She took a step away from him as the police came through the door. His nose was bleeding, and he was spitting at her. The cops put him in handcuffs as one of the security men explained what had happened, and Heloise hardly looked ruffled, although she had ripped her skirt to the thigh when she kneed him in the groin.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” she said pleasantly. One of the patrolmen asked for a statement from her, and she was in the middle of it when her father came rushing downstairs. He had woken up to the sound of fire engines, saw them outside, and dressed quickly. The elevators had been stopped for safety so he took the service stairs. He took one look at the situation and turned to his security men. “What’s going on here?” Smiling, one of the firefighters described the scene to him. She had put them all to shame.
“Are you all right?” he asked his daughter, and she looked at him. She wasn’t even unnerved, although she’d been mad as hell at the man who’d set the fire.
“I’m fine. I think some asshole at the union paid the guy to set a fire in the basement tonight. We lost a couch and some rolling trays. But it could have been a lot worse.”
“Are you crazy?” her father said to her. “To hell with the couch. They just told me you punched the guy. He could have stabbed you. Did that ever occur to you?” He looked at her like she was insane.
“He set the fire. Someone paid him to do that. I’m not going to let a jerk like that burn down our hotel and destroy everything we’ve built.” Her eyes were rock hard as she looked at her father. She wasn’t going to let him destroy it either. The message was clear.
“Did the alarm go off?”
“Yes, it did. That’s why I came down here. The security boys were putting out the fire, and the fire department got here at the same time I did,” she told her father. “They found the rag he used to light it.”
“How do you know it was him?”
“He pretty much said so, or he implied it, and then he grabbed me by the throat.”
“And then you hit him?” Her father looked stunned by both the stupidity and the courage of what she’d done.
“She broke his nose, sir,” the young patrolman filled in.
“You broke his nose?” Hugues stared at his daughter as though seeing her for the first time.
“It was actually a very sweet move,” one of the firefighters commented. “Instep with her stiletto, punch in the nose with a fist, and then she kneed him in the groin.” Hugues turned to look at all of them then.
“And what were the rest of you doing? Taking pictures? Why did she break his nose and not you?”
“Because this is our hotel,” she said with a small smile. “And I love it more than you do,” referring to the pending sale.
The patrolman took the rest of her statement then. He said they were going to book the dishwasher for arson, and he doubted they could ever pin it on the union, unless he talked. But since they were pressing charges and he was in custody, he might.
They told Heloise then that she was free to go, and that there would be no charges for assault since it had been self-defense with a dozen witnesses to prove it. Her father shuddered at the words, as the security men called for the maintenance crew to get rid of the trays and the remains of the charred couch.
Heloise headed for the service elevator and said she had to change her skirt before she went back to the desk.
“I’ll ride up with you,” her father said somberly, and for the first few minutes after they got in, he didn’t say a word. He was still trying to sort out what he’d just heard. “Do you realize you could have been killed?”
“Do you realize he could have burned down our hotel?” He was trying not to smile, thinking of what she’d done to the arsonist. But this was nothing to smile about.
“You can’t do things like that. You can’t risk your life.”
“I’d rather die here, defending what we love, than somewhere else,” she said calmly.
“I don’t want you dying anywhere, or taking chances like that.” And then he smiled. “I can’t believe you broke his nose.”
“It was a pretty cool move,” she said with a grin, as the elevator stopped at her floor. “It worked. They called it ING at school. Instep, nose, groin. It works every time.”
“You’re dangerous,” he teased her. “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off? I’m afraid you might injure someone else.” He followed her to her apartment door.
“I’m fine. They’ll be short-handed if I don’t go back.” She was standing in the doorway of her apartment, with her skirt slit nearly to her waist, from raising her knee high enough to kick the arsonist in the groin. And she had packed a hell of a punch. “How’s Natalie?”
“Okay, I guess. Time will tell. She hates being stuck in bed. And her office is going crazy without her. But she’s too scared to argue about it. It’s going to be a long five months, or however much she has left.” She had planned to take the last few months off but not be on bedrest this soon.
“I’ll come up and see her tomorrow,” she promised, and then went inside to change. She was back at the front desk ten minutes later in a fresh skirt, with her hair neatly combed and brushed. She spent the rest of the night talking to the men she worked with, and she was about to go upstairs at seven when she went off duty, when her father came down to the lobby and asked her to come into his office. She wondered if he was going to reprimand her for assaulting the arsonist when he asked her to sit down. He obviously had something to say to her, and he looked as though he hadn’t slept the night before. She’d been up all night and she looked better than he did as he spoke to her. When he did, his voice was gruff.
“I’m not selling the hotel. I’m probably crazy. It’s an insane amount of money to turn down. We’ll never have an offer like it again, and we may be sorry one day. But I can’t have you willing to risk your life for what I built, while I sell out for the money. You reminded me last night of what this hotel means to me, to us. I don’t ever want you taking chances like that again, no matter how brave you are. But I’m not going to sell something that you love that much. I’m turning down the offer.” Heloise sat and smiled at him, and he smiled at her too. The hotel was something very special that they shared, and she wasn’t willing to give that up, or let anyone hurt it or take it from them. And now he wasn’t either.
“I’m proud of you, Papa,” she said softly, coming around his desk to hug him.
“Don’t be,” he said quietly. “I’m proud of you. I almost sold us out. You were the one who risked your life to defend the hotel.”
They walked out of his office together, arm in arm. He called his lawyers later that morning to turn down the offer, and they called the labor union after that. Their attorney told the union they were not taking back the two maintenance men, and they would bring charges of arson if they ever pulled a stunt like that again. The union representative told the attorney that they had no idea what he meant. But the message was clear. The dishwasher was in jail. And the picket line did not come back again. And he made equally clear to the Dutch that the Hotel Vendôme was not for sale. Now or ever.
Chapter 23
BY MARCH, BRAD was staying at the hotel with Heloise every night. They weren’t officially living together, but it was working out that way, and her father didn’t object. He was a very nice young man. Heloise’s life was mature beyond her years, but it always had been, growing up in the hotel. She had seen more of life than most girls her age. And she and Brad were a good match. He didn’t complain about her long hours and double shifts. And he was interested in the hotel. He was getting increasingly interested in labor law. Neither of them was afraid of hard work. He studied when she worked, and he was graduating from law school in June. And then he had to pass the bar. He was starting to look for a job.
They went to dinner at the Waverly Inn downtown on a rainy night in March, to take a break from his studies and her work. Natalie was still on bedrest, and Heloise had seen her that afternoon. She tried to dro
p in as often as possible and brought her all the latest magazines and DVDs. She’d been on bedrest for two months. She was six months pregnant and the babies could survive if they were born now, although they were still very small. Every added week was a help. She was trying to direct her office from her bed, and her assistants were coming to see her every day. It was frustrating for her. But the babies came first.
Heloise was talking to Brad about his job search as their cab approached the hotel, and as soon as it did, she saw a fire department rescue truck parked right outside. She immediately wondered if a guest had had a heart attack, and they both thought of Natalie instantly, as Brad paid the driver and they both jumped out and ran inside. No one had called her on her cell during dinner, so she assumed it was a guest, and as she flew into the lobby, she saw her father going past her on a gurney, surrounded by paramedics with a defibrillator on his chest. She was totally shocked and ran after them and followed them outside. The front desk manager, Bruce, and two security men were following them with a terrified expression, and guests were watching around the lobby. “What happened?” she asked the manager, as the paramedics slid the gurney into the truck.
“I don’t know. He clutched his chest and fell down at the front desk. They just got here. I think he had a heart attack.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” she said with a look of panic as the paramedics talked to her father, and Brad stood next to her.
“We didn’t have time. I was just about to.”
“Does Natalie know?” she asked quickly. He shook his head. “Don’t tell her,” Heloise said firmly, and then jumped into the rescue truck with a last look at Brad before they closed the doors. An instant later, the siren was on and they were speeding to the hospital. Two paramedics were next to Hugues and watching him closely. He was conscious by then and looking at Heloise with a dazed expression.
“What happened?” he asked in a hoarse voice. “I have a terrible pain in my chest.” There were IVs in his arms, and the paramedics told him not to talk. It looked like too much effort, and he was holding Heloise’s hand while she fought back tears and prayed he would be all right.
They rushed him to Coronary ICU and made her wait outside while they examined him, and then they let her come in. They said he had had a mild heart attack. They had done an EKG and were talking about doing an angiogram that night. Heloise gave them his history, and her father looked at her with frightened eyes.
“Don’t tell Natalie,” he whispered. “She’ll lose the babies.”
“I didn’t, and you’re going to be fine,” she said, holding his hand and willing it to be true. She couldn’t imagine her life without him. She needed him too much. She stayed with him until they took him to do the angiogram. And then she called Brad and told him where she was. He had waited in her apartment, and he came immediately, and they sat in the waiting room together for hours.
It was two in the morning when they brought her father back. They had done an angioplasty, and they put him back in ICU so he could be monitored, while she and Brad sat in the waiting room, and she called the front desk at the hotel.
“What did you tell Natalie?” She was worried about that, if he didn’t come up to bed.
“We told her that one of the guests had an accident, and your father went to the hospital with him, and he told her not to wait up,” the assistant manager said.
“Perfect.” Heloise was relieved.
“How is he?” Everyone was worried about him. He had gone down like a rock behind the desk.
“They did an angioplasty, and they said he should be fine. I don’t know how long he’ll be here. He’s still sedated now.”
“Keep us posted.”
“I will.” She turned back to Brad then and nestled into his arms, as they spent the night in the drafty waiting room. She could go in and see her father for ten minutes every hour, but he was sleeping from the sedation and didn’t see her all night. It was morning before he woke up, and Heloise and Brad were there. Bruce had brought them sandwiches at six A.M. and a Thermos of hot coffee that room service had prepared. Heloise couldn’t eat, but Brad was starving and devoured two sandwiches with a sheepish expression by the time Bruce left again.
When Heloise saw her father early that morning, he was groggy and looked like he had aged a decade overnight. There were still monitors all over him, beeping loudly in the frenzied activity of the ICU. They were waiting for the doctor to come, and she went back to wait with Brad, after she kissed her father and told him she’d be back. He was asleep again before she left. And he didn’t look good.
The doctor came to talk to her finally at eight o’clock. He was smiling when he came out of the ICU, which relieved Heloise’s mind enormously as she squeezed Brad’s hand.
“You can go home and get some rest. He’s doing fine. We’re going to keep him for a few days just to keep an eye on him, and then he can go home. I’d like him to rest for a few weeks before he goes back to work, maybe a month. Exercise, diet, he needs to monitor all that. This was a warning shot across his bow, but I think we patched him up pretty well last night. With a few weeks’ rest, he’ll be as good as new.” Heloise smiled at the thought. That would have been hard to believe a few hours ago.
“His wife is having triplets, and she’s on bedrest. I guess we’ll have to keep them in bed together.” She smiled at the doctor, and he laughed.
“As long as he doesn’t get frisky with her, that would be fine. But if she’s on bedrest with triplets, I guess there’s no risk of that.” All three of them laughed at what he said.
“Can I see him again?” she asked.
“He was asleep a few minutes ago,” the doctor said, “but you can check.”
She went in to see her father again then, and he stirred and looked at her and apologized for the trouble he had caused.
“You didn’t cause any trouble, Papa,” she said softly, holding his hand. “But you have to be careful now. You and Natalie are both on bedrest. You have to take it easy, but you can keep her company until the triplets come, and the doctor said you can go for a walk every day. We’ll take care of the hotel.”
“This is so stupid,” he complained. “I don’t know what happened. I’m fine. I must have just been tired or something.”
He looked more awake but still very beaten up, and Heloise didn’t look great either. It had been a long night for both of them. “I can’t let you do all the work,” her father said, looking agitated.
“You’re not coming back to work until the doctor says you can,” Heloise said sternly. “The rest of us can handle whatever comes up. We need you, Papa,” she said softly. “I need you. I’d be lost without you. You’re all I have.” There were tears in her eyes as she said it, and he gently stroked her hair with his hand.
“I’m not going anywhere. Tell Natalie I’m fine, and not to have the babies till I get back.” He smiled at her.
“You’ll be home in a few days. I’ll come back later. Brad is here with me, and he sends his love.”
“I’m glad he’s here with you. Tell Natalie I love her, and I love you too,” he said, smiling weakly at his daughter, and then he turned his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. He drifted off to sleep then, and she quietly left the ICU and went back to Brad in the waiting room, and they walked out in the morning sunshine. She felt like they’d been in the waiting room for a week as Brad hailed a cab and they went back to the hotel. They talked quietly in the back of the cab about what had happened. It had been the most frightening night of her life.
Everyone had a thousand questions when they saw her walk into the lobby. She looked exhausted, but not devastated, and everyone was relieved to hear that her father was doing well and would be home in a few days.
Brad went to her room to shower and change. He had class that morning, and Heloise went straight upstairs to see Natalie in her father’s apartment. She walked into the bedroom, and Natalie was wide awake, watching the morning news on TV. She had the TV on constantl
y now. She had nothing else to do except eat, watch TV, call her office, and watch her belly grow. And she was huge now with three babies inside her.
“Where’s your father?” she asked immediately with a worried expression. Heloise hadn’t planned to tell her, but there was no way she was going to be able to hide it from her for several days. And Natalie’s radar was telling her that something had happened to her husband.
Heloise sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled at her. “He’s fine. He’s really fine, and he’ll be home in a few days. He gave us a scare last night. He’s at New York Hospital, he had a mild heart attack, they did an angioplasty, and they said he’s going to be good as new. And I’m making him take four weeks off. He can keep you company till the babies are born.” She had told her everything in one fell swoop, and strangely, Natalie looked relieved. She knew something had happened, and she’d been panicked about what it was all night.
“Thank you for telling me the truth,” she said, clinging to Heloise’s hands. “Is he really okay?”
“Yes, he is. I promise.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“He just went back to sleep. He had a long night. You can call him in a couple of hours when he wakes up.” She jotted down the number for her and put it on the pad next to her bed. “I’ll stay here with you while he’s gone,” Heloise offered, and Natalie was relieved. She didn’t want to be alone at night in case she went into labor and couldn’t move, or had the babies right in her bed with no warning. She was terrified that would happen, although it was unlikely to happen that fast. They were planning to do a cesarean when they were ready to be born.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I wish I could go see him instead of being stuck here like this.” She felt completely helpless and useless lying in bed, unable to do anything, but the stakes were too high. She couldn’t get up, even for Hugues now.
“He’ll be home soon,” Heloise reminded her. And then she went into the living room and lay down on the couch. She woke up two hours later when the phone rang. It was her father calling for his wife. Natalie picked it up and burst into tears when she heard him, she was so relieved. And they talked for a long time.
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