Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(24)

“Why am I helping you? I owe it to you.”

“It sounds as if you’re going to put an end to the Omnis.”

“I am.”

“Why? They’re your world.”

He frowned, seemingly confused. “You think I like having an enemy like the Omnis? I don’t. Maybe a while ago they were a force for good, but now they’ve morphed into an ugly and destructive group of thugs. Fighting them is what your brother and I were training for since we were kids.”

It was a pretty speech, but the Omnis were his thugs. It was his world he wanted to end. Was he moving on to some other terrible new plan? She slipped into her bedroom, but paused just inside the closed door. If he was tearing apart the empire he built, a narcissist like him would only do it because he had plans for something even bigger and more horrific.

Maybe it was the reason her brother had brought him here: he needed her to find out what Owen was up to.

This was worse, far worse, than she could even imagine.





9





Owen was stiff when he went to his room the next morning. He’d spent the whole night outside Addy’s room. The cold floor hadn’t been easy on his injuries. He thought about going down for breakfast, but knew his reception would be as cold as it was yesterday.

He texted Jax to get the combo and location to his gun safe. Owen suspected he had a small armory here somewhere. Owen had the gun that Jax had given him from his stash house, but Addy needed one too. He thought it might make her feel a little more comfortable about protecting herself and her son.

He had every intention of sleeping outside Addy’s door again that night, so instead of chasing food, he chased some Zs. His dreams were painful and raw.



Ten Years Ago

Fairfax, Virginia



Owen showered and shaved. He’d eased himself in the shower, worried his hunger for Addy would drive the night instead of following her pleasure. He wanted their first time to be one she’d never forget, though he hoped to give her many such nights in their lives together. He was just wiping his face off when her text came in.

Just got free. See you in 30. My room.

Make it 10, he texted back.

30. Love you.

He grinned. The next thirty minutes were going to be the longest of his life. He could hear the celebration still going downstairs. For once, he was glad the Jacobs were quintessential political creatures. Their power party would keep them busy and distracted. Not that he really cared. If needed, he’d take Addy to a hotel for the weekend, where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

He pulled on one of his tailored dress shirts. It was a little overkill with his jeans, but one of his fantasies was to see Addy wearing it and nothing else. He walked out of the closet as Jax walked in.

His buddy’s gaze swept over him. As usual, he didn’t look happy—never did when it came to Owen spending time with his sister. Jax sighed. The shadows were deep in his eyes. Owen frowned. Jax grabbed a fistful of his shirt and twisted, closing the distance between them.

“Take her and go,” Jax said. “Go far away.”

“I thought about it so we could have privacy, but your folks are busy. They won’t notice us.”

“You aren’t the one they have in mind for her.”

Owen stared into his friend’s eyes. He gripped Jax’s hand at a pressure point, forcing him to release his shirt. “I am the only one for her.”

Jax shook his head. “It’s not going to happen. She was born into a political dynasty. She has a job to do for the family. We all do.”

“You knew I intended to marry her.”

“I thought you’d be over her long before this.”

“I have no intention of taking her from her family. She can still do her duty to your family after we’re married.”

Jax clamped his mouth shut and stepped back. His face became shuttered, blocking Owen from reading anything in his expression. “I can’t stop this train.”

Owen jumped as his phone buzzed with an incoming text from Addy. Where ru? He looked at Jax. “Gotta go. We’ll finish this discussion tomorrow.” Owen paused at the door. “But you better believe you can’t stop this train. It’s on tracks I’ve been laying down for years.”



Owen jerked awake. He sat up, panting, sweating. Had he dreamed what happened that night correctly? He’d forgotten all about that convo with Jax in the panic that came the next day. After that, his mind had locked everything down, only letting the wonderment of his time with Addy and the terror of losing her get through to his memories.

What had Jax been trying to tell him that night? What if Owen had taken Addy to a hotel for the weekend? Would that have changed her fate…and his? Or would it only have delayed the terrible plan her family had made for her?

Owen’s heart was racing. Addy’s fate had been set already, before she’d graduated college, before they were intimate.

And Jax had known about it.

Jesus. If Owen still needed proof his friend was on the rotten side of things, then he was an idiot. He shoved a hand through his hair as he paced around his room. The horror of what happened after his and Addy’s first night together had done a number on Owen. Jax had been a rock to him…in the beginning. But once Owen went back to work, Jax began to distance himself. He took on separate missions. He was given his own team in the unit. It wasn’t long until the work Owen was doing and the work Jax was doing never crossed paths.