Lauren (Silicon Valley Billionaires 1)

“He said that, to be clear, the favor was to benefit you. And that Mr. Betts’s release was to benefit him.” Her voice was smooth, professional, and impenetrable.

That didn’t make any sense to me—any sense that I liked. “I’m sorry. Who’s him?”

“I believe my client was referring to himself.”

I licked my lips, which had suddenly gone dry. “What does that mean?”

“I didn’t ask him that,” she said curtly.

“Can I ask him?”

“He can call you collect through the system, but your number has to be approved by the jail. I can send you the link to set up access. Are you interested in doing that?”

“Send it now,” I snapped. “And tell Clive to call

me as soon as he can.”

“There’s a waiting list to make calls,” she said.

“Just tell him to call me as soon as possible,” I said through gritted teeth.

I hung up and scrunched my eyes shut, feeling a headache coming on. The text came through almost immediately, and I followed the steps to register with the jail system’s phone service. Then I headed down to my lab to get my patch ready to launch in a wildly expedited timeframe.

And to wait for a call from the man who’d made that necessary.

Chapter 21

Thankfully, I could still lose myself in my work. Eva and I managed to make significant progress with the preparations for the mass-market production of the patch. We’d scheduled our final approval meeting with the FDA protocol team.

Agent Marks had spoken with my assistant and set up an appointment for later in the week. I’d put my legal team into a conference room and told them to prepare for the FBI. I didn’t know what they were going to come up with, but I felt relieved to have delegated something unpleasant to people I trusted. It was win-win: I was happy to not deal with the FBI, and my legal team was happy to earn their thousand-dollar-an-hour rate.

Nervous excitement thrummed through me as I worked. I’d almost forgotten about Clive Warren and his troubling message when my phone buzzed. I ran into one of the private rooms in the lab and locked the door, out of breath when I finally answered.

“Collect call from Santa Clara County Correctional Facility—will you accept the charges?”

“Yes.” I caught my breath while I heard the line click over.

“Lauren,” Clive said, “I was thrilled you wanted to hear from me.”

“Don’t be a prick, Clive. I literally don’t have time for it.” Just the sound of his voice made my blood boil. He’d been incarcerated to avoid being killed, and still, he wanted to play games.

Clive clucked his tongue. “That doesn’t sound very philanthropic of you, Lauren. Or grateful. I’m the reason that you and Gabe aren’t in prison, remember? At least you could pretend to thank me.” It sounded as if being in jail had afforded him his first night’s real sleep in a long time, and that his personality had been restored as an unfortunate result.

“I said thank you. That’s the message I sent.”

“But now you just sound ungrateful, not that I’m surprised. I think your admirable intelligence makes you think you deserve all sorts of special treatment.”

I closed my eyes and counted backward from ten. I wanted to unleash a litany of curses on Clive, but that wouldn’t help me right now.

“I don’t think I deserve special treatment. And of course I’m grateful that you helped both me and Gabe.” I paused for a beat, choosing my words carefully. “But I was surprised that you helped clear Gabe of the charges. I know there’s no love lost between you two. And I didn’t understand what you meant when you said that you did it for your benefit. That’s why I need to talk to you. I think we’ve gotten to a place where we can at least be honest with each other. I need you to explain what you meant.”

Clive sighed. “I wanted you cleared of the charges because I dragged you into this, and I know it.”

“And what about Gabe?”

“He’s free now so he can…protect you. Or maybe, if karma really exists, he’ll end up as collateral damage.” Clive’s voice was calm and casual.

My stomach plummeted. “Why do you hate him?”