Page 86 of Curvy Quirky Omega

I didn’t have my blazer on, and my extra phone wasn’t in my pants pocket. I made sure I could still hear it though if it went off after hours.

Hiding it in my desk was too obvious. It was the first place someone would look, but I pulled open all the drawers anyways, eyeing each one to make sure the depth made sense and there were no false bottoms.

I closed all the drawers and found Cas still standing at the main door, watching me with an unreadable expression.

We got along, but I’d never really understood his relationship with my brother. All I knew was he’d do anything for Liam and he was too fucking smart for his own good, but he wasn’t stronger than me.

Dismissing the other alpha, I let the memories of the crime scene photos direct my next thought.

There was nowhere to hide in this office and only a handful of people even knew about the stairwell on the other side of my private bathroom.

Glancing over at the statue again, I saw Frankie run her gloved hands over the bookshelves, picking up every item before setting it down again. Liam was leaning against my conference table with his arms crossed, silently watching me with that sharp gaze of his.

Liam, on the other hand, was stronger than me and I always had to remember that. There was nothing soft or gentle about him when it was just the two of us, and I found that oddly reassuring.

If I didn’t want Liam to know about something, I’d have to be very, very careful. He was too sharp – too clever. He was probably the only person in the world who could find out my secrets and there was a part of me that was counting on that.

I didn’t keep my second phone on my desk after hours just in case Liam or Cas decided to barge in here unannounced, but I did want to hear it vibrate so I could answer if the person on the other line needed me.

But the night I was murdered, they didn’t call me. They came right into my office like they belonged here, and I was expecting them.

I stood, heading back towards the coat rack on my left. It was the fastest and most direct way to greet them, but I stopped halfway because something was different tonight. I may not be as strong or as powerful as Liam, but I was still an alpha.

They could come to me.

But I refused to stay in a position that would give them an opportunity to look down at me.

I slipped my hands into my dress pockets and tilted my head to the side like I’d seen him do before. I’d been expecting them, but not here, and not like this. I needed to quietly figure out what the fuck they were doing here when my brother was still in the building, on the floor just below mine. I had to calm them down and take care of the situation before it got out of hand.

If Liam caught wind of anything, it would make my life unnecessarily difficult.

Why would I give them my back though?

I was a legacy alpha, I reminded myself. There was no way someone could get the jump on me. The only people I might be nervous about turning my back on would be my mother, Francisco, and Liam.

So, if I didn’t like what this person had to say or we had a disagreement, I’d want them to leave. To show them how little I was worried about their presence, I shrugged and turned on my heel, eyes forward and not on the floor.

I took two steps to make up for the height difference, and then stopped – turning to look at my desk because I’d fallen forward as I was standing, not while I was walking. For some reason, it felt like I was looking for something…

The picture of Melinda and I was angled so I could still see her smile from this position.

Why did I fall?

Considering the stab wounds, the person definitely knew how to do some serious damage in the most efficient way possible. They knew how to take advantage of another person’s weakness and I’d stupidly turned my back on them.

All they had to do was trip me up, or maybe they were like Cas and possessed a secret strength that could shove me to the ground. I dropped to my knees and fell forward, shocked this person had the audacity to attack me.

A legacy alpha.

Lying on my stomach like that, I moved my arms to my sides as though someone was pulling them, and I could smell the bleach and the tiniest hint of rotten blood wafting up from the floorboards.

All I could see with my face turned to this side was the floor under my desk, but I wanted to see the face of the person who dared to do this to me as they crouched down beside me. So, I turned my head to the left, unable to reach for them with knives through my wrists, pinning me to the floor.

Even now, I didn’t believe this person would kill me.

I was convinced I could get my wrists free if nothing else. I could use the voice command on my primary phone and get Cas and Liam up here in a heartbeat. I could use my pheromones as well as my alpha command to force this person to obey.

But I never had the chance to do that.

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