“She tried to move her money,” he says, voice rough with sleep.
“Taryn?”
“Of course Taryn.”
I rake a hand through my hair. “Are you sure it was her?”
Silence.
“Okay, okay. You’re sure it was her,” I mutter. “This is bad, right?”
Ryan doesn’t answer immediately. I can practically hear him counting to ten on the other end. “Yes, Liam. It’s bad.”
“I’m going to need you to explain to me what this means.”
He sighs, resigned. “She triggered my alarm. She logged into the fund and tried half a dozen passwords in under sixty seconds. So I know she forgot it. Then she finally got in, and set up transfer instructions to a newly opened bank account. It wasn’t successful because I blocked it, but now the Greeks have the IP trail and the failed password attempts logged on their end. They’re going to see all that activity and wonder what the hell she’s doing.”
I sit down hard on the edge of the bed.
“They’re watching it that closely?”
“They’ve got flags on every account we touched, Liam. Wewantedthem looking at those other accounts, remember? Wanted them to chase the useless trails. Only now, Taryn’s account is one of those trails. I had to scramble to hide our footprint again. I’m feeding them ghost traffic now, but they’re going to notice something’s off since it involves her account. They’ll start looking at everything else now, locking their stuff down since her account is involved. They’ll add firewalls toeverything.”
I press the heel of my hand to my eye socket. “Why would she do this now? She hasn’t touched it in weeks.”
Ryan exhales. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters.”
He sighs as if this is all too annoying to even contemplate. “Well, why did she need the money in the first place? She set up the fund for a reason. It’s probably the same reason she’s trying to access it now,” he says, voice dry. “Just a thought.”
It hits harder than I expect. “Jesus, Ryan.”
“You asked. Listen, I don’t carewhyshe tried to move the money. I care that shedid. It’s suspicious that the account was dormant until now. They’ll want to watch her more closely moving forward.”
“What? Why?” I’m not typically an idiot, despite what my father thinks, but I seriously can’t follow my brother at the moment.
“Because she’s accessing her account at the same time they’ll be noticing leaks in other places. There’s no way they’ll think that’s a coincidence.”
“But itisa coincidence,” I growl at him.
He ignores me. “They will think we are using her as our pawn to access their accounts. That was the storyyouspun, remember? We wanted our clans to think you set this whole thing up. We fed that information toeveryoneso they thought we outsmarted our rivals. I’m sure it reached the Greeks as well, even if they knew that wasn’t true, since no money was touched.” He exhales loudly. “Only now, it looks like we are trying to use her to mess with their accounts. So, unfortunately, we have to spin a different story that the Greeks will buy—one that makes her look naive and self-interested again. Otherwise, they’re going to assume we are behind this. Or that Taryn’s smarter than she’s been acting and is doing this on her own.”
“Sheissmart, Ryan.”
“I know that. That’s the problem.”
I rub my hand over my face, knowing only one reason she’d try to move her money. “She thinks I’ve trapped her. She must have overheard us.” I’m scrambling to remember exactly what my brother and I were discussing when Taryn came to the door.
“Have you told her what you’re doing?” Ryan asks. “If so, overhearing us wouldn’t have been a big deal.”
I don’t answer. Of course I haven’t. I’ve made her laugh. I’ve made her come. I’ve made her scrambled eggs for dinner. I’ve told her about my family and my classes. Yet, I haven’t told her anything about what I’ve been doing behind the scenes. Not about the Greeks. Not about the fund. Not about any of it.
“You’re treating her like a variable to control,” Ryan says, voice quiet but firm. “In my experience, people don’t work that way, unfortunately. They often need context. If you want her trust, you’re probably going to have to trust her as well.”
The line goes quiet, but his words resonate. My little brother. Givingmeadvice about women. Never thought I’d see the day.
You want her trust?
