Free Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) by Carole Mortimer

crying?” Jonas repeated.
    “Of course I’ve been crying,” she dismissed irritably. “One of my friends died tonight, and another one is still fighting for his life.”
    When she put it like that…
    Jonas’s childhood on the reservation hadn’t been the best place for someone who had always preferred his own company. He had become even more solitary after his mother died. When his father also died, shortly after Jonas’s eighteenth birthday, there hadn’t been any reason for him to stay in Arizona.
    He’d joined the army and forged a bond of sorts with the men in his team. Men he relied on to watch his back, and who in turn relied on him. The same with the people he worked with at Grayson Security.
    But friends? No, despite what he had told Lily, he didn’t have friends.
    Jonas was close to Seth, but even that friendship had changed now Seth was married to Diana. Jonas was pleased for the other man, knew that a family of his own was what Seth needed, and Diana was not only beautiful but gutsy. The two of them were perfect together.
    Friendships required time and attention Jonas simply didn’t have to give. His work kept him busy, and when he wasn’t away working somewhere, he was happy to hole up in his home and not see anyone for days, sometimes weeks, at a time.
    Something that wasn’t an option right now.
    He moved farther into the bedroom until he stood in front of Lily, the eyes glowing up at him a deep green in the light filtering through from the hallway. “I’m sorry for what happened to your friends.”
    “Thank you.”
    “And I didn’t mean to insult you earlier.” He sighed. “It can’t have escaped your notice that my people and verbal skills are…”
    “Lacking?” she supplied wryly. “Nonexistent?”
    “To put it mildly.”
    Lily eyed him curiously. “Why is that?”
    “The work I’ve done and do doesn’t show humankind in a very positive light.”
    “So you choose to suspect everyone until proven otherwise?”
    “That approach hasn’t let me down so far.”
    “I doubt it’s made you any friends either.”
    Jonas grimaced. “There is that.”
    Lily’s earlier anger melted as if it had never been. Jonas might be big and strong, totally fearless, but there was also a vulnerability beneath that exterior. Perhaps related to the fact that his father had been an Apache Indian and his mother English? Picking up on the little Jonas had said about the marriage, his mother’s family obviously hadn’t approved of the marriage. Lily doubted his Native American family were altogether comfortable with it either. Which placed Jonas between a rock and a hard place, and belonging to neither world.
    She reached out and placed her hand on his muscular forearm. “Jonas—”
    “What the hell is going on here?”
    Lily froze as she looked past Jonas and saw her eldest brother standing in the doorway, her other three brothers standing outside in the hallway.
    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 space.
    “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 impassive. Gabriel didn’t know his little sister at