The hotel clerk looked him up and down. Carter watched the man take in Carter's cashmere scarf, bespoke suit, and tailored overcoat and then compare it to Allie's hole-riddled pants and trembling dog. Allie didn't look like she belonged.
"Is there a problem?" Carter asked tersely.
"If you could come with me," the manager said.
Carter and Allie followed him to a back area where a pair of police officers waited with hotel security.
"What is the meaning of this?" Carter demanded.
"You can’t come here with a prostitute, sir. This is an upscale establishment," the hotel manager explained.
Allie saw Carter’s face screw up in rage, and he launched himself at the hotel manager. The heavyset man crashed against a decorative vase. People screamed, and the security officers jumped on Carter.
"Stop struggling!" Allie said as they cuffed him.
"Are you going to go willingly?" one of the police officers asked as they cuffed her.
"Of course," she said. They led them out through the back door into the waiting police car. Carter blinked against the camera flashes. How did people know he was here?
"My family is going to hear about this," Carter snapped as the police pushed him and Allie into the waiting car.
Carter was nursing his bruises at the police station when the Holbrooks' lawyer showed up in the holding room followed by a nervous-looking station captain.
"I hope you didn’t say anything," he said to Carter.
"Of course not," Carter scoffed.
"I can’t believe," the lawyer said derisively to the station captain, "that you arrested an intern,a college studentwho is working two jobs to make ends meet, and locked her up under suspicion of being a prostitute. I should have you crucified in the press."
"It was an honest mistake."
"And I amsurethe police chief will see it that way," the lawyer said, his voice laced with scorn as the captain unlocked Carter's handcuffs.
"Up, Carter. We're leaving."
He slumped into the car with Allie, Margot, and the lawyer.
The lawyer ignored Carter and said to Allie, "We’ll be suing the hotel, of course. I’m already in talks with the hotel's lawyers."
"They'd better pay," Carter fumed.
"Human trafficking, Carter? Prostitution?" his father said as soon as Carter and Allie crossed the threshold into his family's penthouse.
"She’s not a prostitute. I tried to explain. She was crying and looked disheveled."
"But she is something," Grant said with a frown. "I heard you two talking, over Thanksgiving. I didn't want to say anything, but in light of recent events…"
He trailed off as Carter laughed bitterly.
"That’s not what it looked like."
"I checked your bank account," Kate said. "You’ve been transferring money to her."
"What is the meaning of this, Carter?" Jack said, shaking his fist.
Carter ran a hand over his face and started pacing. "You want to know the truth?" he asked, facing them.
"Please, go ahead," his mother replied. She looked sad.
