He held the glare.
“You seem attached,” I said finally.
“I don’t want her to die on my watch. Okay?” His voice blistered.
“Okay. Sheesh.”
He stalked toward his car—the Range Rover Levi had given him for company use.
“Are you still coming to dinner?”
He mumbled something under his breath as he peeled out of the driveway. It sounded suspiciously like Fuck no.
I sighed. I should’ve known better. With Ellis, less was more, and saying nothing was always best.
Chapter 25
Hannah
Ellis’s contact worked faster than I could have wished for—Biyu emailed me the next evening.
Don’t have that man come near me again! You’re putting me in danger!
I took a deep breath and wrote back immediately.
Let’s talk via Skype. We have a lot to go through—I’m not done with you yet.
I sent her my account link and pulled up the site, hoping she’d cooperate.
Biyu’s pretty face, twisted into a scowl, appeared on my monitor moments later. I could see the bare walls of her drab-looking apartment in the background. “I don’t want to talk for long. My son’s sleeping—I don’t want to disturb him. And I don’t want that man coming around again!”
“Fine.” I licked my lips. “But you’ve put yourself in this position by not keeping your promise to me. I need an update.”
“And I need money, lots of it, if you want me to do this.”
“I set up the trust for your son, and I linked it to another account that you can pull cash from.” I gave her the bank information. “You can look it up—I just made another deposit.”
Biyu tapped away on a tablet until she found what she was looking for. Her eyes got wide when she looked at the accounts—I’d been generous. “I see it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now tell me what I need to know.”
She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “The prototype’s complete. We begin testing tomorrow.”
“That was fast.”
Biyu nodded. “Li Na had the team sleep on site all week. No one on the technical team’s left the premises, except for a celebratory dinner.”
“You’re already celebrating? Did you go to the dinner?”
“Yes. Even I was invited.” A note of pride crept into her voice. “And we’re not celebrating about the releases yet—Li Na was celebrating us. Jiàn’s employees. She wants us all to know she appreciates the sacrifices we’re making.”
Concerned and somewhat appalled by her reverential tone, I snorted. “Oh, Li Na knows all about making sacrifices, all right—making other people sacrifice for what she wants.”
Biyu’s chin rose stubbornly. “I don’t know if I can talk to you anymore, even with all that money. You can say what you want about Li Na, but she’s doing amazing things for my country.”
“She stole my sister’s technology, and that’s the least of it. She’s done terrible things, Biyu—criminal things. Don’t underestimate her—and don’t underestimate what she could do to you.”
“I don’t. But you shouldn’t underestimate her, either—do you know that this is the first job I’ve been able to find since I graduated from university? Jiàn is one of the few companies that’s actively recruiting right now. The fact that Li Na’s trying to bring jobs and prestige to Shenzhen is huge for us. I don’t know that what you’re offering is better than what she can give me: a job with a future.”