Spellbound

Original Edition: Thirty

Nothing good ever comes from a knock on your door in the middle of the night, and I sat up straight in bed, startled awake from the good night's sleep. Springing to my feet, I wrapped my short silk robe over my barely-there pajamas and rushed to the door.

After peeking through the peephole, I swung it open to find my head night janitor, Victor. He tipped his green Reynard hat and kept his eyes respectfully on my face as he said, "Deepest apologies for interruptin' your sleep, Miss Fox, but we have a major problem in the basement."

I stepped outside into the hallway and crossed my arms over my chest, my heart already sinking at the mention of yet another issue to deal with. "That's all right, Victor. What's going on?"

"I went down to the basement to gather some more cleanin' supplies when I heard a rushin' sound. I could guess what it was, and when I took the first step down, I knew I was right." He held out his legs one at a time to show they were soaked to the knees. "Water main break. The entire basement is flooded. Water risin' as we speak. Kenny is tryin' to get the flow to quit, but you may need to call your brother."

I gripped my hair in my hands and clenched my jaw. This was bad...really bad. "My brother is in Boston for the weekend. Larry and Lloyd are gone. What am I gonna—"

"We'll help." Soren stood shoulder to shoulder with Archer at the end of the hall. They looked like some creepy, sexy twins from a porn spoof of The Shining.

We? I slowly turned my head and smiled at Soren, and in the same split second, cut my eyes to Archer with a scowl that I hoped made him feel like the shithead he was.

"Thank you, Soren," I said, pointedly refusing to further acknowledge his brother's presence.

Archer shook his head and rolled his eyes as if I were being childish. "You're welcome, Gemma," he said before his brother had a chance to speak.

Soren nudged him in the shoulder—a discreet shut up.

"Let's go see how bad the damage is," I said, breezing past them.

It was worse than I could have imagined. The water was rising quickly and almost to Soren and Archer's thighs as they trudged across the basement to help Kenny. I waited just above the waterline on the stairs, clenching my robe around me and shivering from the cold, damp air. The lights in the underground room were flickering, like they were ready to combust at any moment and add a fire to the hotel's problems.

"I'm going to have to cut off the water to the hotel," Kenny said. "The leak is bubbling up through a crack in the concrete."

"I know where the valve is," said Soren, making his way back to me.

Kenny seemed unfazed by a "stranger" knowing the ins and outs of the hotel. It seemed to be the way of the staff to pretend that it wasn't strange that two twenty-something men were always hanging around and not paying for a room. Kenny just kept pressing whatever it was in his hands to the entry point, trying to slow the flow.

"Arch, can you call around and see if we can get a plumbing company out here that has an industrial sump pump. Don't bother with a local company; go for the bigger cities," Soren said, raising his voice over the water sloshing around his legs.

"I'm on it."

I pressed my back to the wall to avoid any contact as Archer took the steps two at a time.

"You're going to have to evacuate the hotel, Gemma," Soren said, the side of his mouth kicked up in a sad smile. "Hopefully, we can get someone out here before the water does too much damage to the foundation. But until we know, this isn't safe for your guests. Not to mention we can't leave them with no running water."