Page 55 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

They’d been in the Valor building from 3 p.m. on, but they didn’t have the same software on their computers that most employees did. The best I could do was get timestamps from whatever program they might have been using and when they’d saved a document, but not all their work required using a computer.

Even then, there were ways to trick the system if you were smart enough, and Cassius definitely had the skills for something like that.

“Are you going to explain why it looks like our apartment got hit by a train?”

I looked over my shoulder to see her carefully picking her way across the floor toward me, eyes wide as she took it all in.

“What’s that?” I pointed at the rose in her hand, already annoyed by the possibility of who could have given her something so rare like it was nothing more than a daisy.

“Pop wanted me to give this to you.” Frankie stopped between me and the kitchen as she studied the floor. “I was going to put it in a vase, but it looks like none of them survived.”

“It’s going to die anyways. Just throw it in the trash.” I turned back to my monitors and watched the traffic cameras on our street.

Cassius was parallel parking on the side street near one of the entrances and he didn’t seem the least bit worried I might report him for stalking. Recording my screen was a bit much, but I wanted proof for some reason – something I could watch whenever I wanted. It would remind me he was committed to following me around like a lost puppy until I finally gave in, or he got over this obsession.

I really hoped he wouldn’t.

For once in my life, I desperately wanted to be wrong.

“If your goal is to get my father to give up on you, you need to stop being so mean to him.” Frankie plopped down on one of the couches in the office and eyed all the puzzle pieces on the floor, but didn’t say anything about it.

“Your father is deranged. Why would he leave me alone if I was being nice to him? That makes no sense.” I’d pretty much ruled out Liam as a suspect and Melinda was unlikely. I needed Frankie’s contact to get the stored traffic cam footage I wanted. Once I had that I could follow Gideon’s path after he’d gotten that call, but until then, I needed to figure out which of these legacy packs had deals with Valor over the last year.

Going through contracts was not something I wanted to do so I opened my email and started typing out a message to the Genesis lawyer.

“Lucy…” Frankie sounded like she was laughing at me and I studied her out of the corner of my eye to see she was actually smiling, but she was looking at the rose, not me. “You’re the only person in this world other than his omega that Francisco Lopez allows to sass him. You understand patterns better than anyone. I’m sure you know what that indicates.”

“Like I said, he’s deranged.” But I couldn’t look away when she twirled the rose between her fingers.

Frankie tapped the rose to her lips and I wondered what she’d talked about with her dad to look so relieved. “Just ask me already.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to refocus on my email, but the curiosity was killing me and we both knew it. Why I had to drag this out, I’d never know, but I couldn’t help it. I hated hearing anything about Francisco Lopez.

He was the first legacy alpha to ever see my worth despite my lack of scent, and he’d never made me feel like I was nothing more than an omega. He’d made me want to join his family after everything I’d been through even though I knew better.

Then he’d told Frankie she would never be the Lopez alpha even though she was his strongest. I hated him for that. Why didn’t it matter that I was defective, but it did for Frankie? All his pretty words had been a lie then, because if he truly didn’t care, she would have been his heir. Not Arturo.

“Do I need to be worried about your father?” I eyed her, trying not to make it obvious I was dying to know.

“After I told him you gouged out that asshole’s eye, he said, and I quote, ‘Good for her.’”

“He really said that?” Why were all legacy alphas so fucking weird?

She snickered and rested one foot against the coffee table as she watched the petals on the purple rose flutter every time she twirled it. “Pop has already removed him from the family registry and told Cassius to let you know you can do whatever you want with him…as long as it’s your decision and not Liam’s.”

“Ugh.” When was he going to give up already? “Then who’s going to be the heir?”

Her smile faded and Frankie leaned her head back against the top of the couch. “Currently, no one. My father plans to outlive us all.”

That I believed, but it would cause a huge mess among the four main legacy packs in the city. No one with generations of power and control liked a surprise. If they didn’t know who the heir was, they could try to wipe out the whole pack.

It was unlikely in this day and age, but legacy alphas were the farthest thing from sane, and they had the money and power to do whatever they wanted and get away with it.

“Pop says you should’ve taken both eyes. And his cock.”

I stared at my monitor without really seeing it.

How annoying that I agreed with him.

---