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Because I knew the hard truth. Time wouldn’t wait, and neither would I.
Chapter 5
Hannah
Lauren hung up her cell phone and grabbed her laptop, shoving it into her bag.
Gabe watched her, a deep v between his brows. “Babe?”
Lauren sighed. “That was Dave again. He said Li Na’s team tried to hack us multiple times tonight. I’m going in.”
I jumped up. “I’m coming with you.”
Then I leaned down and kissed Wes good-bye quickly, before he could object.
“Want me to come, too?” Gabe asked.
“No, thanks. I can handle it.” Lauren turned to me. “You don’t need to go back to the office tonight—I can handle this. I just wanted you to know what was going on.”
“I understand.” I grabbed my tote anyway. “But I’m still coming.”
We were quiet on the car ride to the lab. “Did you talk to Fiona again?”
I motioned with my phone. “She texted me a few minutes ago. She called the FBI and was wrapping some stuff up at the office. She’s going to call Levi.”
“Anything else?”
I shrugged. “She said she hadn’t heard anything else from Li Na.”
“That’s because Li Na’s busy hacking us.” Lauren closed her eyes and shook her head. “She is an ever-loving pain in my ass.”
I would’ve laughed—my sister rarely swore—but my nerves were too shot.
Our security guards, Timmy and Brian, hustled us into Paragon’s lobby.
“What do you think she was trying to do?”
She sighed. “I don’t know yet. But it’s probably business as usual—she’s trying to steal my technology.”
I followed her down the hall to Dave and Leo’s office. “You think she’d find a better way to spend her time.”
“Well, she has, remember? She’s hacking Fiona Pace now, too.”
I shook my head. “With all the time she spends hacking and threatening, she could probably make some headway with research and development.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s her business model. Now that I know she’s going after Fiona, it looks like Li Na is more interested in acquisition by force.”
I shuddered as we reached the office. “It would be better if she could find a willing partner.”
“Agreed.” Lauren paused before going in. “Listen, I appreciate you coming in and all, but you should probably go home. It’s late, and honestly, you look tired. I don’t need you coming back and working crazy hours right away. You need to take it easy.”
“I need to find out what this bitch is doing inside our system again!”
She sighed. “Fine. I knew you were going to say that—even the ‘bitch’ part—but I was just doing my big-sister due diligence.”
I raised my hands. “Just stop. Between you and Wes, I’m feeling over-diligenced.”
“What do you mean? Is Wes worried about you, too? Because—”
