Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) (17 page)

“
Are you fucking kidding me?
”
Jonas was too angry to even attempt to hide it. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Neither am I,” Seth assured her with as much finality.

She shook her head. “I’ll get a cab and go to Gabriel’s once I’ve spoken to the police.”

Jonas’s eyes narrowed. “You said earlier you didn’t want to stay with him.”

“He’s my brother,” she conceded dully. “I’ll be safe with him.”

Jonas felt as if Lily had slapped him in the face. Because he knew he had failed her. Had failed to stop her stalker from violating her apartment and, in doing so, violating Lily. At the very least, he should have prevented her from seeing the devastation in her bedroom. Was it any wonder Lily couldn’t even bear for him to touch her and had decided to go to Gabriel’s after all?

Because I fucking failed her.

“Seth, could you drive Lily to Gabriel’s house?” Jonas spoke flatly. “I’ll stay here and call the police. I’ll dispose of the food while I’m waiting for them to arrive.” There was no way any of them felt like eating now.

“No—”

“Yes!” Jonas hissed over Lily’s protest. “Take her away from here, Seth. Do it now!”

“This isn’t what you really want, is it?” Seth broke the silence in the car as he drove Lily to her brother’s house.

“No.” She felt too numb to attempt to lie.

Leaving her apartment had been easy. Leaving Jonas, not knowing when or if she would ever see him again, had felt as if she were wrenching her heart from her chest. The pain of leaving him had been overwhelming, and it was all Lily could do to stumble behind Seth as he carried her bag down to his car, another dark SUV. She had all but fallen into the passenger seat, and then sat huddled up beside him after giving him Gabriel’s address. The farther they drove away from Jonas, the more her heart squeezed painfully in her chest.

But Jonas had done more than enough to keep her safe. Had paid back his debt to Gabriel. She had to let him go.

“Did you deliberately hurt Jonas just now?”

“What?” She looked blankly at Seth.

He shrugged. “By saying you would prefer to go to Gabriel’s, you made it sound as if you no longer trust Jonas to protect you.”

Her eyes widened. “That wasn’t what I meant at all.”

“Sounded like it.”

Lily drew in a shaky breath. “Jonas owed Gabriel. In return, Gabriel asked Jonas to keep me safe. He more than did that. It’s over.”

“Your stalker is still out there.”

“And Jonas doesn’t have to continue to put himself in the line of fire for me. He’s paid his debt.”

Seth glanced at her before turning his attention back to the road. “You seriously think that’s the only reason he’s been keeping you safe?”

“I know it is.” She had been nothing but a thorn in Jonas’s side since the moment they met.

Interspersed with moments of off-the-charts pleasure.

Well…yes, there was that. But how much of that had been at her instigation rather than Jonas’s? Most of it, if she was honest. She had taken delight in goading him from the onset, challenging him, taunting and teasing him. There was only so much of that any red-blooded man could take before he accepted the challenge. Even Jonas.

“Lily, Jonas’s life hasn’t been easy. He isn’t like other men—”

“Tell me about it!” She grimaced. “He’s the most infuriating, irritating, pigheaded man I’ve ever met.” He was also the most intriguing and sexually compatible man she had ever met too. A man of duty who didn’t hesitate to put his life on the line for others. He was also extremely talented; Jonas’s paintings were amazing.

“You care about him.”

She drew her breath in sharply. “He’s protected me from my stalker for the past couple of days.”

“Looked like you were feeling a lot more than gratitude when I arrived earlier.”

Lily turned away to hide the heated color of her cheeks. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Seth.”

“Fair enough.” He shrugged. “So if you don’t want to go to your brother’s house, where do you want me to take you?”

Her eyes widened. “You aren’t going to insist I go to Gabriel’s?”

“Last time I checked, you’re an adult. Which means people can advise but not tell you where or what you should or shouldn’t do. I’ll need to know where you are so my men and I can keep you safe, of course, but other than that, it’s your choice.”

“Wow.” Lily continued to stare at him.

“What?” he prompted quizzically.

She shrugged. “My brothers give the appearance of listening to what I have to say, and then still think they know what’s best for me. Jonas does listen to me, but I still know he wouldn’t agree with you giving me a choice over this.” She frowned as Seth began to chuckle.

“It’s okay, Lily.” He continued to grin. “You and my wife have a lot in common. Diana thinks we’re all testosterone driven too.”

“I didn’t say that.” She shifted uncomfortably.

“Didn’t have to. We’re all warriors.” He sobered. “All trained within an inch of our lives to protect and serve. Jonas more than most, because he’s had that from two different cultures.”

“I know that,” she acknowledged quietly. “And I’m grateful, I really am. But I think he’s done more than enough to repay any debt he owes Gabriel.” And Lily had taken up more than enough of Jonas’s time. Invaded his private life enough too.

“So where do you want me to drive you?”

Chapter 12

“Okay, where the fuck is she?” Jonas barely waited for Gabriel to open his front door before pushing past the other man and entering the house.

“Come in, why don’t you?” Gabriel snapped as he closed the door and turned to confront Jonas in the hallway.

He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t mess with me, Gabriel, I’m not in the mood.” It had been six days since Lily had left her apartment with Seth, and Jonas had absolutely no idea where she was.

He had gone back to his house in Larchwood after speaking with the police that night. As he had suspected might be the case, again there were no fingerprints, not in the apartment or on the knife sticking out of Lily’s pillow. The knife itself was also one taken from the set of kitchen knives Lily kept beside the cooker, so nothing traceable there either.

The first three days, Jonas had been too angry at Lily’s dismissal to do any more than lick his wounds. Then the anger had changed to longing when Jonas realized he had gotten used to Lily being in his life, sassing him, challenging him. The house at Larchwood had always been his sanctuary from the professional side of his life, a bolt-hole that no one knew about. All he could see there now was Lily.

Everywhere.

In the house, outside the house. He couldn’t walk past the bedroom she’d slept in without remembering the two of them together there. Even that fucking snowman refused to melt like the rest of the snow, and was a constant reminder of her, grinning at him from the front garden as if mocking him while he paced the house endlessly. He’d tried going up to his studio to paint, usually his means of escape, but even that had failed to fill the gap Lily had left in his life.

Damn it, he not only missed having her around, he missed
her.

Once he’d accepted that, Jonas had decided to drive back to town, his intention being to speak to Lily, explain to her that he
needed
to be the one protecting her. That the thought of that sick fucker somehow getting to her, hurting her, was eating him up inside.

He’d telephoned Gabriel as soon as he got back to town, but the other man insisted Lily wasn’t with him. Seth was no help either when Jonas went to the Grayson Security offices. The other man flatly refused to tell him where he’d taken Lily that night, that “the fewer people who know where she is, the better.” Jonas now regretted ever involving the other man.

“You look as if you need one of these.” Gabriel held up the glass of whisky he was nursing. “Probably for the same reason too,” he muttered as he walked down the hallway to what turned out to be his study when Jonas followed him into the room.

“Isn’t it a bit early for whisky?”

“Admittedly, it’s only early afternoon here, but I’m sure the sun has ‘gone over the yardarm’ somewhere in the world.”

“Thanks.” Jonas took the glass of whisky Gabriel had poured him and drank it down in one swallow. He didn’t even wince as the alcohol burned the back of his throat.

“Yes, definitely the same reason.” The other man sighed. “Like a refill?”

“No, thanks.” Jonas slumped down in one of the two chairs on opposite sides of the lit fire. “Lily really isn’t here, is she?”

“No.” The other man sat in the chair opposite. “Seth won’t tell you where she is either, hmm?”

“He insists it’s safer this way.” Jonas stared morosely into the dancing flames. “Ordinarily, I would agree with him, would do the same, but… Damn it, I’m the one who allowed him in on this, and now he won’t tell me where Lily is. What?” he demanded when the other man made no reply for several long seconds.

Gabriel scowled. “I’m just wondering, after what I saw in her apartment the other night, exactly what your interest is in my little sister?”

Jonas’s eyes narrowed. What Gabriel had
seen
in Lily’s apartment was nothing compared to what Seth had walked in on. “I had a job to do. I failed to do it.”

“So your concern is merely professional?”

Jonas became guarded. “What else?”

The other man winced. “And is that what you told Lily?”

“Of course it’s what I told Lily. The bastard got into her dressing room, killed two people she cared about, and then broke into her apartment, violated her bedroom. All on my watch. Because I fucking failed to protect her.”

“Not that bit. Did you tell her she was only a job to you?”

“No, of course I… Seth may have implied it,” Jonas realized slowly. “He was angry with me for not telling him I was using my vacation time to work for you. Lily overheard part, if not all, of that conversation. She now knows I took the job of protecting her because I owed you a favor.”

Gabriel groaned. “And I thought my tact around women was nonexistent. Turns out I’m a complete charmer compared to you.”

“I wasn’t the one who said she was a job to me.”

“But you didn’t correct Seth either, did you?”

“I took her back to my house. Built a fucking snowman with her, because she asked me to, didn’t I?” His tone was defensive. “I drove her back to town, against my better judgment, when she said she had to be here, not there. Even though I knew there was nothing she could do, and the bastard had broken into her apartment when we got here.”

“You took Lily to your house?”

“Yes.”

“The house no one else even knows the location of, let alone has ever been allowed to visit?”

“Yes.” Resentment entered his voice.

Gabriel grinned. “You built a
snowman
with her?”

Jonas had done a lot more than build a snowman with Lily, but he had no intention of discussing that with her eldest brother. “I didn’t come here to be the butt of your fucking warped sense of humor.”

Gabriel sobered. “No, you came to find my sister. My question is still why did you? And don’t give me that crap again about finishing a job. You might have convinced Lily that’s the reason, but not me.”

Jonas surged to his feet. “I’m done here—”

“You’re done when I say you’re done.” Gabriel stood too, the two men facing off like adversaries. As Jonas towered several inches taller than Gabriel and weighed fifty pounds more, the other man was finally the one to reluctantly back down, his sigh one of frustration. “Jonas, what the hell is going on with you and Lily?”

Jonas wished he knew. He had never
missed
a woman before, and this, not even knowing where Seth had taken her, was driving him insane. “Aren’t you curious to know where she is?”

Gabriel held up his glass of whisky. “This is my second bottle in the past six days. Does that answer your question? All Seth will tell me is she’s safe, despite my having threatened to break both his arms if he didn’t tell me where she is. If you do manage to find her…”

“Yes?”

“Let me know, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And if—
when
the two of you talk again, I’d steer clear of repeating the part about her being only a job to you because of an obligation to me.” Gabriel grimaced.

It
had
started out that way, Jonas frowned, but it had very quickly turned into something else. Everything inside him, every part of him, veered away from acknowledging what that something else was.

He breathed heavily. “I’m going to pay Seth a visit at home rather than the office. I doubt he’ll continue to be so closemouthed with Diana present.”

“Ooh, nasty.”

Jonas gave a humorless smile. “I’m through playing Mr. Nice Guy. It’s time to bring in the big guns.” He and Diana had formed a mutual respect and affection after an incident in Paris late last year. He doubted she would allow Seth to continue torturing him with evasive answers as to Lily’s whereabouts.

And it was torture, sheer hell, not even knowing where she was.
He
should be the one protecting her, damn it.