Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(37)

“Shit, Jax. That’s fucked up. You never once came to me. You never gave me the benefit of the doubt.”

“Nope. I bought the propaganda. I spent four years looking for Addy. Then Ace told Santo she was leaving the system. I got her set up in the outside world. She wanted revenge on those who’d abused her. I wanted answers. I let her go for it. I took all the info she sent my way, always asking about the women she encountered. She took photos of everything.

“I didn’t know Dad was an Omni until I reconnected with Addy. And then I learned he’d known where she was all along. That he’d left her there with Edwards and only reached out to me for help once her son had been taken. That kind of betrayal cuts hard. Seemed a confirmation of what I believed you’d done. That Addy had heard that Tremaine was King as well just cinched it.” Jax looked at Owen. “I lied when I told you Addy stayed in to protect you. I was too much of a coward to admit I hadn’t been able to figure out all the pieces. And I didn’t want you to hate her for my failing.”

Owen felt sick. “I wonder how much Jason and Santo knew. Even your dad. And mine.”

“Roberta was there. The day I was taken. She was there.” Addy looked at Owen. “I remembered that last night. I guess the nightmare I had shook it loose.”

“What do you remember?” Owen asked.

“I saw her. The girl who took my place. The one who died that day.”

“What did you see?” Jax asked.

“She was in my room, wearing my favorite bra and panty set. She smiled at me and pointed to my dress, said she needed that too. Her hair was cut just like mine. Her nails were my favorite shade of pink. She was my doppelg?nger.”

The terror in her eyes sliced into Owen. He took her hand.

“I never remembered that before. Roberta said, ‘It’s time, princess.’ She put something against my face and I blacked out.”

Owen put his arm around Addy as he began to envision all the different ways he could end her wicked stepmother. He wasn’t one who favored slow kills, like Greer had done with Whiddon. No, Owen just liked to get the deed over with. Slow sex and fast death were his preferences for the major things in life. The choice was just of weapons. A bullet, a knife, or his bare fucking hands. Whatever way he chose, she was a dead wicked stepmother.

“Okay. Good. I’m glad you remembered that,” Owen said.

“Dad had the girl cremated, but I’d already taken a sample of her tissue. I had that girl’s DNA tested,” Jax said. “I recently gave those results to my FBI contact. He’s looking for the family of the girl who was murdered.”

Addy looked at her brother. “She was happy that day, like she was part of some fun skit. I don’t think she knew what was coming.”

Owen kissed her forehead. “I doubt she did. And for the record—you are the only one of you that exists in the whole universe.”

Took a bit to digest that news, but Owen still had so many questions. “So after Ace’s rampage through the Omni bastards who’d hurt her, you switched her to finding Augie.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what Dad did or said to Edwards to get him to back off of Addy, but I guess Augie was Dad’s last straw. He confessed to me he’d married Addy off to Edwards and that she needed to get away from him. I’d been in and out of the tunnels for years. Addy wasn’t the only extra wife Edwards had. Guess he felt he alone had the right genes to seed an empire.”

“Except…he couldn’t,” Addy said quietly. “He couldn’t get an erection without medical intervention. And he couldn’t ejaculate without…a lot of effort. That’s why he used other men, ones he approved of, men like his War Bringer. It’s why he had rape parties…my panic excited him.”

The horror of that quiet statement, and the visual it brought, stole Owen’s breath. One more reason to ensure Edwards would meet a painful end.

“So there’s that,” Addy said, breaking up their shocked silence.

Jax looked at his sister. “You told me about some of what had happened over the years, ending with Edwards forcing her to choose between her boys. But not that.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know any of that was going on, but once I did, I set Ace on the trail of my nephew.”

“How did you get a settlement from Edwards?” Owen asked.

“I blackmailed him with the video evidence Ace had been collecting,” Jax said. “Made it clear that Addy was no longer his to abuse and that if he didn’t sign away the castle and its contents and also provide a monetary amount equal to her suffering, that I’d blow his world wide open. He caved.”

“When did you discover that my dad was still alive?”

“After Addy got sick. I’d known for a while that the Omnis were developing biological weapons. When none of her tests pointed to a known disease, I dug deeper into what they were doing. That’s when I discovered the schism in the Omni World Order. I learned your dad was part of the group who still represented the original mandate of the Omnis and that he was leading the resistance against the neo-faction that came up after World War II. He was gathering up all the scientists he could to keep them safe. But that tipped Neo-Omnis off that their game was up. They started cleaning house, killing them off. That’s when I figured out what everyone meant when they said Tremaine was King. It wasn’t you…it was your dad.”