Rotten to the Core (44 page)

Interrupting her thoughts, the
hotel’s duty
manager approached her and asked if he could have a word with her, she felt that it was most inconvenient right at this moment in time and asked if she could pop to reception and see him a little later on, but he insisted it was urgent.
Reluctantly following hi
m to the desk, she felt
like a naughty schoolgirl
;
picking up on the attitude of the manager, it was as if she had done something wrong. She assumed it was to do with her payment, as she had no card to put down as a deposit when she had checked in
she
had told them she would be settling up
in
cash
.
T
here must be a lack of communication or something going on as she had already paid for the
room up
-
front for a
week, just to keep them sweet,
and she had only been here two days. So she couldn’t imagine why he seemed so grumpy with her.

As she reached reception she could see s
everal
of the staff looking at her as if she had two heads growing out of her neck
;
she was starting to get a li
ttle pissed off now.

             
“
Do you mind telling me exactly what is going on here
?
I was in the middle of a drink
.
”
S
he gestured to the bar
.

             
“Perhaps you wouldn’t mind stepping into my office
.
”
The manager
nodded towards the door next to the main desk, and Tanya
went
in, eager to get whatever issue the guy wanted to discuss over and done with so she could get back to her drink and
,
more importantly
,
back to that dishy bloke.

             
“Miss Wright
…
it is Miss Wright
,
isn’t it?”

Tanya
,
sitting in the chair opposite
his
desk
,
picked up on his tone which implied that he was in fact questioning if her name was actually what she had booked herself in as and was not a friendly question that he wanted an answer to confirm.

             
“
L
ook
,
if this is about my bill, then there
’
s been some sort of mistake; I paid it two days ago when I arrived
;
in cash
;
in full
.
”
H
ow dare he drag her in here like this and talk to her in this manner
?

             
“Well
,
you see
,
‘Miss Wright’, that is exactly why you are here
.”
He coughed and looked uncomfortable
.

             
“Your bill so far has been paid for just the room, it does not include your spa treatments, and all the bottles of wine and champagne
,
” he emphasised the word
‘
all
’
,
much to her annoyance. He coughed
again
, and she could sense that he was having a bit of a dig at her
. l
t was her choice how much she bloody drank
:
the cheek of him
.

             
“Your suite is three and a half thousand for the week and so far all the extras bring your entire bill to five thousand one hundred
pounds,
” he continued, ignoring her look of disbelief
that
he
was
sp
eaking
to her in such a way
.
Tapping her foot impatiently, she wanted him to stop dragging whatever he had to say out and get to the bloody point.

             
“Yes, and I paid the receptionist thr
ee thousand and five hundred pounds
when I arrived
;
if I need to pay more than I will, but as I keep telling you the room is all paid for.
”

             
“
W
ell
,
you see
,
that’s our problem
,
actually
;
unfortunately it was Sally
,
our new girl
,
who
checked you in on Monday night, and she is not really very well trained when it comes to these matters
.”

             
“
Matters
?
Wh
at matters do you mean exactly
?
”
Tanya
was starting to get really fed up with this guy, he was wasting her time, and his attitude towards her st
a
nk
;
making a note of
the
name on his badge, she
decided
to make a formal complaint
.
What
an arrogant little prick
:
clearly
having
a little bit of power round here had gone right to his thick little head.

The
phone on the
manager’s
desk rang and
,
turning his back on Tanya
,
he answered it and spoke in a hushed tone. How fucking rude, thought
Tanya
,
as she heard him tell
the person
on the end of the phone to
‘
send them in
’:
what the hell was going on
?

             
“I’m afraid
,
Miss W
r
ight
,
that the money that you paid us with is counterfeit
.
”

Tanya stared at him in complete disbelief; he may as well have been talking in another language, because she didn’t understand what he was talking about. Her ears had heard the words, but there was definitely some kind of a mistake going on.

             
“And unfortunately it was undetected by Sally when she checked you in two days ago
;
otherwise
,
we would never have let you book in. I’m sure that you can appreciate our concerns about your now unpaid bill
.
”

Tanya’s mouth was on the floor
:
she was speechless
.

             
“And I’m afraid
,
Miss Wright, that it is also my duty to inform the police, not only because of the outstanding balance but because you have committed a criminal offence
.
”

As if on cue
,
there was a knock at the door and in came the young, good
-
looking man who Tanya had been giving the eye to at the bar for most of the afternoon
.
C
learly he had been interested in her for reasons other than the obvious. He
was
followed closely by a similar
ly
dressed
in smart dark suits,
older man. Realising now that they both had that familiar cop look about them, Tanya wanted the ground to swallow her up.
Feeling all her hopes crash down around her, she fought to stop herself from smashing
up
the fucking room in anger. Fucking Billy O’Connell, she should have known that he would never have let her walk away with all
that cash
;
trying to gather her thoughts she went to start on a long elaborate story of how she had obviously been conned herself, maybe she could say that she had sold something and the guy who had bought it had clearly ripped her off, but she stopped as she saw the older officer placing her holdall
,
with all the money
in,
down in front of her, her room had obviously already been searched.

             
“
Would
you care to explain how you came into possession of this bag and its contents
,
Miss Wright?”

How the hell was she going to talk her way out of this one? A few dodgy notes were one thing, but
a
quarter of a million pounds in a holdall was not a very good look. She could hardly say that she
had been ripped off by some bloke
after
she had kidnapped his sister. She hung her head in defeat.

             
“I want a solicitor, and in the meantime no comment
.
”

54

Kate felt like a little kid, she was so excited she thought she
would
burst. Looking out of the passenger
window
of Paul’s car
,
she saw the sign for the Gatwick
Airport
turnoff ahead, a few hours from now
they
would be sitting on a plane on
their
way to the Caribbean.

Paul
had booked it as a surprise and she had been really
grateful
to him, she really needed a break. She had been
at
home for two days, and she still felt shaken up, more by her constant thoughts of what could have been than anything else. Tanya and Jay were scum, she knew that now
:
s
he was sorry that she had been so trusting and had let herself get into that situation. She
felt
stupid
about
that.

It
had been
good to be home, but everyone had been fussing
;
bless them
,
even though she knew they meant well, she was sick of constantly having to
say
that she was ok
ay
. Sonia had made her
many
cups of tea and homemade cakes
, the cakes
to “put some meat back on
your
bones”, and promised her that she had disowned Jay
;
she had told Kate that she wished she could make it up to her,
which meant
everything that her son,
now
‘that boy’
,
had done. Kate had reassured her that there was no need
,
Sonia had done more than enough for her
:
she had t
ak
en
her in when she had been pregnant,
she had
help
ed
her and her brother sort out their differences and
been
like a mum to her, what more could she possibly do
for her.  She
told her that she
adored
her
, and Sonia had been extremely grateful to hear it.

T
hey had all vowed to never speak Jay’s name again. All they knew was that he was gone, and Billy guaranteed that he would never be troubling them again. Kate had tried not to dwell on the ins and outs of Billy’s promise too much
:
what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. She knew not to ask any questions on the matter, she was sure she would not want to hear the answers. Any ounce of guilt or worry in that respect
,
and she just reminded herself of what he had done to her and
,
more importantly
,
to her friend, and left the rest to karma. Whatever he got, it would have been deserved.

Emma and Billy had been constantly watching her every move, and of course they
were
just worried about her
,
but every time she looked up she had caught at least one of them keeping an eye on her, checking that she was ok
ay
and not about to fall to pieces at any moment
like a fragile doll
. They had become really good friends
, which pleased
Kate.

Kate
had gone to dinner at Paul’s house two nights ago too, wh
en
she had certainly discovered more than she bargained for.
She had almost geared herself up whilst she had got herself ready to meet his new glamour-puss girlfriend, had visualised that she would have to sit there pretending to be happy for him and smiling sweetly. So when she was greeted by
an
adorable little girl, who was as shy as she was beautiful, Kate hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry. She had an amazing evening with Paul and fell in love with Sophia in a heartbeat. Paul had cooked a
lovely meal and the three had
had
a really good time, sitting together
and
enjoying the food. Kate had
worn
a sparkly pink tiara throughout the meal, at Sophia’s insistence, and had laughed heartily when Sophia had whispered that her daddy had told her
the
secret about
Kate
being a real princess,
but
that Sophia
wouldn’t tell anyone.