Spencer’s gut rolled. “Penny?”
“That’s what he said.” Her voice shook a little now.
And that was all he needed. He grabbed his coat and was out the door, Penny at his heels. He’d be damned if Nick got to the Paytons first.
Chapter Fifteen
ALEX WIPED HER forehead, leaned her elbows on the front of the car, and glanced at the clock on the wall of the garage. It was about half an hour from her lunch break, but her stomach was already growling.
She was starting to get a little hangry, evidenced by her complete irritation at Gabe. Which wasn’t fair. He was trying to focus, but the guy had a worse attention span than Violet.
Brent was in his bay, muttering to himself as he replaced a rusted muffler. Jack was in the office eating already and Cal was replacing a serpentine belt.
She was doing an inspection, which wasn’t necessarily hard, but there were steps to follow that Gabe needed to be aware of. Which he wouldn’t be, because right now he was sneaking food to Honeybear, who sat at his feet.
“Brent, I thought I told you not to bring Honeybear to work anymore,” Alex huffed.
He looked up from his task. “Huh? She never bothers anyone.”
“It’s not her, it’s him.” She pointed at Gabe. “He can’t handle having a dog here.”
“Hey!” Gabe protested. “I can handle it!”
Alex raised her eyebrows at him.
He scrunched his lips to the side and in a small voice said, “Okay, maybe not.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ignore the dog so we can get this over with so I can eat, okay? I’m starving.”
“Oh, man!” Gabe’s eyes light up. “Let’s get burritos. I can take the order and pick it up.”
“Gabe,” Brent said sharply. “We’re not paying you to take burrito orders. We’re paying you to learn car shit.”
“I am learning car shit.”
“Then quit talking about burritos!”
“Will you all shut up?” Cal growled.
That did the trick. Alex and Gabe dutifully ducked their heads. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brent mimicking Cal and tossing him the finger behind his back. She hid her smile.
Ten minutes later, a car pulled into the parking lot and a man got out. He wore slacks and a button-down shirt with a hooded jacket to protect himself from the rain. Alex squinted at him, because he looked familiar. As he drew closer to the office, she recognized Nick, Spencer’s coworker. She couldn’t remember the guy’s last name, but he was the one Cal had warned her about.
She glanced at Cal, who was watching the guy with a steel-eyed glare.
The man ignored them, expensive shades firmly over his eyes. He walked into the office, and even Honeybear was on high alert, her ears swiveling, her body tense.
Cal swallowed and carefully put away his tools, then walked into the office.
She heard Jack’s gravelly voice as the door shut behind Cal.
Brent had stopped his work too, and stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the door, a frown on his face. Brent rarely had a frown on his face, and unease crawled down Alex’s spine.
Did this have something to do with her? And Spencer? Maybe his relationship with her was against the rules of his job. But surely, he would have told her that, right?
“Brent,” she said, but he shook his head and made his way toward the office.
“Cal doesn’t like that guy,” he said. “And he’s a good judge of character. I’m going in there to see what’s going on.”
She dropped her tools, told Gabe to go ahead and get burritos, and then followed Brent into the office.
As soon as he opened the door, Jack’s booming voice hit them like a wall. “I can’t believe you’re standing here in front of me spouting that bullshit. You think I’m dumb?”
Alex peeked from behind Brent to see Nick standing with his hands on his hips in the middle of the office, Jack in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest. Cal stood behind the counter, his gaze darting between the two of them, lips thinned into a white line.
Something brushed her hand, and she looked down to see Honeybear, who’d slipped into the office behind her. She dug her fingers into the dog’s fur, to ground herself, because the air was thick with tension and anger and a whole lot of distaste.
“I think,” Nick said, “you won’t know a good opportunity when you see it, so I wanted to make sure you listen to the whole offer.”
“What’s going on?” Brent asked, widening his stance.
Jack jerked his chin toward Nick. “This asshole wants to buy our land.”
“Our land?”
“Yeah, this land. Right here. Where I’ve worked and sweated and bled for forty years. He thinks we want something fancy, isn’t that right?”
Alex was having trouble keeping up. Buy their land?
“Buy our land for what?” Brent asked.
Nick’s gaze shifted to him. “For a Royalty Suites. The lot behind this shop is perfect, but we’d also like this land too.”
Alex sucked in a breath. Spencer had told her they were building out by MacMillan Investments. Not here. Had he been lying? She couldn’t move or speak, stung by betrayal so sharp, she wondered why she wasn’t bleeding. She reached in front of her, gripping Brent’s belt, needing as many anchor points as she could get. Because, she wasn’t alone, thank God. Nick was facing off against three Paytons. He didn’t know them. He didn’t know that he’d have better luck ripping down this building with his bare hands than trying to convince a Payton to do something he didn’t want to do.
Brent leaned back a little into her touch, like he knew she needed it, and honed in on the enemy. “You . . . broke bread with us and now you want to buy our land out from under us? Seriously? That doesn’t take balls, man. That takes no brain.”
Nick wasn’t backing down. “You haven’t heard the offer yet,” he insisted. “Royalty Suites lawyers will be in touch soon.”
Alex’s mind spun. Why was Nick here and not Spencer? Why hadn’t Spencer given her a heads-up?
“Fuck your lawyer,” Jack growled. “I ain’t moving my shop until I’m dead. And if my boys move it when I’m dead, I’m coming back from the grave to haunt their asses.”
“Which means we sure as hell aren’t moving because he’s bad enough when he’s alive,” Brent muttered.
Alex managed a small smile. Nick wasn’t smiling, and now his gaze shifted to Alex. She dropped her hand from Brent’s jeans and tilted her chin up. Nick’s eyes narrowed. “Finally realizing you were just something to pass the time, huh? Like Spencer would ever have real feelings for someone like you.”
A lot of things happened at once then. Honeybear growled. Alex and Brent surged forward. Cal hollered, but Jack beat them all. In seconds, he had Nick sandwiched between the wall and his big chest. He didn’t put his hands on him, but it was clear he wanted to, because his fingers were curled into tight fists at his sides.
For the first time, Nick looked a little alarmed. “You touch me, and I’ll press charges,” he said, but his trembling voice gave him away.
Jack smiled, an eerie smile that was all teeth. “You think I give a fuck? You think I don’t know the captain of the local police? You think any of them are gonna give a shit if some stuck-up New Yorker gets a black eye?”
“They probably wouldn’t mind a bloody nose either,” Brent said.
“I’m sure they’d even look past a broken arm,” Cal said nonchalantly.
Alex was vibrating. The only thing holding her back from not running to Nick and swinging her fists was Honeybear at her side and Brent’s hand clamped on her arm.
Nick looked less certain now, although he clung to his bravado like it was a life preserver, tilting his chin up and refusing to look away from Jack’s glare.
The fury inside Alex was building now, and her hackles were raised. This was her family, this was her livelihood, and while they couldn’t take this land without Jack’s consent, this was still a threat. Spencer’s company wanted the very soil she stood on and he’d neglected to tell her that while they made love under the stars.
Fuck him. And fuck Nick. And fuck all hotels. Fuck the whole goddamn city of New York. She blinked rapidly as the pain swelled in her chest.
This was just like Robby all over again. A man reeling her in and then changing who he was. At least Robby had done it to her face. Spencer had done it behind her back. He’d pretended to be the white knight. A savior. When all along, he’d known that everything she held dear was under attack.
Her teeth pulled back into a snarl and, while she wasn’t a violent person, she envisioned her fist slamming into Nick’s face.
She opened her mouth to defend herself, her honor, but screeching tires outside the shop drew their attention.
SPENCER SAW NICK’S car in the parking lot of Payton and Sons and wanted to throw up.
“What’s Nick doing here?” Penny muttered, her brow furrowed.
He loved Penny but he hated this about her, how she seemed to not see what kind of person Nick was. She loved him unconditionally, and Spencer often wondered what their relationship was like behind closed doors.
He couldn’t think about that now, not while he squinted through the drizzle into the dirty windows to the office. He saw several people in there, so he jumped out of the car and jogged to the front door, Penny at his heels.