“Okay, young man,” she said with forced cheeriness, “let’s see what we can do to save this experiment.”
At her words Chris smiled and Lani knew why. Even though she called him young man, at twenty-nine she was not much older than Chris. In fact, when they attended meetings people often thought he was the one in charge. With her short boy haircut and her penchant for shirts and trousers she could pass for his little brother. And the fact that he was on the heavy side made him look older than his twenty-seven years.
Instead of taking offense at the frequent misunderstanding Lani just laughed it off. It was always so comical when they realized she was the one with the doctorate degrees in botany and neuroscience. It never failed to crack her up when the serious-looking corporate heads did a double-take when they found they wouldn’t get answers to their questions unless they talked to her.
But now the sad truth was, all her qualifications didn’t mean a thing if she didn’t find a way to continue conducting her experiments. She could feel that she was heading for a breakthrough. In her research on degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s Disease and multiple sclerosis she had the unusual advantage of an extensive knowledge of the diseases as well as the possible treatments that the plant world could provide. She wanted to use her training in botany and neuroscience to explore alternatives to the current treatment options, many of which came with serious side effects.
She was even considering the ways in which her research could be of benefit in areas such as mental illness. Current treatments provided some relief to victims of the most serious of mental illnesses, schizophrenia. At the same time, long-term use altered the brain in such a way that some patients ended up with tardive dyskinesia, a disorder which had them making uncontrollable involuntary movements such as facial grimacing and tongue thrusting. Of course, this proved embarrassing and typically caused them considerable distress. The way Lani saw it, if she could find an alternative for such patients, one that would eliminate this condition, then this was one of the many areas in which her painstaking research would be well worth it.
The thought had hardly settled in her mind when the door burst open and Minerva, energetic as ever, bounced in. “Hey, Lani. Hey, Chris.” She sent her shoulder bag sailing onto the low table by the entrance. “Here you go,” she said, holding out a stack of envelopes to Lani as she dropped her aluminum water bottle onto the nearby shelf. “I got the mail.”
“Thanks, Min.” Lani took the envelopes but it was with a heavy heart. The chances were good that more than half of them were bills.
“No prob.” Minerva headed toward the sink where she began to wash her hands. “I can’t stay late today,” she said as she scrubbed. “I’ve got a doctor’s appointment.”
“You okay?” Chris looked up from the dish into which he’d been peering.
“Yeah,” Minerva said, tossing her head to get the shock of jet-black hair out of her eyes. “I just need to go get a shot. At my other job, apparently you’ve got to have all your immunizations up-to-date or they’ve got a problem.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s like they think I’m going to infect them or something.”
Chris gave a snort of a laugh. “I wonder if all those tattoos and piercings have anything to do with it?”
Minerva jammed a fist on her hip. “It better not or else they’ll have a lawsuit on their hands. That’s discrimination.”
While Chris and Minerva chattered away Lani was busy opening the envelopes. So far so good. She was on envelope number three and all she’d seen were a newsletter, a credit card solicitation and a bank statement that was so depressing she barely spared it a glance. But envelope number four, that was the killer. It was from the company from which she’d leased the building and before she even opened it she knew what it would say inside.
Gritting her teeth, Lani went ahead and opened it anyway. “Pursuant to my letter dated February 15, this is to advise that your rent is now two months in arrears. If payment is not made within seven days of the date of this letter proceedings will be instigated to regain possession of the property and recover all outstanding amounts, including fees. In order to avoid this, please make arrangement to immediately make payment in full.”
Despite herself, the hand that held the letter trembled. She’d expected a reprimand, definitely a warning, but not this. Seven days to find two months’ rent plus fees? Where in heaven’s name was she going to get that kind of money?
She knew she was at fault for paying the salaries – excluding hers – before taking care of the rent but Chris was a father with two young children. How could she tell him she wasn’t going to pay him this month? And Minerva was working two jobs to put her little sister through college. How could she dash that dream?
Now, though, it seemed she would have to. She’d gone without a salary for two months just to make ends meet but even that hadn’t been enough. Without new funding the bank account had quickly run dry and even though she’d promised the leasing company she would catch up on the arrears within three months it was now obvious they weren’t going to wait any longer. And who could blame them? When she’d made the promise she’d been sure something would have come in. Now, over a dozen meetings later, nothing. Now she knew it had all been wishful thinking on her part.
“You okay, boss? You don’t look so good.” Minerva had turned toward her, a slight frown on her face.
For the second time that morning Lani found she had to explain herself to a member of her team. “I’m… fine, Minerva. Just some business I have to take care of.”
And as she said the words Lani’s mind crept back to her meeting of the day before. Before he would give her any money Ridge Kent wanted her to be his wife. But only for one year. She guessed she could manage…as long as they had a little talk first and she'd laid down the rules of this engagement. Under the circumstances she could see no other way out of her dilemma.
And so, that conclusion reached, she made up her mind. She would do it. She would marry Ridge Kent. And, with all the wolves that were snarling at her door, the sooner the better.
CHAPTER TWO
“So what do you think?”
Ridge watched Rafe’s face, trying to judge his reaction. His brother was all of six years younger than he was, only twenty-eight, but he had a good head set on his shoulders. More important than that, he was good at taking risks and winning. He had the nose for that sort of thing.