Page 37 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

Ugh, I hated that she wasn’t wrong. I hated that I was being shoved aside because I was an omega and my stupid pheromones were finally ‘working’. Was I really going to be stuck behind a desk or forced to have a babysitter for the rest of this case?

Frankie checked her watch. “Do you feel any different?”

“My heart hasn’t skipped a beat once.” I tossed all my trash in the empty Styrofoam cup and tried not to freak out about what could happen if Francisco Lopez decided to use Frankie as collateral when it came to this case.

Did he care about his heir enough to use his own daughter against Liam? Did he have something to do with Gideon’s murder? If he did, Frankie might have to choose between her father and me yet again.

I chewed on my lip and decided it didn’t matter which one of us went, but it was too dangerous to go alone. “Fine, you can go, but only if you take Cassius with you. See if you can figure out what happened with the property at the docks too.”

Frankie was going to need someone who could resist the pheromones of a legacy alpha, one who was just as powerful as Liam Valor.

I erased the text on the note app and swiped to my messages. Liam had programmed his and Cassius’s number into my phone before letting me go, and I was annoyingly grateful he’d done that.

Relying on either of those two was the last thing I wanted to do, but Cassius could blend into the background better than most professional bodyguards, and no one would ever realize just how powerful he was until it was too late thanks to that little trick of his.

“As soon as we know I’m not going to have a heart attack or a seizure, I’ll start sorting through what we have. Hopefully I’ll have a list of places we can check out by the time you’re done talking to him.”

“We’re going to need access to the Valor compound again,” Frankie muttered as she eyed the people going in and out of the café. “This reeks of an inside job.”

“Make me one more list before you go.” I pushed my phone over to her and tried not to wonder if Cassius would respond to my text or not. “I need you to tell me everyone who might have access to the blueprints for the Valor Enterprises building – anyone who would know the intricate details of how that building works whether it be cleaning crews, engineers, whoever. Then I’ll see what kind of maintenance work they’ve recently done on the building as soon as the doc lets me leave.”

“You’re going to Genesis by yourself?” Frankie seemed skeptical, but she didn’t argue.

“No, I’m going to work from home today.” I desperately needed to shower again and I didn’t want Liam getting anxious about me wandering around on my own either. Staying where he could see me and not triggering his protective or territorial instincts was probably the best way to keep him away from me right now.

But it wouldn’t work forever.

My phone rang before Frankie could finish typing out the list and she answered it for me. “What do you want?”

The crackle of Cassius’s deep, gravelly voice over the phone sent shivers down my spine. “Let’s go. I’m outside.”

We both looked out the window to see a familiar black Explorer parked in the loading zone.

They weren’t just monitoring my every move anymore. They’ve escalated to full blown stalking.

CHAPTER 14

Cas

Even after what she’d seen, Lucy had reached out to me first. She’d reached out to me – trusting that I’d protect the only person in the world she seemed to care about.

Frankie was silent next to me in the front seat of the Explorer, her chin resting on her fist as she stared out the window. The Lopez pack had land on the east side of the city instead of the north. Their compound wasn’t as big as the Valor pack’s but they had more international dealings than we did.

Odd that Lucy would ask me to take her to see Francisco without telling me anything. She’d known I would do it too, and that I wouldn’t ask any questions if it meant I’d get into her good graces.

She was so much like Liam it scared me sometimes.

Could I really handle both of them? I wasn’t sure, but the idea of losing either of them made it hard to sleep. I couldn’t fucking do anything about it after she’d left either. Other than watch her through the cameras.

Even that hadn’t been enough.

I’d followed her like a psycho stalker with my laptop, phone, and tablet displaying her location, the phone we’d mirrored, and the footage from all the cameras we had access to. That almost hadn’t been enough when I was forced to watch her spiral before and after meeting with the doctor.

My omega was freaking the fuck out and she wouldn’t let me help her. There was nothing in the world more agonizing for an alpha than that.

Frankie probably knew what that felt like. She’s been dealing with Lucy for almost two decades now.

Not that I wanted to ask her about it.

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