Page 49 of Knot All That Glitters: Part 2

Haven shrugs. “It’s close enough to a word, and you know what I mean. You’re all bristling like porcupines right now. Did something happen? Did my father do something?”

At that question, Ren’s head pops up to eye us warily as she waits for the answer.

“Nope,” Hale says, shaking his head and shifting so his entire body is facing Haven. “No, he didn’t do anything. We were just discussing Brian Coogan and what we should do with him.”

Heaven’s head tilts as Ren looks at all of us. “Do with him?”

Jude nods and grins at her. “Yep. The asshole barked at you too, made you do things you didn’t want to do. He deserves to hurt, too.”

Ren grins. “Now that is something I can get behind. Anything I can do to help?”

“Or me?” Haven asks like she already knows that we’re going to turn her down. Why wouldn’t she assume that’s what’s going to happen, when it’s all we’ve been doing for the last week?

Hale shakes his head. “Not yet. We don’t have much of a plan ready. We never really intended to go after Coogan, not directly.”

“So then, why are you doing it now? Shouldn’t you focus on my father?”

Tic’s quick to answer. “Taking down Coogan first will hurt the senator. Knock out his biggest support and he’ll be floundering.”

Haven considers for a long moment before she nods slowly. “Yeah, I can see that. Brian basically runs his life for him. I’m pretty sure my father doesn’t have a clue what his schedule actually looks like.”

I have to grit my teeth at her using that douchenozzle’s first name and at her still referring to Frederick Bell as her father, after everything he’s done. He doesn’t deserve the honor of that title. But it’s not like I can tell her that.

She likely already knows.

But old habits and all that.

“Not to mention if we do it publicly, really make a big deal about how fucked up and shady he is, it’s bound to reflect poorly on Freddy boy,” Jude says.

Haven nods slowly, before it changes to a shake. “He’ll just claim he had no knowledge of anything Brian was doing.”

I shrug. “Even if that’s true, the public, his constituents might not believe it.”

“The seeds of doubt will be sown,” Ren murmurs almost to herself before a sneaky little smile curls her lips and she pops up to brace her elbows on the back of the couch. “I like it. It’ll bring the senator’s reputation into question. Start making everyone watch him a little more closely, monitor his actions, question him.”

“He’ll hate that,” Haven adds.

Hale nods. “Exactly. It’ll put him on edge. And people on edge are more likely to make mistakes.”

“So it’s a start,” Haven says slowly. “What else do you have planned?”

We all know what she’s asking. What else do we have planned for her father? What else are we going to do to him, andmore importantly, when are we going to do it? These are near constant question these days, and while we’ve tried to distract her with showering her with time and attention and gifts to prove to her how sorry we are for everything we put her through, she is like a dog with a bone. She will not be distracted from this.

I can’t even blame her.

“We’ve had to make some adjustments,” Hale cuts in smoothly. “Since a portion of our plan fell through.”

Haven gives an unimpressed hum. “Right. You’ve been saying that. But you haven’t actually told me anything. What needs to be adjusted? When will those adjustments happen? You can’t just keep me in the dark on this.”

“We’re not,” Tic reassures her. “Once there’s something to know, we’ll tell you.”

Another displeased hum, this time mimicked by Ren as well.

Without another word, Haven stands up from the couch and, with a glare over her shoulder, heads upstairs, clearly pouting.

I can’t even bring myself to feel all that bad about it.

If we only have her until her father is taken care of, either behind bars or in the ground, then I’ll stretch this out for as long as I possibly can.

---