Chapter 5 - The Service Elevator.
Three security guards entered.
The first man was Nathan Shaw, the hotel’s head of security.
Claire recognized him immediately.
He had worked there longer than anyone she knew.
He looked at Anne in the bed.
Then at Claire.
Then at Sloane.
His expression tightened.
“Everybody out.”
Sloane stepped forward.
“These women are leaving with me.”
Nathan shook his head.
“Your father’s orders.”
Sloane laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Claire positioned herself beside the bed.
“You’ll have to move me.”
Nathan looked at her apron.
Julian had clearly told him about the drive.
Claire prepared herself.
Then Nathan reached behind him.
He closed the broken door.
The other guards stared.
“Sir?”
Nathan turned.
“Take the east stairwell.”
One guard frowned.
“What?”
Nathan looked directly at Claire.
“You have approximately ninety seconds.”
Sloane stared.
“You’re helping us?”
Nathan removed his jacket.
He tossed it over Anne’s shoulders.
“My sister worked here eight years ago.”
Claire remembered whispers about a young receptionist who vanished.
Sloane knew the story too.
“Rebecca Shaw.”
Nathan nodded.
“They said she stole money and ran.”
His jaw tightened.
“She never called my mother again.”
Anne looked at him.
“Rebecca found the accounting room.”
Nathan froze.
“You knew her?”
“She helped me once.”
Anne’s voice weakened.
“She tried to copy records.”
Nathan looked like someone had punched him.
“What happened?”
Anne closed her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
A radio crackled at Nathan’s belt.
Julian’s voice.
“Shaw, report.”
Nathan removed it.
“Seventeenth floor clear.”
He dropped the radio onto the floor.
Then crushed it beneath his heel.
“Move.”
They lifted Anne from the bed.
She could barely stand.
Nathan took most of her weight.
Claire led them into the hallway.
The alarms suddenly began ringing.
A fire warning.
Sloane glanced upward.
“There’s no fire.”
Nathan answered.
“It’s lockdown protocol.”
Steel doors began closing at both ends of the corridor.
They ran toward the service elevator.
Claire reached it first.
The display was frozen.
Nathan swiped his card.
Nothing.
“Stairs.”
They turned.
The emergency stairwell door locked automatically.
Sloane swore.
Nathan looked around.
Then he noticed a laundry chute.
“No.”
Claire understood before he spoke.
Sloane stared at him.
“You cannot be serious.”
“The chute drops to the linen sorting room on fourteen.”
Claire opened it.
A dark metal tunnel descended sharply.
Anne could never survive it.
Claire looked at Nathan.
“What about her?”
Nathan glanced toward a housekeeping closet.
“Laundry cart.”
Thirty seconds later, Anne was hidden beneath clean blankets.
Nathan rammed the cart toward the freight ramp used for supply deliveries.
Claire and Sloane followed.
The security doors closed behind them.
A man appeared at the far end.
Julian.
He stood alone.
His suit jacket was gone.
His face looked nothing like the polished man from the lobby.
He looked terrified.
“Claire.”
She stopped.
Julian looked at Sloane.
Then Nathan.
Then the cart.
“You don’t understand what Harrison will do.”
Claire stared at him.
“Move.”
Julian shook his head.
“I can still get you out.”
“You already got me out.”
Claire touched the wedding ring.
“You erased me.”
Julian’s eyes dropped.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Claire laughed.
“What part?”
“The poverty?”
“The funeral?”
“My mother in a locked room?”
Julian’s face twisted.
Claire stepped closer.
“Or marrying me for money?”
He whispered.
“I loved you.”
Claire looked into his eyes.
“That might be the ugliest lie you ever told.”
May you like
Behind Julian, another elevator opened.
Six armed security men stepped out.
