Chapter Eleven
Samuel
Samuel thought it would never happen, but the police finally came through.
He woke up that day feeling unlike himself. He hadn't lost hope, no, but the little he still felt was dwindling.
How long has it been?he wondered. Too long.
They should have found Camila already. He was barely sleeping nights, no matter what he tried, even going out and exhausting himself. But if he fell asleep, it was only for a bit, then he woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. He walked to his bathroom and saw how terrible he looked, then ignored it as he went about his business. Back in his room, he got dressed, then picked up his phone. He left the room and headed downstairs.
It was still early and it didn’t look like anyone else was around, not even his staff. He stopped by the kitchen to grab something from the fridge. There weren’t any leftovers, so in the end, he picked up a piece of fruit, and made his way to his study.
He sat behind his desk, opened his laptop, and then…stared. He just stared at the black screen.
How is she?
That was what he kept thinking about. Camila had been gone for so long, and it felt a lot longer because he missed her so damned much and worried about what kind of life she had away from him. Was she eating okay? Was she well?
Did she think of him, as much as he thought of her?
Was Adrien being good to her?
Probably not.
They were all separate worries, but that last worried him the most. His mind would cycle through them all, before getting to when will I find her and get her back, only to start over from the beginning.
He was growing so tired of it. If there was someone that would give him the solution to his problem in a minute, he wouldn’t think twice about giving away half his fortune right then and there. Only half, of course, because he still had to look after Brianna and their family’s property. Not to mention, if he did get Camila back, they would hopefully be thinking of building a family for themselves after this ordeal was over and they got over it.
Yes… I’ll get her back and we’ll all move on.
Just… when, not if.
With a sigh, he pressed the button to turn his computer on and waited for it to boot up. He checked his phone just in case there was news.
Should we maybe try that again?
Samuel has been wrestling with the idea of just going wide with Adrien’s face everywhere, on every news program, so people would be on the lookout for his brother. It would probably affect his life afterwards, people would look at him and remember that news about a kidnaper, murderer and escaped convict. He still had a company to run, and his sister’s life would be in ruins before it even began…
Only, it wasn’t like things had to end up exactly that way. He could just withdraw into the shadows and have someone else be the face of Kane Enterprises. Of course, the company might not even stand up to the onslaught, but it wasn’t impossible. And no one had to know that he and Brianna were related. At the moment, he had his team of lawyers keeping strange stories from popping up on the internet from the little they’d let leak out before during the investigation, but it wasn’t as if he really cared what people thought of him, in the end.
He only cared that his sister, and Camila, were both well and happy.
His computer came on and he started going over all the evidence he’d already received so far. There really wasn’t a lot they could use, which meant Adrien had planned well. He had to have been planning it for a long while, even before the trip to prison. A spur of the moment plan wouldn’t have worked this well. He couldn’t have purchased all those homes, and properties from prison. And how did they play into this? He wasn’t at any of them. And some of them hadn’t even been in Adrien’s name, but Samuel’s.
Had his plan been changed? Had he intended to kidnap Camila that day in her apartment? Had this been his plan all along? To grab Camila and run? Disappear? But to what purpose?
He pulled up the map that depicted where they had found his car and the route he’d taken, leading to the way they were looking now. He’d marked areas to show where the cops and the mercs he’d hired had already gone through. The problem was there was still plenty more areas to cover and they didn’t know for a fact that Adrien had even stayed in New York. They were making an educated guess that he had, but it wasn’t as if the couldn’t be wrong.
Maybe, if they sent Adrien’s picture out wide to the news people across the country that ground could be covered a lot faster. Of course, there was always the risk of spooking Adrien if he was keeping an eye on things, but that might be a risk worth taking if it meant something happened.
… Or not. Samuel didn’t want to take risks with Camila’s life, after all. He wanted her back alive.
He was pondering the way forward, finding it such a daunting task, when his phone buzzed. His eyes went to the phone where he’d left it on the desk beside his computer. There hadn't been any news as of late, but recently, any news he got either turned out too good to be true or led him to a dead end. If he found himself at another dead end, this time, he was going to knock his head into a wall.
Still, he had to pick up his phone. If there was news, even if it was bad, it was still better than nothing.
“What have you got for me?” he answered, keeping his voice steady.