by Leigh James
Hannah arched an eyebrow. “I didn’t ask you, babe—I asked your boss.”
Levi rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache.
Bethany crossed her arms. “I can only go in there if Levi’s my client. Otherwise, I can’t protect him from this mess—I need attorney-client privilege for that.”
“If you think you can get somewhere, I’d be happy to retain you. Maybe we can discuss it over dinner?” Levi chuckled darkly as Bethany’s cheeks flushed.
“I’ll get him to talk. Is there a guard in there?”
“Two.”
“Then we should be fine.” Bethany stalked around him, careful to keep her distance.
Hannah moved to follow, but I blocked her again.
“Back off,” she said. “This is my company and my family, too, dammit. Don’t treat me like a child!”
I didn’t want to treat her badly, but I also didn’t want her anywhere near harm’s way. I took a deep breath, reconciling these competing desires. “Can I at least come in with you?”
Her face softened. “Of course you can.”
Levi motioned us toward the door. “I’d come, too, but I’m pretty sure Carey’s had enough of me for one night.”
“You don’t say,” Bethany muttered under her breath.
“Can’t wait to hear how it goes.” Levi smiled at her, largely undeterred. “I’ll be waiting right here so you can tell me all about it.”
Bethany just shook her head.
Inside the room, Carey appeared worse for wear. His jaw was bruised, and there was a fresh cut over his eyebrow. His hoodie was long gone, replaced by a rumpled, bloodstained T-shirt. He was handcuffed to the leg of a table and sat slumped over it.
I might’ve imagined it, but he seemed to perk up a little when Hannah and Bethany came into the room.
Bethany noticed it, too. “Don’t get too excited. We’re not going to hit you, but we’re not as nice as Levi.”
Carey slumped again. “What do you want? I already told them, I don’t know anything about the client. I only know the assignment came from China.”
Hannah sat down on the other side of the room, her pretty face scrunching as she examined his wounds. “Would your boss be able to tell us who the client is or confirm any information?”
Carey scoffed. “If my boss felt like it, sure. But being cooperative isn’t high on their priority list.”
Bethany sat down and crossed her legs. “Is federal prison high on their priority list? Because acting as a proxy for an international business partner and committing crimes for hire constitute federal offenses—the kind that can get you put away for a long time.”
Carey tilted his head. “I’m pretty sure my boss is aware of all that. And isn’t concerned.”
“All they care about is money?” Hannah asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t care what they care about. I do my job and that’s it. I don’t analyze.”
“I get it.” Bethany adjusted her gold bangle. “You’re just a gun for hire—you go in and take care of your assignment, and you’re out. You’re a pawn.”
“I like to think of it as punching the clock, but sure. I’m a pawn. I can’t tell you anything because I don’t know anything. Like I said, I don’t care.”
“So you don’t have any loyalty to your boss, or to your client.” Hannah smiled. “Right?”
Carey looked from one woman to the other, clearly confused. “Is this going anywhere? ’Cause otherwise, I have a nap to take before that other guy comes back for my regularly scheduled beating.”
“We want you to work for us,” Hannah said brightly.
Bethany whipped her head toward her, blonde hair flying. “That’s where we’re going with this?”
Hannah shrugged and turned back to Carey. “I’ll triple whatever they’re paying you if you can find out more information for me. I’ll give you plenty of cash so you can bribe sources on an as-needed basis. There’ll be more money after that. And I’m nice. I won’t even let Levi beat you up anymore.”
“It was the other guy I was worried about,” Carey said. “The one built like a boulder.”
Ellis.
“Ah,” Hannah said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I’d make sure he can actually be useful first,” Bethany suggested.
Carey glared at her.
Hannah shrugged. “He’ll be useful, or he’ll get Ellis’d.”
I tried not to whine that she wasn’t offering to have him Wes’d. “Are we done here?” I asked instead. I wanted Hannah away from this scumbag.
“We’re going to get some details, and Bethany’s going to write up a little legal document for me and Carey so he knows this is legitimate. Okay, Bethany?”
Bethany fake-smiled at her. “Great. Just how I want to spend my evening: drafting an agreement between one of my best friends and a low-level assassin with questionable hygiene. Just perfect. I hope you’ll testify before the Board of Bar Overseers that the subject matter wasn’t illegal, or I’m going to be out of a license.”
“I’m not asking him to do anything illegal.” Hannah raised an eyebrow. “But if you’d rather go, Levi’s waiting outside—”
“Enough,” Bethany snapped, opening up her laptop and setting up shop across from Carey. “Let’s just get this over with.”
* * *
HANNAH
Wes came around the corner and handed me a glass of wine. “Honey?”
“Yes?”
He sank down onto the couch next to me. “What the hell was that about?”
I took a sip. “I’m taking my own advice—throwing money at the problem.”
He scrubbed a hand across his face. “Huh?”
“It’s something I always used to say to Lauren: ‘Throw some money at the problem.’ She always tries to do everything herself, but once she got to a certain point in her business, it didn’t make sense anymore. Hiring the best talent she could find saved her from spreading herself too thin. I still have to remind her to hire help.”
Wes scowled. “Honey, if you think Carey is the best talent out there, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be disappointed.”
I nodded. “Yeah, he’s not that impressive. But he’s got the contacts, and he’s accessible, and he certainly wants my money—so I can motivate him. All I want is for him to keep tabs on his employer and to get me names when I need them. Trust me—it’ll all work out.”
He had a sip of wine, probably so he didn’t have to disagree with me.
“I’m doing the same thing with Biyu,” I explained.
“I thought you threatened her.”
“I did, but then I also told her that the more information she got me, the more I could help her.” The idea had come to me after I’d spent too much time feeling terrible for threatening her family. Not all motivation had to be negative, I’d decided. “Her child’s going to have a trust fund now.”
Wes coughed. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I just sort of came up with it.” I rubbed his back while he recovered. “The thing is, I made a lot of money from my Paragon stock. More than I’d ever thought I’d have in one lifetime. And I don’t need all that money. I figured this way, Biyu has a vested interest in helping me. She has a stake in the outcome, and she’ll be loyal to me because I’m going to help her, just like she’s helping me.”
“Is she actually helping you?”
“Yes. She’s confirmed that Li Na’s moving ahead. She’s building a prototype of the sensor.”
“Your plan’s working.” Wes grinned.
“So far.”
I tried to beat my anxiety back. Each step we took, we got closer to the end.
I just didn’t know how it was going to turn out.
Chapter 23
Hannah
“It’s live on Jiàn’s website!” I jumped on the computer in Lauren’s office, scrolling to the announcement. My inbox was filled with media alerts. Li Na had published the news about her impending launches to her sit
e, and hundreds of news outlets had picked up the story. “She said they’re rolling out two cancer-related technologies. Look, she even goes into some detail about what the new products do.”
Lauren read the piece silently, biting her lip the whole time. “She’s taking the bait—it’s working. My baby sister’s a genius!”
My face heated, but not with pleasure. “Not so fast. We have to find out what’s happening internally. Li Na’s a lot of things, but gullible isn’t one of them.”
“I think she believes this is all legitimate. She terrorized Fiona into selling. Li Na’s not expecting to be double-crossed, not after what she did.”
I nodded. Lauren had a point about that.
“And it isn’t gullible of her to believe Paragon’s technology is solid. This is me we’re talking about—I’m cautious, painstaking in my research. Li Na knows she can trust my work. That’s why she keeps stealing it.” Lauren laughed without humor.
“I know all that, but the fact that this is moving forward as planned… Is it okay if I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop?”
“Yeah, it is. Li Na’s proven herself worthy of our paranoia, if nothing else.” Lauren scrolled back through the story, but I could tell her thoughts were elsewhere. “I’ll get Dave and Leo to hack into Jiàn and look around. Can you touch base with your source to find out what’s going on behind the scenes?”
“Of course.”
I was headed for my office, composing an email to Biyu in my head, when Lauren caught up to me, almost out of breath. I knew something had been percolating in the vast recesses of her brain.
“One other thing—we need to move fast. If Li Na’s already working on the prototype, she’s going to start testing soon. It could happen as early as next week. We need to stay out in front of her and make sure they’re not tipped off that the reporting’s faulty. Because if that happens, this all blows up.”
“Got it.” My stomach tied itself in a knot.
Lauren read the expression on my face and sighed. “No pressure or anything.”
I laughed. “Right. None at all.”
I dashed off a quick email to Biyu, but with the time difference, I didn’t expect to hear back right away. I was wrong. My email notification went off immediately.
Working on the prototype nonstop. The staff has been sleeping in the lab. Please don’t contact me again. I won’t be in touch for a while.
I sent a note back. Why not?
She replied a moment later. I’m having second thoughts.
I waited for some further explanation, but that was all she wrote.
I paced my office for the rest of the morning, unsettled and fretting. I didn’t know what to do about Biyu. I finally dragged myself down for lunch with Lauren, Brian following close behind. “I miss Wes guarding me,” I told him, “and I’m still pissed at you for making fun of me the other day.” The fact that he’d mimicked me pleading with Wes stuck in my craw.
Brian frowned. “I said I was sorry.”
“Don’t make fun of me for getting emotional,” I said, getting emotional. My nerves were fraught, close to snapping.
“I was just teasing Wes—which I consider part of my job. For the record, I think it’s good that you get emotional. It makes you human.”
I shot him a look, perplexed and touched. “Thank you?”
“You’re welcome,” he said easily. “Does that mean you forgive me?”
“Sure.” I refused to hang on to any more grudges at the moment, as I only had time for a particularly mammoth one.
I collapsed into a seat in Lauren’s office. “Biyu already emailed me back.”
“And?” It was her turn to pick up lunch; she pushed a salad across her desk to me.
I ignored it. “And she said they were working around the clock on the prototype. She also said she wouldn’t be in touch for a while, because she’s having second thoughts about our arrangement.”
Lauren blew out a deep breath. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Not as sorry as I am.” I grabbed the salad and angrily pushed it around with my fork, as if all this were the bib lettuce’s fault. “I don’t know what I can do for her.”
“Just let it lie for now,” Lauren suggested. “Maybe she’s being paranoid?”
I frowned. “I wouldn’t blame her. I’d be paranoid if I worked for that tyrant.”
The phone buzzed with a call from Stephanie, Lauren’s assistant. “It’s Leo.” She patched him through.
“I’d love some good news.” Lauren waited.
“It’s sort of good, in a twisted way. The Protocol files hit Jiàn’s servers. We’re ready to set the virus on it, when you give the word.”
Lauren didn’t hesitate. “Do it now. I’d rather get to the files before the lab workers have a chance to thoroughly examine them—this way, they’ll be seeing the technology fresh. They won’t have anything to compare them to. But Fiona will still have her copy of the intact files from the initial transmission, so she’ll appear innocent—there’s no way she can be blamed for this.”
“We’re on it.” Leo hung up without saying anything further.
I smiled at my sister, impressed. “I have to say, you’re pretty good at this reverse-hacking thing.”
She smiled wanly. “I learned from the best—Li Na herself. Now, can you call Fiona to update her about all this? I’m swamped this afternoon.”
I gave up on my salad and stood. “Of course. I’ll call her now.”
“Don’t you want your lunch?” Lauren called.
“I’ve officially lost my appetite.” I hustled down the hall before she could scold me.
I’d only spoken to Fiona a couple of times since the day we’d gone to Mado; traumatized by the incident, she’d pulled Katie and Quinn from school. She’d been busy trying to work from home while coordinating tutors for the girls. She had stopped leaving the house, having groceries delivered and conducting meetings via Skype from her living room.
Ellis had told Wes that the drama of that day had gotten to her—her brief glimpse of feeling safe after Jim’s shooting had passed. Now Fiona was pulling out all the stops to protect her daughters.
She answered on the first ring. “Hey.” Her voice was scratchy, as if she was coming down with something or she hadn’t slept.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She sighed. “The police and Agent Marks from the FBI just left. They don’t have any leads on Jim’s shooter, and I’m just…I don’t know. At my wit’s end.”
Carey, my hired traitor, was looking into this for me. He’d promised to canvass his network of hired guns to find out who was responsible for killing Jim Pace. I hadn’t mentioned it to Fiona—I didn’t want to get her hopes up about finding the attacker.
“I’m so sorry,” I said instead.
“I know. It’s very frustrating.” She paused for a beat. “What’s going on over there? The license deal went through yesterday—I still can’t believe I did it, that I sold to that…murderer. I figured there would be news.”
“Leo confirmed that the files were uploaded to Jiàn’s servers today. They’re beginning the reverse-hack.”
Fiona exhaled shakily. “I don’t know about this anymore. I don’t know if this is the answer.”
“I don’t know, either.” I traced a pattern on my desk with my finger, wishing things were different, easier. “I don’t think there’s a rational, direct way to deal with someone like Li Na. I think the best we can hope for is some sort of justice.”
“Justice. Huh.” Fiona sounded as if she might be crying, and I crumbled inside. “I don’t know if anything like that’s going to happen.”
I didn’t, either. “That’s not going to stop me from trying.”
“We need to talk about that. About you. I’ve been thinking about you.” She blew her nose, seeming to collect herself.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve taken on a lot of the responsibility for dealing with Li Na. You need to
be clear about why you’re doing this.” Fiona perked up at the topic. Generous, direct, and analytical, she was at her best in mentor mode—the main reason her book had been an international bestseller.
She cleared her throat, no longer crying, and continued. “One of the things I always ask a new hire is, ‘Why do you want to be here? What’s in it for you?’ Because the personal informs the professional. You have to be passionate about your choices for it to really sync, for you to be fully committed. That concept applies here.”
I closed my eyes, images running through my head: the guard leering at me, Wes going down hard after getting shot, Fiona’s stricken face at the funeral. “I feel pretty passionate about taking Li Na down.”
“I know you do—but what’s the reason? And I mean the real reason: what’s in it for you?”
I thought of Wes holding me, feeling safe in his arms. “The future. I need a future without Li Na terrorizing the people I love.”
“Well…then you’ll probably be successful, or at least go down fighting,” Fiona said. “I just hoped this wasn’t about revenge for you or proving yourself. You don’t need either.”
But of course, I’d like both. I thought about that for a second—was it true? Maybe, but just as I couldn’t fathom Li Na being solely motivated by “face,” I didn’t believe myself capable of hurting others just for revenge. I wasn’t wired that way. “It’s not about that. It’s about my family.”
“In the end, that’s all that matters.”
I winced. Fiona had lost the person who mattered most to her.
“Revenge is lovely in theory, but in practice? There aren’t enough hours in my lifetime to get back at Li Na. And nothing can undo what she’s done.”
“You’re right about that.” Her voice was gravelly.
“Are Katie and Quinn okay? Ellis said you pulled them from school.”
“I was too worried after we were followed. The girls had security at the academy, but I’d rather have them home where I know we’re protected. It’s too much of a risk right now. And I’m staying right here with them—me, my mom, the girls, and a dozen security guards. It’s quite the setup.”
