Jared
“I’m starting to get dehydrated!” Nadia said with a giggle, reaching past him to kill the shower.
“Yeah, water might not be a bad idea,” he said, his own throat feeling a little parched. “But it was worth it.”
“Pervert,” she said in response to him bouncing his eyebrows suggestively at her.
“Yeah, but you liked it,” he said, giving her rear a firm grab as he pushed the door open, practically tumbling the pair of them out of the small stall as cold air rushed in.
“I did n— Towel!” she shrieked, her voice rising as the cool air caressed their skin.
He tried to restrain his laughter as he pushed a towel into her frantically grasping fingers. Nadia gave him a glare, the look just washing over him as she backed into the stall and closed the door, trying to save some of the heat from their morning shower.
Jared barely noticed the cold. His hotter-than-normal circulation system warded off anything resembling a chill. He dried off in the cramped confines of the rest of the bathroom. He was done well before Nadia, so he slipped out into the main room and called down to the front desk. They needed food. There was no restaurant in the small two-level motel, but there were several places nearby. All he needed was the number of one that delivered.
With that info in mind, he called them up and—without knowing her preferences—ordered a bunch of everything, hoping he’d guess right on one front. The woman on the other end seemed skeptical, but he managed to convince her that he would, in fact, be able to pay for it all.
“I’m famished,” Nadia said as she exited the bathroom, dropping her towel in a scandalous display of flesh that instantly caught his attention.
He sat up straighter on the bed, eyes running up her long legs, across her thick hips and past her breasts, until he stopped at her eyes, making no effort to disguise the fact that he had just been grabbing an eyeful and enjoying it immensely.
“Food?” she asked innocently, putting on her clothes as if she hadn’t noticed.
He growled. “Already ordered.”
She paused. “This place has room service?”
“No,” he said, leaning back into the bed. “Nearby delivery place.”
“Well aren’t you just a gentleman this morning?”
“Just comes naturally,” he said, then threw up an arm as she grabbed a pillow from where it lay strewn on the floor and hurled it at him.
He snatched it mid-air on the rebound and put it behind his head, pretending that he was much more comfortable now thanks to her efforts.
“You’re despicable,” she teased. “We’re fugitives, and all you can do is make lewd jokes.”
Jared shrugged. “Just my nature.”
She smiled and finished getting dressed.
“Hey, why are you on the run?” he asked, deciding now was the time to pursue it.
Nadia looked shaken. “What do you mean?”
“I’m just curious,” he said. “You can tell me the real reason.”
Her look got worse as he revealed that he had known all along she was hiding something. Her lips pursed together, but she didn’t respond.
Jared sat up, frowning. “Hey, after all we’ve been through together already, what we’ve shared, you can trust me, you know that right? It’s not like things can get any worse.”
To his complete surprise, Nadia’s eyes filled with water and she began to shed tears at an alarming pace. They tracked down her cheeks and dripped to the floor as she stared at him in pained agony.
“Nadia?” he asked, swinging his legs off the bed and going to her side.
She backed away, preventing him from closing, sticking her hand out to ward him off as she continued to cry. They weren’t great, heaving sobs—she maintained her composure to that point—but she was definitely crying heavily.
“I can’t,” she said with a shake of her head, her voice wavering. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.” She kept repeating that over and over again.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, sitting back on the bed to try and make her feel comfortable. The way she had just shied away from him had rocked Jared to his core. The look of near terror in her eyes, as if she was afraid he was going to hurt her, had cut him badly. That was not him, and to his knowledge, he’d never shown an ounce of anger or otherwise toward her.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “What aren’t you telling me?”
She looked at him again, then shook her head and bolted for the door.
Jared was faster. He didn’t go for her, but instead he simply moved to the door and put his back against it.
“No,” he said. “I understand you’re upset, that something is bothering you. But it’s not worth you running off and getting in trouble over.
She paused and reached out for her hoodie that was still hanging up, pulling it on while she looked at him, her cheeks still wet. Nadia shook her head again.
“You need to tell me,” he implored her, looking deep into her watery green eyes, trying to convince her that no matter what she was hiding, it would be better once it was in the open. “You can’t hurt me.”
Nadia crumpled like she’d been hit at that statement, the tears coming even faster. She fought a losing battle in trying to blink them back and wiping them away. He longed to reach in, to help her, to pull her to him so she could dry her eyes on his shoulder. His bear was frantic, telling him to do just that, to help her.
But he could only remember the way she had drawn back from him earlier. She was afraid of what she was going to say.
“Please,” he said, switching tactics. “Whatever it is, it will be okay.”
“No it won’t,” she said in a ghost of a whisper.
“Yes it will,” he reiterated.
“It can’t be,” she told him. “Because it was me. I can’t unmake it.”
He frowned. “What was you?”
“This,” she said with a gesture. “It’s all because of me.”
Jared opened his mouth to say he still didn’t know. Then he thought about what she was saying. “You’re saying it’s your fault that we’re in a motel?”
She nodded nervously. “I caused it all. I told them where your base was,” she said, and he felt rage explode inside of him. “But I didn’t mean to. Please, I’m sorry! I didn’t know the truth. I was just doing my job.”
“Explain,” he ground out, trying to restrain himself.
How dare she? His team—his family—had been put in mortal danger because of her? Because she thought it would be a good idea to blab to people about them? His bear was torn in half, unsure of what to do. His human side was even worse. It crumpled under the revelation, allowing his anger to boil over.
“I used to work for the city as a data analyst on various local projects and civic cases. They asked for volunteers to work a new and different case. Said success would result in possibility of promotion and transfer to a new division. I hated where I was at, so I volunteered,” she said through a haze of tears.
Jared stared stone-faced, listening as she told him.
“I used the city’s surveillance network and a bunch of other information to backtrack you, to find the warehouse.”
His jaw dropped. “Why would you do that?”
She looked distraught now. “They told us you were terrorists! That you were formulating a plot to hurt a lot of people in King City. What did you want me to do?!”
“Think,” he ground out. “Do some research. Analyze data.”
“I did,” she protested. “Why do you think after I was ‘promoted’ and transferred that I fled to you? I realized the mistake I had made, and warned you.”
He reared back in surprise. “You warned us? How the hell did you do that?”
“The news,” she said in a small voice. “I leaked it to the news. I called them up and told them.”
“And you put my family at risk of death,” he finished.
“I’m sorry!”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it!” he replied, trying to keep his voice calm as he walked into the center of the room, running his hands through his hair.
He was furious. Beyond furious really, angry in a way that he wasn’t sure he’d ever been before. What Nadia had done was nearly unforgiveable. He had to try and think of it from her side though. To see how she had seen things. To—
The door slammed closed.
He spun on the spot, turning to look. Nadia was gone. She had fled into the hallway. He should go after her. To catch up with her. To talk to her. To tell her that it was okay that he was mad. He was allowed to be, in such a situation. He hadn’t taken it out on her, and Jared had no intentions of doing that, besides being hurt by the betrayal. But in time, with the knowledge that she hadn’t known better, and that she had—in her own way—given them enough warning to evacuate, he could forgive her.
Couldn’t he?