Cash Back Tycoon: Spend Big, Earn Bigger

The engagement party nobody finished

The two officers stepped forward with the handcuffs in their hands.

Ethan did not move or protest. He pulled the laptop in front of his chest like a man showing a verdict.

"Detective Rourke, before you touch me, I suggest you read the authorization column on the second page of this file."

Rourke's lips curled into a thin, unpleasant smile. "You can explain that at the station."

"I can explain where forty guests and a hotel full of cameras can watch you do it." Ethan turned the screen to Rourke. "Every suspicious transfer has the code HRS-4471, which belongs to Manager Harris. My code does not appear in the file at all."

A few guests near the fountain had stopped to stare. A woman in a pearl necklace whispered something to her husband and the husband slowly picked up his phone.

Rourke's eyes flicked briefly across the screen and his confidence cracked. He recovered quickly, but not quick enough for Ethan to miss it.

"Files can be edited," Rourke said. "That proves nothing."

"Then it will be easy to test," said a calm female voice behind them.

A woman in a charcoal blazer had slipped out from the elevator with a briefcase in one hand and a tablet in the other. She was perhaps forty with sharp eyes and short silver hair and was walking across the lobby as if she had never lost an argument in her life.

"Dana Frost, senior partner at Calloway and Frost." She said, handing Rourke a business card that he did not accept. "I represent Mr. Vance. I also represent the hotel, as he owns it as of nine o'clock this evening."

Rourke blinked. "He owns what?"

"The Grand Regency, detective. You are currently trying to arrest someone in the private lobby of my client's property without a warrant for this address."

Dana opened her tablet. "My forensic team has already verified the email timestamps. The original files were sent from Mr. Vance's account three weeks ago, before any theft was reported."

She looked at the two officers. "I would advise you gentlemen to put the cuffs away. All your actions will be on record, and the footage is currently being backed up."

The young officer glanced at his superior and slowly lowered his hands.

Rourke's face tightened into something dark and stubborn. Ethan watched him calculate and realized that the man had been told to arrest him tonight and that someone more important than Harris was watching him fail.

"This does not clear him," Rourke said finally.

"It does not have to clear him tonight," Dana said. "Just open a formal investigation into the manager and the Meridian account. If you refuse to file it, I will do it with the state prosecutor myself and I will mention your name in the first paragraph."

There was a silence that stretched across the marble floor.

Rourke snapped the folder shut. "I will log the evidence. But Vance stays in the city and does not leave without me."

"Agreed," Dana said pleasantly.

Rourke turned and stalked out through the revolving door with his officers behind him. His shoulders were tight and he did not look back once.

Marcus let out a breath that he had apparently been holding for ten minutes. "I think I just aged ten years."

"You did well," Ethan said, and meant it.

Dana turned to him and gave a short approving nod. "That bought you a few days at most. Whoever protects Harris has the reach to move a detective, so be careful where you sleep and who you trust."

"I know exactly who," Ethan said. "He is giving a speech upstairs in forty minutes."

The Grand Ballroom glittered like a jewelry box.

Crystal chandeliers dangled from a ceiling painted in gold leaf, and three hundred guests in evening wear wandered between tables stacked with champagne towers. A string quartet played near the stage, and a banner over the dance floor said "Chad and Lily, Forever" in golden script.

Ethan paused at the tall double doors and straightened his cuffs.

Lily stood at the center of the room in a white satin gown, a diamond ring catching all the light. Chad held her waist with one hand and raised a champagne flute with the other, and laughed at something his father had said.

The laugh died the moment he saw Ethan walk in.

"Security," Chad called, and his voice cut across the music. "There is a man here who was not invited, and I believe he is wanted by the police."

Heads turned everywhere, Lily's smile vanished, her face paled to the color of her dress.

"Ethan," she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see your engagement," Ethan said. "I thought I should congratulate you in person."

Chad strode purposefully toward him with open contempt. "You have some nerve. Did you steal that suit too? All the guests in this room have seen the video of you being thrown out of Hartwell like garbage."

"I have seen it as well," Ethan said. "It was a good lesson."

Two security guards in black blazers moved to flank him, and Chad pointed at the door dramatically. "Remove this man."

The guards did not move.

Alden Pryce stepped out from behind a pillar with a stack of papers in his hand and addressed the whole room in the clear practiced voice of a man who had hosted a thousand galas.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I must make an announcement. Effective tonight, the Grand Regency Hotel has a new owner, and he is standing in front of you."

He gestured towards Ethan with a deep respectful bow.

"Mr. Ethan Vance."

The ballroom fell absolutely silent.

A champagne flute slipped from someone's hand and shattered on the floor , and the sound seemed to echo for a full second.

Chad gaped first at Pryce, then at Ethan, then back at Pryce. "That is impossible. He is no one. He was washing dishes in a rented room yesterday."

"I never washed dishes," Ethan said mildly. "But your information was always poor, Chad."

He took the stack of papers from Pryce and held up the first page for everyone to see.

"The ballroom contract with the Whitmore Group has a clause that allows the owner to terminate any event for conduct that endangers the hotel's reputation. Calling a lawful guest a criminal in front of three hundred witnesses qualifies. Your party is over, and your deposit will be refunded in full before midnight."

"You cannot do that," Chad shouted.

"I already did."

Ethan nodded to Pryce and the staff started moving at once. The music stopped, the lights brightened, and a line of waiters began to clear the champagne towers from the tables.

Lily rushed towards him with tears gathering in her eyes and her train dragging across the floor.

"Ethan, wait. I did not know any of this. If I had known you would become… I only needed security, you understand that, do you not?"

"I understand perfectly. Three years ago I would have given you anything, and last night you told me I was not worth a hundred dollars."

Her mouth trembled, but she found no words.

"I wish you a long and comfortable marriage," he said. "I hope Chad can afford it."

Victor Whitmore had risen silently from the head table. His cold gray eyes studied Ethan with the patient interest of a man who had just found a dangerous new opponent.

"Young man," Victor said softly. "You made a very large mistake."

"We will see," Ethan said.

He turned to leave with Marcus beaming widely at his shoulder and three hundred stunned faces watching him go.

On the mezzanine above the ballroom, one more person had been watching the whole time without moving.

She was a tall woman in a black evening dress, with dark hair pinned neatly back, and an expression as cold as winter glass. Her gaze tracked Ethan across the floor, and she touched the earpiece at her ear.

"Find out who he is," she said quietly. "I want everything about him by morning."

Far below her, in the corner of Ethan's vision, a blue panel opened silently.

[ Ding! ]

[ Harem Matrix detected a high-value candidate within range. ]

[ Name: Yvonne. Affection Level: 0. Status: Curious. ]