Samuel moved closer to Brianna and sat next to her on the bed. He lifted his hand and carefully stroked a lock of hair away from her face.
I’m sorry, Brianna, he thought. But don’t worry. I’ll take care of this, okay? For good this time.
Even if he had to have Adrien put away for life, he didn’t care if it was in prison or a mental institution. Or even a graveyard. He wasn’t going to let his brother hurt the people he cared about just because he wanted to protect his family name as his parents apparently had.
Enough was enough, and he was tired of covering up Adrien’s messes.
Since Brianna wouldn’t be waking up for a while, he decided to leave the room. He did so reluctantly, but who knew how long it would be before she woke up. He hesitated before closing the door behind her, not finding it safe enough if he left the door wide open, even if he didn’t lock it. He headed back downstairs.
There, he found Morganna on the couch. She was leaning forward with her elbows braced on her knees, hands clenched tightly together and pressed to her lips. She looked like she was calm with how still she was sitting, and half her face covered, but he could see her eyes, and they were anything but calm.
He hesitated, before walking closer.
“Have you… heard the news?” he asked.
“That Adrien and Camila disappeared,” she said monotonously, then nodded slowly.
Samuel hesitated some more, because he didn’t know how to console her. The woman in front of him was another reason for him to feel guilty, since he’d brought her and Camila here, thinking it would be the safest place for them to be while his brother was out of jail, so he could keep an eye on them. In the end, not only did his sister get injured and traumatized again, Camila was now gone.
“Dammit!” Morganna cursed suddenly. “I had him… he was right fucking there. I pointed my gun and took the shot, I know I hit him, but he still jumped out of the window with her.”
“You shot him?” Samuel said in surprise, looking around the room to see who might be around, but didn’t see any of the officers in the vicinity. He frowned. No one had mentioned this to him. “Do the police know?”
Morganna shook her head. “No. I’m not supposed to have a gun. Convicted murderess, remember?” She gave him a worried look, and kept her voice low so they wouldn’t be overheard. “I hurried over to the window and saw him dragging her away. I wanted to go after him, but I couldn’t follow them out the window.” She looked over at him and frowned. “I’m afraid of heights, so… Anyway, he was quick, too. Disappeared into the trees with her. The police did arrive quickly, but it was too late. He was already out of my sight before they even showed up…”
I should have called for them the moment I caught Brianna and made sure she still had a pulse, he thought to himself with regret. He’d wasted a few moments, and it had cost them. It was too late to do anything about it now, though.
Facing Morganna once more, he tightened his jaw. He noticed a tremble going through her body, probably slipping past her control.
“I swear,” he said to the grieving, enraged woman sitting in front of him. “I swear that I will find and save Camila from my brother, no matter what it takes.”
Even if Adrien has to die. Even if Samuel had to make the kill shot himself, he was going to get Camila back from Adrien.
Chapter Seventeen
Camila
When Camila came to awareness, she didn’t know how much time had passed. She wasn’t fully awake yet, but she knew there was something definitely wrong. Slowly, bits and pieces came back to her, each one scaring her, and then she became aware of her body lying down on something. Her body trembled slightly, letting her know that ‘something’ was moving.
Where am I?
Slowly, her mind and body both woke up. She fluttered her eyes, forcing them open to take a look. Only, all she could see was darkness.
Huh?
She blinked, a little confused, and tried to shift her body, only to hiss when her arms ached. Or at least, she tried to hiss, but there was something between her teeth. It felt like a piece of cloth, and it was tugging on the corners of her mouth. She realized, too, that she was bound with her arms behind her back, and her eyes widened as her breath started growing short. She squirmed, trying to ignore the pain that shot through her at her movement. She was laying on her arm and partially on her bound hands, and she squirmed until that at least wasn’t the case, but she was still lying on her arm. Her legs were tied together, too, at her feet.
Not that she thought she could move much even if she hadn't been bound. Her harsh breathing was bouncing off the walls of the dark space she was in, and she realized it was way too small. She couldn’t even stretch her body out, staying curled in on herself.
Where am I? she thought a second time, only this time, more terrified. And what the hell happened!
Her mind was whirling around trying to place together everything that happened. And she remembered. She remembered going to keep Brianna company after finding out she’d run off scared back to her room, then seeing Adrien there with a gun to Briana’s head. Samuel and her mom showing up with guns, then Brianna getting shoved down the stairs and Adrien covering her mouth with what she’d thought was chloroform. Then the sound of Adrien grunting and her mom crying out for her as she was dragged away.
Oh…
Camila let out a yelp when, out of nowhere, her body bounced and smacked back onto the surface she was lying on, making her groan. That’s right, wherever she was, it was moving. When she listened carefully, she thought she could hear horns outside. That, coupled with the small, dark space she was in was enough to let her know where she was, finally.
She was in the trunk of a car.
Shit!
Worry plagued her. Obviously, Adrien must have her now, but how was everyone back at the mansion? Was Brianna okay or did she get seriously injured by the attack? What about Samuel and her mom? She could just imagine the worry they must be feeling, especially her mom. But those worries were quickly covered by other, more pressing concerns.
Like, what was going to happen to her now that she’d fallen into Adrien’s hands? Was he going to hurt her? Was he going to kill her?
Her heart felt like it would stop, and she squeezed her eyes closed as pain and fear mixed up inside her.
What could Adrien possibly be planning?
No, wait. Forget that. Camila wasn’t just going to wait for this guy to do whatever he wanted. No matter how afraid she was, if she did nothing, then that would just be giving into him. For the sake of herself and everybody, she knew she couldn’t do that.
I have to escape somehow.
How, though? Could she kick out the tail light? she wondered, struggling but it was no use. She could barely move, and hauling her foot back enough to kick it out would be difficult.
Her thoughts were jumbled as the car bumped along, jostling her. It was impossible to try and formulate another plan for several reasons, one of them being that she didn’t know where she was or where she was going. Another being her bound hands and feet. No matter how much she struggled, she felt like she was just cutting herself on whatever tied her up. It was cutting into her from the top and bottom edges, and with how smooth it felt, she figured it was duct tape. If it had been rope, she might have had a chance of undoing a knot with her squirming, but for duct tape, that was impossible without cutting through it somehow.
Her heart was still beating too fast, her breathing ragged, but her mind was clear. She didn’t doubt that Samuel already had the police looking for her. Whatever happened, she just had to be okay until they found her. That would all depend on Adrien, though, and she was pretty sure he’d gone crazy with all the stunts he’d been pulling recently. Even Samuel was caught by surprise, which meant this wasn’t just him acting like his usual self.
Which just begged the question, why her? Was there something about her that triggered him into acting this way, or did he just really dislike her for some reason
? She didn’t at any one point think it was because he loved her. His obsession was more with his brother it seemed to her. Thinking about it, when she’d first met him, Adrien had pretended to be Samuel. And then after she’d broken things off with him, and she’d really gotten to know Samuel, she’d realized that Adrien had always been attempting to be Samuel. From his clothes to his persona, but with strange quirks. All those stories she’d read, thinking they were Samuel, but were really Adrien.
Based on that alone, she supposed they should have figured out there was something wrong with his head a long time ago. It was one thing to copy someone you envied, but wanting to be them, or be a better them, wasn’t normal behavior.
Adrien must have been good at hiding it if no one noticed and put him away earlier. She had to wonder if he was only after her now because she was involved with Samuel.
She couldn’t do anything besides lay there, so she stopped trying to move or she would just injure herself. Her hands were one thing, but if she hurt her feet when she needed to run, it would interfere.
For the most part, the road they passed through was straight and smooth. Occasionally, they would take corners, and she would feel her body sway with the car. Adrien was driving carefully, though, so she didn’t roll around much inside the small space. She wondered how long she had been locked in this trunk for since her breathing was starting to come a little short, and not just because she was scared. She was feeling a little warm, too, and she wondered if she was running out of air or something.
Then, the ground became a bit rougher, causing her body to shake, and she grit her teeth with a grunt as the light bouncing of her body was knocking her arm on the floor and making it ache even more.
Finally, they came to a stop, and she felt her body jolt with the car. She gasped out, then bit down on her lip and kept quiet. She debated whether or not she should pretend to still be unconscious. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard Adrien get out of the car then slam the door closed, her throat tightening. She slammed her eyes closed, then strained her ears out to try and figure out what was going on.
Vaguely, she could hear Adrien talking with someone.
It wasn’t someone Camila knew, because they were already well out of the city limits, and she didn’t know anyone who lived out so far. Maybe it was a relative? She thought curiously. She lifted up and pressed her ear to the trunk lid trying to make out what they were saying.
“Are you lost?” It sounded like a sweet older woman’s voice.
“Yeah, my phone died, can I use yours, Mrs.—”
“Oh, I’ve been a widow for years, you can call me Tansy. I don’t get many visitors out this way. When I saw you pull up, I got curious. Figured you needed help.”
Camila frowned. She wished she could yell to the woman, warn her somehow, but she was afraid of Adrien and what he would do if she made any noise.
“Hello Tansy, it’s nice to meet you.”
Camila could hear the charm he was putting into his voice, but he also sounded stressed to her ears. She could imagine him giving her that charming smile he used when he wanted something. It made her shudder.
“You… you wouldn’t happen to have a spare room, would you? I know it’s a bit forward of me, but it’s been a day and I’m rather exhausted. Not to mention my phone died.”
“What’s a young man like you doing out here at this kind of time? It’s getting a bit late, don’t you think? What about your home?”
Tansy sounded more curious than concerned and Camila wanted to yell at her to run.
“Ah, I actually got thrown out of the house by my brother.”
Camila huffed indignantly and rolled her eyes.
“Our parents died, you see, and they had quite a bit of money. My older brother didn’t want me touching any of the money and made me leave. I only need a place to stay for a bit. I have a small amount of cash on me, I can pay for my stay.”
The story was total bullshit, though it did have a small ring of truth to it. Camila knew that while Samuel had let Adrien use their inheritance freely, he didn’t give him full access to everything. Instead, he’d set up a trust for Adrien. And technically, he had been kicked out of the family home.
“You shouldn’t be having fights with your own family, though.”
Camila heard Tansy say. She could picture a nice older woman, probably plump with graying hair, frowning up at him, because she was probably much shorter than Adrien.
“Did you at least try to talk to your brother? I’m sure the two of you can talk things out instead of separating like this. You should go back home and try, okay?”
“No. I don’t think that will be necessary…”
Camila fretted over the tone of Adrien’s voice. It worried her, because that was how he’d sounded at her apartment. She feared something bad was about to happen. Whoever this Tansy woman was, Adrien was trying to talk her into letting him into her house. Tansy didn’t sound immediately persuaded, in fact she sounded like she was going to refuse. However, whether Tansy consented to it or not, Camila was worried about what Adrien would do.
There was only one thing she could do.
She screamed.
Camila screamed until her throat ached, but she could hardly get much sound out with the gag in her mouth. But she had to warn this poor, kind, trusting woman, to tell her that the person she was talking to wasn’t an innocent person who deserved her sympathy, but a villain who would bring her doom. Camila tried to move, to squirm around enough to make the car bounce at least, but she stopped with a whimper when she shifted on the arm she was lying upon.
She couldn’t do a thing, though. She was about to try screaming again, when she heard a gunshot, muffled because she was in the trunk, but unmistakable. She froze, then felt her heart tremble, then the rest of her body, and her eyes stung with tears that overflowed. She didn’t have to see to know Tansy must be dead. Camila’s heart wept for the woman. Just one more person who had became collateral damage in Adrien’s pursuit of her. Her body spasmed as she tried to cry and breathe at the same time, with the gag still in her mouth and mucus starting to block her nose.
I am so sorry…
She lay there, her body trembling, eyes closed since all she could see was darkness anyway. She wouldn’t mind passing out again right then, but then she felt the car shake. Her eyes snapped open when she realized Adrien must have come back to the car.
No…
The trembling in her body grew, but she didn’t have a way to actually stop him. She heard a pop, then saw a thin line of light. Adrien opened the trunk, and she looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes, thinking back to the dream she had. A prey caught in a predator’s trap.
He reached for her, and she yelped and tried to squirm back, ignoring the pain, but it wasn’t as if she had anywhere to go. He grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the trunk and into the chilling night, ignoring how her lower body thumped onto the ground, and her cries and weak struggling.
Adrien did lift her up a bit so he was dragging her more underneath his arm and not behind him. She looked across his chest, and noticed his left shoulder was bandaged, which was probably why she was under his right arm. The bandage was soaked through with blood.
She wondered briefly what happened, before fear completely consumed her mind.
Chapter Eighteen
Adrien attempted to lift her up, but he didn’t get far carrying her. When he lifted her dead weight with his injured arm, he grunted in pain and nearly dropped her. Instead, he gripped her upper arm, to get her to stand up, but with her feet bound, it was hard keeping her balance. Still, once Camila had her feet under her, he let her go, and she swayed a little, but managed not to fall. She threw a wary eye at Adrien who had moved to the driver’s side of the car, then frantically searched around.
Immediately, she was disappointed by what she saw.
They couldn’t have gotten so far from New York, it didn’t matter how long she’d been out for, and from that, she could
estimate a guess of where they were. And from her guess, they were somewhere in the Catskills at a farmhouse, likely belonging to Tansy, the woman she’d heard speaking with him before the gunshot. She couldn’t tell more than a general location of where they could be, though, especially in the dark. And considering they looked like they could have been in the middle of nowhere.
This farmhouse was so damn isolated she wondered if it was the only one in the area, though it was likely that she just couldn’t see any others because it was night and they were far. There was almost no signs of civilization anywhere around, except for the highway that was quite a bit of distance away. She saw a car drive past, but even with the gag off, she doubted anyone passing by there would hear her screaming before Adrien could stop her. The distance was just too great.
Fear made her heart freeze over. What exactly was Adrien going to do to her all the way out here?
Adrien was back by her side before she realized it, and it made her jump. A muffled sound came from her mouth, and she almost tipped over, losing her balance. Almost, but not quite, because Adrien caught her arm again. The only problem was that he caught her by only one arm. It just hurt her more where he gripped her, pressing his fingers into her bicep and pulling at her. It made the tape around her wrists cut more into the skin in places.
“Stay still, would you?” Adrien grumbled, frowning at her as if she’d greatly inconvenienced him. “If you keep squirming like that you’re going to hurt yourself, you know. Behave a little.”
Tangled Obsession: Book 2 of the Obsession Trilogy Page 10
