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Five years ago
Rafael lay sprawled on his belly in
the gritty dirt for hours, enduring the cool darkness before dawn to the now
sweltering heat of the midday sun. He offered up his body to anything that
crawled or slithered. With a single-minded purpose he remained as still and
unmoving as the boulder he hid behind, dressed in camouflage tactical
gear—BDUs, boonie hat, and boots. Not even the heat or the sweat
trickling down his neck distracted him.
His unwavering discipline kept him
rooted to the land. This had to work.
Rafe cleared out every last cent of
his savings—after he’d lost all hope for his future—to pay for his covert drop
and extraction so he could bring his weapon into Cuba. Without an official
stamp in his passport, there would be no record of him entering or leaving the
country.
When he heard the sound of a
vehicle in the distance, he knew his sacrifice had come down to this moment.
His eyes shifted toward the horizon and his throat wedged tight. He fought the
emotion that welled inside him as he shouldered his suppressed .300 Winchester
Magnum. Rafe stared through the Nightforce telescopic sight with his eyes
trained on the dirt road below his position.
Please let it be him.
Not many used this desolate acreage
of private ranch land, except for the man he dared to hunt. A truck barreled
toward his position and kicked up clouds of dust. As he peered through the
scope, adrenaline raged through his veins. Stay in control. Don’t lose it now.
He’d come too far to fail. Rafe had his egress routed, but if he didn’t take
his target out, he didn’t care what happened to him.
The truck would soon be in range.
Rafael slipped on his ear plugs and checked for wind, spying the inconspicuous
ribbon he’d tied to a downrange branch at dawn. He adjusted the knobs for
windage and elevation and took the safety off his sniper rifle. His hand
reached for the bolt action and he chambered a round.
One shot. One kill.
He relaxed his body and took a deep
breath before he let it out slow. Rafe hardened his expression as callused as
his heart had become. He lined up the man’s face until it centered in the
floating crosshair of his scope—Adiós, cabrón—and without hesitation he
squeezed the trigger.
The man’s head spattered red mist
and brain matter onto the windshield. The back of his head severed from his
neck. Target down. Confirmed. After the truck veered left and lunged into a
ditch, the man’s dead weight landed on the steering wheel. The abrasive sound
of a horn cut through the late afternoon air.
Rafael lay motionless and glared at
the dead man through his scope. Time drained away and he could not move. Tears
welled in his eyes. He expected to feel something. It was over, wasn’t it? His
body shook and he fought the urge to puke.
You gotta go. Now.
It took everything he had to get
off the ground and stay focused on his egress. He’d have to get to his
extraction point and out of Cuba fast before authorities found the body. Out of
habit, he policed his brass, grabbing for the spent shell casing ejected from
his .300 Win Mag, but something made him stop. He stared down at the brass in
his hand. An impulse gripped him hard. Maybe the urge came from his unrelenting
respect for justice.
He’d built a career in law
enforcement with the Chicago police department, his latest assignment in SWAT,
special operations. Being one of the good guys was all he ever wanted to be,
but today he shattered everything he ever stood for.
He’d killed a man in cold blood.
In a slow and deliberate gesture,
Rafe wedged the spent casing into a notch on the boulder like an artist signing
his work. He didn’t care what happened to him—not any more.
Hot
Target
When
Rafael reaches out to his sister for a job, Athena Matero—a founding member of
the private security agency, the Omega Team—can’t help but be protective of her
younger half brother. After a tragic hostage rescue and its aftermath, Rafael
Matero turned into a solitary loner, only surfacing to fulfill his duties as
team leader for an elite SWAT sniper unit with the Chicago Police. Athena
decides to fast track his application by vetting him on the job—a mission to
Havana Cuba to investigate a cold case murder.
But
when the old murder is linked to the shadowy death of a powerful drug cartel
leader, Rafael is burdened by a terrible secret from his past—and an
unrelenting death wish—that puts him at dangerous odds with Athena and her
team. He believes he’s beyond saving, but that doesn’t stop Jacquie Lyles from
trying.
Jacquie
sees something in Athena’s mysterious brother that touches her heart.
Chivalrous and brave, Rafael is as rare as a unicorn in her life as techno
computer geek and white hat hacker for the Omega Team. After she joins the team
on its mission to Cuba, she uncovers Rafael’s shocking burden and it breaks her
heart.
Rafael
stands in the crosshairs of a vicious drug cartel—powerless to stop his
fate—and his secret could put Athena and her team in the middle of a drug war.
Tough
Target
Coming
May 2016
An
Omega Team Novella – Amazon Kindle Worlds
Novella
2 of 3
By
Jordan Dane
Target
Rich
Coming
July 2016
An
Omega Team Novella – Amazon Kindle Worlds
Novella
3 of 3
By
Jordan Dane
About the Author
Bestselling, critically-acclaimed author
Jordan Dane’s gritty thrillers are ripped from the headlines with vivid
settings, intrigue, and dark humor. Publishers Weekly compared her intense
novels to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag, naming her debut novel NO
ONE HEARD HER SCREAM as Best Books of 2008. She also pens young-adult novels
for Harlequin Teen. Formerly an energy sales manager, she now writes full time.
Jordan shares her Texas residence with two lucky rescue dogs.
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