by Dianna Love
Red remained near the surface for a bit longer this time before drifting away.
“Can you two chill for a moment and let me get some answers?” Scarlett implored.
Gan sat back and told Adrian. “Yes. Mate is worried about friend. You must give answers.”
“Careful, tiger. No one is giving me orders except the boss.”
Gan opened his mouth to argue and Scarlett put the kybosh on that when she placed her hand on his arm. Her mate gave her a nod that must mean no problem, because he dropped it.
Adrian explained about tracking Jaz to a bar in Clarenceville, but Scarlett stopped him with sharp words. “Why were you even tracking her at all?”
Ah, hell. He was in this neck deep. “I found out why Ja .. your friend was on the run. She killed a wolf who was a sibling to a wolf shifter I fought beside overseas. My best friend. He died on a mission with me. He’d told his sister if she ever needed help, to call me.”
Scarlett’s attractive face creased with unhappy lines.
Adrian quickly explained his initial intentions to get Jaz’s side of the story and that once he heard it, he believed her.
Not much happier, Scarlett said, “Go on.”
After explaining what happened with Thea and the jackal shifters last night, Adrian omitted details of spending the night with Jaz, then finished by saying, “When I left her apartment this morning, she intended to return to the bar. She might have gone to check on Thea, too. I called the bar when I left the meeting at headquarters and the woman who answered said neither Thea nor your friend ever showed up.” His chest still tightened at recalling those words. “She promised me she would call you with her next location if she left. I didn’t want her calling my number. It might have put her at risk of being found by accident if our people came looking for me.”
“Would your people track you?” Scarlett asked, also careful to not use the word Gallize around strangers. “Your boss can call you home, right?”
Adrian clarified, “Yes, he can, but he knew I was handling something personal and wouldn’t do that without knowing what I was in the middle of. As for electronically tracking me, they wouldn’t do it intentionally without my knowledge, but my status has been up in the air since Gan and I left Wyoming. I’m just being careful to shield her. I thought at first when the boss called me back to headquarters today it might have had to do with ... her. It doesn’t seem to be. Even if it had, I would submit to the Guardian before I would send anyone to capture our friend, we’ll call J.”
He had yet to see Scarlett shocked by anything, but that admission must have done it based on her asking, “You left her apartment this morning? What is going on with you two?”
Gan smiled as if he knew all the answers. He did sometimes, but other times he had no clear understanding of what was being discussed. The tiger shifter tapped Scarlett’s arm and said, “Is no problem. Wolf likes her.” Gan shot a sly look Adrian’s way when he added, “Maybe more than like.”
Adrian would not deny Gan’s guess.
Running her fingers across her braided hair, Scarlett said, “J won’t call me. She doesn’t want me pulled into her problems even though she knows I am ready and willing to help. My father could have killed all of us that day at Lincoln’s compound. If not for her support and Gan showing up with you on his tail, I would have lost my sister and her baby. I will help you—”
“We will help him,” Gan corrected.
Gifting her mate with a quick smile, she amended, “We will do anything necessary to help you protect my very dear friend. That’s what J is to me. I’m not sure what she is to you, Adrian, but promise me you won’t let Tess’s group take her in.”
Adrian shouldn’t promise to keep Jaz safe from SCIS, but he nodded in reply. He’d stand between Jaz and the world if that’s what it took to keep her sage.
Then Scarlett put voice to the words that had been churning in his head. “If J could have proven her innocence by now, she would have. Something has gone wrong. She needs us.”
Adrian held his hands up in a pleading way. “I can’t do anything for her if I can’t find her. She promised she’d call you if she had to leave that town. If you haven’t heard from her, where do I start to find her? I’m desperate.” He sat back and used two fingers to grasp his chin as the three of them were silent with their own thoughts.
Recalling part of the meeting, Adrian had something else to ask about. “Before Gan came to Wyoming, Justin brought his future mate there to keep safe from someone hunting her. My wolf was ... out of his mind. He even went after our boss.”
“What?” Scarlett said with disbelief.
“Those were the early days when Red and I battled each other nonstop. The point is that the Guardian spared me even when I was ready to submit to my destiny, because Eli stopped him.”
Scarlett’s eyebrows climbed higher at that. “I’ve met her, and she’s powerful for sure, but I wouldn’t go up against your boss.”
Adrian had been too out of his mind to have been surprised by her actions. “Eli didn’t challenge our boss so much as inform everyone that they had to save me, as in no choice but to do it,” Adrian explained. “When she touched my wolf, she had a vision she translated to mean I had to live to save someone important to the, uh ... “ Adrian looked around then back to Scarlett and Gan. “Important to the whole group. Me, Gan, the boss, all of us.”
They nodded, both understanding he meant the Gallize.
Adrian kept moving to get this done before Vic and Hawk showed up. “Eli didn’t say anything about that this time, which makes me wonder if J could be that person and I’m supposed to save her, or if ... I’m supposed to save someone from her.”
Scarlett crossed her arms and leaned back at that.
Gan announced, “You make mate mad.”
“It’s okay, Gan,” Scarlett consoled him.
“Before either of you leap to the wrong conclusion, I’m not saying I will fight J or her wolf for any reason. I just wish I knew more about the person our people need that I’m supposed to save or keep alive. I’d forgotten about Eli’s first vision involving me until they brought me in to hear her latest one. Then they dumped this tracking job on me.”
“I thought you were going to find J,” Scarlett persisted.
“First, I have to find this wolf shifter kidnapping females, hand him over to the boss, then ask to return to my personal commitment.” Adrian would struggle with guilt no matter what he did next.
He should be hunting Jaz for law enforcement, to convince her to come in and tell her side. That wouldn’t happen until she had ironclad evidence to support her story. He should have asked Jaz what she searched for, because she’d gone to Clarenceville for a reason.
With a murder charge hanging over her head, she’d be hunting a way to corroborate her story. Daisy!
Had she gone to Clarenceville to somehow find Daisy?
Leonard would expect Adrian to do the right thing. He hoped to show Tanza how she had not understood what she saw. The woman had lost her two brothers and only siblings. How could Adrian tell her Kaiser had been abusing and kidnapping women? What about her father being Jaz and Kaiser’s father by another woman while he had still been mated to Tanza’s mother?
That would destroy the young woman.
Then there was Jaz.
At wit’s end, he vented, “If I could just get J to come in and tell her side, she would not be hunted. We’re shifters. Everyone would hear the truth, but she refused to speak to our ... boss. Why?”
Scarlett glanced away, chewing on her lip. When her gaze returned to Adrian, she admitted, “J has a way to get a lie pass shifters.”
“What?” He sat up, not believing his ears.
Even Gan lifted his eyebrows at that, but he supported his mate without question.
Holding her head, Scarlett said, “She told me about it when we were together arranging for my sister to receive a fertilized egg. J was the only person who could make that happen for my siste
r. She told me she’d let me know if she had to lie to pull it off so I would know she was not keeping anything from me. It takes energy to convince a shifter if she isn’t telling the truth. People like her clan and mother know she has this ability. If she came in and someone later proved she could do that, they’d bring her in and never believe a word she said.”
Adrian sat there, trying to figure out if Jaz had lied to him. He thought back to the first time he’d asked her if the trip to Clarenceville had anything to do with Kaiser and she’d denied it. He hadn’t been surprised at her refusal to give up any detail, but she had been surprised when he called her out for the lie.
Then she tried it again over something after they went to the apartment. He’d laughed when he called her a liar, taking it as joking banter with them.
She’d been testing him.
Shit fire. She couldn’t lie to him.
That wouldn’t help her with others, not yet, but he liked that he could trust her words.
Slumping back in the chair with a little sense of relief, Adrian shook his head and got back to his next hurdle. “I spent years working with intel I could depend upon. Now, I’m working off a vision I don’t understand and expected to save someone our entire group needs for our future.”
Gan said, “Is hard to carry much weight on shoulders, but you are chosen for reason. You must find out reason.”
“He’s got a point,” Scarlett agreed. “I know it sounds obvious, but no one seems to be putting any attention on why you? What is key about you being the one to make this happen?”
Adrian studied on that and had no answer. “I’ve asked that, too. All they know is Eli said I have to do this. I’m not special. I was valuable in the military, but I have no gift for finding some elusive person with no more information than I’ve been given. Also, if she had envisioned J as the woman I’m supposed to find, I think Eli would have identified her by the facial marking.” He wouldn’t say scar.
His phone buzzed with a message. He read it and said, “The guys are waiting outside for me. A little sooner than I expected, but I need to get moving anyhow.” Shoving the phone back in his pocket, he stood and rattled off his mobile number. “If you hear from her, either call me or please convince her to call.”
Scarlett said, “We will, but I’m not holding my breath. J is a protector at heart. She’s fought alone for many years.”
“Not anymore,” Adrian declared flatly. “I’ll call if I need you.”
He strode out of the bar, shutting the door quickly again, then paused to scan the gravel parking lot for Vic and Hawk. They’d parked two spots down from Adrian’s ride. He headed their way.
A large sport utility pulled up before he reached his team.
When the window rolled down, Justin leaned an elbow on the door frame. “We need to talk to you.”
Adrian looked past Justin to the pretty Russian-born woman he vaguely recalled meeting in Wyoming. Where Justin’s dark brown eyes fit him and his grizzly, Elianna’s pale blue orbs attested to her being a grolar. He’d never met a part polar bear and part grizzly shifter until her, but he would never forget the few minutes of peace she’d given him.
Smiling at Justin’s mate, Adrian said, “Hello, Elianna.”
“Hello, Adrian. Is good to see you.”
If that was the case, why did she look worried?
Justin sighed heavily, sounding like a weary grizzly. “Let me pull in.”
As Justin wheeled his big vehicle around, Adrian caught Vic’s eye and gave him a finger signal that he needed a minute. When he reached Justin’s parked truck, he climbed in the backseat.
Justin and Elianna shifted around so they both faced Adrian. She spoke first. “I have more vision.”
Hell. Every time that woman had a vision, Adrian’s life got more complicated. He would not insult her by sounding short tempered, nor did he want to call up Herc, Justin’s grizzly, to the surface.
But maybe Elianna could help Adrian with what Scarlett and Gan brought up. “First, can I ask you something, Eli?”
She nodded. “Yes, okay.”
Adrian slashed a look at Justin who was smiling. Evidently her mate enjoyed her cute way of agreeing. Adrian asked, “In these visions, do you have any idea why I’m the one to find this important person for the Gallize?”
Nodding again, she said, “You are only one.”
That didn’t really answer his question.
Justin sent him a warning look.
Adrian tried again. “What I mean is why am I the only one?”
“That is why I have new vision to tell you. You must find woman with scar. She knows important key for Gallize. You will all know who important person is, but ... “
Elianna looked at Justin who told her in a calm voice, “It’s okay, Eli. Tell Adrian what you saw. Nothing in a vision is your fault.”
What the hell was Justin talking about? Adrian had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to like her next words even if he did need to know everything.
“You will not know everything until woman with scar kills wolf leader. You will be there when this happens.”
Was she talking about Tanza’s father, the alpha?
Eli was predicting that Adrian would witness Jaz kill the leader of a pack? Probably Reinhold?
Adrian’s heart banged his insides. He would be expected to bring Jaz in for multiple murders. He asked, “Does the woman with the scar kill out of self-defense?”
With sad eyes, Eli shook her head. “Do not know.”
He’d just gotten it in his head that he and Jaz could find answers and have a future. That would never happen if she killed her own father without reason, which didn’t fit what he knew.
Adrian’s stomach roiled.
Justin spoke softly. “Sounds like Eli is talking about the Golden Kodiak wolf shifter. You need help, buddy?”
Adrian raised his gaze to Justin. “Not yet.” Shifting his gaze to Elianna, he said, “Thanks, Eli. We all know you want to help us and no one is going to be upset with you for the visions.”
Glancing back at Justin, Adrian asked, “How long do I have?”
His friend stared past Adrian for a long moment. When Justin’s eyes came back to meet his, they were apologetic. “I don’t have to go back to headquarters until tomorrow.”
Elianna frowned, clearly confused.
Not Adrian.
Justin had just given him how much lead time Adrian had until he had to report all the information from Elianna’s current vision.
Once he did, all hell would break loose the minute the Guardian realized Adrian had lied by omission. Would he risk allowing Adrian to fulfill his obligation or use his eagle-shifter power to call him to headquarters regardless of where Adrian was at the moment?
Elianna’s visions always came true.
Would Jaz kill her father?
Chapter 20
Jaz lay on the rough plywood surface as the truck carrying her to her death bumped and jostled over the road.
She’d like to think she could outwit the wolf shifters up front once they freed her from this cargo area and leave them in her dust. She’d managed that more than once in the past.
Not this time.
She might not be bound up as tight as Percee, but shifting with a collar on would kill her. What had caused them to wrap up Percee with more chain than the rest of them?
This would be nice compared to what SCIS would do to her.
I loved him, but I had to leave him. Her mother’s repetitive words mourning her loss of Kaiser haunted Jaz.
She had come to North Carolina with the best of intentions. She’d only wanted to let her brother know he had not been abandoned and hoped, through some miracle, he’d meet their mother and she’d love them both.
Not just him.
But Jaz killed her brother instead. Yes, he’d been sick in the head, but she shouldn’t have been the one to deal the fatal blow.
Had he become screwed up because of being abandoned? Or had tha
t happened because Reinhold’s entire pack had issues stemming from the alpha?
Tanza hadn’t been sick, just spoiled and indulged so long she couldn’t think for herself. Leonard had been decent and kind. Jaz didn’t harbor any twisted feelings for anyone.
She’d fought against rules at Tanza’s young age, but she’d always been expected to pull her weight in the Kodiak clan. She’d respected others in her clan and they had respected her.
Kaiser’s death would ride on her conscience forever, even if she had saved Daisy that day. All Jaz had ever wanted to do was heal others when possible.
She would never see her Kodiak family again.
Tarski dragged her from those dark thoughts when her wolf surprised her by rising inside to speak in her mind. You would miss your human.
Do you mean Adrian? she sent back silently.
Is there another?
Jaz tried to send back a rebuff that she had no time for a relationship when she might not live another day, but she’d never been able to lie to Tarski. I admit I feel something special for Adrian, but he has no future and, at the moment, ours is looking pretty grim.
Red wolf will not give up on us. We should be as strong.
Whoa. Was her wolf attracted to Adrian’s? She asked Tarski, Do you care for ... the red wolf?
Her wolf didn’t answer right away.
Jaz dismissed it as some odd frame of mind on Tarski’s part until her wolf said, When you healed the human’s wound, red wolf’s pain and anger came to me. I pushed some of our energy only to red wolf. That calmed him. Red wolf said he had forgotten how to be peaceful. He wants to protect me and stay with me. He wants a mate. I want red wolf happy. I want a mate. He would be happy with me.
Jaz’s jaw dropped at that declaration.
Tarski would go off on logical monologues at times when the two of them had been bored in Kodiak, but her wolf had never mentioned wanting a mate. Jaz thought at some point in their lives they would meet a mate.
Tarski had found hers.
Where did that leave Jaz? She wouldn’t dance around the truth with herself either.
She would take Adrian as a mate.
But she would never be free to explore what was happening between her and Adrian if she did not find Daisy. If she did, Daisy would still have to convince Reinhold and Tanza that Jaz saved her from Kaiser.
