Jaime. I knew that already.
There was a camera I’d placed in Lucien’s office. I was watching it when Rachel burst into my hotel room. It had caught several people on it, but the most interesting thing was how it caught Jaime typing a text into a phone identical to the one that I was now holding. I’d thought we’d caught Lynn in the act when the camera showed her placing something on Lucien’s desk just after midnight. That’s why I’d saved the footage. But then I’d watched the rest—twelve hours of active recording that actually covered almost a full twenty-four-hour period—and was just piecing it together when Rachel hit me over the head. Memory of that phone… I knew it was Jaime on the other end.
Lynn. Jaime. Rachel.
It still didn’t make sense.
“Run me through it again.”
Rachel groaned. “I should answer. They’ll know something’s wrong if I don’t.”
“Okay.” I slid the phone across the table to her. “But you be very careful about what you say.”
She nodded as she flipped the phone open and began typing. I moved behind her. You can never be too cautious.
Chapter 35
Lucien
“I didn’t steal anything!”
“I don’t care about that,” Ruben said, pushing me harder against the desk. “I want to know where my daughter is.”
“If I knew that, don’t you think I’d be there? Don’t you think I’d be with her?”
“No. I think you had her kidnapped so that we would change our thinking about what’s going on. But it’s backfiring on you now. Your own brother no longer believes you.”
I glanced over his shoulder, looking for Jacob, but he wasn’t there.
“Where did he go?”
That distracted Ruben enough that I was able to move around him. I grabbed the list of names Jacob had written and ran out the door, running to the stairwell ahead of the goons Ruben yelled at to follow me.
I had to find Adrienne. I had to prove that all of this had nothing to do with me. But first I had to figure out who it was about.
I ran down three flights of stairs and burst out onto the street, running until I reached my car. And then I was speeding toward the interstate, not quite sure where it was I was headed. Just away. As far from Ruben and his men as I could get.
I’d thought it was a good idea to turn to the people I trusted the most to find Adrienne. Now I was beginning to understand that I really couldn’t trust anyone.
I pulled to the side of the road not far from Rice University. There was a huge park and a bunch of young people still out despite the fact that it was getting late. It would be ten in an hour or so, the meeting time in Katy. But my guess was that meeting wouldn’t lead to any more information on Adrienne than we already had.
I turned on the dome light and studied the list Jacob had made, wondering what the hell all these random scribblings meant. I’d figured out part of his shorthand once, but it was long ago. I could just make out initials and random words here and there. Nothing that made any sense to me. Maybe they didn’t make sense to him, either. Maybe he hadn’t really written down the names the hotel manager had read to him.
Was Jacob behind this? Was Jacob working with whoever it was who had Adrienne?
Why would he accuse me of stealing code for the pancreas?
And then I remembered. Rachel.
Rachel wrote part of the code for the pancreas. She was upset with me when I told her that I wasn’t going to give her credit on the patent application. The thing was, I did give her credit. Her name was right there next to mine and Tito’s and the scientists who had helped us create it. I wasn’t one of those who tries to take all the credit to himself. I was honest. But I’d wanted to surprise her with it.
If I had shown her the original application, would we have avoided all this?
It made no sense to me. The reporter. The odd emails. And Adrienne.
None of it added up. The threats that weren’t really threats. Emails from my computer that seemed to be a setup to confuse Ruben and his team.
That’s what it all was, wasn’t it? Just a distraction.
But from what?
What was happening this week that someone was trying to distract me from? Not the pancreas. The patent had come through, but the FDA application was still weeks from approval. There was nothing else… But there was, wasn’t there?
Fuck! Why didn’t I see it sooner?
I gunned the car’s engine and turned it around, racing back to the office. I knew what was happening. I knew what he was doing. Why? Why would he do this to me, to the company? Was he that selfish?
I didn’t want to believe it. Maybe that was why it took me so long to see it. I love Jacob. He’s my brother. But maybe… Maybe it didn’t go both ways.