Page 135 of Scarlet Angel

He snorts.

“All right. Can you let me know if Ash made it?”

“We’re working on our end to get an accounting,” Tristan answers. “Have a man attempting to gain access to your estate, but it’s a bit of a mess with the bobbies at the moment.”

“I’m sure it is. Can you get me a secure line? I have some calls to make.”

“That van’s about as untraceable as you’ll get,” a woman says.

“Who are you thinking you want to reach out to?” Leo asks. “Based on the intel I’m gathering, I don’t trust any of your so-called friends.”

I do love a man with brutal honesty.“Need to get my PR team spinning as it seems my reputation’s at stake.”

“Glorious as it is,” Leo says.

“Piss off,” I say, but I’m grinning. I’ve missed the bloke.

The guy sitting at the computer types away.

“I also want to reach out to Ash. See if he?—”

“His mobile’s out,” Leo says. “We’ve tried to track it. It’s not on. Area hospital hasn’t released names yet.”

Shite. His mobile went up in the blast. Please let Ash not have gone up with it.

“Okay,” Leo says. “I’m getting reminded we need to strategize. Do you have a definitive location, or are you planning on contacting someone first? I wasn’t shitting you. I don’t think you can trust any of the folks I’m privy to.”

“Nooyi’s likely working against me.” I tug on my jaw, thinking it through. “He stopped by and was looking about…. I think he was a designated scout.”

“He knows your property. You think he stopped by to collect intel on security levels?”

“They could’ve gotten that from a satellite, no?” One of Dorian’s companies has over 6,000 operating satellites in the sky. “Of course, tough with the trees to get a good satellite view. It’s one of the reasons I bought the estate. I’m thinking he was scouting for a safe room location. Don’t trust the bastard. I trust Jiang Tu.”

“Interesting you say that,” Tristan says.

“Why?”

“We suspect Xi is currently detaining him. It’s not public knowledge yet, but he hasn’t been seen since returning to Shanghai.”

“Damn.”

“If he follows the course of Xiao Jianhua, we may not hear from him for months.”

“And when he returns, he won’t be the same Jiang,” I say. Even if he seems the same, he couldn’t be trusted.

“Droga? Do you trust him?” Leo asks. “We could leverage his resources to ship you off from Ireland.”

“Jiang said he voted for me. He’s solid.”

“What about Mansueto?” Leo asks.

“Track what his news network says about me. If it’s blowing up with conspiracy rubbish, that’d be a no.”

“I’ll set my team on it,” a woman, I believe Kairi, says. “He’s got strong connections to the social media sites, too, right?”

“He has influence,” I answer. It’s all about influence. “The one I want to call is Dorian.”

“And you know you can’t trust him,” Leo says.

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