Billionaire's Blackmail Bride: Billionaire Brothers Kent - Ridge's Story (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series) Read Free

they couldn’t afford. She didn’t bother telling him that part.
    As lead researcher and director of Allied Labs it was her job to
worry about where the money was going to come from to pay for plant supplies,
the equipment, the salaries and all the overseas trips that would be required
to source the supplies. Beside herself, she had Chris and Minerva to worry
about. Even though Minerva was part-time her wages were still a strain on the
already meager budget. But right now she didn’t even want to think about that.
She had a long day ahead of her and she was already depressed. There was no
sense in making things worse by dwelling on the problems.
    “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