DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(177)

I shook my head. “I… Jacob would never do something like that to Lucien.”

“He did. He left him lying there on the floor of his house, waiting to die.”

“No,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks. “Jacob—”

“He did, lady. The security guard saw him come and go just moments before Adrienne found Lucien half dead. And the doctors are telling her that his blood sugar fell so low that chances are real good he won’t recover. He’ll wake up one of those vegetables they’re always crying over in those made-for-TV movies.”

“No.”

But I knew it was possible. And, suddenly, it all began to make sense. Everything Jacob was doing, everything he’d told me. What it would do to Lucien. He’d gotten angry when I’d asked if Lucien would be able to recover from all this. He got mad when I said it was cruel. He said… Why didn’t I see it?

Jacob hated Lucien. I saw it, but I didn’t want to see it.

“He’s trying to steal the patents from the company. He’s selling them to this company out of Europe. Everything. He tricked Lucien into signing a power of attorney.”

“What about the company? Won’t Jacob be responsible for the fallout?”

“He signed everything over to Lucien. Told him it was to protect them both with the loans they had to take out to cover operating costs. It’ll all fall on Lucien’s head. I thought he was leaving him with the patent to the artificial pancreas, but now I think that’s the main thing the other company wanted. He was going to ruin Lucien.”

“So why hack his insulin pump?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I…I didn’t think Jacob was capable…”





Chapter 41


Lucien

My mouth was dry. It felt like I hadn’t had a thing to drink in days. And my muscles hurt. Everywhere. I felt like I needed to move, but it was such an effort just to lift a finger.

I opened my eyes, but the room was too bright. I closed them again, trying to lick my lips, but it was like trying to moisten the desert with the water in a mug of beer. My tongue felt like sandpaper that was covered in a gummy film.

“Don’t try to move too much.”

It was my mother’s voice. It was always my mother’s voice when I woke in the hospital.

“How long?” I croaked.

“Three days.”

I tried to nod, but any little movement seemed like too much effort. I lay still for a moment even as I felt a soft hand touch the back of mine. A wet washrag brushed my lips. It felt like heaven.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“Anytime,” a new voice said.

And it all just came rushing back on me. A bar. A beautiful woman. A kiss like heaven. A hotel room, a missing shirt. Beautiful eyes staring into mine. A woman like none I’d ever known before.

“Adrienne?”

“I’m here,” she said close to my ear, her voice cracking on the last syllable.

I opened my eyes again. This time the room wasn’t too bright. This time I could focus. And what I saw was like a Rembrandt to an art enthusiast. It was like a lily to Monet. It was love to a broken heart.

“Adrienne,” I whispered, reaching up to touch the side of her face.

Tears rolled slowly down her cheeks.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” she whispered.

“I promise.”





Epilogue


Adrienne

Lynn told my dad everything.

Jacob had hated Lucien since the day his father asked Lucien’s mother to marry him. His hatred only grew over the years, pushed over the top when his father forced Jacob to invite Lucien into his business, unbeknownst to Lucien. So when he saw an opportunity to not only make a lot of money, but to ruin Lucien in the process, he snatched it.

A month or so before separating from Lynn—a separation that was orchestrated to get Lucien to allow Jacob to move in with him so that he could keep a close eye on him—Jacob was approached by a representative of a company out of Europe. They had heard rumors about the artificial pancreas, and they wanted to know what it would take to buy the patent. Jacob brushed them off at first, but then they made an offer. He couldn’t pass up the money.

As Lucien had known from the beginning, the artificial pancreas would change the way in which diabetes is treated worldwide. Whoever held the patent to the first practical artificial pancreas would have the world in his hand. The Europeans knew that, too. And they were willing to pay anything to get it.

It was just the scheme Jacob had been waiting for to get his back on Lucien and everyone else in the family who’d always put Lucien first. He was going to screw them all.

Jacob tipped off the reporter who contacted Lucien and sent him running to my daddy’s private investigation firm. And to me.

Then Jacob sent the emails to keep us busy while he made the deal.

And then there was Jaime. She went through Lucien’s emails and his snail mail, kept track of anything that could get in the way of Jacob’s plan. She also happened to be having an affair with Jacob.

The split with Lynn might have been pretend, but that didn’t mean that Jacob felt any loyalty to her. He’d never really been faithful. But Lynn overlooked his infidelities because, well, because she loved him.