Chapter 127 - Family Reunion

When Samuel woke up, the first thing that he became aware of was the splitting headache he had and the fact that when he opened his eyes that he couldn't see anything that was going on around him which indicated there was something covering his eyes. Trying to his shift his body told him his hands were tied behind his back but his legs were still free. Based upon what he felt against his back, he determined he must've been sitting or leaning against something that had to have been some type of chair of sofa. 

Despite his throbbing headache, he tried to listen to what was going on around him to try and hear for any clues that might tell him where he was. He realized rather quickly though that there wasn't much noise going on around him. It almost sounded too quiet which lead him to believe that he must've been moved inside somewhere.

Where though was the question. Trying to think back to everything that had happened caused his head to hurt. They knocked him with something after Jeff had been shot despite him trying his best to fight back. The oldest one of the three only really seemed to know what he was doing and if it hadn't been for him, he was certain that he would've had no problem dealing with the other two. 

He did fight back pretty hard but being blocked in on three sides and having the car behind him didn't give him much space to move. That was the one thing that made him an easy target to get. He didn't have the skills to fight back against three people in that small space.

"Oh dear Sam, this is not at all how things were supposed to learn out. I am indeed terribly sorry." He turned his head to try and figure out where the voice had come from. Had the guy always been in the same space as him or was the door he came through just that quiet that he couldn't hear it open and close. 

"I hope there will be no hard feelings between us, but it seems that some of those who are working for me simply don't know how to correctly follow the directions that I give them." He continued. His voice got louder which was an indication that he was most likely getting closer.

"Who are you?" Samuel asked aware of the fact that his throat sounded rather scratchy. They had used something to knock him out, he just wasn't sure what it was or what had happened to Jeff for that matter. 

"Ah, right. You don't really know my voice well enough yet. J at your service, or rather I suppose since we will soon to be spending some quality time together getting to know each other- I suppose I should tell you my full name though I'm sure it won't mean anything to you yet. Jovani Conti at your service." The man introduced offering the other his full name. 

"J?" He repeated, no wonder his voice sounded familiar. 

"What do you want with me and what happened with Jeff?" Samuel then asked as he tried to turn his head to where he presumed the other was standing. The other sighed before he spoke. 

"Per my instructions, your friend or guard rather, Jeff as you call him should be at the hospital right now being treated. Problematic people who can't follow directions are the result of that. He should probably be fine however." Jovani explained, taking a seat in the chair that wasn't far form where Samuel was.

"As for your other question. I wanted a chance to talk with you in person and catch you up on everything that you don't know about!" He said sounding rather excited. 

"Not exactly the family reunion that I had been hoping to have, but it'll have to do for now. Again, I hope there'll be no hard feelings between us." 

"Couldn't we have just kept doing this over text? I don't understand why you had to go this far just to keep talking with me?" Samuel asked, wincing as his head started to throb worse. 

"Because, it would've been oh so hard to catch you up over text, plus there's other reasons as well. I'm sure your princess isn't thrilled about this at all, but I'm sure she'll eventually warm up to everything. There's a little something that I need to do with her first though before I can be sure everything will work out." Jovani said, musing a little as he leaned back. 

"What does she have to do with anything if we're supposed to be family?" 

"Because Sam, you're going to be marrying her soon which means you'll be part of that family." Jovani explained a smile in his voice though the other wasn't sure if it was the good type or the type one should worry about. 

"If we were to compare this to chess, you would be the King and she would be one of the supporting pieces. Say the Knight because of how confrontational and protective they are along with being bold. Although her personality does match that Queen, she hasn't proven herself to be worthy of taking on the role of the queen whose job is to protect the other half, meaning you, the King." Samuel did his best to listen to what the other was telling him but it didn't do much to help him better understand what he was planning. 

"I understand your analogy but it doesn't tell me why you're going through all this trouble or what you're planning. I also wish that you'd take this off my face, it's not like I can get anywhere in my current position." 

"Ah patience for that Sam. That'll come off later." Jovani said making it clear that he had no intention of taking the blindfold off. 

"Right now, we haven't even reached the final destination yet. This is just a small pitstop before we move again. Unfortunately due to the unexpected circumstance-things didn't go as smoothly as I had planned for them to." He explained with another sigh. 

In foresight he had realized things would've been easier if he made sure that only one of them was carrying a gun rather then allowing all them of them to keep theirs. It was supposed to be for precautionary sake, but someone got too antsy and ended up firing theirs off when they weren't supposed to. 

"As for your other question, why I just want to make sure that this princess who is intending on marrying is all that she seems to be and is more than capable of watching out for you." Jovani stood up and patted Samuel on the shoulder as he spoke. 

"I'm sure that once everything is settled down and I explain everything to you that you will be more understanding of what exactly I'm trying to do and why it is important. Until then, you'll just have to be a bit more patient and deal with things as they are for a while longer." He told him as he started to walk away from the other. 

"I have other things that I need to attend to now, but it was certainly nice to be able to finally speak to you in person. How great it will be when we finally get the chance to really catch up on everything." He stopped speaking after this and Samuel tried his best to strain his ears for any indication that there was still nearby, but when he didn't hear any he tried to get his attention. 

"Jovani? You still didn't answer all my questions. There's more still I want to know from you." He called out to the other hoping that he was still there, but it seemed to no avail because silence was the only thing that answered him back. What a great situation he found himself in. 

He winced as he tried to twist his hands around again, they were tied fairly tightly and because of the way that it was, he had hardly any room to move them to try and attempt what Clarice had taught about how to get out of rope bindings. If his wrist wasn't sprained he'd have probably had a better chance of doing something as well but when he had caught one of the guy's in the face he had used more force than he thought and didn't control it right which lead to him hurting himself in the process. 

Whatever was going to happen, he just hoped that Lena would be okay. She was certainly better at taking care of herself and knew more what she was doing, but that didn't mean she would be prepared to handle something if it turned out to be a trap.  There was nothing he could do about it though except for sit and wait to find out what Jovani wanted to tell him and hope that somewhere along the way he would get an opportunity to figure out a way to get out of wherever he was at.