The first thing that Lena reminded herself as she looked at her phone was that she needed to breathe. Losing her head right now wasn't going to do any good, especially since her father wasn't there.
"Bring Hester in here." She barked at Clive as she called her father back. It would be easier to tell him over call rather then texting him what was going on.
"I'm fine. Something is going on with Samuel, I don't know what it is right now, but I will call you back later when I have more information." She hardly waited for him to reply before she ended the phone call. Her hand was shaking from a mixture of the fear and anger that was fueling the adrenaline that was running through her body.
"You really think that it was worth it to wait to say anything until this point?" She asked Evalyn, fixing her with a very cold look as she spoke.
"You knew at the back of your mind that there was the risk of something like this happening and you still didn't think that it was the right decision to say anything before now?" She continued as the other woman looked at her with a very conflicted face.
"If anything happens to him at this point, part of that is going to be on your head for not opening your moth sooner and letting someone know about this." Lena knew that she was probably being harsh right now knowing that Evalyn was most likely worried about her own son as well, but she had little sympathy to extend to the woman. What she was saying wasn't that out of place.
"He wouldn't do anything to Samuel, they're family." She said, attempting to defend someone she hardly knew, this only fueled Lena's anger further.
"You know." She started pausing for a second as she tried to level out her tone.
"My maternal grandfather said the same thing when my mother's cousin kidnapped her. He swore up and down because they were family he was only holding her as a harmless threat to get what he wanted but he wouldn't actually do anything to her. And you know what?" The woman only shook her head in response to her question.
"He was wrong. He had no idea what he was talking about because she meant nothing to her cousin because they hardly knew each other. She was just a bargaining chip that as easy to throw once things went bad for him." Lena explained, closing her eyes for a second to breath before she continued speaking. She felt her headache raising to the level of almost unbearable throb.
"And in response to that mistake, my father killed almost all the men on that side of the family who were involved in what happened to her. The only ones he spared were those who had children of their own and didn't partake or had evidence to prove that they had nothing to do with what happened." She ran her tongue over her lip as she finished speaking. Hester entered the room as she spoke the last part.
"The only difference between me and my father is that the only person who's blood that will be on my hands if anything happens to Samuel would be this J's and anyone else in that room at the time." Having finished what she had to say, the princess turned her attention to Hester not caring that most of the color had drained from Evalyn's face. Whether it was from the fear of what Lena had just said or the worry that maybe she had miscalculated the situation that her soon might've been in, she didn't know nor did she really care. She had more important things to focus.
"What can you tell me?" Lena asked Hester who had brought his computer with him.
"Well bad news is, I don't have the signal for Samuel's phone right now that can be traced. I have Jeff's pinged but the last two locations is shows was a jewelry shop in the middle of town and right now it appears to be at a hospital. I have yet to confirm if this is the accurate last place, but I asked Clive to call the hospital for confirmation if they have received this morning a patient by the name of Jeff Ross." Hester explained as he set his computer down on the table.
"There was also something else that I was able to pick up from Jeff's phone that I think you should listen to." He said as he typed a few things on his computer before bringing up an audio recording. It was about a minute long. He handed her a pair of headphone so that she could hear the recording clearly. The person in the video cleared their throat before speaking.
"Hello dear princess. I do apologize for this incident. Things didn't quite go as planned, but I can assure you that your dear fiancé is safe for now. I hope you understand that nothing going on here comes out of ill intentions. It just so happens that he needs to be borrowed for a little while." The voice obviously belonged to a man, but it wasn't one that was familiar to her. There was a pause as there was some background noise before he continued speaking.
"You will be hearing back from me relatively soon once I get the permission from my boss to give a specific address to met us at. Until later Princess, take care." Because the recording had been done on Jeff's phone there was no number or way to trace who called or where they were going. Lena resisted the urge to throw the headphones across the room knowing it would do no good, instead she turned her attention to Evalyn who was still sitting stock still in her seat since the princess had finished talking to her.
"Listen to this and tell me if you recognize this voice." She ordered as she held out the headphones to the other woman. Perhaps she could still be useful for something. With shaky hands, the other woman grabbed the headphones and placed them over her ears before she nodded to Hester to play the audio clip for her.
Clive returned at that time after having finished calling the hospital to try and verify whether or not Jeff had been admitted there of it was an action done to throw them off.
"It has been verified that he was admitted to the hospital for a gunshot wound to his chest." Clive replied, his usual calm features expressed stress and exasperation at the situation. Jeff was still a kid. Someone he had originally brought on to join the family and had taken under his wing to train him because he saw potential in him and wanted to take him out of the difficult situation that he had found him.
"The nurse couldn't offer too much information, however she indicated that he was currently in emergency surgery but she didn't believe according to the doctor that the wound won't be fatal." He further explained.
"But let me guess, they didn't see who dropped him off or know exactly what happened?" Lena asked, already knowing what the answer to this question was going to be. Clive nodded his head gravely in response to this question. Of course, they weren't amateurs. Still, it felt odd to her that they would bother taking him to the hospital if someone shot him. What kind of game were they playing?
"I can't say who the voice belongs to. It's not one I recognize, but you might want to check into a Russo Harrison." Evalyn suggested as she took the headphones off.
"Who is he?" Lena demanded as she looked at Hester who was already typing the name into his computer.
"He's one of the few people I remember being around my family growing up. He was slightly older than me, but he was being groomed to be one of the higher ranked members in the family. If he was going to pick a side to be with, he would've picked J's."
"What's J's real name?" Lena as she waited to see what Hester might be able to find. Clive was on his phone again reaching out to another contact to see if they could assist.
"His name is Jovani Conti. He's a part of the Vedova Nera group, or rather I should say that we are." Evalyn said corrected herself at the end. Although she had changed her last name and tried to cut ties with them, she couldn't escape the fact she was still connected with them.
"Vedova Nera? They're one of the largest groups in state aside from us and you really didn't think that you should've brought this up?" Lena tsked. This was really starting to feel like deja vu to her. She just really hoped that whatever happened, it didn't end like things had with her mother over eight years ago.
