“Less of a bump and more of a grenade tossed straight at us.”

“But you can’t—”

“They can,” Nishi said, coming up beside them. She turned to Lucy. “If anyone can come from behind it’s you, but I am sorry Lit didn’t work out.”

“I’m not. This is way better.”

Ryan’s lips thinned.

“Really?” Nishi said with interest. Today she was wearing a deep blue scarf with a tiny undulating pattern that reminded Lucy of the way the light shined on the Pacific. “Care to give a hint?”

“Sorry, but I think we need to keep this one to ourselves.”

Nishi nodded. “Like any good startup should.”

Ryan cleared his throat. “Right, well, if you girls will excuse me, it’s time for the pièce de résistance.”

Ryan brushed past them, and Nishi snorted.

“Oh, sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be. He really is full of himself.”

As they walked down the hall, they passed a room full of egg-shaped woven chairs hanging down from the ceiling, employees cocooned inside them, plugged into laptops and headphones.

Nishi paused at the doorway. “After I sold my first company, Ryan tried to get me to work for him. None of this was here. Here wasn’t even here. He built all this after. Guess he’s got reason to be full of himself, doesn’t he?”

“Does he? You’re not.”

“I’m not nearly as successful. Yet,” Nishi added.

“You’re nothing like him, and you won’t be even when you are as successful. More.”

“When? Not If? You remind me of your mom.”

“Yeah?” Lucy’s heart beat a little faster—this time, in a good way.

“Yeah,” Nishi said, and Lucy wanted to tell her everything—about Girl Empowered, about the night with Ryan, about Emma and the fraud they thought Pulse was. But if they were wrong and they involved someone else . . . someone like Nishi who had everything to lose if—no, when, definitely when—Ryan hit back . . . That gap between the person Lucy was and the one she wanted to be would stretch wider than she could live with.

Nishi leaned into Lucy. “Now, not even a hint . . .”

“Just one. It was inspired by you. Speaking of, do you think you could direct me to the source for some of those stats you were quoting at the women in tech talk?”

Nishi’s eyebrow lifted. “I’m going to like this, aren’t I?”

“If we pull it off, you’re going to love it.”

“When. When you pull it off.”

“When.” And Lucy couldn’t wait.

TWENTY–NINE

STEALTH MODE • A startup operating in secrecy, not revealing what it actually does in order to stave off competition

MADDIE HELD HER BREATH, trying not to release the venom she longed to spew at Ryan Thompson. Must have been all those cobra pics she’d viewed while online shopping. People seriously Pinterested everything.