Chapter Nineteen #2
“Thanks.” He smiled but frustration spiked his blood and curled his fingers into fists at his sides. She knew better than to run off by herself. “Guess I’ll go try to find her.”
When he did, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight until they got home, and then, he was going to spank that pretty little ass for making him worry about her. After that, he planned to make her beg him to fuck her.
****
The air outside the museum was cool compared to the heat of the small caterer’s galley tucked in the back. Jo had missed the sounds of the kitchen—her former co-workers bustling about, pots clanging, and the slam of an oven door—but she couldn’t have heard Viv right.
“Wait.” She blinked. “You want to say that again.”
“I know, it’s crazy but true.” Viv poked her head out the door of the catering van. “She’s caterin’ Georgia’s weddin’ for free.”
“That’s what I thought you said.” Jo hadn’t heard a peep from her family about it. Just the usual belittling texts or those demanding she bring Avery. Still nothing at all from Chase. “Why would she do that?”
“Found ’em.” Viv climbed down from the van with a small tub of linen-wrapped flatware. She handed them to Theo who waited at the kitchen door, then turned to Jo. “She said it was the least she could do for firin’ you.”
“She couldn’t just give me my job back?” Not that Jo would ever go back to work for Giselle or anyone else. She’d come too far. Well, not that far. A few private clients did not a business make. But she liked knowing every new client was a building block toward her dream and not someone else’s.
“I asked her that. She said somethin’ about kickin’ you out of the nest and letting you fly on your own, but I think she didn’t want to have to admit she was wrong.” Viv shook her head and whistled low. “All I can say is, karma’s name is Georgia, and I kinda enjoy watchin’ Gruella get hers.”
Jo chuckled. “Then I’ll see you next weekend, and we’ll watch the fireworks together.”
“Will Just Avery be there?”
The question caught her off guard. Her body tingled at his name and at the memory of their earlier exchange. The way his eyes had burned with a sinful promise she’d taste one last time while her heart hungered for the one he could never make.
She rubbed her arms and shook her head to clear it. “No, he’ll, um, be out of town.”
Not a lie, and it was better for everyone if they believed whatever story Avery put out about their breakup. They had yet to talk about it, so, yeah, that conversation was next on the agenda, between thank you for everything and goodbye.
“Thanks for the heads up.” She started to go back inside. “I’d better get back.
Viv stopped with a raised hand. “Let me make sure the coast is clear. You know how she is about nonessential personnel in her kitchen.”
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.
Chase listed to the right. “I came to tell her how much I love you.”
Avery inched forward and to the left while Giselle’s attention was on Chase. They were dividing Giselle’s sight line.
Oh God. Jo shook her head, imploring him with her eyes.
Please don’t do anything stupid.
The butt of the gun lanced off the underside of Jo’s jaw, snapping it shut. Pain seared the inside of her cheek. A sharp coppery tang filled her mouth and spewed from her lips on her heaving exhale.
“I told you not to move.” Giselle laughed. “But you never listen, do you? I took you in, tried to teach you, but you think you know everything. You turned everyone against me—my employees first, then clients, and now Chase. I should have gotten rid of you sooner.”
Another yank. “I tried, you know. I slashed your tire, hoping you’d be late for work and I could fire you, but that didn’t work.”
Avery shifted left again.
Giselle either missed his movement or chose to ignore him.
“I hired someone to rob you when I knew you’d be working, and I couldn’t be two places at once.
By the way, your landlord’ll do anything for a few bucks.
” She laughed again. “Can you imagine how much pleasure I took in firing you that night, knowing you’d go home to find that precious mixer you saved for gone?
You and Vivianne talked about nothing else for weeks, but did you bother to ask me for advice? No.”
The gun waffled back and forth between Jo and Avery. “And you two made it so easy. The playboy and his whore fucking in the back of my van.”
Whatever he was planning, she had to keep Giselle’s focus off him.
Swallowing her fear, she glanced over her shoulder. “Did Lambert destroy my apartment?”
“No, that was all me, but you shouldn’t have stolen my client.” She sounded so proud. “The Reese contract cost me. I couldn’t let that go unpunished, and Chase once told me how much that old mixer meant to you. The rest was just for my pleasure.”
The pain Jo felt that night threatened to overwhelm her, but she drove her grief back in its box and drew on anger, instead. This woman had destroyed her life, made her feel helpless and hopeless and afraid, not knowing who hated her so much or when the next attack would come.
Her anger made her reckless. “Did Lambert let you in? Did you have to fuck him first? He’s a perv. I’m sure he asked.”
Okay, so maybe that went a little too far.
Giselle simply shrugged. “He did, but cash worked just as well.” She sighed as if growing weary of the conversation. “Actually, I stole Chase’s key and made a copy.”
From the corner of her eye, Jo registered movement. She didn’t dare look. Avery saw it, too. She tried to think of some way to get free, but her mind was blank with fear. Avery kept inching closer.
Chase wiped a hand under his nose. “Come on, baby. Let’s go. Just you and me. We can start over somewhere else. I’ll go wherever you want. Just let Jo and Avery go.”
The fingers in Jo’s hair loosened, then fisted tighter.
“I don’t believe you.” Giselle swung the gun toward Avery, and whispered, “Time to pay, bitch.”
“No!” Jo shoved Giselle’s hand toward the night sky. A deafening shot reverberated in her ears.
“Jo!” Avery was there, crashing into her, grappling with Giselle for the gun.
Chase slammed into them, forcing Giselle to let go of Jo. The gun went off again.
Avery grabbed Jo and dove behind a car, taking the brunt of the fall. Air rushed from her lungs on impact. He rolled on top of her, his hand cradling her head. “Stay down.”
Bang!
Chase grunted.
Giselle gasped.
From over Avery’s shoulder, Jo saw them go down together on the other side of the car, Giselle on top of Chase. The woman’s eyes were crazed, his desperate. Chase looked at Jo, his gaze meeting hers briefly before he twisted and rolled the other direction.
Bang!
Chase slowly wilted on top of Giselle.
Giselle didn’t move either.
The metallic smell of gunpowder burned Jo’s lungs. Blood pooled next to their bodies, flowing downhill toward Jo, filling cracks like spilled ink.
Jo squeezed her eyes shut to extinguish the gruesome image, but it remained, burned on the back of her eyelids. Trembling, she turned her face into Avery’s chest and clung to him.
Footsteps pounded the pavement. Shouts came from all directions, men barking orders. They sounded far away. Several cars screeched to a halt, lights flashing through her eyelids. The police. How were they here already?
“Jo?” Avery slid off her to one side. He feathered his fingers over her cheek. “Are you hurt?”
“No. Are you?”
“No.”
The ringing in her ears grew louder. “Chase?”
“I don’t know.”
The world went black.