18. Lucy

My lackof progress with Liam's stupid game was starting to piss me off.

I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my curls, tugging the knots out and I reminded myself I had a job to do. Whatever he took didn't change anything. I still had a case to solve and all this personal crap was distracting me from finding the patterns that would lead me to Gideon's killer.

We were thirteen days behind schedule and I had to make up for my shortcomings or I could kiss my hard-earned reputation goodbye.

There were only so many people who had access, or the knowledge to gain access, to Gideon's office.

Valor was an old pack and they still followed some of the antiquated ideas that strength and dominance were more important qualities than intelligence and leadership.

It was obvious to anyone with any observational skills that despite being the oldest, Gideon wasn't suited to leading a pack the size of Valor the same way Liam was. He'd actively avoided taking on the responsibilities of the pack alpha unless it was directly related to Valor Enterprises.

Even then he preferred to stick to running his subsidiary company rather than the parent company.

Gideon had focused on Valor Construction and Liam had been his vice president. Despite his obvious preferences, Nicolette had insisted on grooming Gideon to take over her position of Chairman of the Board.

Sighing, I decided to give up on finding whatever it was Liam had taken for now and focus on the case instead.

I tapped the earbud and Frankie's familiar voice filled my head as I crossed the room, avoiding as much of the wreckage as possible.

The living room and kitchen were a total fucking disaster, but I'd been more careful in our office. I'd reorganized my desk and Frankie's instead of tossing it all to the ground, but everything that was once on the shelves was all over the floor in color-coded stacks.

Plopping down in my office chair, I jiggled my mouse to wake up my computer and tried to ignore the itchy sensation in the back of my head, reminding me I would have an answer to why if I just found what he took.

Whatever. I'd find it eventually.

I entered in my passphrase and watched as the chibi axolotls on the moving background swam around while everything loaded.

Liam had given me access to everything before my heat, but I haven't had the time to go through all of it yet. Thankfully the Genesis Agency interns already went through Gideon's email and text messages as well as his phone calls.

There was nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary, but there were some giant gaps of time on the GPS where it looked like Gideon had turned off his phone so he wouldn't be sharing his location.

I grabbed the cloned phone Frankie must have left on my desk and memorized the times and dates she'd written on a post-it note before ripping it off and tossing it to the floor.

Pulling up the security footage from the dates and times she'd mentioned, I let the oldest one play first as I listened to her start questioning Gideon's secretary.

This might not point me in the direction of the killer, but if we stopped assuming the motive was tied to his position as Valor's heir, it could show me what we've been missing.

Cross-referencing the times noted with his schedule for the last year, I saw the gaps in time on his phone matched up with days he had blocks of nothing scheduled. So, what was Gideon doing that he didn't want anyone else to know about?

Gideon had spent most of his time at Valor Enterprises. He was always working, and when he wasn't, he was with Melinda or Liam. At least, that's what it looked like on the surface.

His long hours at the office could be because he wanted to avoid Melinda, but I couldn't know that for sure unless I had some sort of evidence things weren't going well with them. They'd both been so careful though, like they'd known someone was reading their personal messages and correspondence.

Considering the way Valor monitored their pack members for their own safety, someone probably was.

So, what were they like behind closed doors? Who would know something like that? I doubted even Liam knew the real truth and the only person left alive who might have the answers hated my guts.

I grabbed one of my favorite pens and started writing down potential questions for Frankie to ask Melinda when she redid that interview. I put a star next to the ones that could be used for those we suspected she was having an affair with.

The missing wedding ring was still bothering me though.

If we couldn't find it, then it was definitely a trophy, and who the fuck would want that? I didn't think Melinda would unless she was going to sell it, or maybe give it to the person she was having an affair with.

I tried not to sigh as I pulled up Liam's schedule to see what he was doing during the same blocks of time as when Gideon was free.

A murder of passion was inherently boring. It was the most common reason for someone in a marriage to be murdered.

Even if it was boring, I needed to consider the possibility because I really didn't think Liam would hire an assassin when he could simply challenge his brother for his spot. It may be outdated, but it was still legal.

Hiring an assassin would be the coward's route, and I didn't think Liam would do that when he was just as psychotic as Cassius.

Ever since Nicolette took over as the alpha of the Valor pack, she'd steered them toward a more modern outlook, similar to the Lopez pack. She'd shifted her pack away from a more traditional lifestyle after four generations of committing to the idea that things had to be a certain way.

It didn't seem like she'd be the kind of person who'd insist her oldest should be the next alpha and chairman if he didn't want to. I also didn't think Liam would ignore such a convenient legal clause that no one had bothered to outlaw if he really wanted the position of pack alpha.

Well, Liam wasn't always free during the gaps of information on Gideon's phone. There was a meeting during one, and proof he was with Cassius in a public place during another.

Making a note to check the GPS on Gideon's car, I swiped over to the lists that Frankie had made for me as the interview with the secretary ended and she started on the interview with Gideon's assistant.

Liam was his vice president, and they both had an executive assistant as well as a secretary.

I made separate files for each of the categories and lists she'd given me as the security footage from Valor Enterprises started playing on one of my other monitors.

Moving profiles based on the amount of overlap a person had when taking into account all the potential factors, I only had a few suspects who really fit any possible motive and no matter how many times I reshuffled them based on various different factors, Melinda and Liam were at the top of the suspect list.

Both of them had access to the building's blueprints as well as the clout to get wherever they wanted in that building. They also had access to the kind of money that would let them hire a professional killer.

I reconsidered the theory that Melinda was having an affair with Liam as I finished sorting the last of the people on Frankie's lists. It would be the simplest explanation, but wouldn't he have been able to scent the biological shift on the omega he'd impregnated?

Not many were as sensitive to scents as I was, but an alpha could detect the slightest change in their omega's scent no matter how subtle, or how early the change started. They could tell when the omega was ovulating, when they were days away from their heat, their every emotion, as well as the day the fertilized egg implanted.

They could even scent sickness and disease in their omega if they paid close enough attention.

I'd always wondered if I was more like Frankie than I cared to admit because of that, but I could scent all that on everyone. If I had the same idiosyncrasy she did, I wouldn't have been able to scent it with anyone but my alpha or omega.

Sighing, I opened the file that had all the crime scene photos as well as the autopsy reports on my third monitor while the interview footage downloaded.

The air filters from Valor Enterprises had been claimed by the police as evidence, so I made another note to ask for access to those and then scanned the autopsy report done by the city.

It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I chewed on my lip as I compared it to the one done by a private third party. It looked like my original assumption was right.

All those stab wounds were done by someone who knew exactly how to cause the most damage while ensuring their victim lived for as long as possible. Per this report, they'd sliced through the tendons behind his knees first so he couldn't run away.

Since the blood splatter report ensured there hadn't been a struggle, the stab wounds in his wrists had to have been done while he was in shock and with enough speed the pain wouldn't have registered yet.

This murder had been an execution.

I just didn't know why.

As much as Frankie insisted this was an inside job, I just couldn't see it. Sometimes, her upbringing as a legacy alpha was exactly what we needed to solve a case, but it seemed like it was hindering her ability to think outside the box when it came to this one.

Studying the crime scene photos, I memorized every tiny detail of the way his body was positioned as well as what he was wearing, the look on his face…everything.

It looked like someone was trying very hard to make this look like a grab for power.

Someone like Liam killing their own pack member so they could gain the coveted position of the heir to a very powerful legacy pack was too obvious. Gideon had gotten along with most of his cousins, but none of them were quite as close as he and Liam had been.

Which made me wonder if Liam would be next.

Whether it was a true grab for power, or a way to cover up the motive, it didn't matter. Liam was the next alpha on the list to inherit the position of chairman.

But Melinda was pregnant with a child she didn't want the Valor pack doctor to know about. If she knew without a doubt that it was Gideon's, she wouldn't be so secretive about it. She was currently the only one with an obvious motive, but I just didn't have the proof yet.

Frankie had reached out to our contacts though, so it was only a matter of time before one of them had something useful.

After meeting her, it was easy to believe that Melinda was capable of putting a hit out on her own husband no matter what everyone else might think.

Omegas weren't the soft, delicate creatures society liked to paint us as. We had enough rage to burn down cities when we've been wronged. There were even cases of normal omegas ignoring alpha commands when they were angry enough.

It wasn't common, but it happened. I assumed it happened even more often than anyone knew. It was just kept quiet or no one learned what had happened to that alpha…maybe they'd made it look like a suicide and no one thought to look any deeper than that.

Everyone assumed it would be too hard to fake a suicide if the killer was an omega. How could they possibly have the strength to fight off alpha pheromones let alone the strength to make it look like they'd hung themselves?

The irony never ceased to amaze me.

Omegas were getting away with murder because they relied on the ignorance the rest of the world had about them.

My father had done the same, and he'd been big for an omega, but his size hadn't done anything to make the alphas in the police force believe he could kill anyone for even a second.

Maybe they deserved to die if their death was caused by their own hubris.

I shook my head, reminding myself that wasn't a thought I should ever say out loud.

Pausing the audio of Frankie's interview, I went back ten minutes on the security footage from the conference room. It was two weeks before his death and right before Gideon had gone somewhere on his own with his phone off.

I watched as the meeting ended. Everyone trickled out while Liam lingered. Cassius was conversing with Gideon's assistant as they left the conference room, discussing something that would be easy to find if I wanted, but I was more interested in what Gideon and Liam were talking about.

Nothing interesting really, just a deal with one of the other legacy packs in the city. Liam wanted to terminate the deal, but Gideon kept assuring him it would pay off with this smile that made me want to believe him.

I wrote down the pack name and a note to check what Liam was typing into his phone while talking to Gideon. He ran his hand through his white-blond hair with a sigh and nodded like he still wasn't happy, but Liam tucked his phone in his back pocket and left after confirming their usual Thursday lunch.

Once the door closed, Gideon pulled a phone out of the inner breast pocket of his blazer and I paused the footage. He answered the phone, but there was another phone on the conference table in front of him.

Why the fuck did Gideon have two phones?