Page 5 of Curvy Dirty Omega

Cameras were everywhere and they didn’t look new, which meant there should be footage of the killer leaving the building. The scanned badges would give us a list of suspects along with the timestamps for everyone who was in this building at the time of the murder.

Too bad the police were the ones in charge of the autopsy. We’d need to have a private one done as well, which was going to be a bitch considering how high-profile all this was.

My hand brushed against my neck as I adjusted my earring, hiding the fact that I was checking to make sure my scent blockers were still in place. I sighed and signed where Frankie pointed, handing over my ID.

“Why are you asking for our designation?” Frankie demanded, her sharp question jolting me out of my inspection of the building.

“We need to keep track of everyone who enters and exits this building,” the big beta told Frankie, his deep voice surprisingly gentle and soothing as he tried to calm her down. “As I’m sure you’re aware, there is currently a police investigation going on in Valor Enterprises, and we need to be thorough.”

Either for personal reasons, or because the cops were watching Valor very closely right now.

“It’s fine,” I reassured Frankie, ticking the box for omega. “It’s not like it’s a secret.”

To his credit, the beta didn’t react to my designation at all. He simply filed the paperwork and printed out our visitor passes.

“I just don’t like it. It’s none of their goddamn business,” Frankie muttered, angling her body so I was shielded from the rest of the lobby.

Her alpha instincts were raging lately, which meant she was probably due for a rut. Hopefully, that didn’t happen until we finished this new case. We’d be in the public eye the second the press got wind of the fact that Valor Enterprises had hired private detectives to investigate Gideon Valor’s murder.

We couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong. Not when I was an omega out in the big bad world trying to solve a murder.

No matter how well I did, there would always be those ready for me to fail just so they could point fingers and remind the world why omegas should stay behind a desk. Or better yet, at home with the babies.

I couldn’t help but wonder what a legacy alpha like Liam Valor would think of me.

Curiosity was going to get me killed one day. I was sure of it. There was no reason why I should care what a legacy alpha thought, especially when I was defective. Not to mention I didn’t exactly come from a normal family. If it hadn’t been for Frankie pushing me to get a new identity, I’d still be that terrified little girl who’d settled into my designation way too early.

Stunting my full potential as an omega.

Probably for the best, honestly. I didn’t have the conventional omega traits or interests anyway. Solving murders hadn’t always been one of my special interests, but that burning need to understand – to know what could drive my father to do something like that…

There was no way an alpha would ever find someone like me desirable – someone who was regularly driven mad by the need to understand why.

I took the visitor pass the receptionist handed me and slipped it around my neck, making sure my name was clearly displayed over my long, black peacoat.

Fifteen years now since I found out what my omega father had done and for a long time trying to figure out why he’d done it was all I could think about. Then Frankie had given me a way out.

Our codependency was borderline unhealthy, but neither of us cared. This world was a harsh, cruel place for a female alpha from a legacy pack with a dangerous secret and a defective omega who looked and smelled like a beta.

I had no idea what the fuck I would do without her.

“I’ll alert Mr. Valor’s secretary that you two are on your way up,” the receptionist informed us. “There will be a bit of a wait as he’s just now heading back from the police station.”

Surprising that he would tell us that, but the way he dropped the volume of his voice as he beckoned us through a separate entrance told me he recognized us.

Frank James and Lou Parker were pretty famous in certain circles.

Not that many civilians realized we were female unless they managed to find pictures of us. If they knew Lou was also an omega they’d probably faint from the shock. We even had our own online fan groups thanks to Frankie’s blog for the agency. It was wild when I took any time to think about it.

My eyes stayed on the floor as we followed the receptionist through the lobby to an elevator that was separate from the others. I didn’t keep my eyes down because I was submissive either. Most people who knew me would say I was the least submissive omega they’d ever met, but that was because I had to be a bit of a bitch to make sure I clawed even a tiny shred of respect from the other detectives.

No, the real reason I preferred to keep my eyes on the ground when I walked was so I didn’t trip or stumble while I was thinking. Frankie always made sure to lead me around like she was my very own personal, seeing-eye dog in the form of a very tall, very built, muscle mommy.

My scary dog privilege.

It was the best, honestly. No one bothered me, and no one saw the grey of my eyes that told them I was an unclaimed omega. I wore colored contacts if we had to do social things that required more eye contact, but otherwise I left them at home. Like today.

A strange flip in my stomach made me wonder if that had been a mistake.

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