Jared clenched his hands into fists, knowing that if he spoke he would lose control.
Surveying the cave, he found a large vertical rock jutting up out of the floor, maybe three feet away. The body of it was almost rectangular and nearly straight up and down. He needed to put as much distance between him and Sparrow as possible right now. Jared dug into his duffel and pulled out a small coil of rappelling rope. Then he stood and yanked her over to the rock.
“What are you doing?”
“Need to make sure you don’t run away while I try to repair the damage you’ve done.”
“I won’t run away. Let me help you.”
The fury hit him again, and before he knew what he was doing, his hand was around her throat. From somewhere in a distance, he realized what he was doing and knew he should stop. Now. But his brother, the one person in the entire world that he loved, had been tortured unto the brink of death.
“You think I’d let you touch him? Look at him. Look what you’ve done.”
Sparrow made a choking sound.
“No, you’re not going anywhere.”
Jared forced his fingers loose and Sparrow dropped to her knees, gasping and grabbing at her throat. Uncaring of the pain he’d caused her, Jared yanked her up from the floor and pressed her to the rock, quickly winding rope around her entire body pinning her arms to the side. When he finished, rope banded from her chest to her waist, effectively locking her in place.
The red marks on her neck gave him a tinge of remorse, which only pissed him off more. How could he feel sympathy for her?
Because I want to believe she really didn’t do it.
“Can you keep quiet or do I have to gag you again?”
His question was met with silence.
Jared dropped to his knees beside his brother and ripped the field medical kit from his bag and laid it out beside him, surveying his brother’s face, chest, and abdomen. He decided to clean the deepest cuts first. One large one gaped open on his right pectoral and another down lower, close to his hip. The rest looked relatively shallow and had even started scabbing in places.
Jared grabbed the disinfectant and poured a little into the first wound. His brother jerked away, landing on his back, and then bowed up off the floor, screaming in agony. “Stop.”
“Hoyt, it’s me, Jared. I’m trying to help you.” A cold sweat broke across his brow, and his hands shook uncontrollably. He’d caused Hoyt pain, and he wasn’t through yet.
Hoyt moaned and made a pitiful attempt to ward Jared away. “Please, no more.” His voice was a moan, filled with desperation. Did Hoyt think Jared was his tormentor?
Grief such as Jared never imagined swept through him. All the long buried emotions rushed to the surface, bending him over under their weight. “I’ll make the pain stop. It will all be over soon.”
Jared opened the small box of morphine syringes and plucked one out. He leaned down, ready to plunge the needle into his brother’s thigh. Just as Jared pulled his hand back, Hoyt opened his good eye, locking Jared in place. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. And what Jared saw in his brother’s gaze scared him more than any of the cuts on his body. Hoyt’s gaze was empty.
Blank. Jared had seen that look before in shell-shocked soldiers on the battlefield. Some of them checked out and never checked back in, the experience of battle too much for their minds to bear.
“Hoyt?”
His brother gave no acknowledgment. Jared tried again. “Brother?”
Hoyt was an empty canvas. Jared reached for him, wanting to touch his shoulder, his arm, anything to make human contact and pull his brother back from the void. As soon as Jared’s hand made contact with Hoyt’s skin, he screamed and threw his hands out. The needle flew from Jared’s grip. Hoyt rolled onto his stomach, then got up onto his knees. The violent action sent fresh waves of blood pouring down his back.
“Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself.” Jared was on his feet, crouched and ready to dive to catch Hoyt when he fell.
“Just kill me!” Hoyt’s anguished roar boomed through the cave and ripped a hole in Jared’s chest. Hoyt staggered to his feet, wavering like a willow in a hurricane.
He was out of control and would do more harm if he didn’t settle. The needle was a few feet from Jared, and he lunged for it. Hoyt sensed his movements and dove, landing a weak blow to Jared’s jaw before hitting the ground.
“Stop moving!” Jared shouted in desperation.
Hoyt rolled to his side, groaning in pain. “Please, I’m begging you. Just finish it. No more. No more.”
Those anguished words ripped Jared’s soul apart, sending wave after wave of sharp pain through his chest. Still, he gripped the needle and approached his brother, regret making his feet drag. “I’ll make it stop, little brother.” Jared dropped to a knee and plunged the syringe in Hoyt’s flesh. Hoyt jerked and twitched, his movements like a fish out of water. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”
Regret tinged with acid boiled in Jared’s blood. He would never forgive himself. Hoyt stopped jerking, the morphine working its magic. When Hoyt’s head slumped to the floor, Jared picked him up and carried him back to the blanket, wondering all the while if Sparrow had been telling the truth. Had Hoyt’s blame at the cabin been from delirium?
He picked up the disinfectant and gently dabbed at his brother’s wounds, but his body felt like an empty shell, filled with nothing but despair. He watched himself work, cleaning and patching Hoyt’s chest. He watched the fresh blood slowly seep from his brother’s wounds.
Jared had never broken a vow in his entire life—he’d always prided himself on his word. But today he’d not only broken the promise he’d made to protect his brother, he’d shattered it to pieces.
14
Sparrow watched silently, holding in the urge to weep for the two brothers. She’d prayed Hoyt would stay unconscious through the cleaning, but he’d awoken and reopened his wounds. His pain was obvious.
But even worse was the agony on Jared’s face. Silent tears trailed from his midnight eyes, and she didn’t think he even realized he was crying. Her heart cried with him.
Jared tended to the smaller cuts first, then bandaged the two worst ones on his chest. After that, he carefully cleaned the slice on Hoyt’s face. At least Jimbo had cut that one clean, using a good blade. It should heal without too bad a scar. But when Jared rolled Hoyt over to tend to his back, the sight was brutal enough to wrest a grunt from her.
Jared whipped his head around and she prayed he would ignore her. She didn’t breath again until he turned his attention back to Hoyt.
His brother’s back was impossible to describe. It was as if someone had peeled small strips of it back like wallpaper off the wall. Only this was his flesh and blood. She gagged, unable to stop her bodily reaction to the gruesome sight.
Jared was in her face before he knew what he was doing. “How dare you fucking make a noise when you are responsible for this?”
Sparrow flinched back instinctively from the unfiltered rage and confusion on Jared’s face. She should have looked away before he rolled Hoyt over. After all, the last time she’d seen what Jimbo could do with that knife, it had given her nightmares for years.
But this—this was altogether different. Because it was Jared’s brother, and Jared thought it was her doing. That her hands had wrought this evil. Against her will, Sparrow’s eyes watered. Hoyt’s back was a massacre and Jared’s face was a painting of anger and pain.
“I should do the same thing to you.” Jared said, his voice a ragged whisper.
“Please, I swear to God I had no part in that. I could never…” Do something like that to anybody. How could he think she was capable of doing that to anybody? The thought sent a fresh wave of pain down her body.
“He said it was you. You were in the room. My brother does not lie. Your own adoptive brother said you took part in it. The only one denying it is you.” Jared’s hands slowly lifted and Sparrow swallowed convulsively.
He’d choked her earlier in his rage. It had been painful, but he’d let her live. Now his expression was turning borderline insane, and she didn’t know if he realized what he was about to do. But she did.
And she didn’t want to die.
“Jimbo set me up. Your brother was delirious. I could never do that to anybody. You’ve got to believe me. I was trying to help you find your brother and escape. I had you bound to my bed, helpless and at my mercy. If I wanted to trap you, I would have done it then!”
Jared’s hands hovered directly in front of her now, his fingers curling into fist. She could see the indecision flickering in his gaze as bright and burning as a wildfire. “Because you’re just as evil as they are.”
Sparrow’s gaze was transfixed on his hands as he clenched and unclenched his fists, his eyes black with the promise of retribution. And then he lowered them down and she breathed a small sigh of relief.
“I’m not going to kill you. That would be too easy. I don’t need a knife to make you regret the day you were born.”
Jared went back to his brother and Sparrow’s shoulders drooped, she’d held her body so tense when he was near. Even still, small tremors shook her. Jared started to clean Hoyt’s back and she quickly glanced away, unable to stomach the severity of his wounds.
She’d skinned all sorts of animals in her lifetime, but her hunting had been about survival. She and Squirrel ate the meat and sold the furs. But torture like that, it was pure evil, and deep down she realized that Jimbo couldn’t possibly be sane.
The more she thought on it, the more convinced she became of Jimbo’s guilt. The only possible answer could be that he thought Hoyt knew where to find the land deed and he had tortured him for the whereabouts of the document.
The only reason he would have hidden Hoyt and searched for the deed in secret was he wanted the mountain for himself. If he had that, he wouldn’t need Miss Kay anymore.
The inkling of fear hovering over her laid anchor in her chest, weighing her down. Jimbo planned to kill Kay and take the land. There was no other explanation. And she was sure that once Jimbo started killing, he’d take out anyone who’d ever offended him. Including Squirrel.
By helping Jared, Sparrow had inadvertently screwed up Jimbo’s plan, ensuring the big man would be out for revenge. He’d hunt them down and kill them…and then he’d kill Squirrel.
From the corner of her eye, Sparrow saw Hoyt’s body convulse. She returned her attention to the brothers and watched as Jared poured alcohol on the open wounds, meticulously scrubbing and cleaning them. Then he applied some sort of salve over Hoyt’s back before packing it and carefully winding a huge role of gauze around his torso.
When he finished, Hoyt lay on his stomach and Jared was drenched in sweat, his skin almost green.
Jared was hurting, and as far as he knew, she was the source of his pain. If Hoyt didn’t wake up soon and tell Jared the truth, she was probably as good as dead.
But Sparrow wouldn’t be with them that long. She would have to escape and return home. If Jimbo was as crazy as she suspected, no one was safe. It was her duty to warn them.
Jared scooted off to the side and pulled a canteen of water from his bag, and Sparrow’s mouth immediately went dry. It had been too long since she’d had a drink of water or anything to eat. But she wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d give her a drink. Not now.
His gaze cut to her and she immediately looked away, not wanting to see the disgust she was sure was on his face.
She wanted to remember the sweet gentle Jared from earlier. Before he’d suspected her of doing such a terrible thing.
“Drink.”
She looked at him in surprise as he held the canteen up to her lips, but she drank greedily. The gag and the long journey had made her mouth as dry as over-tanned leather. “Thank you.”
His smile was anything but kind. “Got to keep you healthy enough for my plans. Can’t have you dying from dehydration, now can I?”
He was the first man she had ever kissed, and being around him, even for such a short while, had made her want. Made her hope. And now his every word and every action was intended to make her hurt.
Tears pricked her eyes and she quickly blinked and looked away, unwilling to give him more ammo. She had to toughen up, find that thick skin she’d spent her whole life growing.
And she’d have to find a way to forget the gentle and hurting man who had touched her heart. Because tomorrow, she’d escape and she’d never see him again.
*
Sparrow came awake slowly. She blinked, trying to take in her surroundings. A few seconds later she remembered they were in the cave. She lifted her head, her neck throbbing, and a million pin pricks of pain shot down her arms.
She couldn’t remember falling asleep, but she’d remained tied to that rock. Every muscle in her body ached, and her hands were numb, her shoulders aching. The minuscule amount of clothing did nothing to protect her from the cold rock. She felt like a block of ice.
“Good, you’re awake. Time to go.” Jared’s boots came into her line of vision first and Sparrow followed them up his legs, his lean hips, and his sinfully broad chest. He looked down at her, as refreshed as if he’d slept on a freaking featherbed.
She had never been a morning person, so the angry retort that came to her lips was probably best kept inside.
Jared squatted in front of her and held the canteen of water to her lips once more. Sparrow drank as much as she could, not knowing if it would be the last she was offered. The water splashed into her empty stomach and nausea rolled in her belly, followed by a grumble of hunger.
“I saved an MRE for you. I’m going to cut you loose so you can feed yourself.” He seemed somehow more in control today. His movements were clinical and distant, and there were no longer those sparks of madness flickering at the edges of his eyes.
He disappeared behind her rock and the ropes loosened around her body. Sparrow held up her hands for him to cut the rope binding her wrists.
“Those stay. You can feed yourself that way.”
“It would be a lot easier if you untie me.” Sparrow grumbled.
“A lot easier for you to escape that way too. The rope stays.” Jared thrust a tan plastic bag into her hands. The outside of it read Meal Ready to Eat. Sparrow pulled out a small pouch from inside it. Chicken and gravy. Hunger slammed into her so hard her fingers fumbled before opening the pouch. Inside was some strange looking goo, definitely not the chicken she’d envisioned. Was this some type of new torture he thought up?
She shot him a disgruntled look and he spoke up without her saying a word. ” Military issue. Not the best thing in the world, but it’s loaded with calories and carbs to give you energy. And it’s the last thing you’ll eat for a while, so I suggest you get busy. I want to get a move on before the sun rises.”
“Thank you.”
The benign expression on his face disappeared, and he frowned at her. “Don’t thank me just yet. I’m just getting you back to my place.”
Maybe. Or maybe he was starting to realize she couldn’t have done this terrible thing? She could only hope. “How long until we meet up with your boat?”
He studied her intently before answering. “Couple of hours at the most.”
Sparrow turned the pouch up to her lips, gulping half the package down. “How’s your brother?”
Any hint of kindness in his eyes disappeared and she immediately regretted asking. “The same. You got a minute left. Quit talking and start eating.”
He turned roughly from her and Sparrow cursed her stupid mouth. Before she’d asked about Hoyt, Jared had seemed to soften. Just a little. She ate quickly and watched as Jared repacked the bag and checked Hoyt. His brother seemed to have settled down some during the night. He wasn’t shaking and moaning anymore, but he was almost deathly still. If she hadn’t seen his chest rising and falling, she would’ve thought he was dead.
Then Jared stood in front of her again, holding out h
is hand, and she passed the empty package to him. He tossed it aside and held out his hand again. “Give me your hands.”
She gingerly placed her hands in his and allowed him to help her to her feet. Her knees buckled and if he hadn’t held her, she would’ve hit the floor again. Small needles of pain pricked all down her legs and feet as blood rushed back into her extremities. She didn’t bother trying to hide her groan. She couldn’t remember ever hurting this much, and in so many places all at once.
“Give it a minute. It’s just the blood circulating.”
Unable to speak, Sparrow nodded against his chest. He smelled of raw man and wild earth. Her senses went on alert. She became aware of his hands holding her up around the waist. The deep rise and fall of his chest as he took a breath. It was just plain wrong for fate to dangle such a fine specimen under her nose and then yank him away.
The last thing she wanted was for him to realize how quickly her body had betrayed her. Sparrow stepped back, surprised when he didn’t resist and simply let go. But her legs held strong, and as the pain faded, she became aware of an urgent need. “I’ve got to pee.”
“Follow me, already found you a place.” Jared grabbed her arm and led her away from the cave, stopping before a small thicket of bushes growing between two trees.
The large pines acted as posts, and the bushes grew so thick they formed their own little fence. Not that she cared. She was used to having to go outdoors. There really wasn’t much of a choice when she was out on a hunting trip. Sparrow walked around the bushes and shucked her jeans, thankful for the small thoughtful gesture of privacy anyway.
15
The girl had gone to the bathroom out in the open without protest. He’d been ready to tell her to suck it up, but there was no need. She had no shame.
And why did he like that about her?
“Let’s move.”
“Give me time to button my pants, okay?” she grumbled, grouchy in the early morning.
When she emerged, the first thing he noticed was the chill bumps covering her entire body, and for the first time, he took stock of the weather. He’d been so focused on his brother he hadn’t thought about himself or her comfort. She made to walk past him, her movements stiff and uneven. Jared suppressed a cringe, knowing it was from the way he’d kept her tied up all night.
Reckless River: Men of Mercy, Book 3 Page 12