The Omega Team: Hot Target (Kindle Worlds Novella) (6 page)

“He wanted you on his turf before he mentioned the Borrego cartel.
Cabrón
!
He’s playing us like pawns.” Her brother watched Ruiz leave the room. “What’s the plan?”

Divide and conquer. Athena would have Jacquie set up communications—a direct line to Grey and the resources of the Omega Team computer server—but if her equipment happened to jam their devices, Athena could easily explain the interference. If Ruiz objected too much, he’d have to explain why, and he wasn’t about to admit he’d planted surveillance.

Rafferty and Landry could provide a distraction at the hotel in the meantime.

“We still have time to make it to the crime scene before it gets dark,” she said. “You up for a little recon,
mi hermano
?”

“
Sí, como no
.” He fixed his gaze on her and reached for her hand. The sad expression on his face touched her heart. “The burden of justice is on you, Athena Madero. You have the strength and the courage to do what must be done. This I know.”

Hotel Inglaterra

An hour later

Rafferty and Landry hit the hotel bar in the lobby and made the bartender their new best friend. If Vice President Ruiz had them watched, they would force the man to spread his resources thin. Their sudden move and visibility would act as a diversion for Athena and her brother to slip out of the hotel through the kitchen.

Rafael told Athena he had a plan. Landry would’ve liked to see the kid in action, but that wasn’t his assignment.

“What beer would you recommend,
mi amigo
?” Rafferty asked the bartender.

“Tourists like
Cristal
or
Bucanero
.” The man shrugged as he wiped the counter and threw down napkins. “But for me, I like
Cacique
or
Mayabe
.”

“Then
Cacique
it is.”

“And I’ll have a Havana Club
Añejo
7 on the rocks.” Landry couldn’t wait to taste the award winning 7-year old dark rum.

“Very good, gentlemen.”

Before the bartender brought their drinks, Landry felt a tap on his shoulder. A waiter dressed in black had a covered plate in his hands and set it on the bar between them.

“Compliments of our kitchen,” the young man said. “Enjoy.”

The waiter lifted the silver cover and Rafferty nearly lost it. His belly laugh drowned out the music. Piled on the plate were dozens of baby corn. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who’d sent it.

“That Madero kid’s got style.” Landry smirked. “
Real
classy.”

***

“Before we leave the hotel, we should turn off our phones. Ruiz could track our GPS,” Rafael said. “We’ll have them in case of an emergency, but let’s hope we don’t have to use them.”

“Yeah, good call,” Athena said.

With phones off, Rafael ditched the white apron he’d stolen from the kitchen in a trash bin as he shoved through a door and into an alley behind the hotel. Athena followed him, fighting a grin. When he’d said, ‘I have a plan,’ she trusted him to get them out of the hotel unnoticed and she’d marveled at his inventiveness. She didn’t have to tell her brother anything. He acted instinctively and she loved seeing him work.

“You have
cojones
, Rafe. Big ones. It takes balls to improvise on the fly in the middle of a busy chef’s kitchen.”

“I was a dishwasher, back in the day. I know how things work.”

Rafe led the way down the alley, not wasting any time, with her close behind him. His eyes were alert to any signs of danger and once he got on the street, he used window reflections or car mirrors to spot anyone tailing them. Athena did the same.

Shadows cast fingers of darkness from the buildings they passed. In two hours the sun would drop below the horizon and the evening’s chill would close in. They didn’t have much time if they wanted to see anything of the crime scene in the daylight. A growing sense of urgency quickened their steps. When they got to a quieter street, Rafael slipped his hands on car doors as he passed by them, slyly testing if they were locked. He kept his head up and eyes alert as he did.

After he found an open one, he said, “Act like it’s ours and get in.” He slid into the driver’s seat. Rafe reached into his pocket for a small knife and used it on wires he pulled from under the dash. With a cut and a twist, he worked fast, without any hesitation. He did it by feel and barely looked down.

“You’ve done this before,” Athena said. “Is this something they taught you at the Chicago PD?”

“Chalk it up to my misspent youth before I saw the error of my ways.” The engine rumbled and Rafael grinned and winked at her. “Just like riding a bike.”

When he pulled from the curb, Athena reached for a folder from under her jean jacket, a part of the murder book that Ruiz had sent to their hotel room. The file showed the crime scene and had a map. Athena glanced at notes in the folder and gave Rafe directions, but her brother interrupted her.

“Sun will be down soon. I know a faster way.”

“I thought you hadn’t been to Havana before.”

Rafe scrunched his face and shrugged.

“I knew we’d be pressed for time. Before we headed out, I looked for a short cut on that map and found one, that’s all.”

They rode in silence toward the outskirts of the capital until urban sprawl gave way to rural rolling hills and ranch lands. Athena pointed to a dirt road.

“Turn here. This’ll get us close.”

“You realize this is Borrego land according to that map you’re holding…and we are without weapons,” he said as he made the turn and kicked up dirt behind him. “I thought I was the only one with a death wish.”

Cuban law restricted visitors from bringing firearms into the country, except for an approved and limited list used for hunting. Ruiz had offered his protection for a reason, but after seeing how the man showed his trust—by putting them under strict covert surveillance—Athena wasn’t sure the politician’s protection would mean much.

She wouldn’t mind looking a Borrego in the eye and getting their side of the story. If she came to hunt down a cold case killer, she wouldn’t get at the truth by seeing only what Ruiz wanted her to see.

“We’re here to find out who killed their cartel leader. Maybe they will not think of us as the enemy.”

“That only means they’ll have mixed feelings when they hack off our heads,” Rafe said.

They drove long enough for Athena to question whether they’d turned down the right road before she saw a rusted carcass of a truck with its nose in a ditch. The vehicle had baked in the sun for years. It had weeds and grasses growing up through its cracked windows.

Rafael pulled up behind it and they got out. Her brother didn’t say a word as he approached the vehicle.

“This is it.” Athena handed him a photo of the crime scene and the truck from five years ago. Rafe didn’t even glance down at it.

She looked at the police report of the first responders on the scene and furrowed her brow. After she read the findings of the report and compared it to what she saw in front of her, she shook her head.

“This is wrong. The report says the gun had been fired point blank, but look at the cracked glass of the driver’s side window.” She leaned closer to get a better look at the fracture pattern. “This had to come from a long range rifle. But there’s nothing in the file about a sniper.”

Athena peered into the surrounding hills, turning in a slow circle from where she stood.

“If I were the shooter, I’d have been up there.” She pointed behind Rafe.

Her brother turned to see where she aimed her finger. He didn’t say a word. When he fixed his gaze on her, the sad expression she’d seen before had returned.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I will be.”

“Come on. This could be good news.” She smiled and punched him in the arm. “Let’s head up there. Maybe we’ll find evidence the Cuban police never found.”

In her hunt to find a murderer, Athena got a rush off the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She trekked up the hill toward a ridge that would’ve provided the shooter cover. A boulder caught her eye. In the waning hours of daylight, the glint of something shiny snagged her attention.

“I think I see something shiny on that rock.” Athena could not contain her excitement. “This way.”

***

Seeing the wrecked truck and the old blood stains that had browned with time, Rafael fought the sickening feeling of taking a man’s life with the squeeze of a trigger. Images of the man’s skull exploding in a red mist flashed in his head, haunting him then and now. He didn’t feel sorry for the man who had condemned his wife and child to death with one phone call, but he hated what he had become in the name of revenge.

Avenging the murders of Elena and Ariana had done nothing. He had only corrupted his soul. If he truly believed in heaven and God, he would never see Elena and Ariana again. He was no better than the man he had killed.

“
Lo siento, mi amor
,” he whispered under his breath as he followed Athena up the hill to the location he had used to kill Hector Borrego five years ago.

“I think I see something shiny on that rock,” his sister called out to him and picked up the pace. “This way.”

It would only be a matter of time now.

Rafael still didn’t know why he had reached out to Athena when he did, to be closer to her. Perhaps he knew this day would come and if justice would find him, he wanted her to hear the truth from his lips. But the more he worked alongside her, the more he dreaded the day she would learn what he’d done.

“It’s a shell casing.” Athena reached into her jean pocket and came up with latex gloves for evidence gathering. She’d brought an extra set for him. She retrieved the casing from an indentation in the boulder, the rock he’d used for cover. Careful not to scratch the casing and ruin evidence, she used her gloved fingers to extricate the spent cartridge. Local cops never bothered to look for a sniper years ago, but did Ruiz know what they would find?

The man had taken a special interest in him at the reception. Did he suspect something? Rafe’s mind raced with any number of paranoid scenarios. It didn’t matter if the crosshairs were now on him. What he worried about most was that Athena and the Omega Team might bear the punishment meant for him.

“Whoever did this, they didn’t police their brass. I wonder why?” Athena wrapped the shell casing in one of her gloves to protect the evidence. “Our sniper signed his work. I’ve heard of fingerprints lasting up to forty years on certain surfaces. Normally being exposed to the elements might degrade any prints, but this shell had been encased into a notch in stone. We may get a lucky break. Why didn’t the police catch this when the prints would have been fresher?”

“Hector Borrego was just another dead cartel leader,” he said. “The police would’ve seen his murder as a gift.”

“Then why is Ruiz pushing to solve this case
now
and using
me
to do it?”

“It would appear our Vice President has a personal agenda.” Rafe glared toward the setting sun. “He’s either trying to stir things up between the cartels or he’s targeting the Borregos for a reason we have yet to discover.”

“Then why use me to do it?” she pressed.

“Because you’re a pit bull, Athena. No matter where this investigation leads, you will find the truth and expose a killer. It’s what you do.”

He jammed his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“You and the Omega Team don’t compromise on what’s right,” he said. “Whatever happened five years ago, you will force the truth to come out. You have to. Everything you and Grey are building depends on it.”

He’d seen the excitement in his sister’s eyes when she uncovered the new evidence. Rafael wasn’t sure he wanted to see her enthusiasm be replaced with the shame he knew would come. Athena had the reputation of her Omega Team to think about now. Rafael hadn’t considered how this could affect his sister and the future she and Grey were making. He’d brought this terrible thing to her door.

Damn it! What would she do?

Rafe wished he hadn’t reached out to her and he regretted accepting her offer of an interview in Florida.

“It’s getting dark,” she said. “We did good, little brother. When we get back to the hotel, I’ll have Jacquie run the shell casing through our handheld fingerprint identification system to capture it digitally. She can upload the scan into our worldwide databases. I don’t want Ruiz to know our findings until we’re sure of what we have.”

Rafe’s stomach clenched. Jacquie would be the first to know he was a killer. He wanted to stop his misery and just confess to his sister, but before he opened his mouth, Athena pocketed her prize and headed back down the hill.

Coward!

His sister had the evidence to convict him, but once his name came out, he would never stand trial in Cuba. The Borrego cartel—or Ruiz with his personal agenda—would see to it that he died a horrible death.

Rafe was one step closer to the justice that he’d sought years ago when he dared to leave his shell casing behind with his fingerprints on it. If he truly believed in retribution, he had to play things out and stay strong.

His courageous sister had always been a good teacher on how to live. Perhaps she would now show him how to die.

***

“What’s that?”

Athena stopped dead still and turned to listen. The sound of an engine came over the rise, followed by another until the noise played with their ears. The guttural rumble came from all around them and grew louder until Athena cringed at the intensity. Goose flesh raced over her skin and her scalp prickled.

“Get to the car,” Rafe called out and grabbed her arm. “It’s our only cover.”

Athena raced for the vehicle and didn’t stop until she jammed her back against metal. With her brother at her side, she craned her neck to see where the noise came from.