“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.

Lauren: I was trying to save her. That’s all I want.

Li Na: Next time you cross me, it’s the last time. You’ve been warned.

Lauren stared at the phone miserably, waiting, but there was nothing further.

“I’m going to call Bethany,” she said when it was clear that Li Na had ended her rant. “We need to get started on the rest of those documents.”

I squeezed her shoulder. “I think you should.”

“I’ll be back.” She grabbed her phone, going outside to talk to her attorney in private.

I texted my assistant, Ryan, to coordinate with Lauren’s assistant, Stephanie. We needed to set up a meeting with Lauren’s board for tomorrow—if Li Na got wind that Paragon’s overseas partners were getting cold feet, our trouble would only grow. There wasn’t a lot I could do to help Lauren right now, so taking any sort of action to protect her would feel good.

I turned to Levi. He was staring out the window at Lauren. “I’m seriously pissed at you.”

“I fucked up today,” he admitted. “But it’s not really any of your business.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Lauren could have died back there. Because not only did you fail to get her away from those guards, you shot up the goddamned car she was in!”

Levi’s eyes glittered dangerously. “You know, for a silent partner, you really never seem to shut the fuck up.”

I took a step toward him, itching for a fight. “Maybe that’s because you’re so fucking dumb, you couldn’t understand me the first time—I have to keep repeating myself!”

“You should stick to what you know: your special hybrid Porsche, your infinity pool, and your ergonomically correct standing desk.” He laughed, taunting me. “Christ, you can’t even keep Lauren in line!”

I grabbed his shirt and pushed him against the wall. “Shut your mouth.”

“There he is.” Levi grinned at me, perfectly at ease underneath my death grip. “That’s the Gabe I know and love. The one I remember, who liked to rip people apart for sport. Dad never saw it, but I did.”

I shoved him one last time and then stepped back. “Then you should have let me stay in Boston. I could have been an asset to your team.”

Levi looked at me smugly. “You seem happy playing the pretty-boy CEO. Maybe Dad was right—maybe you are too good for the rest of us.”

“Fuck you.” I gave him one last murderous look as I stormed out of the kitchen and headed into the backyard, toward the pool. I had to get away from him before I gave in to my instincts and broke his nose…again.

Apparently, Levi hadn’t learned his lesson.

Maybe I hadn’t either.

I took several deep breaths, trying to calm myself. This had been one of the shittiest days on record, and no one pushed my buttons like Levi. I would love to fight him right now—hell, I’d love to fight anyone right now—but it wouldn’t help. I had to keep it together, to keep Lauren safe and get Hannah back.

I looked up and saw Lauren stalking toward me past the helipad, her expression sour.

“Did you talk to Bethany?”

“Yes—she’s going to dive in and keep drafting tonight. What’s the matter with you?”

“Levi’s driving me to drink.”

“Oh.”

She went quiet for a minute, probably thinking I shouldn’t complain—that I was lucky my brother was here, unlike Hannah.

I sighed. “It’s just some longstanding family stuff. Plus the fact that he almost got you killed today.”

“Gabe, it wasn’t his fault.” She sounded weary. “And as for the family stuff—I’m listening.”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about—especially after the day you’ve had.”

“I’d like to know what’s going on.”

I headed over to the hot tub and sat down, sticking my feet in. “Just stuff that should be water under the bridge, but isn’t.”

Lauren followed me, looking lost. She must be. For the majority of her twenty-five years, all she’d done was work and spend time with her sister. Both of those things had been taken from her—roughly, wrongly—and she seemed completely off-kilter.

“Tell me more,” she said. “Just talk—please. After what happened with Hannah…I literally can’t stand to think anymore. I might go crazy.”

I could still feel the raw adrenaline coursing through me from earlier in the day, and now, from the encounter with Levi. I needed to calm down. She needed me, and I was no use to her like this. “Fine. But I’m still pissed.”

She sighed. “I know.”

“We’ll get your sister back, but not at the expense of losing you. Do you understand that, once and for all?”

She sat down next to me, taking off her shoes and tentatively sticking her feet into the tub. “I didn’t have a choice about the way things happened today. I wasn’t trying to be a hero. I just wanted to get Hannah in the car and get her out of there. And then everything fell apart. Okay?” She slumped, exhausted, and I could tell she was near tears again.

“Come here.” I pulled her against me, my anger ebbing away. I wasn’t going to forget what had happened, but she was here and she was safe.

And I wasn’t letting her out of my sight again.

“Please talk. Please tell me about your family,” she whispered. “If I think about Li Na anymore, or Hannah, I’ll end up in a psych ward.”

I kissed the top of her head. “Okay, okay. So the thing with Levi, our baggage… Ugh.” I scrubbed my hands across my face. “Ugh” was the only accurate word I possessed for talking about family stuff. “Levi and I have issues about his business. I don’t know if I’ve told you this, but I own part of his firm, and he and Ash own part of Dynamica. We did a cross-purchase thing a few years ago to fund their start-up.”

“So—you’re fighting about money?”

“Not at all. I wish it was that simple.” I laughed, but it came out flat. “It’s a long story.”

“Even better. Please, go on.”

I sighed. “My father was in security too. It’s a Betts-family thing. Everyone’s in the business except for me.”

“Did your dad run his own firm?”

“Yes, and I always wanted to be like him when I grew up. I knew he protected people, and I wanted to do that, especially when I was little.”

She leaned her head against my chest, relaxing a fraction. “I bet you were cute.” It was the most normal she’d sounded in a long time.

“Of course I was cute. And I was a bright kid—exceptional, my teachers said. They tested me, and I was off the charts for everything. My dad clung to that. He’d been blue collar all his life, never went to college. He told me before he died that he wanted me to go to Harvard—that was his big dream for me. He insisted that I pursue some sort of business career, preferably one that included a nice, safe, ornately carved desk.”

“Your dad sounds like he was nice.”

“He was a great guy.” I smiled, thinking about my dad.

Lauren slid her arm around my waist and waited for me to continue.

“You know my father died when I was ten. That fueled my fire—I wanted to follow in his footsteps. My mom humored me when I was younger, but when I was in high school, my whole family ganged up on me. They insisted on Harvard, which I unfortunately had the grades for. Levi started Betts Security a few years later, after I’d already come out here and started Dynamica. He took my money in exchange for a minority stake in his firm, but that was all he would accept from me.”

“Because he was honoring your father’s wishes?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Because he was protecting me, I guess. He probably thought I’d go after the people who killed my dad if I went back to Boston and got into the business.”

Lauren pulled back, her eyes searching my face. “I didn’t know your father was killed.”

I looked down at the water. “That’s because I didn’t tell you. It’s not something I talk about.”

“Who…who did it?”

“We don’t know.” I shrugged again, trying to appear calm even as I felt my throat tighten. It had been over twenty years, but I missed my dad every day. His death still had me reeling. “He was shot on assignment, investigating organized crime.”

Lauren hugged me hard. “I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I splashed my feet in the water. “I didn’t say anything because I…couldn’t. I don’t like to talk about it.”

“Gabe.” She rubbed my back. “I want to know about your family. It’s important to me.”

I stiffened. “What was I supposed to say? That my father did dangerous work so that he could support his family in a nice lifestyle? So that my brothers and I could go to camps, play travel hockey, and go on ski trips? That he died doing a job that paid for my Ivy League education, but that I dropped out because I was so angry all the time?” My voice came out sharper than I wanted.

Lauren held me close, undeterred. “I thought you dropped out because you wanted to come out here and start your company.”

“That’s true. I did. But it wasn’t the only reason.”

Neither of us said anything for a moment. Levi’s words rang in my ears. “…happy playing the pretty-boy CEO…too good for the rest of us…”

“I moved out here to start something of my own. I wasn’t chasing this.” I motioned toward my massive house.

“Gabe. No one thinks that,” Lauren said. “What you have, the things you own, are just a by-product of your hard work. Your work helps people. And your father knew you were special—that you were capable of great things. He wanted you to have every opportunity, and he probably wanted to protect you. Your whole family wanted that for you.”

“I want to believe that. All of that.” I just wasn’t sure if I did.

I should be the person Lauren thought—she deserved that and more—but I had my doubts. “Sometimes I think my father was wrong about me, and that Clive Warren was right. I am a thug, hiding behind the CEO package. Yes, I went into biotech because I thought I could help people. But I’ve done some things…things you wouldn’t approve of.”

“Like what?” She pressed her head against my chest. “You can tell me.”

I blew out a deep, resigned breath. “I’ve done some things with my business dealings that you don’t know about. Things I haven’t shared.”

I felt Lauren tense ever so slightly. “Like what?”

Fuck. It’s now or never. I’d been dreading this moment. “Like when people have hacked me in the past, I’ve had them beaten. When people have stolen from me, I’ve threatened them.”

“Can you explain the term ‘threaten’ in this context? Do you mean threaten threaten?”

“Yes, I mean threaten threaten. As in, you steal the underlying technology from my patent application, I have my guys break your face.” I grimaced.

Her eyes widened. “You’ve done that?”

“I’ve had to do that, in order to keep people from ripping me off. You know what it’s like—it’s rough out here. There’s a lot of growth and opportunity, but with that come the lowlifes, the copycats, and the hackers. People who want to shortcut their way to a payout—although I haven’t run into anyone quite as flagrantly criminal as Li Na before.”

“She’s special, all right.”

“You know firsthand that there’s a lot at stake—and in this game, your proprietary technology is all you’ve got. I haven’t held back when I’ve protected what’s mine. I’m sorry if that’s a shock.”

She was quiet for a minute, looking up at the sky.

I put my hand on her thigh and squeezed. “I guess I should have told you all this. Before I moved you in here and asked you to make me all sorts of promises.”

“You don’t owe me an apology. I know who you are. And it doesn’t change how I feel, not at all.” She shook her head, some of her former spark lighting up her blue eyes. “Underneath the jeans and T-shirt—and that hybrid car—you might very well be a thug. But you’re my thug.”

She pulled me in for a brief, tender kiss. “I love you for who you are, and for the things you’ve done. Even the bad things. Because they’re a part of you, and I love all of you.”

“I love you too.” I rested my forehead against hers, relief washing through me. Now that we’d had this conversation, I didn’t have to hide the truth from her. I no longer had to wonder how she’d feel if she found out.

“When we get Hannah back, when this is all over…” she started.

“What?”

“I just want us to be safe. I want your inner thug to take a sabbatical—or maybe a permanent vacation. I don’t want to have to go after hackers, or kidnappers, or deal with any corporate espionage.”

“In our industry, the hackers and the espionage are part of the package. The kidnapping is a new low, though. Hopefully it’s a one-off.”

She buried her face in my chest. “I don’t know if I have a future in high-tech. I don’t know if I’m cut out for it.”

“Of course you are. And we need to keep the good guys on the playing field. You can’t quit.”

She sighed and stood up, drying her feet carefully. “Speaking of not quitting…I need to get back to work. Poor Bethany can’t be the only one pulling another all-nighter.”

“Have her come here for the next few days, okay? I’m worried about security more than ever.”

“Okay.” She leaned over and kissed me. “Thank you for everything.”

“Thank you for not running away from me, even though I’ve given you plenty of reasons.”

“You’d catch me anyway.”

I smiled at her, trying to lighten the heavy mood. “I might enjoy that. Maybe when things get back to normal and we get everybody out of the house, that’s a fun game we can try.”

“Remind me—and I’ll get you a leopard hide to wear and a club to wield.” She managed a smile. “For the record, I’d put money on you in a fight with Levi.”

“Babe, I appreciate that. A lot.”

“I know. That’s why I said it.” Sadness radiated off her, visible from the slump in her shoulders and the shell-shocked look in her eyes. Still, she was trying to comfort me.

She doesn’t deserve this pain. She deserves so much better…

“I love you,” I called as she headed toward the house.

“Well, I love you too, little brother,” Levi said, sauntering out of the house.

I groaned. “We really need to get Hannah back so you can move the fuck back to Boston.”

I could see the outline of his grin in the semidarkness. “Please, tell me how you really feel.”

I accepted the bourbon he offered me: Levi’s version of an olive branch.

I made sure Lauren was out of earshot before I spoke. “This is how I really feel—we didn’t get Hannah back today, and Lauren almost got shot. And now Li Na knows that we’ve been working against her this whole time with the help of the FBI. We’re worse off than we were this morning, which is pretty bad. And you’re being an asshole,” I reminded him.

I’d been trying to distract Lauren, but I still felt sick about the events of the day and where we stood. What if they killed Hannah? What if Li Na decided that this was all too much trouble, she was cutting it too close, and it was finally time to walk away?

Levi sat down and stuck his feet in the water, which I noticed he did at every opportunity. This was most likely a by-product of living in crappy weather in Boston for most of his life. “I understand. And I’m sorry I got angry with you earlier.”

“Sorry I threw you against the wall. And called you dumb.”

“No, you’re not.”

I shrugged. “Remorse isn’t really my strong suit.”

“Today was terrible,” Levi admitted. “And you’re right, Hannah’s in greater danger now than she already was. It’s on my conscience. You aren’t responsible—it’s on me.”

“But I do feel responsible. Hannah’s like my sister, and I need to make this better for Lauren. This is tearing her apart. Sitting by, not being able to do anything—that’s tearing me apart.”

“I get it.” Levi looked out at the pool. “It’s interesting to finally see you with someone, you know. An equal… I never thought it would happen, honestly.”

“You, the eternal bachelor, are saying this to me?” Levi had been engaged once, but we never brought it up. Not unless we wanted to land in the emergency room.

My brother visibly stiffened. “Let’s get back to what’s important. We have an opportunity now to search locally for Hannah. Li Na’s most likely keeping her nearby, unless she’s decided to bail on the plan.”

“What do you think? It’s getting riskier for her to keep this up.”

“She doesn’t seem too worried.” Levi shrugged. “I think she’s been coming at Lauren hard for so long, she’s not going to give up—not when she’s so close to getting what she wants. We need to make searching the area our number-one priority. Ash has a team, but I’m going to bring our whole staff out here. It’s going to be a manhunt.”

The fact that he was throwing every asset available at the task made me feel better—his firm was one of the best in the country for a reason. Due to circumstances beyond his control we’d fucked up today, but I still had every confidence in him. “Can I help?”

“About that. I’ve been thinking,” Levi said, but he didn’t say anything for a minute. “I know you want to help. But we all have our special gifts, okay? You isolated the stolen plate number using an equation—that’s something I couldn’t have done. In fact, I’m going to hire a new tech guy who can do shit like that all the time, because it really came in handy…”

“Were you about to make a point?”

“Yes. About your ability to contribute. You can help, but you should stay out of the line of fire and behind a computer, where you belong—and please don’t punch me for saying that. I mean it as a compliment.”

“Right.” All the fight had drained out of me, though, so I waited to hear what he had to say.

“I’ve done some research, but I’m wondering, what do you actually know about Zhao?”

I shrugged. “Probably not a lot more than you. She’s in her early forties, she graduated at the top of her high school, undergraduate, and graduate classes, she’s divorced with no kids, and she started Jiàn Innovations a few years ago. They’ve been successful in the Chinese market, but she’s made it clear that she wants a bigger piece of the global economy. Other than that, I know she considers herself above the law in China. She’s said repeatedly that she is helping to rebuild Shenzhen, and that her government has no interest in having her extradited.”

“And those seem to be the only details available,” Levi agreed. “But I’d like to know more. I’d like to know about her background, her ex-husband, and how her company got to where it is today.”

“So you want me to do your research, like some unpaid intern?”

Levi shrugged. “I want you do some more digging, and then use your superior intellect to help piece together more about her character. She must have some sort of weakness—but we’ve been letting her run us in circles, and we haven’t been able to find it. You and Lauren have been so busy playing defense, you haven’t had the opportunity to consider an offense.”

“Like what?”

“You’ll think of something.” Levi patted me on the shoulder. “Dad always said you were the smart one. Let’s see if he was right.”