The next few days passed in a blur. I buried myself in my work, pushing my sadness about Clive to one side and my fears about Li Na to the other. Our production, manufacturing, and distribution plans were rapidly coming together for our launch. Hannah had a comprehensive publicity agenda lined up. We were still shrouded in secrecy, but Paragon would soon be a name that would be recognized by the world as a leading innovator in the healthcare industry.

My legal team and Hannah had met with Agent Marks. He’d begun a preliminary investigation of Clive Warren’s hacking, but as Clive Warren was dead, the sense of urgency was lost. Mostly I felt like he’d come by to snoop around. Hannah had said he’d asked all sorts of questions—questions about the technology, Paragon’s history, and our status with the FDA—but that my very expensive lawyers had earned their keep and kept him satisfied.

I told Hannah to follow up with him. And to be extra friendly, just to keep him happy and out of my hair.

Eva continued to work beside me tirelessly. We’d completed the initial the mass-market production of the patch, had the packaging assembled, and would be ready to begin distribution in less than a week.

It was a miracle. Which, as my father used to say, was a concise term for when extremely hard work and dedication met with great timing.

I hadn’t seen or spoken to Gabe. We’d stopped texting entirely. It wasn’t safe, and I didn’t want to remind any of my enemies of our involvement. He hadn’t sent me the number for his replacement phone. If I knew Gabe, he was throwing himself into his work, readying his international contacts to begin distribution of the patch, and lying low. He probably had armed guards at work and at home. I couldn’t wait to finish the launch so I could be back in his arms again. I was lucky to be so busy. Otherwise, I would have gone crazy because I missed him so much.

Still, the atmosphere at Paragon was thrilling. Just as when I’d first started the company, I’d gotten into a comfortable, adrenaline-and-caffeine-infused routine with my work. I enjoyed the process of finally putting all of the pieces in place. It was hard work, but it was good work. Finally, I was on the cusp of being able to share my invention with the world. With all the craziness of the past few weeks, I’d almost lost sight of the fact that my invention was going to help millions of people. They would be able to afford sophisticated medical testing at a fraction of the price. I had no doubt that many lives would be saved because of the preventative measures patients would be able to take based on the patch’s results.

But lives had been lost too. Clive. Even though he wasn’t a good man, I still grieved for him. His murder was wrong. It was pointless.

I thought of him as I headed up to my office. I’d been sleeping on a cot in the lab, and my back had begun to hurt. I crawled onto one of my couches, wrapping my sweater around me. I immediately fell into a troubled sleep, dreaming of Clive’s face.

I woke up to my phone buzzing. I reached for it and squinted blearily at the screen. It was a text from a twelve-digit number I didn’t recognize.

I sat up straight and quickly rubbed my eyes. I needed to see clearly.

I have an offer for you, it read.

Who is this? I texted back.

Let’s not pretend, was all she wrote.

I blew out a deep breath and stared at my phone. My hands were shaking. We were just texting and already, Li Na was getting under my skin. Let’s not pretend, indeed.

I took a deep breath. What’s the offer? I texted back.

I will buy the majority stake in your company for a reasonable price.

Paragon is not for sale at any price, I texted back immediately. I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

Then let me buy the patch from you. Or partner with you here in China on a similar product.

I paused for a second. I wanted to fire back a quick No way in hell text, but I needed to proceed with caution. I’m not interested in option one. Need more details in order to consider option two.

I had no plans to partner with murdering, thieving criminals, but I didn’t need to tell her that right that second.

I’ll be in touch. But be prepared to say yes.

I shuddered. Hopefully she was going to just send me another text, not reach out and actually touch me. The clock read five a.m. I got up and hustled down to Leo’s office. A new plan was starting to take shape in my brain. I had to make sure he didn’t start deleting Jiàn Innovations’ files, even though I’d asked him to do just that.

I had another angle I just might be able to play.

* * *

“We can do it by the end of next week,” Eva said, tucking a curl behind her ear as she reviewed the most recent manufacturing reports. “It’s going to be a wide launch. Domestic and international. We don’t have to scale it back. We can go global from day one.”

“That’s amazing,” I said. “But I still want to hold off on the announcement for a little while longer.”

“Are you sure?” Eva asked. “That’s really pushing it. If we’re launching, we need to have the channels ready for us.”

I nodded at her. “I’m sure.” It wasn’t ideal, but I had to keep our tight timeframe under wraps as long as I possibly could. “Trust me. It’s for the greater good.” I looked at Eva’s face, which was pale and tired. Dark shadows bloomed under her eyes. “Speaking of the greater good, why don’t you go grab a nap? You’ve got to be exhausted.”

Normally Eva would object, but we’d been working nonstop. She smiled wanly at me. “Okay, boss,” she said through a yawn.

She shuffled off, and Finn, another one of my lab workers, came by. “Stephanie’s looking for you,” he said. “Something about mail.”

I hustled to find my assistant. She was at her desk, staring at her screen. Like Eva, she had dark circles and a bleary look to her face. I needed to launch the patch and give everyone a vacation, stat, before they all quit and ran screaming from the building. “You were looking for me?”

“A letter came in for you. From Gabe.”

She handed it to me, and I clutched it gratefully as I headed to my office. I pulled it out eagerly, but all that was written was a phone number. And an I love you, babe.

I pulled out my replacement phone to call him when a text came through on my main cell.

Have you decided? it asked. It was from the same foreign cell number.

She wasn’t wasting any time. You haven’t given me any terms, I wrote back.

The terms are commensurate with what you’d have with any trading partner in a foreign country. In China, we typically do a 60/40 percent of profits.

That was all she wanted after everything?

Sounds reasonable, I wrote back.

I also need your help with some of my technology.

I gritted my teeth. Of course that wasn’t all she wanted after everything.

I’m sort of busy at the moment, I wrote.

I’ll be in touch again soon. You should make time for me. Otherwise, you’ll be certain to regret it.

I held my breath. I wanted to ask her what she meant, but I had a bad feeling that I already knew.

I sat there for a moment, holding a phone in each hand. On the one hand, I had Li Na, who I felt certain was not only the person on the other end of the line but also the person who was responsible for Clive’s death. On the other hand, I had Gabe. He was the first man I’d ever let into my life and the only person I’d ever trusted to be my equal.

I had the odd sensation the ground was shifting beneath my feet. I felt a little dizzy. It occurred to me that perhaps I’d been looking at the situation with Jiàn Innovations the wrong way.

I’d had a glimmer of an idea when Li Na had first texted me that morning. I’d thought that maybe I could play along with her; that perhaps I could draw out our negotiations so I could secure our position as first to market while I pretended to play nice with Jiàn Innovations on the side.

But she was texting me, asking me for an answer after only a few short hours. She wasn’t patient enough for drawn-out negotiations. Apparently, she was not inclined to let me get away with anything. But although she scared me to death, there had to be a way to defeat her.

It was my patch, dammit. I was the one who’d been locked in my lab for six years, perfecting the technology.

Li Na could bite me.

Maybe the way she was pressing me—being straightforward about what she wanted and the lengths she would go to get it—was a sign. A nudge. Maybe, it was actually the universe trying to protect me.

I’d been so busy playing defense that it hadn’t occurred to me I could actually play offense. Until now.

I took a deep breath as my idea became clearer. Then I picked up the burner phone and called Gabe. “I miss you,” was the first thing I said.

“I miss you too, babe. I’m going crazy.”

“Me too.” I sighed. “We need to meet. But before we do, I have to run something by you. And be prepared: you’re not going to like it.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay…”

“Li Na wants me to stop working on my launch to partner with her on a version of the patch.”

Gabe snorted. “That’s the upside of her being crazy—at least she’s never boring.”

“I want to say yes.”

There was stunned silence on the other end of the line. “Is there a punchline, here?” he asked, after a minute.

“Hopefully.” If it worked, the joke would be on Li Na.

“You’re going to have to walk me through this.”

“I’ll agree to work for her, right now, in exchange for an agreed-upon sum. With the underlying agreement that once she gets everything she wants, she’ll leave me and my company alone, once and for all.”

“Do you really want to do this? If you do, she’ll get to market first.”

“Not necessarily.”

“Babe.” Gabe still sounded confused. “You lost me.”

“Li Na thinks Paragon is incapable of launching the patch without me,” I said.

“And she’s right. Isn’t she?”

“No…not if you help. Not if you’re my silent partner.”

He didn’t say anything, so I explained. “When Li Na and I discussed the details via text, she said she wants me as soon as possible, twenty-four hours a day, until she has all the information she needs. She intends to beat Paragon to market, at least on Chinese soil—and anywhere else she can manage. I told her it was worth it to me, at this point. I told her I wanted her out of my life.”

“She wants you where?”

I took a deep breath, readying myself for the part of my plan that Gabe really wasn’t going to like. “In an office space somewhere close by. But not Paragon. She wants me off-premises and off-the-grid, somewhere where I can’t moonlight working on Paragon business.”

“You can’t go someplace and work for her,” Gabe said. “No fucking way.”

“Gabe,” I said patiently, “I’m trying to discuss this with you. I told her I wouldn’t go without security.”

“She could double-cross you. She could kill you—just like she killed Clive.”

“Timmy’s not going to let anything happen to me,” I persisted. “You know that. Also, I’m not worth anything to Li Na if I’m dead. That’s not what she wants. She can’t even hurt me too much, because I won’t be any use to her.” I hoped that last part was true.

“I’ll be your security. That’s non-negotiable, babe.”

I fought the intense urge to slam the cell phone against my head. “You can’t—I need you to help me, here at the lab. This is my chance—our chance—to be free of her, once and for all. I’ve thought it through. All I’m asking is that you do, too.”

There was a prolonged, excruciating silence. “I understand why you want to do it.”

“Does that mean you’ll help me?”

Gabe let out a sigh so long, it sounded like a hiss. “I’m going to support you—because I know you’ve analyzed all the angles and you believe it’s the right choice. But for the record, I hate this. I fucking hate it, and it’s my job to tell you that.”

“Okay.” My voice came out small.

“Okay,” Gabe said, but he didn’t sound at all like he meant it.

After more discussion, we agreed that if things were taking too long at my off-site location, Gabe would send back up and call the authorities. I hypothesized that he would also take matters into his own hands at that point, but I kept that conjecture to myself. I didn’t plan to let things go that far. I had people to love and a company to run. I would come back to him, no matter what.

So with Gabe’s reluctant blessing, Li Na and I entered into an agreement.

I was ready to move on with the first part of my plan. I’d carefully made myself up and wore an immaculate suit, which was quite unusual for me these days. I had called Gabe an hour before, on our regular cell phones, and asked him to meet me downtown for lunch. I hoped someone had wiretapped my phone or his. Otherwise, my plan could all be for nothing, a waste of time when I had none left to waste.

I took the additional step of having Hannah contact the columnist who wrote the Boldface Names column. She let the writer know that some juicy CEO gossip was about to take place at Mignon, a trendy downtown restaurant.

My driver pulled up outside the small French bistro, which Hannah had informed me was a hot spot for Silicon Valley’s ruling class. I cared nothing about that, but I desperately cared that my plan was going to work. I hoped against hope that someone from Jiàn Innovations was following me. Timmy helped me out of the car and ushered me silently inside.

I leaned toward him when we went through the door of the restaurant. “Do you think we were followed?” I asked quietly.

He nodded at me, his face grim. “There was a silver Hyundai that picked us up a few blocks back. They were three cars behind us the whole way.”

I swallowed hard, simultaneously scared and excited. “You’ve got my back, right?”

My bodyguard offered me a rare smile. “You know I do, Ms. Taylor.”

That gave me the confidence to approach the hostess. She led me to a table where I waited for Gabe, fidgeting nervously and sipping a forbidden midday glass of wine. It was Friday afternoon, and the restaurant was packed with casually but expensively dressed entrepreneurs. The majority of the other diners were wearing stylish glasses and tapping on the most up-to-date handheld devices. I looked woefully out of place in my dark suit and prim bun, but sticking out at that moment suited my purposes just fine.

Gabe strode in, and my heart stopped. He was wearing his typical T-shirt and dark jeans, his biceps on full display. His hair was a little wild, and he had what now appeared to be a full-blown beard. He looked sexy as hell. I hadn’t even known what the word “sexy” meant until I met him, and now there he was, striding toward me, every powerful muscle evident in all his male gloriousness.

I’d definitely been away from him for too long. I practically started panting just watching him walk through the restaurant toward me. All I wanted was to throw myself into his arms and run my hands along that beard.

And I couldn’t touch him. I didn’t know when, or if, I would touch him again.

I composed my feelings and proceeded to glare at him as he approached.

“It’s about time,” I said abruptly when he sat down.

He looked at me and scrubbed his hands across his face. I desperately wished my hands could be the ones touching him.

“Whatever,” he said.

“Whatever?” There was a sharp edge to my voice. The woman at the table next to me looked our direction, then quickly turned away.

“That’s what I said. Whatever.” He sat across from me, fidgeting, looking almost too big for the bistro’s delicate chair.

I tapped the table with my finger, looking down at the menu. “Does anything look good to you?” I asked.

I could feel Gabe watching me from across the table. “Not particularly.”

I looked up at him. “You’re not being very nice.” My voice was sharp again.

“You should talk, Lauren.” His voice was loud enough that I saw the people at the table next to us give each other a look.

I saw Timmy near the hostess stand, watching the room with a tense look on his face. I hoped that whoever had been driving that Hyundai had followed us in the restaurant, and that they were listening. But I also hoped they didn’t have Gabe or me within firing range.

I swallowed hard. I hated calling attention to myself, but I needed to do it. For us. For all of us.

I leaned across the table, glaring at him. “I’m tired of you being an asshole all the time.” My voice was too loud.

He leaned toward me too. “I’m tired of you being such a bitch. You think you’re the only one who’s under pressure? You think you’re the only one with a business to run?” His voice boomed through the tiny restaurant, causing silence to fall at the other tables. The customers nervously looked at each other and at us.

“I don’t think I’m the only one, but I still feel pretty alone.” My voice was shaking. “And if you can’t understand that I’m under a lot of pressure right now, I don’t think we have a lot left to say to each other.”

He stood up and glowered at me. “That’s been true for a while. Good-bye, Lauren. And good fucking luck.”

I stood up to say something back, but he had already turned to go. He stormed out of the restaurant, giving dirty looks to the silent patrons.

“Check, please,” I called shakily, then gathered my things.

* * *

“You made Boldface Names, at least,” Hannah said early the next morning. She placed a cup of coffee on my desk and sat down across from me.

“Good,” I said. “I just hope that Li Na can read English as well as she can text it.” I scrolled through the column and found our names in bold type, just as the title of the column promised.

Paragon CEO Lauren Taylor and CEO boyfriend Gabriel Betts of Dynamica treated fellow Mignon patrons to a shouting match during the lunch rush yesterday. Witnesses reported that the two fought loudly and finally stormed out separately. Hannah Taylor, Lauren’s sister and Paragon’s Director of Publicity, would only comment that the power couple “is taking a break.”

“Ugh,” I said. “But at least your name was mentioned.”

“I know,” Hannah said, grinning. “That was an unexpected upside.”

Now I had to convince her to help me with the rest. “You know what you need to do now, right?” I asked her.

The grin faded from her face. “I know what you told me to do. That doesn’t mean that I think any of this is a good idea.”

“It’s the only idea I’ve got.” I shrugged. “So let’s just hope that it’s good enough.”

My sister studied my face. “What did Gabe have to say about this?”

I pursed my lips. “You can ask him that yourself. He should be here later today.”

Her face softened. “I know you don’t like it when I argue with you, but you have to understand…I don’t want to lose you. You’re all I’ve got.”

I felt the tears threatening and blinked them back. The last thing my baby sister needed was to see my resolve crack. I forced myself to smile at her. “You’re not going to lose me, silly. I’ve got a plan, remember? And besides, I’m not all you’ve got. Wes has been following you around like a puppy dog since he was assigned to you. Seriously, it’s sort of disgusting.”

She reddened a little and laughed. “He’s sweet.”

“Good for him,” I said, my voice hardening. “He’s fired as soon as we launch.”

“Lauren!” She looked stricken. “You can’t do that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. “You can’t be romantically involved with him. He works for me.”

She let out a bark of exasperated laughter, then glared right back. “Oh, please. You have no room to talk.”

“Gabe doesn’t work for me. He’s—oh Jesus. Just forget about it for now. I just want you to be safe.”

She threw up her hands. “That’s all I want. I just want you to be safe!”

“Then do what I ask you to do,” I said. “Please. Follow my instructions, keep up with the press releases, and don’t be so busy making goo-goo eyes at Wes that he fails to protect you. That’s all I’m asking.”

“You’re asking a lot, Lauren. And not the goo-goo eyes part. I’m talking about going along with your plan. You know you’re walking into a very dangerous situation, don’t you? Li Na Zhao and the people who work for her probably stabbed Clive Warren to death. In jail. And she started texting you before they’d even cleaned up the mess.”

Hannah leaned forward, her big blue eyes wide. “I can’t lose my sister like that. This is business, Lauren. It’s not worth risking your life for your work.”

I wanted to go to her and hug her, to rock her back and forth like I’d done when our parents died. But I didn’t want to make too big a deal out of the situation, and for the love of God, I didn’t want to start crying in front of her. “This is life or death, though. The patch is going to save people’s lives. I have to stop Li Na from ruining that. It’s worth the risk.”

Hannah slumped in her chair and rolled her eyes. “It’s really hard to argue with you when you pull that holier-than-thou shit.”

“I’m not ‘pulling’ anything. I believe that I’m doing this for the greater good.”

“I know,” she said. “That’s what makes it so annoying. But I don’t want my sister to die, even if it is for the greater good.”

“Have a little faith in me.” I mustered up a grin. “I lost my virginity this year. I’m about to finally launch my game-changing invention. Don’t give up on me just yet. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

She raised her eyebrows at me and got up to leave. “I freaking hope so, Lauren.”

“I freaking hope so too. Now get out of here before you give me too big of an ego. And no goo-goo eyes,” I called after her.

She rolled her eyes at me again, and I wondered if it was the last time I’d ever see her do that. “Hannah. Wait.”

I got up and went to her, pulling her in for a firm hug.

She was stiff against me. “Don’t do this,” she said, her voice quaking. “Don’t you say good-bye to me.”

“I’m not.” I held her tightly. “I just want you to know that I love you. And when this is all over, we’re going shopping. And out to lunch.”

I felt her relax a little. “And on a tropical vacation?” she asked hopefully. That was my little sister, taking a mile when I gave an inch.

“Whatever you want.” I pulled back, and although she was wiping her eyes, they had some of their sparkle back.

“Okay,” she said. “But we’re bringing men. And you’re wearing a bikini.”

“Huh?” I asked her in a panicked tone. “Did I actually already commit to this?”

“You said whatever I want.” She started to walk out, the bounce back in her step. “This is awesome. And I’m pulling Gabe in to plan the trip. He’ll probably want to rent an entire island.”

“The last thing I need is you two ganging up on me,” I said weakly.

She turned and gave me one last smile. “But that’s what people do when they love you, Lauren. They gang up on you and make you live life. So come back to me. You owe me that much. I’m so worried about you all the time, I’m starting to prematurely wrinkle. And if I’m going to have wrinkles, I may as well have a damn tan.”

Wes sprang up from the couch outside my office and followed my sister. I shook my head as I watched her sashay down the hall, her bodyguard close at her heels. Hannah had a sort of irrefutably vague logic that you couldn’t argue with. Not that I was going to argue with her right then. If I got back to Paragon in one piece, I could start arguing with her about staying in one when we went on our trip.