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I stared at his face, wishing he would take this information back.
“Are you familiar with her work?”
“Of course.” Relieved to have wine on hand, I took a gulp. “Jiàn Innovations is growing rapidly. I’ve been watching them. They’ve developed some healthcare apps that are being widely used in China, and that they’re looking to become more of a global competitor.”
Gabe sat back. “If Clive sold them the information he stole from you, we have a problem. They are a much bigger fish than Warren Technologies. Maybe they even organized the hack, and Clive was just a worker bee.”
I balled up my napkin, my hands working restlessly while my mind raced.
“Clive was in China earlier this year, right?”
“Right.” My voice sounded miserable to my own ears.
“I’d like to have Dave, my
tech guy, go and work with Leo. I think that together, they could cover a lot of ground. I’d like to see what correspondence or contact we can find between Clive and Jiàn. I’d also like them to start looking into Zhao, to see if there’s anything they can find out about her that could help us. You should bring this information to legal, to see what they say about building a case against Jiàn Innovations.”
I took a deep breath and blew it out. “I need Dave’s background cleared first.”
“Of course. I’ll email his biographical information to your team now. Then, I’ll send him over so they can do his fingerprints. He’s ready to go.”
Gabe took out his phone and started texting furiously. I did the same, alerting my team that Dave would be coming into Paragon to start working tonight. The server brought our dinner, and I could feel Gabe watching me as I pushed the food around on my plate. The possibility that my technology had been stolen by a company as large and aggressive as Jiàn Innovations was making me feel physically ill.
Gabe continued to watch me. “I’m glad that you had your clothes sent over. I’m also glad you’re being cooperative about Dave. He’s brilliant, but I thought I was going to have to work harder to convince you. You’re being so agreeable, it’s throwing me off.”
I swallowed my food without tasting it. “You’re not my enemy.” I reached out to grab his hand, lacing my fingers through his. “Now that I have real ones, I can see that clearly.”
Chapter 14
As soon as we walked through his door, Gabe turned to me, his eyes hooded. He leaned down to kiss me, but I stopped him. “My tight little body’s going to have to wait,” I said, even though I didn’t want to wait. “With the news you just sprang on me, I have work to do.”
“Don’t make me wait too long,” he growled. But then he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, sweetly, before he headed toward his computer.
I went to find my clothes and change into some sweats. He’d had someone on his staff organize my things neatly in one of the walk-in closets in his bedroom. My toiletries were all arranged in the master bath. I stared at my belongings, out of their natural environment, and scowled.
He wasn’t my enemy, but he certainly wasn’t taking no for an answer either.
Of course, I hadn’t said no to him.
I threw on some sweats and went back to the living room, arranging myself on his couch with my laptop while Gabe focused on his own work at the island. A fire roared in the fireplace, stars shined through the window and I fired up my computer, ignoring how comfortable I felt, ignoring the little voice in my head that asked, Wouldn’t it be great if every night were like this?
That voice sounded suspiciously like a combination of Hannah’s and my mother’s.
Wouldn’t it be great if Paragon wasn’t being hacked by one of the fastest-growing healthcare companies in China? I shot back.
Sighing, I tuned out my inner voices and turned my attention to my Internet search. Li Na Zhao. I’d read about her before, but I went back over her biographical information. She was a forty-three-year-old Chinese national. She’d studied business at INSEAD in France, graduating at the top of her class. Her parents were deceased. She had formed Jiàn Innovations ten years ago as a startup. She was divorced, with no children, and lived in Shenzhen.
I scrolled through pictures of her. She was very attractive, with long hair and a penchant for bright lipstick and dark, slim-fitting suits.
I wondered if I could take her.
I read more about Jiàn Innovations. It was a high-tech healthcare deliverable company. Over the past three years, they’d seemingly found their market, producing low-cost diagnostic apps that had become popular in China’s healthcare system. They were looking to expand aggressively into international markets, particularly the United States, because of our already high level of innovation in healthcare, along with the increasing costs associated with our aging population.
Zhao was quoted in an article as saying Jiàn’s research and development team was her primary focus as CEO. She wanted to concentrate on innovation, and noted that the healthcare market needed an infusion of cheaper technology.
Fuming, I read that from all accounts, Li Na Zhao was brilliant, capable of steering her company from near-obscurity to a very robust presence in the Chinese healthcare system. She shouldn’t need to steal from me. I wondered if Clive had really sold the stolen information to her. If he did, why? How had he met her? How had Paragon’s patch become a topic of conversation between them? Why would he risk everything he had to steal from me?
Is this what’s really going on? My mind whirled with the possibilities. Clive had warned me that if I didn’t let him buy into Paragon, he would sell the stolen technology. It appeared that was exactly what he’d done, and his buyer was a heavy-hitter in the healthcare market. Now I had to deal with it. My rational, analytical mind said that it was finally time to call in the FBI, and have my legal team start creating a paper trail between Paragon, Clive and Jiàn Innovations.
