Impress Me Not: The Architect

Chapter 50

Well, he wasn't home. He really hoped he wasn't in the hospital. The worry was starting to eat him away as he tried every possible place that he could be. He was supposed to be thousands of miles away right then, getting sleep for meetings with clients that he had planned. But instead of all of that, he had spent an hour rescheduling those meetings and flying all the way back home.

Casimir had been trying to stay away from the public eye ever since that night he saw Amy again. Valentino was just convinced that she was still lingering. He didn't think that a woman like her would stay just to try and spite him, but he didn't want Valentino to be so afraid and worried. The man was great at convincing him, and it was so cute when he fussed over him.

He didn't care about his ex. After having a falling out with her and getting in trouble with the law because of it, there was no possible way of him ever growing those feelings for her again. He wasn't sure if she was still in Amor, but he would deal with it if the situation rose. His main concern was the man that hadn't been answering his phone all day.

All he told him was that he was dealing with a family emergency and he couldn't talk. Casimir understood that, as much as it worried him. That meant either Lou, or Noel, considering the man has a pretty small family. He didn't know much about either men, but it didn't bode well, and it worried him.

The second that Valentino didn't answer the phone to him an hour later was the second that he realized he needed to head back home. He could come back, since he already made a promise to see some clients in person, at another date. Hell, he could be back there in a day or two. But Valentino needed him now. He might be new to his life, and his family, but he could still be there. He'd stay in the background of it all to give them space if he had to, but he knew that Valentino would want him there. He was a loner, but Casimir knew that he didn't like being one when something bad happened.

No one did.

Dammit. The man still wasn't answering his phone. He knew it wasn't dead, but it worried him even more now. It had been an entire day that he hadn't heard from him. That was the moment when he was starting to think about worse case scenarios.

Like what if he got kidnapped? And the kidnappers just texted him that so he wouldn't worry about him?

It sounded out there, but it could happen. Even to someone like Valentino, who stayed away from as many people as possible. It didn't help that when Casimir called his work, they had said that he wasn't there. He hadn't slept that much the night before, so he could have been asleep, but it still added to the panic attack that he was close to having.

He tried his house first, knocking on the door, ringing the bell, everything. The lights weren't even on to show that someone was home. He didn't like it. And when he looked in the window to the garage, he could see both cars still parked.

Absolutely none of these things were good signs. Casimir was trying to think before going to the extreme and considering it a missing persons case. He had tried calling Lou, who had given him his number the same day that they met. But not even he was answering his phone. Casimir was left completely lost on who to call or how to figure out what was going on. All he knew was that the longer time went on, the more he considered calling the police and filing some missing persons reports.

Needless to say, it had not been a good day.

The last place he was intent on checking was the coffee shop. It was the one in downtown, and Valentino absolutely loved it. He even knew the owner: Anton. Anton was there all the time. So, if Casimir couldn't find Valentino there, he could ask the shop owner if he had seen him at least. It was that, or check the bars to see if he went to one of those with a friend. Casimir had no clue anymore. He was just thinking about all possible outcomes.