Wounded (An Aspen Series Novella) (Prequel to Relentless) Read Online Free

all of you fussing over me.”
    “Uh-huh.”  She handed another bowl to him.
    He wanted to tell her to mind her own business,
but that would be admitting she was right.  “Why didn’t you tell me she’d
dumped Eric?”
    “Would it have made a difference?”
    He shrugged.
    She lifted a dishtowel from the counter and wiped
her hands.  “You had enough to deal with, okay?  You’d already taken damage to
your heart.  You had enough healing to do between that and your leg.  What if I had told you about her?  Then you would have gotten your hopes up.  If
she spurned you again, what would that have done to you?  A man can only heal so
much at a time.”
    He swallowed and then nodded.
    A crushing look of sympathy fell over her
features, and she tugged him close to her.  “Oh honey.  I’m sorry.  I honestly
didn’t know what to do.  I figured if she wanted to tell you, then she would. 
If she didn’t, then you were better off not knowing.  I know how much you love
her—”
    “Loved,” he corrected.
    “Okay, loved,” his mom reluctantly agreed.  “But
still, now that you’re home and doing much better, the two of you can take some
time to figure things out.  Sometimes, being apart from each other makes people
in love do stupid things.  They start to doubt, and...”
    “No.”  He hugged his mom one more time before he
pulled away.  “The past is the past.  She had her chance, and she made her
choice.  I’m done.”  He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that the day he’d
gotten the break-up email from Kimber was the same day they’d been caught in
the booby trap.  He still wondered if he hadn’t been so focused on his loss if
he would have noticed something was wrong.  Maybe he could have spared some of
his friends.  Maybe Tim wouldn’t have had to give his life to protect Jerry
from most of the shrapnel that had sliced apart his friend.  He blinked away
the haunting image, wishing he could bury it deeper in his subconscious.
    “Whatever you say.  You know you have my support.”
    “Thanks, Mom.”  He scrubbed a hand over the
whiskers on his face.  He knew he couldn’t blame Kimber for what had happened—it
had been an unforeseen event, but he found it damn hard to separate the two.  “If
you don’t mind, I’m going to take a shower and unpack.  I told the guys I’d
meet them later at Sparrow’s.”
    “Sure.  You could probably use some guy time
after being smothered by your family.”
    He laughed, and she swatted him with a dishtowel.
    “Hey, you said it.  Not me.”
    *        *        *
    When Jerry arrived at Sparrow’s for the second
time that day, the parking lot was much fuller than before.  He parked his
shiny black Camaro out on the street.  He preferred not to get door-dinged by
some drunken bastard who was hopefully not driving, but climbing into the
passenger seat.
    Inside, he found Luke and Milo sitting at a large
table in a corner with three empty chairs waiting to be taken.  The lights were
dimmer than they’d been earlier in the day, and scents of grilled steaks and
hamburgers filled the air.  Customers who perched on stools lined the bar, and
the pulse of Sparrow’s had been kicked up a notch.
    “Did you survive?” Milo asked over a song heavy
with the sounds of southern rock.
    Jerry laughed.  “Apparently.”  He nodded at the
waitress, asking for a pitcher of beer when she arrived.
    “Planning on going heavy-duty tonight, huh?” Luke
asked.
    “Yep.  I have some serious beer drinking to catch
up on.  It’s a little harder to go down to the local tavern and suck a few suds
in the desert.”  Besides, he preferred party demons to the darker ones lurking
in his soul.
    “I hear ya,” Milo agreed.  “We definitely have
some celebrating to do.  We’ve got it all arranged.  If we get too shit-faced,
Luke’s brother agreed to give us a ride home.”
    Luke nodded as he held up his beer.  “To the
brave men who