Page 117 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

CHAPTER 43

Lucy

“I’m going to make sure we have everything we need for the next couple of days. Will you be okay with just Liam?” Cas pulled me down from the desk and gently set me down in my chair. “I want access to whatever we might need since you two are insistent on doing whatever you want. Weapons, vehicles, clothes, and equipment. But I don’t want to leave if you’re not ready for it.”

Wrapping my arms around his waist, I breathed in the soft scent of the pheromone neutralizing detergent on his shirt and tried to squeal that he was asking me just like he said he would.

“I’ll be fine. Will it take long?”

“Most of it is already across the hall, but I need to do inventory and then go get whatever else we need from the house in Chinatown.” Cas ran his hand over my hair in a soothing rhythm that almost had me purring.

“I want to finish going through Gideon’s computer anyway.” I looked up and Cas already looked calmer than before. “Just hurry up.”

He smiled and kissed the top of my head. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”

Liam and I watched him prowl over to the front door and then head into the hallway. I heard another door open two seconds later before closing.

They really rented out the apartment across from mine.

I don’t know why I was surprised.

Liam grabbed Frankie’s chair and pulled it around to my side so he could see what I was doing. “I’m kinda surprised you aren’t mad about River. And maybe a little disappointed.”

“It’s hard to be mad when you called her father a narcissistic opportunist who was trying to capitalize on your family’s grief. You even told him if he tried to bring it up again, you’d consider that enough evidence to have the police bring him in for questioning.”

Out of curiosity, I went into Gideon’s files regarding the Steele pack. If they were doing something shady, Gideon would have to know about it, right? He was smart. So, why would he get into an argument with Liam about giving them another chance when they kept incurring losses?

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think River had anything to do with whatever’s going on with the Steele pack.”

“Because she’s an omega, or because you want to believe that?”

Liam winced when I eyed him. “Both?” He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “She may be brilliant but her pack is very, very traditional. River does whatever they tell her to, but she doesn’t have anything to do with their businesses. She’s simply an asset.”

Well, wasn’t that just horrifying.

I narrowed my eyes at the screen and clicked on one of the reports that went over what materials were damaged before arriving at the construction site. Taking that time and date, I checked Gideon’s schedule.

“He met with the Steele pack about three months ago regarding one of the shipments.” I pulled up the Valor footage for that day and went through until I found him getting into his Benz. “Who’s that?”

I pointed at the man kitted out in all black, para-military gear. He looked like one of the Aegis security guards.

Liam leaned forward and I could feel his confusion through the bond. “That’s Dane Valor. One of my cousins on the alpha side.”

“Okay. Why is he getting in the car with Gideon?” I pulled up the information from his primary phone to get their destination. “Dane Valor went with him to meet with the Steele pack…and he works for Aegis.”

I showed Liam the location they’d gone to and watched his face closely. All his emotions were faint and staticky, like he didn’t want me to feel any of them.

“This is definitely not a good look,” Liam muttered as he pulled his own phone out of his pocket. “Where is that asshole right now?”

Leaning over to see what he was pulling up, I felt my eyebrows rise all the way up when I saw he still had access to every single member of his pack’s whereabouts in real time, give or take a few hours.

Most of the information was from the trackers on their cars and phones.

“If someone tries to kidnap anyone, we know where they are,” Liam explained as he tapped Dane Valor’s profile. “I don’t usually look at what they’re doing every second of every day if I don’t have to. That’s what the security company is for. I also want to give them as much privacy as possible while keeping them safe.”

“And they know they’re being tracked?” Dane’s profile showed a little dot at the Aegis security building.

“Every single one of them.” Liam sighed and tossed his phone on the desk. “The kids don’t get phones until they start driving and even then they only have restricted access to any kind of social media until they’re legal adults. Technology is a blessing and a curse, but we haven’t lost any kids this generation thanks to monitoring them, so I consider it worth it.”

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