Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“Look at you now. Married to a beautiful Irish lass.”
“With a new bullet scar too.”
I grimace and look away. “Don’t remind me.”
“It’s okay.” He pulls me back and kisses me gently. “Really, I mean it. You did nothing wrong. You were great in there.”
“You really think so?”
“Honestly, I genuinely do. With a real team, you could pull off any heist you wanted. I mean that.”
I perk up, grinning widely again. “Fantastic. Can’t wait to tell my brother. Maybe we’ll plan something together.”
“Don’t get excited.” He pushes himself out of bed and shuffles over to his desk. The computer hums to life. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you out of my sight anytime soon.”
“Let’s be real. We both know you don’t have control over me.”
“Not yet, I don’t.” He looks at me over his shoulder, and his gaze is pure, possessive lust. “But give me time.”
I don’t know why that makes me blush.
He sits down at the computer and starts typing. I go into the other room to grab the watch for him, and he gets everything plugged in when I return. From my perspective, it looks like he’s just typing a bunch of random stuff into a command prompt while information scrolls past at blinding speed. Somehow, he seems to absorb it all.
“Ready?” he asks once the system finally seems to settle.
“You’re unlocking it now?”
He nods once, finger poised over the enter key. “This is what we nearly got killed for.” Then he hesitates and motions me closer. “You do the honors.”
I lean over him, my cheek brushing across his, and reach out for the keyboard. “I’m weirdly nervous.”
“Don’t be. This is good.” He sounds eager. “Go ahead, do it.”
I press the button.
Nothing happens. Well, nothing that I can see. More information appears. I catch snippets of text: wallet, personal key, account number, a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t make much sense.
But Alexan seems to understand. He looks totally rapt as he taps away, typing in commands at a blistering pace.
“Well?” I ask, heart stuttering. “What’d we find?”
“It’s so much worse than I thought,” he says grimly.
My stomach falls. “What’s wrong?”
“There are more keys.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They’re keys to crypto wallets.”
“Like Bitcoin?”
“Exactly.” He pulls open a website and starts entering numbers. I stare as he locates several different accounts.
“Why is that so bad?”
“Because right now we have control of approximately six hundred and thirty-three million dollars in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and a half dozen other tokens.”
I stare at him and laugh nervously. “Six hundred million? Are you insane?”
“Six hundred and thirty-three million,” he corrects, not smiling at all. “I’m pretty sure this is Mantis’s entire crypto holding. It might even be the majority of the organization’s compensation structure.”
I step away from his computer, trying to make sense of all this. I shake my head, feeling like there’s wool in my brain. “Are you telling me we have control of all of Mantis’s money?”
“A big chunk of it at least, yes.”
“Holy fucking shit.”
He looks back at me and nods slowly. “Yeah. I agree.”
I sink down to the floor and sit there like a child, dumbly looking at my hands. Six hundred and thirty-three million dollars. All of Black Mantis’s cash, or at least most of it.
No wonder Fong wants it back.
Cold, bitter horror rushes into me as I realize how much trouble we’re in.
Because Fong is going to do anything to find this watch.
Kill anyone, torture anyone, steal anything, stop at nothing.
And it’s sitting right there in our bedroom.
Chapter 25
Alexan
My shoulder aches from the damn gunshot wound as I drive slowly toward the Pomegranate House. I have a meeting with my new crew to discuss a few jobs we’re planning, but my head’s somewhere else entirely.
Mantis’s money.
I doubt this is the only copy of the watch. I’m sure there are backups and fail-safes. But right now, I can use the passcodes stored on the encrypted hard drive to access those crypto wallets.
I could drain away over half a billion dollars instantly if I wanted.
That would bring down the full force of the Mantis organization. Every single one of them would be after me, instead of just Iron Head. Sooner or later though, that’ll happen anyway, when Iron Head’s superiors realize how badly he fucked up.
No wonder he wants it back so badly. I figured it was something serious, but this is even worse than I could’ve imagined.
I slow at a stop sign and rub my bandaged arm. Riley wanted me to take the pain pills, but that stuff always dulls my head, and I need to be sharp right now. I can survive pain, but I can’t live if I make a mistake all messed up on oxycontin.
I keep seeing Riley running across that parking lot. The fear on her face. Her determination. Her body, glorious and strong. There was no way she was going to make it over that fence in time, but she was so damn impressive. The way she maced that fucker. How fast she went.