The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 99

Felix steadied himself against a nearby shelf as he took quick, successive breaths. Cassie was fine. She had to be fine. He started to circle the supermarket again, searching for her amongst the multitude of shoppers. When he didn’t see her, he did it a third time. And then a fourth time. But there was still no sign of Cassie anywhere. If it were Eliza that had disappeared, his first instinct would have been that she was trying to play a cruel prank on him. But Cassie didn’t play pranks. And if she was playing one at the moment by hiding from him, she would have popped out sometime during his first search around the supermarket.

He headed back to the check-out section, cutting into the queue and ignoring the people on it who complained and cursed as he shoved past them to get to the front of the line. “Have you seen my girlfriend?”

Emily looked at him stunned. “No. You came to the counter without her. I remember that you mentioned her, but I never saw her. Is everything okay?” She asked.

Felix left the counter without giving her an answer. For almost a minute, he stood blankly, staring at nothing. Cassie couldn’t have just vanished into thin air. An hour had passed since he had last seen her, so there was no way she had been in the restroom all that time. If she had run into someone she knew and had stopped to chat, he would have definitely spotted her with the person on one of his four trips around the supermarket. All that implied that she wasn’t in the building anymore. It was extremely unlikely, but there was a probability that she had left without him. She was soaked through and the dress she had on wasn’t exactly made out of the most suitable material for fighting off the cold. He theorized that she had found her way back to the car, despite the fact that it was still raining outside, so that she could wait for him in the comfort of its warmth.

Realizing that, he dashed out of the supermarket barely registering the yells of Emily and the security guard as they tried to find out if he was okay and remind him about the shopping cart filled with all of the things that he had just bought and left behind in his haste. His feet pounded against the pavement and rain drops tapped against his body as he ran across the road, carelessly darting past vehicles and pedestrians alike. Even though his lungs burned and his muscles ached, he pushed on, running at top speed until he got to where his car was parked.

He stopped abruptly once he approached his vehicle, lips slightly parted as he panted. Water continued to drip from the clouds, onto his face and into his open mouth as he fumbled around for his car key, nearly dropping it down the sewer when his hands shook with anticipation as he tried to open the door. He flung the door open and his face fell when he found that it was empty. Cassie wasn’t in the car. And there was no way she had been there ever since they had both left together as none of the seats were damp from her wet clothes. He chided himself for even thinking that he would find Cassie when he opened the car door. She might have been cold but she wouldn’t have sat in the car with the windows wound up and the engine off.

Also, there was no way she would have walked all the way back to the car under the rain just because she was cold. And even if she did, she wouldn’t have left without first informing him. He grabbed his phone from the driver’s seat and started the run back to the supermarket, this time paying attention to the faces of the people that he passed in case Cassie was amidst them. He dialed her number multiple times all the way to the supermarket, hoping to get through to her but it kept going to voicemail.

By the time he burst through the doors of the supermarket, everyone was looking at him like he was crazy. He ignored the stares and the whispers as he faced the security man. “Did you see me come in here with a woman about an hour ago?”

The man nodded. “About this tall and had a nice head of blonde hair? Yeah. I saw her.” Then he furrowed his brows in confusion. “I didn’t see her leave though. Where is she?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

He slunk off to a corner and dialed Cassie’s number for what was probably the twentieth time. He started to pace around as the line rang for a while before it went to voicemail again. This time however, he left a voicemail.

“Hi Cassie. It’s me Felix.” He paused to run his hand through his hair and steady his breathing. “But I guess you already knew that. I’ve finished paying for our stuff; everything went on pretty smoothly. I think I did a good job on this whole regular person shopping. It was nice. It would have been nicer if you were there with me every step of the way.” He paused, his stride slower. “I’m really worried, Cassie. I’ve checked the entire store and I’ve been to the car but I can’t find you anywhere. I’m at the supermarket right now, waiting for you.” His voice broke as he tried to finish the voicemail, the worry in his heart finally seeping into his words. “When you get this, please call me. I just want to know that you’re safe. I love you.”

He ended the voicemail and looked up to find that he had wandered into the milk aisle. He would have laughed at the irony of the situation if he wasn’t so worried about Cassie’s whereabouts. And if he didn’t spot a vaguely familiar item peeking out from under the shelf opposite him. He bent down to retrieve a damp stuffed bear from under a shelf. It wasn’t just any stuffed bear; it was the one that he had won for Cassie at the amusement park. The bright lipstick stain on the cheek of the bear confirmed that it was actually hers and not someone else’s. Monetarily wise, it wasn’t much worth but Felix didn’t need to be told to know that it had meant a lot to Cassie. She had smiled up at him when he handed it to her and placed a kiss on his cheek and then on the bear’s. She had named it Felix Junior and had called it Junior for short. She just wouldn’t have abandoned it on the floor of a supermarket.

Something was very wrong.

Hands shaking, he brought out his phone and dialed 911.

“This is 911. What’s your emergency?” A resolute voice asked.

“I’d like to file a missing person report.”