Page 110 of Broken Omega

“You perfumed the day we met, Brooke,” Kellan says. “It was this really light, sweet scent of cherries. Your father’s an Alpha. He must have known it was your perfume.”

“That’s so strange,” I murmur. “I don’t even remember us meeting, and I … I thought Icouldn’tperfume. Until recently, I mean, when I met my … other mates.”

“I was out in the woods near your house that day with my parents and our old dog. Our car was parked in a nearby lot with security cameras. If he didn’t recognize any of us, he would have been able to access the camera log for that parking lot.”

“He had that lot built,” I tell him. “There was a camera feed to it in the house. In his office.”

“Yeah, it’s his property. He owns that whole area of land that bridges Cressidan City and Crystal Grove. Including a second house practically identical to your own.”

“You looked into his financials?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Found them,” he says with a sigh, putting a box of matches down on the table.

“Uh-huh,” I mutter, ignoring the matches. “What did you find when you looked into my father’s money?”

He lets out a soft sigh. “I don’t know if you really want to know about this, Brooke.”

“I don’twantto know, Ineedto know. So, spill,” I demand, getting a little testy.

“I drilled down into the data for the companies he has and there’s no way in hell he’s making what he’s reporting out of them. There are different discrepancies all across the board, from the number of clients and the pricing of the products and services right down to supplier invoicing being too low to make anything close to the number of items being sold. All those businesses are covering up something else that he’s doing. Something a lot less legal.”

“Holy fucking hell.” I frown at him. “It sounds like you’ve spent a lot of time on that.”

Like an obsessive amount of time, maybe.

He shrugs, picking up the matchbox and opening it.

“After he called me, I felt like I had to do something.”

It really wouldn’t surprise me if my father was up to something illegal.

I never stopped to think about where he was making his money.

Why would I?

No one ever said anything to make me question it.

Now that I am, I can see it. He’s always been a psychopath.

The need for money and power top everything else in his life.

I don’t think there’s much he wouldn’t do if it helped him become wealthier or more powerful.

So, that leaves one really big question.

“You’re saying his businesses don’t make sense, but you don’t know what he’s doing that’s illegal, exactly?”

He lights the first candle and blows out the match before it can burn his fingertips.

“I’ve checked the data a couple times. Measured it against his competitors for every company. I’m sure his financial records make it look above board, but data doesn’t lie. If there isn’t enough demand for something, it’s not going to sell. Especially when there’s no advertising behind it. Anyone who knows the tech he’s selling would see something was wrong.”

I watch as he strikes another match against the side of the box.

“Finding out where the money’s coming from is a whole other thing. I found a list of residential properties he owns. When we get internet access, I’ll check that with you. It’s probably the only starting point we have to figure out what he’s actually doing.”

“What about the private hospitals? Those are what he’s known for.”

“I’m out of my depth a bit with those. They could be legitimate. The costs for treatments are sky-high, but that doesn’t seem to be abnormal. Can you think of anything he does that might be unusual? Any people he knows who seem sketchy?”

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