Warmth spread throughout Jay’s chest. “Thanks,” he said simply, ready to focus on the plan. On the mission. On Becca. Because Jamie was right. She needed them both. Needed the entire JTT.
Sure, Jay would walk through every hell he’d ever survived to bring her home safe. But she needed more than safe. She needed all of them. Family. Not by blood or circumstances. Nope.
The JTT. Jamie. Summer. Halia. They were a choice. The best fucking one as far as he was concerned. And he wanted the same for Becca. No more hiding. No more waiting. They were in this together.
They always had been, and they always would be.
Except now they weren’t alone anymore.
“So what do you think?” Jay asked, a heartfelt grin taking over his face. “Does Grant have the connections to pull off finding us a black ops team willing to invade a hostile enemy stronghold on short notice?”
“Jesus Christ,” Jamie huffed. “That asshole could start a coup with a kazoo and a bad attitude. If he says he’ll make some phone calls, I’m packing snacks and a couple of rabies shots, because he’s probably got a basement full of genetically modified raccoons, ready, willing, and able to wreak havoc with the slightest provocation.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“You’re stalling.” Despite being thousands of miles apart, Becca still felt the burn of Alexsandr Volkov’s cold stare. Used to getting whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it, the Russian billionaire had his sights set on Jay, and he wasn’t happy about the delay. “Do I need to remind you of the consequences of angering me, Maya?”
She shuddered appropriately. All part of the game. He needed to believe she was doing everything in her power to deliver Jay to him. So what if he had her beaten—again. She’d endure any abuse if it meant keeping the man she loved safe.
Hands clasped, she leaned forward in her boardroom chair, eyes wide with false alarm. “I’m not stalling, Alexsandr. Jay Mann is an asshole with a God complex, but he’s by far the best coder on the planet. If he were easy to find, we’d have him by now.”
“No one on the Imperium Council has been successful in locating him.” Seated to her left, Nik did his best to placate his uncle. “He’s good, but he’ll make a mistake eventually. And when he does, Maya’s still our best chance to flush him out.”
A scoff sounded from the man seated to her right, and she refused to look at the sadistic son of a bitch who posed the biggest threat to her personal safety. Roman Dmitriev enjoyed leaving bruises. On her specifically. And any excuse to inflict pain would suffice to make her the target of his vicious temper.
“Jay doesn’t matter anyway.” She waved a hand dismissively. “We’re close to cracking his code on the lock. Another month and we won’t need him at all.”
A lie.
Nobody had come close to replicating the complex set of instructions required to control Dominion. Not even the artificial intelligence programs used to stitch the virus together could reproduce the digital solution conceived by a fourth-year MIT student working on a theoretical problem in a cramped off-campus apartment.
An apartment she’d spent a lot of time in.
“Is this true?” Alexsandr looked to Roman to validate her claim. A mistake. He may have been one of the original members of the international student team assigned to develop a hypothetical program capable of controlling the web, but he was a mediocre coder at best.
His computer skills came nowhere near Maya’s.
Or Becca’s. Even though she’d chosen to study political science at MIT as opposed to computer engineering, she had a natural talent for machine programming. And not just the basic operating language, the binary zero and one codes used to run the central processing unit. But the complex programming languages like Python, JavaScript, C, and C++ used to provide instructions for the CPU to execute.
“Yes, it’s true. We’re close,” Roman replied, not wanting to risk being the fool who had no actual clue if they were any closer to solving the problem or not. “But I would continue to pursue Mann as a precaution. Whether we need his codes or not, he’s still a threat. Find him, validate Maya’s work, and then kill him. It’s the best way to ensure no one else on the Imperium Council gets access to the key that controls Dominion.”
Bastard! In typical Roman fashion, he’d covered his ass and hedged his bets.
“Five days,” Alexsandr said, his thick Russian accent rumbling through the speaker. “You have five days to crack the code. If you don’t succeed?—”
“Uncle,” Nik protested. “Five days isn’t enough time. Maya needs?—”
“What Maya needs is of no importance.” His voice sharper than the crack of a whip, Alexsandr shot his gaze from Nik to her. This time, she had no need to fake her fear as the fine hairs on the backs of her arms tingled and stood at attention. “It’s been two years and nothing. Find Jay Mann or crack the code. If you can do neither, you’re of no use to me.” The threat to her life made clear, he continued. “Five days, Roman. If I don’t get the result I want, you know what to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw her future executioner’s crisp nod, and her heart landed a painful double thump against her rib cage. She’d suspected her time was running out for weeks. It’s why she’d lied about being close to cracking Jay’s code to begin with. But five days?
“Dyadya, you can’t—” The screen went blank before Nik could finish, and the blood drained from her head. If he couldn’t talk some sense into Alexsandr—no one could.
Fuck! No way in hell she’d be able to figure out how to control Dominion in five days. And as for giving them Jay…
Never gonna happen. Everything she’d done had been to keep him alive, safe, and as far away from her mess as possible. The only person capable of stopping the Imperium Council from weaponizing Dominion, he had to be protected at all costs.
