The Billionaire's Island Romance (The Romero Brothers, Book 3.5) (11 page)

“So what
if Dad showed me the ropes and he wants me to help out a bit. He’s a little
tired right now but…” Arianna bit down on her lip again. She hated to not tell
the complete truth, but how could she? Her uncle was a shark, a gambler who got
in over his head and only wanted to take over to suck more money out of the
place to continue with this addiction. The addiction he refused to get help
for.

“Uncle,
if it’s more money you need to borrow…”

“Never
mind that. I’m warning you and your old man, don’t mess with what’s rightfully
mine.” With those words, he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Arianna
slumped down in her chair. What had she gotten herself into? What was she going
to do now? What was she doing? Who was she protecting?

“You
okay?” Tiff came into the office, seeing her slouched in the chair.

Arianna
straightened herself up and stood up. She brushed her hair off her face with
her hands and picked up her papers. “I’m good, thanks.”

“Listen,
don’t let that man intimidate you, okay?”

“I…I
won’t. Come on, we’ve got a meeting to go to,” she said breathless, her voice aquiver.

Later, Arianna sat in the boardroom with
her department heads and some senior level staff members.

“Everything looks good so far,” she said,
trying to sound as calm as her nerves would allow while reading over the items
on the agenda. “Okay, guys, we’re doing well. Our main goal is to continually
provide superior customer service and meet and exceed clients' expectations. So
far we’ve had three hundred glowing and complimentary letters over the past
year. Let’s keep up the good work.”

The group cheered around the table.

Ari held up her hand politely to silence
them. “But…we’ve had a few complaints about the rooms, noisy air conditioners
and such. So, guys, let’s try to reduce the number of complaints in each of our
departments. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am, but it’s not always easy when
guests put notices on the doors not to be disturbed and then complain when
their room isn’t cleaned,” the senior executive for housekeeping said.

“Okay, fair enough. I will look into that
and ensure guests know that the rooms won’t be cleaned or entered with the Do Not
Disturb sign on the doorknob outside their door.”

“Oh, and speaking of which, ma’am. We’re
still not cleaning your parents’ suite. I mean, Mr. Duponte insists on always
doing it himself. He tells us to just get the linen and the cleaning supplies.
I don’t mind but-”

“It’s okay, Mara,” Arianna interrupted, a lump
in her throat. Her mother had agoraphobia for the longest time and didn’t want
to ever come out of her room for fear of crowds. She’d been to therapists in
the past, but Dad was so good to accommodate her for the longest time. That was
why when they went on their trip to the Mediterranean last year; it was a huge
step—and a huge mistake!

“Thank you,” Arianna continued, swallowing
the lump in her throat. “Anything else, guys?”

“Don’t forget the new dates for the staff
training sessions,” Tiff chimed in.

“Oh, right. We’ll be scheduling some more
staff development training sessions in the coming weeks. Tiff and I will go
over the program and email each of you. And…” She flipped through some of her
notes. Her mind still reeling over her tumultuous morning spat with her uncle.
Her fingers were trembling ever so slightly. She hoped no one would notice. She
drew in a deep breath and took a glass of water beside her to her lips and
tasted the refreshing aqua. She then placed it back down on the table. “…
we’ll
also need to put up the new fire safety plans. We had
the graphics department design some eye-catching, new brochures to replace the
ones we have up now.”

She could do this. She could go through
this meeting and forget about her encounter with her uncle. He had threatened
to take it all away from them but she was not going to let that bother her. She
was sure that legally, he had no right to.

Being
brave isn’t about not having fear,
Christian told
her while they hiked up the awesome Dunn’s River Falls.
It’s about moving forward, in spite of your fear.
She was not about
to fear or worry over what may or may not happen. She was not about to let
Uncle Ned ruin her morning and sidetrack her from all her goals she needed to
accomplish. She had a hotel to help run and staff to manage and guests to take
care of.

Focus, girl.
Just focus—on the right things! Keep it positive. Positive
thinking makes for positive results.

Arianna then went over some more items with
the guest services manager, director of operations,
rooms
coordinator, chief concierge, bell captain and their sales manager. So far the
numbers looked adequate. She was satisfied with the way things were moving. The
Romero wedding was the biggest highlight this weekend. It was actually bringing
in the most revenue and created more contract jobs than any other wedding
they’d hosted. The Romeros spared no expense. Whatever they did, they did with
class and money was not an object.

The Banquets Captain was ecstatic about the
upcoming wedding and assured Arianna that all the supplies, catering and
decorations were in place. The wedding was to take place on a custom-designed
white gazebo by the sea with floral and white satin decorations entwined on it,
in addition to silk and real flowers. Ari couldn’t wait. She had already seen
some of the shipment that came in early.

She was especially proud of her
housekeeping department, who paid close attention to detail. “Continue to live
out our motto: Friendliness and Cleanliness,” she had praised them earlier.

She was also supplied up-to-date
information from Joe, the hotel’s chief maintenance engineer, who oversaw the
overall operation of the building and parking lot, common areas and had other tasks
like maintaining all equipment in guest rooms, monthly safety inspections and
training on safety and emergency procedures.

“Great, so we’ve replaced all the older
smoke detector models in all guest suites. Awesome!” Arianna confirmed with Joe.
It was also good that they had installed those self-closing doors, which had
proven to save lives by confining smoke so that the evacuation routes would be
clear.

Before Joe could answer her, the fire alarm
sounded.

“Oh, no!” Tiff exclaimed.

“I’ll call the fire department,” Joe said.

“Good,” Arianna said.

Everyone looked around. “It’s been a while
since we’ve had an alarm,” a member of the board commented as they all got up.

“Okay, guys, you know what to do. Close all
doors, ensure everyone’s okay until the fire department gets here and let’s
gather in the lobby.”

“I’ll make sure the elevators are shut
off,” Joe told Arianna. He held his cell phone to his ear. He was on the phone
with the fire department. Even though they didn’t know the source of the fire
or if there really was one, they were not going to take any chances. While they
got everyone safely out of their rooms, they would investigate to see if
everything was okay.

It was a mad rush. Soon hotel guests came
out of their rooms and everyone gathered in the plush lobby as per the Duponte
Hotel’s clearly posted fire safety and escape plan. Some were dressed in their
robes, others in shorts and t-shirts. The designated fire wardens did a quick
head count while Arianna’s assistant grabbed the master guest list.

Just then, she saw Christian rushing
towards her. “Arianna, are you okay?”

“Yes, thank you. It’s probably nothing.
Maybe a drill or someone pulled the alarm by mistake. We’re investigating.”

“Okay. Anything I can do?” he said, and he
scanned to area for anything obvious.

“Joe called the fire department.”

Just then, her uncle Ned came out of his
suite and into the lobby, looking royally peeved as he eyed Arianna with
disdain.

“Well, he looks cheery this morning,”
Christian commented, his jaw clenched. She could tell Christian saw her uncle’s
expression and wasn’t impressed either.

“Where are your parents?” Uncle Ned demanded
bitterly.

“Oh, no. Probably still up in the room.” Arianna
glanced around quickly,
then
glanced back down to the
master guest list with her pen.

Before she could stop him, Christian left
her side. “I’m going to get your parents.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she said before realizing
what he was doing.

“Oh, God! Christian! No!”

He rushed up the steps and had arrived on
the second floor in front of the Duponte’s main suite where he knew they were
staying. Christian was fit and athletic and it was almost impossible to catch
up to him. Breathless, Arianna ran after him. “Christian, no. Please!”

He knocked on the door and Mr. Duponte
opened the door to his suite. “Oh, Christian, I’m so glad you’re here. Please
help me convince Mrs. Duponte that we need to evacuate.”

“Sure thing.” Christian burst into the
room.

It was too late. Arianna’s legs were weak
and she almost collapsed at the door.

“Oh, darling,” Mr. Duponte called out to
his wife. “It’s time to go, dear. Christian is here. You remember the guy I was
telling you about.
Arianna’s nice boyfriend.
He’s come
to help me carry you down the stairs.”

Mr. Duponte then turned to Christian with a
smile of relief, as he pointed to his wife. “Will you please tell her we need
to go now?”

Christian was never more shocked in his
life. He felt his gut being ripped out of his body with a sharp knife. He
looked in horror at the scene before him.

WTF?

Nothing could have prepared him for what he
was seeing with his own eyes. Very few things could ever cause a knife-twisting
reaction like that in him, but this did.

“Christian, I’m sorry you had to see that.”
He heard Arianna’s voice beside him but he was too numb to say anything.

Just then the alarm silenced. And an
announcement over the speaker sounded that it was a false alarm.

He looked at Arianna, his jaw clenched. He
looked at Mr. Duponte and without so much as a word he motioned to walk away.

“Christian, I didn’t tell you before
because I didn’t think you’d understand.”

“You’re right,” he said, his tone chilly.
“I. Don’t. Understand.”

CHAPTER
TEN

“What’s all this nonsense?” Toni demanded,
turning to Carl. “First they tell us there’s a fire. Then they inform us there
is no fire.”

“It’s okay, Granddad. It was apparently a
false alarm. It happens. We can go back to our rooms.”

“Oh, I’m going over to the bar by the pool.
Care to join me, Shelly?” Toni turned to his wife.

“Sure. Why not? I could do with a tall pina
colada right now.”

Just then, Carl spotted Christian. His
cousin looked like hell. What had happened to him?

“You okay, man?” Carl turned to Christian.
“What’s wrong? You were on cloud nine earlier this morning.”

“Everything,” Christian said in an icy
tone, his mind still reeling in shock and disappointment.
 

Christian walked up to the bar and ordered
a non-alcoholic beer. What he really needed was something heavy and
intoxicating but it was way too early in the day for that.

Shit!

What
just happened? Why did Arianna lie to me like that?

“Seriously, man, your eyes are looking wild
and dangerous, cuz. Whatever it is, she loves you. I can see the way she looks
at you when you two are together.”

“What makes you think this is about
Arianna?” he said, not looking at his cousin, taking a swig of his drink.

“Because it usually is about a girl.
Besides, only love can fuel those strong emotions. You only get really pissed
like that when someone you really care about screws you or screws around with
your head, man. That’s the look you have right now.”

Christian buried his head in his hands and
drew in a deep breath. He had to settle his anger and his inner torment. He
lifted up his head and rested his chin on his hands. “Screwed up is right, cuz.
Things are really screwed up between us.”

“Between you and Arianna?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you think you should be with her
right now, sorting it out?”

“Not now.” Christian shook his head. “She
just really messed with my head. I…I can’t think straight.”

“S’okay. Let’s chill for a while.” Carl
grinned.

“What’s so funny?”

“Women. They are the most beautiful, exotic
and complicated creatures I’ve ever known. But ya gotta love ‘em.”

In spite of himself, as painful as it was,
Christian grinned slightly. Yeah, his cousin had
that
right.