JARED: The Justice Brothers Series Read Free Page A

scooped her up in his arms and deposited her on top of a knee high stump. Dropping to a crouch in front of her, he said, “Right or left, rookie?”
    Closing her eyes but not quickly enough to keep a tear from escaping, Hailey whispered, “The…the right one.”
    Jared studied her for a long minute through narrowed eyes, then reached for her foot.
    “Okay, Sugar, let’s see what we’ve got.”
    Even before he got her boot off, her anguished wail confirmed that the little rookie had sustained at least a sprained ankle, and from the looks of the way it was swelling over the top of her boot, it was a bad one. Carefully removing the stiff boot, Jared was shocked to see that Hailey’s ankle was swollen at least three times bigger than it should be and already mottled with ugly bruises. Gently exploring the taut skin with his expert fingers, he turned to his brother and telegraphed his conclusion with a nonchalance he was far from feeling.
    “Hey, Bro, seems our little Valley Girl has a bitchin’ sprained ankle. How about you make yourself useful and rustle up some of those cold rocks from the lakeshore and a passel of damp leaves to wrap them in.”
    Meeting Hailey’s teary gaze and pale, strained expression, Jared did his best to tamp down his rising anger at himself. Holy fuck, he couldn’t begin to imagine how much pain she had been suffering. And he and Jake—make that especially him—had been taunting her about her incompetence in the unfamiliar woods. Christ, he wasn’t sure how he could feel like any more of an insensitive asshole. Fighting to keep from projecting his anger onto her, he asked in as calm a voice as he could muster, “Gotta ask, rookie. Any reason you didn’t tell me, or your commander, if you weren’t speaking to me, that you were in a shitload of pain? Holy hell, Sweetheart, my ankle throbs just looking at this.”
    When she shook her head and didn’t answer, Jared carefully secured her trouser leg above her knee, and then elevated her foot on a nearby stump. Taking handfuls of the cold wet leaves that Jake piled beside them, Jared shrouded Hailey’s ankle in nature’s version of an ice pack. Stripping off his jacket, he hauled his long sleeved t-shirt over his head, ignoring the damp cold that hit his bare chest. Ripping the t-shirt into long strips, he chuckled at Hailey’s wide-eyed expression as he shrugged his jacket back on over his naked torso. Acknowledging her surprise, he said with a cocky grin, “You’d be amazed sweetheart, the practical wisdom you acquire when you’re raised in the boonies. These woods have taught my brothers and me more about surviving and thriving than we learned in six years of college plus another six in the military.”
    Hoping that his explanation didn’t make her feel more inadequate than his earlier taunts had, Jared focused on bandaging her wounded ankle. With the improvised bindings he’d made from his shirt, he wrapped her swollen foot as tightly as he could to reduce the swelling without stopping the circulation. With the last of the t-shirt strips, to further support her ankle he splinted it between two branches that Jake had whittled to size with his K-Bar. As he ministered to her, Jared kept a careful eye on Hailey’s physical and emotional reactions, knowing from her stoic responses that her searing pain had to be taking a toll. Sharing a glance with his brother confirmed that they both knew the little rookie was close to losing it. To shock, if not to pain.
    Rising to his feet, he held up his hand to stop Jake when his older brother reached down to pick up his wounded officer.
    Shaking his head, Jared said, “Not so fast, Bro. You’re the big bad commander here. You lead the way. I’ll pull up the rear and be the packhorse transporting this delectable cargo.”
    Jake frowned, then seeing that Jared wouldn’t be deterred, nodded in agreement.
    Jared squatted beside Hailey and stroked her porcelain cheek, trying to ignore the pain