The Albright Hotel (A Frosty Season #4)

Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

R obby wasn’t sure what had possessed him to drive out to the Albright Hotel. After the Christmas Eve service, he’d dropped the boys off at home, telling them he had to pick something up at the grocery store. They begged him to stay.

“We have plenty of everything. Food, beer, wine, candy,” Adam listed it out. “Whatever it is you’re looking for, we don’t need it.”

Robby was resolute. “It’ll just take a minute.”

On his drive to the Albright Hotel, Robby had nearly missed Olivia’s phone call. He’d glanced down to see her name and flailed his arm to grab it on the passenger seat, his truck whipping across the road and back again. Calm down, Robby . Focus on the road.

But Olivia needed him.

He’d already been on his way to see her, and now, it was like she knew. It was like they’d discovered something at the same pivotal moment.

Robby parked between Maya’s and Olivia’s cars and bucked out into the chill. His head pounded with an oncoming headache. He knocked on the door, then heard a flutter of footsteps. Olivia appeared in the crack, then opened it wider, ushering him inside. Her eyes were enormous.

“Robby, come quickly,” she muttered, taking his hand and pulling him down the hallway.

Robby moved behind her, feeling clumsy and strange. They entered the living room, where the Christmas tree towered over everyone, aglow, and Phoebe staggered to the exit that separated the family side from the hotel. She cried quietly.

“Where is he?” Olivia demanded.

Maya was on her feet, reaching for her daughter.

“You chased him out!” Phoebe said. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Robby shifted his weight from foot to foot. He searched Olivia’s face. It was blotchy from the tears she’d already cried tonight. He fought not to put his arms around her.

Olivia met his gaze. “Phoebe’s fiancé, Braxton? Do you recognize him from anywhere?”

Robby squinted at her.

“He was there that night,” Olivia said hurriedly. “He was working at the Vermont inn the night you left.” She swallowed and placed her hands on Robby’s shoulders. She was so close to him that he could have kissed her if he wanted to. “He’s the one who told me you ran away with that bird-watcher!”

In a flash, the image came back of that bird-watcher, her headphones, and the book she’d been underlining. “The bird-watcher? I didn’t even talk to the bird-watcher!”

Olivia flailed a hand toward the exit. “I think he’s here to con us. We’ve lost thousands since we opened. Maya and I haven’t been able to figure out where it was going.”

Phoebe staggered to a halt near the exit. “It wasn’t him! He’s the heir to a fortune.” She glared at Olivia.

But Robby had suddenly found his window. “Isn’t that where you met your boyfriend?”

Olivia tilted her head. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Whatever. The guy you’re dating.” He waved his hand. “Wasn’t he the bartender in Vermont?”

Olivia’s mouth formed a round O. “I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah. He took me to his room that night you left. He showed me his records, and we talked about stuff,” Robby said.

“What kind of stuff?” Olivia asked.

Robby’s heart thudded. “You really didn’t run away with the bartender that night?”

“What was the bartender’s name?”

“Vinny,” Robby said. He hated saying his name.

“I’m sorry,” Maya interjected, “but what the heck is going on?”

Olivia and Robby turned to look at Maya. Olivia seemed surprised anyone else was there.

“I didn’t notice it was him before,” Robby said quietly. “But I realized it the other night when I saw you… at the wine bar.” His cheeks were hot.

Olivia hung her head. “I don’t understand.”

Phoebe returned to the living room. Tears streaked her face.

“We need to call the police,” Aunt Veronica bellowed. Then she muttered, “I should have done it the minute that imbecile came through the door.”

Phoebe collapsed in a heap on the sofa and cried. Robby took it upon himself to call the cops although knowing what to tell them was difficult. This wasn’t an out-and-out robbery, per se. This wasn’t anything Robby understood.

Robby knew the cop who answered the phone. Billy was his name, and he sounded sleepy. He didn’t want to leave the station this late at night on Christmas Eve. But Robby eventually talked him into it.

“We need you out here,” Robby said. “It’s the Albright Hotel. Brand-new establishment. We think some men have faked their identities.”

“Thousands of dollars missing in the accounts!” Maya called over his shoulder.

Billy groaned and said he’d be there right away.

Aunt Veronica pointed toward the hotel side of the mansion. “Braxton probably got away,” she said.

Phoebe leaped up and touched her pocket. “I have his keys,” she said. “He didn’t drive away.”

They turned to stare at the door that led to the hotel. It was clear he’d entered the hotel and hid himself away somewhere. There was no way he was able to go outside in the dark. It was twelve degrees. He’d freeze.

“He probably called Harry,” Olivia breathed.

“Harry?” Robby asked.

“That’s, um. The bartender.” Olivia sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She met his gaze.

Robby had a vague memory of telling Vinny, the bartender, about the inheritance; about Olivia and Maya; and about the tremendous wealth of the Albright Hotel.

It was his fault they’d come all the way here. He’d thrown the beauty of the Albright Hotel in their faces. What could they do but lap it up?

There wasn’t much time. Robby and Olivia hurried to the hotel side to barricade the door and ask Marcia, the woman working the front desk, if she’d seen Braxton go through here.

“Oh yes,” Marcia said, frowning. “Your niece’s fiancé, correct?”

“The surly-looking man with the bad British accent,” Olivia said.

Robby bit his tongue to keep from laughing. He felt so giddy to be back in her orbit.

“He went upstairs,” Marcia said. “I asked him what he was after, but he muttered something horrible to me and disappeared.”

Olivia and Robby turned to look at the staircase.

“He probably knows the ins and outs of this place,” Olivia murmured. “He’s been living here since Thanksgiving.”

“He’s been preparing for this,” Robby agreed. “But I don’t think he thought we’d ever catch on.”

Olivia snorted. “I can’t believe it took me this long.” She rubbed her forehead as they headed for the stairs. “That breakup was so traumatic for me. I think I blocked out the memory of that night as best as I could.”

“They couldn’t have planned it better,” Robby agreed.

Olivia gasped on the stairs. “I hate feeling manipulated.”

Robby slipped his fingers through hers and caught her eye. “It’s okay. We’re together now.”

“What if they know something? What if they’re here to take the hotel from us?” Olivia whispered.

“They don’t have enough time,” Robby assured her.

But even he didn’t know. Braxton and Vinny-or-Harry had been here for weeks. If money was already missing, they’d clearly found a way to pump it out, like water from a well. Maybe it could be reversed or stopped. Perhaps it couldn’t.

There was a reason Robby wasn’t a millionaire. He didn’t have a mind for this kind of thing.

But I have a good heart. And I’ll love Olivia for the rest of my days.

They reached the office just as the police sirens screamed outside. Braxton wasn’t here, but Robby wasn’t surprised. This was the last place Braxton would go.

Olivia and Robby returned to the staircase landing to watch four uniformed police officers enter. Several hotel guests filtered out from the bar with their eggnog and glasses of wine to watch the commotion. Billy announced, “For the time being, you will not be able to exit the Albright Hotel.”

A female guest looked frightened and shivery. She clutched her husband’s elbow. “Officer, what’s going on?”

To mirror her, Olivia snaked her arm through Robby’s.

But Billy wasn’t entirely sure himself. He told the guest there was nothing to be worried about; they simply had to put up a perimeter. “Go back and enjoy your wine,” he said. “Some of us should have a nice Christmas Eve.”

Robby and Olivia hurried downstairs to talk to him as the other officers chatted with Maya, asking about all possible exits. Already, Brad and Phoebe went around, locking doors and side exits, including the one that went through the kitchen.

Olivia piped up after that to tell Officer Billy about Harry’s cabin. She told him the general address, and Officer Billy sighed. “The old Pitcher place,” he said, then sent an officer out to check on him.

“He’s gone by two different names,” Olivia informed him. “Maybe he’s had other aliases. We can’t be sure.”

Officer Billy instructed them to return to the family side of the hotel and wait. Robby took Olivia’s hand and led her back. Phoebe, Brad, Maya, and Aunt Veronica sat around the fire with wine, glancing at one another nervously. Nobody knew what to say. Phoebe, especially, looked shell-shocked.

“They’ll smoke him out,” Robby said, sitting with Olivia and holding her against him.

“I’m so sorry,” Phoebe breathed.

Maya held her daughter and smoothed her hair. And Robby thought about what he’d been like after Addison had left. He’d flailed, lost and confused, aching for a future he was no longer allowed to have. He saw himself in Phoebe’s sorrow. He knew how much she’d wanted the next romance to work out after her divorce.

He wanted to tell her that she’d find the one someday.

He wanted to tell her it would be soon.

But in reality, he didn’t know anything about the world. He didn’t know anything about the future. All he knew was he was going to hold tightly to the things and people he loved. He wasn’t going to give up on them.

He hoped Phoebe would do the same.