Page 33 of Omega’s Oath

Chapter 12

Omega eyed the target and squeezed the trigger of his Glock, firing six rounds before pulling back. He pressed the button for the target to move closer so he could check his groupings. He secured his weapon when he saw all six had hit center mass as he’d wanted. He came to this gun range twice a month to make sure he was up to speed and his skills weren’t becoming lazy.

The last thing he needed was for his accuracy to be off if he was ever caught out in the field because he’d been in the office sitting behind his desk too long. Data and computers might be his specialist area, but he was an FBI agent and that required all his skills be up to par—including his weapons and his physical fitness. He hit the gym at work every other day to keep in shape and if the way Rose let her hands wander over his abs was any indication, it helped in other areas too.

Today was Saturday and he’d gotten an early start thanks to Jude wanting to be fed. He knew he needed to catch up on a few things and headed into the office, leaving Rose and Jude asleep. Omega couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he thought of Jude and Rose. These last few weeks had been, beyond doubt, the most exhausting of his life and he’d never been happier.

“Hey, Omega, you’re here early.”

He looked up to see Lyric strolling toward him. His friend had lost weight since the shooting but was starting to rebuild some of the muscle he’d lost from being laid up in bed for weeks and was finally looking more like himself. “Hi, Lyric. Yeah, thought I’d get some practice in and stay sharp. How about you?”

Lyric fell into step beside him as he walked back to his car. “I come every morning. I want to get my speed up.”

“Your speed is fine. I’ve seen you shoot, and you’re the quickest on the team.”

“Yeah, wasn’t fast enough though, was I?”

“Are you blaming yourself for what happened?”

Lyric shrugged. “I don’t see anyone else I can blame.”

Omega grasped his shoulder. “Brother, I’ve watched that footage over and over and you couldn’t have reacted faster. Your job was to keep casualties low and put her down if it was needed. It’s the sad truth but we all knew it could happen when you went inside the café that day. You were trying to find a peaceful resolution, and letting her walk away from those people was one. You couldn’t know what she was thinking and when you did, you reacted. I’m gutted you took a bullet and you ended up having so many problems but please, don’t blame yourself.”

“Maybe, but I have to accept that life is random and out of control.”

“I think life is organized chaos to a degree and every time we get our ducks in a row, one of the little shits wanders away.”

Lyric smirked and rubbed a hand over his beard, his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. “You headed into the office?”

“Yeah, I want to look into Harlan Goodwin. He seems to have gone AWOL and it’s making me nervous.”

“Need some help?”

Omega smiled. “Always.”

He left his friend to drive his bike to the office, while he stayed warm in his truck. Once at the office he met Lyric inside, and they set up the coffee station before beginning work. He’d stopped and grabbed pastries for them both and left the box on the desk as he indulged in a raspberry and cream cheese danish as he logged into his secure network.

He typed in Harlan’s name and waited for the list to pop up. There were six listed and he quickly identified the one he was looking for.

Lyric pulled up a seat next to him, shoving a brown sugar pecan brioche into his mouth. “So, what are we looking for?”

Omega shook his head. “Not sure yet. Just anything that doesn’t fit with his story or feels off. A conviction for stalking would be helpful but I have a feeling this fucker is slipperier than that. He certainly has Rose convinced, although she’s willing to be cautious because of Jude and not see Harlan alone until we’ve caught the stalker.”

Lyric scooted his chair closer to the terminal next to Omega and they worked silently side by side and both put away another pastry each.

On the surface Harlan Goodwin was a nice normal guy, with no violations or charges, not even a parking ticket. Omega still didn’t buy it, everything in his gut was telling him this guy was a threat. So, he began to delve deeper and came up trumps, or at least it was a start.

“Hey, Lyric, look at this?”

Lyric rolled his chair closer and looked at the screen which showed a beautiful woman with long dark hair and brown eyes. “Wow, that could be Rose. Who is it?”

Omega gritted his teeth as his friend confirmed his initial thoughts. “Harlan Goodwin’s wife, and get this, they didn’t divorce. She died.”

“Fuck. Does it say how?”

He tapped a few keys on the screen. “I’m just getting to that.” The screen refreshed and the incident report loaded. He scanned it looking for the cause of death. “Looks like she was side-swiped at a junction and died instantly.”

“Anything suspicious about it?”