Forsaken Duty, The Red Team Series, Book 9 Read online

An older lady joined the convo, eyeing Owen like he was trouble. “Little old to be learning that, doncha think?”

  Owen laughed again as he set the money on the counter. “Was a helluva weekend.”

  “It’s Thursday.” The clerk punched in his purchase and gave him change.

  Fucking Thursday. They’d been questioned for four days. He took his case of water and sandwiches and returned to the SUV.

  “It’s Thursday,” he said to Jax as he handed him a water bottle.

  “Yeah, I saw the date on the pump.” They guzzled down a bottle each, then took a couple more before heading back down the road. This time, Jax was driving. He turned south out of town.

  “Where are we going?” Owen asked.

  “I know where we are now. I got a place we can lay low for a bit.”

  “I don’t want to lay low. I want to see Addy.”

  “In time.”

  “No. Now.”

  “You go see her like you are right now, you’ll scare the shit out of her. She’s safe, but we aren’t. I need to dump this vehicle, get a phone, and sleep for about a week.”

  “A night. Not a week. We’ve already lost four days.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  Owen dozed off. The day was well into the afternoon when he woke again. They made another pit stop, then ate the sandwiches he’d bought at the last gas station.

  “So where are we headed?” Owen asked when they got back in the SUV.

  “I have a place an hour west of Denver.”

  “What’s your status with the Red Team?” Owen asked.

  “I’m on a special assignment for the senator.”

  “You were Ace’s handler.”

  Jax nodded.

  “You gave her Adelaide’s picture.”

  Jax neither confirmed nor denied that statement.

  “What happened to the boys Ace recovered? The watcher groups.”

  “I’ll show you soon.”

  “Why did you direct Ace to find them?”

  “Because King was using them as his private lab rats. I had to get them away from him. That’s why I got Lion’s group vaccinated. And it’s why the Friends kids and others from his various cults were targeted with the smallpox; King had no one else to test it on.”

  Owen’s eyes narrowed. Jax had sent Ace to Wolf Creek Bend well after he’d already found Lion’s pride himself. He’d had them inoculated at least a month before she got there. “You already knew about Lion before Ace got to town. You didn’t send her there because of the watchers.”

  Jax looked Owen in the eye. “So I passed one of my operatives off to you. What of it?”

  “Why?”

  “You were close to finding the tunnels. She needed justice. It was all coming to a head.” Jax shrugged. “It was time.”

  Owen doubted that line of reasoning, but let it go for now. “Is it true that I have a son?”

  “It’s true.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He was with Lion’s watchers. I don’t know where he is now—I don’t know where Lion’s pride is now. They were moved before I could get them out.”

  “What’s his name in the pride?”

  “Beetle.”

  “You’re sure he’s mine?”

  “The DNA said so.”

  Owen looked out the window. Every part of his body hurt. His head wasn’t on straight. He needed a good night’s sleep, more food and water, and a long, hot shower. If pushed hard now, he’d make a mistake, compromise himself.

  He still wasn’t sure which side Jax was on, but if they weren’t on the same one, then he’d gone through hell just to make it look like they were.

  A few hours later, they made several turns onto dirt roads in the foothills northwest of Denver before going down a long drive in the middle of a patch of evergreens. Their headlights showed an old, nondescript, one-story farmhouse, like so many others up and down the Front Range. There was a black Expedition parked out front. No lights were on in the place.

  Owen checked Jax, wondering if he was expecting anyone. He looked as tired as Owen but showed no signs of tension. The door unlocked when Jax reached for the knob. Lights came on inside. Owen didn’t have to look around to know there were cameras monitoring them and that access had been remotely granted.

  Inside, the little farmhouse had been fully renovated. New kitchen, small dining area, new living room with a wall of bookshelves and a TV. Beyond that, there were two bedrooms, both with their own en suites. Simple, clean, and complete with two dinners sitting under warming caps. Owen lifted a brow at Jax.

  “I called ahead while you were in the bathroom at our last stop. You’ll find clothes in your room too.” Jax shrugged. “What? Surprised I have my own crew?”

  “No. I don’t know you at all anymore.”

  “Fine. You can eat, shower, sleep, whatever the hell you want. I’m gonna clean up. You need a doctor?”

  “No. You?”

  “No. We’ll talk in the morning. I gotta crash.”

  Owen went into the second bedroom. A phone and a change of clothes were on the bed—a pair of jeans, black boxer briefs, and a white T-shirt. He and Jax were about the same size. Good thing, because Owen hadn’t packed for a trip. Toiletries were in the bathroom. Probably wouldn’t be shaving for a few days. His face was filled with cuts and bruises. His mouth and jaw were swollen. He looked like road kill. Maybe Jax was right about giving themselves a few days before going to see Addy.

  No, fuck that. Owen wasn’t waiting. Not a goddamned minute more than he had to.

  He ate his dinner, beef and broccoli on rice. Nothing too hard to chew for his sore jaw. He didn’t have an appetite, in part from the beating he’d taken, but also because they hadn’t been fed the four days they were being questioned—his body had gotten used to having no food. Owen looked at the phone, considering checking in with his team. He knew the phone Jax had given him was keyed in to whatever system he had rigged up. Owen didn’t know what his team might reveal on the other end. And truthfully, he didn’t want them involved; if he was walking into a trap, they couldn’t be anywhere near him.

  After dinner, Owen had to decide between sleep or a shower. The bed, with its clean sheets, looked like heaven, but he needed that shower first. The hot water was soothing. He let it spill over him, wash the past few days away.

  When he got out, he dressed. Who the hell knew what fun new torture would come as soon as he let his guard down; he didn’t want to face it naked.

  He got into bed. His body was screaming. He wondered if he had a broken rib. Addy slipped into his mind. He thought of their childhood together, remembered watching her mature, feeling an unholy hunger for her, wondering if she’d like him when she was a woman.

  She was fifteen when he and Jax graduated from West Point and took their commissions in the Army. She’d been eighteen when he and Jax came to her high school graduation party. Twenty-one when she got her college degree.

  Twenty-one the day their lives started and ended.

  Owen thought back through the small bit of info Jax had told him about her. Not once had he actually said Addy was still alive. For all Owen knew, Jax was taking him to see Addy’s grave.

  That thought caused him worse pain than Edwards’ goons had.

  He’d lived so long without a heart that it hurt to think of having one once again…and it would be worse to learn his fresh hopes were just smoke and mirrors.

  He threw the covers off and stormed into Jax’s room. It was dark. “Wake up, you son of a bitch.” He gripped Jax’s throat and squeezed, lifting him from his mattress.

  Jax didn’t fight back.

  “Tell me she’s alive.”

  Jax broke free of Owen’s grip. He stared at Owen, then scooted himself up to lean back on his pillows.

  The delay was all the answer Owen needed. A tear spilled down his swollen cheek. Jesus fucking Christ. He was glad his team wasn’t here to see him break. Addy was the perfect way to torture him. He’d give
his soul away to have her back in his life.

  His shoulders slumped as he sat there on the edge of Jax’s bed. So many people he’d thought dead had emerged from the shadows of the Omni World Order that it had been a short jump to believe that Addy would, too.

  “She is alive, O. But different.”

  “How so?”

  “We had four days of tender focus from the Omnis. She had years.”

  “What happened to her?”

  Jax shook his head. “I can’t… I gotta leave that to her to say or not.”

  “But she’s alive?”

  He nodded. “She doesn’t want to see you. When I finally found her, after everything she’d gone through, I couldn’t violate that trust.”

  Owen left Jax’s room and went back to his. She was alive. It wasn’t much to go on…and it was everything. He’d take it.

  2

  Twenty-five Years Ago

  Fairfax, Virginia

  Owen looked out the window from the senator’s gym. His and Jax’s mixed martial arts class wasn’t due to start for another half-hour, which suited him fine. The two of them had been practicing the whole week in preparation…and Owen had the bruises to show for it.

  Jax’s sister was outside on the playground. Alone. The hairs lifted on Owen’s neck in a way he’d long ago learned was an alert to danger. He walked outside and went straight to the playground where she was halfheartedly swinging. He looked around for her nanny and found her relaxing in the shade at a table about a hundred feet away, too far away to get to Addy if trouble came.

  Owen slipped into the swing next to Adelaide. “What’s shakin’, short stack?”

  She gave him a baleful glare. Without straightening out of her slump, she spread her arms wide, indicating the gossamer costume she wore. Her nanny must have been letting her watch princess and knight fairytales again.

  “I’m a princess, Owen, not a pancake.”

  He grinned at her. “Why the long face? It’s a beautiful day.”

  “Wendelly’s friends are coming in for the class and they didn’t bring their families. I have no one to play with. I can’t be a princess without a prince.”

  “Oh. Well, I’ll be your prince.”

  “You can’t be my prince. You can only be my knight.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because Bruce Williamson is my prince.”

  Bruce was the younger brother of one of their MMA classmates. “Ohhh. You sweet on him?”

  All kinds of color flooded her face. She looked away, hiding her unsuccessful attempt not to smile.

  “Never mind. I’ll be your knight, Addy.”

  She frowned at him, the glow she’d had seconds ago quickly receding. “I don’t like that name. Everyone calls me that.”

  “It’s just a nickname.”

  “I want you to call me something else.”

  “But ‘Addy’ comes from Adelaide.”

  “So does ‘Laidy.’”

  Owen laughed. It was easy to slip into her make-believe world—its rules were so clear to her that he had only to follow her lead. He got off the swing and went to stand in front of her, where he gave her a low bow. “Tell me, my Laidy, how I may serve you today?”

  She straightened in her seat and beamed at him. “There’s a dragon attacking the kingdom. You must go kill it.”

  “Must I? Even dragons have a right to live.”

  She waved her hand as she glared at him. “That’s not how this works, Owen. You have to do what I say. I’m the princess.”

  “Oh. Right. And that’s Sir Knight to you, my Laidy.”

  “The dragon is blowing fire and burning people. You must stop it.”

  He bowed again. “As you wish, my Laidy. But I have no weapon.”

  “It’s there.” She pointed to a cardboard box with props from all of her make-believe worlds: costumes, plastic guns, swords, lightsabers, stuffed animals, dolls.

  He grabbed a sword then faced her again. “Where’s the dragon?” God help him if he started slashing at the air when she thought the dragon was someplace else. He looked where she pointed; Jax was closing in on them. Owen glanced back at Addy. “Is Wendell your dragon?”

  She nodded vigorously.

  “That would have been nice to know ahead of time,” he muttered as he waited for Jax to join them.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  “What are you doing?” Jax asked, stopping only when he was nose to nose with Owen. Though they were born the same year, Jax had almost eight months on him. It showed in his size and dexterity. Owen’s dad said what Owen lacked in size and strength against Jax, he made up for in wits. Owen never was sure what that meant, but he’d gladly take any advantage he could muster at the moment, facing Jax with Addy’s plastic sword.

  “Shut up and play along,” Owen growled between clenched teeth. Everything with Jax was a competition. He judged everything based on physical strength.

  “Why would I? Why would you?” He gave Owen a disgusted look. “We aren’t babies.”

  “I never said you were a baby.”

  “Well, I’m saying you are.”

  Owen laughed and pushed Jax back. “Prepare to be skewered, dragon.”

  Jax’s eyes narrowed. He stepped back, out of the way of Owen’s wicked sword thrusts. At the prop box, he grabbed a lightsaber and began fighting back. Owen laughed. They both got good swings in.

  Off in the distance, Owen could hear the sounds of their sensei and some other adults coming out of the dojo. The kids’ class was about to start. He supposed that Jax heard it too, for the tenor of their play changed. Jax knocked Owen’s sword out of his hand then gave him an evil grin as he thrust forward. Owen twisted so the lightsaber slipped between his arm and body, then began to dramatically fall to his death.

  Addy screamed and rushed over to him. She threw herself across his body and wept. “Get up! Get up, Sir Knight! Get up!” She yanked on his clothes, but when Owen didn’t stir, she looked over her shoulder and shouted at Jax, “I hate you!”

  Owen sat up, holding her close. “Whoa, my Laidy. You can’t hate him. He’s no dragon. He’s just your brother.”

  She looked up at him with tears sticking to her eyelashes. “He killed you.”

  Owen smiled. “Not yet, he hasn’t.”

  Her chin trembled. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed tight. “Owen!”

  He rubbed her little back, holding her until her gasps settled out. “You’re all right. I’ll live to fight your dragons another day, my Laidy.”

  3

  Owen’s room was bright with sunlight when he woke next. The house was silent. The smell of bacon was probably what had roused him. He looked at the phone Jax had given him. It was almost 9:30 a.m. He woke fast, realizing he’d almost slept through the entire morning.

  He jumped out of bed, ignoring the pain that caused his body. He went to the bathroom, then washed his hands and held his burning face in the cold water pooled in his hands. He looked worse today than he had last night, not that he gave a fuck about his appearance. It was just that this was the face Addy was going to see for the first time in a decade.

  He walked barefoot into the living room. The house was cold. Apparently, heat was optional here. Someone had cooked breakfast—a plate was left on the counter with plastic wrap over it. Eggs, home fries and bacon. A pot of coffee was still hot in the coffee maker. Owen’s stomach growled. He poured a cup of coffee.

  He looked around and saw packed go bag, with a black puffer jacket lying on it, sitting on the dining room table. Next to it was a SIG Sauer 9mm and a couple full mags. A folded outfit that included a gray cashmere sweater, jeans, underclothes, and hiker boots was also there, next to a note that read, “Helo arrives at 1000.” Under the note were five one-hundred dollar bills.

  Helo to where? Addy’s? He bellowed out Jax’s name, but received no answer. He checked his room and other places around the little cabin. No Jax. Checking the clock on the stove he, saw it was ha
lf past 9. He nuked his breakfast and scarfed it down, then changed into the clothes that had been laid out on the table.

  Right at 1000, the helo came in somewhere behind the house. The SUV he and Jax had taken from the sanitarium was gone. So was the Expedition that had been parked out front last night. Jax’s crew had been busy.

  Owen went around back and walked up to the chopper. He tossed his bag in the back and climbed in next to the pilot. Once he was buckled in, they took off. “Where are we headed?”

  “Winstead Castle, up on Saddle Notch Ridge in Wyoming, sir.”

  The flight took less than two hours. They set down on a helipad in the middle of a bare pasture a little distance from a huge stone mansion perched on the top of a mountain. While they were in the air, he’d seen that it was a V-shaped building with two wings and a massive conservatory in the middle. At the ends of both wings, and at the point where they connected, were tall towers. The front tower was about double the size of the other two. Not the sort of a building Owen would have expected to see at the top of a jagged ridge line in this remote wilderness.

  The helo took off when Owen was halfway to the house. Great. What if Addy wasn’t home? What if she completely booted him off her property. He had no idea what his reception was going to be. The road down from the helipad ended in a wide gravel circle with an island of skeletal lilacs and other shrubs in the middle.

  And wouldn’t you know, Jax was sitting in the middle of the wide front stairs leading to the huge double front doors.

  “Didn’t feel like flying in together?” Owen asked.

  “I wanted to come ahead so I could let Addy know you were on your way,” Jax said.

  “What is this place?” Owen asked.

  “Winstead Castle. A nineteenth-century industrialist built it as some kind of retreat. Something to do with the springs nearby and big game hunting. The Omnis bought it after the Second World War and restored it. Addy got it in her divorce settlement.”

  That caught Owen’s attention. “Who did she marry?”

  “You’ll have to ask her that. And everything else you want to know. It’s her story to tell. I’ll wait here.”