Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) (18 page)

He might have lost sight of that for a while that night in her apartment, and made the mistake of allowing her to leave without him, but he’d had plenty of time to regret it since. Once he found her, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight again until he knew she was completely safe.

Maybe not even then.

“I have orders from Seth not to allow anyone in.”

Lily froze as she heard Liam, one of Seth Armstrong’s men, speaking outside her dressing room door.

These past six days—and nights—had been the longest of her life. So much so she’d breathed a sigh of relief when she spoke to Giles on the telephone four days ago and he told her the police had now released the theater as a crime scene. The theater company had quickly organized an invitation-only gala performance tonight to reopen the play, in honor of Evan and Charlie.

Yesterday, at rehearsal, had been the first time Lily had ventured out in public since parting from Jonas, and an armed Liam and another Grayson Security employee had accompanied her. Working with Evan’s understudy had been even more surreal than having those armed guards following her everywhere.

Just another part of the unreality that was now her life.

And the worst part was no longer having Jonas in it.

She hadn’t even known him two weeks ago, and now her life seemed empty without him. The only consolation to the situation was that Jonas was no longer in any danger because of her—

“Don’t make me have to force you to get out of my way,” a voice growled in response to Liam’s statement. “Because I guarantee you’ll lose that argument.”

A voice that made Lily’s heart beat faster and brought a blush of excitement to her cheeks.

Jonas!

He was here. She didn’t question the why or how as she ran across the room to wrench open the door and look at Jonas as he towered threateningly over Liam.

Several inches taller than the other man, Jonas easily looked at her over Liam’s shoulder. Those piercing blue eyes were hooded, his expression grim. His dark clothing added to the grimness of his appearance: black T-shirt, dark blue jeans, ankle-length black leather duster, those heavy black biker boots.

Lily couldn’t take her eyes off him.

Eating him up with my eyes
, she recognized self-derisively.

She forced herself to turn away from that compelling and narrowed gaze. “It’s okay, Liam.” She’d realized over the past few days Liam was another one of Grayson Security’s employees who was ex-military, and an order was an order, to be obeyed to the absolutely letter. “I’m sure Seth didn’t mean for you to include Jonas in that instruction to keep everyone out of my dressing room.”

Liam gave a grin that said he knew that, he was just enjoying messing with the other man. “Maybe if Jonas asked nicely…”

“I don’t do
nicely
,” Jonas snapped.

“True.” The other man gave an unconcerned chuckle. “Maybe I should have asked friend or foe?”

“I’m going to demonstrate the foe part of that if you don’t get out of my fucking way—”

“I’m fine with Jonas being here,” Lily assured Liam quickly as she heard the threat and saw the thundercloud forming on Jonas’s brow.

“Go get a coffee or something, Liam,” he instructed abruptly.

The other man’s humor faded as he stepped aside. “I’d prefer to continue standing guard out here. Seth’s orders.”

“Fine,” Jonas snapped, knowing the other man was only doing his job. Liam didn’t have to enjoy it so fucking much, though.

Finding Lily had taken him several more hours after leaving Gabriel earlier. The irony of the situation? Diana had revealed Lily had been staying at their home with them for the past six days and nights. Luckily, Seth was still at work, or Jonas might just have strangled him right then and there for having put him through the last eight hours of uncertainty as to Lily’s whereabouts, let alone her safety. As it was, Seth was going to hear more on the subject later.

Unfortunately, Lily wasn’t still at Seth and Diana’s house. She had apparently already left for the theater to prepare for this evening’s gala performance. But at least she was accompanied by the two bodyguards Seth had allocated to her protection detail. Even so, Jonas couldn’t help but think tonight’s performance, with Lily on stage and vulnerable, was a bad idea.

She looked thinner than when he had last seen her, paler too, despite the heavy stage makeup, and those beautiful blue-green eyes were still haunted by dark shadows.

Her dressing room was filled with flowers, their perfume overwhelming as Jonas stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “Any of these from your stalker?”

“No.”

“Any more letters?”

“No.”

“No more contact in any way?”

“No.”

Jonas breathed an inward sigh of relief. Although there was always the possibility it could only be the calm before the storm— What the fuck? Was he reduced to consoling himself with fucking clichés now? Why not? It was better than the alternative—grabbing Lily in his arms, burying his face in the dark cloud of her perfumed hair, and never letting her go.

The coolness of Lily’s gaze told him she wouldn’t welcome that show of possessiveness from him. “How are you, Jonas?”

“How am I?” He ran an impatient hand through his shorn hair. “I’m not the one who has a stalker.”

“Neither am I at the moment.” Lily sat in front of her dressing table. Looking at Jonas’s reflection through the mirror in front of her somehow acted as a shield between them. “What are you doing here?”

A scowl appeared between his eyes. “You didn’t go to Gabriel’s, and no one knew where you were.”

She shrugged. “Seth knew where I was.”

“And he wasn’t talking.”

She smiled slightly. “No one knew I was at your house either, but that didn’t seem to bother you at the time.”

“Well, it fucking bothers me now!” Jonas paced the room behind her, reminding Lily of a caged predator, coiled, tensed, and ready to spring at a second’s notice.

To admit it was good to see him again was an understatement. She literally couldn’t take her eyes off him. That silky blue-black hair against his bronzed flesh. Piercing blue eyes. Sharp cheekbones. Sensual mouth. That muscular body she knew almost as intimately as she knew her own.

The man she was irrevocably in love with.

The same man who considered protecting her as just another job. Worse, an obligation because of the debt he owed her brother. A job and obligation that had come with hidden benefits, she acknowledged self-disgustedly, but still a job and obligation.

She shrugged. “As you can see, I’m perfectly safe.”

“Appearing in the play tonight is a mistake.”

“Seth has a dozen men watching outside as well as inside the theater.” She smiled tightly. “I hardly think I’m going to be attacked on stage.”

“The fact it’s even a remote possibility is unacceptable.”

“Seth had no problem with it.”

“That’s because he doesn’t have the same—” Jonas broke off abruptly, knowing he was about to make a complete idiot of himself by claiming Seth didn’t have the same vested interest in her well-being that he did. Which was unfair to Seth; the other man was a professional through and through, and he wouldn’t have allowed Lily to appear in this evening’s performance if he didn’t think he could protect her. It was ridiculous of Jonas to think that his own feelings for her made him a better protector.

Whatever those feelings might be.

Emotions had never been Jonas’s forte. He worked, he ate, he slept, he fucked. Only when he was painting did he allow his emotions to come to the surface.

Until now.

Until Lily.

The thought of anyone harming so much as a hair on her head caused his fists to clench and his gut to churn. He just had no idea what those things
meant
.

Any more than he understood his frustration with the distance he now felt between the two of them. Not physically, obviously, because they were in the same room, but in every other way that mattered. They were talking like acquaintances rather than two people who had been lovers only days ago.

All Jonas wanted was to pull Lily into his arms and take them both back to that previous intimacy.

The coolness in Lily’s demeanor and voice told him that wasn’t going to happen.

“I want back on your security detail,” he said instead.

Her eyes widened. “Why?”

Jonas recalled Gabriel’s earlier warning concerning Lily’s belief she was only a job to him, an obligation he hadn’t completed. But how the hell else was he supposed to explain the burning need he felt to protect her, when he didn’t completely understand it himself?

“Never mind.” Lily’s voice was brittle as she saw the answer to that question in Jonas’s frustrated expression. She really was only an unfinished job to him, and she had better not forget it. “If you feel that strongly about it, then I suggest you talk to Seth.”

His eyes glittered coldly. “Seth is being a pain in my ass.”

Grateful as she was to Seth, he was being a pain in her ass too. If anything, he was even more protective than Jonas, to the degree he had taken her back to his own home six days ago, once she told him she had no idea where to go to feel safe.

Lily had protested the suggestion, of course, aware that after only a few weeks of marriage, Seth and his wife were still on their honeymoon and would want to be alone together. The last thing they wanted was a third person sharing their home.

Seth’s answer to that protest? Diana would never forgive him if he didn’t take her home with him. And he obviously had no intention of upsetting his wife.

Lily had reluctantly agreed to the idea, while inwardly deciding that if Diana showed the least resentment at her presence, then she would politely make her excuses and go to Gabriel’s after all.

Diana Armstrong proved to be a warm and capable woman, and after spending six days in her company, Lily knew she and the other woman were already close friends. They would continue to be so even after this was all over, although quite how that would work when Jonas was also a friend to both Seth and Diana, Lily had no idea. But she would make it happen, even if she had to check each time she met up with Diana as to whether or not Jonas was anywhere near. Diana was too good a friend already for Lily to ever willingly give that up.

“I’ll talk to him,” Lily told Jonas dismissively. “I’m sure the two of you will be able to work something out.”

“You—”

“I really need to finish getting ready, Jonas,” she dismissed evenly, needing him to go before she broke down and told him how much she’d missed him.

That she loved him.

A love Jonas didn’t want or need.

Chapter 13

Jonas’s lids were narrowed as he stood by one of the emergency exits at the front of the theater, his gaze roaming restlessly over the audience that filled it to capacity. A bejeweled and designer-label audience, all here by invitation to attend this gala performance in memory of the two men who had died at the theater the previous week.

Only two of the private boxes in the dress circle of the theater had people sitting in them, one on either side of the stage.

In one were two couples, the women red-eyed and pale—Charlie Driscoll’s two daughters?—the stoic men seated beside them no doubt their husbands.

There were four people in the box opposite, the older couple would be Evan Butler’s parents, the teenage girl his sister: their likeness to their deceased son and brother obvious. Seated beside them was Todd Shaw, Evan’s heartbroken boyfriend, his eyes red and bloodshot, expression grim.

Jonas glanced back to the stage as the director, Giles Fowler, came on to make his introductory speech to the evening. Jonas was too busy keeping a watchful eye everywhere to have any idea what the other man said, but the audience seemed to appreciate it as they clapped long and loudly.

He turned his attention to the stage as the play began. Lily seemed slightly nervous to begin with, but, like the professional she was, quickly threw herself into her role, despite the fact she had a different leading man playing opposite her.

Jonas had never admired her more, loved her—

Jesus Christ!

Love? Who the fuck mentioned love?

I did
,
he acknowledged incredulously.

Was he
in love
with Lily?

Was that what these feelings of anger and frustration were all about? Was that the reason he had to come back to town? Because he simply couldn’t stay away from Lily any longer?

Wonderful.

Fucking wonderful.

He was in love with a woman who would never see him as anything more than a bodyguard, or maybe a sexual diversion, during a scary part of her life.

“I would have appreciated a heads-up you were coming here.”

Jonas’s hands clenched into fists at his sides as he turned to confront Seth. “I’m not answerable to you for my actions.”

The other man looked unperturbed by Jonas’s aggressive tone. “Let’s take this outside.”