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“You were being held prisoner, Ms. Taylor,” the agent said. “The first man who died was about to shoot you. Your security guard exercised self-defense to get you both out of a hostage situation. Neither of you are going to be prosecuted, but I have to do my due diligence. And you should never have gone there without contacting me. Good thing I’ve been keeping tabs on you. Still, it took us a couple of days to catch up.”
“Li Na made me promise I wouldn’t involve the authorities.” My breath was still ragged. I wondered, in the back of my mind, if this was what it felt like to have a panic attack. “It’s just that…they’re dead…they were innocent, and now they’re dead.” Three armed guards had died during our escape from the building. Timmy and I were unharmed, but we’d left a savage wake behind us
.
“Those men were hired killers. They were in our database—they were hardly innocent. They each had a record a mile long. Trust me, they knew the risks. They were paid well to assume those risks, and that was their choice.” Agent Marks paused for a beat. “Tell me about the people who were keeping you there. You think they’re the same people that killed Clive Warren?”
There was a sudden knock on the window. “Um, excuse me, my client’s done with show-and-tell for now,” a familiar voice called from outside the car. Bethany O’Donnell, my long-time attorney, opened the back door of the sedan and stuck her head in. “Jesus, Lauren. You look like shit.” She turned to Agent Marks and glared at him. “My client needs medical attention. Are you arresting her? Are you holding her?”
“No—” the agent started.
“Then let her out,” Bethany snapped. “Now.”
Agent Marks gave her a dirty look but got out and opened my door, holding his hand out for me. “I’ll be in touch. I have more questions for you,” he said in a tone much gentler than the one he’d been using on me for the past half hour.
Bethany O’Donnell had that effect on people. That was why she’d been my attorney for the past five years. She stalked around the car to us, her platinum hair swishing over her shoulder, the muscles in her calves tensed in her high heels. She nodded at the disgruntled-looking agent. “Agent Marks. It’s lovely to see you again. Please make sure you call me, not my client. I’ll be handling everything for Ms. Taylor from here on out. And if I find out you’ve been trying to contact my client directly, I’ll call your superior.” She linked her arm through mine and, without further discussion, marched me toward the lobby of Paragon.
“He’s not really breaking the law if he calls me, is he?” I asked her.
Bethany shrugged. “No. But I have to put him in his place early.” She stopped dragging me across the parking lot and looked at me, her brow creased. “Are you okay? They had you in that office for days, right?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “I’m fine, but my security guard had to kill three men for us to get out of there.”
“That’s self-defense. Don’t worry about what those assholes made you do.” Bethany shook her head. “You need to rest. I’ve never seen you like this before.”
I shrugged wearily. “I’ve never seen three people get killed before.”
“I’m sorry.” She patted my shoulder. “But your patch launched. That’s great news. How did you manage that while you were trapped in Menlo Park?”
“I had a team I trusted. I asked them to do it.”
Bethany raised her eyebrows at me. “A team? Or a person?”
“Who’ve you been talking to?” I asked flatly. “I know you already know. That’s one of the things you taught me, remember? One of your lawyerly tricks? Never ask a question that you don’t already know the answer to.”
“You’re right—I do know the answer. It’s Gabriel Betts,” she said, smiling a little. “I would say congratulations on your launch and on your hunky new boyfriend, and console you some more about what you just went through, but I have several bones to pick with you.”
“Can’t they wait?” I asked miserably. All I wanted was to check in with my people. And then I needed a hot shower, some food, and to see Gabe. Not necessarily in that order.
My attorney’s eyebrows arched again. “Hannah filled me in. She told me you’re moving in with him, and you’re partnering with Dynamica. These are two things you should have already shared with me, so I can protect your assets.”
I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to chastise Hannah for gossiping about me. “You don’t need to protect my assets, Bethany. Gabe’s got his own money. He doesn’t need mine.”
She patted my back and started herding me to Paragon’s doors. “All right, all right. Is it so bad that I want to protect my favorite client?”
“Of course not.” I smiled at her warmly, glad she was there. I’d hired Bethany after she’d represented my sister. Hannah needed to sell off some real estate holdings from our parents’ estate, and she wanted to get on with it quickly. I’d attended the closing, which Hannah had just wanted to breeze through. But Bethany hadn’t let her get away with that. She’d made sure Hannah had understood every word of every document she was signing. A transaction that could have closed in one hour instead took three. But she hadn’t put up with my sister’s moaning and groaning, and since then I’d never seen her take any shit from anybody, including me. Bethany hadn’t attended Stanford or Harvard Law, graduating instead from the California state program. But she was brilliant and had a singular devotion to her work. Whenever I’d needed her help, she’d pulled through for me.
I could see a crowd gathered inside the doors. I took a deep breath, preparing for the onslaught of attention, concern, and cheers.
Bethany shot a quick look inside the lobby, taking in the commotion. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “This is what we’ve all been waiting for.”
She nodded. “Okay. Congratulations on your launch.” She patted my back. “But I’m warning you, if you’re getting married, we’re doing a prenup. I don’t care how much you love the guy. Good prenups make good marriages.”
“Jesus, Bethany. You’re relentless.”
She grinned at me. “I know. That’s why you hired me.”
