He saved his real voice for locked rooms.
“He’ll make them believe him,” Nora said.
Dominic gestured toward the monitor.
“Tonight he does not control the story.”
As if summoned by the words, the penthouse phone rang.
The security supervisor answered, listened, and covered the receiver.
“Police are in the lobby.
Mr.
Derek Hale says Miss Vale assaulted him and is being held here against her will.”
Nora stood too quickly.
Pain shot through her ankle.
“He’s turning it around.”
Dominic remained seated.
“Of course he is.”
“He’ll say you kidnapped me.”
“Then you will tell them whether you are free to leave.”
Nora looked toward the penthouse door.
Dominic followed her gaze.
“You have been free to leave since the elevator opened.”
The words unsettled her because she realized they were true.
No one had taken her phone.
No one had blocked the exit.
Dominic had given orders to his staff, but none to her.
“You said I would sleep here.”
“I offered a room badly.”
For the first time, a trace of dry humor entered his voice.
“I am not practiced at sounding harmless.”
Despite everything, Nora almost smiled.
The security supervisor arranged for the officers to come upstairs.
Before they arrived, Dominic put his jacket back on, concealing the handgun.
He moved away from Nora and stood near the windows, leaving the chair beside her empty.
It was a deliberate choice.
He did not want the room to look as though she sat under his control.
Two uniformed officers entered with a hotel manager.
Their posture changed when they recognized Dominic, but he did not speak first.
Nora did.
“My name is Nora Vale.
I came into the elevator voluntarily because Derek Hale threatened me and grabbed my wrist.
I am not being held here.
I want to make a report.”
Her voice shook on the final sentence.
It did not break.
One officer took out a notebook.
The other looked at her torn dress, scraped shoulder, swollen wrist, and bare foot.
“Mr.
Hale says you struck him with a glass.”
“I knocked the glass over while pulling away.
I pushed him after he refused to release me.”
“He has an injury to his cheek.”
“The cameras show how he got it,” the security supervisor said.
They played the footage from the bar.
From the wider angle, Derek’s claim collapsed in less than a minute.
He seized Nora’s wrist.
She pulled back.
The glass fell without touching him.
When she twisted free, her forearm caught his cheek.
