Bell's face was dark. He pretended not to hear anything as he walked upstairs, cursing to himself. 'Damn it, if I hadn't been so pissed off by those rumors lately, I never would've lost my cool and approached her. I wouldn't be in this mess!'
'If I find out who ratted me out, I'll beat them to death!'
River Larkin, who was beside him and overheard the muttering, stiffened for a moment before quickly composing himself to look nonchalant.
'He didn't know if he'd made the right move. His original plan was to use Quinn Chase to cause some trouble for Bell, maybe even tarnish the three brothers' reputation a bit more. That would have made his own plans run more smoothly.'
'But he never expected things to escalate like this.'
'He especially hadn't expected this Stella Sterling to be even crazier than he'd imagined. She had actually gotten involved in today's mess too.'
'Now that things had reached this point, he had completely lost control.'
