Forsaken Duty, The Red Team Series, Book 9

by Elaine Levine

  Addy took that invitation to leave, and hurried into her room.

  Sometime later in the night, Owen was roused from his light sleep by footsteps shuffling down the hall. The dim light showed a still-sleeping Troy stumbling toward his mother’s door. Owen sat up, which woke the boy. He stood there, blinking and frowning at Owen.

  “Mr. Tremaine.”

  “Troy.”

  “Did you have a bad dream, too?”

  “Yes.” A decade-long nightmare.

  “Why don’t you go get my mom? She fixes nightmares.”

  “I didn’t want to disturb her.”

  Troy crawled into Owen’s lap and pulled his blanket with him. “Okay. I’ll stay with you.”

  Owen stiffened, uncertain how to behave. The boy folded himself completely in Owen’s lap, resting his head on Owen’s shoulder as if that was the most natural thing to do, as if Owen was a safe haven. Crazy thing was that it felt good, like he’d found his home.

  At last, someone didn’t see Owen as a monster.

  He sighed and shoved his pillow behind his back, then wrapped his arms around Troy and settled against Addy’s door. He had to accept that nothing would ever be as he expected it. He’d spent his whole life trying to be the architect of his own fate, but he’d failed miserably.

  Worry for his son, for Addy, for his team, for what the Omnis were about to unleash on the world…all of it ate at him. How much had he missed in life because he was always somewhere other than in the here and now?

  Right now, with this boy curled up on his lap, he felt like he was enough.

  A scant few hours later—far too few, in fact—Owen felt Addy’s presence near him. Troy didn’t stir. Owen gave himself a delicious few seconds to breathe her sweet scent, a faint floral fragrance, like moon flowers that only bloomed in the night. He opened his bleary eyes to meet her angry gaze.

  “What are you doing with my son?” Her question had the carrying volume of a stage whisper.

  He stared into her eyes, struck by her vibrant passion. To see her defending her son, you would never know she was dying. “I love you,” he whispered. Something about her shredded his defenses. Maybe it was his lack of sleep. Maybe it was their lack of time.

  “No, you don’t.”

  “I do. I always have and always will. I was born for you. And you for me.”

  “No.”

  Owen tore his eyes from her vehement denial, looking down at her son instead. “Troy had a nightmare. I asked him not to wake you, so he climbed on me and dropped back off to sleep. As far as I could tell, there were no more bad dreams.”

  Addy’s face softened as she knelt next to him. She reached over and stroked Troy’s back.

  “Shall I put him back in his room?” Owen asked.

  “That would be good. He’ll sleep for a few more hours.”

  Owen adjusted his hold on Troy as he stood up. His body hurt from another night stretched out on a hard, cold floor. He hid that from Addy, however. He refused to let her see his discomfort; he’d be damned if she would force him into a bedroom an entire wing away from her at night.

  He put Troy down on the bed then stepped back as Addy covered him up and kissed his cheek. Troy didn’t look anything like his mom with his dark features. He didn’t look anything like Edwards, either. So who was his bio dad?

  Owen walked out to the hall, tucking that question away for a future discussion.

  She closed the door behind her, then stared up at him. It took every ounce of resolve he could summon not to touch her soft skin. He looked away from her but didn’t leave. Every second he could spend in her company was a gift. He wasn’t willing to surrender any of them.

  “What are you going to do now?” she asked.

  He shrugged.

  “You look ready to drop.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You should have taken the bedroom I offered.”

  His gaze swiveled toward her. “There’s only one bedroom I want to be in.”

  She opened the door to her room and took his hand. Shivers coursed along his skin. “Get in my bed and try to sleep.”

  It took his body a few seconds to calm the buzz that started when she touched him. “Where are you going to be?”

  “In the next room. My office. I have some emails to answer. I do have some friends, you know.”

  “They are not friends. True friends would have gotten you out of this terrible situation.”

  She scoffed at that. “Bringing in anyone who isn’t already in this mess is just asking for their death. And turning to anyone who is inside already…well, that’s complicated. It’s nearly impossible to discern where anyone’s loyalty lies. I didn’t know whom I could truly trust.”

  This was the closest they’d come to actually talking about what had happened to her. He didn’t ask more questions, though he wanted to. There were so many answers he needed if he was to untangle her future and get her free. Instead, he walked over to her bed and sat down to take off his boots.

  She watched him.

  He held her gaze as he leaned back and stretched out on her big bed. The covers were rumpled, her pillows stacked in the odd ways that had made her comfortable while she slept. He kept eye contact with her until she looked away from him. Turning on her heel, she walked into her dressing room. From the sounds of it, she went through to one more room. He listened for a long moment, trying to decide if sleep really was a good idea.

  He pulled one of the pillows out from under his head and pressed it to his face. Her scent was all over it. Sweet. Some flower he knew but couldn’t identify. He pulled the pillow that was by his side and sniffed it. It was still warm. She’d probably snuggled it up against her body. He breathed against the soft Egyptian cotton, filling his lungs with her, imagining his face pressed against her breasts, as this pillow had been.

  He closed his eyes and was instantly asleep.

  11

  Over the next several days, Owen and Addy progressed through many of the weapons in Jax’s armory. He watched her growing confidence. She was becoming a little more comfortable around him. She smiled more easily and even laughed a little. Every moment he spent with her, the love he’d always felt for her deepened.

  He craved time with her, though he knew it was stolen—from his team, his mission, his son. He was going to have to go back soon. He couldn’t leave without her, but he wasn’t confident he could get her to go with him. She was tied to this beautiful place with its fiendish history. Why? Was it because she thought this was where Augie would find her again?

  Owen was sitting against the wall opposite Addy’s room once again. He’d grabbed a pillow from the sofa downstairs. Jax had sleeping bags—he could have snagged one of those, but the truth was that he didn’t want to be comfortable. He needed to be aware and semi-alert the whole night. Comfort wasn’t conducive to that goal.

  He was just dozing off when Addy’s door opened. Her room was dark behind her, but light from the conservatory behind him cast her in a silvery glow. She was exquisite, like a ghost version of herself, soft, fierce, strong in a way that was unique to female civilians living with warriors.

  “Have you come to keep me company?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “But you’re here, so you are company.”

  “Why don’t you sleep in your room?”

  “I told you why.”

  “Then hire someone to guard me so you can get some rest.”

  “No one can guard you the way I can.”

  “You aren’t superhuman.”

  “Pretty damned near when it comes to you. And yours.”

  “This is foolishness.”

  “It’s reality. Deal with it.”

  “Owen, I’m tired. You’ve been out here every night.”

  “I know. Go to sleep.”

  “I can’t with you out here not sleeping.”

  “It’s a matter of self-discipline. Nothing more. Close your eyes and sleep. I’ll keep you safe.”


  Her sigh was dramatic. She slipped back inside her room but left the door open. “Come with me,” came her whispered voice from inside the shadows.

  Owen’s whole body quickened. She didn’t mean it that way, you idiot. Get a grip. He followed her. His eyes were already used to the dark, so he saw her move into the dressing room where an air mattress had been made up on the floor.

  “Sleep here instead,” she said, indicating the temporary bed.

  “This is kind of you.”

  “It’s not kindness. It’s survival.”

  Owen smiled. Sometimes her voice reminded him of her child self, the kid he’d played imaginary games with. He gave a slight bow. “Goodnight, my Laidy.”

  She held absolutely still for a moment, then placed her hand on the center of his chest. Owen went on alert.

  “Sometimes, you remind me of the Owen I once knew.”

  He smiled when he realized they’d both been thinking the same thing. “I am that Owen.”

  “Are you?”

  He closed his eyes, so briefly, but when he opened them, she was gone. The doors to the dressing room were still open, but the light they admitted was meager. Owen walked around the space, which was smaller than the bedrooms in this house but bigger than several regular-sized walk-in closets. He wondered if there wasn’t a hidden room in here like there was in Jax’s bedroom. It would have been easy to carve out a little space between this dressing room and the bathroom behind it. Ten feet was all that was needed for a panic room.

  He wondered if Addy and Troy did drills in preparation for a fast bug-out. Maybe that was something he should work on with them.

  He went over to the air mattress, but his gut rebelled at the setup. It would be easy to be blocked in here, away from Addy, if the home was invaded. He didn’t like it. He turned the mattress on its side and dragged it into her room, setting it near the foot of her bed then adjusting the covers.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed.

  “Fixing the layout.” He went back for the pillows.

  “You can’t do that. I want it where I put it.”

  “No can do, princess.”

  “You won’t get any sleep here.”

  “Why not?”

  “I snore.”

  Owen laughed, then sobered. “I never knew that. We only had one night together…and we didn’t spend much of it sleeping.”

  “Right. So now you know. Put it back in the other room.”

  Owen sat on the low mattress and removed his boots. “I’ve been bunking with men the better part of the last decade. A few of your snores will be nothing in comparison.” While he hated air mattresses, he was actually looking forward to a little sleep. He slipped under the covers and folded his hands beneath his head. “Goodnight, Laidy. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

  “Owen. Tremaine.”

  He smiled at the frustration in her voice and the way she’d used his full name as if he were a child she was fed up with. “Adelaide. Jacobs.”

  “Fine.”

  “Yes. Fine.” He stared at her ceiling, though he couldn’t see much of it in her dark room. It was gaudy as hell with its elaborate Victorian scrolling woodwork that had been covered in silver leaf. He listened for a long time for her promised snores, which never came.

  “It’s a game, you know.” Her whisper startled him.

  “What is?”

  “What the Omnis are doing. I don’t understand it. How can stealing children, torturing women, killing people indiscriminately, and all the other crimes the Omnis commit be a game? But to them, it is.”

  Torturing women? Had she been tortured? “Who told you it was a game?”

  “Wendell.”

  Owen sat up and looked at Addy. Though he couldn’t see her eyes, he knew she was looking at him. She moved to the edge of the bed and settled on her belly, her legs folded at the knees. She propped herself up by her elbows.

  “What exactly did Jax tell you?” he asked.

  “He said that I didn’t see the whole picture, which is true. But given what happened to me, and even supposing I was just one of many whose lives were hijacked, I still can’t see it as a game. A club where demented men get their jollies satisfied, maybe.”

  “Not sure any of us sees the whole picture. I’ll tell you what I know, if you’re interested.”

  “I am.”

  Owen spent the next hour telling her about the history of the Omnis, the apparent schism the secret org had suffered. He told her about the documentation they got from Blade’s mom and Val’s dad that talked about drastically reducing the world population. They talked about the dark faction’s fascination with genetics and seeding a perfect race. They covered the fact that the unit he was in was formed by her dad and Greer’s granddad as a response to the international threat caused by Omni allies. Jax’s belief that Owen’s dad was alive, and how that wasn’t exactly far-fetched, given the fact that Blade’s dad wasn’t dead and Addy obviously wasn’t dead.

  “I can’t honestly see how it’s a game,” he said. “It’s more a bunch of organized anarchists who want to tear the world apart.” Something he and Jax had had many a debate about in their early days in the Army. Another checkmark against him. “They’ve infiltrated governments. Absorbed various anti-government groups. Bought secrets and paid off officials in exchange for lucrative info. The Omnis are organized, powerful, and far-reaching. They seem too intent to have done all they’ve done since the middle of the last century just for whimsy.”

  “I almost rather your view of the Omnis than mine,” she said.

  “How so?”

  “I can understand the logic of an organization—even an evil one—that wants to change the world. Whether I agree with it or not, it makes sense. But to be destroying people’s lives just for fun? I can’t grasp that.” She reached over to him. He hooked his thumb around hers. “I’ve missed talking to you, Owen. You’re the only one in my entire life who talks to me, not at me. Ever.”

  “Your brother just wants to protect you. Where were your parents in all of this?”

  “My dad can go to hell. He visited me here. I told him what was happening, that I had to get out. I told him what Cecil did to me. I begged him for help. But Roberta was the worst. She kept telling me to quit doing things that upset Cecil, that I had to try harder to make him happy.”

  That news went through Owen like ice, quickly chased with fire. “Your dad was here. He knew where you were all along? I spoke to him, several times over the years. He not only set up the Red Team, but he talked me into getting my own business off the ground. He’s one of my silent partners.”

  Son of a bitch. He was in on everything. As a silent partner, they reported their activities to him, much as they had on the Red Team. His whole fucking team was in danger. Jesus. Was Jax working for his dad? Had he been in on this from the very beginning? He’d known about his parents’ plan for Addy—he had to have, to give him the warning to take her away.

  There was no way of contacting his team without further exposing himself, Addy, and Troy. Nor could he contact them without the risk of bringing them into whatever danger was here…whatever trap Jax had set.

  Owen let go of her hand as he leaned his head back against the edge of her bed. He’d spent part of each of his days there searching the property, checking what security Jax had set up. He hadn’t found any cameras or sensors inside or outside, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there; it was hard to find them without the proper equipment. The only perimeter precautions in place were the men in the guardhouse, whom he’d spoken with a few times. They had eyes like fighters. Troy’s tutor and nanny had the same look. He wondered again if Addy’s staff were secretly Omni soldiers.

  He’d found it curious that Addy stayed here, where her hell had taken place. It was also interesting that, as unprotected as it was, the Omnis had never hit this place. What kind of agreement had Jax put together? And what, exactly, did he get out of it?

  The Omnis played a long game. Ma
ybe they knew they could use Addy as bait, drawing him here, then his whole team, when he needed a pick-up. It really was the perfect trap.

  After a minute, Addy moved over to wrap her arms around his neck and lean her head against his. It felt so wonderful that he barely suppressed a shiver and couldn’t hold back a sigh. For now, he had to put those worries aside. Tomorrow, he’d make a plan.

  “I wish I knew if you’re the Owen I knew before,” she whispered.

  “I’m only one-sided, Addy. What you see is what you get.” He lifted her clasped hands to kiss her fingers. “There are two things I’m absolutely convinced are true. You and I are going to work through this. And the Omnis are going to fail. The when of either situation, I don’t know. But I’m a patient man.”

  She sniffled. He shut his eyes, wishing he could talk to her without hurting her. He reached up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders then flipped her down to the mattress. She fought him, but his grip on her shoulders immobilized her.

  “Stop.”

  “I don’t want to stop,” she snapped.

  “Shhh.”

  “Don’t shush me.”

  “Then scream,” he said. “I don’t care. But I’d rather you could pretend, just for tonight, that I’m still your friend, and I’ve come to play, not do harm.” She calmed as he spoke. “Remember when I slew your dragons? Remember when I was your knight and did your bidding? Remember when I fought off your enemies and your loneliness?”

  She closed her eyes and whispered, “They said you were King. They taught me to hate you.”

  “Remember when you didn’t? Your eyes would sparkle with fun. Laughter spilled from you in giggles so infectious that even I laughed.”

  A tear spilled from the corner of her eye.

  “Let’s be who we were again tonight,” he said.

  “We were children, foolishly believing there’d be good in our future.”

  “I’m only asking for pretend. Pretend you asked me to hold you through tonight. Pretend you still adore me. God, I loved that about you. You always made me feel superhuman.”

  “And there is the crux of the issue, isn’t it? It wasn’t just my adoration you craved, but adoration in general. It’s why you became King.”