“It’s all the same thing, isn’t it?”
I started to argue with her, but then something she’d said opened a door I hadn’t realized was inside my head. It was all the same. A lot of people outside of the company, and a few inside, didn’t understand that I had nothing to do with the drug side of the business. I didn’t have a biomedical engineering degree. I was a computer guy. I knew how to develop an app, knew how to manipulate computer code. I knew my way around the brain of a device. But I knew absolutely nothing about the drugs our company produced.
But not everyone knew that.
“I have to go, Mom.”
I hung up the phone and pulled up a folder on my computer. Inside were dozens of emails I’d gotten since I began working with Jacob. Some were from people asking to be a part of our drug trials. Others were from family members requesting that their loved one be allowed access to the drugs we were rumored to be developing, even though drug trials had yet to begin. Others were thank you letters, or requests for changes to our apps and computer software. It was a file where I dumped just about anything that was from a customer or potential customer, things I read but rarely responded to or felt needed added attention. There was a lot in this file.
What if something in it came from whoever was playing these games with me?
I spent a good part of the afternoon rereading the emails in that file. I made a list of the ones that seemed somewhat threatening or in which someone mentioned a family member who had died because our drugs didn’t come to market soon enough. The words in some of these emails pulled at my heartstrings, reminded me why I’d wanted to go into this business in the first place. But others… It was amazing what grief would push a person to do or say.
When I was done, I sent the emails to Ruben Garcia as an attachment in an email explaining what they were. Just as I pushed the button, Jaime stuck her head through the door.
“Time for that meeting.”
Adrienne was waiting in my office when I came back from my meeting, a garment bag hanging over the back of one of the chairs at the conference table. She was wearing jeans that hugged her ass perfectly and a thin t-shirt that did very little to hide the black and red bra underneath.
“Your dad lets you go out in public like that?”
“I’m twenty-three. I do what I want to do.”
“I’m not sure I would be that brave if I had a father like yours.”
“I’m not sure you should be doing a lot of the things you do with a father like mine.” She moved up against me, reaching up on her tip toes to place a kiss on my bottom lip. “If he had any idea what we’ve been doing…”
“We won’t tell him, right?”
She just smiled as she turned and walked back over to the magazine she’d been reading when I walked in.
“That must be a fascinating magazine.”
She shrugged.
I went over to the couch and collapsed beside her. She immediately snuggled back against me, a contented sigh slipping from her lips.
“We’re having dinner at my parents’.”
“What? I thought we were having a proper date.”
“Yeah, well, my mom pulled that card. You know, the you-left-our-weekend-early-so-you-owe-me card.”
She groaned. “At least I brought a proper dress.”
“You left your suitcase at my house. There’s a dress in there, too.”
“All wrinkled by now, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, but it would probably still look good on you.”
“There you go again, dropping the compliments.”
“Have you looked in a mirror? You don’t need me telling you what is so obvious.”
She just shook her head. “You’re delusional.”
“You wait. When I finally do take you out on a proper date, every man in the room is going to wish he was me. Just wait.”
She shook her head again, but there was a lovely blush on her cheeks. I liked to make her blush.
Chapter 18
Adrienne
They lived in a house that would probably hold my apartment a dozen times over. It looked like a hotel, like one of those massive estates from television shows, like the abbey on Downton Abbey. I couldn’t stop staring out the window as Lucien drove up the circle drive, my eyes growing wider and wider as I took more and more of it in. Massive house, massive pillars out front, massive balconies, massive grounds. It was like a museum piece.
Elizabeth was all smiles as we walked past the butler into the entryway.
“Welcome,” she said, leaning in to kiss my cheek lightly. “I’m so glad to see you again.”
She turned to Lucien. “Thank you. I’m sorry I usurped your plans.”
“I’m sure you are,” he said, making me want to hit him. He should respect his mother a little more than that.
Karl was in the living room entertaining another couple about Elizabeth’s age. The woman looked up and smiled widely.
“Well, Lucien. Don’t you look well.”
Lucien bent to kiss her cheek. “Cindy.”