5. Lucy
CHAPTER 5
Lucy
The intensity of those words in that deep, delicious voice shook me to my core.
My vision narrowed until he was all I could see.
But Liam Valor wasn’t this otherworldly creature. He wasn’t the most beautiful man I’d ever fucking seen either. He wasn’t even the biggest alpha I’d come across despite his ridiculous size. No, it was something else that made my entire body stand up and take notice.
It was like every drop of my blood rushed through my veins toward him, slowing down when it was forced to move away from him – as if blood could possibly know what was drawing it closer, like he was a magnet yanking on every microscopic bit of iron in my body.
Even my hands were trembling.
Was I experiencing fight or flight? I’d already frozen a few times now, so what the hell was he going to make me do next?
There was always the other one – the one I hadn’t experienced in so long I’d been sure I was broken beyond repair.
He might just be the first alpha who made me want to fuck .
“If you insist,” I finally managed, forcing myself to keep my hands in my pockets instead of reaching up to check for my scent blockers again. “While Frankie has been questioning you, I’ve been inspecting your office as well as the way the two of you have been acting. Once we leave, we’ll compare notes and go from there.”
“How exactly is that helpful for Valor?” Cassius demanded, his deep voice sharp enough to make me flinch again.
“We need to rule the two of you out first,” I reminded him, keeping my eyes on the sketch I’d done to avoid all that eye contact. “If we can’t do that, we have to be careful when accepting any help you might give us when it comes to solving this case.”
“And what have you determined, Ms. Parker?” Liam asked, leaning back to mimic my posture.
He was mocking me, but I didn’t really care. That wasn’t the point of this.
My eyes slid from the sketchbook to the ivory peonies in the table that symbolizes forgiveness. Then I fixed my gaze on the rain sliding down the windows along the far wall, seeing nothing but those dark clouds thanks to how high up we were.
“There’s only one floor above yours,” I murmured, shoving back any thoughts of that boy and his tears hidden by the rain. “The president of the company was right above you when he was murdered, which means there’s either very good insulation in this building if you heard nothing, or you were listening to music too loudly to hear anything. It’s also concerning that the police were here so soon after his death.”
The killer had probably called them, hoping to frame Liam since he was the easiest to pin the blame on.
“Unfortunately, your only alibi is Cassius, and the same goes for him. This means the two of you were unsupervised during the window of Gideon Valor’s murder, which is a problem since there are no cameras in this office…I assume the president’s office is exactly the same. Any security cameras would be outside the office as well as in that private elevator that could help us with timestamps, I suppose. ”
Silence as they absorbed all that.
I ignored the tension building and started jiggling my leg as I considered the blueprints of the building I’d hacked into right after I’d seen Gideon Valor’s murder on the news this morning.
“There are a few sets of stairs in this skyscraper, but only two that have access to the top three floors. On the southern side of the building is a staircase employees like to access the roof for their smoke breaks. There’s also an access point up there to the seventieth floor, but I couldn’t find anything regarding security footage there. Still, it’s possible someone went across the top of the building to the northern side, and then came down to the president’s office.”
Even if that was the case, most of the doors leading anywhere external had little devices on them that would alert security if they were opened and closed. It was smart when it came to staircases and boiler rooms, that kind of thing, but there weren’t any on Liam’s door so it was unlikely there’d be any on Gideon’s.
Sliding my gaze from the windows to the door that led to a private bathroom, I knew the easiest explanation was Cassius took the private staircase from this floor to the seventieth. There was another room beyond that wall that had another elevator in it per the blueprints, but that didn’t mean it worked. Just that the original owner of this building had been overly cautious and afraid of an ambush.
Alpha disputes were a lot bloodier back in the day, and it wouldn’t have been unusual for another pack to try to kill this pack’s heir.
“From what I can tell, Liam Valor did not kill his brother. I don’t have the exact time of death yet, but the overall sequence of events just doesn’t make sense. Why would he be in the lobby collecting a food order right as the cops came to storm the building? It’s lazy of them to arrest him on sight, which makes me think someone implied it was him when they called to tip off the police. ”
“Impressive,” Liam admitted, but his smirk said otherwise. “Anyone could deduce that though.”
“Anyone with access to the building’s blueprints,” I corrected, forcing myself to look into those intense red eyes. “But not just anyone would be able to see that you aren’t the main suspect. Cassius is.”
Both alphas stiffened as if I’d physically slapped them.
I didn’t react to the shift in mood as I’d been expecting it, but Frankie did and her growl was just as nasty as Liam’s.
“James, I suggest you get control of your omega,” Liam snarled, his razor-sharp focus never once leaving me.
“She’s not my omega,” Frankie snarled right back.
Giving Cassius a small smile, I shrugged my shoulder. I told you so, asshole.
“I’m curious why you’d think that,” he said, his voice cutting through those growls effortlessly.
“Are you?” My smile widened and I raised an eyebrow, silently asking if he was sure.
Cassius nodded once, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly. “I am.”
What was it about him that made me want to rise to the challenge no matter how stupid I knew it was?
“Despite the obvious, boring motives, Liam Valor has no interest in becoming the next chairman, or even the next pack alpha. But you…”
I kept my eyes on his, knowing this single statement could cost me my life, but it could also give me the respect I so desperately needed.
“The two of you live together. You’re even wearing the same button-down shirt. Then there’s the fact that Mr. Valor’s scent is lingering on your chest, Cassius. It’s also clinging to your hair and neck. Even without being able to scent him on you, I already knew the two of you have slept together in the past.”
Never in a million years could I have predicted the way Liam’s jaw dropped at my confident statement, but Frankie clenched her teeth, clearly annoyed I hadn’t shared that tidbit before meeting with them.
I would have right after the interview, but I’d kept it to myself until now because I’d wanted her to ask her usual questions without any sort of preconceived ideas.
Shifting my gaze from Cassius to Liam, I tilted my head slightly and wondered if he was shocked I knew about their secret relationship, or that I was calling his boyfriend a murderer.
Either way it didn’t matter.
“You’re both alphas, and you, Mr. Valor, are a legacy alpha. I doubt your mother or brother would have approved of such a relationship. The two of you would never be able to go public considering you have a legacy to uphold, but if you were the next alpha of the Valor pack, maybe it wouldn’t have to be kept a secret.”
Those garnet eyes sparkled at me, and I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Was he… proud?
Why would this fucker be proud of me? We didn’t know each other and I had just called his boyfriend a fucking murder suspect, outing them without a single drop of evidence other than the faintest hint of his scent on the other alpha. I could walk out of here and tell the world, but Liam Valor didn’t look the least bit worried about that.
“It would be extremely impressive if Cassius managed to kill my brother in the five minutes it took for me to get to the lobby and be arrested by the police.” Liam was practically grinning now. “But you were spot on about everything else.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cassius muttered, tossing his tablet on the table. “How did you even scent that? Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve done anything together?”
Frankie snorted and covered her mouth, trying to hold back her laughter, but this was honestly her favorite part of any interview that somehow brought my abilities into question thanks to my designation.
“You two are ridiculous,” she snickered. “You really thought the Lou Parker was just my girlfriend who I dragged around to show off?”
“Your omega who also happens to be carrying a loaded gun?” Liam shook his head. “I never thought she was here just to look pretty.”
“I’m no one’s omega,” I corrected, picking up my pencil and sketchpad once more – doing my fucking best not to focus on the fact that Liam Valor had implied I was pretty. “Frankie and I have a platonic bond. Nothing more.”
It was more than they deserved to know, but I kind of felt like an asshole for outing their secret relationship.
My hand paused once more as I realized they didn’t really know me, or what I would and wouldn’t do. “Just to be clear, I have no intention of telling anyone about your relationship.”
“Not even Valor’s pack alpha?” Liam teased, still leaning forward.
He inspected my sketch, and I grimaced when it made me slip and mess up one of the lines. “She asked for us to find out who the murderer is, not who you’re dating.”
“We’re not dating,” Cassius growled, his deep, gravelly voice making me flinch again .
“Whatever you want to call it. I don’t really care,” I muttered as I erased the fuck-up and made sure the line was right this time.
“I’m wearing scent blockers,” Liam pointed out, watching as I started sketching the wall to my left from memory alone. “How could you tell it was my scent on him, if you’ve never caught a whiff of it before?”
Focusing on the details of the family photo tucked into one of the shelves lining the western wall, I tried to ignore the intensity of his attention – the subtle scent of his pheromones that were curling around me even now .
I really hoped we could get out of here and get to the real work soon. These two were distracting as hell.
“Your scent blockers aren’t as effective right now as you’d like them to be.” It was impossible not to reach up and touch the soothing texture of my own covering my neck. “It’s not as strong as I’m sure it is without them, but I could smell your scent when I ran into you in the elevator. Once those doors closed…it got even stronger. I couldn’t say what it smells like exactly with the blockers on, but it’s clinging to Cassius’s chest…and I ran into him too.”
Liam laughed so loud I jumped, dropping my mechanical pencil.
I stared as he wiped his eyes, tears running down his cheeks from laughing so hard, and for a moment all I could hear was the rain.
The roar of raindrops against the windows drowned out that laugh – even the familiar and comforting sound of Frankie’s breathing disappeared as I watched Liam Valor laugh with tears in his eyes.
Have I ever seen anyone laugh like that before? No, I didn’t think so, but there was something about it that was almost sad.
Melancholy.
All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and hold him tight so he would have a safe place to let that strange, despondent laughter shift to misery and tears until it all became a little more bearable.
But why would I feel that way about this asshole who was laughing at me?
“Your nose is something else,” Liam finally said, wiping his eyes one last time before sitting back to study me. “Even Cassius can’t scent me with these things on.”
I decided not to respond to that and kicked at Frankie’s leg for her to get on with it all before going back to my sketch.
“Right.” She was clearly not happy about this, but what could we do? This case was huge. Neither of us wanted to give up on it. “If that’s everything, I’d like to get started by interviewing everyone who was here last night after-hours while Lou gets a look at the servers.”
Frankie went to stand, but Liam Valor flattened his palm on the table and this time we both froze. It was such a subtle movement that was barely more than a suggestion – and an extremely vague one at that.
I had no idea what it meant, but I did know I’d fucking wait as long as I needed to until he told me whatever it was he wanted, and that pissed me off even more than Cassius questioning what my purpose as an omega was at my agency.
“I’m not sure what you two know about me, but I like to oversee my projects personally,” Liam explained. His deep voice was softer now, more than I felt like it should be when it practically made the air around him vibrate. “And I have no plans to give you access to anything until I understand your process.”
Well, it looked like we might have the job, but we definitely didn’t have his trust.
Trust had to be earned, and I had every intention of getting it. We’d close this case in record time, and solidify our position within the agency.
It didn’t matter what he, or anyone else thought, omegas could solve murders.