LUCIEN: A Standalone Romance (13 page)

Lucien

My head was spinning. I knew I had to act, but I wasn’t sure where to start.

I walked slowly through the room again, this time more methodically. There had to be a clue. Something that would tell me what had happened in my absence. Had there been a struggle? Had Adrienne fought her kidnapper? Or was it someone she knew, someone she allowed into the room without realizing what their intention was? Or had they taken her by surprise?

We’d gotten in late last night and gone for a walk on the Riverwalk this morning. And then we spent most of the afternoon alone in our room. Adrienne’s clothes were all there. Mine, too, with the exception of one of my shirts. Her cellphone was still here, obviously. Her laptop bag.

I picked up the bag and realized immediately that it was empty.

They took her laptop? Why would they do that?

I was being harassed. Someone was trying to create discord at the company I ran with my brother. Adrienne thought they wanted an Alzheimer’s drug my brother was developing. She thought whoever it was wanted my brother and me to turn on each other to make us vulnerable, to make one of us weak. I refused to believe it, but now… What if she was right?

What if they’d taken her because they thought they could use her to get what they wanted?

Jacob had a wife, but they were separated. He still loved her. Would go back to her in a heartbeat. But maybe the person doing this didn’t know that. So they picked on me and Adrienne. They took Adrienne.

I couldn’t go to the police. But I couldn’t sit here and wait for a text message telling me what I was supposed to do to get her back.

I made one phone call, my eyes closed as I listened to the ringing on the other end. I really hoped this wasn’t a mistake.

“How long has she been gone?”

I glanced at the screen of my phone. “Nearly three hours now.”

Ruben Garcia studied my face like he could see beyond the flesh and bones and read my thoughts. As though he could see any deception hidden just beyond the outer façade. But there was nothing more to know.

“I called you as soon as I realized what was happening.”

“Why would someone kidnap my daughter?”

I shook my head. “I was hoping you would be able to answer that.”

Ruben Garcia was a scary looking man. He was about five foot six, but he was all muscle. He’d been a cop for most of his adult life, opening a private detective agency after he retired. His daughter followed in his footsteps, going to the military and then joining his agency when she came back. That’s how we met. I hired Ruben to figure out how a reporter found out about a diabetes device I’d developed through my company that was days from being granted a patent. He sent Adrienne to pretend to be my girlfriend so that she could figure out who’d leaked the information. One thing led to another… It wasn’t pretend anymore. And whoever leaked the information was clearly the one behind all this.

“You thought I was doing this. But I’m not. And now Adrienne—”

“I still don’t know that you’re not behind this,” Ruben said. “All I know is that my daughter goes out of town with you without telling me, and now she’s gone.”

“I told you, I stepped out of the room for a few minutes.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because my blood sugar was high and I needed a bolus. I forgot to bring a vial of insulin…”

“Convenient, if you ask me.”

Ruben didn’t move, but it felt the same as it would have if he’d come chest to chest to me, if he’d gotten into my face. And it was starting to piss me off.

“She would still be here if you’d done the job I hired you to do and found out who was behind all this.”

Ruben’s eyebrows rose, and I felt the stilling of movement in the men he’d brought with him. There were two of them, going through our things, invading our privacy like it would lead to clues I’d missed. But now they were watching, waiting. No one stood up to Ruben except for his daughter herself.

“Someone wants something from my company,” I said slowly, never taking my eyes from Ruben. “They took Adrienne to get it. I suggest you go back and figure out who the hell it is behind all this.”

Ruben didn’t respond until I turned and started for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m going back to Houston to talk to my brother and to see if I can figure out what’s going on.”

“You aren’t going anywhere.”

I turned. “Do you really think that standing around here is going to solve anything? It’s been three hours, and whoever this is hasn’t texted again. For all I know, they have no intention of ever texting again.”

For a brief second, I thought I saw panic in Ruben’s eyes. It was only then that I realized I was talking to the father of the woman who was missing, the father of the woman I was quickly falling in love with. We both had more to lose than either of us wanted to admit.

“I need to be in Houston so that I can give this kidnapper whatever they want,” I said, my voice softening. “I want Adrienne back as much as you do.”

Ruben’s eyes fell to the floor for a moment.

“Okay. But Sergio goes with you.”

I didn’t know which of his goons was Sergio, but I nodded as I headed for the door again. I needed to find Jacob. If the point behind all this was that Alzheimer’s drug, I’d need his help to do what came next.

Adrienne

“Stand.”

The vehicle had stopped moving, and I heard a door open, but it was still pitch dark. I didn’t think I had a blindfold on, but I couldn’t see anything. I’d only been a few hours; it should still be daytime outside. Yet…darkness.

“Where am I?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“We’ve been driving long enough to be back in Houston.”

“Or we could be in Austin or Dallas or half a dozen other places. Stand up!”

She was right, of course. I had no idea what direction the vehicle had been moving in. But instinct told me we’d come back to where it’d all started.

I stood unsteadily, the plastic cable tie gone from around my ankles, but my hands still bound behind my back. A hand kept me upright with a hard grip just above my elbow. It must have been a van. I could feel the roof, but I could almost stand completely upright. I was led to the open doorway and instructed when to step down. And then a doorway, and light so bright that I had to close my eyes until they adjusted.

A house. I got the impression of a kitchen before I was pushed through another door.

“Sit.”

I fell into a chair, blinking as I quickly looked around. A pantry of some sort. There were shelves, cans of food everywhere. And jars of homemade preserves. Did people still do that? And stacks of boxes, cereals and pastas. I was in someone’s home pantry, which meant I was in someone’s home.

“Is this your house? Or your grandmother’s?”

“Shut up.”

“Lucien will find me.”

“Lucien couldn’t find his way out of the office without someone’s help.”

“He’ll find me.”

“If he knows what’s best for the two of you, he’ll do what I tell him and nothing else.”

She knelt in front of me and tied my ankle to the chair with another cable tie. Then the other ankle.

“Can you loosen my wrists? I can barely feel my fingers.”

“You’ll have to put up with it a little longer.”

She started for the door, her chin high even hidden under the thin ski mask she was wearing. Like she thought that would hide her identity from me.

“You do realize I know who you are, right? That I can identify you to the police when this is all over?”

She glanced back at me.

“You’re smarter than that,” she said.

“Am I? Why wouldn’t I tell the police the identity of the woman who kidnapped me to force Lucien to hand over a drug that hasn’t even begun FDA trials yet?”

“Because if you did that, I would tell the police about the methods your father uses to get information on and for his clients. You really don’t want daddy being investigated, do you, Adrienne?”

“My father has never done anything illegal.”

“Oh, no. He just skirts the law, jumping over the line only when he has to. Like when he ran a background check on that boy you were dating in high school. Not really illegal, but not all that ethical, either.”

My cheeks burned as I watched her, aware of exactly who she was talking about.

“How do you know about that?”

“I know a lot more than you could ever imagine. You’re not the only one who knows how to use a computer to get the information you want.”

“Like the emails you sent from Lucien’s computer to make it look like he was sending those threats to himself? Like the way you made it seem like Jacob was sending them?”

She smiled. “That was pretty good, wasn’t it? Just enough to get Lucien all up in arms, but not enough to make him go to the cops. Exactly what I wanted.”

“What were you trying to do? Did you really think he would turn on his brother?”

“No. I knew he wouldn’t. But I hadn’t planned on you, either.”

“What did you think he would do?”

She shrugged. “I was hoping he would assume it was Tito.”

“Tito? His computer programmer?”

“He worked on the diabetes device with him. He knows how make it appear that emails came from one computer when they actually came from another. It would have made sense.”

“But why Tito?”

“Because Lucien knows Tito’s father has heart disease. He might have assumed Tito was after those drugs.”

“But none of those drugs are close to FDA trials.”

“A couple are. It would have made sense.”

“And? What if he had assumed it was Tito?”

“He would have gone after him, started monitoring his computer use within the company. He would have been distracted. And I could have slipped a name onto the Alzheimer’s trial list without anyone noticing.”

“You could have done that anyway.”

She shook her head. “Jacob and Lucien are very conscious of security. They go beyond what the FDA requires. When the list is submitted, they make sure there is only an electronic copy of the list, and that list is contained only on Jacob’s computer under so much encryption that a specialist probably couldn’t crack it. It would take time to figure it out. I was hoping that if they were checking into Tito, it would give me the opportunity I needed. But then you and your father got involved.” When she said that last, her voice changed, almost as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. “You traced the emails remotely, and that took away any opportunity I might have had.”

“You still could have found a way.”

She stared at me a minute, then turned her head. “Jacob removed the list from his computer. I don’t know where it is now.”

“How do you—”

She turned and started for the door. “You fucked everything up. If you hadn’t gotten involved, it would have been perfect. No one would have been the wiser. But you forced my hand.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to get what I need. And then I’m getting rid of you.”

“What does that mean?”

But she was gone, the finality of the sound of a lock sliding into place making my heart sink. I had thought I had the upper hand. I’d thought knowing her identity would help me. But now I was beginning to think I was wrong.

And it might be the last mistake I ever made.

Lucien

I walked into my house, Sergio somewhere behind me. I didn’t wait for him, but I didn’t close the door, either. I really didn’t want him here, but it seemed as though I had no choice. I needed Ruben’s help getting Adrienne back. Ruben had no reason to keep me in the loop, especially since he thought I was behind all this. But he also couldn’t cut me out if he believed the kidnapper was after something I had. It was catch-22, and we were both caught up in it.

Jacob was in his bedroom, despite the fact that it was only five o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon. Thank God my brother didn’t have a life.

“I need your help.”

Jacob looked up from whatever it was he was doing on his computer.

“Where have you been? You disappear last night, don’t bother to let anyone know where you are. Mom’s been calling all day, talking about some dinner you slipped out of last night.”

“Adrienne’s gone.”

Jacob’s eyes widened slightly, but that was his only reaction. He didn’t seem upset.

“Well, it was just some sort of game, wasn’t it?”

“What?”

“Your relationship. Wasn’t she just pretending to be your girlfriend so she could find out who was behind those emails?”

“What?” I cocked my head slightly, trying to follow my brother’s line of thought. “Someone kidnapped her, Jacob.”

That got the reaction I had been looking for. He stood up, knocking his office chair back a few feet.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“We were in San Antonio. I stepped out of the room, and she just disappeared.”

“No,” Jacob said, shaking his head as he began to pace the room.

Sergio brushed past me and walked into the room, walking around it like he belonged there. I knew he was looking for any signs of trouble, but it was hard to tell if he was on our side or not by the way he moved. When Jacob caught sight of him, he jumped sideways like a cat startled by an intrusion.

“What is this?”

“Sergio. He works for Ruben Garcia.”

“Ruben Garcia.”

“Adrienne’s dad.”

“Yeah, I know.” I was a little surprised, but Jacob simply shrugged. “I checked into her after you told me about her the other day. I probably know more about her than you do.”

I wanted to argue, but, somehow, I had the impression he was probably right. Adrienne wasn’t the easiest person to know. But I preferred to learn about her at her pace than to go behind her back and investigate her the way I was sure Jacob had done.

“Why would someone kidnap her?”

I shrugged. “I’m assuming it has something to do with the company. Whoever’s been sending those emails clearly did it for a reason. Maybe they think they can get what they want by blackmailing me.”

“Have they made demands?”

“Not yet. But I got these texts on Adrienne’s phone.”

I pulled the texts up and handed the phone to Jacob. He glanced at them, not even giving them much of a look, then handed the phone back.

“Why did they text her phone and not yours?”

I hadn’t thought about that. My thoughts had been all about Adrienne on the drive back down here.

“I don’t know,” I said as the thought slowly crossed my mind. Sergio stepped out of Jacob’s bedroom, drawing a dark look from Jacob as he stood against the connecting room between the sitting room and the bedroom itself.

“Could it be that it’s because it’s someone you know? Someone whose number might show up on your caller ID?”

“Do you think so?”

“Can’t your boss trace a number?” Jacob asked Sergio.

Sergio just shrugged.

I pulled up the text messages again. There was no number, suggesting it was blocked. But I did see for the first time that the two I’d received the night before weren’t the only two from this number. There were several more from the night before.

I know who you are
.
I can find you whenever I wish,
the first one read. It was marked 8:09 pm, which meant Adrienne received it while we were at dinner.

And then she responded.

Who is this?

You’ll find out soon enough if you don’t back down.

“She knew last night.”

“What?”

We were having dinner with my parents last night. It was a quiet dinner, just Adrienne and me, my parents, and friends of my mother’s. We were nearly finished when Adrienne asked me to take her home. I was unhappy being there in the first place because my mother had played the guilt card to get me there. She only wanted me to talk to her friend about the Alzheimer’s drug because his wife suffered from the disease. But we could offer no help to them. Her disease was far too advanced to benefit from the drug when it was released years into the future. It was a fool’s errand. I was only more than happy to have an excuse to leave.

I should have known Adrienne wouldn’t have asked me to leave lightly. I should have known she had a reason. Why hadn’t I noticed these texts sooner?

“Shit!”

“What?” Jacob asked again, snatching the phone from me. He read the text, then looked at me, his eyes narrowed with concern. “I’m guessing she didn’t tell you about these?”

“She wanted to leave the party early. I didn’t know why.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I thought she was just tired.”

“Adrienne doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who gets tired easily.”

Sergio snorted. I glanced at him, but I really wasn’t interested in what he had to say. I wasn’t interested in what anyone who thought they knew her better had to say right now.

“Who sent those texts to her?”

Jacob shook his head. “I have no idea. The number was blocked.”

“But we need to find out. If we knew who sent them, we’d know who has her.”

“Obviously. But I’m sure it was a burner phone.”

“Then why not send the demands to my phone?”

Jacob shook his head. “I don’t know.” He went back to his desk and sat down, the phone still in his hands. “Why would someone take Adrienne?”

“To get to me.”

“But why?”

“To get to you.”

Jacob shook his head again. “Why not take you or Rachel or Lynn? Wouldn’t that be simpler? You and Adrienne hardly know each other. Someone on the outside wouldn’t even know about her.”

“Then it’s not someone on the outside.”

Jacob didn’t answer me. He continued to stare at that phone as though it would suddenly have all the answers he wanted.

“None of it makes sense,” he said slowly. “If this person wanted to get a loved one onto one of the FDA trials, they could have gone about it so many different ways.”

“Has anyone within your company asked to have a family member added to the trials recently?” Sergio asked. It was the first time he’d spoken since we left San Antonio.

“No,” I said.

But Jacob looked up, his expression thoughtful as he studied Sergio.

“Two.”

“Two? Who?”

“Tito asked about the trial for the cholesterol pill we went public with last month. The trials are just about done on that one. We’ll be going to market soon.”

“But it’ll be public, so what’s the big deal?”

Jacob dismissed the thought with a flick of his hand. “I gave him a bottle of it. Told him to run it past his father’s doctor before he gave it to him.”

“Who was the other?”

Jacob was quiet a long minute. Then he turned around and started typing furiously on his computer keyboard. Sergio got a call at the same moment.

“Boss is at your office,” he said to me. “He thinks he might have found something.”

“What?”

Sergio just shrugged.

“Go,” Jacob said. “I’ll be right behind you.”