Scarlet swooped to her defense at once. “We are all working odd shifts right now. The Mr. Shifter event has left us spread thin.”
Juan sniffed and muttered something barely audible about being under-staffed and unprepared. Scarlet shot him an unappreciative look and he snapped his mouth shut.
“Are you okay,” Fred asked Laura again. He was rubbing her arm in a familiar way, and even though she knew that Jenny wouldn’t have, Laura pushed him away with a growl.
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “I wasn’t even here.”
“Your poor laptop,” Fred said. “Did you have much that wasn’t backed up?”
“No,” Laura lied. “I have everything I need on the cloud.”
Jenny would do that.
Scarlet turned to Laura decisively. “You can’t stay here tonight,” she said firmly. “Tex...”
Laura was about to stop her, but Scarlet only told him, “Get Travis and find every free fan that you can to get the smoke in the hallway cleared out.”
Tex looked at Laura, who ignored him, before agreeing. “Yes, Ma’am.” He vanished back into the audience.
Scarlet turned her scowl to them next. “There’s nothing more to see here, people.” They scattered obediently, chattering excitedly as they went.
To Juan she said, “Thank you for your quick thinking.”
“He’s my hero,” Marie said, still tangled around him.
He looked pleased, if not quite sure what to do with the housekeeper clinging to him. “It was my pleasure,” he finally said, and took Scarlet’s hint to leave, Marie trailing alongside him.
The door shut behind them, and Laura and Scarlet were alone in the little room, which felt much larger with everyone gone.
“Pack up your personal items, but leave your clothing,” Scarlet commanded. “We’ll launder everything to get the smoke smell out and bring it to the cottage I’ll put you up in. It’s on the rustic side, the shower is outside and only has cold water, but it’s the last unoccupied room we have, and it will do in a pinch. I’ll see about replacing the laptop, of course, and I’ll be placing a guard on you at all times.”
Scarlet did not so much as hint that Laura room with Tex, which she was grateful for, and Laura knew better than to argue about a guard at this point.
“Thank you,” she said weakly.
“I’ll wait in the hallway while you get your things together,” Scarlet said gently.
Alone in the hotel room, Laura wandered about aimlessly for a moment, putting things randomly in her carry-on bag. She stared at the burnt-up laptop, and tried to imagine what she was going to do next. Most of her wanted to sit down on the extinguisher-dusted bed and sob her eyes out, but she was afraid that if she started, she would never stop.
So she shouldered her bag and went out to let Scarlet lead her on.
Chapter 20
Tex finished out the night at the bar in a stupor. He didn’t have the energy for any stunts, and had to ask people to repeat their orders more times than he had ever had to in his life.
Laura’s flashing eyes and bared teeth were burned into his brain. His bear, always a blustery, self-confident brute he had to restrain, was as shocked and dismayed as he was, and offered no help.
She doesn’t want us? Bear was crushed in his head.
Had he done what she accused him of? Had he betrayed her trust? It simply hadn’t occurred to him not to tell Scarlet the truth. At the best of times, he was a miserable liar, and there was something about Scarlet that made falsehood feel pointless. Besides, his first priority was Laura’s protection, and Scarlet was her best hope of that, next to him.
Not that he’d been able to help her today.
“I asked for a beer like ten minutes ago,” Mr. Canada groused, and Tex stared at him stupidly while the girl hanging on his arm tittered drunkenly.
“Sorry, sir,” Tex said automatically. “What kind was that?”
“A pilsner,” Mr. Canada scoffed. The girl giggled again.