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Merrick got out of the chair and paced. Jackson was almost afraid he was going to fire his ass right then. He had every right too. Jackson was surprised when Merrick said, “If Grace wants to go, I won’t stop her. But it’s her choice, not yours. You won’t force her because you’re her boss. Understood?”
Jackson said a silent prayer that Grace wouldn’t fight him on this one. “Understood.”
Merrick came around the desk and leaned against the edge. “One more thing.”
Jackson stood, sensing a battle coming. “Yeah?”
“Grace is like a sister to me, to Blade and Lacey too. I’d be very careful with her if I were you.”
He nodded. “I know how close you all are, but this is between Grace and me.”
Merrick crossed his arms over his chest. “Grace is all grown up now. Chloe says she can take care of herself, but that doe
sn’t mean I won’t kick your ass if you make her cry. Remember that while you’re trying to sweet talk her into going to Sin City with you.”
Jackson laughed. “Hold off on buying the tar and feathers until after I get back, will ya? I wouldn’t want you to waste your money.”
Merrick shook his head. “You have to get her to agree to the trip first. I’m not so convinced you’ve got what it takes.”
“We’ll see.”
“Yeah, we will.”
Merrick called his name as Jackson started to leave. He stopped as he reached the door and turned. “Yeah?”
“Has Grace told you about her car accident?”
Jackson’s stomach bottomed out. “What car accident?”
“When she was nineteen, she was in a real bad wreck. We weren’t sure she was going to make it those first twenty-four hours. It was hard on all of us. The thing is, Grace is the youngest of the Vaughns. I guess you could say she’s sort of the baby we’d all like to wrap in cotton if she’d only let us.” Merrick paused before adding, “If you really care about her, you should know the accident left a lasting impression on Grace.”
Jackson squeezed the doorknob. “In what way? Emotionally?”
“Ask her that.”
He nodded and opened the door. As he made his way down the hall to his own office, an image of a beat-up nineteen-year-old Gracie sprang to mind, and it nearly made Jackson throw up. He didn’t like thinking of her as fragile. She was usually so tough and she handled herself so well around him it was easy to forget just how delicate she really was.
Chapter Two
Grace sauntered back into the office, feeling better than she had in weeks. She’d taken a two hour lunch. The first hour had been spent sucking down a latté and devouring a grilled chicken Caesar salad while she attempted to make future lunch plans with some of her old business contacts. She wasn’t convinced it would get her anywhere as far as a job offer, but it never hurt to try. The second hour she’d taken the time to go to her cousin Lacey’s gym and get in a workout. It didn’t quite take away all her frustrations, but it had helped.
Now as Grace moved through the office and spotted Candice, they both smiled a greeting. It still surprised Grace that Candice and Blade were married, much less soon-to-be parents of a baby boy. The marital bliss and pregnancies in the Vaughn family were enough to make a single woman envious.
As she approached her desk, Grace wrapped the strap of her purse around the back of the chair and sat. She tried to concentrate on the new software she’d been working on, but it wasn’t any use. All she saw was Jackson’s grin as she’d walked out of Merrick’s office. It’d been juvenile of her to take her problems to her cousin. She should have known the way Merrick would react. He was always much too protective of her. She could go into Jackson’s office and confront him, make him tell her what the two men had said after she’d left. Had Merrick fired him, punched him, or both?
“Stop frowning; your face will stick that way one of these days.”
Grace looked up from the flat screen monitor to find Jackson grinning down at her, his hands in his pockets. God, the man was yummy. His close-cropped dark hair and chiseled cheekbones had always made her think of a tough guy from an action movie. His hard, muscular frame wasn’t anything to overlook either. For the first time she wondered if he’d ever been in the military. He seemed ex-something. SEAL. Marine. Sniper. Dangerous and sexy, both of those words described Jackson Hill’s powerful physique and hypnotic silver eyes.
“So, no black eye. Am I to assume you two didn’t engage in a fist fight then?”
He tsked. “We’re adults. We solve things like men, not prickly teenagers.”
She let that one pass, though she had at least a dozen good comebacks on the tip of her tongue. “Still have a job?”
Jackson pulled his hands out of his pockets and braced himself against her desk. As he leaned down, she could smell his masculine scent, like the jungle, wild and untamed. “Hoping Merrick fired me?”
Her cheeks burned at his words. “I shouldn’t have gone to Merrick. I’m sorry.”
