The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 1928

Hearing the shift in tone, Abby also dropped her voice to a whisper. "I gotta hand it to Gideon, the guy actually knows what he's doing. He managed to dig up a solid lead."

Her voice dropped even lower. "We're almost one hundred percent sure Joshua is the one who took Sellers Burton. But as for where he's holding him, we need to keep digging. The problem is... Gideon has to leave. Even if we bring in new people, we can't hand off something this sensitive to rookies."

Abby paused. "Star, what if we asked Neville Connolly to look into it?"

"No," Stella immediately vetoed the idea. "Joshua is too sharp. Neville might have some muscle in Solmaris, but it's almost impossible to pull one over on Joshua. Plus, it's a thankless job. If Joshua finds out Neville is digging around for Sellers behind his back, he might think Neville is trying to drive a wedge between us."

Abby had to admit that made sense. "But with Gideon gone, our own people are tied up, and we can't outsource it... Are we just going to drop the whole thing with Sellers?"

Stella stared at her computer screen, her eyes darkening. "Leonard Lerman's shares might be frozen, but I can still mobilize some of his personnel. When it comes to intelligence gathering, the Lerman family's network is definitely superior."

Abby paused, stunned. "You're... you're going to use Leonard's people?"

"Why not?"

"I just thought you'd never touch anything that belonged to him," Abby muttered.

Stella let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh. "We're going to need Mr. Burton's help down the line, which means we have to find Sellers before Joshua does something irreversible. The longer this drags out, the higher the chance Sellers ends up dead. Since our hands are tied, using Leonard's network is the only play we have left. I signed the paperwork accepting those assets; there's no point in acting high and mighty about it now."

After wrapping up the details with Abby, Stella hung up.

With Gideon gone, she was desperately short-handed. She quickly selected a few promising candidates and sent the list back to Abby for initial screening.

Abby worked fast. By the next day, she had a shortlist ready, urging Stella to pick three girls to start immediately.

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