Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

One of the security guards was spraying the contents of a fire extinguisher on the couch and the trays when the fire department arrived with full alarms, bringing hoses with them. They had the fires out in less than ten minutes. There was a nasty, acrid smell of smoke, and two inches of water on the basement floor, but the fire was out. The kitchen and surrounding areas were swarming with firefighters, checking everything. They wanted to make sure that nothing else had caught fire. And Heloise stood watching them and thanking them for what they’d done. They had come very quickly. Hotel fires were always taken seriously, and they often started in the kitchen. Her father had taught her to have a deep respect for fire and for every safety practice they could think of.

She was still talking to two of the firefighters, when another fire-man came up to her with an oil-soaked rag that reeked of smoke. It lay in an oily heap when he dropped it on the floor.

“There’s your igniter,” he said, looking at Heloise and two of the security men. “Somebody set that on fire. There’s another one under the couch. I’d say somebody is playing games with you.” It probably wouldn’t have caused a big enough fire to burn down the hotel, since their alarm system was up to date and very efficient, but it could have caused some damage if the fire department hadn’t been as quick. And as she was talking to them, she saw one of the room service dishwashers grinning. He hadn’t worked at the hotel for long, and while he was watching Heloise talk to the firemen about the rag, he looked amused. She saw the look of defiance in his eyes, and she slowly walked toward him.

“Did you see somebody do this?” she asked him directly, and he laughed at her.

“You think I’d tell you if I did?” he jeered at her. He knew who she was, but he didn’t care.

“What do you know about this?” she persisted. She wasn’t afraid of him at all.

“I know your daddy fired two guys, and the union is gonna kick your ass if you don’t take them back,” he said defiantly, as the security men moved closer to them both. Bruce was off for the night. “They told you there was gonna be trouble, so maybe someone lit a little fire tonight to show you what they mean. You can’t fire anyone just like that. The union won’t let you do it,” he said, he was standing inches away from her, and the way he looked at her would have frightened anyone else, but it didn’t frighten her. He was threatening her hotel.

“Did you do this?” she asked him, moving an inch closer to him. She was a slim woman, and twenty-one years old, but she was as brave as any man in the room.

“What if I did?” he said, and laughed at her again, and as he did, one of the firemen got on his radio and called the police. There was going to be trouble. He could smell it, and the security men from the hotel knew it too.

And then before they could stop him, he reached out and grabbed Heloise by the neck and slammed her against the wall. “Bitch,” he spat at her, “don’t tell me what I can do.” Heloise never took her eyes off him and remained completely calm. None of the men around them wanted to make any fast moves, in case he had a gun or a knife. They were waiting for the police. And with that, without saying a word, she landed her high heel squarely on his instep with her full strength, and as he doubled over, cursing her and shouting in pain, she took a nice clean swing at him with a fist and punched him in the nose, and as he wheeled a step backward, she raised her leg sharply and kneed him in the groin. She had taken self-defense in high school, and it served her well.

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.”