Renee sat straight and silent, staring at her father with anger and defiance burning in her eyes, holding her arm where Crescent had kicked her. Matthew stood in the middle of the room while taking inventory of the disarray in silent fury. Crescent sat in his chair stoically with no remorse, applying pressure to his shoulder with a towel. Her arm wasn’t broken and the cuts and bruises would heal in a matter of days, but she knew the patch of Crescent’s blood on her chin made her father cringe. Standing quietly in the doorway were her girls, curious as to what would happen next.
Matthew took a deep breath, keeping his anger in check. “Let’s start with who is responsible for the damage to the room.”
“You would need to ask Mr. Escalona,” Renee said while glaring at Crescent, “or Saffron if she could open her mouth to talk.”
When Crescent locked eyes with Renee, even she knew the girls watching from the hallway could see the absolute and unquestionable hate between the two of them. Matthew shot Renee a significant glare that told her she was skating to the edge of his tolerance. Renee returned his icy stare, letting him know she didn’t really care.
Renee turned to Crescent and asked the obvious. “Why don’t you start with what you were doing on this floor in the first place?”
“Mr. Escalona’s employer called and asked me to immediately deliver a message.”
“Anything that has to do with the girls goes through me and you damn well know it.”
“Apparently, he doesn’t like working with children.”
It took everything she had not to jump out of her chair and bite him on the other shoulder, but she refused to give in to her anger. “These girls are my responsibility. I have a telephone in my room and I know you not only have the number, you also know how to use one.”
“Enough!” Matthew’s voice boomed through the room. “Just because one of you is a child doesn’t mean either of you will act like it.” Matthew focused on Crescent. “What prompted you to believe you had to discipline…”
Renee stared at him with incredulity. He didn’t even know her name. “Saffron,” she said through clenched teeth.
Matthew, in his rising irritation, ignored Renee and addressed Crescent. “Saffron.”
“When I got to the door, I could hear her yelling at him and calling him vulgar names. At first, I thought it was roleplaying. Then I heard her scream ‘9-1-1.’ I entered the room and found her leaning over him on the bed, hysterically screaming at him.”
What else was she going to do, asshole? She was bound hand and foot, Renee thought.
“His face was pale, his lips were blue, and had what looked like foam coming out of his mouth. When I tried to question her, she wouldn’t talk.” Crescent turned to Renee to emphasize his next point. “Her client was dying from a drug overdose and she wasn’t doing anything about it. I hit her in an attempt to snap her out of her stupor and she lunged at me with a syringe in her hand. I was defending myself.”
Are you kidding me? Renee knew if she said it out loud, the interrogation would be over and she would reap all of the consequences. What Renee knew from Dr. Michaelson, and what Crescent failed to mention, was that Saffron was holding a needle in an effort to show Crescent what her client had been using; she didn’t stick it in his arm or cause the overdose to happen. What he also didn’t mention was that when she lunged at him, it was an attempt to beg him for help. Apparently, he felt it would be best to leave that part out.
“Hitting her once is defending yourself. Breaking her jaw is something completely different,” Renee pointed out.
Matthew turned on Renee, his patience almost gone. “That’s enough out of you.” He turned back to Crescent. “And Renee?”
Crescent lifted the towel off his shoulder, trying to hold back a grimace of pain. The bite wound was deep, and the surrounding skin was red and tender. Renee lowered her head and smiled to herself. “Again, defending myself.”
Don’t let emotions get in the way, and, if at all possible, be smarter than your challenger. Matthew had instilled these words into Renee from a young age, and she repeated the phrase in her head as Matthew turned to her for her version of the story. She could see he was angry with her for the damage she caused to his captain.
Matthew examined the broken bedpost before addressing Renee. “And why did you feel that you had to play Babe Ruth with Mr. Crescent’s skull?”
Renee turned to Crescent with a smirk on her face and in a mocking tone replied, “I was defending myself. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it you who brought Mr. Escalona here tonight? Did you know that he had a heroin problem when you did? Because I certainly didn’t when I questioned his credentials, and he never said a word when he and his employer signed our contracts.”
Crescent addressed Matthew. “I didn’t know he had a needle problem, sir.”
It didn’t happen often, but Renee had seen that look on her father’s face before when he didn’t know what to do. If it had been anybody other than his captain and his daughter, one or both of them would not be breathing in the morning, but circumstances were different in this case. The bottom line was that he had to do something, or at least pretend to do something. One of his employees was in the hospital and there was no telling how long she would be there or how the atmosphere on this floor would change when she came back. She would come back because she had no choice and no place else to go. Renee knew Matthew’s biggest problem was Mr. Escalona’s employer and other clients who might have witnessed the fight. He would have to hope that Ambassador Sanchez would know about his attaché’s drug problem and want to keep this as quiet as possible, while at the same time not jeopardizing their current business arrangements. That was, of course, if Mr. Escalona lived.
Matthew turned to Renee. “Were any other clients here tonight who may have witnessed this?”
“No. Mr. Escalona was the last of the evening.”
“And the paramedics?”
“Service elevator.”
“Renee, I have to wonder if I made a mistake by allowing you step in when Sasha left.” Matthew quickly put up his hand to stop her from interrupting. “However, it’s obvious you will still maintain our business arrangements, so I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and let you continue your current responsibilities. But from now on, you will make sure that we never again have a recurrence of tonight’s events.”
Renee nodded. “I agree.”
“And you will need to find a new girl to take…” Matthew searched for the name Renee had spit out just seconds ago. He looked to her for a clue, but she narrowed her eyes at him as if daring him to ask. “…her place. Once she’s out of the hospital, she will be recovering for quite some time.”
Matthew turned to Crescent. Now was the time for the show, the moment the girls in the hallway had been waiting for. “Mr. Crescent, you are more than aware that I have a strict, absolute, and unbreakable rule when it comes to my daughter. You and I will talk in my office immediately.”
Matthew pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as if he were dealing with fighting children. “From now on, Mr. Crescent will stay off this floor unless it’s imperative that he speak with Renee. Otherwise, you will keep away from each other, only sharing the same space when required.”
So far as Matthew was concerned, the issue was closed and the show was over. He signaled Crescent out of the room and, without casting a glance in Renee’s direction, left as well. Renee watched him leave as the girls slowly filtered in to surround her with condolences for her pain and thankfulness for her defense of Saffron.
When Renee heard the elevator doors open, she knew two things for certain: she had undoubtedly proven herself to the girls, and there would be no consequences for Mr. Crescent. Instead, he and her father would go to Matthew’s office and share a cigar.