Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(6)

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 half 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.”

“Why?”

“I told you. It’s time for me to bow out. Go talk to her.”



Addy was alerted about her visitor by a phone call from the butler. He was here. Owen Tremaine. Her brother had brought him despite her wishes. Despite everything Owen had done to her.

Jax only this morning said he trusted Owen, but Addy still didn’t.

She wasn’t a fool—she’d known it would be only a matter of time before he’d come to gloat. She’d had years to prepare for this, and still she was unready. She changed her clothes, put some jewelry on, and pulled on the wig that best represented what her hair had looked like before it all fell out. She was presentable, but nowhere near ready. She went down her wing and out to the grand entryway that took up two floors and an entire tower of the mansion.

She saw Owen. He was tall and blond, looking at the paintings that filled the formal entryway like a gallery, paintings she no longer even noticed. He must have heard her, for he looked up. She almost ran back to her room. His face was battered. Who would dare to do that?