She wouldn't get away from him. He wouldn't let her. He had to have her, had to keep her with him until he knew the truth. Jared forced his breathing to slow, calming his heart. He’d pursued plenty of criminals before, and this should be no different.
He pushed himself harder, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, efficient like a machine. Closed the gap between them until he could practically reach out and grab her hair.
Sparrow glanced over her shoulder and cried out. She banked left, trying to throw him, but he was ready for her feint. Jared pounced and tackled her to the ground, making sure to roll beneath her so that he took the brunt of the fall.
Sparrow struggled in his grip, scratching and kicking. Jared locked his arms around her and simply squeezed until she stopped struggling.
“Let me go,” she screamed, making one last half-hearted attempt to escape his grip.
“Never.” His words must have fueled her. Sparrow managed to rip one arm free and throw a punch. Jared cocked his head to the right, so her knuckles only grazed the ridge of his jaw. He shackled her wrist and flipped her over, pinning her beneath him. He shoved her arms to the ground above her head. “Stop it, dammit. I don't want to hurt you.”
“Too late for that,” she spat. She glared up at him with venom, but he could also see the pain lurking beneath the anger.
A drop of his blood dripped from his face onto hers. “You threw a knife at me.”
“I don't usually miss what I aim at.” Sparrow struggled again and he leaned the full weight of his body into hers, effectively cutting off all movement.
“So you were trying to kill me then?”
“No, I don't kill people. Just wound.” Their faces were inches apart. Her hot breaths fanning his face from exertion.
Against his will, Jared felt his cock rise to the occasion. “Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't be here in the first place.”
She’d shown him just how effective she was with a knife. The doubts he’d had about her abilities to hurt his brother grew thinner. And then there was the fact that she was struggling so wildly to get back to her family, the same family who had nearly destroyed him and Hoyt. “You used me.”
Guilt slammed into him, but he ignored it. She needed to understand that she was coming with him whether she liked it or not. And the last thing she needed from him right now was sympathy. “You mean you used me, don't you? You took me prisoner first. You tried to seduce me for information first.”
“But I let you go.”
Jared placed his face directly in front of hers. “Don't expect the same from me.”
“I hate you.” Maybe if she'd screamed the words it would've been better, but her whisper was full of loathing and pain. Her aim struck true and he jerked back, giving her precious space to wiggle free of his grasp. He had seduced her, but not to use her. The need he’d felt for her had been too strong to ignore. It was like she’d taken control and he’d been helpless to stop it.
Sparrow rose to her feet and he followed. He needed her almost more than he needed to breathe, and yet he couldn’t trust her. Not yet. Maybe never. He had to get to his brother. Had to find out the truth. And so help him, if she really had been the one to torture Hoyt…
“I'm sorry you feel that way.” Jared reached down and pulled the rope from his bag. “It's going to make for a long journey together.”
Sparrow stared at the rope and shuddered. Then she shocked him to his core by walking back to him, her gaze wary. “No rope, Jared. I can’t take it anymore.”
He studied her, watching for the slightest indication that she was lying. “I can’t trust you not to run.”
Sparrow held out her wrists and he saw the raw wounds from before, wounds he’d given to her. She squared her shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. “They hurt.”
If she’d acted defeated, or submissive in the least, he would have thought she was lying. But Sparrow was a fighter. She was only showing him that his actions had consequences. Shit. “Okay. No rope. But you walk in front of me, no more than a foot at all times.”
She graced him with a nod and dropped her hands. “Fine.”
His gaze wandered back to her wrists again. Fuck. He couldn’t leave her like that. “Hold on, I’ve got some ointment and bandages.”
Jared dropped the rope and squatted to dig through his bag. “I’ll need to wash the scrapes first.” Where was his disinfectant? He finally located it and stood. Sparrow had made her way to the edge of the small clearing. “Don’t,” he said, the word simple but full of warning.
“You used me.” Sparrow eased a foot back. The hill sloped down sharply behind her. If she weren’t careful, she would tumble down the side of the mountain. She’d been nearly unconscious last night, so she hadn’t seen the steep incline.
“Sparrow, stop now. You’re going to fall and kill yourself.” Jared tensed, ready to launch after her.
“I’d rather be dead than be with you.” Her words cut him like the knife she’d thrown earlier. Only this time, it hurt much worse.
“Don’t be stupid. You almost died last night. You and I both know you won’t survive out here. Not now. Not like this.” Dressed in his T-shirt and those panties.
“You know nothing about me and what I can and can’t do.” Sparrow lifted her chin. “And now you never will.” She took off down the steep slope without warning, her blonde head disappearing.
Jared dropped everything and ran after her. The slope was littered with rocks and small tree sprouts. Sparrow dodged them all, zigzagging down the hill, picking up speed as she went. Jared accelerated after her, doing his best to dodge the obstacles in his path, vowing with every step that he’d tie her up and never free her after this. She was totally unreliable. She continued to take his weaknesses and use them against him.
They were about halfway down when Jared leapt forward and made a grab for her. Sparrow looked over her shoulder and squealed. She ducked left, barely missing a tree limb to the throat. Jared’s heart plunged into his stomach at the thought of what might have happened.
“Sparrow!”
She glanced back again and that was all it took. Her foot caught and she tripped, her momentum throwing her downhill. He watched in horror as she threw her hands over her head and was flung across the harsh terrain. Jared ran faster, harder. He had to stop her. Had to save her.
The bottom of the hill approached at high speed. Down there, the trees grew thick and large. If she slammed into a trunk going this fast, her bones would break. Adrenaline fueled his legs and Jared gained on her. She looked like a rag doll being thrown down the mountain. Almost there. He could practically reach her.
Bam! Sparrow hit a small tree and rolled sideways. Her arms went around her stomach, but her body kept going. Jared’s heart pounded hard in his ears, drowning out everything else. Faster. Get to her.
Sparrow slammed into a boulder next, and the huge rock stopped her completely. Jared raced to her side. She didn’t move.
The seconds it took to reach her seemed to stretch into hours. Jared ground to a stop and dropped to his knees. Sparrow lay on her side, her eyes closed and blood running down her face from a wound on her temple. Jared leaned back on his heels and roared with fury. Too much. The last few days had been too much.
His brother. Sparrow. The mountain. Miss Kay. His mind seemed ready to explode.
His hands shook as he checked her for broken bones. Fuck, he was losing it. She was his punishment for failing to protect Hoyt. This dangerous, confusing woman he could not trust but could not stop thinking about. Jared gently rolled her to her back and lifted her shirt, wincing at the bruise forming on her hip. At least the fall hadn’t crushed her ribs.
He had to pull on all of his training to keep focus. He’d been in situations a million times worse without losing his shit, but this slip of a girl was fast stealing his discipline. Jared swept her whole body, checked her pulse. Everything looked fine except for her head wound. A goose egg had already popped up on
the spot where her head had been struck. Jared took the edge of her shirt and gently dabbed at the wound, cleaning as much of the blood and dirt away as he could. When he finished and closely inspected the wound, he relaxed. She would have one hell of headache when she woke up, but she would wake up.
And then he would tan her ass for scaring him to death.
Chapter 22
A while later Sparrow awoke, her head throbbing. An ache that was made worse by the fact that Jared had slung her over his shoulder and was currently traipsing down a steep hill.
The day’s events rushed back to her, and a surge of helpless anger hit her. He’d used her. And, gullible fool that she was, she had fallen for his charms.
Just like that time the Crowe boys had dared her to jump off that tree limb and swing from a high rope, she'd fallen hard. Only this time she hadn’t broken her arm; she’d broken her heart.
Now her hands were bound behind her back and she was helpless. Helpless and alone with the most powerful man she'd ever encountered. A man who wanted her to suffer because he blamed her for doing something she hadn’t done.
If her situation weren’t so perilous, she would laugh. Her whole life she'd spent perfecting this tough-girl persona. She was legendary in these parts for her skill with the knife. Could throw farther and more accurately than anyone within a hundred miles, and now the very person she had fought so hard to create—to become—would be her downfall.
Fate was cruel.
Jared stopped and she realized they had reached the river's edge. There was his boat, tied to a fallen tree.
“I know you're awake. I've got to set you on your feet.” Why was his voice so gentle? And why was he bothering to warn her? He could just dump her on the ground. Then he bent forward and eased her feet to the ground before slowly standing beside her, holding onto her arms so that when the wave of dizziness crashed over her she didn't crumple.
As soon as the world stopped spinning, and her head stopped pounding so hard that she couldn’t see straight, Sparrow glanced up at her captor. He lifted a hand to her face and she instinctively flinched away. Some emotion flickered across his eyes then disappeared. He finished the action, gently brushing the hair back from her temple. “You got a nice goose egg there, but I think you'll be okay. How do you feel?”
“Like my head met the wrong end of a rock.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, causing a small flutter in her chest. Damn the man. He wanted to punish her for a crime she hadn’t committed, and here she was thinking about how nice his lips looked. Idiot. She had inherited more of her mother's DNA than she'd originally thought.
“I'm going to lift you into the boat, and it would be in your best interest not to struggle.”
His boat floated a little ways out from the shore, and she could just see herself sinking to the bottom of the river, hands bound behind her back, drowning in three feet of water. No thank you. She would escape, that was a foregone conclusion. It was just a matter of when and a matter of how. “I'm all yours, sir.”
Jared smile disappeared. Good, let him stay mad, she wasn't about to stroke his ego.
“You should remember your life is in my hands now. You should play nice.”
Sparrow fluttered her lashes and gave him a smile. “Of course, anything you want, sir.”
Jared growled and scooped her up. “Wildcat.”
Sparrow didn't bother to answer, because he had no idea just how wild she could be. He stepped off the bank into the river and she tilted precariously to the side, but her only choice was to rely on his strength to keep her out of the water. Not that she couldn't swim if her hands were free. “Be careful!”
“You think I'm going to let a little water take you from me?”
Jared plopped her down on a hard bench in the boat before quickly giving her his back to untie them from the log. As soon as he bent forward, she planted her booted foot on his butt and gave a hard shove. Jared went flying into the water and came up with a roar.
“You looked like you needed a bath.” Sparrow smirked. Squirrel always said she was really good at poking the bear.
But when his big hands bore down on the side of the boat and he leapt inside with an agility that amazed her, she started to rethink her decision. He was on her in the next second, his hand wrapping around her shoulders, forcing her backwards until she was nearly bent over the side. It seemed as if the gentle Jared had snapped and a primal beast had taken his place.
“You’ll regret that.” His voice was rough and harsh, his black eyes obsidian. Rivulets of water ran down his body and dripped onto her.
“Careful, you'll get my new shirt wet.”
One second she was leaning backwards, the next he had tossed her over his lap and flipped the T-shirt up to expose her panty-clad bottom. “What are you doing?” she shrieked.
His answer was to deliver a smack right on her ass. “I told you not to test me.” Smack!
The blow was loud but not that painful.
“You think I'm scared of a little spanking?” she asked.
Smack! She sucked in a breath and bit her lip. The sting wasn’t so bad.
Smack! “You will listen to me.” Smack! “You will not fight me.” Smack!
The burn spread out across her skin, morphing into a sensation she could not name. The blows were landing a little harder and Sparrow could no longer keep her silence. She cried out, struggling from his grasp, but Jared’s answer was another spank. This one landed directly below her butt cheeks, smacking her most private area. It sent shockwaves of awareness through her body and something else. She was getting aroused.
Shame filled her, hurting her worse than any small amount of pain she’d experienced from his spanking. How could she be aroused by this? How could she be aroused by a man who’d taken her captive? A man who didn’t trust her?
Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as he ripped her up from his lap, forcing her to sit across his legs. His features were still twisted with rage, but when he saw her tears, the hard line of his mouth softened. Before she could react, his lips covered hers and she responded with a wild abandon, craving his touch with an overwhelming yearning.
As Jared possessed her mouth, his hand fell between her legs and she spread them for him, eager for his touch. When he found her wet, he ripped back from her, his breathing harsh. “You're wet for me.”
His fingers delved inside her panties, circling her most sensitive spot until she bucked into his hand and cried out for more. He drove his fingers into her without mercy, bringing forth moan after moan of pleasure. She felt his lips close over her bare nipple and realized he’d ripped her shirt up to suckle her there. The pleasure converged in the center of her body, building and building. Roaring filled her ears. Her body tensed. So close, so needing…
He stopped and withdrew his fingers, pulling her shirt down and sat her up. “What?”
It was then that the roaring grew louder and she realized the sound hadn't been coming from inside her own head—it was the helicopter appearing over the mountain.
Jared grabbed her hair, gently tilting her head back until she was forced to look into his eyes. “The next time I won’t stop.”
Chapter 23
Jared toed the thin red line of insanity. The girl who’d captured him and tried time and again to escape him, who’d maybe hurt Hoyt, had kicked him in the water. She deserved his anger. And he fucking wanted to bury his cock inside her so deep he never came out.
The only thing that gave him comfort was the way she was squirming on that bench, as eager for him as he was for her. But for once, she kept her mouth shut. Jared slammed the boat into reverse, pulling into the river, and sped straight toward the helicopter.
Thoughts, images, ideas of what he would do to her when he got her home consumed him. There was no use denying the primal instinct to take her. He longed to possess her.
Her sweet body responded to his so intensely, her little moans and reactions more erotic than anything he'd e
ver experienced. Her pussy had clenched around his finger tight and wet… fuck, his cock throbbed. He needed relief, but relief would be a long time coming.
He ran the boat up onto the opposite sandbar, killed the motor, and hopped down, then turned back to lift Sparrow out. The last time he’d left her unattended, she’d nearly escaped.
“You caught her.” Merc’s question was more of a statement as he stood in front of the helo, arms crossed, muscles bulging. Hunter and Cord followed him out.
Jared set Sparrow down on the sand and pushed her in front of him, reaching past her shoulder to grasp Merc’s hand in greeting. “I always catch what I hunt.”
Something clicked in Jared’s head, and he realized Sparrow was only wearing his T-shirt and her panties. At least his shirt came down almost to her knees, essentially covering her. But a surge of jealousy took him unaware and he found himself stepping in front of her, blocking her from the gaze of his teammates. His most trusted friends. He didn’t miss the look that Merc gave him after that telling action.
Jared prepared to defend his actions, but there was no need, Merc changed the subject. “Good thing you're here. Hoyt took a turn for the worse after we got off the phone. He's been calling out for you.”
Fear and guilt shot through Jared. He’d been so consumed with Sparrow, he’d let thoughts of Hoyt fall to the wayside. “Tell me.”
Sparrow leaned in close, and Jared glanced over his shoulder to see her pressing into his back. Her gaze was locked on Hunter, who now stood to their right and was looking at Sparrow like he wanted to kill her. It was probably the same way Jared had looked at her. Only for some reason, it wasn't okay this time. “She's mine. No one else touches her.”
Hunter held silent for a long moment before moving away. Hunter was Task Force Scorpion’s team leader. He took each soldier’s life personally responsible. He’d saved Jared’s life on more than one occasion, just as Jared had saved his. The members of the unit were as close as blood brothers. Each willing to give up his life for the others.
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