HANNAH (Silicon Valley Billionaires 3)

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.”