Page 88 of Until Joy

Graham went rigid beneath me. “Watch your tone.”

“Excuse me?” Seth's attention snapped to him like a laser. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I'm the man who's going to protect her from now on,” Graham said, his voice deadly quiet. “And I won't tolerate anyone yelling at her, including her brothers.”

“You won't tolerate?” Randy stood up, the sound of his chair scraping against the floor came through the computer speakers. “She's our sister!”

“And she's my woman,” Graham shot back. “She's been through enough without you two making her feel worse about decisions she made when she was twenty-one and scared.”

“Stop it!” I stood up, my hands shaking. “All of you, just stop it!”

The room went silent again, all eyes on me.

“Seth, Randy, I know you're angry. I know you're hurt that I didn't tell you. But yelling at me isn't going to change what happened.” I took a shaky breath. “And Graham, I appreciate you defending me, but they have a right to be upset.”

Seth ran his hands through his hair, the fight going out of him. “JoJo, we just… we love you. The thought of you going through that alone…”

“I know.” Tears burned behind my eyes. “I'm sorry. I should have called, but I was scared and confused, and I thought I was protecting you.”

“By keeping us in the dark?” Randy's voice was quieter now but still pained.

“By not making you worry about something you couldn't fix.”

Dad leaned forward. “What's done is done. Right now, we need to focus on the current threat.” He looked at the men gathered around me. “Tell me what you know.”

For the next thirty minutes, Graham, Jax, and the two police detectives laid out everything. The flowers, the texts, the investigation into my London stalker, and the security measures they were putting in place.

“So, you think it's the same guy?” Dad asked.

“We don't know yet,” Jax said. “But we're not taking any chances.”

Seth crossed his arms. “We're coming over there.”

“No,” I said immediately. “Seth, please. You'll just make things more complicated.”

“Our sister is being stalked, and you think we're going to sit here in Jasper Creek doing nothing?”

“You're going to trust us to handle it,” Graham said firmly. “Joy doesn't need the added stress of worrying about your safety, too.”

“Our safety?” Randy laughed harshly. “We can take care of ourselves.”

“Against a stalker who's already proven he's willing to use a knife?” Nico spoke up for the first time. “This isn't a bar fight, gentlemen. This is someone who's potentially unstable and definitely dangerous.”

“Which is why we're coming,” Seth said stubbornly.

Dad held up a hand. “Boys, let me think about this.”

“There's nothing to think about,” Randy said. “Joy's in danger. We go.”

“Randy's right,” Seth agreed. “We can be there tomorrow, as soon as we get the time off.”

I looked at Graham, seeing my own resignation reflected in his eyes. There was no stopping them.

“Fine,” Dad said finally. “But you follow Graham's lead. This is his territory, and he knows what he's doing.”

Seth looked like he'd swallowed something sour, but he nodded.

“We'll text you when we're on the road,” Randy said.