Page 54 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

“Well…” I trailed off, knowing she would hate this answer. “If it’s not somewhere in his house, I have no idea where he would keep it. The problem is, all unregistered devices would have been detected by our security system. If it wasn’t triggered, he didn’t bring it into the property, or he messed with the program somehow.”

Lucy opened another drawer in her armoire but didn’t move anything. She just eyed the sweaters like she was trying to figure out what I’d touched. My fingerprints were on everything though. If she felt like looking for that kind of evidence, she’d see exactly where I’d been, but for some reason she didn’t seem to mind.

“I can go through the security system for the estate and see if it’s been tampered with,” she offered. “I have a few programs I can use that will go through everything and tag anything suspicious, but it’ll take a few days.”

She closed the drawer and then opened the one on the bottom where she kept all her quirky socks. “Did you ever get Melinda to open that safe for you?”

“I didn’t need her to open the safe. Gideon gave me the code when they moved into that house.” I rested my elbows on the table and leaned forward. She wasn’t tearing this room apart like she had the others and I couldn’t help but wonder why. “The items that were in his safe are at my house in the city, not the Valor estate. I didn’t ask her to open it either. I simply had Cas go there when she was out and do it for me. Melinda doesn’t know the code to that safe anyway.”

“No extra phones?” She kicked the drawer closed and looked up to study the books on axolotls stacked above the figurines.

“Cas would have told me if there was, but you can look through everything whenever you want.”

Lucy slammed the doors to her armoire closed and eyed her vanity table next. I hadn’t expected her to have one, but there wasn’t just makeup and skincare. She’d stuffed random trinkets and jewelry in there as well as colored pencils and other drawing supplies.

It wasn’t where she’d find her answer, but it was closer.

“Why do something that would let me know someone was here who shouldn’t be?” she demanded.

“Do you really think I shouldn’t be there?” My grin widened when she looked up at the camera in shock, her lips slightly parted – like she couldn’t believe I could say something so audacious.

I expected her to insist that I didn’t belong in her apartment, especially when she nor Frankie had been there—that breaking in and spying on her was repulsive, but Lucy did none of those things. She just stared into the camera with those big grey eyes like she couldn’t believe I’d even want to.

“I just don’t understand,” she whispered, like we were telling each other secrets in the dark. “Why do you want to be here?”

“A lot of reasons, Lucy.” I got up from the dining room table and crossed the empty apartment to the front door. I stared through the peephole to see her door directly across from mine. “But the main one? I can’t imagine my life without you. I want you to look at every single thing in your house and think of me, the same way everything in this world makes me think of you.”

The sound of her breath catching made my fingers twitch toward the door.

“Text me with a list of what you need and I’ll get it for you. Now, get back to work Lucy, or I might just come in there and give you a reason to be so distracted.”

Hanging up on her was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but Lucy needed to get some work done or she’d start panicking again. As much as it might seem like I was doing all this for me, she was my highest priority.

And always would be.

CHAPTER 21

Lucy

After texting Liam the list, he never responded. I tried not to stare at my phone as I worked, but every few minutes I found myself glancing over to see if there were any new messages.

It was embarrassing how disappointed I was that there wasn’t.

Why was this bothering me? I shouldn’t care that they weren’t texting me because they were doing what I’d asked them to do, but it was still annoying.

I really wished I hadn’t asked them for space. Not that I would ever tell them that. But I kept thinking that if they were in the room with me, I wouldn’t be so distracted even when I knew there was a chance my heat symptoms could flare up again.

Forty-eight hours should be enough. We’d know for sure by then whether it was all pheromone induced or not.

By the time Frankie got back, the sun had already set and I’d ordered food from this place that had the best bao and boba tea in the city. I ate one of the spicy pork bao buns as I worked through information Frankie and the interns had gathered for me.

The program I’d written back when I was still living at the Lopez compound was also updated and running on one of my secure servers. I’d dropped the Valor security files from the last year into it, but it would take time for it to notice any inconsistencies or hiccups.

There was no mention of Melinda Valor at any of the omega specialists we had contact with, and I hadn’t seen anything on her phone or car that pinged the locations of hospitals or clinics we didn’t have access to.

Until she did something out of the ordinary, I couldn’t do more when it came to Melinda. The tracker Frankie had put on her phone showed she was at home, where she should be, and the security logs and footage at the estate confirmed that.

I was able to get through most of Frankie’s interviews and most of what the interns had set aside for me to look at in regard to Cassius and Liam. While those two didn’t have concrete proof they’d been working in Liam’s office during the time of the murder, I was able to get their location from their phones.

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