Page 123 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

“Lucy…” Liam trailed off and I could feel him getting closer through the bond. I could also feel just how scared he was. “I trust you. Just be careful. I’ll be there in less than ten minutes.”

“Don’t stop him from going wherever he’s going to go,” I warned. “I want to see if it’s really just a coincidence or if it’s something else.”

“…Cas?”

“I’ll make sure she’s okay. Don’t crash your bike trying to rush over here.” Cas hung up on Liam and dropped his head back against the headrest. “You’re not going to need any of that, Lucy.”

“Probably not, but better safe than sorry.” I slid my knife back in its sheath and pulled my good camera out of my messenger bag, settling the strap around my neck before yanking my black turtleneck all the way up and over my scent blockers. “Getting evidence is more important right now. We don’t need to stop him from doing anything unless he gets violent.”

He ruffled his hair, making it fall into his eyes again. “This is insane.”

“Very.” If I was right…then someone blood related to Gideon was fucking his wife right under everyone’s noses. “Are you ready?”

Cas nodded and got out of the car, heading right for the front door of Liam’s house. I followed him as quietly as I could, checking my blind spots as I went.

It was so quiet that it instantly gave me bad vibes.

Shouldn’t there be sounds of children playing somewhere? Or people getting ready for dinner? It was a Friday but no one was out and about in the estate. The Lopez compound was completely different and I couldn’t figure out why.

There were massive group dinners on Fridays and Saturdays at Francisco’s house, but I couldn’t hear anything like that despite the way the forest encapsulated this area. Sound should carry on an estate like this.

“It’s been like this since Gideon died,” Cas muttered as he entered the code to the lock on the door before pressing his pinky finger to the scanner. “Everyone’s scared.”

I followed him inside the dark house, not surprised when he didn’t turn the lights on.

We walked straight through to the back door and I realized Liam’s house had the exact same layout as Gideon’s. I made a face, hating it already.

“I don’t like it either.” Cas opened the sliding glass door and held out a hand, signaling for me to wait.

Once he was satisfied he closed it and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “We’re not going over there?”

“Don’t need to.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the office. Except it looked more like that weird room down in their murder basement.

There were too many monitors to count and even more computers.

Cas let go of my hand and started booting them up, entering in his credentials before pulling the chair out. “We can access everything from here. So, let’s watch and wait.”

I sat down, studying every single one of the little squares that showed a different area of the Valor estate as I rubbed my clammy hands on my jeans. “What do we do if he goes to his house?”

The silence between us was loud.

He knew what I really meant.

Would he leave me here to help Liam kidnap this guy or would he make us sit here and watch him do it alone?

“Every house on the estate has a panic room.” Cas went over to one of the walls and pulled the bland painting aside, revealing another access panel. He placed his whole left hand to the scanner this time and then entered in a passphrase.

A hissing noise filled the silence in the room and then there was a click. There was suddenly a visible door in the wall and it slid open slowly. Cas grabbed one of the machines that weren’t hooked up and used it to prop open the door so it couldn’t close on its own.

“If I have to leave you here, go inside and close the door. It’s programmed so only Liam or I can open it from the outside. It’s been bomb-tested so you should be fine.”

Jesus. They weren’t fucking around.

“Even Francisco doesn’t have this kind of stuff. Why does Liam?”

“Do you remember why he had to leave for Blackwood Academy?”

Cas sat down next to me and enlarged the square of footage that was focused on the gate and the guardhouse. Then he did the same for Melinda’s house in three different monitors for three different angles.

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