Read Online Omega's Run by A. J. Downey, Ryan Kells - Free Book Online

need of food, in need of rest, or we would make mistakes and making a mistake, out there, with them … often a mistake made under those circumstances was the last mistake any number of us could or would ever make.
    I wasn’t about to lose any of my team to some stupid, half assed mistake that was made because one of us was tired when we’d had the opportunity to rest. So when I slipped into the rec room to find the majority of my team lounging and awaiting the next set of orders or dismissal to their bunks, there wasn’t any real decision to be made.
    “Rest up, get a full eight hours, then gear up.” I ground my teeth and willingly defied Mathias Young, “We leave tomorrow afternoon. Mathias wants us to check out reports of a feral rogue in New Hampshire.”
    My crew dragged themselves wearily to their feet. I glanced at Mace who glared back, not that I could really blame him.
    “Did I break it?”
    “No,” he said, eyes sliding to the side and away from me. I fixed him with my gaze and he shifted uncomfortably as the rest of the team filed out around me.
    “Good. You were right, and I’m sorry about that.”
    “You get more like the Hangman every day,” he said with a one shouldered shrug and I flinched inwardly at that, though I refused to give any outward appearance.
    “Dismissed,” I said simply and he pushed past me and out the door. I closed my eyes and sighed out, softly swearing at the empty room.
    I went over and fixed a cup of hot tea in the small kitchenette in the corner. It was just enough to make a drink; the mess hall was down the corridor and to the left in the sprawling complex. I wasn’t really hungry. I wasn’t even really all that thirsty to be honest, right now I needed something for my hands to do while my brother’s nagging doubts and odd behavior played out in my mind.
    James had found something out, something that had shaken his faith in the Order. He’d become agitated, withdrawn, then he’d become almost defiant… angry with the Order’s council. Mathias being the head of that council didn’t help. He’d begun to openly question things and finally had begun to openly question the missions that he and his team were being sent on.
    It had become increasingly rare for James and me to be teamed together in the last year or so of his life. I had climbed ranks, come into my own, been entrusted with my own team, which seemed to rankle my older brother, who was only older by virtue of nine minutes. The joke between us was that he would always and forever be the one to lead the way. Which had been the case, for the most part until he’d found whatever he’d found.
    My brother had become cagey. Dropping hints and whispers, never being forthright, but my loyalty lay with him. Had always lain with him, and even after death would continue to lay with his bones. James and I were the only thing either of us had had the entire time we were growing up and now… now I was alone and it was all because of that son of a bitch Mathias and the brother of the fucking animal we had caged in the lower levels.
    I jerked my hand back and dropped the paper cup overflowing with hot water.
    “Shit!”
    I shook out my hand and gave it a cursory once over. Red and angry, I thought it would be fine, I ran it under cold water from the small sink anyways, the cool water soothing the sting of the scald.
    I couldn’t go out like this. I needed some sleep. I needed to regroup. I needed to know what the fuck was going on. Why Mathias was so keen on getting me out of the facility and back into the field. While quick turnarounds weren’t unheard of, they certainly weren’t commonplace.
    It was customary to give a team a day or two of R and R after a hunt. Especially one as intensive as the one it took to track Remus Reese down. We’d been on his trail for months. Why the rush to get us back out there? Let alone for such a low level target?
    My team was well beyond checking out rumors. Way past looking into a