The Omega Team: Hot Target (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t have a lot of detail, but apparently the drug cartels are fired up about an old killing. A local politician requested me and he’s already footed the bill.”
    “He asked for you? By name?”
    “Yeah. Guess my reputation precedes me.”
    Rafael shut down again. He closed his eyes and his chin dropped to his chest. Athena let the silence build a wall between them, to see how long her brother would keep quiet. If it had been a contest, she would’ve lost.
    “You have your passport with you?” she finally asked.
    He shrugged and said, “I carry it with me when I travel. Old habits.”
    “Great. Be at Omega Team headquarters by 0600 tomorrow morning. You’ll meet my team and gear up before we leave.” After Rafe nodded, Athena turned for the door, but she wasn’t done.
    “Oh and Jacquie?” Athena called out, playing a hunch. “You’re coming on this mission as our communications liaison.”
    Rafe stared at her wide-eyed, shocked at her assumption, but he didn’t confirm or deny.
    “ Ay dios mio .” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
    “You good with that?” Athena called out to Jacquie again.
    After a long moment of silence, a tiny muffled voice came from behind the closed bathroom door.
    “Okay.”
    Athena winked at a mortified Rafael and turned on her heels before she lost it. With a big grin on her face, she walked out the door, thankful she had recognized the very familiar perfume she’d smelled when she first stepped into her brother’s hotel room.
    She winced and stifled a laugh. The Cuba assignment had become a lot more interesting.
     
    ***
     
     
    Rafael would have appreciated his sister’s playful wink more if he hadn’t still been stunned by the details of the Omega mission. It had been too much of a coincidence for the cold case murder to be in Cuba and involve trouble with the drug cartels. Rafael knew his past had caught up to him and he felt like a man on death row, waiting for his last meal.
    Would he have the guts to follow through with what he’d started five years ago, when he left a shell casing jammed into a boulder and dared justice to find him?
    The bathroom door opened and Jacquie peeked out. She had dressed and when she came into the room, she had her purse clutched to her chest.
    “I hope I didn’t get you into any trouble,” she said.
    Rafael loved how her first thoughts were for him. He didn’t deserve someone as sweet as her. He couldn’t answer the polygraph—the question about if he’d ever committed a felony—because he’d murdered a man in cold blood. He’d taken the law into his own hands when he knew corruption, international borders, and crossed jurisdictions wouldn’t punish the man who’d killed his wife and baby girl, the bastard who had dared to mar their bodies with his sign.
    “No. You didn’t,” he said. “You heard her. We have a mission tomorrow. Early.”
    Rafael stood and walked toward the door.
    “Yeah. Guess we’ll be working together after all,” she said with a sigh.
    Jacquie didn’t have to say anything more. Her disappointment had been palpable, but she’d get over it. She’d have to . Rafe had buried his future five years ago in two graves. He would never forget Elena and Ariana. Never . For a brief moment, he’d shoved his pain deep enough to enjoy the pleasures of another woman, but Jacquie deserved better than half a man.
    “I heard what she said about your wife and baby.” Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I tried not to listen, but—”
    Jacquie reached out to him, but he crossed his arms before she touched him.
    “I’m sorry, Rafael. I didn’t know.”
    Rafe clenched his jaw until it hurt. He didn’t want to see the pity in her eyes, but when Jacquie stepped toward the door with her head down, he couldn’t let her leave, not like this.
    “I will not forget what we almost had tonight.” He touched her cheek. “You are the kind of woman who haunts a man’s dreams, and his heart. I wish—”
    “Yeah, me