by Poppy Flynn
"You need to leave, madam," the man growled, and Charlotte was surprised at his gruffness for such a high-end establishment.
She pulled out of his grasp. "Oh! Well, just let me put my shoes on!" Charlotte dropped her matching jade heels to the ground, so she could step into them but was startled when the man grabbed her roughly around the wrist and wrenched her so sharply that she dropped her bag as well. She had to trot to keep up with him and immediately started to panic.
"What's happened?" she shrieked. "Is there some kind of emergency? Where are my friends? Are they safe?" Charlotte pleaded. She hadn't heard any kind of alarm going off, but the Blackwood wedding was a huge, well publicised event. Perhaps there had been some kind of security threat. Were they all being evacuated?
Adrenaline rushed through her system and Charlotte's heart beat double time, but she fought to keep her head and try to make sense of the situation. The others might need her. Poor Desi. How could someone ruin what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life like this? Tears prickled Charlotte's eyes at the thought, but she forced them back. She needed to keep a clear mind and face whatever crisis had befallen her friend's special day with as much calm as she could muster for Desi and Joel's sake.
Damn, she hoped it wasn't activists out to make a big media splash for their cause; that would be so unfair. Then again, she supposed that was somewhat better than the threat of actual physical harm. Charlotte felt sick to her stomach, but the guard just kept dragging her along and he wasn't at all forthcoming. She guessed he had a job to do, though, and one that didn't entail being distracted and pandering to an errant wedding guest, but she couldn't just let it go.
"Please!" she begged. "What's going on? Are the Blackwoods safe?"
The big oaf scowled, but at least he answered, "The Blackwood group is perfectly safe, and you are being escorted off the premises."
Charlotte knew a moment of profound relief before she was thrust brusquely through the automatic sliding door at the main entrance and pushed forcefully into the street. She wheeled her arms to stop herself from falling on her face and swivelled around in shock only to see the doors sliding closed behind the security guard who was already off back through the lobby. Was he off to find someone else? He'd said the Blackwoods were safe, but where was everyone?
Charlotte swung from side to side looking for the others. It was dark, but the pavement outside the hotel was well lit. A few random passers-by gave her strange looks and a wide berth, but Charlotte couldn't see anyone familiar. Besides, they wouldn't have just left them all on the street, would they?
She scurried back to the door, swearing and hopping when she stubbed her bare toe, but as the doors swept open again, a thin, squirrelly man hurried towards her, his chest puffed out and his eyebrows knitted together in a frown. Charlotte felt her colour rising as she recognised the same man who had asked her to leave Jake's suite. The shiny name badge on his lapel labelled him as a Mr. Fitzwarren, the manager.
"You are not permitted to enter this establishment, madam!" he hissed furiously. "The police are already on their way."
She couldn't go back in and the police were en route? Oh, goddesses, it must be more serious than she'd thought. Charlotte fought against the hysterics that threatened to overwhelm her even as she started to shake, her head darting this way and that as she tried to find a familiar face.
"Wh-where are the others?" she stammered. "Where's Desi?"
"I have no idea who you are talking about but, believe me, any more of your kind will be dealt with in exactly the same manner!" The man crowded her, forcing her backwards from the door even as she bounced on her bare feet, trying to see over his shoulder.
Suddenly, Charlotte stilled, and the blood left her face as his words penetrated the panic that bubbled inside her. 'Her kind'?
Behind her, tires screeched and blue flashing lights reflected in the glass of the door and cast an eerie illumination on the brickwork of the walls. Time seemed to slow as she heard car doors slamming and the sound of running feet. She screamed as her arms were wrenched behind her and the metallic rattle of handcuffs being secured around her wrists sounded disproportionately loud against the words that seemed to recede in her head. Words that made no sense as they talked about reading her rights and charges of soliciting.
"I believe she has an accomplice," the snooty, squirrel faced manager told one of the officers. "She mentioned someone called Desi."
The man laughed. "Now there's irony for you. Isn't that the name of Joel Blackwood's bride?"
The manager sniffed and looked down his nose. "I believe you'll find that Ms. Harper's—Mrs. Blackwood's—name is Desirae. Now kindly remove this woman from here; it's causing a scene."
The mention of Desi's name brought Charlotte marginally back to her senses. A crowd was forming in the street and the media staking out the wedding had been alerted to the unfolding situation at the Blackwood's hotel. Despite the fact that the plans for the supper hadn't been made public, there were already flashes from cameras invading whatever privacy Charlotte had left to her and she tried to hide her face from this new humiliation.
The security guard returned, and the doors swished open as he lumbered back through them carrying Charlotte's purse and shoes which he threw at her feet. Her bag landed with a thud and her first thought was to scramble for it and see if her phone had survived so that she maybe could call someone to get her out of this mess. But the plan never fully evolved into a deed as, behind the man, on the far side of the lobby, she saw Jake heading for the bank of elevators. Jake would help her. She called out, but the soundproofing of the doors muffled her plea and he carried on. Still, Charlotte saw her chance. The guard turned to head back through the doors, and the moment they slid unsealed, Charlotte made her move. Diving away from the policewoman who held her arm, she raced for the opening, screaming his name in desperation.
The hotel manager grasped at her, and somewhere in the back of her mind, Charlotte heard the delicate satin of her sleeve rip as he grabbed a handful of the fabric. The action made her stumble and Charlotte fell to her knees, unable to stop the momentum, with her hands cuffed behind her. But it didn't matter; Jake turned towards the commotion just as the male police officer tried to haul her back. He saw her; that was all that mattered, and the sight of a friendly face in all this surreal nightmare brought the last threads of her control crashing around her and Charlotte collapsed to the ground and sobbed.
Chapter 2
Jake strode across the lobby, worrying at what was keeping Charlotte. Pre-drinks had been scheduled to start six minutes ago, and while he knew that she'd found the wedding planner's military style schedule rather irritating, he didn't think Charlotte would deliberately do anything to spoil Joel and Desi's day.
At the sound of his name, Jake glanced toward the main doors across the expanse of the marbled lobby and tried, unsuccessfully, to find logic in what he was seeing. None of it made any sense.
He was aware of blinking blue lights and camera flashes, uniformed police officers and hotel staff, but above all, he saw Charlotte. Damn it, he'd known something must have happened to her. She looked dishevelled; had she been accosted or something?
Jake swung around and headed across the wide lobby, his brows furrowing as he watched Fitzwarren grab at Charlotte and tear her dress. What the hell was going on? It might not make any sense, but instinct had him scrambling for his phone and hitting speed dial.
Logan Thornton was not only one of the groomsmen, he was the Blackwood Company lawyer.
Thankfully, he answered at the first ring. "Get to the front entrance, now!" he urged. Jake didn't elaborate further; he couldn't have if he'd wanted to.
Ahead of him, Charlotte stumbled and fell to the ground. There was something unnatural about her bearing and Jake broke into a run as Charlotte hunched into herself and started to sob.
Jake dropped to his knees beside her, heedless of his expensive tuxedo, and hauled Charlotte into his arms. The blood drained
from his face as he realised she had her arms handcuffed behind her back.
"What the hell is going on?" he demanded as a male officer by the name of Stokes attempted to haul Charlotte unceremoniously to her feet. He tightened his arms around her and instinctively blocked the move.
"And just who might you be, sir?" the officer countered, trying to strong arm Jake away from Charlotte. "I should warn you that if you have invited this woman's services then you are at risk of being charged yourself."
"Charged?" Jake spluttered incredulously. "What in God's name are you talking about?"
Jake swivelled his head, hoping to see Logan's calming presence making sense of all this chaos, but instead, he caught the eye of the manager who appeared rather agitated now that the policeman was attempting to manhandle Jake.
"I'm sure we don't need to involve Mr. Blackwood in any of this unpleasantness," the little man stammered apologetically.
"Blackwood?" the accompanying policewoman, repeated.
"Yes, Jake Blackwood." Jake glowered, pushing to his feet and helping Charlotte up but keeping her firmly within his grasp. Charlotte just leaned into him and wept on his shoulder, her own shoulders heaving with the intensity.
"Well, Mr. Blackwood," Stokes intoned condescendingly, "I'm sure you're aware that this county takes a rather dim view of this kind of thing and has mounted a campaign to clear up these incidents of indiscretion at all levels. No one's above the law, you know," the man smirked.
Jake didn't appreciate the tawdry implications of Officer Stokes words. So far, he'd been mostly talking in riddles and hadn't made any outright allegations, but Jake was just about out of patience. Charlotte was distraught and in handcuffs, some snotty uniform was trying to manhandle and threaten him, his cousin's wedding was being disrupted and no one was telling him what the hell was actually going on.
Jake glowered at the group of officials. "What exactly are you trying to say?" he gritted out between his clenched teeth.
It was then that Charlotte sniffled and raised her tear stained face, her pale cheeks flooding with colour as she softly choked out, "They're arresting me for soliciting!"
Time stretched, and Jake was rendered speechless for several long beats. Then fury thundered through his body like a freight train.
"What!" he bellowed, and the gathering crowd fell silent at his outburst. Jake took a step forward, his right hand fisted, but at the very second he might have let rip, a reassuring hand settled on his shoulder and Logan Thornton appeared at his side.
"Let me deal with this," he warned quietly as he stepped forward.
"Good evening, Officer Stokes, Officer Kelly," he smiled affably, addressing them by the names on their badges. "I'm Logan Thornton, lawyer to the Blackwood Corporation. What exactly seems to be the problem here?"
The policewoman, who had been mostly quiet up to this point, stepped forward. "We were called in by the hotel management who maintained they had an issue with a woman they had physically removed from the premises because she was soliciting."
Jake growled audibly, but the ever-calm Logan just nodded his head. "And since Miss Chapman is not only a guest, but a member of the wedding party—chief bridesmaid, in fact, since she is the new Mrs. Blackwood's closest friend—and has been involved in the celebrations for the entire day, a fact that can be corroborated by myself and several hundred other guests, when exactly was this transgression actually supposed to have taken place?" he asked smoothly.
Both the police officers looked taken aback and turned to look at the manager.
Logan sighed theatrically. "Please don't tell me that you have arrested this woman without checking the facts!"
Now, every eye turned to Fitzwarren whose Adam's apple bobbed as he pulled at his shirt collar. "We recognised her from an incident several months ago when we had occasion to ask her to leave one of the suites," he maintained defiantly, frowning at Jake indignantly.
Logan nodded and turned to Charlotte. "Is this true, Charlotte?" he asked gently.
Charlotte hiccupped as she spoke. "They did ask me leave," she confirmed. "I thought it was because they needed to get Jake's suite ready for someone else."
Jake gasped at this news.
"The Blackwood suites are kept on retainer, they are not available for any other bookings," Logan confirmed. "So why would you feel it necessary to ask one of our guests to leave?" he asked.
The man swallowed. "Mr. Blackwood had to leave in a hurry…" he nodded towards Jake "…he told us he was unlikely to return for a while and asked that his room be cleared in case another member of the company needed to use it."
Jake nodded his agreement, and Logan raised an eyebrow, waiting for the manager to continue his explanation.
"Ah…when we found the…umm…young lady in the room, we assumed, I mean, we thought that ah…" he stammered. "That erm, Mr Blackwood wanted us to…ah…remove her as well," he finished in a rush.
Logan raised both eyebrows and stared pointedly at the man. "And why would you think that?" he asked with deceptive calm, though his eyes told a different story.
"I don't know!" he replied quickly. "I mean, we just assumed…" He darted a telling look towards Jake then back at Logan, but it was enough to confirm both men's suspicions and Jake face darkened ominously.
"I don't know." Fitzwarren stopped before he dug himself any deeper.
Behind them, Officer Kelly shook her head and unlocked the handcuffs from around Charlotte's wrists. Charlotte automatically rolled her shoulders and rubbed at them.
In a bid to keep his temper, Jake cupped both her hands and held them in his, rubbing at the abraded skin and kissing her fingers.
He caught Logan's eye above her head and knew the other man had caught the implication and it wasn't just his own paranoia. Someone at the hotel was aware of Jake's past indiscretions according to gutter press and had jumped to their own conclusions. Once again, the insinuations in that damn story had come back to haunt his life.
Jake physically shook in anger and indignation at the injustice not only to himself, but the terrible consequence that Charlotte had to endure as a result of some total stranger's narrow minded assumptions. Jesus Christ, they'd actually arrested her. She could have been dragged downtown and booked before the police had gotten the facts straightened out.
And she'd suffered the humiliation of being thrown out of the hotel twice. Jake closed his eyes against the hopeless torment he felt, hugging her close and squeezing her tight, berating himself for his own actions. All of this was his fault and Charlotte had paid the price. It was little wonder she'd been so prickly back at the church.
Jake ushered Charlotte back into the lobby as he belatedly tried to shield her from the rubberneckers and the photographers outside.
As they entered, Desi, Joel and his Uncle Joe hurried across from the other side, trailed by the clearly agitated wedding planner. Well, that woman was about to earn her money. There was no way any of them were staying here. Not for the supper and not for the rest of their lives. He didn't care what disruption it caused to his cousin's big day, there was no way he was allowing Charlotte to endure the embarrassment of being here for a moment longer than necessary after what they'd done to her.
Jake nodded to Logan in silent communication and the other man intercepted Joel and Desi to fill them in on the incident while Jake headed off the planner.
From the corner of his eye, Jake caught his uncle's appalled expression as he grasped the gist of that conversation before he swiftly detached himself and hurried over to Charlotte, stripping out of his suit jacket and placing it carefully around her shoulders. Jake was grateful for his thoughtfulness.
Fitzwarren loitered a few steps behind, wringing his hands.
"You need to find a new supper venue," Jake informed the planner, Vivian Dupont, without preamble.
"What!" the woman exclaimed. "That's impossible!" she screeched as if he had asked her to invite Martians.
"You've run this entire wedding with the
precision of a military dictator, Ms. Dupont. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever in your abilities." Jake's tone brooked no argument.
"I don't care if we end up in a greasy spoon eating fries. Just get it sorted out, because staying here is not an option."
Vivian flounced and shook her head so incessantly, her mouth silently opening and closing like a fish, that from her blanket of distant surrealism, Charlotte vaguely wondered if the woman knew that she looked like one of those life-size wooden marionettes. A bizarre thought to be wandering through her mind, but in the aftermath of the experiences, her brain seemed to have shut down any higher function.
"In addition, you will need to relocate the entire wedding party. That's a bridal suite and five others. I'm sure none of the guests will object under the circumstances."
The planner suddenly found her voice. "That's not your call, Mr. Blackwood. You have no authority in this event coordination."
Behind her, Desi spoke up defiantly. "You do whatever he asks, Vivian." The outrage in her voice was palpable.
"But there won't…it's too short notice…nothing will be available," Vivian squeaked.
"Do what you can," Jake commanded. "The bridal and one other suite are a must, the rest can just be rooms; they don't have to all be in the same place. Find what you can."
"You can promise four suites on retainer to the place that is the most helpful," Joe Blackwood assured the woman. Behind him, Fitzwarren gasped audibly.
"We can go to Desi's apartment if necessary," Desi's mother told the harried wedding planner.
"I have a guest room," came the well-modulated tones of Luanna Morgan. She glanced over at Logan, whom she'd been paired with for the evening, a slight blush colouring her cheeks. "Mr. Thornton could stay with me if he doesn't mind slumming it."
Logan's lion-like eyes met Luanna's with a feral intensity. "Not at all," he assured her.