I wasn’t so sure I would either,” Vance admitted. “Or get accepted in college.” He waved at a couple of friends across the campus lawn, holding up two fingers to let them know it would be a couple of hours before he’d show up at the post-graduation party.

  He became aware of someone standing next to him, too close for his comfort, and shifted to one side while turning to see who it was. A dark-haired woman about three inches shy of his six-one smiled at him before saying to his father, “So this is the much-vaunted son.” She held out her hand, introducing herself as Makie Long.

  Vance did his best to be polite, shaking her hand quickly before letting go while admitting that he was indeed Vance Montgomery.

  “I work with your father,” she told him, as if saying that was all it took for Vance to understand who and what she was.

  “Same company, different department,” his father added, knowing that there were others standing close to them and not wanting to reveal anything more. He nodded toward the parking lot and the three of them headed toward his car.

  Vance knew the drill so he waited until they were there before asking, “Are you here to kidnap him for an assignment?”

  “Actually, I’m kidnapping you, as you put it.”

  Vance’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why?”

  “I want you to meet someone. Your father’s given me permission to take you away for a long weekend.”

  “Someone who works for the Bureau?”

  She shook her head. “For a different group. And that’s all I can tell you at the moment.”

  Vance shot a look at his father. “CIA or more covert?”

  “Much more covert. So far under the radar there are only whispers out there that they even exist. Makie is their…what?” He glanced at her. “Recruitment officer?”

  “For lack of a better word, I suppose. Your father’s told me a great deal about you, Vance. You interested me and I passed the information on to one of my bosses. He wants to meet you in person and make his own judgment.”

  “But this is strictly volunteer, right?” Vance leaned back against the car, studying her. “I’m not saying I won’t go with you to talk to this man, but just so you know I’m planning on joining the Bureau once I get my degree.”

  “So your father said. I think you’ll make a great addition, as smart as you are. We’re not trying to subvert your plans just…well, I’ll let my boss explain when you meet him.”

  * * * *

  “So this is the wunderkind.” The man stood, walking around his desk to shake hands with Vance.

  As always Vance made quick work of doing that before stepping back slightly. “I’m not certain that term really applies, sir. I’m not a child prodigy.”

  “I’ve heard differently, although you’re hardly a child, I agree, but very intelligent according to everything I’ve found out about you. Intelligent, and cunning as well, which isn’t always the case.”

  Going back around his desk to sit down again, the man waited for Vance to take the visitor’s chair across from him. After a moment Vance did so, looking expectantly at him.

  “I have a proposition for you, one that should benefit both of us equally. While you’re in college I want you to set aside every summer, starting with this one, to train with us. In exchange we’ll fund your education.”

  “I see,” Vance said slowly. “And when I’m done, you’ll own me, right? I don’t think so.”

  “Not at all. You joining the FBI is exactly what we want. It makes an excellent cover. We’d be using you for side jobs on occasion, if you turn out to be as cunning as I think you are.”

  “Cunning being a way of saying underhanded and unethical?”

  “That depends on who you’re talking to,” the man replied with a chuckle. “That’s exactly how our adversaries would describe it. And yes, you might have to break a few rules to accomplish your aims, but I think you’ll find it’s worth it in the end.”

  “I think you’d better give me the whole picture,” Vance said.

  The man did.

  When he’d finished he waited silently while watching Vance pace the office.

  Finally Vance nodded. “I’ll do the training and then we can both decide if I’m right for the job or not.”

  * * * *

  Albert watched as the kid got off the plane. As far as he was concerned this was crazy, but who was he to argue. Recruiting and then training a kid to be a killer? That went against everything he stood for, everything he thought the Old Man stood for. But he’d do it none the less. It wasn’t as if they were planning on sending the kid into the field a week from now. From what he understood, that wouldn’t be happening for at least four years, after the kid had made it out of college and been accepted for FBI training.

  “It’s an experiment, Albert,” Makie said as she joined him at the gate. “That’s all it is. Vance won’t pass it because underneath it all he’s a good kid and not tough enough. But at least when the time comes that that changes, he’ll know we exist and what it is we do and he’ll be ready to join.”

  “I still don’t have to like it, experiment or otherwise.”

  “Just think of it as taking a kid fresh out of high school and tossing him into the Army or worse yet the Marines. At least Vance will have the option of getting out at any time.”

  “Okay, yeah, I guess that works.”

  When Vance approached them, Albert held out his hand and then withdrew it, remembering the note in the kid’s file saying he didn’t like being touched. He found that somewhat at odds with the fact that Vance had a black belt in karate, but then that wasn’t personal touching. After introducing himself he led the way to where he’d parked the car. Vance tossed his bag in the trunk when Albert opened it and then slid into the back seat.

  As they pulled out of the lot Makie turned to look at him, asking, “Are you ready for this?”

  Vance shrugged. “It depends on exactly what ‘this’ is. Dad wasn’t too forthcoming with information, or didn’t he know?”

  “He knows the gist of it, is all. We’re going out to a secluded house in the hills above the city. Albert here, and two other men, will work with you on physical training. I’ll be dealing with your studies, which will take up three hours of your day. We’re going to take it slow since we have four years to get you trained the way we want you. You know that you’re free to call it quits and leave any time you want to.”

  Vance nodded. “If I do, will it affect my chances of joining the Bureau after college?”

  “Not in the least, but if you stick with it, you’ll be ten steps ahead of everyone else when you do. This summer I’m going to give you down and dirty basic training in several areas of study, all of which are what the FBI is looking for when they hire. Once you make a decision on which interests you most I’d suggest you narrow it down to one or two and aim for them as you college majors.”

  “So you’re saying I should do a split major?”

  “Yes. You’re more than smart enough to handle that.”

  Vance nodded. “What about the rest? What are Albert and the others going to have me doing?”

  “Anything and everything having to do with dealing with an enemy on a physical level,” Albert replied, fielding the question. “Weapons training, hand to hand, assassination techniques, breaking and entering, undercover work. Think of it as a cross between a cop, a soldier, and James Bond.” He watched Vance’s face in the rearview mirror as he talked and was somewhat surprised to see that the kid didn’t seem taken aback by the list. If anything, there seemed to be a slightly predatory gleam in his eyes as he listened.

  “I can live with that,” Vance told him.