“He was. And immoral. Of course, you have plenty of evidence of that running around the resort, don’t you?” His words slurred slightly as if he had been drinking. “Your father cheated every chance he got—how else do you think he got as far as he did? I suppose my son is enjoying the fruits, though. I doubt he’ll ever have to worry about keeping a job so long as he’s married to you. Good move on his part.” The words were snide and sarcastic. “But self-interest was never one of his weak points.”
She saw red as she tried to keep her voice even—how could he speak that way about his own son? “Blake was hired because he’s good at what he does. He’s a great manager and terrific with people. He deserves his job and I have nothing to do with it. I don’t understand why you don’t see what a wonderful man you’ve raised, how strong and hardworking he is. You should be ashamed of yourself for not treating him with the love and support he deserves.”
A touch on her shoulder made Lana jump and she turned to see Blake. She hadn’t heard the door open when he came into the room.
“Is it my dad?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yes.”
He held out a hand for the phone and she passed it over, still fuming at his father.
“Hello, Dad. What’s going on?”
There was a long moment of silence and then Blake spoke in a cool, even voice, a little louder than normal, as if he were cutting in on his father’s tirade. “Excuse me, but that’s my wife you’re talking about. You don’t have to like her, but you do have to treat her with respect and talk about her with respect around me.” Another pause as his fingers grew white from gripping the phone. “I understand, but this is my family now too. I don’t want to hear you talking bad about them. I’m sorry you feel that way. I have to go, Father. I hope to hear from you again when you’re ready to talk about something else.” He set down the receiver with careful deliberation.
Lana had never heard him speak to his parents that way, but listening to him had turned her feelings from straight-up anger for his father to appreciation for the way he had defended her and her family. It was a rough line to tread and she appreciated that he was willing to walk it to be with her. She crossed to him and slid her arms around him from the back, since he hadn’t turned to face her yet. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
His hands covered hers on his chest. “I’m never going to make him happy. I’ve done everything I can to get him to see me as an equal, but he won’t. It’s never going to happen.” He twisted to face her, pulling her close. “But I have you. I’m so glad you came back to me.”
Her heart squeezed painfully. She’d been holding back, not seeing what was going on. Not really. How could she add to his troubles by keeping a piece of herself back when she had known for a while now that he hadn’t been cheating on her? “I’m glad to be back with you. I’m sorry I put us both through that.”
She lifted her mouth to his for a long kiss. Time to show him what he really meant to her.
Lana rubbed her forehead as Joel gave her the rundown on his trouble with a drunken guest an hour earlier. “Any chance it’ll come back to bite us?” There had been a barrage of room cancellations since the murder, and fewer reservations were coming in than before. Not having a full house during everyone’s Christmas vacations was bad omen.
“It could, it always could, you know it, but everything was handled by the book, so we should be covered.” Joel leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “The deputy who took him in seemed satisfied, anyway.”
“Great. It’s just what we need right now, don’t you think?” Her head pounded so she rubbed her temples again, even though she knew it wouldn’t help.
“Do you need something? Can I get your some ibuprofen or something?” Joel looked concerned.
“Nope. The doctor won’t let me have that anymore. And a single Tylenol isn’t likely to make a dent in the headache.”
He gave her a commiserating look. “Sage is working late tonight. I’ll have her come by to try some pressure points. See if she can do something for you.”
“Thanks, I’d appreciate it.” Her cell phone rang and the display showed an unfamiliar number. She considered sending it to voice mail, but decided it would be better to answer. “Hello?”
“Lana, this is Royce, Blake’s father. I hope you don’t mind me calling you on your cell. I wasn’t sure if you’d still be in the office.”
Her forehead wrinkled. Why was calling her after the fiasco of a phone call the previous evening? And how had he gotten her cell phone number, anyway? “Yes, I mean, no, that’s fine, Mr. Bahlmann. And yes, I’m in the office still. A hotel never really sleeps, as I’m sure you know.”
Joel looked surprised, and a little confused—that was only fair as it was how she felt.
“Good. Look, I’m here at the resort. I was hoping we could talk, straighten out the misunderstandings we’ve been having. I don’t want the history between your father and myself to be a problem for you and Blake. I hoped if we talked things over, we can make everything easier. You are going to bear my grandson, after all.”
He was here and hadn’t told Blake? Or did Blake know, but he hadn’t mentioned it? “Sure. Where would you like to meet?” Lana asked.
“I’m in room 432. Can you come up now?”
“Yeah, 432. No problem. I’ll be right there.” She stood from her desk—her meeting with Joel was pretty much over anyway. “I’m really glad you’re willing to work this out, Mr. Bahlmann. I know how much it has bothered Blake that there were problems between our families.”
“See you in a few minutes.” He hung up.
Lana stuck the phone in her pocket and turned to Joel, puzzled, but a little relieved by Royce’s change of attitude. “Blake’s dad is here. He came to work things out with us.”
“That’s great,” Joel said. “You don’t look happy, so where’s the bad?”
“No bad, it’s just odd.” She sat back in her chair. “That’s a major change of heart for him considering the way he’s always acted about us. Yesterday he was telling me I was the devil.”
“Was he mad when you told him about your marriage and the baby? I heard things didn’t go well.”
“It’s not so much that he got angry—at least not then. His wife got angry. He seemed less surprised, actually.” She decided not to puzzle over it right now. “Anyway, I’m going to go chat with him. I know Blake will feel better if we can all get along.”
Joel stood and moved to the door. “Well, good luck with that. I hope it works out. Call when you finish and I’ll send Sage up to deal with the headache.”
“I will.” Lana watched Joel double-check the door locks as they walked into the hall. It was after hours and most of the day staff had gone home by now.
It only took a few minutes to reach room 432. Lana sucked in a deep breath and knocked. He may have said that he wanted to work out hard feelings, but that didn’t mean their meeting would be smooth sailing.
Royce answered the door a couple of seconds after she knocked. “Come in.” He moved back to give her more space. “I wasn’t sure if you could be pried from your office. I hear you’re a very dedicated hotel manager.”
“Blake said that?” She smiled, more pleased by the compliment than she probably should be.
“Not Blake. Someone else.” He shut the door behind her. “Working there by yourself until all hours. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to be at the helm of a place like this.”
“It does. It helps when you have a really great staff to work with, though. Mine is all very competent.” There were chairs set out, but she didn’t sit right away. If he continued standing it would have him towering over her—in the position of power. Considering their history, she wasn’t ready to concede to him.
“Your father always did like to keep things in the family. He must be thrilled to have all of his girls working together.” He walked around behind her, coming to her right. “Take a seat. Would you like so
me tea? I understand pregnant women are discouraged from drinking coffee these days.”
“Not to mention that it would keep me awake if I had any at this time of night. But no, thank you. I’ve had more than my share of tea lately. Cami and Blake are both militant about my caffeine intake.” She ignored the question about her and the sisters.
“What do you really think about your father, now that you know about all of his dirty little secrets, Lana?” His voice was hard and cold this time—much more in line with what she had expected.
She turned to face him directly. “He was my father. I might wish some things were different, but nothing will ever change the fact that I love him.” It had taken her long enough to realize it, but now she said the words with peace and really meant it. “We can’t do anything now about what my father did or was. So how about if we tackle what’s really bothering you.”
“Forthright. That’s a good quality. I think my son really has met his match. It’s really too bad.” He frowned a little, his hands clasped behind his back.
“What do you mean, too bad?”
“It makes this really unfortunate.” His right hand came out from behind him holding a pistol with a long silencer attached. “It’ll make it much harder for Blake to move on when you’re dead.”
Terror ripped through Lana when she looked up into his face and saw the hard-eyed anger there.
Blake was tired and more than ready to curl up with his wife on the sofa, eat some room-service food and relax. It had been a full week since there was any serious action on the ghost front, and he felt tension in his shoulders as he worried about what might happen next. The perpetrator seemed to be getting desperate, the incidents more serious as time passed and he wondered what could be worse than the murder they’d already dealt with.
He smiled when he came upon Joel in the hall. “Are you still here?”
“Sage is still here,” Joel said as if that were reason enough to work late. Blake supposed in Joel’s world, it was. “I notice you aren’t exactly vegging in your room at the moment, either.”
“Touché. No, but I hope to be soon. I wonder if I can coax Lana away from her spreadsheets.”
“She’s away from them now.” Joel pulled out his phone, which was vibrating. “She’s talking with your dad.”
“My dad? He called?” That seemed odd.
“Yeah, from his room. Just a sec.” He greeted the caller and grimaced. “If you could send someone over to watch the maid pack the suitcase, we’d be happy to ease his fears about theft. Yeah. Thanks.” He hung up and shook his head. “The guy caused at least a thousand dollars in damages and he’s worried some maid is going to steal his socks. I’ll never understand people.” He stuck the phone back in his pocket. “Sage warned me today was going to be exciting—and not in a good way. That woman is never wrong. I really should have listened.”
Blake was in shock. “Wait, my dad is here? He didn’t say he was coming. I glanced at the check-in roster this morning with Cami and I didn’t see his name.”
“Maybe he made the reservation after you printed it.” Joel picked up his radio, speaking into it. “Housekeeping, this is security.” When housekeeping responded, he told them a lawyer would be coming to pack the bags for the guest in room 251.
“I’ve really got to hear about that—later,” Blake said. “But my dad—are you sure it was him?”
“Yeah. Lana seemed to think so anyway. Why, you think she’s wrong?”
“No. It’s just weird.” Blake couldn’t quite shake the feeling of unease that rested on his shoulders. “Do you know the room number, by chance? Since you seem to know everything else?”
Joel chuckled. “It was on the fourth floor. I don’t remember the exact number, but we can check it out in my office.”
The security office was just around the corner—faster than calling to the front desk—so Blake followed.
Lana stared at the gun and tried, desperately, to remember the self-defense moves Joel had taught them all a few months earlier, but her mind was blank. “What’s going on?” she asked. “I thought you wanted to work things out.”
“You’re so gullible. Why would I want to work things out? Your family has been a plague on mine for decades. It started back at your grandparents’ first hotel. They gave George the raise I had earned just because he was their son. I was better at the job than he was, but they passed me over for him. More than once. Then he took over and it got worse.”
“This is because of a grudge from before I was born?” She tried to wrap her head around the fact that anyone could be so angry about something that happened so long ago.
“If it had stopped there, it might not bother me now, but it didn’t. He kept pushing me, beating me even when I was the better man. Like this hotel.” He took a step closer, his face hardening.
“I’m not my dad.” She wanted to scream, to call attention to herself, but she didn’t dare. It might draw his fire and she couldn’t risk her baby. She put a hand on her belly, as if that alone would protect her son.
“You can say that all you like, but you’re a tramp, just like he was. He didn’t care that he had a wife and kids at home; he did what he wanted, when he wanted. He cheated on your mom, he cheated you out of most of your inheritance by giving it to all of those half-sisters of yours, and he cheated me. How else do you think he managed to get this spot? I had it in the bag.”
“He won the bid on the land for this hotel fair and square,” Lana said. She actually knew nothing of the bidding process, but she had to defend her father—he’d always stressed the importance of honesty in business. She’d made it her mantra and the thought that he had been a hypocrite in that area was more than she could bear.
“You don’t know him. Not if you can say something like that. He was unprincipled, and you’re just like him. I won’t let you dirty my bloodlines with your tainted offspring.” His mouth twisted as he spoke the last, showing his disgust.
“This tainted offspring is your grandchild,” Lana folded her arms over her stomach in a protective gesture.
“I doubt it. And you can try to protect it, but it won’t help.” He lifted the gun and pointed it straight at her chest.
“He’s not on here,” Blake said as he leaned over the desk to see the names on the guest list. “Are you sure you understood Lana?”
“Yeah. She said she was talking to your dad.” Joel’s brow furrowed and he looked like he was having trouble remembering clearly. “I heard her say the room number, then she headed up. He said something about a reconciliation or something. She seemed pretty excited to clear things up.”
“Well, his name isn’t on the roster.” Blake’s worry increased with every passing minute, though he wasn’t sure why—his father wouldn’t hurt Lana, would he?
“Hmmm. She turned toward the elevators. Let’s check the video to see where she went.” Joel’s mouth formed a thin line, showing he was concerned as well.
Having learned Joel had excellent instincts coupled with Sage’s concern about their day increased Blake’s anxiety as he watched the monitors over Joel’s shoulder.
“You hated my dad,” Lana said, though she’d known it for a long time. She looked over at a winter hat that had some hair sticking out of it in an unruly dark mop. A wig? Had he come in disguise?
“Yes. Very astute of you.”
Suddenly something clicked in her head. “Are you behind the ghost activity here?” She didn’t know how it could be true but somehow she knew it was.
He smiled, but it wasn’t in the least friendly. “Why, yes. I’m so glad you figured that out.”
“How did you do it? How did you manage everything? I know you haven’t been here every time we’ve had trouble. Someone would have realized.” Surely he hadn’t acted alone.
“I had help, of course.”
She glanced around her for a weapon of her own—in case she could get close enough to hit him with something—and found a fake mustache that matched the hair. It
sat on the dresser like a dead rat. “Of course. You mind telling me who, since you intend to kill me anyway? I mean, when they find me dead in here, or at least a trail of blood, they’re going to know you’re behind this.”
“I’m not exactly checked in at the hotel, Lana. Do you really think I would risk being caught here? What kind of fool do you think I am? I’ve taken precautions to be sure none of this can be tracked back to me.”
She tipped her head. She had to keep him talking, try to come up with a way out of this. “You’re out of luck. I told someone I was coming up here to talk to you.”
“Blake and your office staff were gone long before I called you. You were alone in there; I checked. No one knows. I was careful.”
“Not careful enough.” She saw the electric teapot and hoped it really did have scalding hot water in it. She sat shakily in the chair beside it and opened a pack of tea. “I want to know who was working with you. I deserve to know.”
“Who do you think it is? How many people do you suppose I know here who have access to the cameras, codes and a key card to let me in up here?” He held up the card, shaking it a little in emphasis. “Who has always been loyal to me, anxious to curry my favor?”
Lana had been reaching for the teapot, planning her moves, but the words made her pause and absorb the shock of what he implied. Her stomach fell. “No. It’s not Blake.”
He smiled with satisfaction. “You’re really good at this guessing game.”
Her hand wobbled as she lifted the pot. Could she believe him? He’d been trying to destroy her and the resort. He would say anything, wouldn’t he? “I don’t believe you.”
“Your voice says otherwise. You don’t sound very sure.”
She touched the top of the pot, as if preparing to pour a cup, but instead she released the catch and gave the cap a quick twist to remove it. She whirled and threw the hot water in his face.
Reclaiming His Bride (DiCarlo Brides book 3) (The DiCarlo Brides) Page 18