JARED: The Justice Brothers Series (2 page)

Shocked that he had felt her reaction to his overtly sexual overture, Hailey tried again to break free. But he merely used her raised hips to draw her closer to his strong body. To her horror she felt his arousal pressing against her upraised bottom. As if that wasn’t enough, he grasped her thigh several critical inches higher, his strong fingers probing the tightly stretched crotch of her regulation trousers. Hailey prayed that he didn’t hear the soft moan that escaped unbidden from her lips—but his throaty chuckle confirmed that she’d prayed in vain. To her dismay, he slid his hand across her belly then reached up and dragged his roving fingers across her breasts. Halting at the full curves, he whistled appreciatively.

“Daaamn, don’t tell me that the little fighter not only has a great ass, but has tits that would make any Barbie Doll blush.”

He laughed aloud at her outraged shriek, but before Hailey could try to deal with the challenging mix of rage and unwanted arousal sweeping over her, a deep voice shattered their clearly erotic grappling.

“Is it asking too much, Agent, to request that you get the hell off my rookie cop?”

Too shocked to do more than gape at the imposing man standing in the shadows at the side of the clearing, Hailey was stunned to see her boss, Lieutenant Jake Justice. His mouth was set in a stern line that competed with the obvious amusement lighting his slate gray eyes.

The man on top of her rose up on his knees. Still straddling her backside, he gazed up at the formidable commander, a slight grin twisting his full lips. Keeping one big hand on Hailey’s back, he tossed his head and snorted derisively.

“I’ll consider it—when you tell me when and why the big, bad Duluth Puhleeze Department decided to send a Barbie Doll look-a-like who thinks she can fight her way out of a Sig Sauer in her skull on a solo midnight mission. Or did Miss Sweden convince you that a perp would be so bowled over by her baby blues and righteous tits that he’d just beg her to take him in?”

Commander Justice laughed and shook his head. Holding out his hand, he pulled Hailey’s audacious attacker to his feet and clapped a big arm around his shoulders in a bear hug. When the dark-haired man stood next to him, it was clear that her assaulter was as tall and as muscular as her commander. Lt. Justice reached down to help Hailey up, but to her surprise her assailant brushed Lt. Justice’s hand aside. Instead, he leaned over and grasped her under her arms, lifting her up next to him. Too shocked at the unexpected turn of events and shaking too hard to stand alone, Hailey allowed herself to sink against the strong man holding her protectively against his side.

Lt. Justice shook his head and raising his hands in mock surrender, he flashed Hailey an apologetic grin.

“While I can see that you have already…ahem…
met
him, let me formally introduce the man who was shamelessly accosting you.”

Her commander stepped back and held up his hands with a rueful shrug. “Officer Michels, meet my baby brother, Jared Justice.”

At Hailey’s startled gasp, Lt. Justice added with a grimace, “Which makes you, my somewhat clueless rookie, one of a very small group of insiders who knows that my outrageous brother, aka DEA Agent Jared Justice, is
also
my crack undercover agent in the Dragon’s Curse Cartel.”

Chapter 1

J
ared raked his eyes over the pale young woman clinging to him, then turned on his brother with a sneer.

“
Somewhat
clueless? Damn, Bro, that’s like saying the kid who just took the training wheels off his trike is ready to fire up the streets with his V-Rod Harley. Hey, don’t smile. This ain’t funny, Jake. Where did you get this little prom queen? Off a California beach after you tracked her down from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition? Jesus, man, what the hell were you thinking? Letting an inexperienced rookie roam the woods alone? With a gun for God’s sake!” He added caustically, “Christ, Lieutenant, she could have killed someone. Like
me
, for instance—totally by accident of course. But I prefer DEA to DOA, thank you very fucking much.”

Lt. Justice grimaced, pinning Hailey with a frown, and nodded at his brother in apparent agreement.

“Without calling her out, which I will do later, let’s just say that as her commanding officer,
I’m
responsible for the fact that Officer Michels, fresh out of the Academy, was on this mission.” He emitted a heavy sigh. “I’ll grant it may not have been my wisest decision. However, I’m still not sure how Officer Michels managed to lose the squad in the middle of an exceedingly dangerous operation and ended up facing a supposed DC Cartel member all by her lonesome.” Turning from Hailey to Jared, the beginning of a smile tugged at Jake’s lips, “But you are correct, Agent Justice. Officer Michels does indeed hail from California. Which may help explain her inability to navigate our Superior National Forest in a torrential rainstorm in the middle of the night.” Winking at his brother, Jake grinned, “Although I plead innocent to the unfounded charge that I discovered her on the cover of SI.”

“Humph!” Glancing at the young woman standing beside him, her cheeks flaming hot with what he assumed was a mix of anger and embarrassment, Jared was disinclined to let his brother off the hook—or miss the chance to further embarrass the rookie. “I dunno, Bro, she sure as hell looks like cover girl material to me.” Seeing what looked like angry tears puddling in Hailey’s azure eyes, Jared took pity on the new recruit. After all, not five minutes earlier and sporting an impressive hard-on, he’d been firmly ensconced on her curvy backside. Not exactly by-the-book behavior for an officer of the law, he admitted, even if he
was
undercover.

Hell, he thought to himself, if he had any class at all he’d be as embarrassed as she seemed to be. Fortunately class wasn’t something Jared aspired to. And Christ, knowing his cover was likely blown, combined with happening upon one of the sexiest chicks he’d seen in a lifetime of memorable hook-ups, who the hell could blame him for indulging. Plus this little rookie needed to know that playing cops and robbers didn’t cut it in the real world of violent Cartels and unscrupulous men.

Acknowledging the way he’d manhandled her reminded him that the Valley Girl had cried out when she’d hit the ground, and again when he’d Karate chopped her wrist to knock loose her Glock. Christ, the least he could do now was to see if she was hurt. Facing her head on and seeing for the first time the nasty scrape on her soft cheek, Jared huffed a harsh grunt. Sure as hell, she’d have a rockin’ bruise on that alabaster skin by daylight. He also didn’t miss the flash of pain flooding her eyes, or the way she clutched his sleeve to keep her balance when he pulled her toward him.

“Okay, Valley Girl, out with it. Where are you hurt?” Jared reached over and stroked the mark the tree stump had left on the side of her face. “Besides this nasty-ass scrape on your cheek, that is.”

Hailey shoved at his hand and snapped, “Nowhere. I…I’m not hurt…anywhere.” Jerking up her chin, she added, “And even if I was, what’s it to you?”

As she angrily spun away from him, Hailey stumbled and grabbed Jared’s arm to keep from falling.

Jared glared at her as he caught her. Ignoring her rudeness, he focused on the pain radiating in her eyes. He nodded and said carefully, “Well, Sugar, since I feel as though I already know your bodacious body better than I should, and given that I might have played a role in any injuries you sustained, how about you be a good girl and answer my question?”

Putting his hands on her shoulders, Jared tipped up her chin with his thumbs and held her agonized gaze.

“Last time, rookie. Besides your wrist, which I’ll look at in a minute, where does it hurt? Your ankle or your knee?”

Hailey hesitated and pressed her lips together. As if seeing from his implacable frown that he wouldn’t let her go, she stammered, “My…my ankle…hurts.”

Ignoring her surprised yelp, Jared 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 that had darkened her sky blue eyes to a troubled cobalt color.

“Listen up, Sweetheart. The
last
thing you should do with a sprain like the one you have is put weight on it. For that reason, that medical reason, I am going to carry you back to the road.”

Hailey frowned and shook her head “No, please, I don’t want you to carry me. Now that you put a splint on my leg, I can walk. I…I’m sure I can.”

Jared forced himself to smile rather than yell at her the way he was tempted to. For Christ’s sake, between him and Jake, they could have reduced the swelling in her ankle dramatically if the little rookie had bothered to tell them that she was hurt. Huffing a sigh, he admitted that his lusty and abrasive actions to date hadn’t exactly been conducive to convince the rookie to ask for help. Choking back a harsh response, he said instead, “C’mon, Cover Girl. How about I kneel down here in front of you and you climb up on my back and hold on tight?”

When it looked like she would continue to resist, Jared’s patience snapped. Trying to squash the edge in his voice he said with a grim smile, “The alternative, Sugar, is that I toss you over my shoulder like a duffel bag and carry you with your head hanging down my back and your ass in the air.” He added with a grating laugh, “Come to think of it, that’s one hell of an alternative. Hmmm. I’m thinking access to that curvy butt of yours could make our trek back to the road a hell of a lot more interesting—at least for me.”

Hailey’s pale cheeks flushed bright red and she bit down on her bottom lip. A second later she tipped up her chin and glared at him, her cerulean eyes flashing with anger. With a dismissive snort she tossed her head and prepared to climb up on his back.

Jared covered his amusement at her irritation and nodded tersely.

“Good decision, rookie. Although I have a feeling that at some point in the near future I’m gonna be paddling that classy ass of yours, if for no other reason than to teach you how to ask for help when you need it.”

Ignoring her shocked gasp, Jared knelt in front of Hailey to allow his brother to lift her onto his back. He wrapped her good leg around his waist and hooked her splinted leg over his elbow to support her ankle. Five minutes into their journey Jared admitted the last thing he needed was more access to her ass than he already had. What with her curvy bottom securely resting in his large interlaced hands, her arms hugging his neck and her full breasts pressing against his back, it was all he could do to contain the iron-hard erection straining his jeans. His simmering anger at her refusal to ask for help only served to raise the temperature on his libido from hot to scalding. It didn’t help that Hailey’s occasional whispery moan and what Jared could swear was tell-tale dampness between her legs, and her unmistakably erect nipples palpable through his leather jacket, confirmed that the little rookie was as involuntarily turned on as he was. He shook his head. Damn, adrenalin was a bitch. Especially the way it played havoc with hormones.