Page 35 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

It was getting harder to pretend to be normal and I really, really needed the higher dose suppressants to kick in already so I could get the fuck out of here and do my job. Anything to help me stop thinking about those two crazy assholes.

“I wonder who my father will pick for his heir now,” Frankie muttered as she stacked my unused creamer cups in a perfect line.

I raised an eyebrow and sipped the bittersweet coffee. Her reaction wasn’t really a surprise, but still…

Her performance has always been a million times better than mine and even I forgot sometimes that she was pretending just as much as I was.

“Maybe it’ll be you,” I whispered into my cup.

Her glare made me smirk and I drained the whole thing, hoping the acidity of the coffee would get the suppressants to start working faster.

“We both know that’ll never happen.” Frankie pulled her phone out of the pocket of her leather jacket and started tapping away at it. “Did you know the mess at Bite made the news? Then it was like it never happened. I couldn’t find a single article mentioning the incident only twenty-four hours later.”

The Lopez pack wouldn’t want that shit known to the public and neither would Valor. Either of them could be responsible for scrubbing the incident from the internet, but if someone managed to take screenshots before it was taken down then it would be even more obvious they were trying to cover something up.

Not that a cover up like that would surprise anyone.

“There was a picture of him going around as he carried you out of the restaurant, but it didn’t show your face.” Frankie showed me the screenshot of the image on her phone and I grimaced, hating how clingy I looked. “They have no idea who the woman in the photo is, but everyone’s talking about it. They’re trying to find out who Liam might be with and if she’s an omega or not. Thankfully, your heat helped everything die down a bit since there’s been no new pictures since then.”

I wanted to redirect our conversation back to the case, but this was also important. It would help us decide how to proceed. If I had to hide my face and work behind a desk, I could do that, but Frankie didn’t like working alone in the field and it wasn’t safe.

Someone else would have to go with her, and I hated that I was failing her on so many levels.

Why couldn’t I just be better?

I dropped my head in my hands and bounced my leg even faster as I tried to figure out what we should do now, very carefully avoiding any plan that might hinge on Cassius or Liam.

“During your heat, I was able to finish the interviews with everyone who was at Valor Enterprises that day. I was also able to interview Melinda at the office when she came to meet with her assistant. She didn’t tell me anything new, but I was able to slip your tracker on her phone.”

Dammit, I should have done that when I was at her house, but I’d been too anxious about doing my first interrogation in ages to remember to ask Liam to get me access to my equipment.

“I’ve also emailed you everything me and our team of interns have been working on. We tagged the footage we thought you’d want to see as well as the deals Valor has been working on over the last six months. It shouldn’t take long for you to go through all of it since I didn’t really find anything concrete. Don’t make that face, Lucy. I had to take a week off too. So, don’t feel bad.”

Right. Her rut. Well, that was something at least. We had one less thing to worry about now.

But normally, we had a decent lead by the end of the first week, if not more. Then we get the biggest case of our lives and we were still floundering three weeks later? It was pathetic.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” I picked at my cuticles, watching as I pulled on the hangnail until the skin went down to my first knuckle.

“Don’t act like we’ve actually been working on this for three weeks when that’s not the case at all.”

I looked up in surprise, both eyebrows raised as I considered my partner. Her sharp blue eyes were cold as she gave me that knowing look. She set down her phone and crossed her arms over her chest, the bright red of her hair framing her pretty face, but every line was sharp.

Frankie was pissed.

“You’ve been on this case for maybe three days altogether and we both know the pheromones are fucking with your head. It makes it harder to make any connections when you’re not feeling well, so don’t beat yourself up like you’ve been wasting time. You know I hate when you do that.”

I definitely wasn’t at my best, because this was the second time she’d surprised me today. Why was I forgetting how well Frankie knew me? Was it all the fucking pheromones, or was it me subconsciously being a petty bitch because she’d handed me over to Liam?

“You’re right, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been more than three weeks and we have nothing to show for it.” I considered my empty cup and wondered if I should get another. “Do you think a certain someone would go so far as to murder their spouse if they found out something surprising?”

Anyone could be listening, but Frankie would know who I was talking about.

“I think it’s very likely, but I looked at the prenup files you sent me, and it seems like it would have been better for them to dissolve their contract. The second party wouldn’t have lost anything going that route.”

If it had been Gideon, Melinda’s death would have been the one we were asked to investigate, not his.

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