The Omega Team: Tough Target (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Desiree Holt. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original The Omega Team remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Desiree Holt, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Tough Target

  An Omega Team Novella Series – Amazon Kindle Worlds

  Novella 2 of 2

  By Jordan Dane

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  About the Author

  Bibliography

  Tough Target

  Camila Borrego, the vindictive head of a powerful Cuban drug cartel, is on U. S. soil to avenge the murder of her father and she will stop at nothing to carry out what the man started. She orders assassination hit squads to target the elite Omega Team and their families, to annihilate them in vicious simultaneous attacks. Blood is shed and the Omega Team is hit hard.

  No one is safe, not even Sam Rafferty’s mother.

  Camila orders her deadliest executioners, identical twin brothers Amadeo and Tavio Vega, to seek and destroy retired Navy SEAL Sam Rafferty and his mother, and the ruthless cartel leader comes to witness the brutal carnage. As Sam’s mother, Geneva Rafferty, prepares her isolated cabin in the Florida everglades to weather a fast approaching hurricane, she’s caught in the crossfire of the deadly triad. She’s gravely injured and narrowly escapes the death dealers by fleeing into the swamp.

  But Camila will discover that Sam Rafferty of the Omega Team is one tough target.

  As a massive hurricane hits land, the storm rages toward Sam as he desperately searches for his missing and wounded mother, alongside Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Kate Cypress, an exotic Seminole beauty from his past who branded him with her love.

  Isolated and alone in the vast and treacherous everglades, Sam and Kate are trapped in the eye of the storm with a cartel hit squad in hot pursuit. With time his worst enemy, Sam has no choice but to take a terrible risk that could jeopardize the lives of both his mother and Kate.

  If he makes the wrong move, he could lose everything.

  Dedication

  For Ed

  The best brother ever and a stellar example of a fine human being.

  You can quote me, Salsa King.

  Dear Readers,

  In the first book in this Omega Team series—HOT TARGET—I have to admit that I fell in love with the wise cracking, bad ass Sam Rafferty, former Navy SEAL. Yes, I know. His ego has no limits, especially when he’s having a good hair day. But if a cartel came looking for me—and wanted me to see Jesus immediately—I would fancy having Sam on my side. He’s a one man wrecking crew. So he became the focus of TOUGH TARGET, the sequel. I hope you enjoy getting to know him.

  This series is a constant reminder of the quiet heroes, the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect others—and their families who have to wonder if the ones they love will come home. This is the world Desiree Holt created with the Omega Team for Amazon Kindle Worlds and I love discovering these heroic men and women as I write.

  The strong personalities and larger than life heroes and heroines from her series set a high benchmark to come up with my own characters that would blend seamlessly into this fun action-adventure romantic series. I hope you’ll try other authors writing for the Omega Team. I’m honored to be a part of such a talented group, led by our fearless leader, Desiree Holt.

  In November 2016, I will combine my Ryker Townsend FBI profiler series with the Omega Team for the first time. IN THE EYES OF THE DEAD will be a chilling tale set in Ryker’s world that will collide with the romantic action of the Omega Team. Coming soon.

  I hope you like TOUGH TARGET and try my other books. One of the biggest hurdles for an author is ‘visibility’ online. A rating or review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads is invaluable, and very much appreciated. Honest reviews and ratings boost a book’s placement in searches and that increases sales and discoverability. Please consider rating/reviewing this book and thank you for your support.

  Jordan Dane

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  http://www.jordandane.com/mailing.php

  Chapter 1

  Tampa, Florida

  Morning

  Rafael Madero opened his eyes to an empty bed. He lay on his belly, feeling the tangle of bed linens on his naked body, until a lazy smile spread across his face. The tantalizing perfume of Jacqui Lyles mixed with the scent of her musk and lingered in the air of his bedroom after their unforgettable night of sex.

  “Jacqui?” He called out to her, but felt the weight of her absence in the stillness of his loft until he remembered she’d gone to work early.

  Rafe raised his body and rested his weight on an elbow to reach for her pillow. He took a deep breath of her fragrance and closed his eyes to remember. He pictured Jacqui’s face in the throes of an orgasm. The warmth of her breath stroked his cheek as she gasped and writhed under him. Her pale skin blushed pink and her body clutched at him as he drove into her wetness.

  Even now, the mere thought of her made him hard. He pushed his face into her pillow and groaned. When his phone rang, he grabbed it off the nightstand and after he glanced at the name displayed on caller ID, he grinned.

  “If you knew what I was thinking, you’d turn your car around,” he said.

  Road noise muffled the sound of her sweet laugh.

  “Oh, really. I like the sound of that.” She sighed. “I wish I could. That’s really why I’m calling. I can’t stop thinking of you either. I love you so much, Rafael.”

  “Te quiero tambien, mi vida. Come to my place for lunch. I have a taste for something off the menu.”

  “Not off my menu. Whatever you wanna savor, I got the flavor, baby. I’ll see you at—”

  A loud crash made Rafael wince and he nearly dropped the phone. Something cold gripped him by the throat and his belly tightened into a fist.

  “Jacqui? What’s happening?” he cried and yanked off the sheets that covered his bare body. When she didn’t answer, he raised his voice, “Are you okay? Say something.”

  A bone chilling groan of metal bellowed, mixed with the high-pitched crunch of glass shattering. The grind of a large engine hurt his ears. Jacqui screamed and called his name, “Rafael. Oh, God. No.”

  “Talk to me. Jacqui? Please honey…you’re scaring me.” Tears came to his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  When the phone went dead, Rafael jumped off the bed and raced for his closet to throw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. After he slid his bare feet into unlaced running shoes, he grabbed his car keys off the dresser and ran for the front door.

  “Which way?” His mind raced with street names. Which way would Jacqui drive, which streets would she take to work from his place?

  “God, please hold her in your arms. Don’t let her die.”

  Rafe bounded down the stairs toward the parking lot, panting as he ran. He reached for his cell phone and hit speed dial. When the call went into voice mail, he said whatever came to mind, not thinking straight.

  “Athena, something happened to Jacqui. She’s been in a car accident.” His voice cracked. “Please…she can’t die. I’ll
call you when—”

  He ended the call when he got to his truck and fumbled with his keys to start the engine. After he slid inside his vehicle, he punched the buttons of his radio with a shaky hand until he found a station reporting traffic accidents and he listened for familiar streets she might have taken.

  But her scream haunted him and her last words played over and over in his head.

  ‘Rafael. Oh, God. No.’

  Please don’t die, mi amor.

  Rafael hit the gas pedal and the truck lurched. His tires burned rubber and screeched as he backed out of his parking spot too fast. He mumbled words he didn’t understand until he realized he was praying.

  ***

  Minutes later

  An ambulance siren erupted from nowhere. Rafael forced his eyes to search the traffic, coming and going, to see where the sound came from. Instinct told him to follow the emergency vehicle. Traffic slowed to a crawl after the ambulance raced by with lights circling. He couldn’t get through the crush of cars.

  Up ahead he saw police cruisers rerouting people. Flares burned on the road. He drove his truck onto the sidewalk and pulled as close as he dared before he stopped and left his engine running. He ran toward the accident on foot.

  “Sir, you can’t leave your truck there,” a man yelled, but Rafe didn’t care.

  A fire engine backed into a spot closer to a jackknifed eighteen wheeler that had crumpled a smaller vehicle against a guardrail. There wasn’t much left of the passenger car. Oh, God. Shattered glass reflected the fire of the road flares, making it appear that the asphalt had turned into flames. With the acrid stench of gasoline in the air, Rafael knew anything could set the fumes off and whoever was trapped in the small car would be burned alive.

  Please don’t let it be her.

  Rafael ran toward the accident until two cops grabbed him by the arms and forced him to stop.

  “Are you the driver of the big rig, sir?” one of the cops asked. “He’s missing. You know anything about that?”

  “No, but I think that’s my girlfriend.” He shoved against the two uniformed men and yelled, “Jacqui!”

  He fought off the men as if they threatened his life. It wasn’t until he saw a pale light reflecting off long blond hair that he stopped dead still and forgot to breathe. Her face was covered in blood. He almost didn’t recognize her.

  “Jacqui,” he whispered. “It’s…her.”

  Rafael stopped struggling. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as emergency crews tried to free Jacqui from the wreckage.

  She looked dead.

  In that shattering instant, he flashed through the shocking memories from the day his life changed forever—when he found his beloved wife Elena and baby girl Ariana butchered by a Borrego drug cartel hit squad hired out of Cuba. The horror of it leached from his body and gripped his heart until he couldn’t breathe.

  Not Jacqui. Please not her too.

  ***

  Across town

  Clive Landry, a retired Force Recon Marine, finished packing for another Omega Team mission, this time with Grey Holden leading the operation. His last mission with the private security agency had been to Cuba with the other founder—Athena Madero. He loved the juice of working with such an elite group of former military and ex-law enforcement folks. He never wanted his retirement years to be boring, but his days of Omega Team missions would soon come to an end.

  He had it all planned.

  When he returned from his trip, he’d have his first grandbaby to welcome into this world—and spoiling his grandchild would be the only mission he would sign up for after he got back. He zipped his bag and reached for a framed photo on his nightstand of his only daughter, Melissa. Clive had raised his sweet girl after her mother died from cancer when Melissa had been a freshman in high school.

  Now his baby would be having a baby.

  “You’d better wait until I get back. I don’t want to miss a second of being a proud grandpa.” Clive grinned and kissed the glass before he put the picture down again.

  He grabbed his gear off the bed and headed downstairs with a smile still on his face as the doorbell rang.

  His taxi had arrived to deliver him to the Omega Team private hangar at the airport.

  “I’ll be out in a minute,” he called to the shadow of a man standing on his front step.

  Clive reached into his pocket for his house keys to lock up behind him as he yanked open the front door.

  Muzzle flash blinded him. Bullets ripped across his body and tore up his chest until he fell backwards onto the floor. He gasped for air, in shock. The agonizing pain faded to a numbing chill that raced to claim his body. He never saw the man’s face.

  The coward who shot him ran away—but not before taking a cell phone picture of him bleeding out.

  After the bastard disappeared, Clive reached a bloody hand into his pocket and found his cell to dial 9-1-1. The dispatcher’s voice came on the line as he dropped the phone. He couldn’t speak.

  As he choked and gurgled on his last breath, Clive Landry’s last thoughts were of his precious girl, Melissa, as he imagined the face of the grandbaby he would never see.

  ***

  Omega Team Headquarters

  Downtown Tampa, Florida

  Athena heard a signal from her phone. She glanced at the display to see she had a text message, hoping it would be from Rafael. After the alarming message he’d left on her phone, she returned his call several times, but he hadn’t answered. She wanted an update on Jacqui, but she didn’t recognize the phone number texting her.

  Images kept coming—one more graphic than the next.

  “What the hell—?” she gasped and covered her mouth with a shaky hand. “Oh, God. No.”

  “What’s happening?” Grey Holden asked as he entered her office with two coffees. “Did you hear from Rafael? How’s Jacqui? What hospital are they at?”

  Athena shook her head as she held her cell phone so Grey could see it. He furrowed his brow and squinted at the image until he recognized the face.

  “Is that for real?” In shock, Grey grabbed his phone and hit speed dial to a number that kept ringing. “Come on, Clive. Pick up….pick up.”

  Nothing. No answer.

  Another group of images pinged Athena’s phone and she saw close ups of a woman’s bloody face and the shattered glass window of a car wreck.

  “Is that…Jacqui?” She was stunned. “What the hell is happening to my team?”

  It struck Athena as odd that she used the words ‘my team.’ Her last mission had been to Havana, Cuba. She’d taken her half brother Rafael, along with Jacqui Lyles, Clive Landry, and Sam Rafferty. Her gut instincts made the leap even before her mind realized there was a connection.

  If this was tied to their op in Cuba—the cold case murder mystery aimed to expose her brother Rafe as the sniper who’d killed Hector Borrego, drug kingpin—she had to warn Rafael and Sam Rafferty to watch their backs. If Clive Landry were truly dead, that would crush every man and woman employed by the Omega Team, but especially Sam. The former SEAL had formed a special bond with Clive.

  “I’ll call a friend I can trust at the Tampa PD. We have to confirm Clive is…dead.” She fought back tears as she stared into Grey’s somber face.

  “I’ll make the call to his daughter. I wouldn’t want her hearing the bad news from a stranger,” he said. “Right now I’m praying this is all someone’s sick idea of a hoax.”

  “Sam will take it hard, if it’s true.” Athena shook her head and gritted her teeth.

  “He took time off to see his mother. Her cabin needed work for hurricane season. Where does his mother live?”

  “Somewhere in the everglades.” Athena had a bad feeling no one from her team who had gone to Cuba would be safe. “This could be connected to our mission in Havana. It’s like someone is targeting my team.”

  “You think it’s one of the Cuban drug cartels? Here on U. S. soil?”

  “Could be.” Athena leaned her elb
ows onto the desk and fixed her gaze on Grey. “Until we can confirm who’s behind these attacks, we better issue an order to all our operatives. They should go to ground and follow our emergency protocol until further notice. Be sure they understand this is not a drill.”

  Camila Borrego must’ve found out the role Rafael had played in the assassination of her father. It wouldn’t matter to a crazed woman bent on revenge that her father had ordered the hit on an innocent woman and child—Rafael’s wife and baby girl—and started a chain of vengeance that had no end in sight. It didn’t mean anything that the violence had started from a tragic hostage rescue incident with the Chicago Police where Rafael had followed orders in the line of duty to protect innocent lives. Athena’s worst nightmare would unfold in front of her eyes. The lives of every brave man and woman at the Omega Team were at stake. She and Grey could lose everything.

  “I have to warn Rafael and Sam.”

  ***

  Florida Everglades

  Near Mud Lake Canoe Trail

  The air smelled thick with rain—and something else. Geneva Rafferty hadn’t felt a drop yet, but once the heavens broke, she’d be drenched. Nothing should’ve stopped her from what had to be done, but her aging skin prickled in warning.

  She turned and peered over her shoulder down the wooden jetty that led to her cabin. She didn’t have a clear line of sight through the tall reeds that bordered the long raised walkway. If anyone approached, she wouldn’t see them until they were too close.

  Tall cypress trees—some over five-hundred years old—and red mangroves rooted deeply into the marshlands surrounding her rustic cabin on stilts. The remoteness gave her the solitude she craved, but today something carried on the wind and it had nothing to do with the second hurricane of the season.

  Crawfish pots, fishing gear, and an old oar hung on her walls on pegs and rattled in the erratic gusts of air. Baskets of herbs dangled from her eaves on metal hooks that creaked in the breeze, sounding like nails scratching across a blackboard. The relentless noise gave her the shivers. Big flocks of birds were behaving skittish and peculiar, even the gators were restless. Nature had its own warning system.