I appreciated that Gabe had set aside his anger, but his words couldn’t soothe me. I’d been so close to Hannah just now—close enough to touch her—and she’d slipped through my fingers. I vowed if I ever got her back, I would never let her go.
But in order for that to happen, we had to find her again.
Chapter 16
Gabe
“What do you mean, you lost them?” Lauren yelled at Ash. She paced back and forth across the kitchen. “How did that happen?”
Ash winced. “I lost them on the highway. They might’ve gotten off and gone to a residential neighborhood close to the airport. We searched around there, but I didn’t find anything. They could have switched cars—or maybe they pulled into a garage. I have a team out there, tracing the area. But we haven’t found any signs of the vehicle yet.”
“We’ll check it out further with the surveillance team. They’ve definitely dumped the car, though—we’ll have to start fresh,” Levi said. “We can also start pulling recent real estate transactions in that part of the city. Maybe we’ll find something. The police and the FBI are looking too, for what it’s worth.”
Ash nodded and opened his laptop, hiding behind it.
Lauren turned her hell-bent spotlight on me. “You said he would find her.”
I scrubbed a hand across my face. “He will.”
“What do you think they’re going to do to her in the meantime, huh?”
Lauren’s phone buzzed against the island, and we all jumped. She grabbed for it. “It’s Li Na.”
She shoved the phone at me after she’d read the text, her hands shaking.
Li Na: Your sister is almost as much of a pain in the ass as you are.
I handed Levi the phone, and he quickly read the text.
“Bring it back to Paragon,” Levi instructed Lauren. “We need to keep her focused on the outcome.”
Lauren nodded almost imperceptibly and started typing as we read over her shoulder. Is Hannah okay?
Li Na: For the moment.
Lauren: I’m sorry things didn’t work out as planned today. I’ve started arranging the supporting financial and patent documents necessary for the sale. I still want to proceed.
Li Na fired back a text of several emoji who were laughing so hard they were crying, and then wrote, You’re kidding, right?
Lauren: No. What happened today was unfortunate.
Li Na: Your security team wasn’t supposed to be there. They killed my men. That wasn’t unfortunate—it was an act of hubris. You don’t care about your sister? Maybe you’re not as boring as I thought!
Lauren: Hannah’s the most important thing in the world to me. But she was trying to protect me, and so were my people. I’m sorry—it was out of my control.
Li Na: I thought you were the one in charge.
Lauren: Sometimes the people around me like to think it’s them.
I stiffened and shot Lauren a look, but she ignored me.
Li Na: I’m going to let her think about what she’s done. And you too. Prepare an agenda for the closing and send it to my counsel. Do it by tomorrow, and your sister lives for another day. But not if she pulls anything else.
Lauren: You’re never getting Paragon if you hurt her.
Li Na: It’s amusing that you choose *now* to act like you’re calling the shots. You should’ve done that earlier—we wouldn’t be having this conversation and your sister would be safe.
Lauren typed a furious response. Anxiety rolled off her in waves.