Jason's Princess: A King Brothers Story (24 page)

Billy screamed as he tackled Jason at the waist. Jason used the momentum to flip Billy over his head so that he landed on his back. Not wasting any time, Jason pulled his elbow back and went to town with his fists. It seemed he had just begun to rearrange his face when Jason felt strong, familiar hands pull him off of Billy.

His father said, “That’s enough, son. He’s done.”

Jarod flipped Billy over onto his stomach and cuffed his wrists.

“Where’s Julie?”

“With Charlie in the ambulance.”

All the blood drained from his head as he looked at his father. James was ushering him to Jason’s pickup. “Gimme your keys and I’ll tell you while we drive.” James held out his hand for the keys.

Jason shook his head, adrenaline still flooding his system. “You talk; I’ll drive, Dad.” No way was Jason going to sit still in his own truck…again… while someone else drove him to the hospital.

With a huff, his father got into the passenger seat. Jason climbed in and started the engine.

“Where’d Josh go?”

“He followed the ambulance. We found the kid bound, gagged and unconscious in that van. Charlie’s face is in pretty bad shape.” His father’s voice cracked, as he explained Charlie’s condition.

“How did they get him?” Jason couldn’t believe that Charlie would leave the grounds. He was too smart for that.

“Josh had been keeping him pretty busy all morning in the stables and then in the new gym. After everyone left with Jarod he asked if he could saddle one of the horses and ride the fence line.

“I figured that as long as he stayed on the property that he would be fine. Josh agreed and felt that Charlie needed a bit of alone time to clear his head.” His voice cracked again when he said, “We won’t know the details until he wakes up…” he trailed off, probably not wanting Jason to hear him cry.

“He was still out when they took him to the hospital?” Jason’s heart beat faster with fear for the kid. His anger amped up again. He wished those scum bags were free so he could beat their asses all over again.

“Is Julie in the same ambulance as Charlie?”

His father huffed an irritated breath. “She wouldn’t hear it any other way, Jason. That woman is one fierce and protective sister.” His voice full of admiration.

“How did her wound look?”

“The tech put some packing on it when he determined that it was deep enough for stitching but not bad enough for surgery. They’ll sew it up at the hospital.”

It only took them fifteen minutes to get to the emergency room and another five to find Julie. However, the nurses station wasn’t going to let them into the examination room because they weren’t her family.

Not yet. But soon she will very much be a part of my family
.

Frustrated, he began to throw a fit until his mother showed up and explained to the charge nurse that they were, in fact, Camille and James King, benefactors of the new trauma center, and she didn’t want to have to bother the Hospital Chief in order to see Julie, who, she explained, “is like a daughter to me.”

They were immediately granted full access, God bless her. Unfortunately, his mother also demanded that he be triaged before he did anything else. When she determined his injuries were minor, she located where Julie and Charlie were being treated.

He found Julie laying on her stomach complaining to the doctor that he needed to speed things up.

“What’s taking so long? I need to find out about my brother’s condition! He’s all I have!”

Rushing to her side, he said, “Calm down, Jujyfruit. Mom’s checking on Charlie right now.”

Her eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip began to quiver. She was an emotional wreck after their ordeal; and she was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on.

Yep. I’m definitely keeping her
.

“Jason,” she whispered. “I was so scared for you.”

She reached for his hand. He took it and smoothed the back of his fingers down her face.

“I’m almost done here. Then you can check on your brother, Miss Armstrong,” the doctor said.

“Thank you,” she said in a small voice.

As the doctor finish up, Jason could see that she would have a two inch scar right where her kidney was located. Again, his temper rose but he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

He heard the doctor chuckle when he asked, “Squeamish?”

Not wanting to upset her further he only shrugged and said, “Something like that.” Then he bent down and kissed her sweet lips.

∼∼∼∼∼

When Jason helped her off the table and out of the exam room, all she could focus on was finding Charlie. She couldn’t keep her tears at bay remembering him on that gurney in the ambulance. He had a black eye and blood oozed from a crack in his lip. He had fought them off. He was recovering from a concussion two weeks ago and now this.

Why won’t he wake up?

Jason kept his arm around her shoulders, guiding her down the hallway to where James was pacing outside of an exam room. He smiled at them and said, “We’ve been waiting for you. Charlie is awake. Camille and the doctor are with him now.”

Relief flooded her so much that her knees weakened but Jason, her prince charming, was there to steady her. He ushered her into Charlie’s exam bay.

“…and I don’t want you to exert yourself in any way until I can see you in a week. There’s no fracture to your orbital socket but a second concussion is a worry,” the doctor was explaining.

“I know. I was taking it easy until that creep jumped me.” Charlie said as he looked up to see Julie. His eyes welled up but a relieved smile crept onto his face. “Oh God, Julie! I thought you might be dead!”

She rushed over to him and hugged him, relieved herself that he was fine.

The doctor continued his long laundry list of do’s and don’t’s for the next couple of weeks. He reminded her to call his office to schedule another appointment. She was surprised that he hadn’t mentioned the absence of stitches from his forehead,
thank God
. She didn’t think she would be able to stand any criticism at this point.

“When can we go home?” she asked as she wiped her eyes.

“I’ll get his discharge papers ready and you can go.” With that the doctor left the room to be replaced by Jarod, cop face in place.

“How you doing, Charlie?” he asked.

Julie didn’t like his tone of voice but then that was Jarod when he was acting in the capacity of sheriff. She was sitting on the bed next to her brother, not wanting to leave his side.

“I’ve been better. It was Billy who hit me. I don’t really remember anything else until I got here.”

“Billy acted alone?”

“Yeah. He was driving some creepy van. I didn’t realize it was him until it was too late.”

She felt Jason’s hand on her head and neck. It was like he couldn’t stop touching her and she didn’t want him to, either. Josh had come into the room. Apparently, Camille’s influence went really far.

Josh said, “How did he get you off the horse?”

“He didn’t. I was already walking. I’d ridden her hard and we were out pretty far so I decided to dismount and walk both of us, letting the mare graze by the fence line. I just needed to clear my head and think, ya know.”

He closed his eyes for a minute as Julie gripped his hands tighter. “Take all the time you need, Charlie.”

Sighing, he continued, “I saw the van on the other side of the fence near the road but didn’t think much about it because I was behind the tree-line and it seemed to be abandoned. Billy had hidden in the trees. I don’t know if it was just dumb luck that I was there for him to find, or what, but he jumped me. When the horse startled, I let her go, hoping she’d find her way back to the barn quickly so you would know something was wrong.” He looked at Josh who was pacing the room.

“Good thinking, kid.” Josh whispered, clearly agitated by the whole story.

Jarod said nothing but seemed to be playing things out in his head. He could be very cold at times and she wondered what Lauren saw in him.

Josh stopped pacing and said, “When that mare came thundering into the barn alone, my heart nearly stopped. I didn’t know if you’d fallen off and been hurt or what.”

“I’m sorry, Josh. I didn’t have my cell phone but it wouldn’t have done much good anyway. That bastard had me pinned to the ground before I knew what was what and started punching.”

She shuddered with fear and anger as he told the story. She heard Jason inhale and exhale, something she knew he did when he was trying to calm himself down.

Josh punched the wall.

“That’s enough, Josh,” Camille said. “He’s here, he’s safe and
that Billy
,” she said with distaste, “is in jail where he belongs. Your brother is going to make sure he stays there; aren’t you, Jarod?”

“Yes, Ma’am. That is just what I plan on doing.”

Josh rubbed his sore knuckles and gave Jarod a meaningful look, “You better. Because if I ever see him on the street….” He trailed off shaking his head and began pacing again.

It was hard for Julie to see this fun loving, playboy brother so upset on top of everything else.

Jason kept rubbing her back. “So, Billy had the van first,” he mused. “How did he deliver the van to his buddies at the jail? Charlie was in the van the whole time?”

Julie didn’t understand how that could have happened either. She looked at her brother with concern. Why had Charlie been out for so long?

The nurse came in with his discharge papers and began to hand them to Camille.

“Excuse me, but those belong to me,” Julie said on a sigh. She had no clue where she was going to get the money for all of the medical bills that were piling up but she refused to let it get her down.

“Sorry,” the nurse said and handed her the papers. As she went over the forms, Julie could feel Jason’s every move next to her, not leaving her side. Camille was helping Charlie get his shoes on; bending over would hurt his head. When Julie was done signing her life away, she handed the forms back to the nurse and looked up at Jason. He smiled and kissed her.

He had dried blood all over his arms. “Did anyone take a look at you? You’ve got some pretty deep cuts.”

“The EMTs did a great job before we left to follow you, Jujyfruit. I’m fine now that I know you’re safe.” He kissed her forehead again and kept her in his arms all the way out of the hospital.

Jarod finished up at the hospital and headed back to the station to finish processing Billy.

There were three vehicles at the hospital so Julie and Charlie rode with Jason, Josh following in his own vehicle. James drove Camille’s car, leading them all back to their large home.

Julie was exhausted and her back was starting to hurt as the numbing agent wore off. She felt every bump in the road. She turned to see Charlie’s eyes closing a bit in the back seat. “Don’t go to sleep, ok, Charlie?”

“I know. I’m really tired though. I can’t seem to keep my eyes open.” He sat up straighter and rolled his window down to let in some fresh air.

Jason reached over and took her hand, slowly bringing her knuckles to his lips for a tender kiss, all while keeping his eyes on the road. She noted the bruising on his face and the bandages on his arms. His shirt was filthy too, covered in dried blood. Charlie’s shirt wasn’t any better. Then she remembered that Billy had shoved his knife through her shirt and the warm wetness that had run down her back and into her jeans. She chuckled to herself, in an obvious moment of delirium, “At least we all match,” she said to no one in particular.

“Huh?” she heard from the back seat, which made her chuckle. Jason jerked his attention to her before returning his gaze to the road in front of him.

“Are you alright?” he asked, which startled a laugh out of her. No, she was not alright. She was probably having a nervous breakdown.

At least she thought it was funny.

As they all parked their vehicles in and around James and Camille’s garage, Julie’s bout of the giggles had subsided and her back was seriously hurting her. Getting out of the truck was as much fun as a head cold in the summer.

When they got to Jason’s room, she noted that it had been cleaned since she left it this morning. Two sets of clothes had been laid out on the bed for them; black jeans and t-shirt for Jason, her yoga pants and loose blouse for her.

“I’m going to start the shower,” he said as he walked into the bathroom.

She sat down on the bed but immediately stood up when she felt the stiffness of the dried blood in her jeans. She was too tired to care about anything except getting clean, so she began to strip.

“Let me help you, babe,” he said as he walked out of the bathroom. He had taken off his shirt and the snap to his jeans was undone. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He was so handsome, so strong and so…hers. She took a deep breath and let it out as his hands began to lift her shirt.

“I can’t get my stitches wet,” she whimpered, which ticked her off. She hated being weak in front of him because he was so strong.

“I know, Jujyfruit. Don’t worry about that part, I’ll take care of you.”

He kissed her cheek and then her lips before he gently pulled her shirt over her head. She hated that his face was bruised, how those horrible men had put their fists to him and marked him. She put her hands on his chest and traced her fingers around the tattoo over his heart, the one about her. She leaned her forehead to his chest. He smelled so good, even after today’s fight; his soap, his sweat…him. She loved the way he smelled, the way felt and the way he looked at her. She loved
him
.

He kissed her hair and then brushed her hands away from his body before he bent down to one knee in front of her. He put her hands on his shoulders. “Hold on while I get I get you out of these nasty jeans.”

She toed off her shoes. Her jeans were covered in crusty, dried blood that made them stiff and gross. As he peeled them off, she felt itchy all over and ached everywhere. Her head was hanging down watching him as he pulled both her jeans and panties down her legs to the floor.

“Step,” he said softly.

She stepped out of her clothes. He held on to her naked hips and pressed a sweet kiss to her belly.