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“Are you finally able to get past the incident with Noah?” Richard asked, ignoring the glare William threw his way. My stomach twisted, not ready to discuss that. I despised William, but when Noah got arrested, it was the first time we were on the same side about anything. He was just as heartbroken as I was. Not that I’d ever talked to him about it.
“Yes,” I forced out, failing to keep the smile on my face. “I understand why it happened.”
The tension at the table stayed, even when the conversation ended. Richard and Peter started chatting about the upcoming basketball season while William stabbed his pasta with his fork, clearly still not over them bringing up Noah’s name. Dinner finished, and Eli shot up from his seat. Richard glanced at him, expecting the guys to join him in the study.
“West and I need to discuss a few things before the team meeting tomorrow,” Eli announced.
“Take River with you,” Richard ordered. “He’s part of the team too.”
Eli frowned. “He’s not a captain—”
“Were your promises of getting along a lie?” Richard asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No,” Eli grated out.
“Then I don’t see the issue of him being included.”
Eli jerked a nod before heading to the door. West was slow to get up, and I swallowed my grin, knowing Eli sure as hell didn’t want to talk about basketball. River followed behind them as they exited the dining room.
“Katalina, join me in Peter’s office,” William said, his eyes zeroing in on me. “We need to talk about a few things.”
My heart stuttered, fear saturating my joy of causing a rift between West and Eli. “Of course. I just need to use the restroom first. Excuse me.”
“It can’t wait?” William argued back, his eyes flashing with anger as if I’d disrespected him.
“I’m sorry.” I hurriedly stood up. “It won’t take long.”
Before he could say another word, I slipped out of the room. Pulling my phone from my purse, I sent a text to my mom’s driver, asking him to pick me up. Hopefully, he’d get here before William found me. Glancing up the curved grand staircase, I decided what I could do while I waited for the driver to get here.
Stepping lightly to keep my heels from echoing, I went upstairs and headed for West’s old room. I hadn’t been in this house in almost a decade, but it felt like yesterday as I made my way down the hall. The guys wouldn’t have wanted any of our parents to overhear this conversation, making West’s room the best place for them to go.
Light filtered from under the door, and I slipped off my heels before creeping closer. Pressing my ear to the door, I kept my eyes on the stairs in case anyone came up.
“Get the fuck out of here, River,” Eli’s muffled voice filtered through the door. “We have nothing to say to you.”
River chuckled. “Your dad wants to make sure I’m included. I think I’ll stay.”
“This has nothing to do with you—”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with basketball either, does it?” River cut West off. “It has to do with the fact that Kat found a way to get between you two. And like a fucking idiot, you fell for it.”
There was silence, and my pulse raced. Obviously, it wasn’t just Eli who realized what my words in the dining room really meant.
“Eli, it was nothing,” West said so quietly I had to strain to hear him.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the second she put her hand on my dick, all rational thought flew out the fucking window. And I knew you’d make it a bigger deal than it was.”
“We talked about this,” Eli hissed. “Before she even came back. We knew she was going to pull shit like this.”
“I didn’t fuck her,” West defended himself, his voice rising. “And if it makes you feel any better, I got left with blue balls that lasted for fucking hours.”
“This is exactly what she wants,” River sang out. “You didn’t think she’d lie down and take everything without fighting back, did you?”
I frowned. River almost sounded like I was the problem. Was he trying to make nice with them?
“It’s not happening again,” West grumbled. “I was going to tell you because I knew she’d try and spin it into more than it was.”
