DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(167)

“Don’t pull that bullshit on me,” Jacob said. “Tell me the truth.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “That is the truth. Only a handful of people knew about that project. Only one of those people could have said something to a reporter.”

“So you went to a private detective instead of talking to me about it?”

“What would you have done had I gone to you? You would have denied you had anything to do with it, and you would have wanted to handle it internally. I know you, Jacob,” I said, staring at him with the same hard expression he had on his face. “The last time something like this happened, you insisted on taking over. You insisted on handling it yourself. How did I know it wasn’t you?”

“Why would I go to the press about something that could only benefit our company?”

“Because you knew that there were issues with the device. Because you knew we weren’t quite ready to go to human trials. You would have wanted to slow things down.”

“Going to a reporter wouldn’t have slowed things down. If anything, it would have sped things up!”

“Unless the reporter found out about the trouble we’ve been having. Then the FDA never would have approved our request for human trials.”

Jacob shook his head, but I saw something in his eyes that worried me. Something wrong. I don’t know what it was, but it set off alarm bells inside of me that I didn’t understand.

“Does any of this really matter now?” I asked softly.

“You lied to me. You lied to me about Adrienne, about her relationship with you, and you lied to me about what she was doing here, in our company. That matters.”

“No,” I said. “The only thing that matters is that Adrienne’s missing and we have no idea who has her. We have no idea what they might do to her.”

“Are you telling me you actually care about this woman?”

He scoffed at me, the tone of his voice mocking me. I wanted to punch him. I’d known Jacob since I was five years old, and this was the first time I’d wanted to punch him.

“You talk like it’s impossible for me to have feelings for someone like Adrienne.”

“No. I just think that something that began as a joke will likely remain a joke.”

“It wasn’t a joke. And it definitely isn’t a joke now.”

Jacob looked me over for a long second, his eyes narrowed, like Ruben’s had been before. He was looking at me like someone far more mature who believed I was acting like a child.

“You’ve always been a spoiled brat, Lucien. Being so sick when you were little, in and out of the hospital, always getting everything you asked for because all the adults around you always felt so guilty for everything you had to go through, for every little pinprick you had to suffer day in and day out to treat your illness, you grew up thinking that you could have anything you wanted. But that’s not how the real world works, brother. That’s not how it will work for you anymore.”

I didn’t understand where this was coming from. I was as much stunned as I was angered by his words.

I shook my head slowly, the movement building with each degree my anger ratcheted as the shock wore off and his words really sank in.

“Fuck you, Jacob,” I said softly. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you—”

“This is my company. I started this company with my own money, my own blood and sweat. You came in as an afterthought. I invited you into this company because my father thought it would make your mother happy. You were supposed to sit in your little office and write little medical apps for people’s phones. That’s all you were supposed to do.”

Again, I was shocked. I hadn’t known any of this. I’d thought his invitation to join the company was genuine.

“No one forced you—”

“No, no one forced me,” he said with a bitter little chuckle. “Father simply announced that if I didn’t invite you into the company, he wouldn’t allow me to put my trust fund up as collateral for a business loan.”

“I didn’t ask him to do that.”

“No, I don’t suppose you did.”

“And everything I’ve done has only made our bottom line better.”

Jacob inclined his head. “Yeah. Until this. Until now.”

“Until what?”

Jacob’s eyes moved over me, dismissing me with a flick of his eyelid. He started for the door.

“We need to get to Katy.”

“No!” I grabbed his arm. “You started this. You end it.”

Jacob spun around and punched my shoulder. I lifted my hands to hit him back, but I stopped myself. There had to be a line drawn. There had to be a moment when one of us chose to be the bigger person. No matter what he thought of me, this was my brother. I wasn’t going to get into a tussle with my own brother.

“Tell me what you think it is I’ve done.”

“This whole thing is you, Lucien. You know that, I know that. You did this. You created this mess to take the focus off of what you did.”

“Jacob—”

“Don’t try to deny it. I’ve known all along. I talked to Rachel, heard her side of things.”

A vague memory tickled the edge of my thoughts, but I still couldn’t quite grasp what it was he was talking about.