Adrien didn’t look the least bit fazed at his brother’s cold tone, even letting out a chuckle as he pressed the gun further into Brianna’s neck, making her whimper and tremble.
“You can go ahead and try, brother,” he said happily. “But why don’t we test whose fingers would be faster on the trigger, hmm? Brianna and I could both die, and wouldn’t that leave you burden free, huh?”
Samuel’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t dare to move closer or say another word, and neither did Morganna. Camila could only stand to the side like a cheerleader, being no help in the confrontation at all.
“How’s about it, big brother,” Adrien taunted. “Shoot me, why don’t you? Right now. Even if you shoot faster than I do, my hand could just seize up and I’d end up pressing the trigger, anyway. Then, bam! There goes little sister’s head.”
Adrien started laughing, and for the first time, Camila seriously wondered if he’d actually gone crazy.
After a while, though he sighed. “This is getting boring real quickly, big bro. If you don’t mind, I’ve got a time limit here, and I need to get going, so I don’t have time to be playing with you.”
The three of them went on the alert, waiting for whatever Adrien would do. They didn’t expect for him to start moving forward, pushing Brianna along as he did. With his tight grip on her and the muzzle of a gun pushing into her neck, even if she was frozen in fear, she could only move forward like he wanted. Camila saw both Samuel and her mom grow tense, but neither of them tried to shoot. Instead, as Adrien continued to advance, they retreated.
They didn’t have a choice. This was a standoff and even though their side had more numbers, it didn’t matter. Adrien had a hostage. As he’d said, even if they managed to accurately shoot him without hurting Brianna, he might still get off a shot at the last minute. Brianna could be injured, or even die. Camila knew why Samuel didn’t dare risk it, and she also knew that no matter how resolved her mom would be, she wouldn’t be willing to risk a helpless young girl just to kill the bastard, either.
It was an impossible situation to be in. Camila could only wish the police would realize what was going on and rush in, but even faintly, as they moved down the corridor, she could hear the commotion still going on outside.
“You know, Samuel,” Adrien said conversationally as they moved. “If not for you, none of this would even be happening.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Samuel said tightly.
Adrien just laughed some more. “Of course you don’t know, Samuel, you never do. You were always like that, so fucking annoying. If you’d just died while in service, everything would have been perfect. But you just had to come back and act as if you were the boss of everything. Well, you weren’t. You never were. Everything you have? It should all have been mine, and only mine.”
What he was saying didn’t make much sense to Camila. His voice was casual, as if he was just speaking about the weather, so she couldn’t say if was jealous or envious of Samuel or if he hated him.
Camila had been backing away with the two of them, but when they hit the stairs, Adrien unexpectedly stopped, and his eyes turned to her. She jumped as if she’d been electrocuted, then went still, as if that would be enough to get him to ignore her presence once more.
“Samuel and you,” he pointed at Camila’s mom, “down the stairs. Camila, if you don’t want anything happening to Brianna, stay put.”
All three of them froze. Even though a part of her had expected it, Camila had the sudden urge to cry. He really had come back for her. To get revenge? Against her or his brother? She didn’t know, but it was obvious things weren’t going to end well for her.
Both Samuel and her mom glanced at her, but Camila couldn’t do a thing about it. There was no way she could let Adrien shoot Brianna, no matter how scared out of her wits she was.
“I mean it, Samuel,” Adrien suddenly growled, showing his first true sign of impatience as he forced Brianna a few more steps forward, digging the gun into her neck so she made a noise of pain and distress.
“It’s fine,” Camila said, trying to steady her voice as much as she was able. “Do what he says.”
Samuel and her mom still hesitated, but when Adrien continued to move forward, they reluctantly backed away, throwing glances at both her and Brianna. Camila stood in place, watching Brianna, her heart going out to the younger girl. Even though she was scared, if it meant Brianna could live through this, she wouldn’t mind if Adrien did whatever he wanted with her.
When Adrien stood at the top of the stairs with Brianna, Samuel and her mom were about halfway down. Camila didn’t know what would happen now. She didn’t think he would go down with Brianna, but if he just let her walk down on her own, he would be free to get shot at.
Camila sucked in a harsh breath, her eyes widening as a thought occurred to her.
No way…
She’d only taken a step, when Adrien grinned, and shoved Brianna down the stairs.
“No!”
Camila shouted, her mom shouted, and Samuel shouted. Brianna let out a horrific sounding scream, and it was only made worse by the hoarseness in it due to her unused vocal chords. Samuel and her mom dropped their weapons to catch her, with Samuel being the first to get there. Brianna knocked into him, knocking him back against Morganna, effectively distracting the both of them.
Brianna wasn’t moving.
No!
She wanted to go and look over the younger girl, make sure she was okay, but then Adrien caught her by the arm and dragged her back to Brianna’s bedroom. Camila struggled to get away from his grip, but he wasn’t letting go, and he practically dragged her there. She let out a scream as she scratched him with her free hand, and she heard him curse. She felt a piece of cloth cover her nose and mouth, and she attempted to hold her breath, to not breathe it in, but she hadn’t been fast enough. She knew that smell. It was chloroform. Her vision grew blurry and her body went slack.
She felt Adrien grip her under her arms and the last thing she felt and saw before the darkness descended, was him dragging her across the room as a blurry version of her mother raced toward her, gun drawn.
Chapter Sixteen
Samuel
Everything was such a mess.
Samuel remembered that not that long ago, everything had been going fine, until his senseless twin had escaped from prison and caused trouble for everyone.
He wished his twin wasn’t the evil fucker he apparently was, but then there was no point in wishing. It wouldn’t change anything. Suddenly his wishful thoughts turned to himself and his actions. He wished that he hadn't stopped Camila when she’d had a gun on Adrien when he tried to attack her at her apartment. Or better yet, he wished he’d have taken the gun and made the shot himself instead of leaving it up to Camila, because even back then, he’d wanted to kill him. Adrien didn’t deserve mercy.
Adrien had gone to Camila’s with a gun, whether or not he would have actually shot her, Samuel didn’t know, but he regretted not doing something more about it than sending him to jail. And tonight, after seeing Adrien hold a gun to their sister, and take Camila away like that, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake three times. If Samuel got the chance, he’d take it. He’d kill his brother. Hopefully before Adrien harmed Camila.
I should have taken that fucking shot, he thought to himself, hands clenched tightly and trembling, jaw clenched and teeth grinding. Furious wasn’t enough to describe just how he was feeling, not to mention horrified at his sister’s injury and Camila’s kidnapping.
“Kane?”
He turned to find a Jacobs standing by his side. He tried to control himself, pulling back his rage, or at least hiding it from his face so he could pretend to be composed.
“What’s the status outside? The noise has stopped.”
“Backup finally arrived not too long ago. The short of it is we have everything stabilized for now.”
“Can you give me more detail?”
�
�I know it took a while, but we managed to capture the escaped convicts before they could do too much damage. Three of our people are injured and are on their way to the hospital, but none of their wounds are life threatening. Does your sister need a paramedic? I can have one come in, more are on their way.”
“Send one in as soon as they arrived,” he commanded. “My sister will need to be seen.”
“Of course, Kane.” Jacobs nodded.
“And Adrien—” he started, then let his voice trail off as he hesitated. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.
“Ah yeah. About your brother,” Jacobs said, shaking his head and looking at him wearily. “We’ve got people pursuing him on the outside. It was a good thing that you called me when you did. Backup had just arrived when you texted. I don’t want to think what would have happened if they hadn’t. They might be able to catch him before he gets too far, especially with Ms. Blake. We have eyes in the sky now too, so hopefully we’ll catch a break.”
“Keep me updated, Jacobs, as soon as the situation changes,” Samuel ordered.
“Yes, sir.” Jacobs gave him a salute, reverting to their past relationship when Samuel had been his commanding officer. He shook his head and gave a weak half-hearted smile. “Sorry, Kane, old habits.”
Samuel returned his half smile with one of his own, and cuffed his shoulder. “I’m glad you were here, Jacobs.”
Jacobs nodded and walked toward the door. “I’ll keep you posted.”
Samuel thought back over what had occurred once Adrien got into the house. He really couldn’t say how long it had taken, probably not a lot of time, and yet it felt too long to him. After he’d caught Brianna, he’d been preoccupied checking to be sure she was okay, that she hadn't broken her neck or anything. He only managed to look up when Morganna ran off, and he caught sight of Camila, her body sagging, being dragged away by Adrien. He had wanted to go after them, as well, but he still had Brianna in his arms, and she hadn't been moving.
Samuel had feared the worst. She hadn't rolled so far down before he managed to catch her, but she could have broken something. He’d worried she’d broken her neck. Even after he realized she was still alive by checking her pulse, though, he couldn’t just leave her to follow. Instead of carrying her and going after the other three, he’d called the police and explained his brother had broken into the back of the house and kidnapped Camila. Samuel had wanted them to go after him before he’d gotten too far.
It hadn't been fast enough, though. If he had been, Adrien might not have gotten anywhere. He would have been caught immediately.
He glanced around at his home, that now had police personnel walking all over the place, and he could feel his anger rising again. His private home which now had several strangers walking around it due to his brother’s avarice and self-centeredness.
Samuel hated this.
He had to do something. He couldn’t sit there and not do a damn thing to find them. Fuck it, he thought, as soon as they check over Bri, I’m searching Adrien’s room myself. He dragged his hands through his hair in frustration. Dammit! How did things go so wrong so quickly…? His thoughts assailed him. Just hours ago, I had her in my arms, safe. How the fuck did this happen?
“Sir! The ambulance has arrived!”
He turned at the call from a different officer, Martin his name badge read, and he followed the man back outside. Sure enough, another ambulance had been let onto the grounds. He saw an officer speaking to a paramedic, who then grab a bag and ran toward the house.
“I hear there’s a wounded girl inside?” the paramedic said as he reached him.
“She’s up in my room. This way,” he said briskly, turning and leading the way.
They climbed up the steps and went to his bedroom. It was familiar enough to Brianna that if she woke up, she wouldn’t panic wondering where she was. It hadn’t been too long, not even half an hour, but the fact that she hadn't woken up worried him a little.
After leading the paramedic inside, he stepped to the side and waited as the man pulled the covers a bit lower then examined her. He kept his arms folded, gripping hands clenched tightly as he fought with himself not to shove the man away and protect his sister.
The paramedic spoke as he rifled through his bag, “Can you tell me what happened, Mr. Kane?”
“She was shoved down the stairs,” he said, voice hard. “From the top. She didn’t even roll half way, but there was definitely a loud sound when her head hit one of the steps. I caught her in time, but I’m worried about her head. I didn’t really see any blood where she hit it, but I’m worried because she hasn’t woken.”
The paramedic nodded to himself. “I’ll look for possible injuries and a concussion. We’ll get a stretcher up here and get her in to the hospital for some tests—”
“It’s fine,” Samuel said, cutting in. “If it’s possible to just treat her here, that would be best. My sister went through something traumatic as a child. She doesn’t handle hospitals too well. If she wakes up somewhere unfamiliar and alone, it would worry her. And I can’t leave, either to be with her if she does go to the hospital. If you find she’s not well, I’ll call her doctor and have a trauma team brought in.”
“Very well, I’ll check her over here then,” the paramedic said and then focused on Brianna.
Samuel didn’t plan on moving away until the paramedic was done, until he heard the radio on the cop in the room crackling. His eyes followed the cop as he left the room and answered, then signaled back to him. Guessing it was important news, Samuel followed him out of the room with one last glance at Brianna.
“What’s the situation?” he asked immediately, his nerves on edge as he caught sight of the officer’s expression.
“I… am afraid we’ve lost track of your brother and Ms. Blake,” the officer said, his expression apologetic. “They followed the footprints as far as they could, but then they disappear where there appears to have been a car waiting. There’s no other sign of them anywhere within the grounds or in the surrounding area. There are still people out on the grounds looking, but he must have had this well planned out. We’ve got someone looking over the surveillance cameras of your property as well as your neighbors to try and track them down, but at the moment we have no idea what kind of car—”
He didn’t finish his sentence, and Samuel knew why. Outside of his family estate, there wasn’t much in the way of security cameras this far out of the city. Not that there weren’t any, but a lot of his neighbors relied heavily on private security. And being Adrien came in through the back of his estate, they weren’t going to find much on any of his neighbor’s cameras. And Adrien wasn’t stupid anyway, he would have found a way to avoid being seen on them.
Fuck!
He cursed, but he didn’t do it out loud. He wanted to, though, to curse the way things had played out. He blamed himself. He should have gotten things done by himself ages ago instead of trusting everything to the police. He should have handled his brother himself. In his defense, he never thought Adrien would actually outsmart the police, but that was an oversight on his part.
“What about the copter? Jacobs said we had eyes in the sky,” Samuel recalled.
The officer frowned and looked away. “Yeah, we did. Without knowing what to give him to look for though—”
“Right.” Samuel sighed. He couldn’t do nothing, he’d already done enough of sitting idly by while waiting for them to take care of things for him. He was going to be proactive and take charge of things. He had to. “I’ll have my own people start looking as well,” Samuel said, his voice hard, because he wasn’t asking. “They won’t interfere with your investigations, but I’ll try to get them to work with the police as much as possible. I really need my brother and Camila found as soon as possible. Let whoever’s in charge know this, please.”
“Mr. Kane, I’m not sure that is a wise—” the cop started, but then stopped talking when he caught sight of Samuel’s expression. “Very well, I will tell th
em.” He gave a nod and walked off, lifting the radio to his mouth.
Samuel watched him leave, and then turned to lean back against the wall. He tilted his head back, hitting the wall lightly a couple of times. Too much was happening too quickly. He was usually good at handling these sorts of situations. If only Camila and Brianna hadn't been the ones involved in it. It tore at his heart that he’d had to choose between his little sister and his love. He knew Camila was strong, well stronger than Bri, and he only hoped that she would be okay until he got to her. With a sigh, he pulled out his phone to make the call to his security team. After that, there were other calls he needed to make, but he wanted to check on Brianna first, so he put them off since they weren’t nearly as important right then.
Just as he walked into the room, the paramedic looked up from examining Brianna, and started to put away his tools.
“How is she?” Samuel asked tightly, hurrying over. “Do I need to call her doctor over?”
“You might want to just in case, but she was really lucky,” the paramedic explained. “There are some bruises here and there, and they’ll hurt, but if you have Tylenol just give her the standard prescription if she feels any pain. It doesn’t appear that you need to worry over much. I didn’t find signs of a concussion, though she does have a slight bump on the back of her head, and you might want to ice it.”
At least one thing is going right, Samuel thought with a sigh, his tension only relaxing slightly, though.
“Is there a reason she hasn’t woken up, though?” he asked, looking at his sister’s face. She looked so peaceful that he didn’t want to wake her, but he was still worried.
“I did wake her enough to give her the concussion test. She was coherent and capable of answering questions using sign language. You didn’t mention she was mute.” The paramedic frowned at me.
“It didn’t occur to me, I’m sorry.”
The paramedic nodded. “She will be fine. I think it’s mostly shock. She’ll be tired, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to wake her again. If you leave her alone, she’ll wake up on her own when she’s ready. That being said, because of her previous trauma, and now this, you or someone close to her might want to be nearby so she doesn’t accidentally hurt herself. And of course you can still call her doctor for a second opinion. For now, please excuse me.” With a nod, the paramedic made his way out of the room with his bag.
Tangled Obsession: Book 2 of the Obsession Trilogy Page 9
