Lily flinched as Todd gave her a last malevolent glare before striding off with the policeman. “Oh God…” She began to tremble. “Would you please get me out of here, Jonas?”
Jonas didn’t need asking twice, his arm moving about Lily’s waist, her face turned into his chest as she avoided meeting any of the curious glances of the avid crowd, as the two of them walked the short distance to his SUV.
“Can we go to the hospital now to see Evan? Please.” She looked at Jonas imploringly once they were inside the vehicle.
“The police said he’s under guard, and only close family is being allowed in. I’ll be surprised if they even let Shaw into his room.” He grimaced.
“But—”
“Lily, you won’t be allowed to see him, and you aren’t going to do anyone any good sitting outside in the waiting room.” And if Todd Shaw did turn up there too, which he was definitely going to do, Jonas didn’t want Lily upset—more upset, by being on the receiving end of any more of his accusations. She was beating herself up enough already without help from anyone else. “I know one of the police officers on the case. He’s promised to give me a call if—when, Evan wakes up.”
Lily was very quiet during the drive back to her apartment. Not that Jonas could blame her. The interview with the police had been grueling, to say the least, and Lily really hadn’t needed that encounter outside the theater with Evan Butler’s boyfriend afterwards.
“I’ll clear away in the kitchen from earlier, while you pack a suitcase,” Jonas told her once they were in her apartment. They hadn’t tidied but left immediately for the theater after receiving the call from Lily’s director.
She looked at him uncertainly. “I’d really rather stay here than go to a hotel.”
Jonas couldn’t allow that. The security in the building wasn’t bad, courtesy of Gabriel would be his guess, and there were also surveillance cameras across the street, both front and back. Coincidentally of the type used by Knight Security. But Jonas was still uneasy about staying here and would prefer it if Lily was nowhere the stalker knew where to find her. The man had killed once, possibly twice if Evan didn’t make it, which meant he was completely out of control. Jonas wasn’t about to let Lily become his next target, on the basis of “if he couldn’t have her, then no one else would either.”
“I’ll be staying at the hotel with you.”
Her eyes widened. “You will?”
Jonas sighed. “After what happened at the theater tonight, Gabriel would gut me if I let you out of my sight.”
Lily should have known Jonas wasn’t accompanying her to a hotel because he wanted to, but because it was what her brother would expect him to do.
What had she expected? That after their time together in the kitchen earlier, Jonas actually cared about her as more than merely a job?
Get real, Lily.
Jonas was too much like her brothers, all of them bed ’em-and-leave-’em types, to become emotionally involved with someone he’d met for the first time last night, followed by a day of maneuvering her through one mess after another. A client, no less.
Despite what she’d said to Jonas earlier, Lily hated the vulnerability she felt right now. Of feeling less than her usual capable and independent self. Except she knew she was. The thought of going to a hotel alone, after Charlie had been killed and Evan seriously injured, terrified the life out of her.
“Okay.” She nodded.
“It’s for your own safety, Lily.”
She knew that. It was too late for poor Charlie, and even if Evan came out of his coma, there was no guarantee he would be the same as before the attack.
“I talked to a lot of people at the theater earlier while the play was on.” Jonas looked at her intently. “One guy in particular Gabriel mentioned had been giving you a hard time.”
Lily frowned at this sudden change of subject. “I don’t… Do you mean Maurice, the assistant director?”
“That’s him.” Jonas nodded. “He seemed a little…terse when I spoke to him.”
“Probably because he doesn’t like me, and he knows you arrived at the theater with me. It’s no big deal,” she answered as Jonas raised questioning brows. “He thought his girlfriend should have got my part in the play, that’s all.”
“And should she?”
“What do you mean?” Lily gave him a sharp glance.
He gave another one of those shrugs. “Everyone’s heard the stories about the casting couch.”
Lily eyes were so wide, they almost bulged out of her head. “Are you accusing me of sleeping with someone to get my part in the play rather than earning it on my acting ability?”
Jonas scowled. “I only asked. There’s no need to get so uptight.”
“You are something else, Jonas Grayfeather!” She began to pace the room, shooting him a glare every few seconds. “Jesus! I can’t believe— You really think— You insulting asshole! For your information, I got the role through sheer hard work and talent alone!”
“Glad to hear it.” Jonas kept his grin inside.
This infuriated response from Lily was exactly what he’d been aiming for when he made the comment. Not because he wanted Lily angry with him, but because it was preferable to the pained bewilderment he’d seen in her eyes ever since she’d received the phone call earlier regarding the attacks at the theater.
She gave him another deathly stare. “I’m going to pack an overnight bag—”
“Pack enough for a week,” Jonas advised. “I’m going to leave a couple of my men watching this place, but I don’t want you to have to come back here for any reason over the next few days.”
Lily shook her head. “The letters and roses were all delivered to the theater, not here. The graffiti was done there too.”
“And the play is now canceled for the rest of this week and the theater closed, while the police carry out a full investigation.”
Lily’s face became even paler. “Which means I’m not going to be at the theater to receive letters, or anything else…”
“Exactly.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you think he knows where I live and might come here instead?”
“I think we make sure you aren’t here to be seen or receive any of his ‘gifts.’ If you’d like to hurry it along?” Jonas prompted briskly. “We didn’t eat dinner earlier, and I need feeding.”
“We could stay here for a while and finish cooking the spaghetti?”
“Hotel room service will be easier and quicker. Don’t worry, all this is going on Gabriel’s bill.” Jonas gave a hard grin. “My time is free. Any bills, he’s going to pay.”
Lily eyed him curiously. “Why is your time free?”
His humor faded. “I told you, you’ll have to ask Gabriel about that.”
“He won’t tell me.”
“How do you know if you don’t ask him?”
She sighed. “Because I already know what the answer will be. National security, the same thing he always says when I ask a question he doesn’t want to answer.”
Jonas grimaced. “Sorry.”
“You aren’t sorry at all.”
“No.” Because in this case, the mission where Gabriel had saved his life really was a matter of national security, for both countries. Their joint mission had been top secret and was likely to remain that way for years to come.
“I’ll go and pack some things.” Lily disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.
The bedroom with that intriguing four-poster bed…
The place Jonas should have pleasured her earlier, rather than sitting her on top of a kitchen unit—
He shouldn’t have pleasured Lily at all.
Anywhere.
Any time.
Lily didn’t bother to switch on the bedroom light. Even catching a glimpse of her own reflection in the mirror was likely to upset her right now. Instead, she made her way shakily across the darkened bedroom before sinking onto the side of the bed and bursting into tears.
Charlie was dead.
Evan was in a coma in ICU, and no one knew if he would come out of it.
And it could all be connected to her stalker. Todd certainly seemed to think it was.
Who could be doing these things?
The letters had started out quite pleasant, complimentary even. Then they had become more personal, and then more personal still, and finally they had become obscene. Jonas was right; she wasn’t sure some of those things described were anatomically possible either.
As for the roses…
And the graffiti.
Spray-painting the words whore, bitch, and several other unrepeatable names was sick, and certainly no longer even hinted at pleasant or complimentary.
And now there were these attacks on Charlie and Evan.
They had to somehow all be connected. Lily just had no idea why they were. Evan was a friend, and Charlie was someone she always stopped and chatted with when she arrived at the theater. Two people she cared about.
People I care about.
Oh God, her brothers!
She had to warn her brothers, let them know that any one of them could become the next target simply because they were related to her. Yes, she knew they were all perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but in this case, they wouldn’t know they needed to if she didn’t warn them first.
She stood up abruptly, coming to a halt as the bedroom door opened and Jonas stood in the doorway. His shoulders were so wide across, she couldn’t see out into the lit hallway behind him, and his height meant his head was only a couple of inches short of the top of the doorframe. Midnight-black hair and the dark stubble on his jaw put his face in shadow.
“My brothers—”
“We need to call Gabriel—”
They both began talking at the same time, and then both stopped at the same time.
“Have you been crying—”
“I know we need to call Gabriel—”
The same thing happened again.
“You first,” Lily put in hastily before they could speak together for a third time.
“Have you been crying?” Jonas repeated.
“Of course I’ve been crying,” she dismissed irritably. “One of my friends died tonight, and another one is still fighting for his life.”
When she put it like that…
Jonas’s childhood on the reservation hadn’t been the best place for someone who had always preferred his own company. He had become even more solitary after his mother died. When his father also died, shortly after Jonas’s eighteenth birthday, there hadn’t been any reason for him to stay in Arizona.
He’d joined the army and forged a bond of sorts with the men in his team. Men he relied on to watch his back, and who in turn relied on him. The same with the people he worked with at Grayson Security.
But friends? No, despite what he had told Lily, he didn’t have friends.
Jonas was close to Seth, but even that friendship had changed now Seth was married to Diana. Jonas was pleased for the other man, knew that a family of his own was what Seth needed, and Diana was not only beautiful but gutsy. The two of them were perfect together.
Friendships required time and attention Jonas simply didn’t have to give. His work kept him busy, and when he wasn’t away working somewhere, he was happy to hole up in his home and not see anyone for days, sometimes weeks, at a time.
Something that wasn’t an option right now.
He moved farther into the bedroom until he stood in front of Lily, the eyes glowing up at him a deep green in the light filtering through from the hallway. “I’m sorry for what happened to your friends.”
“Thank you.”
“And I didn’t mean to insult you earlier.” He sighed. “It can’t have escaped your notice that my people and verbal skills are…”
“Lacking?” she supplied wryly. “Nonexistent?”
“To put it mildly.”
Lily eyed him curiously. “Why is that?”
“The work I’ve done and do doesn’t show humankind in a very positive light.”
“So you choose to suspect everyone until proven otherwise?”
“That approach hasn’t let me down so far.”
“I doubt it’s made you any friends either.”
Jonas grimaced. “There is that.”
Lily’s earlier anger melted as if it had never been. Jonas might be big and strong, totally fearless, but there was also a vulnerability beneath that exterior. Perhaps related to the fact that his father had been an Apache Indian and his mother English? Picking up on the little Jonas had said about the marriage, his mother’s family obviously hadn’t approved of the marriage. Lily doubted his Native American family were altogether comfortable with it either. Which placed Jonas between a rock and a hard place, and belonging to neither world.
She reached out and placed her hand on his muscular forearm. “Jonas—”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Lily froze as she looked past Jonas and saw her eldest brother standing in the doorway, her other three brothers standing outside in the hallway.
All of them glowering darkly, bodies tensed as if for a fight.
Which Lily would be more than happy to give them.
Chapter 6
Lily was furious on so many levels, at the accusation and suspicion in Gabriel’s tone, but mostly with the fact that all four of her brothers had obviously broken into her apartment. Such behavior went way beyond an invasion of her privacy and space.
“Lily,” Jonas protested softly when he saw the light of battle in her eyes.
She removed her hand from his arm and stepped around him to confront her brothers. “How dare the four of you walk in here as if you own the place—”
“Possibly because we do,” Gabriel came back tightly.
“What?” Lily stared at him incredulously.
He gave an unapologetic shrug. “Knight Security bought this building the day after you moved into it. We also increased security, and installed surveillance cameras outside, front and back.”
Jonas gave an inward wince, at the same time as his outward expression remained impassive. Gabriel didn’t know his little sister at all if he thought that information was going to go unchallenged.
“You bastard!” Lily exploded, hands clenched at her sides. “All this time, I thought I was being so independent— You’re nothing more than a controlling monster. All of you are. And to think that minutes ago, I was telling Jonas we needed to call you.” Her furious gaze encompassed all her brothers. “Get out,” she snapped between gritted teeth. “All of you, just go, before I say something we’re all going to regret.”
“We’re only trying to look out for you,” Asher defended.
“I didn’t ask you to look out for me. I don’t need you to look out for me,” she added vehemently.
“All evidence to the contrary,” Gabriel snarled. “Someone was killed at the theater you work in earlier this evening, another person seriously injured, and I had to hear it on the national news.” His angry glare included Jonas too now. “What the fuck were you thinking, Jonas, not letting me know what had happened?”
“Respecting Lily’s privacy? Allowing her to be the one to make the decision as to whether to tell you or not?” he came back calmly.
“I heard about the murder and attack on the national fucking news channel!” the other man repeated, as if he didn’t quite believe it himself.
Jonas shrugged. “And Lily and I have been a little preoccupied the last couple of hours.”
“So we all saw,” Gabriel snapped, his eyes glittering like twin emeralds.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Lily bristled.
“This is your bedroom, the lights are off, and the two of you are alone together.” Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “And I obviously made a mistake asking Jonas to protect you, when he can’t keep his damned hands to himself!”
“You— How dare you? And for your information, I was the one who
had my hands all over him just now, not the other way around!”
“True,” Caleb put in softly, and then held his hands up in self-defense as Lily turned that glare on him.
Asher scowled. “He wasn’t exactly fighting her off.”
“I wouldn’t fight either, if a beautiful woman wanted to put her hands all over me,” Ethan drawled.
“Well?” Gabriel ignored his youngest brother to challenge Jonas.
“Do not turn this round on Jonas.” Lily stepped forward. “This is between you and me, and right now, I don’t like any of you very much.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “When are you going to trust me enough to let me grow up? To be independent?”
“It isn’t you we don’t trust, Lily,” Ethan soothed.
“Well, it certainly seems that way to me. And I was going to call you,” she told Gabriel. “Probably once Jonas and I were settled into the hotel—”
“What hotel? What the fuck is going on here?” her eldest brother demanded.
Jonas had heard quite enough, knew there was too much anger and resentment between Gabriel and Lily right now for either of them to truly listen to anything the other had to say.
In Jonas’s opinion, Lily’s anger and resentment were justified. Putting in extra security and street surveillance was one thing, but buying the building where Lily lived and then having Gabriel walk in when he felt like it was unacceptable. He was pretty sure Gabriel’s anger was mainly caused by fear for his young sister’s life, but that in no way excused this behavior.
“I was following protocol, Gabriel,” Jonas spoke evenly. “You remember what that is, don’t you? First priority, to secure the principal? In this case, that would be Lily. Which is why I was moving her to a hotel.”
“Oh.” The other man deflated like a punctured balloon.
Jonas nodded tersely. “Talking of which, I suggest we all retire to the sitting room and leave Lily to pack her suitcase.”
“Wow, I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say in one go, Jonas,” Asher taunted.
He shot the other man an irritated glance. “The alternative was to kick the shit out of the lot of you. Which, in the circumstances, Lily may have preferred,” he added with a rueful glance in her direction. “I just happen to think dialogue will suffice on this occasion.”
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