Page 5 of Broken (Powertools: The Shields 4)

“Is this the guy you told us about? The one who’s a cop by day and runs a BDSM club with his wife at night?” Sola seemed to know a decent amount about the guy.

“Yeah. And that’s not all he gets into. Most of the time he hands stuff off to me when it would jeopardize his job to, let’s say, push the boundaries of the law. Taking him away from his wife, Lily, and their son—who, with genes from both of those two, can be a handful and a half—is the last thing I’d do if I could think of another way to handle this.”

“He’ll help.” Jordan said simply.

“I know. That’s the problem. He’d do it even if it was a massive inconvenience for his family, or the rest of the Men in Blue, needed him instead. Because he’s too damn honorable not to.” Ruby groaned as if that was a bad thing. Ace thought the guy sounded like someone he’d like to have on his side. Especially if the dude could help keep Ruby safe. “If it’s not too much trouble, he should come in person.”

“I’m sending Aven for him right now.” Jordan referred to their in-house pilot. Having a private jet came in handy. “We won’t use any of our external communications until the two of you can clear them as clean. Why don’t you write him a quick note with the crux of the issue so he can be mulling it over on the flight here?”

“Fine.” Ruby glowered.

Good. Pissed-off Ruby was way better than cowering, bawling Ruby. Seeing her as broken as Ace had often felt lately had damn near made his balls shrivel. He’d never watched her shrink from a problem, never mind shut down like that. And he never wanted to again.

“I’m sorry, Jordan.” Ruby deflated. “I shouldn’t have been poking around on the work computer.”

He waved her off. “It’s literally your job to stop shit like this. If you hadn’t done it, you wouldn’t have spotted these thieves, and at the end of the day, that’s a bigger problem right now than even our own security or your personal finances. Besides, I’m pretty sure the only way you can get training in the services you and JRad convinced me to start offering is throughhands onexperience. You were upfront with me about that and the risks it entails.”

The corner of Ruby’s mouth kicked up just enough to flash the ghost of one of her adorable dimples. Ace would take that.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this once JRad gets here and the two of you tell us what else you need.” Jordan clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Until then, it’d be best if you rest up and get ready for whatever’s about to come. It feels like we’re going to need your undivided attention if we have any chance at stopping these fuckers from causing more harm. Plus, of course, recover your savings then make sure they can never pull this shit again.”

Ace cracked his knuckles. Finally, something he could be of use with. That last bit was for the rest of the Shields, he was sure of it.

Ruby struggled to her feet as if they were about to let her waltz out of there without an escort. Liam braceleted her wrist easily with his heavy hand. “Where are you going?”

“Home to cry myself to sleep, if you don’t fucking mind.” She sniffled but lifted her chin, some of her usual spunk returning.

“I do, actually.” Liam didn’t let go even when she tugged.

Ruby flung her gaze to Jordan as if demanding her boss order Liam to release her.

Ace held his breath, blowing it out only when Jordan shook his head. “It’s better if you stay with Liam and Ace. First, you shouldn’t be alone right now. None of us should. I’m going to ship all non-essential family members out to the Hot Rods. They can camp out in the rooms over the garage with those guys and the Powertools to help look out for them. Everyone else should be buddied up at all times. We’re not going to let our guard down or make ourselves easy targets, hear me?”

A round of agreements and nods swept the room.

“Second, if whoever launched that cyberattack downstairs really did figure out who you are, they might somehow have access to your system or your room for surveillance. It’s smarter for you to be where you’re not usually and these two aren’t nearly as connected, so it will be easier to sweep their place.” Jordan crossed his arms.

“I hate it when you make sense.” Ruby crashed back onto the couch dramatically, her wrist breaking free of Liam’s grip, which slid to her knee instead. Ace didn’t blame his partner one bit.

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