Forsaken Duty (Red Team #9)(93)

“I had a choice,” he said.

Ace’s heart squeezed uncomfortably in her chest. “What kind of choice?”

“Lose you, or lose your entire family.”

A chill skittered along her spine. How terrible to be faced with that. She could see the Omnis doing that, too.

“It wasn’t really a choice.” In the faint light of the section of tunnel they were in, she could see his shoulders slump. “I watched him cut you. He’d sedated you with chloroform, then sliced you all to hell, hoping that would make everyone believe you’d been killed, not just kidnapped.”

“It worked, as you know. They did think I was dead. My parents lived with that for more than two decades. Greer hates you. But I don’t.” Tears distorted her vision. She was glad he couldn’t see them.

“All I could do was build a following in the tunnels. Teach as many as I could to fight, resist, learn. When they made you service their men, I stayed in full-time. I took every minute with you that I could get. I knew you would become a sword of vengeance. And like hardened steel, you did just that.”

Ace heaved a long sigh. “Come home with me. You get to heal, too.”

“No. I will never heal. I don’t deserve to. I deserve to die. Here and now.”

“I won’t kill you, Santo.”

“You will. Or you will die. One of us is not leaving this tunnel alive.” He followed those words with a forceful advance that left no doubt he’d meant what he said. She tried retreating, but he cornered her between a big metal bin and the tunnel wall.

The little watcher who’d brought her to Santo carried his lantern out into the section of tunnel they were fighting in, giving her enough light to decide on her next move. She jumped on the metal box as Santo came at her, then grabbed a pipe overhead and swung forward, kicking him in the throat, hard enough to lift him off the ground. He stumbled back, then fell on a pile of jumbled metal. One of the spikes shoved all the way through his chest. Even in the weak light of the tunnel, she could see the dark stain spreading across his woolen robe.

She rushed to his side. “No! No, Santo! Dammit. Don’t you dare die.”

His eyes met hers. He gurgled for a minute, then went still.

“Damn you. We could have fixed this.” She caught his hand and cried, weeping for all of it—what was, what wasn’t, what would never be.

When she was spent, she realized he was wrong about love. Love didn’t weaken a person…it only strengthened what it touched.

Ace returned to where their fight started and picked up her flashlight, then looked around for the kid. He didn’t come out, but she knew he was still nearby.

“Look, kid. Get outta here. Go find Lion and stay with him. You don’t need to see this stuff.”

She wiped her left hand across her face, then tasted the blood from her cut lip. Her broken arm hurt like a sonofabitch. She walked back toward Owen, checking at every turn that the way was clear. Angel and Owen were fighting four men outside the spur tunnel. For every hit they got in, they took two more. Looked like the fight had been going on long enough that the guys were winded. Ace watched the fight, trying to see where she could break in. She was glad it was a hand-to-hand fight instead of a gunfight…until a knife slashed toward Owen. He snagged the guy’s hand between his, then kicked his groin, grabbing the knife free as the guy doubled over. In a smooth motion that went almost too fast to see, he cut that guy’s throat and stabbed his second opponent in the neck.

Ace ran to help Angel, sliding her leg between one of his opponent’s feet, tripping him. When he went down, she smashed her cast into his face, knocking him out. Angel’s second opponent dropped about the same time, a knife sticking out of his eye.

Gunfire came from the tunnel where Owen had been. Owen rushed to the opening in time to see a guy coming out, carrying Addy over his shoulder. Owen kicked his knees in. He screamed and fell, dropping Addy as his legs caved beneath him…bending the wrong way. While Owen hurried to Addy, Angel and Ace rushed into the tunnel where Doc Beck still was. He was standing there with Owen’s SIG, staring down at a dead Omni.

“You good, Doc?” Angel asked.

“Yeah. You guys?”

“Fine,” Ace said. They went back to the Syadne tunnel. Owen had just picked Addy up. “Was she hurt?”

“No. Angel, go ahead and make sure the way’s still clear,” Owen said. “Ace, hold your position here. I’ll send more help as the team frees up. Beck, with me.”

Ace watched them head to the Syadne tower. The door to the tower was blown out. They stepped inside and disappeared into a stairwell. She hoped everything would work out for Owen. He was different than she’d expected him to be. He and Addy deserved a chance.

A few minutes later, she heard a commotion coming from the tower.

Instinctively, she retreated inside the tunnel, shutting off her light. Someone was exiting the Syadne tower. Light from the broken door spilled into the bigger tunnel, backlighting a couple that was hurrying toward her. They kept looking behind them. Edwards and some blond woman whose hand he was holding. Not Edwards. King. Fucking King. Was that Roberta—or Annie Roberts—Jax and Addy’s stepmom with him?

Ace stepped out in front of them, shining her flashlight into their eyes. It was Edwards, all right. “Going somewhere?” she asked.