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

fight for our country.”
    Jerry smiled and lifted his glass.  All three
clinked and drank.
    “Are you driving in the derby tomorrow?” Milo
asked.
    “I don’t know.”  Every year since he’d turned
sixteen, Jerry had entered an old beater car in the Fourth of July derby.  “Car’s
been sitting for a while.  Not sure I can get her ready in time.”
    “You got us.”  Luke thumbed his chest.  “We’ll
get that mother in shape if you want.”
    After he’d been hit, Jerry had promised himself
if he ever made it back alive, he would live each day to the fullest.  “Why the
hell not?”  No time like the present.
    The live band cranked through two more songs
before Scott and Tyler arrived.
    “Damn, it’s like old-home week around here,”
Scott said as he gave Jerry a slap on the back.  With his dark hair, eyes and
goatee, he looked like the badass of the bunch.  Once upon a time, he’d
actually owned the title, but he’d cleaned up his act since then and now owned
a respectable construction company.
    “No, shit,” Tyler commented.  “Good to have you
back, man.”  He shook Jerry’s hand, warmth radiating from his slanted blue eyes
that always seemed out of place with his almost-black hair.
    “Well, hell, now that we’re all here, I say we do
some shots,” Milo said.
    Jerry had a beer and two shots of Jack warming
his veins when he spotted Kimber walking through the door.  She stopped just
inside the bar and did a quick search until her gaze landed on him.  The sight
of his former fiancée dressed in a short black sundress and sexy heels kicked
him in the gut.  “Shit.”  He turned his back to her and downed the current shot
of whiskey sitting in front of him.  He might regret it later, but none of that
mattered now.
    Milo turned to him, the other men still laughing
raucously at Scott’s joke about a blond hooker.  “What?”
    “Nothing.”  He scanned the room, looking for a
quick save.  He doubted Kimber would have the guts to walk up and talk to him,
but he wasn’t taking any chances.  “I think I need to stretch my legs.  You
care if I ask Sierra to dance?”
    “Why would I care?  It’s not like she’s my
girlfriend.”  Except Sierra and Milo were sort of a thing.  Not like a
real thing, but every weekend, they found themselves in each other’s arms,
dancing at Sparrow’s.  Jerry wasn’t sure if they’d ever taken it further than
that, and he wasn’t about to ask now.
    “Great.”  He got to his feet, the room slightly
unsteady.  Luckily for him, only one table separated him from Sierra and her
friends.
    He didn’t spare a glance toward the door as he
approached his target.  “Hey, Sierra.  Want to dance?”
    Sierra turned her brown eyes toward him and
tilted her head.  “Wow.  Really?  Jerry Tierno is asking me to dance.  I should
feel honored.”
    He snorted.  He and Sierra had always had that
sort of relationship.  He’d tossed a frog in her face in fifth grade, and she’d
snubbed him ever since.  “Come on, Sierra.  It’s only one dance.”
    She smiled.  “Fine.  Maybe I’ll step on your toes
and pay you back for that frog.”
    He led her to the dance floor, wrapping an arm
around her waist and taking her other hand in his.  “Are you still fretting about
that after all this time?”
    She grinned up at him with a smirky smile.  “I
swore that day I’d never forgive you.”
    “That was fifteen years ago.  How can you hold a
grudge for that long?”  Before she could answer, he shifted his gaze toward the
door.  Kimber stood with a bleak expression darkening her beautiful green eyes
as she stared at him.
    A sharp pain on his big toe brought his focus
back to his dance partner.
    “You aren’t even listening to me.”  Sierra
frowned.
    “I’m sorry.  What?”
    “I said, if you wouldn’t have spent all those
years staring at Kimber Reynolds, you would have realized I’d forgiven you a
long time ago.”
    He laughed, giving