OWEN and ADDY: A RED TEAM WEDDING NOVELLA
THE RED TEAM, BOOK 14
Elaine Levine
Contents
Other Books by Elaine Levine
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Other Books by Elaine Levine
About the Author
OWEN AND ADDY: A RED TEAM WEDDING NOVELLA - BLURB
Writing love letters to a dead woman was the sum total of Owen Tremaine’s romantic prospects without Addy Jacobs in his life.
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When he learned she was still alive, and that she’d suffered far worse than a broken heart, he had to fight to regain her trust and convince her he wasn’t part of the machinations—by friend and foe alike—that had put them through hell.
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So much has changed in the decade he and Addy lost—but their love never died. Owen’s learning to be a father to her boys—one of them his own son. They’re putting the pieces of their lives back together, beginning at the point they left off.
* * *
And now it’s time for the wedding their enemies denied them so long ago, but can Owen put her dreams ahead of his fears when it comes to a dangerous choice they have to make?
Length: Approximately 140 pages
Ages: 18 & up (story contains sex, profanity, and violence)
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Owen and Addy: A Red Team Wedding Novella (The Red Team, Book 14) is part of a serialized story that includes nine full-length novels and nine wedding novellas. This series is best read in order, starting with The Edge of Courage.
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Join the conversation on Facebook: Visit Elaine Levine’s War Room - http://geni.us/hxFk to talk about this book and all of her suspenseful stories!
Other Books by Elaine Levine
Red Team Series
(This series must be read in order.)
1 The Edge of Courage
2 Shattered Valor
3 Honor Unraveled
4 Kit & Ivy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
5 Twisted Mercy
6 Ty & Eden: A Red Team Wedding Novella
7 Assassin’s Promise
8 War Bringer
9 Rocco & Mandy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
10 Razed Glory
11 Deadly Creed
12 Forsaken Duty
13 Max & Hope: A Red Team Wedding Novella
14 Owen & Addy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
Sleeper SEALs
11 Freedom Code
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Men of Defiance Series
(This series may be read in any order.)
1 Rachel and the Hired Gun
2 Audrey and the Maverick
3 Leah and the Bounty Hunter
4 Logan’s Outlaw
5 Agnes and the Renegade
Dedication
For Barry, my own beacon of light.
A Note from the Author
We begin Owen and Addy at the point where Max & Hope: A Red Team Wedding Novella left off. To maximize your enjoyment of this serialized story, I highly recommend reading the series in order, starting with The Edge of Courage and including the Red Team wedding novellas, before beginning this book!
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And make sure you never miss a book from me by signing up for my new release announcements at http://geni.us/GAlUjx.
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—Elaine
WHEN WE LAST VISITED THE RED TEAM…
Here’s a refresher for those of you who have read the previous Red Team books (skip this and go read them if you haven’t yet!). This is where we left our heroes…
* * *
* * * * * Spoilers! * * * * *
Owen found Addy Jacobs, his long-lost love.
Owen met the son he never knew about, as well as Addy’s second son.
Addy and the boys are living with Owen at the team’s headquarters.
Owen has reconnected with his childhood friend and recent nemesis, Wendell (Jax) Jacobs.
Lion and his pride are with the team at Blade’s house.
Ivy and Mandy are about six months pregnant.
Jason Parker and Cecil Edwards are dead.
The Omnis have temporarily been run to ground.
Wynn’s parents, Joyce and Nathan Ratcliff, and Owen’s dad, Nick Tremaine, have all been altered by gene modification procedures, as has Addy.
Max and Hope are still on their honeymoon bike run.
Something mysterious is still stalking the team.
It’s early January at the Tremaine Headquarters in Wyoming.
* * *
And now, we continue with Owen and Addy’s wedding novella…
1
Owen Tremaine stared at the paperwork in front of him, seeing none of it. He and his team had been onsite for less than a year, and already four of his teammates had gotten married. Max was still out on his honeymoon. None of that was what he’d been expecting when he pulled the group together and came out here. Kit and Rocco were going to be dads again in a few months. Hell, Owen was sitting at the very desk where he’d written love letters to a dead woman.
But Adelaide Jacobs was no longer a figment of his lost past. She was his now, in flesh and blood; only logistics were keeping them from sharing the same last name.
It was their turn to tie the knot. He was done waiting.
He checked his phone to find her. She was in the new greenhouse that Blade had the construction crew build while they were there working on the basement.
Owen went outside via the French doors in his office and crossed the lawn. The day was crisp but mild for an early January morning in Wyoming. The greenhouse sat near the caretaker’s house that Jim and Russ lived in. It was a huge monstrosity of a glass dome and reminded Owen of the conservatory at Addy’s mountain house. She’d naturally gravitated toward it—not because she missed anything about her old place, but because she liked getting her hands dirty in a garden.
A wall of moist, hot air wrapped around him when he stepped inside. Fans created an artificial breeze, rustling the leaves of the banana and lemon trees.
Addy looked up and smiled. He’d never thought to have her back in his life, yet here she was, beautiful and thriving, like the plants she tended.
Today was the day.
“Look”—she lifted a heavy leaf on a vine to show him something growing out of its faded flower—“we have baby zucchinis starting. And the butter lettuce is almost ready for harvesting.” She hurried to another area in the big greenhouse and held her hand under the framework of a strawberry bed that somehow had the berries hanging upside down. “The boys planted these a few weeks ago and the strawberries are already starting.”
Owen smiled at the wonder in her eyes. She spent a lot of her days in here, working on the indoor farm for the household. He pulled her into his arms. “I need to talk to you.”
Worry flashed across her face, but she hid it with a smile as she set her hands on his arms. “Okay.”
“When can I make you Mrs. Tremaine?”
She relaxed. “That’s up to you. We could go get our marriage license tomorrow. Then we could go to the justice of the peace anytime. I don’t want to make this a big deal. I get a little panicky thinking about having another wedding ceremony.”
“We can make it low-key, but I want to have that first dance with you, so it needs to be more than a run to the JP. I used to
play that dance with you through my head, pretend what it would have been like, before I lost you. That was my go-to daydream when things were stressful.”
She rubbed his arms. “I know. You wrote about that in one of your letters to me.”
“And I’d like my dad and your brother to be with us. Jax needs to walk you down the aisle. Let’s find out when they can get back here.”
“This is sounding like a big deal.”
“Not really. Just family.”
“And team and cubs.”
“Which is just family.”
“Maybe we could all go out to Mama Rosa’s for supper to celebrate. Make it easy on everyone here.”
“Or we could have them cater it for us here. I don’t want you stressing about this. We can hire an event group to do the whole thing. Setup. Take-down. Cleanup. Decorations. Music. All of it.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
“Not for our wedding. And it’s less stress on the team, especially since they’re still recovering from the last wedding.” He smiled at Addy, hoping to ease the tension rolling in waves from her. “Now what about wedding rings?”
She actually flushed a little. “I was looking through Hope’s wedding magazines and found a jeweler I like in Denver. They have just the ring I want.”
He smiled, warmed to learn she’d been thinking about their wedding. “And what does this ring look like?”
“It’s an emerald-cut aquamarine with two diamond baguettes.”
“An aquamarine as a center stone? Not a diamond?”
“Cecil gave me a diamond. I don’t want that again. Besides, the aquamarine reminds me of your eyes, so having it with me all the time is like having you with me.”
“I like that.” He sighed. “I can’t believe I’m going to suggest this…but why don’t you pick out some wedding dress photos from those magazines and give them to Val? He can have his friend who owns the bridal shop source them and bring them up for you to try on. The other ladies may want to pick something out too. She can bring all of that up for you to select from.”
“I didn’t want to make such a big deal out of this.”
“It is a big deal. It’s our wedding. I want it to be amazing. I want it to wipe out any memory you have of your first ceremony, which wasn’t a wedding at all, but it’s holding that spot in your head.”
“Nothing about that day was good. Nothing. I try not to think about it at all.” Her blue eyes deepened, in that odd way they had of changing with her emotions, a side effect of her modifications.
“Use our wedding to purge that from your mind.”
She nodded slowly, mulling it over. “Okay. I will.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Is there anything you specifically want included or excluded? A meal or cake preference? Colors or themes?”
“I just want my dance with you. Everything else is gravy.”
Owen called Jax on his walk back to the house. “Hey,” he said when the call was picked up.
“Owen. Your dad’s here with me. I’ve got you on speaker. S’up?”
“Dad.”
“Son.”
Perfunctory greetings done, Owen cut to the issue. “Wynn phoned her folks and asked them to come back. They said they couldn’t until you gave them approval.”
“Which I didn’t give,” Jax said, “for reasons I’m sure you can understand, given the circumstances.”
“I need them here.”
“Tell me about the situation you’ve going on there,” Jax said. “Something about an invisible intruder?”
“Yeah. Someone or something has been physically accessing the house. Can’t catch him on camera—he interferes with electronics. Cameras aside, he’s able to hide himself somehow. We could walk right past him and not know it.”
“That’s why I stashed the Ratcliffs,” Jax said. “There are things we don’t know about, things we’ve only heard about through gossip and anecdotal evidence. The urban legends that are growing around these human modifications indicate these changed beings are capable of extra-human behaviors.”
“Can you do unusual things, Dad?” Owen asked.
“Not that I know of. I was changed in a lab environment where the doctors monitoring me were trying to establish a control against which the physiology of other changed beings could be measured. I’m about to start my training. I will say that I do have urges and impulses, intuitions that I didn’t have—or wasn’t aware of—before being altered.”
“Have either of you heard of a man called Bastion?” Owen asked. “He speaks French.” Silence. A big, pregnant silence.
“Is that who’s been coming to your headquarters?” Jax asked.
“I believe so. At least, that’s how he introduced himself to one of our team members.”
“We know some things about the study in which he was modified. He’s part of a group the Ratcliffs had in their sights.”
“Had?” Owen asked.
“Yeah. The study went on for a long while,” Nick said, “but ultimately imploded, and its participants, including Bastion, got lost over time. He’s one of a small group of men who were changed then sent to work for a private military consulting firm that operates in South America and the Middle East several years ago. Lethal motherfuckers, Owen.”
“After their modifications, half the company went bad, half stayed good,” Jax added. “It’s unclear which half he’s on.”
“Bastion’s in a group led by a guy named Liege,” Nick said. “We don’t know their legal names. They called themselves Liege’s Legion. We don’t know much about this group. It appeared they’d broken apart and had gone their separate ways. Rumor has it that Liege and several of his men are here in the U.S., but we haven’t been able to substantiate that yet. If it’s true, they may be getting the band back together.”
“‘Several’ men isn’t much of a legion,” Owen said.
“Considering they can operate as effectively as a unit ten times their size, they’re enough as they are,” Nick said.
“Why are they here?” Owen asked.
“That’s unknown at this point,” Jax said. “We think they’re after the scientists who changed them.”
“Was that the Ratcliffs?” Owen asked.
“No.” Sounded as if Nick had moved closer to the phone. “But the Ratcliffs have the broadest knowledge about these human modifications and the players involved. And they’re some of the last researchers the Omnis haven’t yet terminated. Plus, they’re well connected in Omni scientific circles. Even if the scientists responsible for the Legion’s enhancements have been ended, the Ratcliffs may be able to recover their research.”
“I need talk to the them so I can learn how to deal with these guys,” Owen said. “What are their known capabilities?”
“They each have different skills and strengths,” Nick said, “but all of them have enhanced mental abilities that allow them to manipulate physical things and mental conditions in those they encounter. Bastion is thought to have enhanced abilities around telepathy and electromagnetic projection.”
“How is that possible?”
“We’re still learning,” Nick said. “These enhancements are proof regular humans are capable of far more than science has even speculated. It’s thought this group was given several doses of nanos programmed to modify neural networks, giving them access to their full capabilities, basically rewiring their brains for maximum use. The range of abilities of Liege’s Legion isn’t fully known. We suspect they can utilize a psychic network, which is intensified by the number of warriors in their mental network.”
“If I were you, Owen,” Jax said, “I’d relocate. Fast.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Owen said. “We have families here, kids starting school soon, wives with businesses. Our lives are here.”
“And the Legion’s found you. You’re fucked if you stay there. I can give you safe harbor. All of you.”
“Like you did with the other prides Ace sent your way?”
“Exactly.”
“Good to know.” Owen sighed, packing that info away for a future discussion. “You said the Ratcliffs might be able to get a hold of the research this Legion is looking for. Make that happen. With that in hand, we at least have some leverage.”
“Roger,” Jax said. “I’ll put a team on it.”
“Good, because in other news,” Owen said, “Addy and I are getting married, hopefully before the end of this month. We’d like you here for that.”
“I’m happy for you, son,” Nick said.
“Pretty damned short notice, bro,” Jax grumbled.
“Couldn’t help that,” Owen said. “The timing just worked out for us to do this now.”
“Of course we’ll come out,” Nick said. “Thanks for including us. Let us know when you have a firm date.”
“Addy wants Jax to walk her down the aisle.”
“Fine. We’ll be there,” Jax said.
“And while you’re here, we can have a chat with my team about the Legion and what our options are.”
“It’ll be a short chat, ’cause you only have two choices: either take the modifications and go into hiding while you adjust to them, or get out of the fight altogether. There is no middle ground in this.”
Neither of those choices were real options. Owen ended the call.
OWEN and ADDY_A RED TEAM WEDDING NOVELLA_THE RED TEAM, BOOK 14 Page 1