The Omega Team: Holiday's Hostage (Kindle Worlds Novella)
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Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.
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Holiday’s hostage
The Omega Team
By
Cara north
Table of Contents
The Omega Team
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue
The Omega Team
Grey Holden was raised to believe in honor and duty and the dedication of men to fighting evil. Both his father and grandfather taught him the tradition of the Omega Male, men who carry a resourcefulness, cunning and strength to get a job done with their own skill. They take great pride in what they do without it manifesting as "ego." They differ from the typical Alpha Male who MUST absolutely be perceived by his peers as the toughest, most popular, and smartest. An Omega Male cares little for this recognition...but knows that he is all those things and more. It’s what made him a good soldier and what makes him a good security and covert agent. Athena Madero fits perfectly into his world. They meet when separately they are trying to prove that a wealthy and high profile political figure is actually The Snake, a shadowy arms dealer whose weapons armed the insurgents that Grey was fighting in Afghanistan.
They form The Omega Team, an agency that takes on even the most dangerous cases. They draw as members of the team former military such as Delta Force, SEALs, Force Recon Marines, Coast Guard, Night Stalkers and others, law enforcement and private security who have the same code of conduct and dedication they do. They will also work with similar agencies on some joint ventures. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, they accept assignments all over the world, no matter how dangerous.
Holiday’s Hostage
Chapter 1
“This doesn’t make sense.” Howard Holiday folded his arms and waited. Times had changed since the last time he has seen this man, much less took orders from him.
“She is my only weakness. She has absolutely no idea anything is wrong and I would like to keep it that way. The Omega Team is already working my situation and I assured them that my daughter did not need to know about this. I explained that I had already made arrangements to provide her with a body guard for the next two weeks.” Retired General Ryan Craig hadn’t lost one edge since his transition from military service to politics.
“You know that I’m not in the Marine Corps anymore and I’ve applied for a job at The Omega Team.” Howard considered this a moment. “You aren’t giving me my recommendation unless I do this, right?”
The General shrugged. “I’ve made several mistakes in my life, Holiday. What I did to you and Phoebe was one of them. I don’t trust any other man with the safety and care of my daughter. If you keep Phoebe occupied for the next two weeks while this situation is handled, then I will not only give you a glowing recommendation, but point out that you were my choice to handle her while they handled me.”
“What exactly are they handling? It’s Christmas. You are expecting me to meet your daughter at a ski resort for the holiday. What happens when this goes wrong? We both know you haven’t told her you won’t be there, and I know for damn sure you didn’t tell her I would. So how do you see this playing out?” It took a lot to hold back the word sir at the end of that.
He had called this man sir for many years when he worked for him. He didn’t work for him anymore unless he took this assignment, but the part of Howard that wanted to see Phoebe was also the part that knew she would never forgive him for choosing his career, under orders from her father, instead of her. Maybe she was right not to forgive him. He had excelled in the military, but suffered in his personal life. A fact he realized when he was up for the next promotion and decided it was no longer worth it. There was more to life than the military.
Retired General Craig stood steely eyed and silent for a long moment while he considered his answer. “I have some information some unsavory people want. Let’s just leave it at that. The less you know, the less I have to worry that if something happens to me they will seek out…”
“They will seek out anyone and everyone they believe you may have given the information to and that might happen no matter what. You know this. You knew this when you attained whatever it is you know. You never put her first in your entire career in the military and now you have a chance to retire, go fishing, spend time with your daughter, and you get involved in this political circus and wind up with whatever it is you know, and she is still the only one to pay for it.” Howard would never have said that before, but he didn’t care now. He hated this man for what he did to Phoebe and for convincing him all those years ago to do the same.
“You love her.” It was a statement of fact and it hung there between them without response until he continued. “Take care of my daughter Holiday. By any means necessary, you keep her at that resort and you keep her safe. You will put her first, you always did.”
“I failed her.” It was never a lawful order and they both knew it. The man could not tell him who he could nor could not see, but the threat of stalling Holiday’s career if he continued to see Phoebe was enough back then to sway Holiday to break up with her. He never expected it to haunt him like it did. As soon as she was out of his life, he understood how much she meant to him.
“Don’t fail again.” He handed him an envelope and turned away. “Two weeks, Holiday. Whatever it takes, you have to keep her off the radar, off the grid, for two weeks.”
Howard wondered just how much his new employers knew about the General’s plans. He would make the call to Athena and Grey when he left this meeting. He had other recommendations, and while this man’s would have been an important one, he suddenly felt like asking for it had led Retired General Craig to the Omega Team which he was now employing for his own purpose rather than giving a stellar recommendation.
***
Howard arrived to the ski resort, which actually turned out to be a remote cabin in the woods, and began the process of disrupting access to the outside world. He set up the equipment in the small attic and then situated his surveillance gear in a closet before removing the handle and putting tape over the door to make it appear useless. He had his watch, which could access the cameras, receive messages, and even act as a phone if necessary, but he hoped it would not be necessary. He was already happy and worried about the amount of snow being dumped on the place. He was happy because it would be a great excuse for why nothing was working, but worried because Phoebe had not arrived yet. He looked at the watch and understood why; she wasn’t due for another three hours.
He looked out the window and wondered how he was going to go get her if it came to that. All of his super-secret security shit handled, he made himself useful in the kitchen. They had enough food for a month and a box of meals ready to eat stored in a trunk should that month come to pass and they still needed to be here. He was not sure two weeks was going to be enough. None of it made sense to him.
The call to the Omega Team had verified that they knew the man had a daughter, but he had lied to them and told them she was out of the country. They were not happy with the lie, but Athena assured him that sometimes people are afraid of telling their family when they
are in trouble so it could still be his way of trying to protect her, after all, he did make arrangements for her safety.
It didn’t add up to Howard. He used a decent chunk of the money he was given as payment on extra gear to protect this place. Seeing Phoebe again might have him on edge, but when he explained to Athena the entire history, no holding back truths, she had agreed the extra precautions made sense and they would keep digging to see if there was anything new to worry about. As he continued to work on the meal for dinner, Howard thought about every escape plan available should they need to leave by vehicle, by snowmobile which he had strategically hidden, or by foot which he really hoped was not the case. The alternative, the attic had a secret room, but that was where all of the gear was so there would be no hiding the truth from her then.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to hide the truth from her now. As he debated it, the motion detector went off and his watch buzzed. He looked at it, then out the window where minutes later he watched her pull up in a luxury SUV. Her father spared no expense as a means of making up for his shortcomings. Over the years Phoebe had turned those things away. Howard tried not to smile as he wondered if she had started to take them after their breakup. Then he frowned wondering if he had been so easily replaced by things.
His entire body sizzled with anticipation.
Chapter 2
Phoebe was so excited that her dad had finally made time to spend a holiday with her that she didn’t even care that it was in the middle of the woods. He had been so stressed out lately and he talked to her more than ever before, so when he asked her to join him, she couldn’t say no.
She wanted to forgive him for a lifetime of being a jerk more often than a father. He had put her and her mother aside for his career, and even in retirement the man was busier than ever. She grabbed one of the bags and her purse and headed inside. She was surprised he didn’t meet her at the door, come out and help with her bags, but he could be taking a nap for all she knew. He needed a nap. Phoebe yawned. Maybe she needed a nap. Her work ethic was a trait she definitely inherited from him. One reason why she knew he wouldn’t mind her working during this break. All she needed was a little internet access and life would be golden.
“Dad, I’m here!” Phoebe dropped her bags and began unfastening her coat. “The snow is really coming down. I’m glad I left early or I might not have made it. I don’t think we can get back down that mountain any time soon.”
“That’s a relief.” Her heart went from warm and joyful to cold and broken before turning over in her chest where it began beating hard and angry again. She let her hands grip the coat with full fury a moment then took in a deep breath before slowly letting go of the coat now on the entryway hook. She closed her eyes and tried to process what she knew was impossible. “Phoebe?”
Only it wasn’t impossible, it was real. She would not look directly at him. “Holi-Howard.” She knew that calling him Holiday was more personal than his first name and he hated his first name because he was named after his father, a man he barely knew and mostly hated. Satisfied he was glaring she continued, “What are you doing here? Where is my father?”
“Yeah, uh…about that…” She looked up at him then. He was never indecisive in the past. Her brows drew down in a scowl, but her angry heart was starting to play a different tune. He looked as good as ever, maybe even better. He lifted his arm and grabbed the back of his neck and then looked at the fire to avoid meeting her eyes. “He sent me.”
“Did he?” She practically growled. “Interesting choice of babysitter, don’t you think?”
“There’s a roast in the oven…” He still wouldn’t look at her. “It will be done soon.”
“Howard.” She had always called him by his last name because that is the name his friends were calling him when they met and it just stuck as a term of endearment, made her an insider. Later, when she learned that he hated his first name, she only used Howard when she was mad and Handsome as his pet name. He had called her Bee. Memories flooded her brain and she shook her head and the thoughts.
She started to say something else, but he looked directly at her and her words got caught in her throat along with her next breath. Intense deep blue eyes pinned her, communicated things his mouth would not say, and she gulped. “He’s in trouble?”
“I don’t know.” He let out a hard breath and looked away from her again. “He asked me to come here and to keep you safe for the next two weeks.”
“And you came.” She moved into the room and next to him. “Why?”
He looked at her again and the answer was too much. She could read him like a book, when no one else could. It was the reason they began talking that night. She had taken all his money in poker after he had taken everyone else’s. He learned that about her quickly and must have realized he was letting her in because he steeled that expression. It pissed her off so she decided to see if she could still piss him off too. “I’m with someone. You should know that. I just started dating him two months ago.”
Hurt flickered and then anger settled. She was glad he felt both of those emotions. She sure had when he broke up with her. “I’m not here to seduce you. I’m here to protect you.”
She smiled because that anger made her happy in so many ways and for more reasons than she could count. She was devastated by his rejection, his choice, and for the last five years she had punished any man around for it.
Then she met Steven and he was nothing like all the military people she had known her whole life. He cancelled meetings to have lunch with her, he adjusted his schedule to have dinner, and aside from having to split for the holiday to visit their respective parents, he had sacrificed everything to be with her. Unlike her father, and unlike Howard Holiday.
Still, watching this particular man stalk away from her in well-fitting jeans and a long sleeve shirt that emphasized all that was powerful and fit about him, made her toes and a few other places tingle a little.
“I still have a couple bags in the car.” She called after him.
“I suggest you go get them before the doors freeze shut.” He shut his bedroom door and she bit her lips to hold back the laughter. It bothered him that she had someone. She smiled wide and moved to put her coat on. She was at the last button when a thought wiped it from her face. Had he found someone else? Was he here to protect her and away from another woman, and that fact more than jealousy was what made him angry?
Suddenly, the coat was too hot. Her own anger was rolling through her in waves as she pulled out the last two of her bags and brought them inside the cabin. She didn’t stop until she was at the master bedroom. She knew he had claimed this room, but she was the one here to be protected, without her father, at Christmas, so yeah, he was going to take the smaller room, not her. She opened the door and said, “This is my room.”
“Yeah. I know it is. I was just putting these around the window sills to help block out any drafts.” He placed another long strip of something along the window and she glared at him. He had to turn sideways to get past her through the door and she refused to make that easier for him. “Excuse me.”
“I’ve been trying to do that for the past five years and yet here you are.” She glared and then regretted saying it as the effort to mask his emotions was apparent to her.
She moved aside and he walked out. She spent her time organizing her things in the room she would spend the next two weeks in. Once she got her laptop out, plugged in, and tried to connect to the internet, she groaned in frustration. Her stomach echoed that roar with a groan of its own. She realized that she had smelled the food, but he hadn’t called her to dinner.
Once in the kitchen area she propped her hands on her hips and looked at the man steadily eating. “Were you going to let me know dinner was ready?”
“Dinner’s ready.” He poked another potato with his fork and then ate it.
“Holiday, it is Christmas. Maybe we can come to some form of civilized compromise for the next two weeks.” She hadn’t realiz
ed until his lips tilted that she had called him Holiday. Ignoring that, she moved to the stove and realized all of the potatoes were gone. The roast had carrots and onions and a little bit of celery left, but not one potato. She looked at his plate and knew where they went. He knew those were her favorite. “Or maybe not since you took every potato and left me every onion.”
He licked his lips before tilting them in a devious smile. She wanted to remain mad at him, but looking at those lips reminded her of a time he smiled at her, against her lips, both pair, and suddenly all she wanted was to kiss him. She made her plate and sat across from him at the table. In a motion of pure male aggression, he put his arm on the table and in front of his plate to shield it from her.
She laughed and he glared. “Really? You’re acting like an animal now. You think I would try to steal potatoes off your plate just because you have all of them?”
She would and intended to, but he knew her well enough to know that. “Yes.”
“Why can’t you just share?” She was talking about potatoes, but when their gazes locked she knew he was not.
“Never, ever, in the history of time would I be willing to share…” He caught himself and ended with, “these…potatoes.”
He had to know what that was doing to her. Steven was at the furthest reaches of her mind, not even a thought now that she was sitting across from the man she had wanted for so long but couldn’t have. She hated him, she loved him, she hated that she loved him, but it was undeniable.
“So now you want potatoes? I remember a time when you decided that you could live without potatoes because….fuck it. I can’t do this metaphorically. Why are you here? Don’t say to protect me because anyone could have set up camp outside this cabin and my dad could have called me tonight and said he wasn’t coming or that he would be late or something and I would stay and wait like the idiot daughter I am and spend another holiday alone. You’re here this time. My mom and step-dad are in Italy where the Navy has him stationed, but I spent the summer with them so the fall holidays were set aside for my dad. I spent Thanksgiving in Florida, alone because he kept saying he would get there, but he didn’t. No one else was there to protect me. He could have sent me to Steven’s family for either holiday, but he asked me to come here alone, so what the fuck is going on?”