He tipped his head. “You were listening.”
She resisted the urge to tap her foot. For a man in a rush, he was telling a long story. Or maybe he didn’t know how to tell it when he was still trying to unravel it himself. “Yes. I was listening. I’ll process my own opinions on it later. Right now I’m taking mental notes on what might matter to help you with your current problem.”
He nodded. After a moment, he started up again. “Our family came here to establish a presence in the US while her husband’s family saw to the combined family business interests back in Korea. My father did well enough starting a software company to support life sciences. I learned some of what I know of the industry from him. But the stress of it, of living in a place so different from where you grew up, of trying to make a name. It overwhelmed him. He died of a heart attack. And with him, the US presence of the family business was gone, as well. My mother got sick and passed away not long after. So for my sister, there is only me left here. Our extended family fell out of touch with me when I didn’t try to resurrect the family business here.”
His recounting had become flat, his voice distant. He’d compartmentalized his feelings about those times and he wasn’t willing to feel right now.
She didn’t blame him. While the background information was necessary, the confusion brought on by old angst wasn’t useful. “And his family?”
“I would guess they were eager for him to make a connection with a new wife, most likely with a family to provide more valuable networking for the business in Korea.” Still delivered with a flat tone, sparks of anger were showing up in his gaze now. “Either way, once the divorce was final, he saw to it they had some funding but there was little to hold them in Korea. My nephew has a potential for a bright future here, doing something he loves.”
And Kyle was reinventing himself and his lifestyle to provide for it.
She didn’t know this woman or her son. But the man who was her brother, the kid’s uncle, she was starting to see some incredible things about him.
“All this means no one to come looking for them if something happens to them. I get it now.” Thus his agitation when she’d returned. The danger to them was very real if Phoenix Biotech could easily make them disappear.
“There is only me.” Kyle was quiet, his pride completely set aside. What was left sitting in front of her was a man determined to do what it took to make his family safe. “Please, Isabelle, let me go get them.”
“No.” She’d have given the same answer even before she’d known the nature of the leverage Phoenix Biotech had on him. “Whatever it is you’re going to testify is enough to be worth not just your life, but theirs too. So no, you are not going to run straight to them.”
If he hated her for it, so be it. They had chemistry. Respect for each other. And while the first had been freaking amazing, losing the second would hurt more.
Neither he nor she was going to have any sort of respect left if he did what Phoenix Biotech wanted him to do and prove he was too stupid to live.
Kyle stood but didn’t take a step toward her or the door behind her. Instead, he copied her stance. “What will we do instead?”
“Gather more information, for one thing.” It was her turn to pace, keeping him in her peripheral field of view as she did. He was smart enough to be sneaky and she was not about to let him surprise her now that she was absorbed in the problem at hand. “I need to head out to get a report I was waiting on anyway. While I’m out, away from here, I’ll put in a call to our friend in the streaming video. We’ll find out what they wanted you to do.”
“I’m going with you.” He tensed, ready for an argument. Even if his fists weren’t up, his guard was in every other way.
“Yes. You are.” She smiled, ridiculously amused for no good reason. But they were about to go out and make some things happen. A challenge. So much better than hiding, even if it was crazy. It didn’t make sense. But that was the beauty of it. It was unpredictable. “They’re expecting you to either come rushing out into the open or stay hidden. They’re expecting you to have to fight with your protection personnel either way. It’s time better applied to finding a solution. Something they don’t think you can pull off.”
“But you and I together can?” Humor was softening the hard line of his lips pressed together. “Whimsical. How much can the two of us really do to make my sister and her son safe?”
No room for whimsy here if they were going to be goddamned heroes.
She took the cover off one of the plates of food and snagged a barely warm truffle fry. “We can do recon, then plan. Then we can do something they won’t expect.”