Chapter 15

Did this woman's bags have bricks in them or something? It was as if they weighed a ton each. Zack wheezed as he lifted them onto the baggage cart, and the middle-aged lady just stood there next to him looking at something on her phone. He huffed. It irritated him that bell boys were pretty much pack mules in hotels. And they were treated as such. "Well, go on," the woman told him and Zack frowned. He wheeled the cart on, and she followed. Is she going to follow him the whole way to the twentieth floor?

As Zack waited at the elevators, he looked around the lobby at the guests and employees bustling about. He and Cody had so much fun wreaking havoc down that ramp, around the front desk, and drove Mr. Moseby crazy while doing so. Those were good times. He missed them, but not as much as he misses the SS Tipton. And London Tipton. When is he ever going to see her again? Probably never, if Mr. Tipton has anything to do with it. What will the man do when he finds out what London is up to? When is she going to show up anyway? He intensely anticipated her arrival. Cody only called him that morning, it being around 8pm now, so she has a long way to go.

The elevator doors dinged and then opened. Zack stepped in and noticed in the sliver of space before the doors closed, a girl dressed in country clothes and hat walking into the lobby with a hot blonde girl. Zack stared at the blonde girl, but was not able to for long before the doors closed and the elevator went up.

That girl was hot, Zack thought, but quickly dismissed it. Even if he still loves girls, he's in love with one and is in this hotel as a bell boy because of her. But being in love with a girl can's stop a guy from checking a girl out. It's just an automatic thing. But still, Zack felt guilty for thinking that girl was hot. He couldn't see the country girl's face, but he could see that in the second that he saw her that she had dark hair and tan skin.

Zack started. Wait, dark hair and tan skin... And she was wearing country clothes...

Zack gasped and the woman whose bags he was carrying looked over at him. "What is it young man?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm sorry."

The lady went back to what she was doing on her phone and Zack's heart began to beat hard like a bass drum in his chest. That girl couldn't have been London. She still had another few days until she arrives. But Cody said that she didn't want to take busses, boats or trains, and he was thinking of getting her onto a plane. If that was the case, then she would be in Boston by the next day—which is tomorrow, but what if it was a jet? She could be here already!

The elevator dinged and doors opened. Zack booked it out of the elevator and down the hallway, and he ignored the lady asking what the rush was. He quickly dropped her bags off into her suite, then booked it back to the elevator with the luggage cart and bounced up and down anxiously as the elevator descended to the first floor. "C'mon..." Zack muttered in impatience.

The doors finally opened and Zack rushed out of the elevator and looked all over the lobby for the girl dressed in country clothes. She was nowhere to be seen. He spotted Esteban at the front desk and ran up to him.

"Esteban!" he shouted, which made his friend jump.

"Ey, yay yay, muchacho, what is it?" Esteban asked in his accent.

"Did you just see a girl dressed in country clothes enter the lobby earlier? She was with a blonde girl."

"I sure did. But they ran out of the lobby and through to the restaurant when a couple of really scary-looking big men came and started chasing them. Honestly, I felt badly for the poor young ladies."

"Was London one of them?"

Esteban's brows pushed together. "London? I thought she was at the sea school."

It would be better if Esteban didn't know what London was up to. "Nevermind. You said men were chasing them?"

"Yes, men in suits. They looked like the ones that Mr. Tipton is always surrounded with."

Fear shot through Zack's system. Those are Mr. Titpon's men! That means that London is actually in the hotel, and her father knows what she's been up to!

"Esteban, I'm going on a break," Zack said, and then zoomed off towards the restaurant, and he didn't hear if Esteban respond to him. He came to the restaurant, went into the main dining part of it on the inside, then to the outside dining area, but didn't see the girls. Then he went on to the kitchen. They weren't in there, either.

"Where the heck are they?" he muttered. He retreated to the hallway, and that's when he saw two girls running, and one of them was in a cowboy hat! Zack ran for it, and followed the girls out to the lobby, desperately wanting to see London. And there she was, standing by the elevators with the blonde girl.

"C'mon, get here faster!" the blonde girl pleaded of the elevators.

"Yes, come on!" London pleaded as well. Both girls had fear in their features, but Zack had a grin on his face. The elevators opened and the girls ran into them, and that's when the suited men appeared.

"London!" Zack shouted and ran up to the elevators right as the men were doing so. He saw London inside the elevator as the doors were closing. "London!"

"Zack!" she shouted when she saw him, but it was too late. The doors already closed and the suited men groaned in dismay. Zack watched the numbers go up on the screen above the doors that say what floor the elevators are going. It stopped 24. He ran from the elevators and to where the stairs were. Up he goes.

Wheezing, he finally made it up to the 24th floor. He ran out and cantered down the hallways, looking for London and her new friend. If she was new. He never kept track of her friends.

Zack went on and turned a corner, but ran into someone. He looked to see who it was, hoping to find London there, but it was that blonde. Her eyes widened and she pointed at Zack. "Oh my gosh, you're him! You're London's boyfriend Zack! I'm Casey."

He eyed her hand when she extended it. "We can get to introductions later. Where's London?"

Casey retracted her hand, and fear etched her pretty features. Zack surmised that she was around nineteen or twenty. "I don't know. Those men were following us, and then I lost her. What if they got her?"

Fear pulsed through Zack's system. "Then let's go get her!"

Together, they ran down the hallways, calling London's name. When they hit the elevators, they hadn't found her. "Where the heck is she?" Casey asked with a whine in her voice. "She was just with me."

"How'd she meet you, anyway?"

"We met at the airport and we took my private jet to get here."

So she did take a plane! "You have a private jet? Are you as rich as London?"

"I'm rich, but not as rich as London."

Zack stared at her for a moment, and he noticed pink fill her cheeks at his stare. "London's friends wouldn't admit to not being as rich as her..."

"Well, I'm not London's friend—yet. I'm just an acquaintance. I hope to be her friend. And, since she has a boyfriend who happens to have a realy cute twin, I have all the more reason."

He noticed the glint in her blue eyes. "Psht, fat chance. One, he already has a girlfriend, and two, there's not much to the guy, aside from the fact that he's smart."

"Ooo, smart and cute—a great combination. Well, you never know if the two of them will break up."

Zack shook his head at that, and noticed that he still wore his bell boy hat. He took it off, and right at that moment, he saw someone come down the hallway. He dropped the hat and happiness shot through him. "London!"

She turned and spotted him. "Zack!"

They ran to each other and bombarded each other in a tight hug. He held London close, loving that same perfume. "London, I can't even say how great it is to hold you again."

"I know, and it's great to hold you again, too, if we last did it a couple days ago. And..." She brought him back in front of her and leaned in. His pulse rose as she started kissing him, and he in turn held her form to him and kissed her back. And oh how wonderful it felt to feel her lips on his again!

"Ahem," they heard and unhooked. They turned and looked back at Casey, who has a beaming smile on her face.

"You two are the cutest couple I've ever seen, but I—I mean we—really have to get out of here. Those men might be coming."

"Right," Zack said, then turned to London. "I'll definitely be kissing you later, honey."

"And I will be, too, Zackie. Even in your tacky uniform."

He eyed her outfit. "Yeah, and speaking of tacky outfits..."

"Hey, I had no choice. If I didn't want to be recognized, I had to wear Bailey's trashy country clothes."

"Well, apparently they didn't help since you got found out anyway."

"Okay, enough chit-chat," Casey begged. "Let's go."

"Right," Zack and London said at the same time, and when the three young adults turned around, there were were those two men staring at them with menacing eyes. Zack noticed London's smile immediately turn into a frown.

"Now we finally have you," one of the men said, and London stepped back. The two men came up and each took either of Casey's arms. London and Zack stared at the scene in confusion.

"Wait, what's going on? You're not my daddy's men?" London pointed at them.

"No, we work for Miss Covington's father. She escaped as she was on her way to visit her mother in DC, and tried to get on a plane to Boston after sailing on a ferry."

"Wait, so you guys were looking for her instead of me at the docks in Jacksonville?"

"Yes. She escaped our watch and went straight to the airport. That's when we followed her onto a plane, but she escaped in the sudden layover. That is when we saw her running with you, and then chased you until you got on her private jet, which she called ten minutes before then, according to her father."

"So... Daddy isn't looking for me?" She looked to Casey. "Why didn't you tell me those were your daddy's men and not my daddy's?"

"We both were running from the eyes of our fathers, so I didn't feel the need to see anything," she said with a shrug of her shoulder. "Plus, it was a lot of fun playing cat and mouse with these two guys. And I got you to Boston, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah..."

"But now that you're here at the hotel, you're bound to be seen," Casey said. "The both of you. London, I'll call you later, okay, and maybe I can convince my father to go on a cruise with me on the SS Tipton." She looked to Zack. "And I can introduce myself to Cody."

Zack didn't say anything to that. One of the men said, "Well, time to go, Miss Covington."

"Fine, fine. See you guys!" She waved to Zack and London and they waved back. "It was great to meet you, Zack. Never give up London for anything, you hear me? She's crazy in love with you."

He gave London a loving look. "I know."

Casey was pulled away and they went into the elevators. London and Zack just stood there in the hallway. "Well, you're dad's probably seen us by now from the hotel cameras. If he didn't know about this before, he does now."

London folded her arms. "Yeah, and that means we can't take one of my private jets to the ship. I came here in Casey's."

"Maybe she could take us back?"

"No, she might be in too much trouble with her own daddy."

"That's true." They stood there thinking, and Zack's phone dinged. He pulled it out and saw that he got a text from Esteban, telling him to come back from his break since he's been gone too long. Zack thought of something. "Hm..."

"What?"

"I have an idea."

What exactly was Zack thinking?

London watched and listened as Zack talked to Esteban. The South American man was very surprised to see London, and very happy to see that his two friends were reunited after what they had to go through.

"Wait, what exactly do you want me to do again?" Esteban asked Zack as they stood at the front desk, and Esteban was behind it.

"I want you to call Mr. Tipton and distract him while London and I make our escape."

"Escape? But who will be the bell boy?"

"Someone who isn't me. C'mon, Esteban, you know that I'm not cut out for the job. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not as strong as I look."

"I admit that you're right, but someone still needs to transport the luggage from the lobby to the suites."

"Well, what about you?"

"I'm the manager now. Well, night manager. The day manager got the flu, so I'm pulling double duty for a week. I don't have time to be the bell boy, even though I did it so well before."

London shook her head at him bragging. She came up to the desk. "Please do this for us, Esteban. Zack and I really need to get out of here and back to the SS Tipton, and the only way we can do that is if we take one of my private jets. And the only way Daddy won't know about it is if he's on the phone with someone while we're escaping."

"But I value my job..." Esteban whined.

"You won't lose your job, Esteban," Zack said. "When I text you, call him with a real concern that the hotel has, and make sure it's a concern that will take a while to resolve so London and I have time to get the jet to the ship. He won't know the difference."

"Yeah, and I'll make sure that the pilot doesn't say a thing," London added.

Esteban looked in between his two friends for a moment, then said, defeated, "Alright. But who is going to take the bell boy job?"

London huffed. She looked around the lobby, and when she spotted a young man who looked in his early twenties, she went over to him. "Hey, I'll give you $1,000 flat if you become the hotel bell boy until they find a new one."

The guy stared at her for a moment, perplexed, and then she pulled out the wad of money from her purse. The brunette guy beamed. "Done deal!"

She gave him the cash, went to Zack, took his hat and then placed it on the random guy's head. She turned to her friends as the guy began getting people's luggage. "There. Taken care of. Now Zack, we need to go."

"Yeah, we do. Just let me run up and change first."

"Okay."

They left, and once Zack was changed, and his suitcase was packed, they took a cab to a park near the harbor that had a large field that could land a jet. London had already made the call, and Zack already texted Esteban to call Mr. Tipton.

"I really hope this works," London said as they stood there, and the sky was dark with night.

"It will," Zack reassured. "Hopefully."

They heard a motor and looked up and saw the jet's lights a ways off. It soon landed and relief flooded through London's body. "It's here! Let's go and get back to that ship." She paused. "Gosh, I never thought that I would actually want to go back to that sea school."

"It's worth it, London. I love it there, and I love it when you're there."

"Aw..." she gushed and hugged him. She loved how it felt, holding him close.

The jet landed and the two teens came out of their embrace. The door opened and the stairs came out, and Zack and London were about to run for up those stairs, but they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw who was stepping down them. London's happiness immediately drained.

It's her father, and he does not look happy.