The bedroom door opens, and Liev steps out, his brow furrowed. Pocketing his phone, he drops onto the couch beside me with a heavy sigh.
“What are you doing?”
I hold up the phone. “Figured I’d poke around for the password before Callum takes it to Finn. But it’s super laggy.”
He smirks, the worry easing a fraction as he leans in to glance at the screen. “Youreallyneed a new phone. Did you find anything?”
I sigh, tapping futilely at the frozen screen. “Nope. I searched my emails, and I was trying to get into my downloaded files when it started glitching.”
A loud thud from Keke’s room interrupts us, followed by her giggling shriek. “Whoops! Careful with that bottle—oh, wait, that’s perfect!”
Liev raises an eyebrow, lips twitching.
“I don’t even want to know.” I deadpan, and he laughs.
The phone finally unfreezes, and he reaches over, his hand warm on my knee. “Want me to look?”
“No, it’s okay. What did Alex want?”
Liev hesitates. He glances toward Keke’s door as another round of moans filters through, then exhales, leaning back against the cushions. “I asked him to look into who the Taggerts owe money to. The way you described how desperate Tyler was… It didn’t sit right.”
“And?”
“They owe Mikhail.”
I sit up straight. “The bratva? As in your… I had no idea the Taggerts worked with them. Aaron never mentioned anything like that.”
Liev nods, his expression darkening. “Taggert Construction borrowed big. Thirteen million. I doubt it was Aaron thatborrowed the money, but I’ve seen their father with Mikhail before.”
I hold his gaze, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I can tell by the storm in his eyes, there’s more.
“They’re late on their payments, and Mikhail’s out of patience. Tyler’s not wrong to be frightened if they don’t deliver.”
“Shit.” I lean forward, elbows on my knees, “And they can’t pay him without liquidating the bitcoin.” I stare at the phone in my hand. “And everyone thinks I have it.”
He squeezes my hand. “Alex thinks if we find the password, we could hand it over to Mikhail directly—cut the Taggerts out. Buy everyone some time. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out which email he used to create the account.”
“And if I don’t have it?” Fear carves a pit in my chest.
He kisses the side of my head. “I will keep you safe,malyshka.”
I pick up the phone again and tap the downloads folder. It opens slowly. I find a bunch of old PDFs, screenshots, and random memes. I scroll, searching for anything Aaron-related. The screen freezes again, and I’m tempted to throw the phone across the room.
Another moan comes from down the hall, this one drawn out and dramatic. “Yes! Oh, god, yes!”
The ridiculous over the top sounds lighten the mood. Liev covers his mouth to muffle his laugh. “She’s going for an Oscar.”
“Or a world record.” I set the phone down, defeated. “Screw it. Finn will figure it out.”
From Keke’s room, things seem to be winding down. A few muffled voices and then blessed silence.
“Finally,” I whisper. “What do you think? Sleepover?”
“Nah. My money’s on her kicking them out in the next ten minutes.”
Sure enough, almost ten minutes on the dot, the door opens, and the two men come out. They don’t look at us before hurrying to the door.
“Did you enjoy the show?” I glance up at Keke lounging in the doorway. “You can watch next time if you want.” She winks and shuts the door.
