“You have to keep up your strength in order to fight this to the best of your awesome abilities.” Ace untangled her gorgeous mane of fiery locks and laid her hair neatly down the center of her back, which seemed to relax some of the tension in her shoulders. “You’ve got this.”
She looked over to JRad, who nodded. “You’re making progress on following the traces they left behind yesterday. You’ll get them. If they had all the bugs worked out, they wouldn’t be firing warning shots. They’re trying to take the easy way out and get paid before they have the code locked down because they know you’re on to them.”
“I’d be afraid of you too if you weren’t on our team,” Legend said around a mouthful of buttered fresh bread. Tavish grinned from beside him, nodding as Sola and Kennedy concurred.
“Guys, they have it. It’s only a matter of time before they perfect it.” Ruby groaned. “No wonder they’d been testing on some random, throwaway coin. It’s not only crypto they’re targeting, but the entire financial sector.”
JRad stabbed one of the morsels on his plate far harder than necessary. “How much are they asking for from the big banks?”
“Billions, in total.” Jordan relayed the figure as if it wasn’t shocking. Maybe he’d already thought this through to the end game whereas Ace had still been worrying about the immediate details, like protecting Ruby and his disastrous love life. There was a reason he wasn’t in charge and he was fine with that.
“They’re not going to pay it, are they?” Ruby had gone pale again. “It’s a bluff! At least for the moment.”
“Several key board members, CEOs, and regulatory officials led by one prominent financial guru, seem to think it will cause less damage to make this go away by any means necessary as opposed to letting even a single hint of the possibility of a hijack leak to the market. It could cause a crash the likes of which we’ve never seen or could recover from in the global economy.” Jordan shoved his own plate away with a bit of food left on it.
That was a first.
Kason leaned over and squeezed his husband’s thigh. Laurel and Jace looked to Nolan, as if trying to read how screwed they were from his expression. It was equally grim as everyone else’s.Shit. Fuck. Damn.
Aarav set his fork down with a clink. Both he and Cash edged closer to Sola, who was sandwiched between them. Even she frowned. Marcus, Kennedy, and Knox weren’t any more chipper.
“How much time do you think we have until they cave to the hackers’ demands on his advice alone?” JRad asked.
Jordan wiped his mouth, then too carefully set his napkin on his abandoned plate. “A few days. Maybe a week unless someone gives them absolute assurance it’s not a credible threat.”
“And the reward for preventing a catastrophe like that?” Tavish wondered. As opposed to everyone else, he had no trouble packing away the delicious meal. He was cool, confident, and a little scary. Ace didn’t have a problem admitting he had a bit of a work-crush on the guy.
“Negotiated at base thirty-percent of ransom avoided plus hefty incentive pay based on time to completion.” Jordan looked around the table, starting with Ruby and JRad.
James stared back, his jaw slack.
“Gross, dude, no one wants to see that.” Liam knocked into James, making him sway as he finished swallowing his bite.
“You might suck at math, Captain Brawny, but I don’t. Construction workers use it almost as much as computer whizzes.” He flicked his gaze to Ruby, then back to Jordan. “That’s gonna make for a hefty Christmas bonus ’round here, boss.”
The Shields shared in the profits of the enterprise. Jordan was far more generous than he needed to be. Hell, most of them would have fucked with these criminals simply because they could.
Jordan nodded. “No one here would ever have to take another assignment if they didn’t want to.”
“No pressure.” Ruby’s chin dropped to her chest, which rose and fell in an unnatural cadence as she took measured breaths.
Ace twisted so he could sling his good arm around her, tucking her tight to his side. She shot him an appreciative look through her full lashes instead of shrugging him off. So he kept it there.
Cash cleared his throat, then spoke up. “Is Albert Suisse your financial guru leading this charge?”
“Theoretically, if he was, do you have an in with him?” Jordan winged his stare to Sola and Aarav’s playboy-turned-house-boyfriend.
“Yeah. One of those bullshit positions my dad set me up in when he framed me was on the board of some company Albert annexed. And although he was a total creep and far too ambitious for me to care to hang out with often, he was into yachts. Plus we’re about the same age. Suisse is a legend in the industry, a self-made prodigy turned billionaire by the time he was twenty and he’s not too much older now despite how influential he is. So we at least had a couple tiny things in common, which was more than I could say for most of the other assholes there. I would be happy to put in a good word for the Shields if it could buy you some more time.” Cash was already taking his cell phone from the pocket of his skinny jeans.
“Okay, great.” Jordan nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you did, but not on your personal phone. Use one of the ones Ruby set up to ensure a private connection.”
“Ah, yeah. Sure.” Cash winced as he set his cell on the table. “I forget about all this spy stuff.”
“I don’t.” Legend leaned forward so he could claim Jordan’s attention. “This is a two-pronged attack, isn’t it?”
Their boss folded his hands in his lap. “Maybe. So far our contract with the bankers only covers the neutralization and elimination of the code. In my opinion, we won’t know for sure this issue is resolved permanently unless we find the people who are behind it and make sure they can’t do it again. We don’t have authorization for that phase of the operation from the authorities…yet.”
“That’s fine. Because I still haven’t found out more about their identities than their online aliases.” Ruby sighed. “I’m working on it.”