“We start on moving targets tomorrow,” she told Bethany, “so my team might be able to take the lead. I took Sara and Tina to the old high school yesterday and you should’ve seen them. I was tossing bottles in the air and they were shooting them right out of the sky.”
“Wow, you actually lured Tina out of her room? I’m pretty sure that might be considered a miracle.”
Jamie thought about the quiet girl, and smiled. “She’s super shy, huh?”
“Not shy. Cautious.” Bethany’s expression became grave. “She lost both her parents a few years ago. Sloan and Arch found her wandering alone in the woods, but she refused to tell them what happened to her. Actually, she refused to speak, period. For two whole days. At one point they thought she might not know how to talk.”
“But she eventually told them?”
The woman nodded. “Arch wore her down with jokes and gentleness, and Tina told him everything. Turns out her entire camp had turned against her folks. They were the leaders, and people were unhappy with some of their choices, so they killed them. Shot them both in the head right in front of Tina.”
Jamie cursed. “God.”
“She’s been here for two years, but I honestly don’t think she trusts a single one of us. I think she’s scared we’ll turn on her the way everyone turned on her parents.”
A deep crack formed in Jamie’s heart. There was so much mistrust in the free land, so much violence. And the threats didn’t just come from the Global Council, but from each other.
There were still times when she wondered what it would be like to live in West City. Having unrestricted access to food and shelter. Enforcers patrolling the streets to keep everyone safe. Sure, citizens were forced to stay behind the city walls, but maybe that wasn’t too high a price to pay. At least they were safe there.
They’re not safe.
Her delusional train of thought was instantly derailed. Of course the city wasn’t safe. If it were, then people like Kade and Hudson wouldn’t be escaping it.
“I’m glad the kids are having fun,” Bethany admitted. “The mood around here was kind of bleak before you guys showed up. Everyone was so paranoid that the Enforcers would come back and try to take some of the girls.”
“Reese would never let that happen.” Jamie set the plate on the drying rack and reached for another.
“Neither would Arch. That man would die before letting one of our girls become an Enforcer sex slave. He’s insanely protective of everyone here.”
Jamie went quiet, her mind drifting back to the night at the library. It had been a week since her fight with Lennox. The sex afterward had been hot as hell, and he’d been extra sweet to her since then, but she still couldn’t shake her uneasiness. How would he react if they ran into trouble again? Would he yell at her again? Bark orders at her again? Make her feel like the biggest idiot on the planet again? Or would he be able to control his fear and overprotective instincts?
“Does Arch ever tell you what to do?” she asked slowly.
Bethany snorted. “All the damn time.”
“I’m sure.” Jamie gave a strained laugh. “I mean it in a different way, though. Like . . .” She bit her lip and dropped her gaze to the soapy water in the sink. “Does he ever treat you like he’s better than you?”
“Better than me?”
“Maybe better isn’t the right word. Smarter, I guess. Stronger. More capable.” She awkwardly met the other woman’s eyes.
“Why? Is that how Lennox treats you?” Bethany demanded.
“No.” Jamie was quick to defend him, which was ironic, considering that she’d raised the issue. “I mean, not usually. But he did last week. We got into a huge fight about it.”
“He’s always been overprotective when it comes to you,” Bethany pointed out.
“I know, but this was different. He acted like he owned me. Like his word was law. Like he was going to bend me over his knee and spank me like a child for not following his orders.” She tamped down her rising anger. “It was . . . demeaning.”
Bethany clearly didn’t like that. At all. “I’m going to kick his ass,” she hissed out.
Jamie laughed. “No ass-kicking necessary. We worked it out. I mean, at least I think we did.” Another confession slipped out. “But the way he acted that night really upset me. I didn’t like it.”
“I don’t blame you.” Bethany ran a soothing hand over her protruding belly. “Arch is overprotective, sure. Even more so since he knocked me up. But we’re partners and always have been. Even when we disagree, or if I do something he doesn’t approve of, he still treats me with respect. He tells me why it pissed him off, I apologize, and we move past it.”
Jamie had thought that was how she and Lennox operated too, but the night at the library continued to haunt her.
“Being in love is so tricky sometimes,” Bethany added. “You need to learn to compromise. Accept each other’s flaws, be patient, respectful, all that crap.”
A flicker of fear skittered up Jamie’s spine at the words in love. She loved Lennox, deeply, but she refused to let herself fall in love with him. She was already having a tough time sticking to his stupid rule about putting up a barrier between naked times and friendship times. Introducing love to the fold would only complicate matters even more.
Except . . . well, the encounter with those bandits had happened after naked times. They should have been in friendship mode at that point, but Lennox hadn’t treated her like the best friend he’d known and trusted all his life. He’d acted like a king rebuking his lowly subject.
Crap. Reese had been right. Sex did screw everything up. She and Lennox had never fought like that before they started sleeping together.
Things were changing between them.
And Jamie had no idea how to stop it.
* * *
Lennox entered the garage to find Jamie’s gorgeous ass sticking up in the air. Bent over the raised hood of a beat-up Mustang, she was wearing a short blue dress and white sneakers, and her legs were bare, drawing his gaze to her right calf. The L hidden among the flowers tattooed to her skin evoked a rush of male pride.
He liked seeing his initial on her flesh. Her initial was on his arm, but it went so much deeper than the ink. This woman was inside him. Always had been.
“Oh yeah, stay in that position, love. Just. Like. That.” Lennox whistled in appreciation as he came up behind her.
Her spine straightened at the sound of his voice, and then her head flew up and smacked into the metal hood. “Ouch!” She rubbed her forehead and turned to glare at him.
Lennox sighed. “I told you to stay like that.”
“You creeped up behind me! It’s a natural reflex to go on the defense.”
She had a point. She also had a smudge of grease on her chin, which made him smile. This was the first chance he’d had to see her today. He’d been at the farm with Arch and Scott, the man who ran the property for Reese.
Before he’d left this morning, Jamie mentioned she planned on helping Bethany in the restaurant, but she hadn’t been there when he popped in. He’d finally tracked her down to Beckett’s garage, though he wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing messing with Beck’s cars.
He gestured to the engine. “Why are you poking around in there?” Jamie had zero knowledge about fixing cars, and they both knew it.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Ha. Now I’m even more curious. What’s up?”
She half sighed, half grumbled. “I was keeping Beck company while he worked on this piece of junk, but it got boring pretty fast, so I was wandering around looking at stuff. And then I accidentally knocked a wrench in here.” She pointed an accusing finger at the engine. “Beck said it was my responsibility to fish it out. Apparently that’s my punishment for ruining his precious engine. And then he left to get a drink with Travis. Asshole.?
??
Lennox snickered. “Can you see the wrench?” He leaned closer and peered under the hood.
“Yes.” Her tone was laced with frustration. “It’s right there.” She picked up a penlight and flashed it at a spot behind the fan belt. “It’s stuck between that thingy and the other thingy.”
He choked down a laugh. “Huh. Glad to see you’re finally picking up the correct terminology for the makeup of a car engine.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s really stuck in there, Len. I can’t get it out.”
He decided to take pity on her, grabbing the light from her hand and bending over the engine. By the time his hand emerged with the metal tool, his fingers were covered in grease.
Jamie threw her arms around him after he’d tossed her the wrench. “Don’t tell Beckett it was you,” she ordered. “Otherwise he’ll probably throw it back in and make me get it myself.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
They walked over to the barrel on the other side of the cluttered garage, where they washed their hands in comfortable silence.
Lennox was so relieved that things were back to normal between them. This past week had been pretty damn good—lots of hot sex and not a trace of the anger or bitterness that had plagued them after the library excursion. He had his Jamie back, the one who gazed at him like he mattered most in the world to her, rather than the one who’d glared daggers at him after he’d reprimanded her like she was a toddler.
Fuck, he still felt like an ass for doing that. He didn’t quite understand it, but his need to protect this woman, to keep her safe, was even greater now. She’d slept in his arms every night this week, and Lennox had often found himself waking up in a panic. Watching her sleep, stroking her hair, making sure she was still breathing.
It made no sense to him, why he was so terrified of something bad happening to her. He wondered if he would’ve felt the same bone-deep terror if he’d stuck around for more than a few nights with the other women he’d been with. But sticking around wasn’t his forte. He’d never let himself get too close to any of the women in his bed. He’d never allowed himself to reach that point where he cared too deeply about them.
His heart inexplicably raced as he watched Jamie dry her hands. They were so small and delicate. He’d seen them shoot a gun with deadly precision. He’d seen them beat the shit out of people. But they were so fucking small, damn it.
Gulping hard, he wrapped his arms around her from behind and pressed his cheek to her shoulder.
Her body instantly softened against him. “What’s wrong?”
She knew him so well. “Nothing,” he lied, then cleared his throat. “You just look so sexy right now.” Before he could stop them, his hands slipped under her dress.
Jamie laughed but didn’t push him away. “Interesting. I didn’t realize grease and car exhaust turned you on.”
“You turn me on.” He nuzzled her neck as he nudged her forward until she was bending over the hood of a nearby pickup truck.
Lifting up her dress, he skimmed his palms over the sweet curve of her ass. Jesus, his groin fit perfectly against her firm cheeks, as if it had been designed to nestle there.
“Lennox . . .” She moaned his name when he squeezed her buttocks, and a surge of satisfaction injected into his blood.
He was reaching for his belt buckle when heavy footsteps echoed beyond the open metal door. Jamie hastily straightened up and shoved her skirt down. Lennox’s hands dropped to his sides.
He instantly recognized the man who burst into the garage—Gideon, Sara’s father. Though the man didn’t look at all old enough to be the father of a sixteen-year-old. Despite the faint streaks of silver in his jet-black hair, he couldn’t have been older than thirty-five.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” the man snapped at Lennox. He didn’t even glance at Jamie, who’d flinched at his sharp tone.
Lennox donned a lazy pose. “What can I do for you, Gideon?”
“You want to know what you can do for me?” Hostility lined Gideon’s heavy steps as he advanced on them. “Keep that kid away from my daughter!”
Lennox and Jamie exchanged a look. “What kid?” he asked warily.
“Randy! Boy’s been sniffing around Sara ever since you and Connor’s people showed up here. He never spoke a damn word to her before, and now he’s all over her,” Gideon fumed. “I’ve seen the two of you talking—I know you had something to do with this.”
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 wrappin
g 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.
17
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.