Page 62 of Curvy Nerdy Omega

Forcing myself to release her, I made sure to set her gently on her feet before taking a step back. And then another. I leaned against the wall separating her office from the rest of the apartment and crossed my arms over my chest as I waited for her to explain.

Lucy looked away from me like she was suddenly nervous, but it was hard to be sure without being able to scent her pheromones. She pulled on the hem of her shirt to cover more of her bare legs, and I forced myself to keep my eyes on her face.

It took her a second to get over her uncertainty, but then she straightened her shoulders and dropped the hem of her shirt to look me right in the eye. “Did you erase the data from the Valor servers?”

I frowned before I could stop myself. “What data?”

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest like she thought I might be acting dumb on purpose. “Data was sent to an external source from the Valor Enterprises network, but all traces of it were deleted from the servers and the firewall. A normal person wouldn’t know how to do that. So…was it you?”

I clenched my jaw, annoyed at the backhanded compliment and the fact that I had no idea that was even happening. “Which server was it?”

Her clear grey eyes narrowed, daring me to lie to her. “All of them.”

That didn’t make any sense. I dropped my gaze to the floor as I considered the possibilities, pissed I hadn’t thought to set up a separate system that would alert me directly, not just the IT department.

It was too late now, but if none of the hardware had been replaced it would be easy enough to restore the data.

“Cas.”

I shook my head, knowing it wouldn’t be easy for her to believe me without proof. “I don’t really mess with the internal crap. All the corporate shit was up to Liam and Gideon to manage. What I did…what I do is not exactly above board.”

Lucy held my gaze and I refused to look away, let alone blink.

Anyone else and this kind of direct challenge would piss me off, but I loved seeing just how strong she was. My omega didn’t give a fuck that I was an alpha and she’d carefully positioned herself so she would have easy access to her guns if she needed them.

“I can’t lie to you.” I shrugged one shoulder like it was no big deal, but we both knew better. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could.”

Lucy could ask me anything and I’d tell her, which was why Liam wouldn’t tell me what the fuck he’d taken from her apartment.

“Okay, fine. Let’s say I decide to believe everything you tell me.” She glanced over at the drawer where she kept her guns. “Is there anything I don’t know about, that I should?”

She may not be as good with people as Frankie, but Lucy understood our situation wasn’t exactly normal and she was using that to her advantage. If I was caught in a lie, she’d know whether she should accept us as her alphas or not.

“Anything ever?”

Lucy glared at me. “No, not anything ever. Don’t be stupid. I want to know if you and Liam are hiding anything from me. Are you really willing to risk any possible future we might have by trying to find a loophole?”

I smiled slightly, wishing she could understand just how badly I wanted to tell her everything. “Those are two very different questions, so I’m going to answer both. Just to be safe.”

Her irritation slipped away and Lucy seemed nervous and unsure again. If she kept this up I wasn’t going to be able to stand here and do nothing when she looked like she desperately needed someone to lean on.

“I can’t tell you what Liam took from this apartment since I have no idea what it is and he won’t tell me. Honestly, it’s none of my business. That’s between the two of you and I have nothing to do with it.”

Lucy’s arms dropped to her sides and she took a step toward me before she realized what she was doing.

I gripped my biceps hard enough to bruise so I wouldn’t fuck this up and reach for her before I should. “Other than whatever this weird game is between you and Liam, we’re not intentionally hiding anything from you. Well, I guess there’s the apartment he’s renting across the hall, but I doubt that’s something you give a shit about.”

Her cheeks got pink again and I didn’t think seeing someone as prickly as Lucy blush would ever get old.

“I’m sorry, he’s renting the apartment across the hall?”

“You ran off by yourself to prove we only wanted your pheromones, not you. Do you have any idea how long it takes to get here from Chinatown in traffic? What if something happened and we couldn’t get here in time? There’s no way either of us would risk your safety like that.”

Lucy stared at me like I was crazy, but she should have expected something like this after so casually accepting that we were stalking her – I’d even go so far as to say she enjoyed it.

“This game between you and Liam isn’t something he wants to hide either,” I tried to explain, ruffling my hair in annoyance. It sounded like I was making excuses, but that game had to play out the right way or everything would go to shit and all this would be for nothing.

“There are things you don’t know about yet that I’ve wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how to tell you when you needed space. I didn’t want to bring it up out of nowhere and make you think I was trying to get you to see me before you wanted to.”

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