Nonessential like Avery in the back of her van.
Viv disappeared inside, and Jo glanced around the parking lot. She didn’t relish walking all the way around the museum in the dark, but she didn’t want to get Viv in trouble or fired. Plus, she’d rather avoid another no-hard-feelings moment with Giselle.
A shadow shifted on the other side of the catering van, and Chase stepped from behind it. He beckoned her as he approached. “Come with me.”
Wary, Jo moved closer to the kitchen door. “What are you doing here?”
“I came for you.” He latched onto her arm and tugged with more force than he’d ever used on her before. His eyes were wild, desperate, locked on the door behind her. “We gotta go. Now.”
Avery’s belief that Chase was her stalker scrambled to catch up with what was happening. Jo still couldn’t grasp the reality of it.
“Chase, stop.” She dug in her heels, but they skidded across the pavement.
“We don’t have time for this.” He rounded on her, grabbed her around the waist, and hauled her off her feet. She shoved against him, but he was too strong, his strides too quick, eating up half the parking lot in seconds.
“Be still,” he hissed, zig-zagging between cars. “And be quiet.”
Jo aimed a knee at his balls but connected with his thigh instead.
His grip slipped but he grabbed her again. “Goddammit, Jo, stop fighting me.”
“Take your fucking hands off her.” Avery’s feral growl spun her around just in time to see his fist connect with Chase.
Chase flew back and landed hard on the pavement.
She fell against the hood of a car but managed to stay upright.
Avery was on Chase in a heartbeat, standing over him. He lifted Chase by the front of his shirt and pounded his face. The crunch of bone against bone wrenched Jo’s stomach. Blood gushed from Chase’s nose as he tried to fend off the next blow.
“Avery, stop,” she screamed and started forward, but fingers drove into her hair, and she was yanked backward. Something cold and metal jabbed the base of her spine.
“Come with me, or I’ll kill him.” The whispered threat seeped inside Jo—soft and deadly—chilling her to the bone.
“Giselle?”
Avery must have heard her because his next punch never landed. His head swung toward her, his dark eyes meeting hers, assessing, working the situation. As soon as realization hit, he let go of Chase, straightened, and shifted closer. “Let her go.”
“Stay back.” Giselle waved the gun at him.
“No!” Jo shouted, then cried out as another vicious yank pulled her off balance. She stumbled into the front fender of a car, jarring her hip. The sting to her scalp was like a thousand tiny razors slicing into her. Fear circled like smoke, stealing her breath.
But the gun dug into her side where it belonged, where it couldn’t hurt anyone else.
“I should do it.” The tremor of crazy in Giselle’s voice frightened Jo more than the rage. “Take him from you like you’ve taken everything from me.”
Chase crawled onto his hands and knees. “Giselle, don’t do this. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Shut up. You lied to me.” She aimed the gun at Chase. “You said you loved me, but you only want her.”
What the fuck? Chase and Giselle?
He’d said he was seeing someone, but that was just so bizarre. It made no sense.
Face and hands covered in blood, Chase staggered to his feet and lumbered forward. “No, baby, I don’t love her. I love you.”
“Liar,” she screeched. Her gun hand snaked around Jo’s middle, the barrel lodging under her breast, against her pounding heart, shimmering with every heaving breath. “Why else would you be here? With her? You ruined everything. I was waiting for next weekend.”
Oh, my god. That’s why she’s doing Georgia’s wedding.
