Savage Alpha (Alpha 8)

by Carole Mortimer

  “I noticed that.”

  “I realize you’re enjoying yourself, Seth, but if you don’t leave in the next ten seconds, I’m going to stand up and throw you out.”

  “Tetchy, tetchy.”

  “Go!”

  “No doubt Jonas will introduce us when I come back in, Miss Knight.”

  Oh God, she might not know this man Seth, but he certainly knew who she was.

  “He’s gone.”

  Lily slowly lifted her head and turned to look at the empty doorway. She moved quickly, standing to hastily pull up her panties and jeans before refastening them. Only to release a hissing breath as the constricting material chaffed painfully against her heated and sore flesh.

  She winced at that burning sensation as she moved across the room to turn on the light. “Who is that?”

  Jonas grinned at her obvious discomfort. “My partner, Seth Armstrong.”

  “Partner?”

  He nodded. “At Grayson Security.”

  “You have a partner?”

  “For the jobs that need two of us, yes.”

  “I’m also the best friend he has,” Seth Armstrong called from the hallway.

  Letting Lily know that he could overhear their conversation. “You may as well come back in, Mr. Armstrong,” she answered dryly.

  “I found this out in the hallway.” He held up the bag of takeout as he sauntered back into the room, a huge grin on his face. “I’m presuming it’s dinner?”

  Seth Armstrong was a couple of inches over six feet tall, had overlong dark hair, with piercing dark eyes set in a hard, uncompromising face. He was leaner than Jonas but just as muscular. It was easy to imagine that these two men together would be a formidable force.

  “Lily Knight. And yes, that’s our dinner.” She took the bag from him.

  “Seth,” he invited, before the humor left his face and he turned to Jonas. “You are in so much trouble.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Jonas rose slowly to his feet.

  “What the hell did you think you were doing, not telling me the reason you were taking two weeks’ leave was so that you could guard Miss Knight?”

  “Lily.” She eyed the two men curiously, seeing genuine affection in Seth’s dark eyes, along with an edge of anger, perhaps even disapproval. “This is all my fault, Mr. Armstrong—”

  “I said call me Seth,” he dismissed. “Jonas is a big boy, he can defend himself, if necessary. Right now, it’s necessary. Well?” he snapped at the other man.

  “I’m not answerable to you, Seth—”

  “Like hell you’re not.” The other man tensed. “We’re partners, friends, and the closest thing to family the two of us have. And friends and family don’t just swan off and put themselves in danger without so much as a fucking word. Excuse the language, Miss—Lily.” He grimaced.

  “I’ve heard worse.” She deliberately quoted Jonas.

  A Jonas who seemed to be genuinely bewildered by the other man’s vehemence. “What the hell is your problem, Seth?”

  “You’re my problem.” Seth stalked across the room until he was standing in Jonas’s personal space. “Why didn’t you tell me what Gabriel was doing at Grayson Security? What’s with the I-don’t-need-anyone’s-help attitude?”

  “I don’t need anyone’s help—”

  “Like hell you don’t.” Seth glowered. “Two men have already died, damn it. And you aren’t invincible. No matter what you may think to the contrary,” he added scathingly.

  Jonas’s expression darkened. “Get the fuck out of my face, Seth—”

  “No.”

  “If you’re upset about my using a couple of Grayson Security men, and other resources—”

  “I’m upset because my best friend didn’t come to me when this situation turned nasty.”

  “Gabriel didn’t want Lily’s involvement to become public.”

  “Fuck what Gabriel Knight wanted. Sorry.” He turned to give Lily another apologetic grimace. “But your big brother is an ass.”

  “True,” she agreed softly. She was enjoying herself far too much to be in the least offended by Seth’s opinion of one of her brothers.

  Whether Jonas realized it or not, Seth’s anger was mainly caused out of concern and affection for him. Because he was his friend. Because he cared about him. Because he was family.

  “Diana is so going to kick your ass the next time she sees you,” Seth warned.

  Jonas looked distinctly uncomfortable now. “You told her?”

  “Of course I told her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s my wife? And your friend.”

  “This really is my fault, Seth,” Lily said again.

  “No, this is Jonas doing his one-man-army routine,” he assured her. “The big, tough Apache who doesn’t need or want anyone. Well, guess what, Jonas?” He was once again in the other man’s face. “We need you. Diana and me. Dair and Kat. Lijah and Callie. Daisy and Nikolai. Everyone who works for or is associated with Grayson Security. We all need you, alive and well. So cut the crap and fill me in on what’s going on here, and we’ll put all of Grayson Security’s resources behind it. Behind you. And that’s a direct order from Dair,” he added in warning.

  “Why the hell can’t you all leave me the fuck alone?” Jonas scowled as he stepped around Seth, hands thrust into the front pockets of his jeans.

  He really didn’t understand, Lily acknowledged sadly. Didn’t realize he had a lot of people in his life who cared about him and for him.

  Including her.

  “I’m going to warm the food while the two of you sort this out,” she said briskly. “You’re welcome to join us, Seth.”

  “If you’re sure I’m not interrupting anything…”

  The color blossomed in her cheeks. “Not anymore.”

  Seth grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

  “Me too.” She smiled. “Play nicely with your friend Jonas,” she mocked.

  Jonas waited only as long as it took for Lily to move through to the kitchen area before turning to the other man. “Who told you about this?”

  Seth arched dark eyebrows. “You don’t think I have enough intelligence to find out what’s going on by myself?”

  “Did you?”

  “Of course I fucking well did.” The other man scowled. “Jerry and Liam have been missing the past couple of days. I have several people in the research office tracking down the source of some letters, under your instructions, with Lily Knight’s name on the envelopes. Sick letters, I might add,” he said in disgust. “Lily Knight is obviously the sister of the Knight brothers. She’s also starring in a play at the theater where two men were bludgeoned to death in the past forty-eight hours. Gabriel has been to Grayson Security twice in the past three days ago. You owe him a favor. Add two and two together, and we have you working on something for him you aren’t sharing.”

  “It’s personal.” Jonas glanced across to where Lily was putting the Chinese food into the oven to warm.

  “I gathered that.” Seth had lowered his voice. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Not that sort of personal.” Even as he said it, Jonas knew he was lying, to himself as much as anyone else. Protecting Lily had become very personal. More personal, more important, than anything else in his life had ever been. She was more important to him than anyone or anything else had ever been.

  Because he had committed the ultimate sin of falling for someone he was supposed to be protecting.

  “If you say so.” Seth’s tone obviously said he wasn’t buying it but wasn’t about to push the subject. “So where are we on this case?”

  “Seth—”

  “I’m here to stay until this is over, so live with it.”

  Jonas recognized that tone. He should, he had one just like it. Seth was here for the duration.

  Which was probably as well. There would be less opportunity for Jonas to be alone with Lily if the other man and Grayson Security were involved. That had to be a
good thing, when his own judgment was off. Anyone could have walked in on him and Lily a few minutes ago, the stalker included, and Jonas would have been too engrossed in pleasuring Lily to even notice until it was too late. He hadn’t even been aware of Seth’s presence until he looked up and saw him standing in the doorway. God knows how long he’d been there.

  Long enough to see Jonas spanking and pleasuring Lily?

  God, he hoped not. He wasn’t exactly her favorite person right now, without adding to her displeasure.

  “You owed Gabriel a favor?”

  While Jonas had been berating himself for becoming involved with someone he was protecting, Lily had finished what she was doing and now eyed him questioningly across the breakfast bar.

  He sighed. “It was nothing—”

  “Gabriel saved his life in Afghanistan. Well, he did,” Seth insisted as Jonas scowled.

  “Ever heard of a little thing called national security?”

  “Oh, to hell with that.” Seth waved a dismissive hand. “Your big brother was quite the hero,” he told Lily.

  She nodded. “I must remember to thank him next time I see him.”

  “I can do without the sarcasm—”

  “That wasn’t sarcasm, Jonas.” Lily’s eyes flashed her irritation. “Jesus, why is it so difficult for you to accept that people care about you? That they actually like you?”

  “Yes, why is that, Jonas?” Seth eyed him mockingly. “Probably something to do with his uptight English grandparents and their stick-up-the-ass title and attitude,” he confided to Lily. “Their loss, if you ask me.”

  “No one did.” Jonas gave him a look that would have cowed a lesser man. Seth remained impervious. “Have you been taking truth pills, or has three weeks of marriage completely addled your brain?” he added irritably as he saw the way Lily’s eyes had widened at Seth’s candor.

  The other man shrugged. “Diana thinks I should talk about my feelings more.”

  “Your feelings, not mine.”

  Seth grinned. “But I’m sure Lily finds your life so much more interesting than mine.”

  He was right, Lily did. She had learned more about Jonas in the past few minutes than she had in the past few days of spending almost every moment with him.

  Gabriel had saved his life, and that was the reason Jonas had agreed to protect her. The only reason.

  Jonas’s mother’s parents weren’t only English, they were also titled. Which probably explained their shock when their daughter had married an Apache Indian. Seth was right, that must have really rattled that stick-up-their-ass attitude. He was also correct in it being their loss. Jonas was a grandson to be proud of, a man of strength, principles, and unshakable loyalty.

  And Jonas had dismissed her to Seth, and what was between the two of them…

  That hurt. A lot.

  It also made her behavior before Seth arrived intensely embarrassing. She had almost begged Jonas to spank her. Almost? She had begged him, not just to spank her but to pleasure her too. Twice.

  She turned away. “I think I’ll go and freshen up before dinner—”

  “Don’t go into the bedroom.” Jonas strode across the room to grasp her arm and prevent her from going down the hallway. “You don’t want to go in there,” he repeated quietly. “I was going to get you away from here without you having to see that, but we— I—” He shook his head. “I allowed myself to become distracted.”

  Lily remembered that distraction only too well. She glanced at her slightly ajar bedroom door before turning back to look searchingly at Jonas. His expression was grim, eyes dark. “Let me go, Jonas.”

  “No.”

  “Let me go.” She held his gaze until his fingers slowly released her. “Thank you.” She straightened her shoulders and walked down the hallway, pausing to take a deep breath before pushing open her bedroom door and switching on the light.

  The room was as she’d left it, apart from the bed. Her lovely four-poster bed that she knew she would never be able to sleep in again.

  The curtains surrounding it had been shredded, probably with a knife. The same with the pillows, resulting in feathers being scattered over the dark carpet like snow. One pillow remained untouched, but there was something sticking out of it—

  Oh God.

  Lily drew back her hand as she recognized what it was.

  It was— It was—

  Lily turned quickly to brush past Jonas as she hurried down the hallway to the bathroom, bending over the porcelain just in time as she was violently sick.

  The person who had broken into her apartment—her stalker?—had thrust a knife into the pillow to the hilt, exactly where her head would be when she was lying down.

  “Lily—”

  “Don’t touch me!” She warned Jonas off, head down and avoiding his gaze. She turned hurriedly away to turn on the cold water tap to wash her face as the shocked tears began to fall.

  “We’re leaving.” Jonas turned to tell Seth as he stood in the doorway. “I was going to call the police once I had Lily away from here, but can you call them once we’ve left? Wait here and do whatever needs doing. I’ll take Lily to my apartment.”

  “Yes, of course—”

  “I’m staying here.” Lily’s eyes were twin wells of tear-drenched pain as she raised her head. “This is my mess. I’ll talk to the police. You should both go. You don’t need to be involved in this—”

  “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.”

  “A
nd 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.