“That might not be the case.” Adrenaline hummed in his veins. “I have an old broken mixer in my truck they might be able to pull prints from it.”
Marcus looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Explain why you would keep a broken mixer.”
He hadn’t been able to bring himself to throw it away. “It was Jo’s grandmother’s. Seeing it smashed up hit her pretty hard. I thought I’d see if it could be restored.”
Spencer choked on whiskey and a laugh.
Marcus hid a grin behind his glass.
Ignoring his asshole brothers, Avery looked at Nick. “I’ll call Officer Benning and set up a time to take it in.”
Nick nodded. “How’s she holding up?”
“As well as can be expected for someone who’s lost their job and had their home ransacked by some fucker with an obsession. But she’s strong. She’s focused on getting her business going, and I have Zach looking for an apartment for her.”
Among a few other things he’d rather not go into.
Nick narrowed his gaze on Avery, his steepled fingertips tapping. “So her stay with you is transitory?”
The question came out of nowhere, firing up Avery’s defenses. “Your memory must be failing, old man. I told you Jo and I are fake dating, remember?”
“Does she?”
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
“I’m not sure what you’re implying, but she didn’t plan all this as some nefarious plot to bring down the Preston empire, and if you think that—”
“Take it easy.” All humor gone, Marcus leaned a forearm on the table. “We like Jo. It’s still the situation we’re concerned about.”
“What about it?”
“Melody stopped by the office after leaving your place.” Spencer rolled his empty glass in between his fingers, then leaned forward to discard it. “They had a good time, so thanks for that, but she’s worried about Jo.”
“Why?” Avery sat forward. His first thought was that her psycho stalker had found her. He’d thought she’d be safe at his condo, especially with the girls there. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened. She’s concerned that Jo’s catching feelings for you.”
“Why would she think that?”
“The conversation you two had when you were leaving supposedly looked intense but ‘tender,’” Spencer said, making air quotes, “and the way Jo looked at you was ‘gooey.’”
Marcus scoffed. “Charlotte used the word ‘adoring.’”
A black cloud of dread stirred in Avery’s gut. Gooey? Adoring? All he’d seen was irritation, remorse, and heat. Had he missed something?
Nah. “They saw what they wanted to see. It was all part of the act.”
“She also said that,” Marcus went on, “when the subject of your visit to the club came up and everyone was throwing shade, Jo came to your defense and shut it down.”
“At least someone has my back,” Avery muttered under his breath, both irritated that he’d been the topic of their man bashing and warmed by Jo’s not-so-surprising loyalty. For all the shit she gave him about hisfuckboylifestyle, she seemed to genuinely see him for who he was and liked him anyway.
“We all have your back.” Nick reached for his glass. “We just want you to be careful or someone’s going to get hurt.”
“No one is getting hurt.” But the cloud grew, gathering force. “Three more weeks, and we’ll be done.”
“And how do you see this thing ending?” Nick was a persistent motherfucker.
Avery lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “It just will. She’ll move on with her life, a little more secure than before. I’ll move on with mine with no one riding my ass to the altar.”
