Part 15 (1/2)
Chapter 12.
”Okay, where the f.u.c.k is she?” Jonas barely waited for Gabriel to open his front door before pus.h.i.+ng past the other man and entering the house.
”Come in, why don't you?” Gabriel snapped as he closed the door and turned to confront Jonas in the hallway.
He narrowed his eyes. ”Don't mess with me, Gabriel, I'm not in the mood.” It had been six days since Lily had left her apartment with Seth, and Jonas had absolutely no idea where she was.
He had gone back to his house in Larchwood after speaking with the police that night. As he had suspected might be the case, again there were no fingerprints, not in the apartment or on the knife sticking out of Lily's pillow. The knife itself was also one taken from the set of kitchen knives Lily kept beside the cooker, so nothing traceable there either.
The first three days, Jonas had been too angry at Lily's dismissal to do any more than lick his wounds. Then the anger had changed to longing when Jonas realized he had gotten used to Lily being in his life, sa.s.sing him, challenging him. The house at Larchwood had always been his sanctuary from the professional side of his life, a bolt-hole that no one knew about. All he could see there now was Lily.
Everywhere.
In the house, outside the house. He couldn't walk past the bedroom she'd slept in without remembering the two of them together there. Even that f.u.c.king snowman refused to melt like the rest of the snow, and was a constant reminder of her, grinning at him from the front garden as if mocking him while he paced the house endlessly. He'd tried going up to his studio to paint, usually his means of escape, but even that had failed to fill the gap Lily had left in his life.
d.a.m.n it, he not only missed having her around, he missed her.
Once he'd accepted that, Jonas had decided to drive back to town, his intention being to speak to Lily, explain to her that he needed to be the one protecting her. That the thought of that sick f.u.c.ker somehow getting to her, hurting her, was eating him up inside.
He'd telephoned Gabriel as soon as he got back to town, but the other man insisted Lily wasn't with him. Seth was no help either when Jonas went to the Grayson Security offices. The other man flatly refused to tell him where he'd taken Lily that night, that ”the fewer people who know where she is, the better.” Jonas now regretted ever involving the other man.
”You look as if you need one of these.” Gabriel held up the gla.s.s of whisky he was nursing. ”Probably for the same reason too,” he muttered as he walked down the hallway to what turned out to be his study when Jonas followed him into the room.
”Isn't it a bit early for whisky?”
”Admittedly, it's only early afternoon here, but I'm sure the sun has 'gone over the yardarm' somewhere in the world.”
”Thanks.” Jonas took the gla.s.s of whisky Gabriel had poured him and drank it down in one swallow. He didn't even wince as the alcohol burned the back of his throat.
”Yes, definitely the same reason.” The other man sighed. ”Like a refill?”
”No, thanks.” Jonas slumped down in one of the two chairs on opposite sides of the lit fire. ”Lily really isn't here, is she?”
”No.” The other man sat in the chair opposite. ”Seth won't tell you where she is either, hmm?”
”He insists it's safer this way.” Jonas stared morosely into the dancing flames. ”Ordinarily, I would agree with him, would do the same, but... d.a.m.n it, I'm the one who allowed him in on this, and now he won't tell me where Lily is. What?” he demanded when the other man made no reply for several long seconds.
Gabriel scowled. ”I'm just wondering, after what I saw in her apartment the other night, exactly what your interest is in my little sister?”
Jonas's eyes narrowed. What Gabriel had seen in Lily's apartment was nothing compared to what Seth had walked in on. ”I had a job to do. I failed to do it.”
”So your concern is merely professional?”
Jonas became guarded. ”What else?”
The other man winced. ”And is that what you told Lily?”
”Of course it's what I told Lily. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d got into her dressing room, killed two people she cared about, and then broke into her apartment, violated her bedroom. All on my watch. Because I f.u.c.king failed to protect her.”
”Not that bit. Did you tell her she was only a job to you?”
”No, of course I... Seth may have implied it,” Jonas realized slowly. ”He was angry with me for not telling him I was using my vacation time to work for you. Lily overheard part, if not all, of that conversation. She now knows I took the job of protecting her because I owed you a favor.”
Gabriel groaned. ”And I thought my tact around women was nonexistent. Turns out I'm a complete charmer compared to you.”
”I wasn't the one who said she was a job to me.”
”But you didn't correct Seth either, did you?”
”I took her back to my house. Built a f.u.c.king snowman with her, because she asked me to, didn't I?” His tone was defensive. ”I drove her back to town, against my better judgment, when she said she had to be here, not there. Even though I knew there was nothing she could do, and the b.a.s.t.a.r.d had broken into her apartment when we got here.”
”You took Lily to your house?”
”Yes.”
”The house no one else even knows the location of, let alone has ever been allowed to visit?”
”Yes.” Resentment entered his voice.
Gabriel grinned. ”You built a snowman with her?”
Jonas had done a lot more than build a snowman with Lily, but he had no intention of discussing that with her eldest brother. ”I didn't come here to be the b.u.t.t of your f.u.c.king warped sense of humor.”
Gabriel sobered. ”No, you came to find my sister. My question is still why did you? And don't give me that c.r.a.p again about finis.h.i.+ng a job. You might have convinced Lily that's the reason, but not me.”
Jonas surged to his feet. ”I'm done here-”
”You're done when I say you're done.” Gabriel stood too, the two men facing off like adversaries. As Jonas towered several inches taller than Gabriel and weighed fifty pounds more, the other man was finally the one to reluctantly back down, his sigh one of frustration. ”Jonas, what the h.e.l.l is going on with you and Lily?”
Jonas wished he knew. He had never missed a woman before, and this, not even knowing where Seth had taken her, was driving him insane. ”Aren't you curious to know where she is?”
Gabriel held up his gla.s.s of whisky. ”This is my second bottle in the past six days. Does that answer your question? All Seth will tell me is she's safe, despite my having threatened to break both his arms if he didn't tell me where she is. If you do manage to find her...”
”Yes?”
”Let me know, okay?”
”Okay.”
”And if-when the two of you talk again, I'd steer clear of repeating the part about her being only a job to you because of an obligation to me.” Gabriel grimaced.
It had started out that way, Jonas frowned, but it had very quickly turned into something else. Everything inside him, every part of him, veered away from acknowledging what that something else was.
He breathed heavily. ”I'm going to pay Seth a visit at home rather than the office. I doubt he'll continue to be so closemouthed with Diana present.”
”Ooh, nasty.”
Jonas gave a humorless smile. ”I'm through playing Mr. Nice Guy. It's time to bring in the big guns.” He and Diana had formed a mutual respect and affection after an incident in Paris late last year. He doubted she would allow Seth to continue torturing him with evasive answers as to Lily's whereabouts.