The Billionaire And The B And B

A Reminder Of The Past

Jasper's POV

As our eyes became accustomed to the dark we made our way down the stairs to what we presumed to be the basement, here the stairs had a thin film of dust and there weren't any foot prints, so we decided to work our way back up, as we reached the ballroom entrance again, Garrett halted me.

" Hang on Mr Jackson, I have an idea" and he stepped back into the ballroom and made a call.

After a couple of minutes where I was getting impatient he returned, waving a key at me.

"Floor eleven, managers given us the master key" he said and took off up the stairs at a pace that seemed impossible for a man of his build, so much so I struggled to keep up with him.

As we reached the door, he swiped the master key and the door opened.

"What makes you think she here" I gasped in between sharp intakes of breath.

"I figured that if Mandy has been taken then the person responsible will either have to try and smuggle her out the Hotel and nobody fitting Mandy's description has been seen leaving the hotel, or they are holed up in a room.
But the kidnapper will know that a room by room search will happen and the hotel will be locked down tight, so the logical explanation is Mandy is still here and the kidnapper has gone. A women fitting the description of the one following Mandy, though she had red hair that could be a wig, checked out five minutes ago from room 1117"

" Now I know why I keep you around come on what are we waiting for let's go"

The pair of us hurried down the hallway, I now knew Garrett liked Mandy nearly as much as me, because of the way he charged ahead.

Soon we were standing outside room 1117 Garrett pushed me back and drew his gun getting himself ready he swiped the key and charged through the door waving his gun from side to side.

"All clear" as he gestured me to enter a quick look around the room yielded nothing.

"Shit! She's not here Garrett"

Garrett started to sneeze violently, as we left the room.

"Damn flowers make me sneeze all the time"

"Well there was another person checked out about the same time, dosen't fit the description but she's three floors up in 1423"

"Come on let's go" And together we charged out the room and this time used the main stairs flying up as fast as we could startling more than one group of people we met on the stairs.

Totally out of breathe I bent forward with my hands on my knees as Garrett who seemed completely in control and not out of breathe in the slightest.

Going though the same procedure as before Garrett checked the rooms, again coming up empty.

Now I was beginning to panic, what seemed like a good plan at first was now in tatters, no one else had checked out, so no more obvious rooms to check.

Totally disheartened we headed to the lifts and pressed for the ground floor, we would need to do a room by room search with the aid of the police.

The trip down was done in silence as we were both deep in our own thought's, upon exiting the lift on the ground floor, we were faced with a dozen or so police officers.

The officers were being given strict instructions on how the search was to be conducted, the Savoy had a reputation to up keep and police officers traipsing about was not good for the Hotel or the clientele.

Garrett and I stood at the back and listened. Suddenly Garrett grabbed my arm and pulled me a way from prying eyes and overly sensitive ears.

"Mr Jackson can I be blunt"

Under different circumstances I would have laughed, because Garrett was always blunt with me that's why we got along so well, we both said it as it was.

So I settled for a swift nod.

"Well sir, no disrespect to the police, I know they have to tread carefully and they may eventually fine Amanda, but I have a gut feeling it needs to be sooner rather than later"

"So Garrett what are you proposing?"

"Well sir if we get a look at the register and go through with the reception staff we can eliminate a lot of the rooms and concentrate on the more likely ones"

At this point I was desperate to find Mandy, I too had a bad feeling in my stomach about this whole affair.

"Let's do it" I nodded my approval and we went to seek out the manager.

For what seemed like forever we crossed off rooms and circled others, but none of them seemed to fit the bill, the descriptions seemed off.

We started on at the bottom and worked our way up the list, pretending to be hotel security doing a free security check to assure the clientele that we took their safety and that of their belongings very seriously.

Again if it had been a different day, I would have been amazed that people took us at our word and showed us where they kept their valuables and some even gave us the safe code, though none of that was of any concern to us as we searched the rooms with our eyes for anything that could offer a clue to Mandy's where about.

"Right" Garrett said "Room 1453"

We knocked on the door and went through our usual spiel and entered.

After a quick peruse we again came up empty, As we were leaving Garrett sneezed again.

"Bloody flowers" he growled under his breath "thought this had all finished after not seeing Trish anymore"

That stopped me in my tracks.

"What did you say" grabbing his arm.

"Nothing just grumbling to myself"

" No Garrett what did you say it's important"

"I said I thought all this sneezing was all finished after not seeing Trish anymore"

Then it hit, what an idiot I have been, the answer had been staring me in the face, I had thought it was a crazy stalker or something, I never dreamed it could be Trish, now I thought about it everything fell into place.

"Garrett" I almost shouted in his ear "The first room we went to, where you sneezed a lot, what number was it quick"

"Hang on, ah here it is room 1117"

" Come on" I yelled racing to the stairs "That's where Mandy is"

We tore down the stairs and barged into the room.

"What makes you think this is the room" Garrett enquired.

"Look I said waving a vase of flowers under his nose"

"Shit, you're right"

Then we both heard it a cry for help and it seemed to becoming from outside the open window, I dashed over and stuck my head out and there lying on the narrow ledge lay a bedraggled Mandy all wet and shivering, red swollen eyes and a smear of blood on her temple, yet I had never seen such a beautiful sight before in my life.

As I held my hand out to bring her in, I felt her slipping from my grip, I desperately struggled to hold on, as she finally slipped from my grasp, Garrett made a last ditch attempt to grab her, but only caught her dress that ripped.

Then the most devastating thing to every happen to me unfolded before my eyes as my Mandy fell away from me, her eyes locked on mine as she fell and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it, as the cry left my lips and tears for only the second time in my life flowed freely down my face.

"Damn you Trish, damn you to hell"

My Mandy was gone forever.