Page 12 of Too Old for Love

“Does it?” asked Gator.

“Not that I’ve seen. I’m not the R&D specialist but I can tell you that the studies I’ve read say it’s a massive failure. The side effects can actually cause bone to break down.”

“And these drugs? PCiX9 and PChZED? What are they?” asked Cruz.

“The first one is for, um, well,” she blushed, “libido and penile growth. For men only and potentially those transitioning. But again, none of the studies have proven it will help with the growth. The libido? It’s more than a little problematic. It keeps men hard for hours on end. Nothing satisfies…” She turned a bright red, her hands wringing together in her lap.

“Everest don’t be embarrassed,” said Mike squeezing her hand.

“No. No, I’m not. Well, I am,” she said with a smirk. “I was just thinking that this morning, Colt said that Jordan had a ten-inch penis and could stay hard for hours on end.”

“Why the fuck would he share that with you?” growled Mike. She turned to him, shocked at first, then she smiled.

“He doesn’t want to work at that club, the Naked Saddle. Samantha and Abigail are forcing him to continue working there because they’re both married and that’s where they can see the men without anyone noticing.”

“What about the other drug?” asked Doc changing the subject.

“Massive failure,” she said shaking her head. “It was designed to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, particularly lymphatic cancers. It failed in a major way. No one showed reduced cells. No one was cured. Patients died faster than expected in their original diagnosis.”

“And you read all the documents on this?” frowned Rush.

“Yes. It was part of my job to understand all the clinical references, the science, usages, that type of thing. We thought it was on its way to being launched and then were told to stop work on it. I had to write the training materials for the company sales teams, but also for our customers. Plus I advised the tech group on what drugs made sense for substitution.” They all stared at her as if not understanding.

“Let me explain. Let’s say that your doctor was prescribing acetaminophen but wanted to replace it with aspirin. The system would see them as somewhat equal but would raise questions about aspirin missing some of the benefits of acetaminophen.

“If it were something more advanced, like a cholesterol drug, you might be taking a statin but suddenly the doctor prescribes hormone replacement therapy instead. It would send major red flags and question the unreasonable change.”

“Seems like a smart system,” nodded Cruz.

The room became deathly quiet, the men passing the documents around the room, then looking at one another in silence. Everest was starting to get annoyed when a big man at the end of the table stood.

“Everest, I’m Hex Vernon. I think it might be best if you came out to Belle Fleur and stayed for a few days.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“What? Absolutely not,” she said shaking her head.

“Everest, listen to them,” said Mike.

“Look, I appreciate that you’re trying to help me but in the last week I’ve been stuck in an elevator that was sabotaged, lost my job to two overgrown, oversexed testosterone monkeys and spoken to like I was a complete idiot and kicked to the curb.”

“You forgot that you met me,” grinned Mike.

“This isn’t funny,” she said, her lip quivering with fear and frustration.

“I’m sorry. You’re right,” he said pulling her close. “I was just trying to lighten the mood. Piss poor timing on my part.”

“Everest, we understand how difficult this is for you but we were all here to discuss a recent case we’re working on,” said Hex.

“Case?”

“We own our own private investigation company. We’re all former military, mostly special operations.” She just stared at their faces and suddenly it all made sense to her. “Yesterday we were asked by the FBI and FDA to look into an illegal distribution ring of unapproved drugs, being sold under fake names, that claim to do exactly what you described here. So far, more than a dozen people have died from taking these drugs.”

“But, but the FDA would have approved these if they’re being sold or manufactured,” she frowned.

“Not necessarily. Your company, your ex-company, could be helping someone, or producing them illegally on the side via an arm of the organization or they could have a partnership with a manufacturing facility. We’ve actually worked cases in our history, our father’s worked them, that were very similar,” said Gator.

“I had nothing to do with this,” she said shaking her head. “I would have only been a part of creating the learning materials, nothing else.”