Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(83)

“Whiddon knew everything we did.”

“Yeah. Which was why I got with Owen to organize Tremaine Industries.”

“And still Roberta was along for the ride, watching everything.”

“I tried to break free of her when your sister graduated college. Addy was an adult. She was ready to stand on her own, even if my career imploded. It was time to cut myself loose. But she acted first.”

“She took Addy.”

“Yeah. She gave Addy to the Omnis. I couldn’t come clean then, because I knew I’d never see her again if I did.”

“You left Addy with them for almost eight years,” Jax said.

“Seven. I told Edwards to back off. I finally got the balls to make him do it when I saw how desperate Addy was to get away. They took Augie from her because of me. I didn’t do anything on her behalf for months out of fear. That’s when I called you.”

“You told me Owen was King.”

“You knew so much by then, but not everything. I wanted to keep you off-kilter.” Dean sighed and looked down at his desk. “This isn’t a conversation I ever wanted to have with you.”

“Why didn’t you call on your friends, Nick and Henry?”

“I’d already sent Henry to her, through her nanny. He set up a safe house for her, provided her a means of escaping, but she was too broken then to chance it. She didn’t want to risk losing Troy. That’s when I got you involved.”

“Henry knew where she was after she was first taken.” His dad had no comment to offer him. As chatty as he’d been to this point, Jax found that curious. He took his silence for confirmation, the fucking bastard. “You had me chasing my tail for years. I believed you when you said Owen was King. There were times on missions where I almost set him up to die. I thought he was behind what happened to Addy.”

“I had to do that.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t let you get too close to the truth. I couldn’t risk losing you like I’d lost your mom and Addy.”

“You couldn’t because you were a coward.”

Dean nodded.

“Where’s Roberta?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me where she was going.”

Jax set a document on his dad’s desk. It was a marriage certificate from almost forty years ago. “Did you know you were a bigamist? Roberta was already married when she married you.”

Dean stared at the document a long time. Jax had the names on it memorized. Cecil Edwards King and Annie Roberts. “She married King. You gave your daughter in marriage to the very devil I’ve been chasing. You married her off to your wife’s lawful husband. How fucked up is that? I’m gonna ask you again, where’s Roberta?”

Dean sat back in his chair and stared at Jax. “She didn’t tell me. For the last three years, we’ve lived separate lives. I let her stay in the guest house, but we never do anything together in public or private. I don’t know where she is.”

“Did you know that we identified the girl Roberta had killed in the train wreck?”

“How? She was cremated, too.”

“I took a sample of her blood while she was still in the morgue. Your silence about her death and Mom’s makes you an accessory to both murders.”

“I wish that was all I was guilty of.”

Jax wanted to unscramble that cryptic statement, but he sensed his dad was at an end of his confessions. The FBI could try to get more out of him. There was just one more thing Jax wanted to know. “Tell me where Augie is.”

Dean shook his head. “I can’t. I don’t know.”

“Goddammit, Dad. Do one good thing. One. Where is my nephew?”

“King took him. That’s all I know.”

“I’m done. I’m out.” After those words, mere seconds passed before the house was overtaken by the FBI. Jax never saw his dad reach for a gun, but he suddenly had it in his hand. The FBI agents were shouting at him, shouting for him to put his weapon down. He didn’t.

He put it up to his head and pulled the trigger.



Owen was with the team in the billiards room when Jax’s call came through. Max motioned everyone to silence, then fed the call through the speaker system.

“Owen.”

“Jax.”

“I know who King is.”

“Who’s fucking King?” Owen asked quietly.

“It’s Edwards. They fed Addy to King. Roberta is Edwards’ legal wife. That’s why she kept telling Addy to shut up and put up and keep Edwards happy.”

Owen sat down. He didn’t talk. He was glad Addy was upstairs. He’d been just about to go get her when Jax’s call had come in.

“My dad’s dead, O. But I got a lengthy confession from him before he shot himself. The FBI was listening in. They came in to take him, but he took himself out first.”

“Tell me, did you know your dad was dirty all this time?”

“Not until I got Addy out. She told me my dad and Roberta had visited her several times. She said the same day that Augie was taken, our parents visited. She begged them to take her and the boys away, but they didn’t. That’s when I knew. My dad played me. He played everybody. My dad confirmed that Roberta had murdered my mom, then wiggled her way into my dad’s life. By the time he figured it out, he was in too deep. I think he did start the Red Team for the right reasons, but he couldn’t toe the line for us. When you told me you were starting your own gig, and that my dad was a silent partner, I thought again that you were on the side of the Omnis. It didn’t help that Val was also a silent partner, given who his dad was. I couldn’t come to you, Owen, because I didn’t trust you any longer. That’s the real reason I sent Ace your way. She was always an excellent judge of character.”