4. Lucy
CHAPTER 4
Lucy
Well. Wasn’t that a fun way to start this conversation?
Frankie and I followed Liam into what appeared to be his office. The man who was the vice president’s executive assistant didn’t exactly stomp past me, but it was close.
Pressing my back into the wall, I took a minute to inspect the office of the vice president. Yeah, I was looking for clues and insights, but I was also using this opportunity to clear my head.
How fucking annoying that Frankie had been right about this. Legacy alphas were definitely a different breed. Even the smallest hint of these two and their pheromones, their voices…
It was starting to piss me off how much this was affecting me – like I was a brand-new omega who’s never seen an alpha before.
As if I weren’t recessive.
Was this how normal omegas felt around alphas? Did they hear a deep voice laced with dominance and lose their goddamn minds like I seemed to be doing? It was like our genetics had decided all alphas were supposed to sound dark and delicious, and for the first time in my life, I was finally hearing it.
Maybe if I’d had any experience at all dealing with this kind of reaction, it wouldn’t have been such a problem, but I was defective. My heats were so few and far between that I’d only had five of them since perfuming.
And I was starting to feel like maybe I was about to have another one.
“Hey.”
Frankie’s voice pulled me out of the spiral I was about to dive into headfirst and I gave her a grateful look. “I’m fine,” I reassured her.
She didn’t look convinced, but she did me the courtesy of nodding before holding out her hand. I sighed and unbuttoned my coat, hating that she could see the flush of my skin and just know .
Liam watched us closely even if he pretended not to.
Pulling my messenger bag over my head, I handed that to Frankie first and then slipped off my coat, feeling both male alphas’ attention fixate on the leather holster I wore over my long-sleeved crop top – not the axolotl drinking a carton of strawberry milk printed onto the front.
Must be something else for them to see an omega carrying.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning and took my messenger bag back from Frankie before heading over to the table the blue-eyed alpha had set a few bottles of water on. Liam moved to pull out my chair before Frankie could, and I sat down before either of them could get into some weird growling match.
“Thank you, Mr. Valor,” I murmured, giving Frankie a look to behave. We were technically guests here, and this was allowed. My partner settled my coat over the back of my chair as if she hadn’t been the least bit bothered by such a possessive act done by a stranger.
I pulled out my sketchbook and mechanical pencil when I realized just how fucking exhausting this meeting was going to be .
Three alphas who knew I was an omega? It was going to be a fucking nightmare if they didn’t put the job first.
“May we begin?” Frankie asked, taking the tablet I handed her.
“Of course.” Liam sat across from my partner instead of me, and his assistant sat beside him with his own tablet.
As far away from me as possible.
I appreciated the illusion of space, but this table wasn’t much larger than a normal dining room table. It was beautiful – a piece of art with the resin design that made it look like there was a fishpond with peonies floating in it between the two slabs of wood.
Sketching that first, I ignored the weight of the scary one’s attention. Thank fucking god there was an air filter in here to cleanse the air of pheromones or this interview would have been a thousand times worse than it already was.
“Last night, Gideon Valor, your brother and the heir to the Valor fortune, was brutally murdered,” Frankie stated.
My hand paused when my heart started pounding again. Neither of the other alphas had liked that blunt statement.
“Where were you at the time of the murder, Mr. Valor?”
More tension filled the room and I forced myself to make a small symbol in the lines of the peony to tell me what color it was when I studied it later.
Wealth, honor, and fortune – in the language of flowers. Red and pink ones, mixed with ivory.
Good luck.
Passion.
Forgiveness.
I didn’t like the way that combination made me feel, so I moved on to Frankie’s rough profile.
“I was in my office,” Liam told her, one eyebrow raising as he clasped his hands together on top of the table. “With my assistant, who you’ve already met, Cassius Valentine.”
They were each other’s alibis? That was going to be problematic.
“And there’s proof you were here?” Frankie asked, tapping away furiously.
“There are no cameras in my office,” Liam admitted. “Which is why I was taken in.”
“I’m sorry, but you were hired by Valor, weren’t you?” the blue-eyed alpha cut in. “So, why are you interrogating him?”
Frankie gave him her infamous no-nonsense look. “Mrs. Valor told our captain to find out who committed the murder. She didn’t say anything about clearing names.”
How the fuck was this method going to ensure we got to keep this case?
I didn’t dare question her though. Handling people was her area of expertise. Frankie could manipulate anyone and everyone – understand them in a way I never could. I only knew how to interpret their answers. Getting them to give them up though? That was her superpower.
The weight of my gun was soothing in this room filled with three very strong, alpha personalities. If I had to, I’d just shoot these two and be done with it, but without cameras in here…I clicked the side of my mechanical pencil to start the recording.
“As long as you have nothing to hide, this will go smoothly,” Frankie promised, refocusing on her tablet. “It’s easier to question you now, and then request everything we’ll need access to. Mrs. Valor insisted on a quick resolution. I’m simply trying to deliver that.”
It was almost impossible not to smirk when the two alphas absorbed that in silence.
“My commander also told us you’d be our point of contact,” Frankie informed them. “Mrs. Valor wants you to handle this for the Valor pack, so I figured it would be a good idea to make sure you’re not the killer first.”
I froze when those icy blue eyes fixed Frankie with a death glare. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to intervene just yet, but this asshole was making me nervous .
“Fair enough,” Liam said, smiling slightly. “We were working overtime, finalizing a presentation for a big deal we’re hoping to close next week. Cas was doing most of the work, so I went down to grab the food we’d ordered when the police arrested me for my brother’s murder. My secretary left the office just after 5:00 p.m. so she can’t corroborate my story, but there should be the footage as well as the records on my phone to prove I’m innocent.”
But not his assistant.
It was difficult to start sketching again.
Glancing at Liam from under my lashes, my hand started moving. He was most definitely a legacy alpha with those jewel-like garnet eyes the color of red wine, and that platinum blond hair made him look like some kind of fairytale prince.
Why did one person have to be so ridiculously attractive?
Time seemed to slow down when his eyes slid toward mine as if he’d heard that thought, forcing me to hold his gaze for a second—an eternity. The rest of his body hadn’t moved toward me at all, and I was caught like a deer in the fucking headlights.
Once again, I was frozen by those piercing eyes of his. His alpha scent wasn’t strong, but it felt like every breath I took was infused with the essence of his pheromones and it was starting to do weird things to my head.
Like giving me the fucking balls to stare right into an alpha’s eyes – a very dominant alpha.
Frankie cleared her throat and he flashed a grin at me. It was just shy of a smirk, but it didn’t quite feel like he was making fun of me. More like he was enjoying the way I kept reacting to him.
How many times have I been told I was barely an omega thanks to how weak my pheromones were? I shouldn’t be reacting to him at all. So, what made this alpha different from all the others? And why the fuck was he always looking at me?
There had to be something wrong with him too .
Dropping my eyes to the sketchpad, I saw that I’d drawn him, not Frankie like I’d intended.
That was fucking embarrassing.
My thumb smudged the lines under his jaw before I could stop myself, making the shadow deeper. Even in a rough sketch he looked breathtaking.
He also looked tired.
I glanced up again, seeing the slight bruising under his eyes that only made him more attractive, and wondered why he seemed so unbothered about his brother’s death when they’d been close.
Well, as close as two legacy alpha siblings could be.
There were a lot of reasons Liam might want his older brother dead, but the way he watched Frankie type all that information into the tablet told me he wasn’t just tired, he was exhausted.
His suit was the same one he’d worn yesterday based on the internet pictures I’d looked at while we waited for the call. It was slightly wrinkled and he’d lost his tie at some point, but all the buttons except the top one were still done up.
He had the sleeves of his white button-down shirt rolled up to the elbow and there were marks on his wrists from the handcuffs, but he didn’t rub at them to ease the pain even though they had to hurt.
Bags under his eyes indicated he hadn’t slept, or if he had, it hadn’t been for long and definitely wasn’t restful. He may not look it to the untrained eye, but this alpha was clearly affected by his brother’s death and not just because of a potential murder charge.
I didn’t know what deal he was working on now, but Gideon and Liam had worked together on quite a few different projects. There were even pictures of Liam looking proudly at his big brother – a brother he’d surpassed in height at some point over the years.
Gideon had looked at Liam the same way every time his younger sibling had made a statement for the company – the pack…
It was the cousins that seemed the most suspicious if we were going to be looking internally, but that was a rather boring explanation in my opinion. Most of the time, it was the spouse who committed the murder, but I had to look deeper for any evidence of that.
I slid my gaze to the blue-eyed alpha.
No, if my assessment of these two was right, this one had a very good reason to want Gideon Valor dead, but it wouldn’t be easy to prove.
Those sharp blue eyes met mine like he could sense my attention and we sized each other up – both of us the silent partner to a charismatic alpha. He recognized what I was, but did he know I could see it on him too?
Every single one of his pores oozed this effortless sort of alpha grace and power that had my entire body tense.
Why the fuck was I tense though? It wasn’t like he was doing anything. He was just sitting there, but my body was sure we were being hunted…or examined on a molecular level.
Well, that wasn’t going to stop me from doing my job.
My eyes caught on his neck then and I realized he wasn’t wearing scent blockers and yet I couldn’t scent him at all? That was a rare skill.
It only made him more suspicious if you asked me.
Didn’t mean he wasn’t fucking gorgeous in his own way.
What was it about some alphas that made them catnip to omegas? All I wanted to do was press my face to his neck and figure out what he smelled like—what was his name again? Dustin?
No, that wasn’t right. His name had been weird, but also something kind of easy to say. Caspian? No, not that one either, but it was closer. Why was I so bad at this shit? Why was it so fucking hard to remember someone’s name? They’d literally just said it five minutes ago .
Castiel? No, that was that guy from that TV show – the angel.
I sighed and made sure to sketch the tiny pieces of the tattoo peeking out from under his collar. It was going to bug me for the rest of the day if I couldn’t figure out his name.
And this alpha was just as big as the legacy alpha beside him, but his eyes were that psychotic blue instead of red. They were bright and deadly like a predator in the night and I pretended not to be bothered by the way he was staring me down.
His black hair was just as dark as the aura he was producing, but it looked soft to the touch. It was also partially pulled back and away, so it might reach his shoulders when he let it down…big shoulders that took up so much space.
They both did, and for the first time, Frankie looked small to me. Anyone would look small compared to these two.
The not-angel alpha’s hand flexed and I studied the nearly invisible webbing of scars over his knuckles that looked decades old. He’d been a brawler back in the day, probably during high school. Maybe even earlier.
“What about you, Cassius?” Frankie asked.
Right, his name was Cassius, but Liam had called him Cas.
Those psychotic eyes finally shifted away from me and I let out a shaky breath as surreptitiously as possible.
It had been a very long time since I’d felt this self-conscious around anyone, even an alpha.
Yes, I dressed like a fifteen-year-old who’d been given a hundred dollars at the thrift store and bought whatever she thought was cool, and I definitely didn’t look as sharp and…sane as a detective should probably look.
I mean honestly, who the fuck wore a crop top to a goddamn interrogation? Except I’d bought it about two sizes too big so I was swimming in it. Between that and my cherry blossom axolotl shoes, I felt ridiculous for the first time in over a decade.
“I understand that you’re just doing your job,” Cassius stated, and something in his tone made me look up warily from my sketch. “But I’d like to verify something before we continue.”
Frankie tapped the stylus on the table and waved her hand for him to get on with it.
“You two come highly recommended.” Cassius flipped his tablet around to show us our detective agency’s Help reviews. “All the comments specifically say to ask for Frank James and Lou Parker, but they aren’t aware that Parker isn’t a beta. She’s an omega. So, my question for you is this. What exactly does she do? How is her presence here going to help you solve this case?”
My eyes narrowed. “Are you implying my partner does all the work just because she’s an alpha?”
“Not at all.” Cassius flipped his tablet back around with a little flourish. “I’m simply trying to understand what it is you’ll be doing to help solve this case for Valor.”
The tip of my mechanical pencil snapped against the paper and I set it down before I lost my shit and stabbed someone with it.
Frankie raised an eyebrow at the blue-eyed alpha and smiled slightly, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t need any help reminding them what I was capable of.
I leaned back and tucked my hands in my pockets, considering both alphas before me. “I could prove exactly what I’ll be doing to help find the murderer, but I’m not sure either of you will like it.”
“Oh?” Liam seemed intrigued. “Why is that?”
Smiling slightly, I looked down at my sketch and shrugged one shoulder. “I may not be good with people, but I am very good at reading them.”
“I’d love for you to prove it, Ms. Parker.” Liam leaned forward and gave me a devastating grin. “Do your worst.”