Free Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) by Carole Mortimer Page A

all if he thought that information was going to go unchallenged.
    “You bastard !” 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 encompassed 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 fuck 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 fucking 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 damned 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 fuck 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 principal? 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 shit out of the lot of you. Which, in the