Page 75 of Knot All that Glitters: Part 1

I linger just behind her, straining to hear over the espresso machine and chatter of the other patrons. “No, Haven. No. I love you. So fucking much, so I’m going to do this for you. You can’t tell them, but I fucking can. You’ll forgive me, eventually.”

Florence hangs up and slams her cell onto the table, before her back curves and she slumps over to press her forehead intoher palms. I watch as a deep breath makes her shoulders rise and fall. Her faint hibiscus and citrus scent is burnt, acrid.

This is bad.

Whatever she’s going to tell me is bad.

But I need to fucking know.

I round the table and take the chair opposite her. She stays as she is for a long moment, not saying anything. I don’t push. She’s already going to tell me. She declared it to Haven, so I just wait.

“Frederick Bell is a controlling asshole,” she finally mutters. “He’s always been that way.Always.Ever since Haven can remember he’s been… he’s been…” She trails off, lifts her head to meet my gaze with her multicolored eyes. “He’s been barking at her since she was a kid, Tic,” she whispers.

My body lurches at that, but I quickly stifle the reaction. I know some alphas abuse the power of their bark. They use it to get what they want from whoever they deem weaker than them. I’ve done it myself to betas I need answers from, or to get a better deal on my product.

But I can’t fathom repeatedly using my bark on a child, let alone my own flesh and blood.

Florence looks away from me, shaking her head. “Everything the public sees about Haven is a lie, a carefully crafted one held together by her father’s dominance. He’s turned her into his puppet.” Another lurch in my chest. Hadn’t Creed warned us that this might be the case? Hadn’t he seen it well before any of us? One conversation with her and he’d known. “She has no free will, makes none of her own choices. It’s been that way for as long as I’ve known her. The only time she’s really defied him was to be my friend. She’s stubborn when she really wants to be. Brilliant about working around the commands he gives her. He eventually realized that I wasn’t a threat to his control over her, to his way of life, so he tolerates me.”

I should say something, but I can’t speak through the horror of what I’m learning.

“But you,” Florence looks back at me, that furrow back between her brows. “And your pack? That’s something he will not tolerate. Not now that he knows.”

“He knows?” my mouth goes dry and I feel a surge of bile churn in my stomach. Fuck. Was Jude right? Does he know who we are, what we’re doing? Did he tell Haven? But no. No. If Haven knew, Florence wouldn’t be sitting here across from me, telling me her best friend’s secrets.

I open my mouth to ask, to clarify what Frederick Bell knows, but at that moment the server approaches with our drinks and the selection of pastries I bought because it seemed like the right thing to do. Feed the omega. Even if she’s notmyomega.

We eye each other intently as the server places our order on the table, silence lingering until the server murmurs a departing comment. Florence wraps her hands around her mug of hot chocolate, shoulder hunching down, like she’s cold.

I lick my lips. “What does he know exactly?”

She looks up at me, then back at the mound of whipped cream in front of her. “When she went home, he was waiting for her. He demanded to know where she was, because he knew she wasn’t with me. Where she was supposed to be. She didn’t want to answer, tried to work around the command he gave her, but eventually… well, eventually she had to give in. She told him she was with you, a pack, at your pack house, and that you’re courting her. And then he…” She swallows thickly and scrunches her nose as she shakes her head. “He barked at her to not contact you, to not communicate with you via talk or text or email. I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than that, but she wasn’t completely forthcoming with everything he’s told her to do.” Herbrow wrinkles again. “She never has been. I just know it’s bad, Tic. Really bad.”

“Why haven’t you done anything about it?” Florence looks up at me, fear in her eyes that I can’t even blame her for. My voice came out far darker than I’d intended it to.

She takes a shuddering breath and lets it out as her eyes harden, her chin firms up, and she pins me with a glare sharp enough to cut. “You think I haven’t tried? Really? I have. I’ve supported her in every way I can, which, if I’m honest, is frustratingly little.”

She leans closer to me over the table, kaleidoscope eyes spewing venom. “I’m anomega, Tic. And a poor one at that. I don’t have endless funds to whisk her away to safety. I can’t bark back at him and make him stop. I am basically powerless to help my best friend in the entire fucking world. And the worst part is…” she chokes, and tears fill her eyes as she looks away from me, blinking rapidly, like she doesn’t want me to see them.

“What’s the worst part, Flo?” I ask gently. Because everything she’s said is right. Florence isn’t going to be the one who can save Haven from her father. I am.We are.

Her chin wobbles. A deep breath and she looks back at me. “There are groups that help omegas like Haven escape their shitty situations, ones that have the resources to save her. I’ve tried to get her to go to them, to ask them for help. But…” her eyes drop back to the table. “In order to do that, they’d basically set her up with a new life. Frederick Bell, being who he is, he wouldn’t just let them take her from him. He’d hunt her down. It’s the only way she’d be safe. New name, new life, new everything.”

Realization dawns on me, on why this is the worst thing. “She won’t leave you behind.”

A tear slips down Florence’s cheek as she shakes her head. “She won’t. I have a family here. My mother and a little sister.I couldn’t just disappear on them to go with her.” She swipes at the moisture on her face. “She’s so fucking stubborn in her love that she just won’t save herself.”

I sit with that for a moment, letting it sink in. That is the kind of person Haven is. She loves her best friend so hard she’s willing to live in hell, a puppet to an overbearing alpha, no choices of her own, except to love Florence.

This is the omega we’ve targeted in our revenge. Someone who has already had everything taken from her.

I refuse to take anything else.

“She’s broken, Tic. He broke her. Has been breaking her since before she presented as an omega. If you can get her away from him, remember that. She needs time to heal.”

I reach across the table and lay my hand over Flo’s, giving her frigid fingers a quick squeeze. “We’ll get her out. We’ll help keep her safe.”

Her face crumples with emotions, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Florence is a pretty crier, but I still hate seeing it. So I’m up and out of the chair, kneeling in front of her, tugging her into my arms for a tight hug. She stiffens for a moment, then sags against me with a sigh.

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