Jason's Princess: A King Brothers Story (7 page)

The driver of the black truck must have heard them too because he squealed his tires and flew past her.

Jarod’s cruiser pulled into the intersection, just as the truck sped down the street ahead of them. He began to get back in his car to make chase when he noticed her. His eyes widened and he quickly made his way into the intersection. “You’re bleeding, Julie. Can you move?”

Stunned at the events that had just happened she nodded the affirmative and put a hand to her forehead. It came back bloody.

“Stay right there,” he commanded, as he went back to his vehicle. She could hear him speaking to dispatch requesting an ambulance and giving a description of the “subject’s vehicle”. Soon, two of his deputies showed up to take statements from the witnesses who had pulled over.

She had just laid her head back on the rest when gentle hands touched hers, removing them from her forehead. “Let me see,” he said softly. “You’ll need stitches and you’ve got a nice little goose egg. Are you competing with Charlie for the biggest forehead?”

“Funny, Jarod. But I wish you hadn’t called an ambulance. I can’t afford one right now. I’m still paying for Charlie’s adventure at the ER.” She sighed and closed her eyes. There goes her stress-free week.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

She relayed everything that she remembered, which wasn’t much. One moment at the stop sign, the next getting rammed into the intersection. She described the dark truck as best as she could from her rearview mirror vantage point, but the driver was just a black outline in a dark vehicle. She did see that he was wearing a hoodie and dark glasses but that was it. She couldn’t determine skin color, age or anything else that would be helpful.

Josh’s truck arrived at the same time as the ambulance. He flew out of the driver side while an angry-looking Jason flew out the passenger door and ran to her side.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Good grief, she couldn’t remember a time when she had this much male attention. As she told them the story again, the paramedics were leading her to the back of their emergency vehicle.

“Please, I’m fine. I don’t need an ambulance.” She kept saying it over and over again but Jason was having none of it and practically dragged her to the ambulance.

“You are not fine, Julie. You have a giant, bloody goose egg on your head. I don’t want you doing anything until they look at you.” He was in autocrat-bully mode. Perfect. Well, she was in I-just-got-in-an-accident-and-I’m-ticked-off mode.

“Jason, you are so not the boss of me!” she yelled, but immediately squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed her head. That’s when he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the ambulance.

She kept her hands to her head and her eyes closed but laid her head on his shoulder. She whimpered as he walked, each step jarring her. Man, her head was really starting to hurt.

He set her down on the stretcher, staying with her as the med techs went through their protocol, asking her questions, shining an annoying light in her face to check her pupils and examining her wound. His proximity was calming and at one point she realized that he was holding her hand, comforting her. His concerned, emerald gaze never left her face. He was even bossy enough to ask the tech questions about her health. She wasn’t sure she appreciated that much concern but didn’t bother contradicting him.

Josh jogged over to where Jason was standing next to her.

“I moved your car out of the intersection. Doesn’t seem to be any damage other than cosmetic. But if you want, I’ll take it over to the garage where they can give it a better inspection. There’s blood on your steering wheel too.” Frowning, rubbed her ankle because that was the only part of her he could reach from the end of the gurney.

“No, I need my vehicle. If it’s drivable, I need to get a bunch of stuff done today…”

Jason gently squeezed her hand. “You aren’t doing anything for a while, Jujyfruit. You need to go home and lie down. If your head gets worse they want you to go to the ER and they want someone with you for the next 24 hours to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

“Oh, for crying out loud, it’s just a bump and I don’t have a concussion.” She couldn’t afford to waste time napping today.

“I’m sorry Ma’am, but you do need stitches. I’d listen to your friends and take it easy today. You aren’t going to feel like doing much of anything after they sew you up,” the EMS tech said.

“I’ve already called Charlie. He says he has a project due soon and had planned to work on it all day today, but I’m coming over to make sure you rest.”

She gaped at Jason. This had to be some sick joke. She began to look for hidden cameras.

“If you have her covered, then I’m taking her SUV over to Gil’s to have it inspected. Here’s her stuff.” Josh plopped down everything he could find that was personal in her SUV; purse, sun glasses and some gum.

Where did he find the gum?
She closed her eyes and shook her head. She must be losing it.

“Really, you guys, this is ridiculous, you don’t need to babysit me…” Jarod strode up in the middle of her tirade.

“Julie, listen to me. Someone is targeting you. As Sheriff, I’m deputizing my brothers to escort you wherever you need to go, to stay with you 24-7, until we can figure this thing out. No arguments, you hear me?”

“You can’t deputize your brothers to watch over me. That’s an abuse of power, Jarod.” She rolled her eyes then groaned. Man, that hurt.

Jason leaned in to her and put his hand on her shoulder. His touch was gentle, tender but she felt it like a lightening bolt. “Please let us keep you safe, Jujyfruit. You live alone with Charlie. What if someone is targeting you? What if Charlie gets hurt because we didn’t take this seriously; if YOU didn’t take this seriously? You don’t want that and neither do we. Let us help you.” He had moved around in front of her for his speech and now he was brushing her hair off of her shoulder and lightly caressing her neck with the back of his fingertips, giving her goosebumps. She couldn’t look away from his mesmerizing green eyes that seemed to see right through to her soul.

Voice barely a whisper, she agreed with him. “Yeah… ok, you’re right. Thank you, guys.” She let him help her to Josh’s truck, where Jason got in the driver seat. She was dreading the long wait at the emergency room. Her head hurt and she had blood on her shirt. She just wanted to go home, take a shower and get in some comfy jammies. Then, she wanted to get on the couch with a soft blanket and a cup of tea.

“Are you in a lot of pain? I’m trying to hurry without getting you in another wreck.” He grinned at her.

She smiled and again started to say her mantra when he interrupted her, “Yeah, you’re fine, I get it.”

The emergency room experience was exactly what she had expected. There were people sitting in chairs in the waiting area while others were seated in chairs at a low counter talking to a hospital representative and their computer. When her name was called, Jason stayed with her the whole time, as she gave the administrator her information. A triage nurse came over to look at her head.

“Yup, you’re going to need some stitches.” And then she walked away.

Julie puzzled over that when the administrator said, “Go ahead and take a seat in the waiting room and someone will call you back as soon as we have a room available.”

Why do they call this the “emergency” room again?

Forty-five minutes later she heard her name called. “Julie Armstrong?”

Jason helped her stand and then walked with her as they followed the nurse through the “no admittance” door. The large nurse’s station was in the center of the room in a square and all around it were rooms with sliding doors. The nurse walked up to the opposite wall and pointed to a curtained stall marked 14.

“Please have a seat on the gurney.”

The nurse directed her first question to Jason, “Did your wife lose consciousness at any time?”

Before he could answer, Julie snapped, “I’m not his wife. And no, I did not lose consciousness.” She felt the blush creep up her neck to her face and she jutted out her chin in embarrassment. Jason smirked but wisely kept quiet. Her eyes collided with his and he gave her a full wattage grin. She just shook her head, but on the inside she felt unsettled and confused.

My head must be injured more than it seems
.

The nurse smiled at Jason, openly flirting, while she took her vitals, asking her more questions about the accident and the pain in her head. Julie narrowed her eyes at the tart who was purposefully bumping into Jason, but all he did was move away from her, never taking his brilliant green eyes off of Julie. For once, his gaze didn’t disturb her.

She smiled when Naughty Nurse got frustrated and stopped flirting, about the same time that an almost-a-doctor came in to sew up her forehead.

By the time she was discharged, Julie was cranky and hungry, which Jason said was a good thing.

“Do you want me to go through a drive-through?”

“No. Just take me home.” She was seriously grouchy.

They were quiet the rest of the way home. She hoped he would just drop her off but she just couldn’t catch a break today. He cut the engine and got to her side before she could get out of the truck by herself. He put his arm around her waist and held her hand as he steered her to the front door. It burst open to her gaping brother.

“What happened?”

“Your sister was jealous of your head wound so she got one of her own.” Jason deadpanned. She rolled her eyes, which still hurt, dammit.

“I got rear ended and bashed my head on the steering wheel… But I’m ok,” she said quickly as she took in Charlie’s concerned gaze. Jason steered her to the couch when they got inside and immediately began issuing directives.

“Charlie, why don’t you get your sister her pillow and maybe a light blanket. Then go see what’s easy to fix for lunch because she’s hungry. Once I’ve got her settled I’ll come help you. Julie, put your feet up here and lean back…. that’s it,” he said, as he took total control of the situation, which both irritated and relieved her. She wasn’t in the mood to be bossed around but on the other hand she felt like crap. It was sort of nice being taken care of, not that he was taking care of her…but still. She was overthinking the issue, so she just let him do his bossy thing.

Within 10 minutes, she had a paper plate in front of her with a turkey sandwich and a small bag of chips, an iced tea and two tall, handsome but very concerned, men staring at her.

She stared back at them. They didn’t move. “Aren’t you two going to eat with me?”

That was all the prompting they needed, she guessed, because before the words were completely out of her mouth, Charlie was turning towards the kitchen to get himself a sandwich and Jason was asking him to make two for him. He sat beside her and grabbed up the remote.

Taking the first delicious bite of her sandwich, she discreetly stole glances at his profile. Damn, he was a handsome man. Too bad he could be such a bossy britches. He clicked the remote until he came to a men’s channel that aired a lot of fights. Sure enough, he had stumbled onto a mixed martial arts marathon. Or maybe he knew it was on already? Probably, she thought, as she continued to eat her mouth watering sandwich. The naughty-nurse-who-had-flirted-with-Jason warned her that she might have an upset stomach. She was glad the tart had been wrong. She was starving.

Josh walked through the front door as they settled in for the next round of fights.

“Can’t you at least knock on her door?” This from a disgruntled Jason.

She giggled.

“Yes, but why would I when I normally just walk right in.” He laughed as he socked Charlie in the shoulder. Charlie laughed at him too, as they did some complicated high five maneuver. Their antics always amused her. They’d been hanging out for so long that Josh was sometimes a fixture in her living room, keeping Charlie company while she cooked in the kitchen.

“Well? Don’t leave me in suspense. What’s the verdict on my SUV; is it in my driveway or holed up at the garage?” Julie prayed it was in her driveway.

“It’s in your driveway.”

Yay!

“Damage is strictly cosmetic. Gil inspected it himself thoroughly. He said whenever you want to get the damage fixed to let him know; he’ll charge you the ‘friend’ discount. After I told him what happened he was amazed you hadn’t lost any tail or brake lights. Just crunched the hatch on the back and the spare tire will need to be replaced, but no serious damage.” Shaking his head he said, “It’s lucky there was no cross traffic in that intersection or you might’ve really been hurt,” he said, concern in his blue gaze and etched on his handsome face.

Julie had wondered about that herself. She’d had some time to think about the “accident” and the more she pondered, the more she knew it was something more sinister. That person was trying to push her into the intersection. She’d bumped her head on the steering wheel on the first hit because she’d been distracted and it had surprised her. Then, the jerk had tried to shove her into cross traffic. When he couldn’t move her anymore, because her foot was on her brake, he had backed up as if to ram her again but Jarod had showed up so he took off. She explained that to the men. They stared at her in thought for a while before Jason made a call.

“Jarod, it’s me. Julie just described the accident and you need to get over here…. no, I want you to hear it in her own words…. yeah, ok. See you soon.”

She noticed when he hung up that he had jostled himself closer to her and he now blatantly put his arm around her. The pain meds must’ve kicked in because she liked it. He was warm and he smelled good. She briefly closed her eyes and leaned into him. She was beginning to feel sleepy anyway. He wouldn’t notice her smelling him, would he?

“Are the pain pills making you sleepy? The doctor doesn’t want you to sleep for a while, just in case there’s a concussion.” His green eyes had darkened and were boring into her like a diamond drill.

Ok, she’ll stay awake if he’ll let her keep looking at his pretty eyes.

“I’m feeling a lot more relaxed than before but not sleepy. I promise to stay awake. When is Jarod coming over? Maybe I should write down what happened while it’s fresh in my head?”