Page 67 of Bitter Arrangement

He nods once, finger poised over theenterkey. “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.

Chapter25

Alexan

---