Addicted (Outlaws Book 2) (14 page)

They found him in the world history section. Beckett unzipped the large canvas bag while Lennox began pulling out books and tossing them over.

Nearly thirty tomes had made it into the bag before Beckett looked at Jamie and asked, “Is he always this intense? I didn’t realize he had such a hard-on for textbooks.”

An indulgent smile lifted her mouth. Of all the kids in their childhood camp, Lennox was the one who’d been the most captivated by the history lessons. Far more interested than she’d been, though she’d attended each lesson just to be near him.

“Learning gives him a boner,” she said frankly.

Lennox overheard that and chuckled, but didn’t slow down his quest. They hit the geography aisle next, where he relieved the shelves of several heavy atlases while Jamie ducked into the neighboring aisle and perused the medicine books there. She knew Hudson had worked as a nurse in the city, so she grabbed a few titles she thought might interest the woman. Then she stumbled on an even luckier find – a book full of home remedies, and one about the healing attributes of plants that grew in the Colorado area.

She promptly threw them in the bag, which was getting heavier by the minute.

Jamie tracked Lennox down to the language section. “I think you have enough.”

“A few more,” he said absently.

Her flashlight illuminated the hard cut of his jaw, which was covered in dark beard growth because he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. His stubble had scratched her thighs this morning when he woke her up by burying his face between her legs. The naughty memory made her body ache.

Before she could stop herself, she wrapped both arms around him from behind, then slid her hands down to his groin. The book he’d been inspecting was all but forgotten. Groaning softly, Lennox eased his hips forward, and she could feel him hardening beneath her palms.

God, she couldn’t think straight with his tight ass pressed against her and his lemony scent infusing her senses. When she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his neck, he groaned again and thrust his growing erection into her hands.

“Guys, listen to this.”

They broke apart when Beckett appeared with a paperback novel in his hand. He had his flashlight pointed to one of the pages and he sounded gleeful as he began to read. “‘You want more of this big cock, you dirty little slut?’”
Beckett raised his voice to a higher pitch.
“Gina moaned in delight. ‘Yes. God yes. Please, Drake, give it to me. I’ve been such a bad girl.’”

Jamie snorted, while Lennox let out a soft whistle. “Damn,” he remarked. “No wonder the council monitors everything that’s being published these days. That’s some raunchy shit.”

“What’s it called?” Jamie asked curiously.

“On Her Knees
.
”
Beckett barked out a laugh, then flipped some more pages and stopped on another passage. “‘That’s it, you dirty little slut, swallow every last drop.’” He glanced pensively at Jamie. “Again with the ‘dirty little slut.’ Should I be calling women that when I’m in bed with them?”

“Only if you want your balls chopped off.”

“What’s the matter, love?” Lennox pulled her toward him. “It doesn’t turn you on?”

“Nope.”

“Really? But what if we want you to be our dirty little slut?”

Beckett moved up behind her, and suddenly she was sandwiched between the two men. “Or how about we’ll be the dirty sluts?” he suggested, his breath hot on her ear. Then he drew the lobe in his mouth and sucked.

Heat sizzled down to her core. With Lennox’s erection pressing in her stomach and Beckett’s rubbing against her ass, she was trapped between two walls of pure masculinity, and loving every second of it.

“Does that mean I get to be in charge?” she asked.

Lennox chuckled. “You’re always in charge. We both know that.”

Beckett kneaded her ass cheeks. Lennox undid the button of her jeans. Both men clicked off their flashlights, and then hers was yanked out of her hand and turned off too. Darkness surrounded them. No windows on this side of the library, which meant no moonlight, just pitch-black. But there was something insanely erotic about not being able to see them.

“What do you say, Beck? Should we show her how dirty we can be?” Lennox’s deep voice echoed in the aisle.

Beckett was already working her jeans and panties down her hips. “Shoes,” he murmured.

She kicked off her sneakers. A second later she was naked from the waist down and Beckett was on his knees behind her, nuzzling her ass with his cheek.

She heard a rustle of movement. The heat of Lennox’s body disappeared. He was sinking to his knees too.

“Spread,” he whispered.

Jamie parted her thighs and jerked when a hot, rough tongue rasped over her clit. Beckett’s teeth sank into her ass at the same time, and the prick of pain combined with the jolt of pleasure triggered a helpless moan.

Holy hell.

No, not hell.
Heaven
. With Beckett nibbling on her tender flesh and Lennox flicking his tongue on her clit, moving it around in teasing circles, she was in absolute heaven. One long finger slid down her crease toward her pussy, and pleasure shot through her when Beckett pushed that finger inside her. There was nothing more exhilarating than having two men completely dedicated to
her
pleasure.

“You taste so sweet,” Lennox muttered. “I could eat you for days, baby.”

He wrapped his lips around her clit and sucked. Beckett added another finger and thrust deep.

Jamie’s mind grew foggy, her entire being focused on the pulsing between her legs. She whimpered, rocking her hips against Lennox’s face while at the same time trying to push back against Beckett’s probing fingers.

“Good, love?” Lennox mumbled.

“So good,” she mumbled in response.

He peppered kisses on her thighs, her stomach, her hips, before licking his way back to her core. She couldn’t see a damn thing. All she could do was feel. Each stroke of Lennox’s tongue. Each thrust of Beckett’s fingers.

When she suddenly felt a warm tongue between her ass cheeks, she jerked hard against Lennox’s mouth.

He lifted his head with a laugh. “Whatcha doing back there, Beck?”

Beckett gave an answering chuckle. “Just having some fun.”

Jamie’s pulse careened when he resumed tormenting her ass, his tongue touching that puckered ring of muscle. Holy shit. She was going to self-combust. The nerve endings were so sensitive there. Her body was on sensation overload.

As Lennox continued to tend to her clit, Beckett’s fingers slid back into her pussy while his tongue penetrated another erotic zone, spearing her hard.

The orgasm started in her fingers and toes. Tingling wildly, dancing along her skin, then igniting in a shock of pleasure between her legs before shooting outward again. She moaned as the waves cascaded through her. It was so damn intense, and the two men rode it out with her, the hungry noises they were making intensifying the rush, prolonging the climax until she was a droopy, whimpering mess.

By the time she recovered, they were both laughing, husky sounds laced with pure male satisfaction.

She heard another rustling, a click, and then light hit her eyes, nearly blinding her.

“I think she enjoyed that,” Lennox told Beckett.

The other man brought his wet fingers to his mouth and sucked them dry.

Jamie was still shaking as she bent over to retrieve her flashlight. She switched it on and swept the light over their groins. They were both visibly hard.

“My turn to return the favor?” she teased.

To her surprise, Lennox shook his head. “That’ll have to wait until we get back to camp. We’ve already been here too long – we need to get going.”

She knew her disappointment showed in her eyes, but Lennox remained firm. He picked up her discarded pants and handed them over. “Get dressed, love.”

She obeyed, because arguing with him always got her nowhere.

They were just walking into the lobby when Beckett’s flashlight caught something in the hallway behind the main desk. Something that brought excitement to both men’s voices.

A fully stocked vending machine.

“Holy shit!”

“Fuck yeah!”

Her sexual tormenters had turned into little boys, racing over to the machine and pointing their flashlights at the glass to peer happily at the candy behind it.

“How has this thing not been cleaned out already?” Jamie wondered aloud.

“I guess nobody cared enough about reading good books to come to the library,” Lennox replied with a snort. “Beck, you got something we can use to break this glass?”

“Just my gun.”

“No. I don’t want it firing by accident. Track something else down.”

As Beck disappeared down the hallway, Jamie heaved the duffel bag over one shoulder. “I’ll take this down to the car and dump the books so we can fill it with your loot.”

“Thanks.” Lennox was staring longingly at the chocolate bars in the machine.

Laughing to herself, Jamie hurried out to the Jeep. She emptied the bag and left the books in the backseat, then popped back into the library, where she discovered Beckett wielding a huge ax with a bright red handle. He must have found it in one of those break-in-case-of-emergency glass cabinets, because there was also a fire extinguisher sitting at his feet. She instantly picked it up – the extinguisher could be useful for Graham’s kitchen.

“I’m taking this to the car,” she said as the men prepared to break the glass. “I’ll wait out there for you.”

That got Lennox’s attention. His head turned sharply in her direction. “Stay in the Jeep, love. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I mean it. Stay put, stay alert, and keep your gun out.”

She nodded, then went outside again and leaned against the passenger door of the Jeep.

Aside from the overgrown foliage, the area seemed to be untouched by the war. Jamie had been to towns where entire buildings were nothing but skeletons, where the bombs had turned sidewalks and roads into gaping, charred craters. The coastal cities were even scarier. Most were underwater, but she and Lennox had visited ones that had somehow managed to remain standing. Barely, anyway – half the time they’d had to drive in the opposite direction because the roads were now rivers, some as deep as ten feet.

But towns like these, which showed so few signs of the war… she could imagine actual civilization here. People driving their cars or walking to work. Mothers pushing baby strollers down the sidewalk. Friends chatting over coffee at an outdoor café.

Her gaze shifted to the row of white town houses across the street. Water damage had marred the exteriors and rusted the small second-floor balconies, but it was easy to imagine how the houses had looked all those decades ago. And with the neighborhood so quiet and untouched, it was easy to believe that some treasures might have been left behind in those houses.

Gun in hand, she moved away from the Jeep and crossed the street. She figured she had a few minutes to investigate at least one house, so she popped into the first one in the row. The front door was unlocked, and the interior smelled musty when she stepped inside.

Damn, the house was cute. The front hallway was small but it led to a spacious living area with a dining nook in the corner and a kitchen with dusty appliances. A brisk examination of the white cabinets revealed that someone had already raided the place for food.

The upstairs had been spared, she discovered a minute later. The medicine cabinets were empty, but the walk-in closet in the master bedroom was full of men’s suits and pretty dresses. One in particular caught Jamie’s eye, a short white dress with a gaping neckline and silky fabric that felt lovely between her fingers.

She tugged it off the hanger and tucked it into her shoulder bag, then wandered over to an oak dresser to rummage through the black velvet jewelry box atop it. She found a gorgeous pearl necklace and a diamond bracelet that sparkled under her flashlight. Both promptly went into her bag.

The raid took all of five minutes, and Jamie left the house through the patio door in the kitchen rather than the front entrance. It wouldn’t hurt to check if there were cans of gasoline or other useful supplies in the backyard.

But she realized her error the second she stepped outside. The yards behind the houses weren’t fenced off – it was one long stretch of overgrown grass.

She heard their voices before she saw them. Smelled the smoke before she registered the campfire.

The seven men gathered around the crackling orange flames swiveled their head in shock.

Almost immediately, the shock turned to suspicion. And then interest. Heated, undisguised interest.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.
 

She’d stumbled onto a camp of bandits.

“Well, lookee here,” one of the bandits drawled. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

Jamie’s gun snapped up, her pulse racing as the men rose to their feet.

Despite their various heights and builds, they all had one thing in common: they were garbage people, with tattered clothing, unkempt hair and beards, and greedy eyes. Instead of forming communities and trying to keep the peace, bandits operated on a
take
mentality. They stole from other outlaws. They raped their women. They killed without remorse.

Their existence had always made Jamie furious. There
had
to be some sort of rules in this world, some semblance of civility, some shred of humanity. But men like these were savages. They only cared about themselves. Their next meal, their survival, their cocks…

“Aw, put that gun down, sweetheart,” a man with a bushy red beard coaxed. He looked delighted to see her standing there. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“No,” another one agreed. When he flashed a smile, she noticed that three of his front teeth were missing. “We just want to be friends.”

“Don’t come any closer,” she hissed when two of them stepped toward her.

They didn’t listen. They kept approaching.

She clicked off the safety and cocked her gun. The pair of them froze, but they were still smiling.

“Do you even know how to shoot that thing, honey?” Red Beard asked with a chuckle.

“Damn right I do. And I’ll shoot your goddamn balls off if you come near me.”

She lowered her aim to his groin, carefully edging backward. Her heart was pounding even louder now, because there was no fear thickening the air. Not on their parts, anyway. They seemed entertained by the fact that she was pointing a gun at them. And the hunger in their expressions was unmistakable.

“Aaron,” she heard one of them murmur.

And then a bandit with a shaved head lunged forward.

Jamie didn’t hesitate. She whipped her gun toward him and fired a shot. The bullet hit him in the chest, and the stocky man hit the grass with an agonized shout.

All hell broke loose before the crack of the gunshot even faded away. Without glancing at their fallen comrade, the other men attacked like a swarm of angry hornets. Jamie fired again, but she couldn’t hit six men at once, damn it. She shot one in the shoulder and another one in the leg before the gun was wrenched out of her hand and she was falling to the ground.

A heavy body landed on top of her, two meaty hands going for her throat. She batted at her attacker with one fist while her other hand slid down to her waistband. “Get the
hell
off me!” she roared as she fumbled to unsheathe her knife. Fuck. Her fingers were slippery from fear and sweat.

Still pounding her fist against the man’s jaw, she managed to clasp the handle and pull the knife out. One upward slice and the blade was lodged in the side of the bandit’s neck. A wave of blood gushed out, soaking her face.

Spitting out the coppery drops, she rolled out from under the dead man, but the others were faster than her. In a heartbeat she was flat on her back again. Her knife was kicked away, and suddenly two men were pinning down her arms while a third straddled her thighs. It was Red Beard, wearing a feral expression, his spittle splashing her face as he growled at her. “You little
bitch
!”

Jamie spat right back at him. He reared in indignation, then crashed his fist into her jaw. She was momentarily stunned, black dots swimming in her vision and a woozy sensation fogging her brain. She fought to stay conscious. Fought the tight lock on her arms. But the men were too strong. And God, they reeked. Of booze, of sweat, of desperation.

“I get her next,” one of them muttered.

Red Beard reached for her waistband. She felt his hardness digging into her belly, and nausea bubbled in her throat when he rubbed his erection against her.

The lifeless body of the first man she’d shot was sprawled not even five feet away from them, but Red Beard and his pals didn’t seem to care. Which was a disgusting testament to the way these men lived. They didn’t give a shit about anyone but themselves. The lump on the grass might as well have been a tree or a bush, instead of their traveling companion.

Jamie battled a wave of panic when Red Beard unsnapped her jeans. His buddies were holding her down and no amount of struggling could release her from their iron grips.

Lennox
.

She clung to the certainty that Lennox and Beckett would be walking out of the library at any second. Jamie opened her mouth and started screaming. Loud, ear-piercing shrieks that would alert Lennox to her presence, but which quickly got her another sharp blow to the face.

“Shut the fuck up,” Red Beard snapped.

A hand clamped over her mouth – his friend’s dirty hand. The odor of grime and soot filled her nostrils, nearly causing her to vomit.

“I’m not even gonna make this good for you,” the man on top of her muttered as he tried to work her jeans down. “You lost that chance, honey. Now I’m gonna make it hurt. I’m gonna tear you open with my cock, you hear me? I’m gonna fuck you until you’re bleeding and bruised and —”

His head exploded.

Jamie screeched in horror as his head
literally exploded
. One second he had a face. Wild red eyes, a narrow forehead, a mouth that was moving. The next, he was nothing but a cloud of blood and brains that spattered all over her.

Suddenly she was free, but still too stunned to move. It was the sound of gunshots blasting in the air that sent her stumbling to her feet. She heard footsteps, then saw two more bodies hit the ground. Panicked yells came from the bandits, more footsteps, and a blur in her peripheral vision as a large body sprinted away.

She turned her head to see Lennox and Beckett racing toward her, guns drawn, eyes glittering ferociously. Relief swamped her body like a flash flood.

“Beck!” Lennox shouted.

The next thing she knew, Beckett was running after the two bandits who’d taken off in a breakneck run.

Jamie wiped her face with one shaky hand, but that just succeeded in smearing Red Beard’s blood into her mouth and eyes. Her hair was soaked with it, sticking to her forehead and neck.

She jerked when she felt a strong hand on her chin. “Jamie.
Jamie
.”

Lennox’s voice penetrated the fog. She blinked and registered his familiar gray eyes.

“Are you okay?” he demanded. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” she whispered.

“They didn’t hurt you?” His hands were running up and down her body now, checking her for injuries. He growled when he found that her jeans were undone.

She swallowed. “Tried to.”

Another growl rumbled in his throat, and then he was gone, marching toward the last surviving bandit. The man had been shot in the leg, and he was groaning wildly as he tried to crawl away.

Without a shred of hesitation, Lennox pointed his gun and fired. Jamie flinched as she watched another man’s head explode. Then she swept her distraught gaze over the grassy area. She saw the body of the man she’d killed, and three more bodies courtesy of Beckett and Lennox.

Hopefully Beckett would take care of the remaining two, but when she heard the roar of motorcycle engines and the screech of tires in the distance, her hopes plummeted.

Beckett returned less than a minute later, frustration darkening his eyes. “Fuckers took off,” he spat out. “They had their Harleys stashed at the side of the house.” He glanced at Lennox. “Should we go after them?”

Lennox cursed, then thought it over. “No. The cowards will be long gone before we even make it to the Jeep. They won’t show their faces back here.”

Jamie knew he was right. Bandits were opportunists, only stealing and pillaging when it was advantageous to them, when they were confident they could get away with it. Now that they knew there were outlaws in the area who were armed and well trained, they’d scurry away like the spineless rats they were.

“Were those the same ones who attacked Foxworth?” Lennox asked the other man.

Beckett shook his head. “Nah. Never seen these ones before.”

Lennox lowered his weapon and sneered at the bloody, motionless bodies on the grass. “Beck,” he said.

The man waited for him to continue.

“Go wait in the car.”

Beckett must have heard the same ominous note in Lennox’s voice that Jamie did, because he disappeared without another word.

Jamie swallowed the lump of fear that rose in her throat. Lennox’s eyes were blazing with red-hot fury. And it was directed at her.

“Len,” she started.

He silenced her with a harsh look. “Do you see what he did there?”

Confusion washed over her. “Who?”

“Beckett.” His features were drawn so tight his entire face was transformed. A hard, vicious mask that made her palms go damp. “I told him to wait in the car.” He slanted his head. “And you know what he’s going to do?”

Jamie gulped again.

“He’s going to
wait in the fucking car
!”

Before she could respond, he gripped her chin again and jerked her head upward so she was looking him in the eye.

“What the
hell
were you thinking going off by yourself?”

She was too weak to push him off her. She thought of the pretty white dress and the sparkling pearls and diamonds in her bag, and shame seeped into her bones. Lennox was right. She’d taken her quiet, peaceful surroundings for granted. She’d broken the first rule of outlaw life – allowing herself to believe there wasn’t any danger.

“I – I was raiding the house,” she stammered.

“You were raiding the house.” He echoed her in a monotone, but his gray eyes were as dark as thunderclouds, flashing with emotion. “You were raiding the house.”

“Lennox.” Annoyance climbed up her throat. She got it. She’d screwed up. But the two of them had gone on raids and supply runs hundreds of times before. They’d split up before, run into bandits countless of times, but he’d never reacted with this degree of anger.

Lennox went silent. His jaw ticked.

Then he lost it.

“You could have been killed! They were going to rape you, damn it!” His fingers tightened in her hair. “The next time I give you an order, you fucking obey me, you understand?”

“
Obey
you?” Her irritation morphed into a lightning bolt of anger that matched the one blazing in his eyes. “You are
not
in charge of my life, Lennox! I don’t follow your orders!”

“Like hell you don’t. The only reason you’re alive is because I’ve always been there to take care of you.”

Her jaw dropped. “That’s bullshit. We’re a team. We’ve always made decisions
together
. We give orders
together
. Or was I wrong about that? Has it been you this whole time?” She was spitting mad now. “
You’ve
been in charge and I’ve just been cowering behind you like a frightened two-year-old?”

“I told you to wait in the car!”

“And I chose to raid the house! That was
my
risk to take.”

“Was it worth it?” he snapped back. “Because those bastards would have
raped
you if Beck and I hadn’t shown up.”

His hands dropped to her shoulders, shaking her so violently that she slammed her palms on his broad chest and shoved him away. “I screwed up!” she burst out. “Okay? I didn’t clear the area before I went inside the house, and that’s on me. I fucking get that.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if you’d listened to me!”

“Well, I didn’t.” When he advanced on her, she gave him another hard shove. “What are you going to do about it, Len? Spank me? You’re not my father, and you don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“Maybe I should,” he hissed out. “Because clearly you’ve forgotten how to use your goddamn brain. Maybe you
need
someone telling you what to do if these are the kinds of stupid decisions you’re going to make.”

They were breathing hard, and with the dropping temperature she could see each puff of air that escaped their mouths. Lennox looked ready to murder her. She felt the same way, so close to throttling him that her hands were tingling. He’d never treated her this way before. Like a child. No, like an
imbecile
. He actually had the nerve to call her
stupid
? To stick out his big manly chest and act as if she couldn’t walk down the street without holding his hand?

God, Reese had been right. Things
were
changing. Lennox never would have dreamed of talking to her like this before.

And she didn’t fucking like it.

“You need to be careful about what you say next,” Jamie said, her voice deceptively soft. “Because I’m this close to strangling you right now, Lennox.”

“You want to strangle
me
?” Disbelief passed through his eyes. “Do you realize what it felt like to hear those gunshots? To run out here and find you on the ground with some sick fuck between your legs? Do you realize how close you came to dying?”

“Yes.” She clenched her teeth. “And I’m grateful that you and Beckett came along when you did —”

“You’re
grateful
?”

“— but that doesn’t give you the right to shout at me and call me stupid.”

“I didn’t call you stupid. I called your actions stupid.”

“Same thing.”

Silence fell over them as they stared at each other. Jamie took a breath, trying to calm her erratic heartbeat, to cool the hot rush of fury still boiling in her blood.

“We should go,” she muttered. “Beckett’s waiting.”

She stalked past him before he could make a snide remark about how
Beckett
knew the meaning of waiting when she clearly didn’t. God, she couldn’t even look at him. She knew she’d screwed up, but she hadn’t deserved his hurtful attack. She hadn’t fucking deserved it.

They were supposed to be equals. She’d thought they were, but he’d made her feel like a piece of dirt under his shoes. And right now she needed to get as far away from him as possible before she did or said something she would regret.

The drive back to Foxworth was riddled with tension. Beckett didn’t say a word, wisely understanding that something had gone down between them, and Jamie was grateful for his silence. She and Lennox hadn’t spoken either, but she knew he was still pissed off at her, because his mouth stayed locked in a tense line until the moment he drove through the town gates and parked the Jeep in the courtyard.