The Merger (30 page)

Mr. Grayson sat and Spencer followed.

“I didn’t realize Julie was close to the family.” When the words were
out,
he felt the deceit in them. There had been a layer of uncertainty and now he was questioning his feelings for
the woman
who had taken his heart by surprise.

Mr. Grayson folded his hands in his lap and puckered his lips. “I think of you as a good man. I’d be very disappointed if you held that against her.”

Perhaps he needed to come clean. Though he wasn’t sure why he’d need to. He owned PLL. He could have thrown Mr. Grayson and any member of his family out of the building a month ago. But in his heart he’d thought it was best for them to stay during the transition. He had a soft spot for
the man.

“Mr. Grayson, I hired Julie Jacobson to oversee one of my builds in Nashville. Since you let her
go,
she’s been working for me.”

The man’s eyes shifted and Spencer could see the tension in his jaw. “Does that mean you
did
have something going on with her?”

Spencer shook his head. “I didn’t then. I can honestly say I didn’t like her at all.”

“She’s got a hard exterior,” the man grinned and conceded.

“I know that now.” Spencer thought for a moment. “You said she was like a daughter to you.”

“I was very close to her father. No one knows that.”

“Why?”

Mr. Grayson considered. “I wouldn’t hire my own family, but I hired her.”

“As a favor?”

“In the beginning. But she proved to be very valuable.”

Spencer clasped his own hands and rested his arms on his thighs. “Do you think they found out? Why would your family do this to her?”

Mr. Grayson furrowed his brow and tucked in his lips as he thought. “I wrote them out of my will. Julie made the changes, but her husband was involved. They found out.”

“Ex-husband.”

Mr. Grayson nodded. “She’ll be okay without him.”

Spencer wanted to tell him he could ensure it, but he’d let that go for now. When his cell phone rang on the
desk,
he reached for it.

“It’s my office.”

Mr. Grayson gave him a nod. “I’ll be escorting the family out by Friday. You can take over my office then.” He held out a hand to Spencer. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with your family. I know PLL is in good hands.”

“I appreciate that sir.”

“I’ll let you get to your call,” he said as he walked out of Spencer’s office.

Spencer hit the button on his phone. “Spencer Benson.”

“Spencer, her phone is still on. I can’t get a response. She was talking to someone and then there was a big thud. No one is talking, but the phone is still on.”

His heart began to pound in his chest in a painful rhythm listening to Tiffany’s rapid fire of words. He had no idea where Carson had gone when Mr. Grayson had come to him.

Running down the hall he burst through her office, but she wasn’t there. “Tiffany, she’s not…”

But he noticed her leg extending out from behind the desk.

“Christ! Julie!” He dropped the phone to the floor and ran to her. “Julie.”

He rolled her to her back and her eyes fluttered behind her lids as she began to moan. “Honey, wake up.”

She groaned as her eyes opened and closed again. Then slowly opened as if she’d been asleep.

“I got dizzy. The room was spinning.”

She pushed up on her elbows and Spencer moved
in to
cradle her. “Ow,” she winced, lifting her hand to the back of her head.

“You’re bleeding,” he said as she pulled her hand away from her head.

“I’m tired.”

“Don’t go to sleep.” He looked around and could see blood on the leg of the desk. “I think he rattled you and when you fell you cut open your head. This certainly isn’t your day.”

She let out what he thought was a laugh.

Spencer picked up her phone, which was lying next to her and disconnected the now thirty-seven minute call which Tiffany had been monitoring. He’d have to consider buying her some diamonds and other assorted gems to make more jewelry. She deserved it.

He helped Julie up and into
the chair.
“I’m going to find you something to put on that.”

She began to point toward a file cabinet. “T-shirt. Bottom drawer.”

Spencer opened the drawer and took out
the shirt.
She certainly had left quickly he thought.

As he passed by his own
phone,
he picked it back up. “Okay, I have her. She’s safe and with me.”

“What happened?”

Spencer moved to Julie and pressed the shirt to her head. “Carson Grayson decided to bang her head into the wall a few times. It made her dizzy and when she fell she cut it open.”

“Oh, Spencer,” she said and he could hear the tears in her voice.

“I have one woman to deal with. Don’t start crying.”

“Take care of her.”

“I think I always will. Goodbye.”

He disconnected the call and put his phone back into his pocket.

Julie looked up at him, her eyes clearer now. “Did Tiffany get my call?”

He couldn’t help but smile at her. “Genius idea.”

“I was afraid he’d hurt me. Someone needed to know where I was. I was afraid you wouldn’t answer the call if you were mad at me.”

He took hold of the T-shirt and looked at her head. “I’d still have answered. You’re going to need stitches.”

“Great. I don’t have insurance at the moment.”

Spencer smiled. “I think your boss will take care of the expenses.”

He helped her to her feet.

“Mr. Grayson says I should hire you back on here.”

“I guess he wasn’t behind firing me,” she said as he helped her from the office.

“No. I didn’t know he was a family friend either.” Julie turned to look at him and he raised his brows. “You were in deeper with the
Graysons
than I knew.”

Julie
batted
back tears that had risen in her eyes. “We agreed to never discuss it. If his family
knew
he’d hired the daughter of his friend and not them…”

“I know. They’d blackmail you and hurt you.”

“Right,” she said on a weak laugh. “What are you doing here? And the house. She burnt the house. She said she was going to.”

“You certainly have a lot of information,” Spencer said opening the door to the outside and leading Julie to his rented car.

“Libby. She came to the trailer and demanded the money. I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said she’d burn down your build if I didn’t give it to her. And she did. She burnt it down.”

Spencer reached for the door and pulled it open. He lifted a hand to her cheek before she could climb in. “You talk a lot when you have a head injury.”

“I didn’t steal the money. I didn’t.”

“I know that now.”

“You thought I had?”

Spencer brushed away the tears that began to stream down her cheek. “I did. I had no proof
otherwise
and you’d disappeared. What was I to think?”

“Right.” She ducked her head into the car and slid into the seat. “Maybe, if you’d consider it, I should move back here. I mean how can you trust me if you didn’t. I’ll always wonder and so would you. I could take back my job. Mr. Grayson said he’d tell you. I’m good at it,” she pleaded.

“You are.”

Spencer shut the door. He didn’t like that she’d want to move back. They were going to work through this. They’d been played, but justice was still being dished out. Libby would pay for what she’d done in Nashville and Carson was absolutely going to pay for what he’d done to Julie.

And Spencer would be damned if she left him for Oregon again.

He pulled open his door and slid in behind the steering wheel. “You have a house here, right?” he asked as he started the engine and backed out of the parking lot.

“Yes. Steven signed over his part to me. Though he emptied everything out of it.”

“We can replace it,” he said as he drove away from the PLL offices. “Now’s a good time for you to redecorate it. It seems to be a skill
you
posses.”

She turned to look out the window. “I could do that.”

Spencer navigated his way through town. “Where is the hospital?”

“Keep heading this way about three miles. Then you’ll see the signs.”

He nodded. “Chuck said the fire inspector thought we could tear out the old framing in a week or so. They think they have what they need to press formal charges against Libby.”

“Good.”

“Are you sure you want stained wood in that house? Don’t you like the white painted doors?”

Julie batted her eyes as she turned to look at him, still holding the T-shirt to the back of her head. “You want to discuss that now?”

“Why not? It’s still a project we’re working on together.”

He tried to send her a sly smile, but the knot on her head must have been messing with his sarcasm where she was concerned.

“I
was seriously thinking
that if a corporation moved people in and out of there they’d want it to always look clean. White painted doors aren’t going to look clean after a few years or a few moves.”

He let out a deep breath and reached for her hand. “Considering I’m the corporation moving people in there I would think you’d want what you liked best.”

Julie lowered the T-shirt from her head.

“Rental car,” he reminded her. “Don’t get blood on the seat.” He smiled, but her eyes were wide and staring at him.

“You’re the corporation that’s going to use that house? Why are you doing that? I mean who are you going…”

He gave her hand a squeeze. “The house was for us, Julie.”

“I don’t understand.”

“After you moved to Nashville I realized I didn’t want that bachelor life anymore. My apartment wasn’t a home. I miss family waiting for you at the end of a long day.”

“That does sound nice.”

“I thought it would be fun if you designed it and then I could surprise you with it in a few months. But now that we have to start over…”

He looked at her and the tears fell freely now.

“You don’t want that house?” he asked watching her sob without a free hand to wipe away tears.

“It’s the best house in the neighborhood.”

Spencer nodded again. “It
is,
isn’t it? Right by the park.”

The sign ahead pointed toward the hospital and Spencer turned. A few moments later he was parking and turning off the car.

“I have another proposition for you,” he said turning toward her. “BBH would like to buy your house here. I’m going to have to make a lot of trips to Oregon and it would just be easier if I had a place to stay when I was here.”

She nodded. “You could stay there.”

“With you, Julie. You understand that don’t you? I want you to be part of PLL and BHH and the Hart Estates. I want to live in that perfect house—home,” he corrected, “with you by the park and fly here and live in your house when we need to.”

She winced as she cried. “I think I need to get this looked at.”

“C’mon.” Spencer opened his door and stepped out. He hurried to the other side and opened her door. “Maybe when the pain isn’t in the way we can have a discussion you’ll understand.”

Four staples later, Julie was released into Spencer’s care. She’d never had a cut or an injury that needed special care before. And to think they stapled her head.

She needed to not think about it since it made her knees weak.

“Do you feel okay?” Spencer asked as he climbed into the car next to her.

“I’m exhausted. Since the moment Libby Grayson walked into the
trailer,
I haven’t been thinking straight.”

He took her hand in his and kissed her fingers. “I’ll second that. You should have come straight to me.”

That made more sense now that she had a knot on her head and had given the police the report on what Carson had done.

“I don’t think I believed it, Spencer. I wanted to prove to you that I’d never do that.”

“Your leaving and then admitting you had the account didn’t prove that.”

She nodded. “I see that now. I think my logical thinking lawyer side is on vacation.”

Spencer turned in his seat and looked at her. “My birthday is Saturday and I want a gift from you.”

Julie laughed. “Just because I have a checking account with sixty-thousand dollars in it, doesn’t mean I can actually buy you anything.”

He smiled. “I’ll cover the expense, but will you go away with me? My dad says that we should.”

Her mouth fell open. “Your dad says that?”

“He’s fairly open minded. He says there’s a lot you can do in a hotel room.”

Her cheeks instantly heated. “After all of this, you still want to be with me?”