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 s.p.a.ce.

"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 impa.s.sive. Gabriel didn't know his little sister at all if he thought that information was going to go unchallenged.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" 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 encompa.s.sed 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 f.u.c.k 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 f.u.c.king 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 d.a.m.ned 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 f.u.c.k 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 princ.i.p.al? 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 s.h.i.t out of the lot of you. Which, in the circ.u.mstances, Lily may have preferred," he added with a rueful glance in her direction. "I just happen to think dialogue will suffice on this occasion."

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 princ.i.p.al." Jonas had known about that added security.

d.a.m.n him.

d.a.m.n 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, 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 a.s.sured 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 princ.i.p.al."

"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. G.o.d, 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 b.u.t.ton 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-a.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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 d.a.m.ned 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 circ.u.mstances, 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."