Chapter 29 Sera
SERA
Liev takes his call into the bedroom, and I flop onto the plush couch in the suite’s living room, the Vegas lights twinkling like a million fireflies outside the massive windows.
It’s late—or early—depending on how you look at it, but sleep isn’t happening anytime soon.
We can’t go to bed until either Keke and her friends fall asleep or the two men leave.
By the sound of it, they may be here for a while.
I pull out my phone. The battery’s already at forty-seven percent, even though I charged it in the car when we left the club. I hate this phone. I’m almost glad to give it to Callum.
I swipe open my email app, determined to hunt for any trace of Aaron’s password. Maybe I missed something when I purged his messages years ago. I type his name into the search bar, and the little wheel immediately begins spinning. And spinning.
From Keke’s bedroom, a loud, throaty moan echoes through the walls. “Oh, yes, right there! Don’t stop!”
I roll my eyes. Great. The threesome soundtrack has begun. The suite’s big enough that noise is muffled, but not enough to completely ignore.
The search finally loads—zero results. I try dates next, spanning the last six months we were together. Tyler said Aaron told him he’d given me the password before we broke up. I scroll through old emails from that period—work stuff, spam, a few from friends. Absolutely nothing mysterious.
I let out a frustrated sigh. I deleted my text thread with Aaron and blocked his number after the breakup—not that it had stopped him from calling from other phones. But I would have remembered if he’d randomly sent me a string of numbers.
I growl at the phone. Fucking Aaron.
A guy’s deep groan follows another exaggerated gasp from Keke’s room.
I snort despite myself. Stuck outside the door listening to strangers have sex is not a situation I ever thought I’d find myself in.
Me: Is listening to your clients have a threesome something that happens a lot?”
It doesn’t take my brother long to answer.
Brady: I wouldn’t say it’s common. Why?
Brady: Are you okay?
I roll my eyes.
Me: I’m a big girl and I’ll let you in on a secret…
Brady: DON’T
I laugh to myself, imagining his red face.
Shifting to the downloaded files folder, I tap the icon. The circle of death rotates on the screen.
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. “You really need 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 that borrowed 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.
Liev sets his head against mine. “I’ve met a lot of scary people in my life, but that woman should have a warning label.”
The incessant ringing of my phone makes me roll out of Liev’s arms where we’ve been trading slow, sleepy kisses. “It’s Brady.”
Liev groans dramatically, flopping onto his back. “Your brother is the ultimate cockblock.”
I snort, snatching my phone off the nightstand.
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve called you three times.”
“Good morning to you, too,” I drawl.
“It’s not morning,” he snaps.
“It is when you have to wait for the sexscapades to be over before going to bed.”
Brady grunts. “Todd’s been blowing up my phone. Keke’s ghosted him all morning, so he called us. One of those models from last night sold his story. The pics are blurry, but it’s enough that you can identify Keke doing a bump off the other guy’s ass. It’s gone viral.”
My stomach drops, and I swing my legs over the bed’s edge. “I’m not the morality police.” I grimace. “How bad is it?”
He blows out a breath. “You’re right. It’s our job to keep her safe, not protect her reputation. I’m sure Elizabeth will call soon. You need to wake Keke’s ass up and keep her contained. Wait for her team’s instructions.”
I toss the phone onto the duvet. “Keke’s viral again.”
Liev props himself on an elbow, smirking, and I try not to drool over his flexed, ink-covered bicep. “Puppy Gate level?”
“Hard to top ‘puppies make good coats.’”
Less than a minute later, Elizabeth’s name flashes on my phone.
“Hey. Sorry you’re caught in the crossfire,” she says, sounding exhausted.
“Not your fault. Though I totally have new respect for your job.”
“Todd and I booked her into the Desert Peace Spa. It’s about an hour outside the city. The plan is for you to drive her out today and then pick her up tomorrow before the jewelry store opening. It’s a digital-free spa, so hopefully she can’t do any more damage.”
She lowers her voice. “Between us? Atelier Florian’s done with her. Tomorrow’s event will go ahead—too much money has been spent. But barring a miracle, LA fashion week is cancelled. She’s officially a liability.”
I glance at Liev. He mouths, “What?”
I wave him off. “She doesn’t know yet?”
“No, get her up and put her on with Todd. Let him break the news.”
“Fun times.”
There’s a long beat, then, “How’s… the rest of it going? With your partner, I mean.”
“Elizabeth Gowan—soon-to-be-Worthington—are you fishing?” I ask teasingly.
She squeals. “I knew it! I can hear it in your voice. Brady’s been spiraling about you two sharing a room. I’m going to torture him with this for years.”
“Don’t breathe a word. Not yet.” I feel Liev’s gaze sharpen.
“Pfft. Spoilsport.”
“That I am.”
“Meh. You better give me the details when you get home. Good luck today.”
I hang up and fill Liev in.
“Not it,” he says immediately.
I flip him off, and he returns it, grinning.
An unpleasant thought pushes its way to the forefront of my mind. “So, we’re out of here sooner than planned,” I say, grabbing clothes off the floor.
He watches me a second too long, then waggles his brows. “Buuuut… It also means we have the night off.”
I grin slowly. “We do.”
“Hmm.” He catches my wrist, tugs me back down, and kisses the tops of my breasts over the bra. “Whatever will we do with all that free time?” he murmurs against my skin.
“I’m sure we’ll manage.”
Keke is lying like a starfish across her bed, half-naked and snoring.
It takes Dani, Marco, and me twenty minutes to rouse her and get enough coffee down her throat to make her coherent.
I decide telling her about the story and the potentially cancelled tour is above my paygrade and dial her manager.
When Todd answers, I shove the phone into her manicured hand and head back to my bedroom.
Thirty seconds later, the shouting starts. It’s loud and with a degree of creative obscenity I didn’t think she was capable of.
Less than two hours after that, Liev and I are in the front seat of the SUV heading through the desert with a sulking Keke in the back seat.
When my phone screen flashes the heat warning, I hold it up so Liev can see. “I’d blame the desert, but yours is fine.”
He glances over with a frown. “How long has it been acting like this?”