“B–But…I need to—”
“Stop.” He turned to the manager, and once again in Spanish said, “May we have a porter help our associate with her bags to get them to the other hotel?”
“Of course, Mr. Sanchez. My pleasure.”
Alessandra tried to protest more. “We have appointments I’ve set up.”
“Send them to us in e-mail,” Roberto stated flatly. “As I recall, the first one isn’t until the morning, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
“But I booked dinner for us at Doña Cinca.”
Miguel realized that all of Alessandra’s strange behavior recently was about her jealousy for Cami. “You’ve been saying how busy you are. Best for you to get room service tonight and have more time to get your plan back on track.”
“But what about our reservation at Doña Cinca?”
“For three or for four?” he asked.
“Well, for three, but I didn’t know about her.”
“Great, then we’ll take Cami,” Roberto said as the porter walked up next to Alessandra.
“We’ll see you in the morning,” he said.
“Fine.” Alessandra turned to the porter. “Be careful with my luggage.”
As she stormed off, Cami said, “You think you two might have been a little hard on her?”
“No, sweetheart.” Roberto put his arm around Cami and pulled her in close. “Yes, Miguel and I were being quite firm with Alessandra, but she needs to understand we are not going to let her treat you badly. And frankly, Alessandra went over the line today.”
“I agree with him, Cami.” Miguel knew his brother was a man of few words. Even so, whenever Roberto strung sentences together, they always were clear and to the point. “Alessandra needs to be reminded that she’s the employee, not us.”
“We’ve never seen her act this way before,” Roberto said.
“True. Maybe after sleeping on it, she will have a better outlook.”
Cami smiled. “Alessandra is young. Don’t be too hard on her. Who is the message from?”
“Let’s see.” He’d forgotten about the envelope in all the commotion. “It’s from Izzy. Clay and Jay found out that Hank has been in and out of prison for the past twenty years for a variety of convictions—armed robbery, assault, and drug possession.”
Cami’s hands began to shake. “Is he still in prison?”
“No. Hank got out four years ago.”
“He’s got to be serving parole.” Roberto’s face stormed with frustration, and he put his arm protectively around Cami.
“He was, but no more. According to his last parole officer, Hank had followed all the rules.”
“Bullshit.” Cami was trembling, with her arms wrapped around her chest. “I can’t believe that. He’s a monster. He will always be a monster.”
“Let’s get to the room and out of the lobby. Hermano, stay here with her. I’ll get a porter.” Roberto was in full protective mode.
“Does the message say where Hank is now?” she asked.
“They haven’t found him yet. He moved, but the Gibbs have hired a private investigator to locate him and have contacted local authorities.” I’ll kill the bastard for the scars he left her. He put his hands on her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, Camille.”