Lily didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the incredulous expressions on her brothers’ faces. Or shout go, Jonas, as her brothers all preceded him out of her bedroom and the door closed quietly behind them.
She felt grateful to Jonas for removing them as she sat shakily on the side of her bed and drew in several deep, controlling breaths. Her body felt as if she had been on a roller-coaster ride and taken her emotions on the highs and lows along with it. That disgusting graffiti. The intimacies she had shared with Jonas. The attacks on Charlie and Evan. Charlie’s death. The interview with the police. Last but not least, learning that Knight Security owned the building she lived in.
She knew her brothers well enough to know the latter probably meant there was a lot more security in this building than she—or Jonas?—were aware of. Although possibly not; Jonas was quiet and lethal, but he was also highly intelligent, and he knew how to protect “his principal.” Jonas had known about that added security.
Damn him.
Damn them all.
To be fair to Jonas, he was only doing his job. But her brothers’ had stepped over a line by putting that extra security around her without even telling her. As for buying the building she lived in…
Intrusive, yes. Stepping over a line, yes.
But those things might also have kept her safe from her stalker up till now.
“How on earth did you manage to get rid of them?” Lily eyed Jonas curiously, her head turned on the backrest to look at him as she sat beside him in the SUV. By the time she came out of her bedroom with her packed bag, her brothers had all gone and only Jonas remained.
He gave a humorless grin. “I pointed out that Gabriel engaged me to protect you and they should all just back off and let me do my job.”
Her eyes widened. “And that worked?”
“It did once I told them the alternative,” Jonas murmured with satisfaction. The Knight brothers were arrogant bastards, but luckily, Jonas was equally so.
“Which is?”
“That not only would I take you somewhere safe, but I wouldn’t contact them again until I’m good and ready. They all know I’m capable of doing exactly that,” he assured her grimly.
Lily had known that Jonas had to be good at what he did for Gabriel to have asked for the other man’s help. But if he had managed to rout her brothers with one sentence, then he must be even scarier than she’d realized.
“You and Gabriel met in the military.” She’d guessed that from their earlier conversation regarding “protocol” and “securing the principal.”
“Yes.”
“The same military, or fighting for different countries?”
“Different countries.”
Lily couldn’t imagine Jonas minus all that glossy shoulder length blue-black, and sporting an American military-style buzz cut. God, he must have looked even more intimidating than he did now, and the enemy wouldn’t have stood a chance with his six and a half feet of burnished muscle pounding down on them, face smeared with camouflage paint, a gun in his hand.
She knew better than to expect Jonas to tell her anything more about his friendship with Gabriel. “Which hotel are we going to?”
“I changed my mind about the hotel.”
“Changed it, or had it changed for you?” Lily taunted.
His mouth twisted derisively. “Changed it. Although the idea occurred to me as I was speaking with your brothers.”
Her respect for this man grew by the minute. As did her liking for him. As for the way he made her feel physically…
“So where are we going?” she prompted in an effort not to dwell on her physical responses to Jonas.
“My home.”
Oh dear Lord…
Lily ran her tongue nervously across her lips before answering him. “Your home?”
He didn’t look at her, but his eyes narrowed on the darkened road ahead. “You have a problem with that?”
“Not at all.” In fact, the more she thought about it, seeing where and how Jonas lived appealed to her far more than staying with him in a soulless hotel.
Quite what she had expected that “home” to look like, Lily wasn’t sure.
Except she hadn’t expected them to drive out of London, leaving the city far behind as Jonas turned the SUV off the major roads, some of these smaller roads even showing evidence of the snowfall from the previous week. The snow in London had melted and completely disappeared by the following morning.
The roads became narrower and narrower as Jonas drove into a forest for a couple of miles before turning off yet again, this time into even denser woodland and along a rutted track that had snow piled up in several places. They drove in those conditions for about a mile before Jonas turned and parked the SUV in the shelter of a heavy canopy of trees.
“We walk the rest of the way,” Jonas told her. He turned off the engine and pressed the release button of his seat belt before pushing open his door and stepping out into the pitch darkness outside.
“Where on earth are we?” Lily had lived in the city all her life, rarely found the time or inclination to go out into the countryside. She hadn’t even realized remote places like this still existed so close to London. It was so dark outside, Jonas was just a darker shape against that blackness, his breath a cold mist, as was her own as she stepped slowly down onto the ground.
“Larchwood Forest.”
“Never heard of it.” Not only was it cold and black as pitch out here, with the surrounding trees adding to its sinister air, but the moon and stars appeared far brighter than they ever were over London.
“Because it’s private woodland.” Jonas was barely discernable as he moved to the back of the vehicle to collect her bag.
Realizing she was standing alone, surrounded by silence, darkness and trees, Lily hastened to follow him. “If it’s private, then what are we doing here?” Her voice sounded hushed in that silence.
“I own it. Or rather, my company owns it.”
“Grayson Security?”
“JG Enterprises.”
“You have your own company?”
“Yes.” Jonas held her bag in his hand as he closed the trunk and turned to face her.
“You own a forest?”
“Yes.”
“A big-ass forest, by the look of it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Towns and cities make me claustrophobic.”
As if that dismissal explained everything. And, considering Jonas’s background and where he had grown up, perhaps it did.
Lily had never been anywhere this remote in her life before, let alone actually expected to stay out here. Did Jonas’s house—cabin?—even have electricity, running water, mains sewage? Oh God, if Jonas expected her to go outside into the woods every time she wanted the bathroom, then one of them was in for a rude awakening. She had a feeling it might be her.
“I know it’s late, but we still haven’t eaten, so if you don’t want to stay here, say so now and we can drive back to town.” Jonas already regretted bringing her here. He wouldn’t have suggested it at all if Gabriel hadn’t insisted he would leave them both alone if Jonas agreed to stay at a safe house rather than a hotel. Jonas had decided on his own home before he had fully considered the consequences.
He never brought anyone here, had bought the woodland through a company so that no one could even connect him to it. No one at Grayson Security knew where he lived. He had also kept a vigilant eye on the rearview mirror on the drive here in case one of the Knight brothers decided to follow them. At which time he would have stopped the vehicle and confronted them. Luckily, that hadn’t happened.
Larchwood was his sanctuary. The place he could go to and know no one would ever find him.
And yet he hadn’t thought twice about bringing Lily here.
A woman with whom he couldn’t seem to keep his damned hands to himself, as well as other parts of his anatomy, for more than a few minutes at a time.
“Fine,”
she finally agreed impatiently. “But if I have to pee in the woods in the middle of the night, you’re going to be the one holding the flashlight and standing guard while I do.”
Some of the tension eased from Jonas’s shoulders as he chuckled. In the circumstances, Lily’s impression of his home being primitive, with none of the modern conveniences, was perfectly understandable. They had driven deep into woodlands for several miles, then over a mile along this rutted track that seemed to lead to nowhere, and now they had a half-mile trek on foot before they reached the house. To expect civilization at the end of it must seem improbable.
“Just stay close behind me and don’t veer off the track.”
Lily moved a step closer to him as she peered warily into the darkness of the woods. “Are there wild animals out here?”
“I’ve heard the rabbits roam around in packs.”
“Very funny.”
Jonas could feel rather than see her glare. “The deer have vicious tempers too.”
“Ha-bloody-ha.”
Jonas gave another chuckle. “There are no wild animals here, City Girl. The most dangerous thing you’ll find in this forest is the savage who lives here.”
Jonas was dangerous, as far as Lily was concerned. To her emotions and her self-control. “You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?”
“Immensely.”
She snorted. “Why did you tell me not to veer off the track?”
“Because we’re going along the edge of a valley for part of the walk, and I would hate for you to slip on the snow and fall down it. I’ve been known to turn into that savage if I’m not fed when I’m hungry, and having to rescue you would delay dinner even further.” Jonas set off at a brisk pace.
Lily took his warning to heart, one of her hands grasping hold of the back of his coat as the two of them set off along the track Jonas had worn over time to his house.
Jonas didn’t bother using a flashlight to guide their way through the woods. He knew the way blindfolded. Besides which, it wasn’t as dark as Lily seemed to think it was, once your eyes became accustomed to the dappled silver light of the moon and stars overhead.
This remoteness was one of the things that had appealed to Jonas when he looked for a property in England five years ago. Somewhere he could call home when he was here, but also a place that could be locked up and left for months at a time, if necessary. And sometimes, in his job, it became necessary. But it was always there, waiting for him, a haven of peace and solitude to return to after whatever mission he had been on.
Except he wasn’t returning alone this time, and he doubted there would be much peace involved either.
“This is incredible.” Lily’s eyes glowed as she looked about the home she had assumed would be a log cabin but was in fact more like a one-level mansion, albeit one fashioned completely out of wood.
From the outside, it was a huge, sprawling building, surrounded on all sides by a wooden deck and the thick forest beyond. Inside was even more of a surprise. The lights all came on with the flick of a switch, for one thing.
It felt warmer as soon as they walked inside, and Jonas had already put a match to the log fire laid ready and waiting in the hearth, its cheery crackle and the warmth of the flames adding to the comfort of the huge, open-plan living area.
There appeared to be several bedrooms and bathrooms down a hallway to the right, and the country-style kitchen was all mellow oak cupboards, with copper pans hanging over the worktable in the center of that area. The furnishings in the main part of the house were simplistic, even rustic, but obviously expensive and bought for comfort rather than fashion.
The polished wooden floors were covered in brightly colored rugs, with several framed and professionally taken photographs adorning the walls. Lily had always admired Finn Devlin’s work, and these ones of the American prairie were no exception.
“Who are you?” The house itself was impressive, even more so considering it had been built out here, in the middle of nowhere. But the fixtures and fittings were obviously top of the range, and those Finn Devlin originals were worth a small fortune.
“Jonas Grayfeather.” Jonas folded his arms across the massive width of his chest as he eyed her guardedly.
Lily’s own gaze challenged. “That isn’t what I meant, and you know it.”
He shrugged. “Private security is a lucrative business.”
She knew that from the company her brothers owned and ran, but this, the extensive private woodland and this house, the obvious wealth of the furnishings inside, were so much more than that. Besides which, Jonas didn’t own Grayson Security; he was an employee there. So where had all this wealth come from?
“You don’t rob banks on the side, do you?” she prompted warily.
Jonas grinned. “No.”
Which, Lily guessed, was as far as she was going to get on the subject of Jonas’s obvious wealth. “Can we get a signal here for my cell phone and laptop?”
“We can.” Jonas straightened. “But I would rather you didn’t use either of them for now.”
She frowned. “Why not?”
“Because if someone has the right software and the ability, a cell phone and laptop connection can both be traced.”
“I doubt my stalker has either of those things.”
“We don’t know that. We don’t know anything about the cowardly little fucker,” Jonas added fiercely. “But we will,” he assured her, expression grim.
“I don’t see how…”
“Slow but sure progress. I passed the envelopes on to staff at Grayson Security, and they’ve already established from the postmarks that three of the last six letters were posted within the same area in London.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
“Because so far today, there hasn’t been time to do anything more than stay one step ahead of the bastard.”
He had a point. “What area?”
“Clapham.”
“And the rest of them?”
“Random locations about the city.”
Which meant they were basically no further forward. “I need to call the hospital to see how Evan is.”
“As you aren’t family, I very much doubt they will tell you, but you can use the landline for that.” He indicated the phone on the wall in the kitchen area as he slipped off the leather duster and hung it on the coat stand beside the front door. “I want you to keep your cell phone switched off, and remove the battery too. And absolutely no contact with anyone on your laptop or any other device you might have.”
“How am I supposed to keep in touch with Giles? To know when the theater will be opening again?” Once again Lily found herself distracted by the play of muscles across the width of Jonas’s back beneath the dark T-shirt he wore, along with the pleasure of looking at the tautness of his backside in faded denims.
“As I said, use the landline. It’s totally secure.”
Of course it was. “How about my brothers? Do they know where I am?”
“I’ve given the police this telephone number where you can be reached, if necessary. But your brothers and I all agreed it was for the best if they knew only that you were still in England rather than the exact location, and that I would be the one to report back to them on a regular basis.”
“I didn’t agree.”
Jonas gave a distracted shrug as he strode through to the kitchen area. “If you think you can find your own way out of here, then go for it.” His expression was unconcerned as he began to take food out of the fridge.
Because he knew there was no way Lily would be able to walk herself back out of here tonight, that she would become completely lost within minutes of losing sight of this house. Which meant she was completely alone in the middle of this forest, with a man she barely knew.
But a man whose slightest touch stripped her of any vestige of self-control.
Chapter 7
“Why don’t you go and unpack or maybe take a relaxing shower while I cook dinner?” Jona
s suggested as he saw the haunted expression in Lily’s eyes. “You can use the first bedroom and adjoining bathroom on the right down the hallway.”
She seemed to shake off some of that melancholy as she straightened the defeated slump of her shoulders. “This house has indoor plumbing as well as electricity.” It was a statement, not a question.
He shrugged. “It’s a little remote, I admit—” He raised questioning brows as Lily snorted. “Okay, it’s a lot remote,” he conceded. “But the water is pumped up from a well, I have a generator for the electricity, and there’s a septic tank. There’s also a plentiful supply of logs to keep the fire burning indefinitely, if we should lose power for any reason.”
“And is that likely to happen?”
“Not unless it snows again. And maybe not even then.”
She grimaced. “Okay, I’ll go and take a shower. If you’re sure you don’t need any help with cooking dinner?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Lily picked up her bag and made her way down the hallway to the bedroom Jonas had said would be hers for the duration of her stay here.
The first thing she did was to pull the soft green velvet curtains across the window. There was just something unnerving about being surrounded by nothing but trees. Trees that someone could use to hide behind as they looked inside the house, and at the same time would stop Lily from being able to see them.
She really was a city girl.
The bedroom was as rustic but tastefully furnished as the rest of the house, with several brightly colored oil paintings of mountains and woodlands adorning the walls. The bed was a sturdy oak frame, the mattress covered with a dark maroon throw and several pillows, and there was plenty of room for her clothes in the dressing table and chest of drawers made of the same mellow oak. A walk-in closet took up the same amount of space as the adjoining bathroom fitted out in black-and-white marble tiles. She discovered that the shower unit was big enough for three people, rather than one, once she had undressed and stepped beneath the hot and invigorating spray of the power shower.
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