Chapter Thirty-Nine
In which some things refuse to be left behind.
Caroline…
"Oh, thank God you're back," Trevor says fervently. My assistant manager is waiting for me in the lobby, his face lights up when Rafail and Isaak escort me through the doors for my first day back at work. Trevor is an excellent assistant manager, but I can tell he's been dragging.
"Lots of entitled guests?" I pause for a moment on the second floor.
My office is down the hall, but I lean on the railing that circles the second floor of the hotel, looking down into the majestic three-story lobby.
I feel a bit like a queen returning to her small, but prosperous reign.
Rafail and Isaak are bookending me like they want to make sure I can't escape in some sideways move and dive out a window.
"Everything," Trevor moans. "First, two of the meat lockers went out and I had to scramble to find portable freezer devices.
Then, one of the guests lost their shit because I wouldn't let their doggie sit on her table in the restaurant.
The dog apparently took offense and ran over to bite one of our waitstaff. "
"Which one?" I say sharply. You do not fuck with my waitstaff.
"It was Kylie. I drove her to the emergency room myself. Fortunately, the doctor said she didn't need anything more than a shot and some antibiotics."
"Well, that still counts as assault to me. Please give Kylie a week off with pay and send her some flowers." First day back and I'm already pissed off.
"Will do," he says, making a note on his iPad. "Anything else?"
I'm putting the pieces together. Bitey little dog, entitled rich person… I groan silently. "What's the name of the guest?"
"Miroslava Balabanova," he says, checking his guest register.
"Oh fuck," I sigh. "We have to let her stay. She's a client of the Morozov family."
Trevor's sharp, and he understood immediately who the Morozovs were when he first started working here, and why just the name Morozov was pretty much the last word every time.
Fortunately, the Bratva hasn't had an endless round of demands that would affect the day-to-day running of the hotel.
More things like private dinners and keeping their suites open on the 10th floor.
We settle in my office after Isaak searches it and we get back to work. "One more thing that's annoying," Trevor points his pen at the bank of monitors on the opposite wall. "We've had a lot of trouble with the security system over the last day. I don't know why."
Frowning, I pick up my remote and point it, clicking on the first monitor. The video is blurry. I check each of the eight monitors. None of them are particularly clear. "Are you seeing the same problem with the security cameras in the hallway?" I ask."
"Yeah," he says. "I called our tech people this morning and they're still working on it."
"Okay…" I say slowly. "Let's call in four more security guards for today, and until this is fixed, I'm authorizing the additional payroll expense. I want to make sure there's nothing that escapes our notice that could impact the guests."
"I'm on it," he says, tapping away on his iPad. "Do you need anything else from me?"
"Let's start with that," I say. "I'll need the rest of this afternoon to catch up."
"You were only gone four days," Trevor chuckles. "But god, did it seem longer than that."
Laughing, I shrug. "I'm embarrassed to admit that it felt much longer than that for me too." He shoots me a smile as he leaves my office.
I order flowers for the Dragon Balabanova, and message our chef to prepare a caviar bar for her and her guests. Then, I call Nikandr.
"Well, hello, my Plokhoy kot." His voice is warm, and he sounds genuinely pleased to hear from me.
"Hey, gorgeous. Have you heard anything back from Balabanov regarding the trade deal?"
He chuckles, the rich sound of it makes my nipples harden. What the hell, nipples? I'm like a teenager!
"You were completely correct, my darling wife. He called me at eight this morning. He was definitely pouting, but not only agreed to the resumption of shipments, he also requested more stock to make up for the shipment that never happened with Novikov."
"Good," I say spitefully, "I hope this is tanking Johann's reputation long enough to kill him."
"Such a savage little thing," he says approvingly.
"You think I'm kidding?" I snap. "I would like to be the one who shoots him."
"All this talk of you murdering people is getting me hot," he laughs.
"The world will be better off without this unmitigated piece of shit," I say. "Every day he's still breathing is another day that puts multitudes of people into danger."
"Ah," he says. "So, it's your goodness for your fellow man that is creating this murder spree?"
"Don't judge me!" I say haughtily. "Remember, I'm a dangerous murderess now, you don't want to get on my bad side."
"As long as I avoid getting crippling cancer and lounging in a hospital bed, I think I'm safe," he says easily. "What does the rest of your day look like?"
Slumping back in my chair, I have to admit that my support staff did a fantastic job, and that the security tech is our only real problem.
"The Lyric uses our security team," he says. "I'll send Kolya over there with some of his tech guys to see what he can find out."
"Thank you, that would be very sweet," I say. "I'm not comfortable not being able to see what's going on. We have an excellent reputation for safety with no dramatic blowouts as of yet. I'd like to keep it that way."
"You'll save those for home?" Nikandr says, his voice deepening and I cross my arm miserably over my erect nipples. "Tonight, when I get you in bed, you can have all the flare ups and violence that you like."
"Okay, I have to go back to work," I stammer. "Or take a long, cold shower. I'm not sure." My husband is a complete dick and he laughs at me.
"I'll call you later, baby," he promises.
At four pm, there's a complaint from one of the guests that her necklace was stolen while she was checking in this morning.
Ninety percent of the time when a guest claims something was stolen, it's lost in their luggage or someone who's traveling with them stole it.
Rolling my eyes, I scroll back on the lobby security feed around that time and watch the employees and the guest movements closely. The quality sucks.
"I hope to god Kolya can get this thing fixed…
" I mumble. My finger freezes when a tall man with a black ponytail walked into the lobby.
His face is shadowed by his hat. "There's a lot of guys with black hair and ponytails.
" I try to reason with myself, but my pulse is speeding up.
I send the feed back-and-forth, back-and-forth, and back-and-forth again, watching how he walks, switching to the front desk camera when his assistant checked in for him.
He lounged in one of the chairs by the fireplace while he waited. The man with him wasn't one of the creeps I recognize from his decaying haunted mansion, but that doesn't mean anything. The assistant walked over to the man, nodding deferentially and they both headed to the elevator.
My hand is shaking as I hit the feed on the elevator. They were talking. I don't have audio in the elevator, unfortunately, but they were both chuckling. The shitty image quality means I can't see which floor they stepped off on and I grab the phone, calling the front desk.
"Angelica, who was on front desk duty today around 7 am?"
"I was," she says. "And Kevin."
"Do you remember a man hanging out by the lobby fireplace while his assistant checked in for him? Tallish, black ponytail, had his head sort of shaded by a cap?"
"Oh, I remember him," she says. "Only because Kevin kept going on and on about how hot his assistant was, and he was pretty sure that he was flirting with him when he checked in."
"Give me the suite numbers." My hand is shaking.
"2306 and 2307 across the hall," she says, her tone changing. "Did we do something wrong?"
"Absolutely not," I try to sound calm. "He may not be authorized here. Do what you can to get a decent shot of the two and give it to the security guards. Ask them to start looking for him and his assistant."
"Right away," her voice is shaking. "Is this serious?"
"As of now, it's just a suspicion," I assure her, trying to calm her down. "Just have them start sweeping the hotel."
I hang up, running my hands over my face. Then, I realize I am about to try to handle this all by myself, as usual. Grabbing my cell phone, I call Nikandr, breathing in a sigh of relief that he picks up immediately.
"Missing me already?" I want to appreciate his smooth tone when he's teasing me, but my heart is pounding hard enough that I barely hear him.
"Okay, look. I –" Standing up, I walk over to my windows, eyes searching the street.
"I don't want to start something if I'm wrong, but I have a suspicion that Johann checked into the Lyric this morning.
I have the guards out searching for him, but the pictures we have are terrible.
There was just something about how he walked, and the black ponytail. I could swear it's him."
"What are the suite numbers?" His tone sharpens.
I tell him, and I can hear him stand up and then a door slams. “Screenshot the best images you have of the two of them and then send it to me.
I'll put them out to the entire security department.
I'll be there in..." He checks his watch. "Fifteen minutes."
"I could be wrong, but have a terrible feeling I'm right. Why the hell would he check into the Lyric? Isn't it like ringing the dinner bell, knowing the entire kitchen staff is going to come at you with razor sharp cleavers?"
"Call Isaak and Rafail into your office. You do not go anywhere without both of them. Do you hear me?"
"Understood," I say, feeling grateful and a little embarrassed about it. I should be displeased with his high-handed approach, but I really need strong people with guns and an excellent aim around me right now.
"I love you," he says, his voice dipping slightly "I will not let anything happen to you."
I'm struck with a feeling of inevitability. My father couldn't stop what happened to him and Mom. I couldn't stop my idiot brothers from betraying Liria. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do but watch it all fall down around you.
"I know." I force a smile. "And I love you, too. Don't forget the next time we have a fight."
His chuckle is strained, I can hear hustle and bustle around him, so he's moving through the halls of Morozov Global. "I won't. I will see you soon."
As we hang up, I feel it. A little twitch in my ganglia, I've honed it over the years spent in the hospitality industry. Something bad is about to happen. Maybe just a guest melting down or a power outage.
Then, I smell it. Smoke. The fire suppression system shudders but the water doesn't come spurting out the way it should.
Fuck. Fuck! How many guests do we have in the hotel right now?
I launch into my frantic phone calls. Security. "There's a fire in the hotel, start escorting guests out immediately." The front desk. "We have a fire, use the overhead system and notify the guests to evacuate."
Angelica's voice is high and terrified. "We think it started in the basement and went up. There's no water! Why aren't the sprinklers working?"
It's him. I know it's him and he's going to kill hundreds of people if we don't get them out in time.
"In the announcement, tell people to use the stairs. Tell the kitchen staff and Housekeeping to help guide people out. I'll be right there." I call 911, my shaking fingers making me grateful it's only three numbers.
"911. What is your emergency?"
"The Hotel Lyric is on fire," I explain rapidly. "I believe the water suppression system has been tampered with. The fastest route here would be Fire Station 16, they can take-"
Then, I hear the pounding on my office door. It's shaking under the blows.
"Mrs. Morozova, the door is locked! Let us in!"