Free Web NovelChapter 72: Chapter 72 Sabotage
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Alpha Zack touched the bruises on his face and winced. His ribs hurt every time he breathed.
His phone kept buzzing with news alerts. He was furious.
"Which news site posted this garbage?" he yelled at his assistant over the phone. "Take it down now!"
His assistant sounded nervous. "Alpha Zack, I tried to remove it right away, but they refused."
Zack laughed bitterly.
So the Alpha King had paid for the trending story himself. What game was Alpha King playing?
He couldn’t understand why the most powerful Alpha would bother with something so small.
His wolf felt uneasy.
--
Meanwhile, Selina was busy preparing for her orchestra concert. She was the main pianist for tomorrow’s show.
"Selina, you’re from this city. Can you suggest a good hotel?" the conductor asked.
"We should stay close to the concert hall," she said. Her eyes lit up with an idea. "Actually, my sister owns a hotel that would be perfect."
"If Selina recommends it, it must be great," the conductor agreed.
Selina didn’t tell Elara anything. She booked over twelve luxury rooms at Park Hotel Group for the orchestra.
Her trap was ready.
Mark walked into Elara’s office with a big smile. "Business has been amazing since you joined us. We just got a huge booking. An entire orchestra is staying here tomorrow!"
Elara smiled back. "That’s wonderful! I’ve been here for months now. How about I treat everyone to dinner tonight? We can celebrate as a team."
"Great idea!" Mark clapped his hands. "I’ll tell everyone right away."
Elara picked an expensive restaurant for her team.
Elara raised her glass of juice. "Everyone, enjoy yourselves tonight. If you want to drink alcohol, go ahead. If not, you can have juice like me."
"Thank you, Elara!" they all said together.
Just when Elara thought the evening was going well, her phone rang. "Elara, come to the hotel right now. That orchestra group we booked today. Someone’s expensive violin is missing."
Elara’s face went cold. Mark noticed the change. "Is everything okay? If you need to leave, go ahead."
Elara nodded. "Something came up at work. I have to go, but dinner is already paid for. Everyone keep having fun."
She drove to the hotel and found the lobby full of people. Many were still wearing pajamas.
Standing right in the middle of everything was Selina.
Elara frowned.
[What was Selina doing here?]
"Our concert is tomorrow, and my colleague’s violin got damaged in your hotel!" a man was yelling. "Your management needs to take responsibility!"
Selina spotted Elara and grabbed her arm. "Elara , I was trying to send you business, but your hotel treats customers like garbage."
Elara was totally confused and couldn’t see Jack anywhere. She turned to the hotel manager. "What exactly happened?"
"The guest in room 901 said his violin went missing. We found it in the cleaning closet, but..." the manager hesitated.
"The strings are all broken," the violinist cut in, his face bright red with anger. "Are you the boss here?"
"I already called the cops," he continued. "This violin costs five hundred thousand dollars. Get ready for a lawsuit!"
Elara stayed calm. "Sir, I get why you’re upset. We need to wait for the police to figure this out. But I can call a violin expert right now and maybe find you a backup instrument so your show can go on."
The man got even madder. "Repair it? You think it’s that easy? Do you know anything about these instruments?"
Elara kept smiling. "You’re absolutely right. I don’t know much about violins. Let me call some music stores about borrowing a professional one for tomorrow."
Even though orchestras always travel with backup instruments, this guy clearly wanted to milk the hotel for everything he could get. "No way! After our concert tomorrow, you’re going to pay big time!"
Selina watched Elara with a smug look, happy with the chaos she’d created.
After the crowd went back upstairs, Jack finally showed up.
"How did it go, Elara? Are they gone?" he asked.
Elara gave him a sharp look. "I thought you were already here. Why did you show up after me?"
"They went back to their rooms. They gave us one day to fix this. If we screw up, the hotel’s reputation and money are both toast."
Elara turned to the night manager. "Get all the security videos right now. Make copies for the police. Focus on the ninth floor. We need to know how someone took that violin from the room and dumped it in the cleaning closet."
"Call in every staff member from both shifts today. They all need to talk to the police. This could get really bad."
Her phone buzzed with a text from Alpha Dominic.
She quickly typed back: [Working late tonight. Don’t wait up.]
She decided not to explain the details. No point in worrying him about this mess yet.
When the cops arrived, they went through all the security footage.
Finally, they found a person in a mask using a keycard to get into room 901, steal the violin, and dump it in the cleaning closet.
Weird thing was, the person used the stairs but never showed up on any of the exit cameras.
This meant the thief never left the building. Probably a hotel employee with access to keycards.
Elara’s stomach dropped.
Jack looked just as worried. "Officer, could this be someone from outside?"
"Why would an outsider have a room keycard?" the cop shot back.
Elara sighed quietly. "Please keep investigating. Here’s the list of everyone who worked yesterday and today. Housekeeping, security, everyone."
By the time she got home, it was past midnight. She was exhausted.
She quietly walked into the dark living room.
"Luna Wolfe, finally decided to come home?" A deep voice spoke from the darkness, making her jump.
