Page 25 of Knot Her Cowboys
I wanted so badly to ask her if she recognized the match. Maybe the mental wall of her engagement was keeping her silent about it, but her body knew. She was in nothing but a towel surrounded by three alphas, none of whom she was engaged to, and I detected no distress in her scent.
“Would it be asking too much for you guys to come with me when I talk to them?”
“Not at all,” I assured her. “We can have the whole damn staff roster circling the cabin if you want.”
“I really wish there was more time for me to have some space. Our flight to Berlin is on Tuesday. Our entire apartment in New York is already packed up, and we fly back there tomorrow night. Nothing but time in tight quarters after this.”
“Don’t go,” Cash blurted out.
She released me from the hug and settled back in the bath, arms crossed over her chest. “Cashy, it’s not that easy.”
“Sure it is. Kick them to the curb and stay here until you figure out what you want to do.”
“Cash,” I warned. “Let Riley make her own choices.”
“Youarewelcome to stay,” Dakota added. “We have a few guest rooms in the big house.”
“That’s all very sweet. I probably shouldn’t derail my entire life over a hissy fit.”
Tension made my chest ache. I turned onto my knees to face her directly. “I need you to understand something. Bruce’s initial behavior toward you may have been just that, but his reaction afterward spoke volumes. You saw that. Iknowyou know it.Him being pissed about getting his shoes wet was a hissy fit. Him telling you to suck it up after you almost drowned is so far beyond that, we’re not even in the same universe anymore. That’s not even taking into account that he took a swing at me.”
Riley grimaced. “Okay, but what do I do? I’ve been out of the workforce for three years and?—”
“What?” We all turned to Cash.
Riley wilted.
“You fought tooth and nail for that scholarship. I know you worked your ass off. What happened?”
“It just…got too complicated for me to keep working. It interfered with events. I didn’t get to see them as much. There was just a lot going on. And anyway, it’s not that bad. They set up an omega trust for me, so I’m not totally without money, but?—”
“I’m gonna step out of the room for a hot second and cool down.” Cash bolted, leaving Dakota and me with Riley.
“Where’s he going?”
“Hopefully not to get into a fistfight. I’ll go check it out.” Dakota departed, and then it was just Riley and me.
“Sweetheart…Riley,” I corrected myself. “Do you think this might be one of those things you should examine?”
“What do you mean?”
“So, as an example, when my sister got accepted into a master’s program in California, her pack proposed, and she stayed with them instead of going. Did anything line up like that for you?”
Her cheeks paled. “Bruce and Bryan proposed when I got accepted into a three-month culinary program in Tuscany.”
I could see the wheels turning in her head as she flipped through her memories.
“I’d been talking about going back to work when they told me about Germany. Had an interview lined up and everything, just for a breakfast place so it wouldn’t clash with their eveningevents.” She lapsed into silence again, and I let her work through it on her own. “There were so many double-booked events. Things I was supposed to cater, and either had to cancel on going to something I didn’t know they had booked, or letting someone else take my slot so I could attend something of theirs. Oh my god. Why didn’t I notice that before?”
“It’s easy to fall into patterns,” I said softly. “How did events get double-booked?”
“Bruce always told me I forgot about them, cared more about my job than them, but I swear I would always check the dates before accepting something. I felt like I was losing it when it kept happening and Bruce told me their thing had been scheduled the whole time. It just seemed like every year there were more and more commitments and events Icouldn’tmiss. It got to the point where finding time to pursue my own career became impossible. We eventually agreed that I would stop working so I could support their rise in the business world. Bruce pitched it as an investment in our pack’s future. Do you…” She swallowed hard. “Do you think they did that on purpose? Made sure there was something on the dates I was booked? I knew they didn’t love me working, but they were fine with it when we got together.”
“I hesitate to say yes because I don’t truly know them, but it’s a definite possibility.”
Riley growled, knuckles white where they gripped the edge of the tub. “Motherfuckers.”
Iborrowed a button-down and a belt from Levi, turning it into a dress since my clothing was soaked. He disappeared to get dressed and I made sure I didn’t look like death warmed over before tearing out of the bathroom on a mission, crashing straight into Cash when he turned from the stairs into the hall.
