“I’m serious, Claire,” Jared said so quietly that I barely heard him.

Well, I’m sorry,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “Bex left for training an hour ago and mom is all weepy. Ryan is in bed asleep and lucky me, my Taleh doesn’t have half the police force and various criminals after him.”

Jared turned to face me and his expression morphed from anger to an apologetic expression.

“She’s here for the night,” he explained, going to his closet and pulling a t-shirt off the hanger. He seemed to have thought better of it, putting the shirt back and walking across the room to search through my suitcase for a pair of pajamas.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself if you put one of my t-shirts on,” he said quietly, handing me the pajamas. I smiled at him, amused.

Claire groaned in disgust downstairs. “Gross.”

Clothes shot up and over the railing, landing at Jared’s feet. It was the shirts we had left behind on the kitchen floor. The refrigerator door opened, and the sounds of Claire rummaging for food made Jared roll his eyes.

“I’m going to take a quick shower,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

I smiled. “A cold one?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning toward the bathroom.

“I could keep you company.”

Jared froze in mid-step, pausing for just a moment before closing the bathroom door behind him.

I changed while he was in the shower, feeling a bit guilty for teasing him. I understood his frustration all too well. I leaned back on the bed, chewing on my thumb nail and smiling at what had almost happened.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

The Hunt

“I’ll be good,” I promised.

Jared came out of the bathroom in only a pair of shorts. He stood several feet from me,

hesitating to come to bed. “Maybe you should take a cold shower, too. I don’t think it I can concentrate with you….”

“Aroused?” I said, quickly pressing my lips together to stifle a laugh.

His mouth fell open in shock and I cackled, too pleased with the reaction to help myself.

Jared smiled and nodded, complaisant to my playful badgering. He crawled into bed and propped his head up with his hand.

I sat against the headboard and sighed. “She wasn’t serious, right? About the half-the-police-force thing?”

His face fell. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said, sliding his fingers between mine.

“Why are they after me?”

Jared cursed in Spanish under his breath resulting in Claire giggling from somewhere downstairs.

“They’re not after you, sweetheart. They’re after something of Jack’s. They just think you know where it is.”

“They’re after the Port of Providence file?”