DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(115)

That shut her up and made JT drop his game controller because he was laughing so hard.

We could make this work. We were an unusual family. And there was still a lot we would have to work out. But we could make it work.

And maybe she and I would finally live a part of the dream we’d given up because, well, it’s all about family, right?



End





LUCIEN





Chapter 1


Lucien

“I need a f*cking drink,” I said as I joined my brother at a table in the hottest bar in town, Tandem Lines. Jacob looked up, amusement dancing in his dark eyes.

“Hard day?”

“Aren’t they all?”

Jacob picked up the glass of seltzer he’d been nursing all night. I didn’t have to be here to know it was his first and that he wouldn’t finish it. Jacob wasn’t a drinker, and he balked at the outrageous prices a place like this charged for something as simple as seltzer. It was a personality quirk that annoyed most people, but that I found amusing. Imagine, the son of one of the most well-known oil barons in the country groaning about having to pay five dollars for a glass of fancy water.

I gestured to the waitress in the tight black skirt. She came over, a big smile on her brightly painted lips.

“What can I get for you gentlemen?” she asked, her eyes on me only.

“Vodka and cranberry juice.”

Her smile widened slightly. “You strike me as more of a scotch and water sort of guy.”

“Do I?”

Her eyes moved slowly over the expensive suit, lingering on the silk tie.

“Definitely,” she said.

“Well, tonight, I’d kind of like cranberry juice, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

She gave me another onceover then walked away, moving her hips in a lovely roll that I’m sure was mostly for my benefit. As I watched her walk away, I caught sight of a beautiful woman with jet black hair sitting at the bar. She was wearing a simple wrap dress with just the smallest hint of cleavage. She turned in her stool as I watched, crossing her legs in that seductive way some women have, moving her bare calves over one another like they were covered in silk. She definitely had it.

“Look at that,” I said, nudging Jacob. “Isn’t that something to look at?”

“There’re lots of good looking women here tonight.”

“Yeah, but that one in the wrap dress is really something.”

Jacob looked again, his eyes moving slowly over the length of her. “She’s pretty.”

“Not just pretty. Sexy as hell.”

Jacob lifted his drink again, sipping at the flavorless bubbles.

“I thought we came here to talk about the meeting with JDRF.”

I dragged my eyes away from the dark beauty long enough to focus on Jacob again.

“What did you think? Do you think they guessed what we were fishing for?”

Jacob shrugged. “I think they’re excited about anything that might make living with diabetes easier. But I also think they’re under the impression that we’re just working on another type of pump. And that’s not terribly impressive anymore.”

“We can’t exactly tell them what we really have until the patent comes through next week. If word got out, do you realize how many people would be threatened by what we’ve done? We’re ten steps ahead of everyone else working on the artificial pancreas.”

“I don’t suppose it matters. We’ll have the patent soon.”

“We’ve got everything in this new device. If anything goes wrong—”

“You’re paranoid, brother,” Jacob said. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

The waitress returned with my drink. I slipped a twenty into her hand and winked, but forgot about her the moment she walked away. Business was all I’d been thinking about lately, and it still weighed heavily on my thoughts. When Jacob suggested we start a biomedical company as partners five years ago, the idea had been to focus on developing new medications for some of the biggest offenders of public health in the modern world—Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Jacob had a degree in biochemistry. But my degree was in both business and technology. So it only seemed natural that we’d go in two different directions while working toward the same purpose. He oversaw the development of new drugs. I oversaw the development of smart phone apps, games, and computer software designed to help patients understand and keep track of their diseases. And various medical devices. We’d begun developing a new generation of pace makers, a device that, when implanted in the brain, can help reduce the tremors that come with Parkinson’s. We were looking at creating devices that can infuse chemotherapy at home, at a slower rate, to reduce side effects.

And we had the artificial pancreas. This was my pet project, something that had the potential to radically alter the way in which diabetes is treated, especially in newly diagnosed children. There were already several models in the works from rival companies, but their pancreas required the use of three different devices: two insulin pumps and a constant glucose monitor. Mine was consolidated into one device that performed the duties of their three. Once we had the patent, we could go public.

There was a lot riding on this. Success was the only option.