To do that, he needed more time before contacting his team. Addy was in a fragile state and probably shouldn’t be exposed to too many outsiders. Even getting her out of there before he had a handle on what she was battling was a bad move.
More info was what he needed. He went up the backstairs in his wing, down the long hall to the grand stairway, then into Addy’s forbidden wing. Most of the doors were closed, but one was open. He heard voices. A child and a woman. A boy was asking the woman questions. Owen didn’t pay attention to the topic of the conversation. He couldn’t. His heart was beating too hard. Was that his son? Was Augie here? Why hadn’t anyone told him?
Anger washed through him. He almost ran to the open door of the room where he’d heard them talking. There he was. A little brown-haired boy sitting at a table with a middle-aged woman. Rage washed through Owen, quickly chased by disillusionment. Both gutted him. Was this boy his? He glared at the child, who gasped at him, which caught the woman’s attention. She stood and moved between them.
“You aren’t supposed to be here in Ms. Jacobs’ private quarters,” she said. The boy peeked at him from around the woman’s hip.
Owen didn’t answer her. His gaze dropped to the boy. He looked a little older than Zavi, but not twice his age. Augie would have been bigger. “Who are you?” Owen asked.
“I’m Troy,” the boy said. “Who are you?”
“Owen Tremaine.”
The woman dragged Troy with her over to a phone mounted on a wall. When she dialed, he slipped away, venturing over to Owen. Troy stared up at him. Owen remembered he had to look pretty scary with all of his bruises and cuts. Even so, the kid took his hand and led him over to a long, padded window bench.
“What are you doing?” Owen asked.
“Taking you to sit down. You look like my mom does just before she faints.”
Owen pulled his hand free, but did sit down. “I’m not going to faint.”
The boy stood close to him, seemingly unconvinced. He clearly had no sense of personal space, either. “Maybe you should put your head between your knees.”
“I’m not going to faint. I never faint.” Good grief. Was he really having this convo with this child? “Who are you, Troy? Who are your parents?”
“My mom’s just down the hall.” Troy’s gaze lowered and shifted to the side. A telltale sign if ever there was one. “My dad’s gone.”
Owen’s brows lowered. It was an expression that made grown men nervous, but not this boy. He seemed more at ease looking at Owen than dredging through his own thoughts.
“Who are your parents?” Troy asked, taking Owen aback.
“My parents are neither here nor there.”
“I didn’t ask where they were. I asked who they were.”
“They were Mr. and Mrs. Tremaine. And ‘here nor there’ is an expression that means they are not of consequence in this conversation.”
“Oh.”
“What’s your last name, Troy?”
He scrunched up his face. “It was Edwards, but now it’s Jacobs. My mom divorced my dad.”
Owen’s brows lifted as he gasped. Edwards? Fucking Edwards? Addy had been forced into marriage with that bastard? Her parents had to be in on it. Her dad was a senator—he could have gotten her out if he’d wanted to.
Troy crouched on the seat next to Owen and bent over to put his head between his knees. “You do it like this.” He ducked his head down, muffling his words. “It doesn’t hurt. You should do it. Your face is very white…where it isn’t purple.”
Owen was tempted. He became aware of the tutor speaking on a house phone. Her voice had been strident, but evidently whoever was on the other end of the line vouched for him. She sent him an uneasy glance, then hung up. She went into the bathroom and came out with a little glass of water, which she handed to him.
“You do look pale,” she said.
He took the water, glad that his hand was steady. “I don’t faint.” He swallowed half of it then handed it back to her. He stood and held a hand out to Troy. The boy reached for his hand and grinned up at him. “It was very nice meeting you,” Owen said.
“Will you be here long?” Troy asked. “We don’t get a lot of visitors. My mom doesn’t like them. I didn’t either, but you seem different from the others.” He stood on the bench. He was almost to Owen’s shoulders. The boy would grow into a tall man. Interesting that he didn’t resemble Edwards in the least. This child was brown-eyed with deep brown hair.
“That’ll do, Troy,” the woman said. “We don’t gossip. Let’s cleanup in here so we can go out to play.” He jumped off the window seat and gave Owen a short wave.
Owen returned to the hallway. He paused, looking out into the conservatory that filled the space between the two wings, then pressed his forehead against the glass. Addy had two sons. He wondered what his own boy looked like. Had he been blond and blue-eyed like the both of them? He glanced back at the classroom, considering going back to ask Troy questions about his brother. The boy was the only one here freely offering up information. Surely he would remember his brother, though he would only have been a toddler when Augie was taken. But Owen doubted the dragon with him would welcome a second interruption.
Instead, he went down the hall, opening doors, looking for Addy. He needed answers. Time wasn’t on their side. Three years had already passed since Augie was taken. Owen needed Addy to start talking if he had a hope of retrieving his boy…before the inevitable happened.
He guessed her room would be the last in the hall, the one with the round tower at the end of the wing. He tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. The suite he stepped into was darkened. The drapes had been drawn. It took his eyes a minute to acclimate. When they did, he saw a huge bed that looked big enough for two couples. Two very tall couples.
Addy was lying in the middle of it, so still and quiet that his heart clenched until he heard a slight sound from her. He pulled up a side chair and sat next to her bed. She was a little too far away for him to easily take her hand. He wished they weren’t strangers now. In the ten years they’d been apart, she’d never been out of his mind.
Clearly, it hadn’t been that way for her.
He remembered the time they’d been quarantined together at Jax’s house. She was four and he was eleven. They both had chickenpox. His father had never had it, so Owen had had to convalesce at the Jacobs’. She had a high fever. She cried for her dad to come, but when he didn’t, she cried for her mom. Everyone knew it wasn’t Roberta, her stepmom, she was crying for.
Addy had lost her real mom two years earlier, the same year Owen’s mom had died. It gutted him that no one went in to comfort her, not even Jax. So Owen did. And that was how he got the chickenpox himself.
Addy had a worse fever with the pox than he did, but he had more spots. Her nanny visited every few hours, but never stayed long. Addy would whimper and cry and scratch at the pox. He told her to come over and get in bed with him, that she could connect his dots and make pictures. He found a marker and gave it to her. She drew all over him. And laughed. And forgot about her sores.
She healed before he did, but she still sneaked away from her nanny to keep him company while he recovered. She couldn’t read yet, so she sat there with him, making up stories. Silly things, like the adventures of various rabbits and mice.
To this day, whenever Owen was sick, which wasn’t often, he thought about those days they spent together, helping each other get well.
Maybe he could do that again.
His eyes watered. How unfair it was that she was dying.
Addy’s hair was short like it had been when they had chickenpox. She’d cried when they cut her hair off so they could tend the sores on her head. He’d told her how cute she was and that every princess had her hair cut when she was sick like they were.
He watched her sleep for a while. How much time did they have left? Troy said she fainted a lot. Owen had seen the shadows under her eyes deepen when she’d confronted him earlier
. And now she was lost to this exhausted sleep. Stress seemed something to avoid.
Thinking of a way to cheer her up, he went back to the little schoolroom. It was empty now, thankfully. He dug around until he found a piece of paper and a black marker. He drew the shape of a person, then frowned at how much it resembled a crime scene murder victim’s outline. He made little dots on it, then connected a few of them, like the haphazard lines she’d drawn on him. Below the figure, he wrote, Do you remember?
He left that drawing on Addy’s nightstand, then let himself out of her room.
5
Thirteen Years Ago
Fairfax, Virginia
Owen should have been tired after the red-eye cargo transport he and Jax had taken. It was already midmorning by the time they reached the Jacobs’ home in Fairfax, Virginia. The humid air was thick. Crickets and cicadas were making a loud buzz. The day promised to be a hot one.
They hadn’t been certain what time their transport flight would leave—they’d been on standby for several hours, so they hadn’t made it home in time for the actual graduation ceremony, which was where everyone was. The house was anything but quiet. The staff were hurrying about, doing the bidding of the party planner who’d been hired to oversee Addy’s graduation celebration. It was going to be a big shindig, with the wealthy parents of her friends, their families, and the Jacobs’ neighbors. Doubtless a fine time to do some fundraising for the senator’s upcoming run.
Owen stopped on the stairs before going up to the rooms he and Jax had been assigned. From his vantage point, he could see the house seemed ready for something much bigger than a high school graduation celebration. Big vases of hand-blown glass and cut crystal were overflowing with bouquets of white roses and pink peonies. Every surface, from the tops of bookshelves to the wide plank pecan floors, had been dusted and spit-shined. New slouchy white covers had been pulled over the sofas and love seats in the family’s informal living room. A feast was being set out on the long dining room table. Hors d’oeuvres were artfully arranged on various side tables.
Outside, several round tables were being set with white linen tablecloths. The folding chairs were covered with natural linen covers. All of it put Owen in mind of a big wedding celebration.
“You comin’?” Jax asked.
“Yeah.” Owen followed him up the stairs. “I’m gonna marry your sister.”
“I figured.”
Owen grinned at Jax as they hit the landing and turned for the second half of the stairs to the second floor. “What, you’re not gonna beat me up for that announcement?”
“I will if you think to make it public this weekend.” They’d turned down a hallway that led to the guest rooms where they’d be staying. “This is Addy’s weekend. Let her have it unencumbered.”
Owen held up his right hand—the only hand that was free. “I will. She’s too young anyway. And she has no idea how I feel. I’m just telling you how it’s gonna go.”
“Right. She’s still a baby. You keep your dirty hands off her. Let her finish college before you make a move on her.”
“Not sure I can wait that long. But don’t worry; any moves I make this weekend will all be innocent. I just don’t want her to forget about me this summer.”
Jax leaned back, frowning as he looked at Owen. “Forget about you? Are you fucking with me? My sister worships you. If you told her to jump off a bridge, she would, just to make you happy.”
Owen chuckled. Jax sounded jealous of the friendship Owen had with Addy. He always had been. “That’s ridiculous. She’s stubborn and opinionated. She’s no pushover.”
“Well, I know just the bridge. Ask her to jump.”
The humor slowly slipped away from Owen. “Says the brother who claims to protect her.”
“I am protecting her.”
“From me? You really think you need to protect her from me?” He dropped his duffel bag and spread his hands.
“Look. Forget it. I hate these family things. We got a mission on Monday. We have to head out early Sunday. Let’s just drop it and enjoy the next day and a half.”
“Sounds good to me.” Owen rocked back on his heels. Family had always made Jax nervous. Owen had never understood why. Sure, Jax’s stepmom was a piece of work. Owen would have given everything to have his own family back. But they were gone. Long gone. The Jacobs and Val were all the family he had now. As far as he was concerned, no one was going to be jumping off bridges or burning bridges or fucking anything up during Addy’s graduation weekend.
Owen followed Jax down the hall to their assigned rooms. He hung up his clothes and got settled, then wandered downstairs toward the kitchen, hoping the staff had some food he could help himself to before everyone came back from the graduation ceremony.
He made it as far as the bar in the family room when the front door opened and noise filled the foyer, spilling outward to all the rooms connected to it. Giggling, happy girls and boys, chattering adults. Owen turned to see everyone, shocked how much of an outsider he felt like. No one had celebrated his graduations—from high school or West Point. He’d been homeschooled at Val’s. Even Val’s sisters had long since moved away. Well, that wasn’t entirely true about not celebrating his high school graduation. He and Val had had a long and decadent night with Val’s friend, Debbie.
“Owen!” A girl’s voice cut into his thoughts. Addy. She ran across the room, her arms open. He caught her, hugging her tightly as he lifted her up off her feet. She laughed in that way of hers that sounded like little bells. His arms tightened a little. How he’d missed her. She was as slight as ever, but curvy in all the right places. He eased her back to her feet and smiled down at her. She rubbed her hands over his upper arms.
“Laidy.” He smiled at her.
“I can’t believe you still call me that.”
He leaned close and whispered, “You ordered me to, remember? You wanted a nickname all your own, as I recall.” His gaze swept across her face, which was absolutely glowing. “You look beautiful.”
“How can you tell with me covered head to toe in this?” She quickly unzipped her graduation gown, peeling it off to reveal the white sundress she wore underneath.
It was just a nylon robe she’d removed, he told himself. And she was fully dressed underneath it, but he still felt himself hardening. He nodded. “Yeah. What I said.”
She laughed as she draped the black gown over the bar and looped her arm through his. “Come meet my friends.”
He stiffened, catching himself before telling her he didn’t want to meet them, that he wanted her to himself for the next twenty-four hours, but already she was drawing him out into the foyer, where her friends were gathered.
A pile of discarded graduation robes was mounded on the entrance table. Others were tossed over the sectional sofa in the living room. Caps were dumped everywhere. It looked like Addy’s entire class had come home with her for the party. They were laughing and talking in endless loops, rehashing memories from the day and from their years together in school. It was a mix of several different ages, younger than Addy, older than her, and far more boys than Owen would have liked.
Addy dragged him over to a group of girls. Their circle went silent when they saw him. He shook their hands as he read their faces, looking for micro-expressions that might indicate if they were friend or foe. Foolish thing to do with these kids, but he liked to practice his craft. He’d long ago learned there were plenty of the latter and too few of the former. He must have seemed like a growling dog to them, for they all stepped back after meeting him, giving him a wide berth.
Addy laughed nervously and pushed him over to the next group, with the same results. Owen was wondering if all these guests had been vetted and cleared, when a boy came over to them. Addy pulled free from Owen and looped her arm through the boy’s. Never had Owen felt a separation so keenly.
“Jake, this is my very dear friend, Owen Tremaine. Owen, my boyfriend, Jake.”
All humor, all warmth, all fuckin
g humanity drained from Owen. The boy’s eyes widened, then jumped about, moving from Owen to Addy to the furniture near them, back to Owen. He tilted his head, fighting the persistent desire to pick the boy up by his neck and escort him outside for a little chat.
Jax joined them then. He slapped Jake on the back, congratulating him, then hugged Addy. Somehow Owen became the focus of the group again. He forced a grin, which had to be one of his most terrible ever. Jax laughed and dragged him away for a beer.
“She has a boyfriend,” Owen said.
“Of course she does. She’s eighteen.”
“You could have told me.”
“What difference would it make? It’s her life to live. You don’t get to live it for her. You’re never even here.”
Owen closed his eyes. “Does she love him?”
“Fuck no. Who does at eighteen? Pull it together, O. This is what I meant when I said this was her weekend. You looked like you were going to kill the kid.”
“I thought about it. Good thing I’m out of uniform.” He grinned.
“Shit.” Jax lifted his beer and drained the bottle. “Good thing I’m here to ride your ass.”
Owen turned to face the room. “Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Don’t want you anywhere near my ass.”
Jax choked on a laugh, which made Owen feel better.
Senator Jacobs came over with his wife, Roberta. She was a middle-aged bottle blonde, with sharp eyes, a sharp tongue, and razors for nails. Owen had never liked her. Nor had Jax and Addy. She’d married the senator when Addy was four, bringing with her the dragon nanny, who was probably still around here somewhere. She was the only mother Addy ever really known, though in her case, Owen used that term lightly; she’d never been much of a mom to Addy or Jax.
Owen shook hands with both of them. “Senator. Mrs. Jacobs.”
“Oh please,” she said, “you’re old enough to call me Roberta.” She accepted a glass of champagne from a silver tray a waiter brought over. Sipping it, she looked over the room. “Our little Addy is an adult now, about to go off to college.” She looked at the senator. “How fast the time went. We’re going to be empty nesters in only a few months.”
Forsaken Duty, The Red Team Series, Book 9 Page 4