Page 22 of Curvy Dirty Omega

All these years later, and I was still just as obsessed with her as before while she was out here thinking I was secretly dating Cassius – a potential murderer. It was all so fucking messed up the only thing I could do was laugh, because she hadn’t been wrong about me and Cas, but she hadn’t been right either.

“Give them access to whatever they need.” I handed my partner back his tablet. “If they want my medical records, my bank accounts, the pack’s bank accounts…whatever it is they want, give it to them.”

“Liam.”

Giving the other alpha a look, I flexed the tiniest shred of my dominance to remind Cas who was in charge when it came to Valor.

“Sir.” The word was sharp, and Cas did not look pleased. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s not your job to understand yet.” I settled a hand on Cas’s shoulder to ease the sting of that statement. “I’m going to shower and change. Watch over them until I get back.”

Then I turned on my heel and headed for the staircase that would take me right outside my own office.

Even if Lucy Parker didn’t think I was in a relationship with Cas, there was a very good chance she’d still want nothing to do with me. Telling her who I was…

It almost felt like cheating.

Plus, she was probably furious with me for taking so long to find her.

But now that I had, I was never going to let her go.

CHAPTER 8

Lucy

It was annoying to have someone babysit me on a case, but I’ve never experienced it quite like this before. Frankie was always hovering around, but having Liam’s assistant constantly in my peripheral was starting to get to me.

His presence was surprisingly unobtrusive when he wanted it to be and that made me nervous. Someone that big and dangerous going unnoticed by everyone around us was unnerving when his presence felt like a heat lamp focused on me and me alone.

It was scorching.

This weird chameleon thing he was doing made his presence practically nonexistent. Nothing like the weight I’d felt right after running into him or during the meeting when he’d questioned my entire purpose.

What could I do for them? Maybe nothing.

Gideon Valor’s office was annoyingly clean other than the pool of blood on the floor where he’d bled out. No sign of a murder weapon, and the police hadn’t found one either.

The only bright side to this shitshow was Liam Valor had gotten us access to both the crime scene and the body the day after the murder. We had access before too much evidence could be swept away or confiscated by the police.

Frankie had worked her magic on the betas doing the forensics and promised them who knew what for access to the evidence before it was locked away until it would inevitably be used in court.

No scent of gunpowder or metal lingering in the air.

Most couldn’t smell something like that unless it had just happened, but my ability to sift through scents was my superpower. Liam had gotten us in here within twenty-four hours of the death so my nose had access to anything and everything before it could fade away.

Someone had even been smart enough to turn off the filters cleansing the air.

I stared down at that pool of blood for a long time, not moving a single muscle. Each breath was shallow – barely enough to make the hem of my coat sway.

Logically, I knew there was nothing hiding in that pool of blood, but this was always how my nightmares started. Then I’d blink and suddenly I was drowning in plasma and iron.

We’d gotten into the crime scene early enough that the pool of blood hadn’t even fully dried yet. There was a lot of it too. Maybe four to six pints if my guess was right. Depending on where he’d been stabbed, it could be more, but it was difficult to fully drain a body unless it was hanging upside down.

I looked up at the ceiling and didn’t see anything that might indicate he’d been tied up in one way or another. Making a mental note to ask for one of the other detectives in the agency to come get a closer look once this was open to the public again, I decided to have them pull the pheromone filter out as well and seal it so I could see what I could smell that someone might have tried to hide.

I forced myself to look back down at the pool of blood.

The edges were dark red, almost black. There were a few cracks but not many. The center was still red and gelatinous. Rim desiccation meant it had been at least four hours since he’d bled onto the floor, but it didn’t seem like it had been more than nine hours total since the center was still such a bright red.

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