HANNAH (Silicon Valley Billionaires 3)

“C’mon, bro. You don’t make a woman like that wait.”

Now I gave him the side-eye—since when did he give me relationship advice?

“What’s going on with you?”

He frowned. “I’m your big brother. I’m just trying to help.”

I waved him off. “Yeah, I know that. But I mean, what’s going on with you?”

Ellis looked stymied. “I came here to tell you about my contact, who’s now in Shenzhen on your dime.”

That wasn’t what I meant, but I let him continue.

“He’s been doing surveillance on Biyu—she’s fine, her son is fine, she’s just going to work and going home, sticking to her normal routine.” He shrugged. “He’s going to watch her for the next few days, but I warned him to stay away from Jiàn Innovations. He knows Li Na by reputation. He understands he has to be careful.”

“Good. Thank you. Do you think he’ll be comfortable approaching Biyu when the time comes?”

“Maybe,” Ellis said.

“Explain that we’ll make it worth his while.”

“Fine. What’s the message for Biyu?”

I shrugged. “That if she doesn’t make contact soon, not only is the deal off, but that she should be worried.”

Ellis raised an eyebrow. “I take it that message is from you, not Hannah.”

“She’s ready to play hardball. Speaking of Hannah, I have to get going. I’m meeting her for dinner. Want to join us?”

He shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Who made you take the day off—Fiona or Levi?”

He shrugged again. “Both.”

“Why do you look so miserable?”

Ellis grunted. “I don’t do days off. I live in a climate-controlled mansion by myself—what the hell am I suppo

sed to do all day? By the way, the cleaning service came by. They said you paid them?”

“I figured you didn’t have time to clean toilets since you’ve been working nonstop.”

“Uh, thanks?”

I grimaced. “Uh, you’re welcome?”

“I don’t mean to be ungrateful. I just…I guess I don’t know what to do with myself. In the desert, if we had time off, we played cards and cleaned the barracks.” He frowned. “Everything’s already clean, here. It’s shiny and perfect and everybody drives a Range Rover. It’s frickin’ la-la land.”

“So you’d rather be at work.”

He ran his hands over his buzz cut. “Fuck yeah, I’d rather be at work. At least I’m doing something.”

“And things with Fiona are fine?”

He turned and leveled me with a blazing glare. “Why the hell do you keep asking me that?”

“I don’t.”