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The Omega Team
The Omega Team
Penulis: Desiree Holt

Chapter 1

Penulis: Desiree Holt
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2022-04-19 14:01:46
Part One: Raw Edge of Danger

Tampa, Florida.

Home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, the Lightning hockey team, the Buccaneers football team, the Gasparilla Festival, palm trees, oppressive heat, and the fucking lovebugs.

Fucking lovebugs. If anyone ever found a way to eradicate the damn pests, Grey Holden had no doubt they could be president or anything else they wanted. Not the climate a native of Montana would have chosen for his headquarters. But the choice had not been his. Circumstances called the shots on this one.

Of course, if he happened to have a boat, there was the beautiful waterfront. Not to mention the myriad of excellent restaurants with more varieties of food than he'd seen in most other places. And it was easy on the eyes to see women in skimpy outfits rather than jeans and sweatshirts. Not that it mattered, since he wasn't even spending much time looking. He had other things on his mind, things that had brought him to this, a community he'd learned contained the most expensive real estate in Tampa.

But none of these things were on his immediate horizon. Grey had a single focus, a mission for a team of one—himself. Until that was completed, he couldn't let himself be distracted by any of the things the Tampa Bay area had to offer, tempting as they were. He knew how dangerous diversions could be.

His target was Senator Drake Bostic, the man he knew to be responsible for hundreds of thousands of weapons sold to terrorists throughout the world. The weapons used the night his team had been trapped and his best friend killed. Nailing him was what had brought Grey to this city, and his time since his arrival had been spent gathering the equipment he'd need and tracking his prey. By this point, he even knew how many times a day the man took a leak.

Today, he was scoping out Tanglewood, the very upscale community where Bostic had his home, and checking out the security situation. The guards at the gate paid attention, but Grey had known exactly how to get around that. Phony identification was as easy to come by in Tampa as it was anywhere else.

As he drove the streets, he mentally catalogued the number and placement of the opulent houses with their massive Tudor or Spanish or Southern architecture, their precise landscaping, their pristine windows reflecting the sunlight. The only differences between scouting a mission in Afghanistan and one in Tampa, Florida, were the landscaping and the people. The process was still the same, casual and stealthy. Blend in with the scenery if you were out where people could see you. Make mental notes of danger spots and possible traps, places with no escape.

The car he used was a rental, booked with his fake identification. He knew the guard at the gate would take down the license plate, so he had to make sure it didn't lead to anywhere.

Driving slowly, casually like the real estate agent he pretended to be, he scoped out which houses had their own security gates and which ones were less vigilant. His particular target fell into the first classification, but, even though a high brick wall surrounded it similar to what he saw on some of the other homes, Grey wasn't worried. He'd handled tougher situations.

He took photos with his cell phone of the location of cameras on the house he targeted, while at the same time checking out the homes on either side. He also took shots of the street and of the houses from different angles. When he got home, he'd transfer it all to his laptop and begin to plot his attack.

He might have been puzzled at how a man with the senator's high profile managed to keep his illegal activities out of the public eye for so long. Then he realized power and money could take care of anything. People could know what he really did with his life, but no one wanted to be the whistleblower. If he fell, he took way too many people with him, so everyone kept their mouths shut and turned a blind eye to the destruction being wrought.

As he eased along the winding streets, he rolled the windows down and inhaled the fresh morning air. This was the one difference he appreciated. The scent of magnolias and freshly cut lawn tickled his nostrils, a nice change from the dirt and sand of Afghanistan. The breeze was soft, balmy, as opposed to the wicked, cutting wind that blew in off the Hindu Kush Mountains.

For one very brief moment, he wished he were actually taking the day to enjoy this, to unwind in the relaxing atmosphere of this city on the shores of Tampa Bay.

But, as seductive as the Florida climate was, Afghanistan was always with him, along with the treachery that had killed his best friend. He would do well to remember that. He had a mission, one more important than any he'd been on in all his time as a member of a Delta Force or Special Operations Group team. He'd better get to it.

Satisfied at last he had whatever information he needed, he headed out of the community, waving at the guard who opened the gate for him. A few blocks away, he stopped at a convenience store for a cold drink and to top off his tank. He sat for a moment, looking at the photos he'd taken and analyzing them. To do what he had in mind, he'd need to acquire some specialized equipment, but he didn't see that as a problem. He'd compromised more sophisticated equipment on his assignments as part of a Special Operations Group than what he expected to find here. Hopefully, with his skills and the equipment he intended to procure, this would be a piece of cake.

He'd scoped out Drake Bostic's local senatorial office in Titan Towers first, getting hired and working as a member of the cleaning crew for a couple of nights and using his skills to get into the suite. But it was evident from the lack of high security there was nothing sensitive kept there. It made sense. The man had to be smart enough not to leave things around where others could access them. No, his home offered the best secrecy and security.

Grey rested his head against the back of the seat, closed his eyes for a moment, and, just like that, he was back in Afghanistan, in the middle of an ambush and a firefight.

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  • The Omega Team   Chapter 61

    Shannon rubbed her forehead. It seemed she was the only one who thought she and Owen had something together. Had she misread the silent signals?No! I didn't! If I just had the chance to—Stop it. Too many tears over spilled milk.Swallowing a sigh, she leaned her head back against the chaise and closed her eyes. Bad idea.At once an image of a naked Owen swam into her mind, the hard muscles of his body defined in a half-light, his thick cock pointing straight at her, his eyes filled with hunger. Silently he held out a hand to her, reaching for her."I want you." His voice sounded deep and guttural."I want you, too. Why did you leave me?""We'll talk later. Right now I just want to taste every bit of you and sink into your body.""All right." She put her hand in his, but as soon as she touched him, he began to fade and disappear."No," she cried. "Don't leave. Please come back.""I'm here, Shannon.""No." She wanted to cry as she tried to grab for him again. "No, you're n

  • The Omega Team   Chapter 60

    "But where on earth did he go?"Shannon sat on the couch in her living room, feet pulled up, hugging her knees.At the end of the terrifying day that still gave her nightmares, Owen had brought her home. He had stayed with her every minute. When they gave their statements to the police, he'd been by her side, holding her hand. When the cops interviewed her about the entire situation, Owen stuck by her side. With his help, she managed to avoid reporters. He'd fed her and held her and soothed her when she kept reliving the nightmare moment.And then he'd just packed his go-bag and told her he had to leave. She still visualized the pain on his face when he walked out. She hadn't imagined the connection between them.If it hurt so much for him to walk away, why did he think he had to leave? She'd been so sure they could take the opportunity to explore something real between them."Owen is a very complex person," Athena told her. "He's had a hard life, faced a lot of scary stuff during

  • The Omega Team   Chapter 59

    Shannon shook her head. "We never get much information. Just the profile of the people who will be playing the game and the goals the client wants to accomplish.""The client is a very high-profile hedge fund. They have a lot of money—billions—passing through their hands, so the CEO wanted to make sure he had a staff that worked well together to handle it all.""And?" She made a "come on" gesture with her fingers."Jay Novak has been trying to plant a bug in your game to then allow him to access the hedge fund accounts once they loaded the game onto their computers."She stared at him. "Are you serious?""As a heart attack.""So his big plan was to get into the hedge fund files and steal money?" Her head was spinning."You got it. Jacquie said the bug he tried to plant would have sucked money out and left no trace. It would manipulate the accounts so it didn't affect the balance. Nobody would know unless they tried to move funds in a legitimate transaction.""But—" She stopped

  • The Omega Team   Chapter 58

    Owen questioned the security guard at length before they left the building. Shannon checked the log to see who had signed in that day, swearing under her breath when she saw all three of the people she and Owen discussed had been in and out."But not all together," she pointed out."Maybe by design," he answered. He took a snapshot with his phone of the page with their log times on it before herding her out of there."I'm going to make a quick stop to pick up some food," he told her. "I think we'll pass on the ribs right now and get something easy to handle. I know you want to get started on this as soon as you can, but you also need to eat.""God." She leaned back against the seat, rubbing her face with her palms. "I can't believe this is happening. This is just too outrageous for simple jealousy.""Don't discount it, though," he warned. "Jealous people do terrible things."At home, she copied the file from her hard drive onto to a thumb drive then wiped it completely from her l

  • The Omega Team   Chapter 57

    He studied her face for a long moment, trying to read her. She'd said she had no jilted boyfriends—did people even use that word now?—but Grey had uncovered a contradiction. Maybe their definition of the word differed from hers."Tell me about Peter Maguire," he said at last."Oh, for god's sake." She took a heavy swallow of the wine. "That little weenie?"Owen couldn't help laughing. "Doesn't make him sound too attractive.""He's not." She twisted her lips in a grimace. "I think nothing short of desperation would make a woman accept a date with him.""According to what Grey learned, he's been telling his friends you gave him a raw deal. Wrote him off. He intends to show you who has the upper hand.""More like a limp wrist." She snorted. "Or maybe a limp dick." A sudden blush suffused her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I—""Hey!" Owen held up a hand. "Works fine for me.""And just how did Grey find all this out in such a short period of time?"Owen shrugged. "He has his sources. I never

  • The Omega Team   Chapter 56

    Owen looked around, taking in every detail of the place Shannon had chosen."You picked a winner here, Shannon. No doubt about it. No false advertising here."La Zamira was just as she'd promised. The medium-sized restaurant had a full house, the air redolent with the scents of spices used in the excellent Cuban cooking. The tostadas—Cuban bread buttered and toasted on a grill—along with the scrambled eggs and seasoned sausage had just hit the spot. Now, he enjoyed his second cup of café con leche—coffee with warm milk—and thought he hadn't felt so at peace in more than fifteen years.Sad, Cormier. Very sad.But he'd chosen this life. Or maybe it had chosen him. Shannon McRae was an anomaly. The one night they'd spent together two years before had been burned into his brain. But last night surpassed even the memory. He didn't want to admit the reason might be because now he had a name to go with the face and body and information to form a picture of the woman herself. He'd long a

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