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Adrian stared at the bathroom door.
No underwear. Not in that box.
How did she expect him to get no underwear off his mind with her in there naked and wet?
Jaz wouldn’t care. She’d tell him it was his problem to deal with, just as his hard dick was his problem. What was he doing here drooling over her?
His target.
He couldn’t look at her and think target. His brain refused to accept everything bad he’d heard about her. Had he lost the ability to be objective? Maybe.
As for his conscience, that was a whole different issue. When he’d been miles away without Jaz close enough to smell on every breath, he’d had no trouble sticking to his plan to bring in Kaiser’s killer.
But he believed Jaz when she said she had not murdered Kaiser.
She’d tried to run a lie past him twice tonight, nothing noteworthy. Had those been tests? Did she think the damage he and his wolf suffered had altered his ability to use his senses?
It didn’t matter because he’d caught both attempts.
The fact that she’d tried at all called up suspicion, but he couldn’t say he wouldn’t do the same in her shoes.
He’d never been in conflict like this.
Not about a mission, but this didn’t feel like a mission. That had to be his fault for allowing his mind to stray off the intellectual path and wander into dangerous emotional territory.
While Jaz bathed, Adrian pushed his mind back on task. He took in her room, searching for anything that would tell him what she was doing in this place. But all she possessed additionally from the last time he’d been with her were the clothes in that box.
They smelled like different humans.
Had someone given her the clothes?
He should start with finding out what she was doing here, but he couldn’t get her to talk if he turned into cop mode. He might get her to talk if he acted more like the person she’d fought alongside. The same person she’d talked to when they were in adjoining cages in a tiger clan’s compound.
Recalling that moment, Adrian frowned when he remembered questioning why she hadn’t washed the grime off her face when it had been raining on them. He’d insulted her and wanted to kick his own ass for that.
Now her keeping the mud on her face made sense. She constantly had to hide her scar, which identified her as the Golden Kodiak wolf shifter.
He’d seen a bandage on the ground near her clothes.
Had she been wearing that to hide her scar and lost it when she shifted?
At the sound of water draining from the tub, he turned to find her hobbling out of the bathroom. Wet hair fell loose around her face and the loose-fitting workout clothes shouldn’t be sexy. That outfit wouldn’t be if it didn’t cling in all the right places.
She hopped to one of two chairs at a table large enough to hold two paper plates.
“I saw you flinch when I touched your chest,” she accused.
He hadn’t expected that. “It’s fine. My wolf fought a pair of wolf shifters on our way here.”
Crossing her arms, she asked. “Was that in the woods about eight miles south of here?”
He opened his mouth then closed it. Every word he said at this turn of topics would bury him. Then they’d be right back to talking about him hunting her.
She must have taken his silence for guilt. Not giving up, she said, “You found my trail in the woods with a pair of wolf shifters and scents from two humans, right?”
He nodded.
“That’s how you found me?”
“Pretty much.” He admitted, “The sheriff one town over helped. He told me about a woman named Janet who helped save a hunter, then sent me to Clarenceville.”
Rubbing her temples, she said, “Back to your chest. What else is injured?”
“Are you a doctor, Jaz?” Isn’t that what she’d tossed at him earlier?
“As a matter of fact, I’m a healer,” she countered with a load of cockiness. “Just save us both time and answer me truthfully, Adrian. Where else are you hurt?”
Well damn. That beat his ace. “My arm, too.”
She waved him over. When he moved to stand right in front of her, she lifted his shirt and grimaced at the wound that had stopped seeping blood, but still showed dark bruises. “How long ago did you get injured?”
“About an hour before I found you.”
She studied the claw marks and gouges. “Why haven’t you healed?” Concerned eyes lifted to his.
“To be honest, I’m not sure. Even with my wolf problems, we’ve always healed fast. Not this time.” He could guess and say it might be tied to Mad Red pulling further away from him.
She studied his chest more than he thought necessary, which he took to mean she deliberated on a decision.
Sounding resigned, she said, “You can lay down and give your body a chance to heal.”
He dropped his shirt down. “I’m dirtier than you were. I’ll be fine.”
Still staring at him as if he were a puzzle she’d wanted to solve for a long time, she asked, “Where are you staying?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“That might be the truth, but not all of it,” she mused.
He’d rather not share what happened in the hotel or that he’d decided to only sleep outside for the time being.
When she got tired of waiting on him to speak, she surprised him with another option. “Tell you what. You can clean up and sleep here tonight, but you have to promise to leave by daylight.”
“Thanks, Jaz, but I can’t do that.”
Her face fell. “In other words, you didn’t mean it when you said let’s call a truce. Was that only to get here? Inside my apartment.”
He protested, “That’s not what I meant.”
“Really? Then what do you mean?”
Walking around in a small circle, he turned back to her. He didn’t want to share his vulnerabilities with anyone, but Jaz had already been with him when he lost his grip on reality.
“I need sleep, too, Adrian. I don’t want to spend the night with one eye open, worried you’ll try to handcuff me and call in SCIS.”
“First of all, I’m not here for SCIS,” he said with steel in his voice. “I wish you’d believe me when I say I’m not here in any official capacity and that I won’t trick you.” Sure, that sounded surly, but after all he’d been through, he didn’t like having his character questioned. “I’ve never acted without honor, especially with a woman. Even if one attacked me. If she used no lethal weapon, I tried to contain her without harming her.”
“I ... didn’t mean to insult you.”
He waved it off. “Don’t worry about it.”
She grabbed a fist of her wet hair and grumbled, “I’m confused. Let’s just play this straight. I don’t need anything sugar coated. You won’t accept my offer to rest and heal, because you won’t leave in the morning for fear of me escaping. That’s it, right?”
That stepped on his last good nerve. “No. That’s not it. If I sleep here tonight, you won’t survive the night.”
Silence landed hard in the small room.
Their gazes clashed in a standoff.
Then she smiled as if she found something amusing, thoroughly confusing him.
Tilting her head in question, she said, “Let me get this straight. You won’t trick me, but you’re going to kill me in my sleep?”
Screw it. If she used what he told her against him, then he deserved it for coming after her. “I get caught in nightmares sometimes. When that happens, my wolf comes out. We destroyed a hotel room in Spartanburg last night. I don’t think my wolf would harm a person because he gave me his word. That doesn’t fix when I black out and he uses that time to punish me. He ... hates me.”
Her smile crashed. She allowed a thoughtful moment to pass before her voice turned serious. “My wolf would never allow your wolf to harm me. Take a bath and get some sleep. I won’t be ready to sleep for a while.”
Adrian couldn’t believe his ears. Was she really going to trust him after what he’d just admitted?
His wolf had a possessive streak for her wolf, but that’s when they were both lucid. Adrian had no idea what frame of mind Mad Red was in when in the throes of nightmare.
On the other hand, could Adrian trust Jaz when she knew he was here about Kaiser’s death?
