Addicted (Outlaws Book 2) Read Free Page B

in West City lived a good life for the most part. Everyone was assigned a job suited to his or her skills. They were given clean, spacious accommodations. They ate well-rounded meals in the dining halls and had lots of free time to socialize and roam the city.
    For the majority of citizens, all those perks were appealing enough to allow them to overlook the truth – that they were living in an oppressive environment, wrapped up in a pretty package under the guise of freedom.
    Jamie’s parents had reminded her of that each time she cried about abandoning camp, and it was a reminder she clung to whenever life got too hard. The citizens
weren’t
free. How could they consider themselves free when they were unable to leave the city gates without written permission and an Enforcer escort? When marriages needed to be approved by the council, or outright arranged if a citizen remained unmarried by the age of thirty-five? When girls were sterilized when they reached childbearing age, except for those chosen to breed?
    Thinking about the breeding laws always resulted in sending a chill up Jamie’s spine. She couldn’t stomach the notion of being sterilized against her will. Having the right to bear a child stolen away from her… that alone was enough to make her want to burn West City to the ground.
    “But… why not?”
    Jamie snapped out of her thoughts. “Why not what?”
    “Why aren’t you sleeping together?” Hudson repeated.
    “Because we’re friends.”
    “So? Rylan is my friend, and I sleep with
him
.”
    The remark wasn’t meant to be hurtful, but Jamie couldn’t fight the pang of resentment it evoked. It was no secret that Connor and Hudson fooled around with Rylan sometimes. And although Jamie knew it shouldn’t make her jealous, it did, damn it.
    From the moment she’d met the sexy blond outlaw, she’d come to think of him as
hers
. Which probably wasn’t fair to Rylan or the women he slept with, but Jamie’s heart was as stubborn as the rest of her.
    It also didn’t help that Hudson was drop-dead gorgeous
and
had landed one of the sexiest men in the colony. Jamie couldn’t deny she’d fantasized a time or two about Connor’s intense eyes and rock-hard body, but at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to hate Hudson. The woman was fun to be around, and she’d been nothing but kind to Jamie since they’d met.
    Still, sometimes Jamie wanted to shake her by the shoulders and say
share the wealth, girl.
    “Lennox and I aren’t like that,” she said absently. “We never have been.”
    “Never?” Hudson looked doubtful. “Haven’t you known each other for years?”
    “Since we were kids. Our parents were friends, and Len and I grew up together in an army camp.”
    “Wait – was the People’s Army still around at that point?”
    “No, it was officially disbanded five years after the war. But unofficially it was around for years after that. Even now there are groups who still keep trying to drum up support for a new People’s Army.”
    “I hope they get it.”
    Jamie couldn’t hide her surprise. “You realize that could mean another revolution against the council? Which means your brother might get caught in the cross fire.”
    “Not if he leaves the city first.” Determination lit Hudson’s gray eyes. “I’m working on making that happen.”
    This time, Jamie made an effort to mask her reaction. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that Hudson’s twin brother, Dominik, was the head Enforcer of West Colony. Dominik and his men had been feared and vilified by outlaws for as long as Jamie could remember. They were known to be ruthless sons of bitches, and they’d only gotten worse over the past couple of years.
    According to Jamie’s parents, when the Enforcer unit had been formed after the war, the initial goals had been to protect the citizens, police the Colonies, and round up outlaws. The Surrender Law had been put into effect, which meant that outlaws were