“Most of what we have on the market now or ready to go public is Lucien’s doing. He’s the brains behind the medical devices and the apps.”
“He told me you have some drugs on the market already.”
“Most of those are patents we bought from other companies. The drugs we have in development will take at least ten more years before they’re ready to be sold to the general public.”
“He told me that most of your ongoing projects are highly secretive because of the nature of the business.”
“True. Anyone in our line of work would have to worry about corporate espionage.”
“Do you? Has anyone ever tried to steal one of your projects before?”
“No. Our security it pretty tight. I’m sure you noticed that when you were there the other day.”
I nodded, thinking about the security guard at the front desk and the card reader in the elevator that dictated which floors the rider was allowed to travel to. Their security was fairly impressive. As a security expert, I could have tweaked it a little, but not much. And that was saying a lot.
“No one has ever made threats against you before?”
“Oh, we’ve all had minor threats. The occasional email or phone call. But nothing to worry about. Though I know Lucien worries about his big projects. He has one in the works right now that he’s really concerned about. But it’s just paranoia on his part.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” He touched my knee lightly. “My biggest concern for Lucien right now is that I can see the way he looks at you. He really likes you.”
I blushed, a blush that was completely genuine and not as made up as it should have been.
“Like I said last night, he’s had his heart broken. I’d hate to see it happen again.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Lucien came over then, sliding onto the bench behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.
“Hey,” he said, kissing my neck roughly. Almost possessively.
“God, you two make me sick,” Rachel said as she came breathlessly up behind Jacob. “Get a room!”
“We had a room, but you dragged us out here,” Lucien told her. “So live with it.”
I laughed, because the look on Rachel’s face was priceless. It was a cross between horrified and deeply amused. Jacob laughed too. I think that was the first time I’d ever seen him relaxed enough to laugh. As much as he seemed unwilling to admit it, he did adore his siblings. And that made me lean toward Lucien’s gut instinct. I didn’t think Jacob could make threats against his brother, let alone follow through on them. Whoever sent that email threatening Lucien for talking to someone—who, I wasn’t sure—and telling him to accept that the prototype to his artificial pancreas was compromised had to be someone else, someone close to the company. Maybe even a member of the development team. But it wasn’t Jacob.
“Come on,” Lucien said, pulling me off the bench. “Let’s go play.”
Chapter 11
Lucien
My cellphone buzzed. I had so many devices in my pockets that I almost forgot which one I’d shoved the damn phone into. I finally wrapped my fingers around it just as Jacob jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow.
“You better watch out for that one,” he said, gesturing with his chin toward Adrienne. She was playing one of those games where you have to shoot a target dead three times to win a prize. So far, Adrienne had gotten two out of three. And, as we watched, she got the third.
Rachel screamed and threw her arms around Adrienne. Poor Adrienne didn’t seem to know what to do with my sister’s enthusiasm. She just stood there for a minute, her arms stiff at her sides. But then she slowly slid her arms around Rachel and hugged her back.
I nodded, feeling like I should flash her a thumbs up sign or something.
And then I remembered my phone.
I stepped back a little and turned on the screen. There was an email notification from an address I didn’t recognize.
Looking forward to that patent? Think things are going your way? Think again.
Cold fingers began to dance the length of my spine. I turned. Adrienne was watching me, and I could tell by the expression in her eyes that she knew something was wrong. She said something to Rachel, then came to where I was standing.
“What?” she asked softly.
I handed her the phone, aware that we were drawing attention from both Jacob and Rachel. In fact, Jacob moved up behind her just as she darkened the phone’s screen and handed it back to me.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m just going a little low. I think we should head back to the house.”
“Oh. Sure.”
Using the diabetes card could be convenient sometimes.
We walked back down the boardwalk toward the parking lot where we’d left the Jeep that belonged to our parents’ beach house. Rachel talked the whole way, gushing about Adrienne’s shooting skills. I glanced at her.
“That was pretty impressive.”