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“I can understand that,” I assure him with a sigh. That’s not a lie, it’s not meant to placate him. The fact is, I’m glad I don’t have to go through something like this because it’s too complicated. Family shit is always the most difficult to navigate.
I don’t even want to think about what he’d do if he knew we’re closer than he imagines.
“So you spoke to her when she first got back?” He nods. “Since then, there was the attack. She might feel differently now. Ready to talk.”
He narrows his eyes, finally coming to a stop. “So she can tell me more lies?”
“Give her a chance,” I urge. It’s not easy, trying to sound neutral. “For what it’s worth, I don’t believe she was working with Beverly. It seems to me she’d be torn between her mother and you. You’re both still her family.”
“You mean she chose Beverly over me,” he mutters, glaring at me and making me wish I’d never came up here. He’s as stubborn as his sister when he wants to be.
“I’m sure she doesn’t see it that way. Why don’t you talk to her again? It can’t hurt anything. She’s downstairs now. Come on. This is driving you crazy,” I point out. “What are you going to do? Pace for the rest of the day? Or will you go downstairs and try to talk to her again?”
He’s fighting with himself, the stubborn prick. He doesn’t like admitting I might have a point. What else is new?
“Fine,” he grumbles, wasting no time marching my way and almost punching the button to open the elevator doors. I follow him in and hope I wasn’t talking out of my ass just now. I wouldn’t deliberately lead Mason in the wrong direction, ever. In my gut, I know I have to be right about her. I need to be, or else she has me fooled.
The elevator doors open after our short descent, and nothing could’ve prepared me for what they open onto.
Natalie scrambles out of Dallas’s lap. She’s dressed in nothing but a short robe that barely covers her ass, and she tugs on it like that’s going to do anything to make it longer. “Hey,” she offers, brushing wet hair away from her face.
Dallas stands, and it’s pretty obvious he’s hard. Not that he needs to be. We both saw what they were doing. “Mason, let me?—”
“Get the fuck out!” Mason barks before he can finish. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I trusted you!”
“And I’ve done nothing to break that trust.” Dallas stays calm in the face of Mason’s rage. “Nothing happened here. Nothing serious.”
Clearly, Natalie doesn’t agree. “Where do you get off?” Natalie demands. Her face goes red along with the rest of her, and she folds her arms. “You won’t be happy until you dictate every second of my life, will you? And everybody else around you while you’re at it. I’m a grown woman.”
“I can’t even look at you,” Mason snarls. He even turns partly away, staring at the floor like he’s trying to prove his point. “Dallas, I want you out of here, and I mean it. Nat, we’ll deal with this.”
“I’m not some child for you to deal with, dammit!” she shouts, throwing her hands into the air and turning away.
“That’s enough.” Dallas lifts his chin, staring at Mason without blinking. “I’ll go. For now. I didn’t mean to blow things up.” As soon as he’s past Mason, his lips twitch like he’s trying to keep from laughing.
Mason’s not laughing. And neither is Natalie, who’s staring daggers at him over her shoulder. “That was not your business,” she hisses once Dallas is gone.
“That’s where you’re wrong. But it seems like you’re wrong about a lot of things lately, doesn’t it?”
“You ought to know. You’re the king of walking around with your head up your ass, completely clueless.”
When Mason turns like he’s ready to leave, I grab his arm. “Hang on. Remember what you came down here for.”
“You know what?” He pulls his arm away. “I’m not wasting my time or my breath. I would never get a straight answer out of her, anyway.” He shakes his head in disgust, his back turned to his sister like hers is turned to him. When the doors open, he gets into the elevator without another word, wearing the same stony expression as the doors slide shut.
So much for that. I turn, shrugging, only now Natalie is glaring at me. “If you think I don’t know what you just did,” she whispers, “you’re wrong. I know exactly what that was all about.”
17
NATALIE
Griffin has the nerve to look surprised. He even lets his mouth fall open. It might be funny if I didn’t want to rip his head off. “What do you mean? What did I do?”
