Free The Omega Team: Hot Target (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Jordan Dane

that either,” he said. “Do what you have to do, Jacquie. My sister trusted you with the evidence. It’s out of your hands and out of mine now. You have to do the right thing.”
    Jacquie didn’t understand. He was pushing her to turn him in, as if he didn’t care. Malicious killers didn’t act like this. They lied. They ran from the police. They did anything to avoid the punishment they earned by their evil actions.
    But she couldn’t answer one question that had plagued her since she confirmed his fingerprints were on the shell casing. If she were in his place, what would she have done?
    To answer that question, she had to know what it would mean to become a mother. She thought of loving a man so much that she wanted to have his baby and bring a precious life into this world together, only to have evil cross the threshold into the shattered safety of her loving home and kill that future. The insanity of that cruelty churned heat through her blood— pure rage —just imagining the utter loss and powerlessness of losing a child.
    If she understood only a fraction of what he truly felt, she knew she’d be capable of doing the same thing he did. He’d challenged her to ‘do the right thing,’ but there was nothing right about what happened.
    There was no justice in any of it.
    “I have to hear you say it, Rafe. How did your fingerprints get on that shell casing?”
    “You know how,” he said. “Ruiz had nothing to do with it.”
    “Then tell me how you got on Borrego’s radar when you lived in Chicago and he lived in Cuba.”
    Shadowy fingers of rain trickled down his bedroom window and cast him in undulating darkness. She traced a hand down his muscled arm, tracing a fleeting glimpse of light, until he entwined his fingers in hers. His large hands made hers look small.
    “My SWAT team in Chicago got a call. A hostage rescue,” Rafe said. “Three idiots strung out on crystal meth had taken hostages. They got caught trying to rob an older couple who were babysitting their two grandkids. When a neighbor called 911 and cops showed up, things escalated.”
    When he heaved a sigh, she knew that she’d forced him to relive a terrible memory, and she squeezed his hand.
    “Addicts turn real paranoid and mean,” he said. “They killed the grandfather, right in front of his wife of thirty-five years. Those kids saw everything, too.”
    Chin down, he shook his head.
    Jacquie couldn’t imagine dealing with such a life or death situation. Her worst day might mean dealing with a paper cut. She couldn’t fathom what it would take to save a life by taking another.
    “That’s terrible. What happened?”
    “The leader came out of the house, screaming and holding a gun to the head of a five-year-old little boy,” he said. “The hostage negotiator ordered my sniper team to take the shot if we had a play. I had a clear shot and I took it.”
    “But you saved that little boy, right? You helped those hostages.”
    Rafael nodded.
    “Yeah, taking out the leader diffused the situation fast. Arrests were made and the rest of the hostages got out alive, but the kid I shot was only twenty years old. I’ve never forgotten his face. I wish we could’ve rescued those hostages without firing a shot, but that doesn’t always happen.”
    Rafe fixed his gaze on her.
    “The kid’s name was Mateo Borrego, the son of Hector’s younger brother who lived in Chicago. Mateo got hooked on his own product. Never a good thing.” He shrugged. “After Hector found out what happened, he put me on a hit list. I thought only my life was in danger, but that bastard knew how to really kill me.”
    “I hate that this happened to you, to your wife and little girl. It’s so unfair. You were only doing your job.”
    “That’s not how a man like Hector Borrego sees it, but I’m no better than him. I took the law into my own hands. How is that any different than what he did?”
    “But it is different. I know you’ve lived your life with