Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(16)

“I can do this myself,” Addy protested.

“I’m sure you can.”

“Then leave me to it.”

“But why should you do it alone when you have help?”

“If it weren’t for you, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

Owen absorbed that volley without blinking. “True. I can’t undo what’s been done. But I can change things from here on out.”

“No. I made an agreement with the Omnis. I’m out of their organization. So are my children. You aren’t welcome here.”

Okay, that hurt, but he didn’t have time to pick it apart. A lot of what she said just didn’t make sense. “I’m not going anywhere until we get Augie back…and until I know Troy is safe.”

She scoffed. “Troy is not your concern. I don’t want you talking to him or interacting with him in any way.”

Owen helped her turn so that she could get her foot under the tap. “That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?”

She straightened and glared at him. If her eyes were lasers, he’d be fried.

“No, I don’t. And I don’t need you to talk down to me. I’m Troy’s mother. I have sole custody over him. And after having one son taken, I’m not going to run risks with my other one.”

“Who’s trying to take him, Addy?”

“As if you don’t know.”

“I don’t.”

She poked his chest. “You can’t have him. And you can’t have me.”

Owen met her hard look. “I can have you. And he comes with you, so I can have him too.”

Her eyes went wide. He felt her pull away from him, though he still held her foot under the cold stream of water. He didn’t press his point. Instead, he focused on washing her foot and injured toe. Troy came back with the requested supplies.

Owen glanced at the boy’s anxious face. Deciding it was better to include him and calm his fears rather than send him away, Owen moved to one side so that Troy could stand on the toilet and watch what he was doing.

“Mommy”—Troy pointed to his head and then to hers—“your head’s uncovered.”

Her hands flew to her head as her face paled. She gave Owen a resigned look as she lowered her hands to fuss with the scarf draped around her neck. “It’s fine. No biggie, honey.”

Owen tucked that away for future consideration. Her hair was short, still very blond, and had the slight curl that he remembered. It was beautiful. She didn’t need the wig she’d been wearing.

“Hand me that.” He nodded to a linen hand towel hanging on the bar near Troy.

“Does it hurt, Mommy?”

She smiled at her son. “A little. Nothing too bad. You’ve had a skinned knee before. It’s no worse than that.”

“I cried when that happened. You aren’t crying.”

She smiled. “I cry at other things.”

He nodded. “I know. You cry a lot.”

Owen frowned at her, wondering what made her cry. He made short work of drying off her toe and getting the first butterfly bandage on it. He put a second one on, then covered the toe with gauze and tape. “One more errand, Troy. Your mom needs slippers.”

She told him which ones to fetch, and he ran off without argument. Owen helped her to her feet, but kept her between him and the vanity. “Why do you cry?”

“I miss Augie.”

Owen held her gaze a long moment before nodding. “We’ll get him back.”

Again, that caustic laugh of hers. “You could snap your fingers and have him here in an instant. But you don’t, so I don’t believe your words.”

“I’m no magician.”

“Give him back to me.” Her face hardened. She caught a fistful of his cashmere pullover and twisted it as she drew him close. “I will kill you if anything happens to him.” She gave a little shake of her head. “In fact, I’ll likely kill you anyway for taking him.”

Owen braced a fist against the wall behind her to keep himself from touching her. “I didn’t take him.”

“Of course not. Your minions did. Same difference.”

Owen stared into her steely eyes. They were the same eyes she had when she was two and he’d first met her. They were the same eyes she had when she was six and had asked him to be her dragon slayer. They were the same eyes she had when she was eleven and had cried over the braces she’d just gotten. They were the same as ever…and yet different. Filled with hate and fear, things he’d never thought to see in them.

He switched his gaze from her eyes to her cheek, which looked soft and young. She smelled sweet, like a field of daisies heated by the sun.

He met her eyes again. “I don’t have minions, Laidy. I’ve only ever been your minion,” he whispered.

“Such an expert manipulator. I could almost believe you…if I didn’t know better.”

“If you must hate me, then hate me for the right reason. I didn’t take Augie from you, but I wasn’t here to stop him from being taken. Hate me for that. I do.”

Troy was taking a while fetching her slippers. Owen was glad for the time it gave him with her; they needed to have this convo. “And as for killing me, give me the chance to bring Augie back and secure Troy. Once that is done, I will stand in your firing line.” He leaned in close, bringing his face near hers, as close as he could without touching her, while he whispered, “But you alone must pull the trigger.” He leaned back so he could watch her reaction to his words. He saw the sorrow that passed through her expression before she released him and straightened.