Gambling Debts 30/?
Chapter 30
It was late in the afternoon when they were finally allowed back in the casino.
However, it would take a while for all the guests to return and the current shift of employees to come in. Boyd had sent home everybody who hadn't been needed, leaving only a small group of people to assist their guests during the wait. Derek guessed it would at least take an hour or two for them to be back to operating on normal.
They had been, and still were, under siege by reporters and PR was working under high pressure on damage control but at least it wasn't Derek who had to go out there and talk to the press.
Stiles had given a statement earlier but he hadn't said much aside from praising the police's work and to confirm that there had been no bomb found and that at no point their guests had been in danger. He also made a point of thanking the staff of the Red for their courageous and levelheaded approach of the situation. Without them there most likely would have been a panic among the guests.
Derek had never been this happy to retreat to the penthouse. It still smelled strongly of the dog that had been searching for a bomb in here and the poor thing hadn't liked the smell of werewolf at all but that was still better than the crowd outside.
"What a mess." Stiles groaned when he dropped on the couch. Derek sat down next to him. Just sitting for a moment felt great, they had been up and on their feet the whole day.
Half an hour later they had freshened up and were back in Stiles' office, with coffee and sandwiches. A real meal would have to wait for later.
Derek's email account alone was overflowing with requests for statements and interviews with Stiles. Some even wanted to interview Derek.
"You're my personal assistant." Stiles shrugged when he showed those to him. "Those hyenas go for everybody who might know something. The next few days 'No comment.' should be your default answer."
"It already is." Derek assured him, thinking of the reporters he'd been dodging all day.
They went back to work but were interrupted only minutes later by Detective Morgan.
"Detective." Stiles greeted her and offered her a seat in front of his desk. "Any news?"
"Our work here is done. There has no bomb or anything else out of place been found in the building." She confirmed.
"That's good to hear." Stiles said with relief in his voice. He had smelled worried all day. The Red had been his mother's, Derek remembered, if anything happened to it …
"Anything on who is behind this?" Stiles asked.
"Our specialists are working on it." She deflected the question. "But I'd like ask you a few questions."
"Anything I can do to help."
"In private." She glanced at Derek who got the hint and was out of his chair a second later. "Don't go too far, I'd like to speak to you next, Mr. Hale." She said not unkindly but with a firm tone.
"I'll be in Isaac's office." With that he was out of the door. He didn't linger to listen to what was happening inside and headed over to Isaac's office instead.
Like expected Isaac was not in there, he and everybody else from security were making their rounds through the building to make sure themselves that everything was in order.
There would be a meeting later where they would discuss how the evacuation had gone and how to improve it next time.
Whatever questions Detective Morgan had for Stiles, they were over them rather quickly so it didn't take long for her to follow him.
"Mr. Hale." She entered the office. "Do you have a minute?"
"Sure." He offered her a chair and made a point of closing his laptop to give her his full attention.
"Mr. Stilinski told me that there had been no threats aimed at the casino." She had her notepad out and was tapping it with a pan. "Can you confirm that?"
"As far as I know, there have been no threats." Derek said. "But I've only been working here for a few weeks, I can't say anything about what happened before I started here. Maybe you should ask Mr. Lahey, he's head of security, he can probably tell you more." However, if Stiles didn't know about any threats Derek was pretty sure that there weren't any.
"He's on my list." She assured him. "But since you've mentioned it, I've heard a few rumors about how you got your job here."
Of course she had heard.
"I know about those." Derek forced a smile on his face. "Rumors, nothing more. I can assure you, I'm here out of my own free will, I have a contract and I get paid for my work."
"What kind of work is that exactly?" She asked while she wrote something in her notepad.
"I'm Mr. Stilinski's personal assistant." Derek was aware of how vague the term was. It was the reason Stiles had chosen that title in the first place, it left room for speculations.
"And you live with him in the penthouse?" Now she looked at him with a curious tilt of her head.
"In the guest room." He didn't like where this was heading. They had searched the whole building, she had seen or at least heard about the playroom, that was for sure. "I fail to see what that has to do with the current situation."
"How would you describe your relationship with Mr. Stilinski?" She didn't back off.
"He's my boss."
"So you're not holding a grudge against him?" She asked bluntly, closely watching his reaction. But he had to disappoint her.
He wasn't holding a grudge, quite the opposite, he might even be in love with Stiles, if he was honest. Which he didn't tell her, of course. Instead he asked: "Am I a suspect?"
He raised a challenging eyebrow at her.
"I have to look in every direction." She back-paddled but Derek could tell that he wasn't off the hook. She didn't bring it back up that bluntly again but she was beating around the bush with her next questions. In the end she had to give up.
"If you can think of anything else, Mr. Hale, give me a call." She handed him her card and with that she left. Derek waited until he was sure that she had left the floor before he went back to Stiles' office.
"I think I'm a suspect now." He dropped back in his chair.
"What?" Stiles almost spilled his coffee over his keyboard.
"She asked if I'm holding a grudge against you." He repeated, suddenly feeling tired. "She's heard some of the rumors. They're working great by the way." Some of Stiles' sarcasm must have rubbed off on him.
"I'll talk to Isaac." Stiles was already typing. "The security logs can confirm that you haven't left the Red over night and while you're here your phone and laptop use our account so we have it on file that you haven't done anything. The police is going through our logs anyway, this shouldn't come up again. And if that's not enough, I can tell the police that we've been together the whole night. But let's keep that as a last resort." It was probably not the best idea to tell Detective Morgan that they had sex and had shared a bed for the night.
"Thank you." Not only for immediately dealing with this but for not doubting him for a second. Derek just hoped that Stiles got what he wasn't able to put in words.
"If she or somebody else comes to you again with this, you don't say a word." Stiles fixed him with a stern look. "Just refer them to our legal department, that's what they're there for."
Stiles came over and sat down on the arm of his chair.
"Don't worry, you're covered." His hand found its way to Derek's hair, his fingers gently scratching his scalp. Derek closed his eyes and leaned into him.
They sat like that for a while, the tension melting out of his body, and Derek wouldn't mind sitting like this for hours, but then there was a knock at the door and the moment was over.
"Work." Stiles sighed. He gave Derek a quick peck on the cheek and then hurried back behind his desk before he let their visitor in.
Who turned out to be Ennis.
Derek tried to not show his surprise, he hadn't even noticed that somebody had been outside until Ennis had knocked. When had he become so careless that he hadn't noticed the approaching werewolf?
His gaze fell on Stiles. They hadn't been in a scene but for a moment Derek had almost slipped into sub mode. He had trusted Stiles to keep watch and take care of him. For a moment Derek had let go.
He was still working out if that was a good or a bad thing while Ennis had already launched into a rant of how disastrous the bomb threat was for their business and their image and basically they were all going to die.
"Let's be honest, the way your people handled it was insufficient at best." Ennis summed it up.
"Ennis." Stiles cut in. "I don't have time for this. What do you want?"
"Maybe you should let more experienced people handle this crisis." Ennis said and Derek almost laughed at that idea.
"You and the rest of the Executive Board don't waste time, don't you?" Stiles leaved through the papers Ennis had handed him with his suggestion. Curious Derek stepped closer to have a look over Stiles shoulder. And maybe to loom a bit over the other werewolf sitting on the other side of the desk.
"So you basically want me to hand over the Red to the Executive Board until the crisis is over." Stiles said the last words with a knowing smile on his lips. "Which would be up to your definition, I assume. So I would basically hand over the Red for good." He nodded to himself, barely hiding his amusement. It was the same trap he had set for Peter. Only that Peter had fallen for it.
"And look." Stiles raised the stack of paper for Derek to have a look at one of the pages. "He already has a list of people he wants to fire."
Derek suppressed a snort. He only caught the top of the list but it didn't surprise him that Boyd and Isaac where number one and two. What did surprise him, however, was that his name was third.
"The answer is no." Stiles put the papers back together to neat pile. "This barely counts as a crisis and everybody on shift did an excellent job. Our staff took very good care of our guests and I have nothing to complain here."
He held out the stack of papers but Ennis hesitated to take them.
"You should think about it." He said.
"I did." Stiles answered with a wide smile. "And I think I know an excellent place where you can shove these."
Ennis glared at him and Derek knew he was fighting down the growl in his chest. Then he ripped the papers out of Stiles' hand and stormed out of the office.
"Nice try." Stiles muttered under his breath but Derek was sure that the werewolf could still hear him even through the closed door. "How dumb do they think I am?"
"They only see how young you are." Since he was already here, he stepped fully behind Stiles and put his hands on his shoulders. "And that you came out of nowhere and took away their candy."
Stiles laughed at that but it ended in a groan, when Derek started to knead the tight muscles of his neck.
Derek would have loved to turn him into a happy puddle of goo but they had barely two minutes before Stiles' phone rang.
A minute later Stiles went for the security meeting with Isaac while Derek hurried to the reception of the hotel to sort out the trouble there. Apparently since the guests were allowed back into their rooms now was the time to complain and to demand a refund.
Bomb threats hadn't been on the training schedule, they would probably from now on, and so the receptionists were happy to drop the difficult guests on Derek.
At least that way he was too busy to think about the Detective and Peter and everything else that had happened today.
Chapter 31
Masterpost