On the ride back home, Lena mildly regretted her decision to not take up her father's advice to ask Clive to drop her off at Samuel's house and then stay at a nearby hotel so that he could take her back home when she was ready to go back home. She was feeling rather tired and still had four more hours of driving left. At least being on her motorcycle meant that she could rely on the differing temperatures and wind to a certain degree to help her stay awake. The only annoying part would be driving after dark when others on the road in cars were not always so considerate towards those who were on motorcycles.
And if it wasn't for the fact that she really did have an important meeting that she need to attend with her father the following morning, she honestly would've probably just slept in the guestroom at Sam's house, but now that it was getting closer to her officially taking over her father's role, she couldn't afford to miss such meetings if she was to expect everyone else to take her seriously.
Many of the members in the outer alliances who were not as close to the family were still under the impression that it was some type of joke that Zane intended to put his daughter as the head of the Red Scorpions over his son even though he was the second born. Of course, few would openly question his decision when either he or Lena was present, but the disapproving murmurings still reached their attention because those who were more loyal had no problem reporting it to Lena's father.
It wasn't a subject that her or her father had talked about between themselves mostly because he knew that his princess wasn't going to change her mind about taking over just because some people were displeased with the idea of having to rely on a woman to lead them. There were many ways after all to take care of those who broke loyalties or showed that they could not be trusted.
It was a worry for a later time however, because Lena knew that once she got back there were certain preparations that she needed to get in order before Samuel would be coming back to live with them again. The engagement party wouldn't be held for another few weeks, probably in the fall as there were certain items in place that they needed to get in order. Outside of this, the princess was also going to have to get ready to what her brother had begun to jokingly refer to and others family members had picked up as 'take your fiancé to work day'.
With the engagement becoming official now. One thing Lena was planning on doing was getting Sam familiar with the legal side of the businesses that they ran. With work picking up, the little queen herself was going to have to spend more time in office and she felt that it couldn't hurt to have Samuel familiar with where she worked for days when it ended up being safer for her to bring him with her rather than for him to stay at home.
Plus, there was probably something or other that he could take part in while he was there. She didn't quite know what he would interested in doing, but it didn't seem out of line to her for him to be a part of their legal business process since he would be taking over with her.
Normally it would've been her brother would be working with her, but in this case, it seemed as though he was considering other plans that didn't go along with this line. He was only sixteen still so there was time for plans to change, but after being in England for a few years, it seemed as though he had turned his attention towards something different that had interested him rather than working with his sister.
When it came to Sam, she trusted her entirely family not to do anything with him, she didn't trust however his own naivety as to what he was getting into and his inability to protect himself should something unexpected happen. A training schedule was something else that she was going to have to get in place as well. Even if it was something that she was going to have to watch over herself, she wouldn't let the little chickadee remain unable to protect himself for too long if she had any say in it. She would have to figure out though what approach would be best to work with him since using a gun didn't seem to be something he could pick up as easily as she had been hoping for.
Thinking back to Samuel's parents, she still felt a bit odd about the fact that they were much more welcoming and warmer towards her than she had expected them to be. Certainly, she also hadn't been as stand-offish as she usually was with other people, mostly because she knew her father would reprimand her if she dared to be disrespectful on her first meeting with her soon-to-be in-laws. However, it was also how kind Samuel's parents had been that made it easier for her to be mindful of how she came across and interreacted with them.
His extended family was another story though. While she didn't his cousin, Fran so much mostly because they didn't interact that much, she didn't feel very favorable towards Charlene and John. It was one thing to flaunt power and status when there was a rivalry going on and to make someone else understand their position, but in such a situation where it was evident that Samuel's parents weren't trying to compete with his uncle and aunt, it just became a distasteful display of arrogance. Mostly on the part of Charlene though.
"Google, call James for me please." She told her phone after a few seconds of musing. She had an idea that might fix this family problem that was bothering her.
"Calling James." The phone replied back. Thankfully she didn't have to listen to the ringing of the phone for too long before someone picked up.
"This is James at your service.". He was her personal secretary though she didn't often bother him for much as she preferred to take care of everything herself to make sure that it was done correctly. What she wanted however was something that he would be better equipped to look into and could get onto faster than she would currently be able to anyways.
"Hello, James. I know it's rather late tonight, but I Have a favor that I would like to ask you." The princess told the man.
"Princess! How nice to hear from you, I thought you had today so I wasn't expecting a call from you." The man indeed did sound rather surprised to hear from her.
"What can I do for you this evening?" He inquired trying to sound more professional.
"There's something that I would like you look into for me actually.." She told him before giving the name of John's company that he owned.
"I want you to tell me where they're located and if it would be too far out of line for us to look into absorbing them into the rest of our businesses in say the next few months?" She told him, waiting for a reply as she could hear him taping away on his computer, most likely making a note of what she was asking him to do.
"Certainly, miss. When would you like me to have this report ready by?" He asked.
"Wednesday would be fine. You can email it to me and I will look over it." She replied smirking to herself. It might work, though if it did, she would have to explain it to her father and see what his opinion was.
"Understood miss. I will get on it first thing tomorrow and will have it to you in no time." He replied, knowing better than to ask why.
"Good." Lena replied back before she ended the call. That was one less thing now that she had to worry about finding a solution to. It would be handled in a completely legal way as well. If his uncle agreed, there would be a decent sum of compensation for letting them take over his business and of course, he would still stay in charge of it, he would just have to report to her. If he didn't easily agree, well there were still legal ways to handle that as well that wouldn't cause unnecessary trouble.
It was also something that the little queen would probably have to mention to Samuel as well. He might not be thrilled to hear about it second hand from someone else, especially if he got the wrong idea about how it was handled. She of course didn't have any intentions of hurting his family, but that didn't mean that she couldn't take measures to put some of them in their place for such behavior that she disapproved of.
