Page 31 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

That makes me frown as I settle into the cold trunk. It’s pretty big and I’m pretty small, so it’s not a tight fit, but it’s not exactly comfortable.Of course it’s not, Haven. You’re being kidnapped.

“He won’t pay a ransom for me,” I tell him as I settle into the space.

A soft huff of laughter. “That’s okay, omega. We aren’t asking for one.”

With that chilling statement, he closes the hood of the trunk and I’m wrapped in complete and utter darkness.

Chapter 11

Timing is Everything

Anxious energy is buzzing through my veins, but you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I can’t afford to fuck this up. Haven can’t afford for me to fuck this up, so I have to stay calm.

My eyes flick up to the corner of the room where we know there’s a camera. We know where all the cameras are in this building, in the Bell home, and at the secret apartment that Frederick Bell thinks no one but Brian knows about. We’ve tracked his movements enough to be aware of every security measure he’s taken until the goddamn Compass Rose group.

Did Bell have them upgrade the security here, too?

I doubt it. Not with how easily we walked through the door. No, he only updated the security at his house to keep Haven locked away.

My pack mates aren’t being as subtle as I’d like, boldly filtering through his bookshelves and drawers, looking for any information that might help us, help Haven. But they won’t find anything. They know it, and I know it. It’s more a tactic to show Frederick Bell that we don’t give a shit.

He doesn’t scare us, and he needs to know it.

“Look at this bullshit,” Creed mutters, stopping in front of a wall of photos. All of them have Frederick Bell in them, half of them with celebrities and other political figures, the other half with Haven. In all of them, he’s playing the dutiful father to his daughter, looks so proud of her. But we all know that’s a fucking lie.

Still, every single person who walks into this office will think the same thing we did before we got to know her, before we knew the truth. That he dotes on her, loves her more than anything. No one will bother to see the haunted look in her eyes, or the way she doesn’t lean into him. She does a good job of hiding it, but now that I know her and the things that he’s done to her, I can see every instance where she’s uncomfortable, screaming inside, wishing like hell she could get away from him.

“What the fuck is taking so long?” Jude mutters under his breath. “It shouldn’t take him this long to get here.”

Timing is everything.

We’d lingered at the engagement party for as long as we could, kept an eye on Haven, watched as Brian paraded her around like a proud fucking peacock. And I was struck with something I haven’t felt much in my thirty-two years.

Jealousy.

So much jealousy. He gets to walk her around in front of all those people, in front of those cameras, and journalists, and show her off ashis. And she let him. When she was with us, she hardly felt comfortable enough to leave the house, to go out with us as a pack. I don’t know if her father’s commands conditionedher to be that way, to hide away from the world to avoid embarrassing him, or if she just didn’t want to be seen with us.

If some lingering part of her believes her father’s lies, that she shouldn’t be with a pack.

It had taken every ounce of my self-control to leave her there with them. To turn my back on her and walk away. It’s for the best. We needed to finalize our plans, to make sure this goes off without a hitch because we can’t fucking fail. This is too important.

“He’ll be here,” Tic reassures Jude, perhaps a moment too late, letting me know he’s as worried as the rest of us.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, but I don’t reach for it, keeping my fingers laced together, my elbows braced on the arms of the chair I’m sitting in. Creed’s brows jump in question at the faint buzzing, and I nod at him.

A moment later, the door of the office opens and Frederick Bell enters, his smile firmly in place. It falters just slightly when he takes us in. Specifically me sitting behind his desk, in his chair, my pack splayed out on either side of me. “Lovely to see you boys again so soon.”

Jude snorts. “Wish we could say the same, Freddy, but we really fucking can’t.”

Bell’s amiable smile drops just slightly as he moves to a chair in front of his desk and drops into it, like it doesn’t eat him alive to be on that side, in an arguably weaker position. “Oh, and why might that be?”

“You have our omega,” I say easily enough, letting him feel the truth in my words. Haven is ours. Will always be ours. “We’d like her back.”

He eyes me. “So you admit you had her all this time? That you kidnapped my daughter, held her hostage?”

I scoff at his attempt to get me to say something damning. I’m sure his office is bugged to high heaven. Word on thestreet is he blackmails anyone who says anything even remotely damning. But that won’t be us.

Not when we’re so fucking close.

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