Page 2 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

“Jesus, fucking Christwhat?”

I’m so startled at the sound of the disgruntled omega’s voice that I nearly drop my phone. It’s thick with sleep and I know immediately that Ren hasn’t heard from Haven. Not yet. My stomach drops, but I still ask the question I need to. “Hey, Ren.” Jude’s head shoots up from his laptop to pierce me. “Sorry to wake you. I was wondering if you’d heard from Haven?” It’s a wonder that I’m able to keep my voice so calm, so fucking level, when all I want to do is shout at her and demand she tell me where my omega is.

There’s a long,longpause on the other side of the line. I grit my teeth to keep from snapping at her to answer me. Finally she says slowly, her voice bordering on a growl, “Why would I have heard from Haven in the middle of the night, Tic? What the hell did you do to her?”

“Just tell me, if you’ve heard from her, please.”

Another long pause, one where I think maybe my first assessment was wrong. Hope takes root, only to be smashed in the next moment. “I haven’t heard from her, no. But then, if I had, I probably wouldn’t tell you. It’s clear from the fact that you’re calling me at twelve-fourteen in the morning, that you fucked up somehow. Did she run away from you, Tic? Is Haven out there right now, all alone?”

I swallow thickly and make myself answer her honestly without going into specifics. “She left the house without telling us. We’re trying to find her to make sure she’s safe.”

Florence curses on the other end of the one, and I can hear the rustling of fabric. “I swear to fuck. If she gets hurt because you guys fucked up, I will castrate every last one of you.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “If she gets hurt because we fucked up, we might just line up to let you.”

She hums on her side of the line. “Call me if you hear from her. If you find her, please.”

“Of course,” I agreed quickly, hoping she’ll extend us the same courtesy. I have a feeling she won’t, though. Not for a while, at least. She’ll probably keep us hanging for as long as Haven wants to make us suffer.

I can’t even blame her.

Like she can hear my thoughts, Ren says, “I’ll do whatever Haven wants me to do, Tic. But I think you already know that.”

I nod, even though she can’t see me. “I know.”

The line goes dead and I meet Jude’s eyes. “Anything?” He asks, sounding hopeless. Like he already knows what my answer will be.

I shake my head. “No. Ren hasn’t heard from her.” I slide the phone onto the table next to his laptop. “She left this behind.”

Jude scoops it up, and has it unlocked in a matter of moments, scrolling through it faster than I ever would have been able to.

He blows out a breath and shakes his head. “She ordered two ride shares. One to take her to Ren’s. One to a hotel downtown: The Falcon.”

I send a text to Hale and Creed letting them know, giving them a direction to go in, while Jude frowns at his laptop. “But I don’t think she actually took either of those.”

“What do you mean?”

Jerking his chin at the screen, he starts typing. “I mean, she took off on foot.”

I round the table and lean over his back, watching as our girl does, in fact, take off on foot at a steady jog, pacing herself like she knows she’s going to be running for a while. I vaguely remember her talking about a marathon she ran last year for charity, which means she can likely go like that for miles.

Jude swaps between camera angles to show her. And it damn near breaks my heart seeing the tears on her face as she runs away from us.

“What direction is she heading?”

Jude’s nose wrinkles. “Into the city. But… I don’t know for sure where. We have cameras in our neighborhood and in her father’s, but…”

But we never put up any in the actual city. Why would we have?

“Can you check CCTV cameras? Traffic cams? Anything?”

Jude nods. “Yeah, I can. But it’ll take a bit to crack them.”

“Do it,” I mutter, typing another text to Hale and Creed. Letting them know our girl might be on foot, alone in the city, smelling like an omega in distress. Anyone could find her. Any drunk ass alpha could bark at her, get her to comply with them, get her to go with them.

Jesus. We fucked up.

Jude tips his head back to look at me. “It looks like she’s heading toward her father’s.”

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