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Declan
Tanner helped Shelby pack up her hotel room and move everything over to his room. She was in her bathroom packing up her toiletries when Tanner cornered Declan in his room. “Are you going to go down to Claude’s office to have a little talk with him or am I?” he asked.
Declan sighed, “She won’t like it if I go down there,” he said, watching the door for Shelby to reappear.
“No, she won’t, but we can’t let him talk to her that way. It wasn’t right for that asshole to go after her just because she’s with us. He’s threatened by us, and I won’t let him do this to her,” Tanner insisted. He was such a hothead, Declan worried that if he sent Tanner down to talk to Claude, he’d end up having to post bail at the local police station. There was no way that either of them needed that kind of trouble.
“I’ll do it,” Declan mumbled.
“Good,” Tanner said. “Go now before she figures out what we’re up to.”
“You really are bossy,” Declan griped. “Shelby was right last night.”
“Shut the fuck up and go talk to him,” Tanner ordered. “Or I will.” Declan nodded and peeked his head out into the hallway to make sure that Shelby was still in her room. There was no sign of her, so he hurried down the hall to the elevator and stepped on before being caught. He felt like a teenager sneaking out of the house again.
He found Claude in his office, talking to a prospective new maid and he knocked on the door, nudging it open every time his knuckles made contact with the wood. “Can I help you?” Claude asked.
“I need a moment of your time,” he insisted. The woman stood and Claude told her to sit back down. “She can stay, this won’t take long,” Declan offered.
“You can’t come barging into my office and demand to talk to me. If you need something, I’m sure that my staff at the front desk would be happy to assist you,” Claude promised.
“But my problem isn’t with anyone at the front desk, Claude. It’s with you. You tried to cause trouble for my business partner and me and that’s unacceptable. You hurt Shelby, and that’s unforgivable.”
“I didn’t hurt anyone,” he insisted. “I never laid a hand on her.”
“No, but you tried to punish her for being with Tanner and me. You’ve never treated her right and honestly, I’m going to make sure that you never work for any hotel again,” Declan said.
“You can’t do that,” Claude shouted, standing from his chair. “You have no interest in this hotel franchise.” Declan knew that his smile was mean, but he didn’t give a shit. Poor Claude was about to figure out who he was dealing with.
“You see, Claude,” Declan said. “That’s where you’re wrong.” He pulled his cell from his pocket and rounded Claude’s desk to sit down in his newly vacated seat, to place his phone call. It was the equivalent of pissing on the man’s cornflakes, but Claude didn’t know that yet. At least the guy was smart enough not to try to stop him.
“Hey Peter,” Declan said. “About what we talked about earlier—Tanner and I are in.” He looked over to find that Claude seemed intrigued by his conversation—possibly even curious, but the poor sap had no idea what just happened between Declan and his old friend Peter.
Once he got into town, he had called Peter to set up a special meeting with him. He and Tanner had gone to college with Pete and his friend happened to own a few boutique hotels in Paris, the one that he was currently standing in, being one of them. Pete was saying that he wanted to let all but one of his French hotels go and asked if Tanner and Declan would be interested in buying any of them. Claude didn’t have any clue that Declan had just purchased both of the hotels that Pete wanted to sell, and he was technically one of Claude’s employers now.
“I’ll have the funds wired to your account as soon as we get off the phone,” Declan promised. He ended the call. Claude started to speak, and Declan held up his finger as if telling the guy to give him a minute. As soon as he finished wiring the money to Peter’s account, he turned off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket.
“My patience only stretches so far, Sir. Would you mind removing yourself from my chair?” Claude asked.
“Actually, Claude, it’s my chair as of about five seconds ago. You see, that was the former owner of this hotel on the other end of that call, and well, now I’ve purchased this hotel and one of his other ones across town. Actually, I should clarify that my business partner and I now own this hotel and another one across town.”
“You can’t be serious,” Claude challenged.
“Oh, but I am,” Declan said. “I don’t joke about the hotel business. This really wasn’t a part of the plan, but you went and pissed me off, Claude. You’re fired,” he said. “I’ll need you and your things out of my hotel by nightfall,” he said, giving him back the same words that Shelby said he’d told her.
“I’ll be checking into the validity of your story,” Claude said. “And even if you are the new owner of this hotel, you can’t fire me, I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Declan threw back his head and laughed. He was enjoying this whole scene way too much. “I’m pretty sure that using your position of power, as hotel manager, to get the maids on staff to sleep with you, would be considered wrongdoing,” Declan challenged.
“You can’t prove any of that,” Claude hissed.
“Sure, I can,” Declan said. “You see, one of your, well now, my employees saw you in this very office the other day with a woman named Lou spread out on your desk. I’m sure that she’ll be happy to share that story with whoever needs to hear it. You’re done, Claude. You will never work in this town again. I’ll make sure of it.”
Declan stood and started for the door, not bothering to turn back to look at the asshole again. He’d already had his fill. “Be out by nightfall, Claude,” he said back over his shoulder on his way out of the small office space.
He wasn’t sure how the hell Tanner was going to react to Declan purchasing not one but two hotels without consulting him first. If need be, he’d remove Tanner from the sale and give him his half of the money back, it would just take him some time to recoup it from the hotels. First, he was going to have to come clean to not only Declan, but also Shelby, and he was worried that they were both going to be pissed.
He got to his room and took a deep breath before pulling out his key card to go in. “Where have you been?” Shelby asked. “You’ve been gone forever and where’s lunch?” She turned around to Tanner. “I thought you said that he was picking us up some lunch and that’s why he was gone for so long.”
