Crossfire (Book 1) (The Omega Group) Read online

  A moment later, Greco entered the conference room, freshly showered after his usual morning run, with his wet hair hanging in his eyes. He took a seat at the opposite end of the table from Myrine, a scowl on his face. She noticed that it was as far away from Mirissa as possible.

  That scowl is about to get worse, Myrine thought.

  “Alright everyone, let’s start with some good news.” The expectant look on her team’s faces told her what they were thinking, so she quickly continued. “No. We haven’t found Daedric yet. We did hear from Grainger, though. He and Meghan are doing well and they’re expecting their first child.” Myrine paused as a few cheers erupted. “He said if it’s a girl, they’re going to name her Mirissa. And if it’s a boy, Steve. Although he wanted me to tell you, Steve, that there would be no Teletubby paraphernalia in the house.” Her husband’s old SEAL nickname never failed to irk him and she enjoyed watching him squirm whenever it was used.

  “On to business. Carter, I need you to go to Arizona.” She tossed a manila folder in front of him. “There’ve been several unusual occurrences in and around the Grand Canyon. Strange auras emanating from it, visitors losing large chunks of time, and a dramatic uptick in violent crime in the surrounding area. Take Han and Jackie with you. The name and contact info of one of the canyon’s trail guides is in the file. She’s been documenting all of the activity and will get you started.”

  An unexpected look of resignation passed over Carter’s face, but he, Han, and Jackie began looking over the file, so Myrine ignored it and moved on. “Beck, you, Orano and Myrick are in charge of the new recruits. Their training starts now.”

  In the weeks following their defeat of Daedric and the preternaturals he hired to help him, Myrine had been on a mission to grow her team. The Omega Group’s roster currently held ten preternaturals from seven different tribes, but that was no longer enough. The increase in the sheer number of cases they were assigned by CIA Director Finley, and the time required to deal with each one, left her only one option. Bring in more agents.

  Myrine had spent the last month travelling the world with her husband, meeting with the leaders of various preternatural groups. In the end, she’d succeeded in recruiting three new team members.

  “Alright everyone, let’s get to work. Greco? Hang back for a minute.” As the rest of her team started filing out of the room, Myrine stopped her daughter. “Mirissa, I need you and Asteria to wait for me in my office. I’ll be there shortly.” With a nod, both Amazons headed that way.

  When the room was empty, Myrine closed the door and motioned for Greco to take a seat next to her.

  “Something’s happened, Greco. It’s your mother. She disappeared several days ago.”

  Greco stared blankly at her. “That’s it? She’s probably just on a bender. Nothing to worry about. She’ll turn up like always.”

  When Greco tried to stand up to leave, Myrine put a hand on his shoulder to keep him seated. “I don’t think that’s the case this time. Gayle hasn’t had a drink in almost a year. She’s been doing really well. Three days ago, your dad came home to find her gone. Her car, purse, and cell phone were all still there. He called me this morning.”

  Greco waited for a moment before speaking. “If my dad thought something was wrong, why wait three days to call you?”

  “Honestly? He thought, at first, the same thing you did—that she’d relapsed and would come home on her own. But as time went on and he didn’t hear from her, he did some checking around. He couldn’t find any evidence that she’d started drinking again. Quite the opposite, in fact.” Myrine continued, “I visited Tritonia this morning to see if anyone had heard from her and I got some disturbing news.”

  Greco’s eyes narrowed. “What news?”

  “A few of the other visiting warriors reported seeing an apparition two days ago. An Amazon that didn’t fully materialize on the island. They said she looked strained and was only able to say two words before she disappeared completely. She said ‘help me’”.

  Greco’s voice was even as he asked, “And they think it was my mother?”

  “The warriors that saw her apparition never met your mother. But the description they gave fits Gayle perfectly. Add that to the fact that she’s gone missing, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet.”

  Greco stared into space for a beat before speaking. “I’ll check in with my dad and see if I can find out anything. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “I’m sending Mirissa and Asteria with you to help,” Myrine said.

  “No!” Greco’s brows furrowed, and his voice lowered. “I can handle this myself. Like I said, she’s probably off somewhere with a bottle.”

  “Greco, I know you’ve had more than your fair share of problems with your mother, but I don’t care about your personal opinion on this. I am the Amazon queen, and a member of my tribe is missing. Until I’m given evidence proving otherwise, I’m going to treat this case like any other threat. Take a moment if you need to get your head straight, then meet me in my office. Is that understood?”

  Greco nodded as he left the room.

  Myrine gathered up her files and started toward her office. She wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing sending Mirissa with Greco. She’d seen the way her daughter looked at him and, with his history, things were bound to get ugly.

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  A Note From The Author

  First, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this book. I hope you enjoyed getting to know the characters as much as I enjoyed creating them.

  If I could make one request of you… Please take a moment to write a review of this book on Amazon.com. Your comments will not only help me improve this series, but they will also have a huge impact on my standing in Amazon. A few minutes of your time will make an enormous difference. I thank you, in advance, for your review.

  Now, on to the nitty-gritty stuff.

  I know that some of you who are familiar with the Jacksonville Beach area—where our Omega Group’s safe house was located—cringed at my description of Duval Drive. In reality, Duvall Drive is a single road with no cross streets, but I took a little bit of literary license. Grainger simply needed somewhere to park his Jeep, so I invented new streets.

  I also made some changes to the history of the Amazon warriors, but I didn’t think you would mind. Every depiction of Amazons given throughout history is slightly different from the next one. No one truly knows if the Amazon tribe ever existed in the first place, but I like to think it did.

  Also, the technology that Sera Maison introduced to the world for safely extracting oil from shale deposits really does exist. A company called Independent Energy Partners has been developing it and it does have the potential to work just as SeraTech said it would. The 3 trillion barrels of oil in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are there, along with about 20 trillion barrels in oil sands around the world. I hope their research can come to fruition just as SeraTech’s did.

  Now, there are some people I really need to thank.

  First, my husband, Mark and our two fantastic children for giving me ideas when I was stuck and tolerating my absences when I was glued to my laptop.

  A big thank you to Tom Haase, another author in my hometown, who first made me realize that this was something that I could do, and helped me navigate my way through some of the technical aspects of publishing a book. I couldn’t have done this without you, Tom.

  And to my niece, Mirissa, who inspired my main character and allowed me to use her name.

  If you would like a character in my next book to be named after you, visit my website www.AndreaDomanski.com and click on “Contest”. You could be the newest addition to the Omega Group, a nasty preternatural bad guy, or someone entirely different. The possibilities are truly endless!

  Thank you, again, for reading this first book in the Omega Group Series and for leaving your review on Amazon. Don’t worry, your questions about
Ares’ plans for Daedric, Greco’s secret, and the mysterious key will be answered in upcoming books. Please visit my author page at www.amazon.com/author/andreadomanski.

  About the Author

  Born and raised near Toronto, Canada, Andrea Domanski moved south to get away from the snow and cold when she was 24 years old. She now lives in Savannah, Georgia with her husband Mark, their two children, and their goldendoodle.

  After selling her business in 2012, Andrea focused her energies on raising her two children and finding a new career path that excited her. It wasn’t long before she decided that writing a novel—something she’d always wanted to do—would be her next big adventure.

  Andrea is a member of the WorldWiseWriters group and is currently working on the next book in her Omega Group series.

  www.AndreaDomanski.com

  www.Facebook.com/AndreaDomanskiAuthor

  https://twitter.com/andrea_domanski