Addicted (Outlaws Book 2) (17 page)

Lennox searched his brain for a tactful response. “I’ve talked to him about his crush, yes.”

“
Crush
? He wants to screw my child!”

Jamie spoke up tentatively. “She’s sixteen. Hardly a child.”

Gideon glared at her in response.

“And I don’t think this is about screwing,” Lennox added. “Randy really likes her. I’ve never seen him put his hands on her or treat her with disrespect.”

“Yeah? So why is he spending so much time with her outside of training? Extra target practice, going for walks, taking her to the restaurant for lunch. Do you think I was born yesterday? He wants to get in her pants!”

Probably. But Lennox kept the thought to himself. Besides, he wasn’t about to judge Randy for possessing the normal base urges that every teenage boy had to deal with. Lennox had fucked his first girl when he was thirteen. Jamie, he knew, had been sixteen, the same age as Randy and Sara.

“I don’t want him near her anymore.”

Jamie made another stab at peacekeeping. “What’s the harm in it? They’re just friends. If you feel like they’re getting too involved, you can step in, but Randy hasn’t done anything to justify this kind of response right now. He’s simply being nice and paying attention to her.”

“She doesn’t need his attention. She doesn’t need anyone’s attention.”

The agonized note in Gideon’s voice gave Lennox pause. He glanced at Jamie again, but her concerned gaze was focused solely on Gideon. She stepped forward and gently touched his arm, and though the man winced, he didn’t withdraw.

“What’s really going on here?” Jamie asked quietly.

“She’s a pretty girl,” Gideon choked out. “Too pretty, just like her mother was.”

Lennox’s heart sank like a stone. He had a terrible feeling he knew where this was going.

Gideon raked both hands through his hair and sagged back against the hood of a car. “Her mother and I were eighteen when we had her. We were too goddamn young, but from the moment Sara was born, we did everything we could to protect her. Her safety was our main concern. Our only fucking concern.” His voice cracked. “And then Eliza died…”

He went quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, it was in sheer disgust, unchecked fury. “Enforcers,” he spat out. “They attacked our camp two years ago. Sara was fourteen.”

An anguished sound left Jamie’s lips.

Lennox wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest of the story, but the man in front of them kept talking, his tone growing more and more distraught.

“I was out on a supply run when they came. I wasn’t there for my girls. I wasn’t there when they raped my wife.” His massive chest seemed to droop. “They shot Eliza when she tried to stop them from hurting Sara.”

Lennox fought a wave of sorrow. He’d heard similar stories, especially in recent years, as increased violence on the Enforcers’ parts was being reported. Hudson claimed they were being given aggression drugs. Lennox didn’t give a shit if they were. He knew Jamie was trying to be open-minded about Dominik, but he sure as hell wasn’t. Lennox would shoot the bastard in the head if they ever crossed paths.

“They left her on the ground like a piece of trash,” Gideon mumbled. “I found her curled up next to her mother’s body.” A tired breath came out. “I’ve never forgiven myself for not being there.”

Jamie wasted no time wrapping her arms around him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I shouldn’t have left them alone.”

The whispered response dampened Lennox’s palms. He shouldn’t have left Jamie alone either. The night at the library. He should have stayed by her side.

Panic coated his throat. Fuck, he wasn’t letting her go off alone ever again.

“Sara is everything to me. She’s the last surviving piece of her mother.” With a curse, Gideon stepped out of Jamie’s embrace. “When Reese took us in, she promised me Sara would be safe.”

“She
is
safe,” Jamie argued.

“Not when there are boys in this camp. I was a teenager once too,” he said bitterly. “I couldn’t keep it zipped either and it led to Sara being born. My daughter already had her innocence stolen from her. I refuse to let her get hurt again, or to let some asshole kid break her heart.”

Lennox cleared his throat. “I’ll keep an eye on Randy.”

Gideon sneered.

“I mean it – I’ll watch him. If I see him getting out of hand, I’ll step in. I promise you that.” Lennox hesitated. “But Randy is a good kid. He’d never hurt your daughter.”

The endorsement of Randy’s character didn’t seem to convince Sara’s father.

Jamie spoke up again, sounding equally hesitant. “And if they do decide they like each other romantically, I think you need to be open to that. Sara went through a rough time, but she’s a survivor – anyone can see that. If there’s even the slightest chance of her finding love and comfort in this world from a man who isn’t her father, it wouldn’t be fair to deprive her of that.”

Gideon’s shoulders sagged. For a second, Lennox thought they’d gotten through to him, until that broad torso went rigid again and his jaw twitched in anger.

“Just keep him away from my kid, you hear me?”

Then he stomped out of the garage.

The following day, Lennox made a conscious effort to keep a closer watch on Randy during training, but either Gideon had also paid a visit to the boy yesterday or Randy was clairvoyant, because he didn’t so much as look in Sara’s direction all day. When Sara’s shot won the evening’s final event for Jamie’s team, Randy didn’t even congratulate her, as he usually did when she kicked his ass.

Lennox, however, did walk over to pat Sara on the back, because that had been a damn good shot. They were aiming for moving targets now, which were a helluva lot more formidable than static ones. He knew Jamie had been working with some of the younger girls in her spare time, and it was absolutely showing in their technique.

Jamie’s technique, of course, was damn near flawless. She’d always been impressively proficient with a gun, far better than Lennox was, at least when they were kids. These days they were evenly matched, which was why their teams were neck and neck in the tournament, with Beckett and Travis trailing behind.

“Lennox.”

He turned to find Reese waving him over. Sloan was nowhere in sight, which was the first thing Lennox commented on when he reached her.

“Where’s your shadow?”

“He drove out to the farm to help Scott and Anna. One of our goats is sick.”

“Shit. Something serious? Can he infect the other animals?”

“I don’t think so, but we quarantined her just in case. It’s a she – Scott thinks she might be pregnant.” Reese made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Anyway, I needed to talk to you.”

Lennox nodded. “What’s up?”

“In private,” she added, her gaze drifting to the group behind him.

“All right, then. Lead the way.”

He caught Jamie’s eye as he followed Reese down the sidewalk. When he noticed a frown appear on Jamie’s mouth, he gave her a reassuring look and continued after the Foxworth leader. It wasn’t until they were halfway to Reese’s building that something occurred to him. That maybe Jamie hadn’t been displeased about the conversation he and Reese were going to have, but about something else entirely…

But no, she wouldn’t be jealous, would she? He didn’t plan on screwing Reese, for fuck’s sake. And even if he did, Jamie had seen him with other women before. He’d seen her with other men. Hell, they’d hooked up with Beckett in the library.

Except… he suddenly envisioned Jamie going off with another man – and not inviting
him
– and a streak of jealousy burned a path up his spine.

Shit. Maybe their days of threesomes were in the past. Well, unless he figured out a way to share her without chopping off the fingers of any man who touched her.

He shelved the troubling thoughts as he entered Reese’s living quarters. She bypassed the bedrooms and led him into a small office tucked off the main room. There were long desks spanning three of the walls, the wooden desktops laden with laptops and stacks of paper.

Lennox spotted the satellite phone Connor had given her sitting on top of a tall filing cabinet. Xander had managed to hack into the city’s satellite system in order to make the phones operational, and Lennox couldn’t deny they were major assets. With so much distance between certain outlaw groups, keeping in touch had always required making long treks to deliver messages, and often getting there too late to deliver the news. His parents had told him that about a decade after the war, someone had tried reestablishing a postal system as a way to send letters and communicate, but it had been too dangerous out on the road for the postmen. Most of the time they were captured by Enforcers before they reached their destinations.

“Okay, so fill me in. What’s going on?” He glanced at the maps and papers littering the office, but saw nothing that shed light on what Reese could want from him.

“Before we start, I need your word that this stays between us,” she said sternly.

“Done.”

“I mean it, Len. You can’t discuss this with anyone. Not Jamie, not Beck. No one.”

He was even more intrigued. But he already had an inkling of what Reese was going to tell him, and if it was what he thought it was, then he didn’t want Jamie involved anyway. Not yet, at least.

“It stays between us,” he promised.

Reese nodded. She unclipped the key ring on her belt and knelt down to unlock one of the cabinets. As the drawer slid open, she stuck her hand inside and extracted a thick roll of paper. She didn’t say a word as she pulled the elastic band off the long roll and slowly spread the sheets out on the desk.

Lennox came up beside her and studied the sheets. They had the consistency of tissue paper rather than heavier stock, and the blue lines neatly printed on the white background were beginning to fade.

“I see,” he said.

“That’s it? No other reaction?”

A smile tugged on his mouth. “It’s not much of a shock, love. In fact, I was wondering when you were finally going to bring me into the loop.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You knew? How?”

Lennox shrugged. “Garrett paid a visit to the old place about six months ago. He may have let something slip.”

Reese’s expression went cloudy. “For fuck’s sake. That damn man can’t keep his mouth shut when he’s drinking. I hope he didn’t announce it to the whole house.”

“Nah, it was just me and him.” He chuckled. “And yes, he was drunk.”

Reese pursed her lips. “I might need to rethink how much responsibility I’m willing to give him.”

Lennox leaned on the edge of the desk and searched her face. “So I guess that means you’ve already hit up the other camps? Brynn? Mick?”

She nodded. “Vaughn too. Oh, and Tam, of course. They’re all on board.”

“This is a dangerous plan you’re setting in motion.” He glanced at the papers on the desk, battling an uneasy feeling. “Very dangerous.”

“It needs to be done.”

Her tone was deadly. Hell,
she
was deadly. Lennox had heard the rumors about what had happened to Foxworth’s last leader. And if they were true, then that meant Reese, with the help of Sloan, had murdered a man in cold blood in order to steal the leadership from him.

Lennox had never asked her about it, though. Truthfully the answer didn’t matter. Reese was in a position of authority now; how she’d gotten it was inconsequential to him. He trusted her regardless.

He sensed her shrewd brown eyes boring into his face. “You know what I want from you, Len. Are you going to give it to me?”

He turned to look at her again, but he didn’t respond right away. He’d survived this long because he didn’t make rash decisions. Because he avoided
exactly
these kinds of risky situations.

“I don’t know,” he finally said.

Her nostrils flared. Clearly that wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. “Yes or no, Lennox.”

He laughed. “Do you require an answer right this second? Because if those are my only two options, then it’s a no. But if you’re willing to wait and let me think this through, you might get a different answer.”

Although she didn’t look happy with that, she was smart enough to know when to back off. “Fine,” she relented. “Take some time to think about it.”

“When do you plan on going forward?”

“After Rylan and the others go back to Connor.”

“And you’re not approaching Con with this?” That surprised him. Connor was ruthless, and definitely a man you wanted in your corner.

“Not yet.” Reese gestured to the papers on the desk. “I want to see how this goes first.”

“Gotcha.” He gave a brisk nod. “We done here?”

“Yeah,” she said, scowling deeply.

Lennox leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Ah, don’t get all grumpy on me, Reese. It’s not a no, okay? But if you push me, it will be.”

He left her to chew on that, and when he emerged from the building a minute later, he was startled to find Jamie waiting on the stoop. The uneasiness returned, but he tried to hide it by flashing a lazy grin.

“Hey, love. Should we get some dinner?” He took off walking before she could object.

Jamie hurried after him, her combat boots thudding against the sidewalk. “Lennox.”

He spared her a quick look. “Hopefully Graham will fix us up some burgers. Soon our days of eating beef will be a thing of the past.”

“Lennox.”
 

Her severe tone made him stop. Smothering a curse, he reluctantly shifted around to meet her aggravated gaze. “Yeah?”

“What did Reese want?” she demanded.

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit. What did she want?”

The lie flowed smoothly from his lips. “We were brainstorming how we can get our hands on more sat phones. Reese thinks they could be useful to keep in touch with some of the other camp leaders. Like Brynn – it’s a bitch to send any messages to the coast with all the flooding there.”

Jamie planted one hand on her hip and stared at him for several eerily silent seconds, until he was valiantly fighting not to fidget. He succeeded in keeping still, but not in erasing the suspicion from Jamie’s eyes. The woman knew him too well.

“You’re lying to me.” She inched closer. Slowly, menacingly. “What did Reese want?”

Lennox managed to swallow his groan. The sigh, he couldn’t contain. It shuddered out in a long, tired breath. “It’s better if you don’t know.”

He wasn’t surprised when a flare of anger lit up her eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

“I mean it, love. It’s for your own protection.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What the hell are the two of you planning?”

“Nothing.”

“Bull—”

“I’m not bullshitting you,” Lennox interjected. “At the moment, I’m not involved in any plan. But Reese gave me some things to think about, all right?”

“No,
not
all right. You can’t keep me in the dark. If you have something to think about, we can think about it together.”

“Reese asked me not to tell you.” The statement was supposed to be a last-ditch attempt to get her to back off, but ooooh, shit, did it backfire on him.

Big-time.

Disbelief and fury formed a lethal cocktail that burned so bright in Jamie’s eyes he felt the volatile heat singeing the air. She didn’t speak for a moment. Then she opened her mouth and addressed him in the coldest voice he’d ever heard from her. “Reese asked you to keep a secret from me.” Her jaw twitched. “And you agreed.”

“Because it’s not something you need to be involved in right now,” he protested. “Let me wrap my head around it first and I’ll —”

Her palm struck his cheek before he could finish that sentence.

Lennox’s head flew back, not just from the blow, but from astonishment. He didn’t need more than one finger to count the number of times Jamie had hit him in anger. They were teenagers the only other time it happened. He’d beat up one of her boyfriends for bragging about her to the other boys, and afterward she’d slapped him hard enough to leave a bruise and ordered him to stop interfering in her love life. Christ, she’d been spitting mad back then.

And she was spitting mad now. He bore the proof of that on his cheek, which was still stinging.

“What happened to everything you said after the library?” Her accusatory gaze cut into him. “You promised that we were a team,
partners
, and now you’re keeping secrets from me?”

He felt powerless again. “I don’t want you involved, damn it. The less you know, the safer you’ll be. Fuck, Jamie, you know what the Enforcers do to make people talk. I’m just trying to protect you if shit goes south.”

“I don’t need you to patronize me, Lennox. And I don’t see you trying to protect Reese, do I?” Her bitterness poisoned the air between them. “What,
she’s
strong enough to handle this big secret of yours? What if
she
gets captured? You think Reese won’t talk, but
I
will? Why? Because I’m weaker than her? Because you trust her more?”

Oh, shit. He hadn’t even considered how belittling it was to imply – unintentionally – that Reese was more capable than Jamie.

Fucking hell. He’d messed up again. Even worse this time.

As remorse clung to his throat, he opened his mouth, ready to tell her everything Reese was up to. But Jamie didn’t give him the chance.

She was too busy storming away.

Secrets.

He was keeping
secrets
from her now?

Jamie could barely see straight as she burst through the door of Beckett and Travis’s loft. She half expected Lennox to barrel in after her, but clearly he was smarter than he looked, because he’d chosen not to follow her.

Good. She didn’t want to talk to him. And she definitely didn’t need him showing up and offering to let her “punish” him again – no way would she be sucking his cock this time around. She’d bite the damn thing right off.

She’d thought they’d worked past all the bullshit, but evidently she’d been wrong. Here he was again, protecting her from… from what? What were he and Reese cooking up?

Hurt and indignation sliced into her. And jealousy, damn it. It made her want to scream that he could confide in
Reese
but not her. He’d never, ever chosen another woman over her before.

“Beck!” she called out. “I need you to calm me down!”

She desperately searched the room for Beckett, her closest friend aside from Lennox. Beckett had a warm, soothing energy about him. She needed that right now.

But the only person in the loft was Rylan, whom she didn’t even notice until he cleared his throat. She spun around in surprise and spotted him on the couch, balancing a glass of clear liquid on his jean-clad knee.

His lips quirked when their gazes met. “Beck and Trav are in the garage. But why don’t you come over here and sit down, gorgeous? Let’s see if I can calm you down.”

Weary, she joined him on the couch but sat all the way on the other end from him. She wasn’t in the mood to be hit on by Rylan right now. Which was ironic, because she’d been infatuated with him up until three weeks ago. But his perfect face and strong body weren’t doing it for her anymore, not since the night he’d deserted her in the rec hall. The night she’d slept with Lennox…

It suddenly dawned on her that it wasn’t just Rylan who didn’t hold her interest anymore. It was everyone. Travis, Kade, Beckett… Sure, Beck had been there in the library, but so had Lennox. Jamie was startled to realize that if Lennox hadn’t been present, she probably wouldn’t have let Beckett touch her.