Page 93 of Tied in Knots
“I don’t want any of you to come inside,” she mumbles.
“You’re not going in there alone.”
“Harvey, please,” she begs me. “I don’t want any of you seeing where I used to live.”
I take her hand. “Faith. Please, don’t make us send you in there alone. We don't know what happened. We don’t care about where you used to live.”
She glances at Seb and Ben, chewing her lip. I know what she's thinking. We grew up a world away from her, but she needs to be reminded of something.
“We are no better than you. They don’t think so and I know it. We love you for you, Faith. It doesn’t matter to us.”
She smiles sadly. “I wish you could’ve seen the house I grew up in. Much nicer than this dump.”
“You can show us one day.”
She nods slowly and climbs out of the car.
Seb and Ben follow her quickly, as do I. There is no way she is going into a situation that could be dangerous. I don’t even mean that physically, necessarily, but mentally.
She walks up to the door and stops. “Stay here, please,” she says to us.
“Not a chance, petal.”
I’m about to barge past her to open the door myself, when it swings open to reveal Xander standing there looking like something the cat dragged in.
“Uhm,” Faith stammers when she sees his bloodstained t-shirt and mussed up hair.
“You three stay out here,” Xander says, taking Faith by the elbow and dragging her inside. He slams the door closed and bolts it, leaving us outside, worried about what’s going to happen.
“He won’t hurt her,” Sebastian says, trying to be reassuring.
“Oh, I know that,” I retort. “But what the fuck mess is in there that she is now confronted with on her own?”
“She’s not on her own,” Ben says quietly. “We have to remember that Xander is one of us.”
The simple reminder that we love and trust him calms me down. I was about to kick the door in, but now I’ll stay on this side and put my trust in him.
“Do you think he killed him?” I whisper to the other two alphas.
“If he hasn’t, I’m going in there to finish him off,” Sebastian growls ferociously.
“Get in line,” Ben mutters.
I cross my arms, drumming my fingers in a staccato beat that is irritating, yet soothing at the same time. It’s pitch black outside now and we are getting shady looks from some curtain twitchers across the road. Suddenly, everyone seems to be out walking their dog, child, elderly parents so they can sken at us, whispering about what we’re doing here.
Drug dealers seems to be winning the poll, the longer we stand out here like mugs.
“Okay, enough,” I growl and step forward to kick the door in, my boot connecting with the old door, and breaking the lock easily. Paint chips and wood fly off in all directions. I shove the door open and storm inside, being caught off-guard when I see Xander locked in an embrace with a frail older lady as she cries on his shoulder. Faith is standing by with a smile on her face that she is trying to hide, but it is shining through.
“Everything okay in here?” I growl.
“Perfect,” Faith says and beckons me over as Seb and Ben enter the house behind me. “Harvey, this is my mum, Anne. Mum, this is Sebastian, Harvey and Ben.”
“Hello,” she says, pulling away from Xander and wiping her tears away with a ragged tissue.
We murmur back.
“Come with me,” Xander says to us, turning towards the back door, situated on the far side of the downstairs kitchen area.
