The Omega Team: Ethan's Promise (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Men of Mercy Book 7) (2 page)

Ethan's last trip to Afghanistan had morphed from a recon mission to the damn American Horror Story. A few months in, Ethan had unintentionally stumbled over a big ass rock of information and discovered that Mr. J, who had been long thought dead, was actually alive and kicking. And the fucker had not only betrayed his country, but he'd been hired by the very terrorist TF-S had been tracking for the past few years. Even worse, Mr. J had put out a hit on TF-S and their family, sending assassins to have them all murdered.

“I've already debriefed you about Afghanistan. The rest of the team can handle the cleanup from the raid. You know the rules. You’ve both got two weeks of leave starting now whether you like it or not.”

Grey shoved his chair back and stood. Ethan surged to his feet frantically searching for the right words to stay this order of leave. “Sir, I can't let my team go over there without me.”

Grey placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder. “I know you want to go back, but you need a break. You've been walking too close to the wire. You know what happens to soldiers who don't get their R&R. Eventually the stress will break you and you’re too valuable to the Team for me to allow that to happen. I'm ordering you to take these next two weeks and relax.”

Grey squeezed Ethan's shoulder and left, leaving Ethan staring helplessly after his commander. What the hell was he supposed to do on leave? Play patty cake with Aaron? He didn't need this shit right now. He didn't want it either. Ethan ate, drank and breathed for the Team. He had nothing else. No home. No family. Nothing but his bike and an admitted addiction to adrenaline.

“You two don't look happy about two weeks of paid vacation.” Rowdy said.

“I’d rather have my dick stepped on than go on vacation right now,” Ethan replied.

“You know it will take a full week for us to get ready and make it overseas. You won't miss anything but the bullshit,” Riser said.

Ethan ground his teeth together, trying to calm the violent urges coursing through his veins. “What if something goes down before we get there?” He might miss his chance for revenge against J.

Riser pointed to Ethan's empty chair. “Sit down. I'll get you another beer.” Riser gestured for a round of refills. “You know we won't move until you get there. I'll make sure of it. When we locate J, the entire fury of Team Scorpion is gonna rain down like hell on that bastard.”

Aaron slammed a fist on the table, drawing a few questing glances from nearby people. “You better make sure of that; I want a piece of him.”

“Not to interrupt your plans to dismember the traitor, but I could use a couple of extra hands on Omega’s next mission. It's easy money and an easy mission.” Rowdy leaned back in his seat and grinned.

Ethan studied Rowdy and his open smile. The retired Delta Force operative never seemed pissed off about anything. Even in a firefight the man smiled while he pulled the trigger, which meant one of two things: Rowdy was a good man who really enjoyed his job, or he was insane.

Either way he offered Ethan a lifeline. “Tell me more.”

“A senator's daughter is getting married in two weeks. He's a little overprotective and has some delusion that she is a high-value target. He hired us to transport her to and from the wedding, and provide protection while she's there.”

“Where?”

“A couple hours south of here. He's rented out a plantation a few miles out of Natchez.”

“Hell yeah, my grandma lives down there,” Aaron said.

Ethan held back his grimace. “You want me to go babysit a spoiled princess?”

Aaron raised his beer. “I'm in. I haven't gotten to see my grandma in months.”

Ethan glanced back at the blonde across the room, weighing his options. If he played his cards right, he could probably bunk at her house for a full week, making that as long as he'd ever stayed with a girl, or anywhere besides the military for that matter. Or he could go play babysitter. “How much is the pay?”

Rowdy's grin didn't falter. “I can pay you five thousand cash up front. With the possibility of a bonus once the mission is successfully completed.”

“Holy shit, I'm in the wrong job,” Riser said.

Five grand for two weeks, more than he made in a month working for the United States Special Forces. Could he stomach working some joke mission for two-weeks while his men were in danger?

“Look, either you take the job or what? Hope you hook up with a chick and pray you don’t get an STD? I’m offering you hard cash and something to do.”

Ethan ripped his beer up from the table and downed it before answering. “Fine. I’m in.”

CHAPTER TWO

Kate Richards shifted in the sleek chrome and black leather seat, plucking at an invisible piece of fuzz on her black pant suit and trying not to squirm under the intense stairs of Gray Holden and Athena Madero, co-owners of the private securities group team Omega.

Holden sat tall in his chair, his intense hazel eyes seeming to peel back layer after layer of all of Kate's thoughts and memories even though no one said a word. Athena, with her jet black hair and equally black eyes, leaned forward and steepled her fingers together, placing her elbows on the desk separating Kate from her potential new bosses. "So tell me Miss Richards, why did you quit the CIA?"

Kate hid a grimace and bit back her initial response, that her boss was a sexist asshole who’d done everything he could to thwart her career while copping a feel when no one was looking. Instead she offered them a tight smile, and a carefully blank expression which she'd honed over the years as an analyst for the CIA. "I had reached a plateau in my career, unable to advance further in my field, I decided my services would better serve my country elsewhere."

Kate’s giant F-you to her ex-boss, Agent Lamar Franks, when he’d told her he’d never allow her to be promoted, no matter how many extra hours she put in had been the first time she’d lost control since she’d flipped her car going down I-30 as a teenager, and what she’d said had done as much damage to her career as she’d done to her little Malibu.

Holden spoke, drawing her back to the office in Team Omega’s Florida headquarters, "I spoke with your previous employer. He stated that he consistently had an issue with your work ethic and with you having inappropriate relations with coworkers."

Kate’s heart ski sloped down into her belly, hit the bottom and bounced back up, sending a rush of hot blood to her cheeks. Frank's wasn't happy just by driving her out of a job she’d held for nearly a decade, his intent was to leave a permanent scar on her career. She should have expected this after her parting gift to the jerk. "I'm sure Franks told you all kinds of stories. Just like I'm sure he forgot to leave out the part about his constant sexual harassment of me at work."

Holden’s eyes flared and Kate bit her lip, soundly cursing herself and her big fat mouth. It was like quitting her job had ripped off the tight lid of control she kept on every aspect of her life.

Kate opened her mouth to apologize, but Holden held up his hand. “You know, I kind of got that vibe, that's why I went ahead and spoke with your coworkers. The majority of whom seem to have a definite chip on their shoulder about Agent Franks and his treatment of you.”

Surprise filtered through her. She’d been the only female in her unit, working quietly among a group of men who’d stood by in silence as Franks constantly harassed her. “They did?”

“After more digging, I found out there were three separate sexual harassment suits filed against him that had been quietly swept under the rug.”

“Those were sealed documents. How did you get them?” They were also highly classified. The CIA had witnessed the media’s field day with the military when the law suits accusing superior officers of sexual harassment and assault hit the courts and they’d done everything in their power to sweep their own little problem under the rug.

Holden offered his own tight smile, “That is what I do, Agent Richards. That is why Team Omega is so successful. That is also how I came across a hint of evidence that Franks was somehow linked to a traitor.”

Mr. J,
the most notorious traitor in the history of the CIA. He'd ran his own crew for years, and during that time, he'd been secretly collaborating with the deadliest terrorist in the world. Every operative associated with Mr. J was now either dead, or simply disappeared into the darkness of a giant government cover up. Everyone but Agent Franks, whose absolute desperate dance to cover his tracks had actually worked and he'd been allowed to stay on in the same position of power. A feat Kate couldn't figure out exactly how he’d pulled off.

Kate sat back in her chair, her thumb immediately going to the simple silver ring she wore on her right hand and spinning it around her ring finger. She’d have to reprise her original assessment that Team Omega were a group of mercenaries for hire.

For the first time in the interview Athena cracked a smile. "Is it true you kneed him in the nuts when you quit?"

Kate spun the ring faster as she frantically reached for the appropriate response. If she glossed over that very true fact, they might take her as dishonest. If she agreed and told the truth, they might think she was some sort of rogue agent unable to work with others. Neither of those options were shining letters of recommendation.

Then again, she wasn’t a liar, and she couldn’t start being one now, even if it meant losing this opportunity. Kate uncrossed her ankles and sat straight. “Yes, I did, after he tried to feel me up.”

Athena turned to Holden. “I like her.”

Holden didn’t answer his partner, instead he continued to pin Kate to the spot. “You’ve been a CIA analyst for nearly seven years. How much experience have you had in the field?"

“I've had minimal field experience, sir. However, I am trained in hand to hand combat, evasion and weapons qualified. I’m also the best code breaker within the whole CIA.”

Holden frowned and Athena gave him a slight head shake. A trickle of worry formed between Kate’s shoulders. “If you need references for my certification and qualifications in field training, I can provide them."

"I'm sure you can, it's not your qualifications that I'm worried about, it's the fact that you haven't actually been in the field since you first started with the CIA," Holden said.

"I train daily and hit the range at least once a week. I promise you, I can handle any physical task you assign me, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to meet your standards."

"Of that I have no doubt, Ms. Richards. It's your gut instincts, your immediate reactions to threats – that's what is the unknown here. And I'm looking for a specific type of person, a female, for the next mission we've accepted. I have no doubt your brain capacity functions at a much higher level than mine – but do your reactions happen as quickly?"

As if his last word was some signal, Athena bolted from her chair and rounded the desk in three strides, ripping her pistol from behind her as she came at Kate full force.

Kate’s lungs locked down tight and she rolled from the chair. She hit the ground and scissored her legs, tossing Athena to the ground. Her pistol flew over her head and scraped across the floor, banging into the back wall of the office. Kate was on her hands and knees, heart thundering as she scrambled after the weapon, Athena clawing her way right behind her.

What the hell was going on? Was this some kind of set up by Franks? She shouldn’t have threatened to expose the recording she had of Franks making a deal with Mr. J, the most famous traitor to the CIA in a century.

Kate stretched her arm overhead and reached for the gun. Her fingers closed around the butt of the pistol and Kate rolled to her back and raised the gun. Athena paused up on her knees, fist lifted ready to strike. Her chest rose and fell with the force of her exertion, but she didn’t attack. “I think your instincts are just fine."

Kate’s mind blanked as Athena got to her feet and held out her hand. This was part of the interview? Her hand trembled and she gripped the gun harder, keeping it trained on her attacker. “You’re damn right my instincts are fine. Now, get back.”

Kate kept her pistol leveled at Athena and got to her feet, anger helping her steady her aim.

              Athena lifted her hands in surrender and smiled, seeming totally unphased by the fact that she could die if Kate’s finger so much as twitched. “That was a test, Kate, to see if you could handle a surprise attack.”

              “A test? I could have killed you.” An evil part of her was tempted to fire the gun and see just how high Athena would jump.

              “You wouldn't have done much harm with a fake gun,’ Athena lowered her hands and nodded toward the weapon.

              Kate followed her gaze and zeroed in on the plastic mold of a pistol. “Crap.”

              She’d completely failed to notice that
minor
detail. Kate dropped the gun to her side and sighed. So much for her shining reputation as the best analyst ever produced by the CIA.

              As if reading her mind, Athena said, “I didn’t expect you to realize it was fake. I wanted to see if you could handle the situation the way we expect and need from our Team members, and you did. You did exactly what I hoped.”

              “I think you're rusty, but with a little bit of training, you’ll be perfect." Holden strode around the table and held out his hand, "I'd like to offer you a position on Team Omega."