DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(157)

The phone buzzed again, the screen announcing another message.

I clicked it.

If you want to see your girlfriend again, you will do exactly as I tell you.

That was the first message.

Call the police and you will never hear from me again. Or see her again.

That was the second.

Suddenly, what had begun as concern for the patent on a device that could revolutionize diabetes care and make my brother and me very, very wealthy had become a life or death situation. And I had no clue what to do next.





Chapter 24


Adrienne

My hands were tied behind my back, the plastic cables cutting into my flesh. My ankles were bound together, too, those cables rubbing uncomfortably against my ankle bone. I was in the dark, not because it was dark inside the vehicle—a van, I thought, but wasn’t sure—but because there was some sort of bag over my head.

I was being kidnapped.

That was definitely a first.

I’d thought the threats against Lucien were mild. Someone playing games with him. I never believed he was behind it, like my father did. Although, this was a pretty intense way to prove it to him. I hoped Lucien had called my father. The police wouldn’t even get involved for twenty-four hours, and by then there was no telling where I might be or where the kidnapper might be.

This was clearly a serious attempt to get Lucien to cough up the Alzheimer drugs his company was developing. I should have seen it sooner.

I knew who my kidnapper was. I’d put a camera into Lucien’s office to reveal the identity of the person sending emails from Lucien and his brother’s computers in order to create drama between them. Jacob ran the drug division of the company and Lucien the medical device/apps sections. Someone leaked information on an artificial pancreas Lucien was developing to cause him to turn on the few people within the company who knew about it. Only Lucien turned to my dad’s private investigation company to find out who was behind it instead of accusing his brother or coworkers of creating the leak. So this person began sending threatening emails to Lucien that they knew we would trace back to Jacob’s computer. But then we discovered that the emails had actually come from Lucien’s computer. To my dad’s credit, it did look like Lucien was behind the whole thing. That’s why I put a camera in his office and how I now knew who the person behind the whole thing was.

She wanted Jacob and Lucien to have a falling out. She wanted to create discord in the company. And when that failed, she followed Lucien and me to San Antonio. Maybe she hadn’t intended to kidnap me. Maybe she’d planned to threaten Lucien face to face. But that’s not what happened. She broke into our hotel room when Lucien stepped out for a few minutes, and…as they say, the rest is history.

I was in the military. I knew how to take care of myself. But I was caught by surprise. I mean, really, who’s prepared for someone to walk into your hotel room while you’re sitting there with only a shirt on? I thought it was Lucien who came into the room, and by the time I realized it wasn’t him, she’d already clocked me over the head with something heavy. The back of my head throbbed from where she hit me. By the time I woke up, I was already in the back of this vehicle, whatever it was.

I could take care of myself, but I couldn’t loosen these cable ties. For the first time in a very long time, I was vulnerable. All I could do was lie here and hope that Lucien would find me.





Chapter 25


Lucien

My head was spinning. I knew I had to act, but I wasn’t sure where to start.

I walked slowly through the room again, this time more methodically. There had to be a clue. Something that would tell me what had happened in my absence. Had there been a struggle? Had Adrienne fought her kidnapper? Or was it someone she knew, someone she allowed into the room without realizing what their intention was? Or had they taken her by surprise?

We’d gotten in late last night and gone for a walk on the Riverwalk this morning. And then we spent most of the afternoon alone in our room. Adrienne’s clothes were all there. Mine, too, with the exception of one of my shirts. Her cellphone was still here, obviously. Her laptop bag.

I picked up the bag and realized immediately that it was empty.

They took her laptop? Why would they do that?

I was being harassed. Someone was trying to create discord at the company I ran with my brother. Adrienne thought they wanted an Alzheimer’s drug my brother was developing. She thought whoever it was wanted my brother and me to turn on each other to make us vulnerable, to make one of us weak. I refused to believe it, but now… What if she was right?

What if they’d taken her because they thought they could use her to get what they wanted?

Jacob had a wife, but they were separated. He still loved her. Would go back to her in a heartbeat. But maybe the person doing this didn’t know that. So they picked on me and Adrienne. They took Adrienne.

I couldn’t go to the police. But I couldn’t sit here and wait for a text message telling me what I was supposed to do to get her back.

I made one phone call, my eyes closed as I listened to the ringing on the other end. I really hoped this wasn’t a mistake.




“How long has she been gone?”

I glanced at the screen of my phone. “Nearly three hours now.”

Ruben Garcia studied my face like he could see beyond the flesh and bones and read my thoughts. As though he could see any deception hidden just beyond the outer fa?ade. But there was nothing more to know.