Page 62 of Sapphire Sunset

“And in the zone for gunnery sergeant. I remember.”

“Yeah, I know, I remember that you remember.”

“Glad we had this moment,” Connor said.

“I should lead the meeting, Connor. It’s for the best.”

“Because you were a Marine.”

“Because you have zero experience with this hotel and the hotelindustry in general.”

Logan expected an eruption, but instead Connor let out athroaty grunt and crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow as he nodded,as if Logan’s suggestion was complex and required careful contemplation.

“Okay.” He gestured to the conference room door next to him.“Go ahead. Lead the meeting. It’ll allow me to get a feel for everyone’stemperament.”

“I’m glad you see it my way,” Logan said.

“Uh huh, sure.”

Fearing a sudden change of heart on Connor’s part, Logannodded and pushed past him into the room.

Holding the tip of his tongue between histeeth, Connor followed Logan into the conference room. The revelation thatLogan had been checking in on his life via Instagram had him supremely amused.

Maybe a little too amused, given the gravity of the situation.

He also had a pretty good idea how Logan’s power move wasgoing to play out. So rather than ripping the guy a new asshole over hiscondescension and insubordination, he decided to let the whole thing unfold.

Everyone gathered around the conference table stoppedtalking the minute they entered. Logan suggested the department heads allintroduce themselves round-robin style, which they did. Connor noticed a fewfamiliar faces in the group.

“Hi, guys.” Logan walked around to the far head of theconference table so Connor could take the opposite one, closest to the door.“So this has been a really intense—”

Lois Penry cut in quickly. “Sorry, one note before we begin.We’re missing Jolene Tomas, head of housekeeping. If you don’t know, the PalmFire tripled in size overnight, and she’s helping her mother evacuate.”

Logan cleared his throat. “Folks, it’s been a rough twenty-fourhours. And for most of it we’ve been in the trenches together. Now in theMarines we have an old saying that goes—”

A hand went up and Logan fell silent. It belonged to JonasJacobs, who’d introduced himself as head of the events office. He had the primand proper air of a man who cleaned his toothbrush by hand before brushing histeeth with it. Impeccably dressed, he looked to be in his late forties, bald,with a strong jawline, hazel eyes that blazed against his dark skin, and agoatee beard that looked sculpted with a ruler.

“Logan.” Jonas didn’t wait to be called on. “No offense, buta pep talk? Really. From you? I mean, I don’t mean to speak out of turn here,but I must ask. Perhaps a question and answer first? Did you really have noidea any of this was going on? We’re being told everyone in your department wasin on it.”

“As I just told Connor, they didn’t like me.”

Logan’s cheeks flamed when he realized he’d admitted tobeing interrogated by their new boss.

“But Logan—” The man who spoke now had introduced himself asArthur Ruiz, the maintenance manager for the entire property. “You were incharge of the cameras, and they were recording audio. That’s illegal unless you’vegot notices everywhere, and no one ever told maintenance to post a notice. That’sall they were talking about on NBC this morning.”

“Iwasn’tin charge of the cameras, Arthur. I triedto pull footage three days ago from an incident, and they wouldn’t let me.Probably because they didn’t want me to find out about the audio recordings.”

Now the shouts came fast and furious, too fast for Logan tokeep up with. So Connor decided to show the guy some mercy. Even though he’dbeen waiting—and maybe a little excited for—exactly this. He wrapped hisknuckles on the table a few times to get everyone’s attention. When they fellsilent and looked his way, he stood.

“Logan,” Connor said, “now that I’ve got a feel for everyone’stemperament, why don’t you let me take this one?”

Both sides of his jaw tensing, Logan sank into his chairwith a small, angry nod.

“First up, before we go any further, nobody’s gettingfired,” Connor said.

There were one or two audible sighs.

“If the FBI doesn’t think you were part of this,” Connorcontinued, “then I trust their judgment, and I’m going to proceed as if you allhave the best interests of the hotel at heart. Because the fact is, I need you.All of you. And I need everything you can bring to this. So if you’re worn out,if you’re afraid of what’s to come, or for whatever reason, you’ve had enough,let me know right now and I’ll let you go with three months’ severance.Otherwise, let’s batten down and buckle up.”

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