"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 f.u.c.king 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. G.o.d knows how long he'd been there.

Long enough to see Jonas spanking and pleasuring Lily?

G.o.d, 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 h.e.l.l 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-a.s.s t.i.tle and att.i.tude," 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 t.i.tled. 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-a.s.s att.i.tude. 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 embarra.s.sing. 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 G.o.d.

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 f.u.c.king kidding me?" Jonas was too angry to even attempt to hide it. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Neither am I," Seth a.s.sured 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 f.u.c.king 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 pa.s.senger 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 s.e.xually 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 grat.i.tude 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?"