THE UNSTOPPABLE JASON SALFORD

CHAPTER 7

Derek burst out laughing.

Rachel joined him immediately.

The tension they had been carrying for the last ten minutes released all at once into loud, satisfied laughter.

Derek clapped his hands together once.

"I knew it," he said. "I knew it the moment he opened his mouth." He shook his head at Jason. "The Harmon family. Invited to dinner. What a story."

Rachel laughed again but there was something sharp underneath it.

She had been nervous for a moment. Just a moment. When Sandra hesitated before giving her verdict, something cold had touched Rachel's stomach briefly.

But Sandra had come through.

Jason was lying. Of course he was lying.

She had always known he was nothing.

Two security guards moved toward Jason and Claire from opposite sides of the lobby.

"Sir. Ma'am." The taller guard gestured toward the exit. "You'll need to leave the premises."

Claire looked at the guard.

Then she looked at Sandra.

Her expression didn't change but her eyes went very cold.

She had been sent abroad at fourteen years old. Six years of schools in Europe and the United States. Sandra had been managing this hotel for four of those years. They had never once been in the same room.

Sandra had no idea who she was looking at.

That was fine.

Claire was still displeased.

She didn't show it loudly. She showed it the way her grandfather showed displeasure, quietly and with complete stillness, the kind of stillness that in the Harmon family meant someone was going to have a very bad day very soon.

Sandra stepped closer to them.

Her cold smile was back in full.

"You walked into a Harmon family property," she said, her voice dropping to something meant to cut, "and impersonated members of the Harmon family." She let that sit for a second. "Do you understand what that means? Do you understand who you have insulted today?"

Jason looked at her.

He said nothing.

He had said nothing for the last several minutes and he showed no signs of starting.

Sandra took his silence as confirmation of everything she believed.

"You will pay for this," she said. "Both of you."

Across the lobby, Rachel watched with her arms folded.

She looked at Jason standing there with two guards beside him and Sandra in his face and she felt something she hadn't expected to feel.

Not satisfaction exactly.

Something closer to sadness.

Not for herself. For the version of him she thought she had married. The person she had believed he might become someday.

That person had clearly never existed.

She shook her head slowly.

She had made the right choice. She knew that now with complete certainty.

Derek put his hand on her arm.

"You made the right call," he said quietly, as if reading her thoughts. "Divorcing him was the smartest thing you've ever done."

He looked at Jason one more time with an expression of theatrical pity.

Then he lowered his voice and leaned toward Rachel.

"Listen," he said. "I don't want anyone knowing that man is your ex-husband. Not today. Not with the Harmon signing happening in an hour." He straightened his jacket. "It's embarrassing enough that he's here. Don't let it follow you into that room."

Rachel nodded.

"Nobody knows," she said.

"Good." Derek took her hand. "Come. Standing here where these people are is making me feel physically ill."

Rachel allowed herself to be led away.

They walked back toward the banquet hall corridor without looking back.

The crowd that had gathered began to loosen and drift.

The entertainment was apparently over.

Sandra turned back to the security guards.

Her voice went flat and businesslike.

"Remove them," she said. "If they resist, call the police."

The guards stepped closer.

Jason didn't move.

Claire didn't move.

They stood exactly where they had been standing since Sandra arrived. Calm. Unhurried. Like two people waiting for a bus.

Sandra's eye twitched slightly.

"Did you hear me?" she said. "I said leave. Now."

Claire reached into her pocket.

She took out her phone.

She dialed a number and raised it to her ear.

Sandra watched her with narrowed eyes.

"Grandpa," Claire said pleasantly when the line connected. "Mr. Salford and I have been asked to leave the Grand Monarch Hotel." A brief pause. "Yes. Sandra Chen, the manager, has sent security to remove us." Another pause. "Okay."

She lowered the phone.

She looked at Sandra.

"He's nearby," she said simply.

Sandra stared at her.

Something about the way Claire had said grandpa was pulling at the edges of Sandra's certainty but she couldn't place it and her pride wouldn't let her back down in front of a lobby full of guests who had just watched her make a very public call.

"I don't care who you called," Sandra said. "You have sixty seconds to walk out of this hotel on your own or my guards will walk you out."

Jason looked at his watch.

He looked at the door.

He said nothing.

Forty seconds passed.

Then the main entrance doors opened.

Richard Harmon walked in.

He was moving faster than a seventy year old man should have been able to move. Behind him the entire Harmon family entourage poured through the doors, senior members, staff, advisors, all of them, filling the lobby entrance in a wall of dark suits and Harmon family insignia.

Richard's eyes found Jason and Claire immediately.

Then they found the security guards standing on either side of them.

Then they found Sandra.

Richard's face did something it very rarely did in public.

It showed anger.

"Stop."

His voice wasn't loud.

It didn't need to be.

It landed in the lobby like a stone dropped into still water and the ripples reached every corner instantly.

Every guard froze.

Every remaining guest turned.

Sandra spun around.

When she saw Richard Harmon standing in her lobby with the full Harmon family behind him her face went the color of copy paper.

"Mr. Harmon." She moved toward him immediately, hands clasped, bowing slightly. "Sir, I apologize for the disturbance. I was handling a situation with two individuals who were impersonating Harmon family members. I was just having them removed so that your visit wouldn't be—"

She was still talking when Claire's voice came from behind her.

"Grandpa."

Claire smiled warmly at Richard.

"Apparently I'm not a member of the Harmon family."

Sandra stopped talking.

The lobby went completely silent.

Richard looked at Sandra.

Sandra looked at Claire.

She looked at Claire's face properly for the first time.

She looked at Richard's face.

She looked back at Claire.

The resemblance was not subtle. It had always been there. She simply hadn't been looking for it because she had already decided what she was seeing.

The color drained from Sandra's face completely.

Cold sweat broke across her forehead.

Her legs did something unreliable.

She dropped.

Both knees hit the marble floor of the Grand Monarch Hotel lobby simultaneously.

Her mouth was open but nothing was coming out.

The guards beside Jason stepped back immediately. Away from him. As far as the space allowed.

Richard looked down at Sandra on the floor.

His voice was very quiet.

"Where is the manager of this hotel?"

Sandra, kneeling, raised one shaking hand.

"I am," she whispered.

Richard looked at her for a long moment.

Then he looked at Jason.

Jason met his eyes.

Richard turned back to Sandra and when he spoke again every word was measured and final.

"You have fifteen minutes to clear your office."