Chapter 4 - SOMEONE WANTED THE RECORDS GONE
Before the alarm sounded, I had believed the morning could not become more complicated.
That belief lasted less than thirty seconds.
I was still staring at the folder marked BLACKWATER when Marcus asked Camila to step away from the luggage.
She refused at first.
Not loudly.
With entitlement.
The same quiet entitlement Julian wore when he believed rules existed for everyone else.
"Those are my things," she said.
I looked at the suitcase.
"That's my suitcase."
She looked at me as though the distinction were childish.
"Julian said I could use it."
That sentence summarized the entire disaster more neatly than she understood.
Julian said.
Therefore it was hers.
Julian said.
Therefore the penthouse was his.
Julian said.
Therefore my necklace could move from my safe to her throat.
I stepped closer.
"Camila, there is going to come a moment very soon when telling people Julian gave you permission stops helping you."
Her face changed.
For the first time, I saw she understood that possibility.
She glanced toward the hallway.
Toward an exit.
Marcus noticed too.
He quietly moved one officer closer to the door.
Then the alarm screamed.
The first thing security taught us during every resort emergency drill was not to run.
Everyone ran anyway.
The alarm screamed through the penthouse.
Red strobes flashed against the white walls.
Marcus grabbed the folder marked BLACKWATER before the sprinklers could activate.
Another guard closed the cash suitcase and dragged it away from the windows.
Camila stood frozen beside my sofa.
"What's happening?"
"We evacuate," Marcus said.
"Where's Julian?" she asked.
No one answered.
That was the first moment I wondered the same thing.
Julian had been left outside the conference room on the executive floor.
The smoke was coming from two levels below us.
If he was still there, he was close to the fire.
My body reacted before my anger did.
I moved toward the hallway.
My father caught my arm.
"Elena."
"Julian is down there."
"Security will get him."
"Dad."
"You are not going into smoke for a man who threw you out last night."
The words were hard.
They were also reasonable.
I hated that part of me still wanted to know he was safe.
Nine years does not vanish because betrayal becomes undeniable.
Love can die and leave reflexes behind.
Marcus spoke into his radio again.
"Executive floor status."
This time a voice came through.
"Fire appears contained to records annex."
"Any injuries?"
Static.
Then another voice.
"One security officer with smoke exposure."
"Julian Rossi?"
A pause.
"Not located."
My stomach dropped.
Camila looked at me.
"He was down there."
I turned toward Marcus.
"Find him."
"Already doing it."
We moved into the emergency stairwell.
My father stayed beside me.
Camila followed, despite Marcus telling her to wait for an escort.
At the twenty-fifth floor landing, the air smelled like wet drywall and burned plastic.
At twenty-four, firefighters were already moving upward.
The building's suppression system had limited the flames, but smoke still curled through the stairwell every time a door opened.
We were directed down to the lobby.
Guests gathered beneath emergency blankets near the ballroom exits.
Employees were counting occupied rooms.
News traveled fast in luxury hotels.
Phones were already raised.
Guests were filming.
A fire at the flagship resort would be online before the water stopped running.
Then I saw Julian.
He came through a service corridor near the kitchen.
His jacket was gone.
There was soot on one sleeve.
He was breathing hard.
For half a second, relief hit me so sharply I nearly hated him for surviving.
Then I noticed what he was holding.
A laptop bag.
Not his usual one.
A black canvas bag with a red inventory tag.
Corporate records.
Marcus saw it at the same moment.
"Mr. Rossi."
Julian stopped.
"Where did you get that bag?"
"I found it."
"Set it down."
Julian's eyes moved to me.
"You're turning security against me now?"
Marcus stepped closer.
"Set the bag down."
"It's company property."
"Which is exactly why you need to release it."
Julian laughed.
"Do you hear yourself?"
"Yes, sir."
"I am the chief executive of this company."
Thomas Bennett appeared behind Marcus.
"Not this morning."
Julian turned.
Thomas's face was gray.
"You."
"Put down the bag."
Julian's grip tightened around the handle.
I walked toward him.
"What's inside?"
"Nothing that belongs to you."
"That's becoming your favorite sentence."
"Stay out of this, Elena."
I stopped three feet away.
"You had me thrown out of a building my family owns, stole a protected heirloom, moved eight point seven million dollars through a hidden company, and apparently bought an interest in an island connected to my uncle I never knew existed."
Several employees nearby were staring openly now.
I lowered my voice.
"There is no version of this where I stay out of it."
His expression changed when I mentioned Adrian.
Tiny.
But there.
"Your father told you?"
"Enough."
"Then he didn't tell you everything."
"Neither have you."
"Maybe I was waiting until you were ready to hear it."
I almost laughed.
"You stole from me for my emotional protection?"
"Not that."
"Then what?"
He looked past me toward my father.
"Ask him who really owned Blackwater when your grandmother died."
My father did not respond.
Again.
Always the silence.
Always another locked room in my family's history.
Marcus moved closer.
"Bag."
Julian finally dropped it.
Marcus picked it up.
The zipper was partially open.
Inside I saw two laptops and several archival document sleeves.
Thomas swore under his breath.
"Those are from the records annex."
"I saved them," Julian said.
Thomas stared at him.
"The fire started in the records annex."
"Exactly."
"And you happened to be carrying out the files?"
"Would you rather I left them to burn?"
Thomas looked at me.
"The annex requires badge access."
I understood immediately.
Julian's badge had been suspended.
"How did you get in?"
He did not answer.
Marcus looked at his radio.
"Control says the annex reader logged a valid credential at 9:26."
"Whose?" I asked.
Marcus listened.
Then he went very still.
"Mrs. Rossi's."
Every head turned toward me.
My mouth went dry.
"That's impossible."
Julian stared at me with an expression almost too perfect.
Shock.
Concern.
Then suspicion.
He was acting.
I knew him well enough to see it.
"Elena," he said quietly, "where is your executive card?"
I reached into my purse.
The slot where I kept it was empty.
My stomach dropped.
I searched again.
Nothing.
"It was in my purse last night."
Julian tilted his head.
"Was it?"
I looked at him.
There it was.
A trap.
Maybe not the whole trap.
But part of one.
"You took it."
"When?"
"Before you had security throw me out."
"In front of twenty cameras?"
"You had access to our suite."
"So did you."
Thomas stepped between us.
"Stop."
He looked at Marcus.
"Pull every camera from the executive corridor and records annex."
Marcus nodded.
Then his radio crackled.
"Cameras on twenty-six went offline at 9:18."
Thomas closed his eyes.
"Of course they did."
I looked at Julian.
"You planned this."
"You think I set a fire in my own hotel?"
"You just learned it's not your hotel."
That hit him.
He stepped toward me.
"You want to accuse me of arson now?"
My father moved between us.
"Back away from my daughter."
Julian looked at him.
"Your daughter may have just burned corporate records."
I felt the air leave my lungs.
It was so outrageous I almost missed how strategically he said it.
Not you stole her badge.
Not someone used her badge.
Your daughter may have burned corporate records.
He wanted witnesses to hear it.
He wanted the story born before the evidence existed.
And judging by the phones in the lobby, he already had an audience.
I looked around.
A guest near the bar was filming.
Another near the entrance was whispering into her phone.
Someone had probably captured the entire confrontation.
Julian saw me notice.
His eyes cooled.
He had lost access to the boardroom.
So he was moving the battlefield into public opinion.
"You're disgusting," I said.
He smiled faintly.
"Careful."
"Why?"
"Because unlike your father, the internet doesn't care who owns the land."
Miriam arrived in the lobby at that moment.
She had taken the stairs from another floor.
"No one says another word."
She moved directly between us.
"Fire department and police will determine the cause."
Julian spread his hands.
"Fine by me."
Miriam looked at the bag Marcus was holding.
"What's that?"
Thomas answered.
"Files Julian claims he saved from the annex."
"Chain of custody starts now."
She pointed at Marcus.
"Photograph the bag in place."
Then she looked at me.
"Your badge was used?"
I nodded.
"It's missing."
"When did you last have it?"
"Before security escorted me out last night."
"Who had access to your purse?"
I thought about the lobby.
The penthouse.
My coat.
The moment I put my purse on the console table while confronting Julian before security arrived.
Camila had been standing near it.
"Camila."
I turned.
She was gone.
I scanned the lobby.
No cream dress.
No familiar face.
"Where is she?"
Marcus swore.
He raised his radio.
"Locate Ms. Voss immediately."
A guard answered from the service entrance.
"She left two minutes ago."
"Stop her."
"She's already in a vehicle."
"What vehicle?"
Static.
Then the answer.
"Black sedan. No hotel registration."
Julian looked genuinely surprised this time.
I could tell because he forgot to hide it.
"She left?"
I stared at him.
"You didn't know?"
He didn't answer.
Miriam's phone rang.
She listened for less than twenty seconds.
Then she looked at my father.
"The fire marshal found an accelerant container in the records annex."
The lobby seemed to tilt.
"And there's another problem."
My father waited.
"The container has been preliminarily tagged from a maintenance closet accessed at 8:54 this morning."
"Whose credential?" I asked.
Miriam's eyes met mine.
I already knew I would hate the answer.
"Yours."
Julian said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Somewhere outside the resort, Camila was disappearing.
Inside, evidence was beginning to say I had entered two secured areas using a keycard I no longer possessed.
And before noon, the first headline appeared online.
BILLIONAIRE HOTEL HEIRESS LINKED TO MYSTERIOUS FIRE HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE MELTDOWN.
Julian had lost his keys.
May you like
But someone was trying to make sure I lost my credibility.
And whoever it was knew our security system well enough to use my identity like a match.
