Chapter 27 - Lost And Found
Jasper's POV
'I love you more than you will ever know.'
'I love you.'
Her words resonated through my mind mercilessly, taunting me. I stared blankly ahead of me, clutching at her letter, my fingers trembling.
Why would she do this?
Who was she trying to protect beside herself?
"She's gone." I whispered to myself in disbelief.
Horrific images of her being hurt spilled into my mind as beads of sweat formed across my forehead. I had tried calling her over fifty times but I couldn't even reach her voicemail.
The only fücking clue I had was the bank account number where she had deposited all of her money. I grabbed my phone and proceeded to call an old family friend.
"Jasper, son!" His voiced greeted warmly as he answered my call. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Jack." I responded, my voice cold and detached. "I'm sorry but this is not a social call."
"What can I do for you, son?" He questioned, seriousness now evident in his voice.
"Are you still in the Private Investigating business?"
"Gave that shÃt up when Erica died, why?"
"I need you to trace the details of an unknown bank account and find out everything you can about its occupier." I told him.
"Jasper, is everything alright?" He asked concernedly.
"I'll explain later." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Can you do this for me or not?"
"Meet me at the strip in an hour."
"Thanks." I replied, ending the call.
I inhaled deeply, the smell of her warm vanilla scent coursed through my veins as I sunk to the floor on my knees, clasping my hands together.
"Please, God - somebody - do something!" I shouted in sheer desperation. I let the tears fall down my cheeks, not even bothering to wipe them away.
The one good thing in my life was gone.
The only person in the whole world who had managed to change me, was gone.
My phone rang abruptly as I quickly grabbed it, hoping it was Scarlett.
But it wasn't.
"Miss Kingston," I greeted smoothly.
"Jasper, why did Scarlett cancel on me tonight? Is everything okay with you two?" She asked genuinely.
She had no idea, did she?
"I sent her to a conference for a few days," I lied.
"You're lying." She stated, accusingly.
"No, I am not." I snapped angrily. "Now, if you don't mind, I have urgent work I need to attend to."
I ended the call abruptly, feeling slightly guilty but I knew that it would be unfair to Melissa if I told her truth. She was close to giving birth soon and I didn't think dropping such heavy news on her would be good for her health given her current state.
I ran my hands through my hair and checked my Rolex which showed the time to be 10:30 PM. I dragged myself down the stairs and sat inside the Rolls, driving to the strip where I was going to meet Jack.
I arrived a half hour later, taking a seat at the bar in one of the casino's. The familiarity of the place made me nauseous as I recalled spending a dozen nights getting totally wasted and banging any woman I set my eyes on.
But that was before.
That was before she saved me.
I felt my head spin as I thought about Scarlett.
I hope to God you're safe, baby, I thought desperately, downing my Jack and Coke in one gulp before slamming the glass back onto the counter.
"Easy there, stud," a deep voice called out as I turned to see Jack taking a seat beside me, holding a manila file.
"Jack," I greeted as he eyed me cautiously.
"Jasper, I'm worried about you. It's been years since we last spoke and then I get a phone call like this out of the blue -"
"Jack, my girlfriend is missing." I interrupted stoically as he raised an eyebrow.
"Girlfriend? Don't you have quite a selection of them, anyway?"
"No." I sighed closing my eyes. "She was always the only one."
"Wow," he murmured in surprise. "You love her, don't you?"
"And now I've lost her," I told him signalling for the bartender to pour me another drink.
"Another Jack and Coke, Sir?" He asked politely as I shook my head.
"Something stronger." I muttered.
"He'll have nothing, kid," Jack interrupted as the bartender shrugged.
"What the hell is your problem?" I snapped, glaring at him.
"Your girl is out there - missing - and you're more concentrated on getting yourself drunk?" He scolded as I rubbed at my temples which were throbbing painfully.
"What did you find?" I questioned as Jack shuffled uneasily in his chair.
"There's a table out back that's quieter, come on." He said quietly as I followed him outside, unable to shake off that uneasy feeling.
"What the hell is going on Jack? What did you find?" I asked impatiently as he turned to look at me.
"I got Andrew to run a background check on the account number you gave me and it turned out that a sum of five hundred thousand dollars had been transferred into it by a woman called Scarlett Avery Valentina - your secretary, right?" He asked as I just nodded, wanting to know what the link was between Scarlett and the person she gave her money to. "Jasper, she transferred the money into the account of a guy named Marcus Sasz, he used to work for Don Varacalli-"
"The mobster who runs half of this side of the strip?" I interrupted as he nodded.
"He left him about a year ago and has been pulling stunt missions across the States ever since. Whenever there's a dirty job to be done, Marcus Sasz is your man. He gets the job done as quickly and as quietly as possible." He slid the manila file across the table, towards me. "The third sheet. That's a photo of him."
I opened up the file and slipped out the sheet, feeling time itself halting as my heart stopped.
I froze, feeling my body go numb as I dropped the sheet to the floor.
"Jasper?" Jack yelled loudly, shaking my shoulders.
"Jack," I breathed slowly. "He attacked my girlfriend and I when we were in Italy about a week and a half ago."
"What the fück?" Jack asked, his eyes widening.
"Jack, if this guy has her..." I trailed off, desperately trying to discard the terrible images forming in my godforsaken mind.
"I've got some guys I know working on Sasz' current location. You still know Cameron White and Matt Caffrey from the P.D?" He asked as I nodded. "Once we've established his whereabouts, the guys will be ready to jump him and bring him in for questioning."
"How long will this take?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
"My guys will have a proper location within the next two hours. In the meantime, I'll start gathering intel on who he's working for." He said before resting a hand on my shoulder. "Son, it's important for you to keep yourself intact and to not lose your senses. You don't want Scarlett coming back to see you like this."
"I never told you who my girlfriend was," I frowned as he gave me a knowing look.
"You didn't have to. You can see it written all over your face." He told me as he stood up to leave. "I'll have the report dropped off to you in a couple of hours."
"Thanks for your help, Jack," I said sincerely as he shook his head.
"You're family, son." He smiled faintly before leaving.
I picked up the photo of Marcus Sasz and placed it into my pocket before leaving the strip.
I drove around the city aimlessly, unable to even think straight as I parked up outside Scarlett's apartment. It looked dark and desolate as the new owners hadn't moved in yet. Her fairy lights were still hanging across the archway of her porch and her little lanterns were still aligned neatly along the pathway.
She was the light of my life.
It was physically and mentally killing me that I had no idea where she was.
It was a type of unexplainable pain I had never felt before, a pain for which no amount of words could ever describe.
My phone blasted to life as I quickly took it out of my pocket, not even bothering to check the caller I.D.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Jasper," Jack's voice answered wearily as my body went rigid.
"What is it?"
"Jasper, we know who Marcus Sasz is working for." He said quietly as I slammed my fists onto the steering wheel.
"Who, goddammit?"
"Jasper, Scarlett is going to suffer in ways unimaginable if you don't get to her first!" He snapped as I became even angrier.
"Who the fück is it?"
"Check the file." He said, ending the call as I growled loudly, driving manically back to my house.
I threw open the front door, bending down to pick up the brown envelope from the floor.
I tore it open, my eyes connecting with the cold pair of dark eyes on the paper as I read the bold-lettered name aloud.
"Jasper?" I heard Luke come up from behind me as I was stood in the doorway, sensing him peering over my shoulder. "Is that-"
"I have to go," I barked, turning around and getting back into the car.
"Jasp! What's going on?" He yelled after me as I ignored him.
I was going to find Scarlett, one way or another.
And I was going to find Scarlett before she did.
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A/N:
Hey guys!
I feel so mean leaving this chapter like this, but it had to be done! I wonder if you guys can guess who 'she' is! My heart tore into a million pieces for Jasper when I was writing this - the feels were just too much!
I never really knew how satisfying it was to produce works like this for people who are genuinely interested in it - it makes me ridiculously happy!
Again, thank you ALL so much for supporting me, almost 5K readers in just less than four weeks - that's a milestone for me!
Keep reading, commenting, voting and recommending - your efforts are REALLY appreciated by me!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave some comments on who you think 'she' might be!
Love as always,
Ana