21. Lucy

After texting Liam the list,he never responded. I tried not to stare at my phone as I worked, but every few minutes I found myself glancing over to see if there were any new messages.

It was embarrassing how disappointed I was that there wasn't.

Why was this bothering me? I shouldn't care that they weren't texting me because they were doing what I'd asked them to do, but it was still annoying.

I really wished I hadn't asked them for space. Not that I would ever tell them that. But I kept thinking that if they were in the room with me, I wouldn't be so distracted even when I knew there was a chance my heat symptoms could flare up again.

Forty-eight hours should be enough. We'd know for sure by then whether it was all pheromone induced or not.

By the time Frankie got back, the sun had already set and I'd ordered food from this place that had the best bao and boba tea in the city. I ate one of the spicy pork bao buns as I worked through information Frankie and the interns had gathered for me.

The program I'd written back when I was still living at the Lopez compound was also updated and running on one of my secure servers. I'd dropped the Valor security files from the last year into it, but it would take time for it to notice any inconsistencies or hiccups.

There was no mention of Melinda Valor at any of the omega specialists we had contact with, and I hadn't seen anything on her phone or car that pinged the locations of hospitals or clinics we didn't have access to.

Until she did something out of the ordinary, I couldn't do more when it came to Melinda. The tracker Frankie had put on her phone showed she was at home, where she should be, and the security logs and footage at the estate confirmed that.

I was able to get through most of Frankie's interviews and most of what the interns had set aside for me to look at in regard to Cassius and Liam. While those two didn't have concrete proof they'd been working in Liam's office during the time of the murder, I was able to get their location from their phones.

They'd been in the Valor building from 3 p.m. on, but they didn't have the same software on their computers that most employees did. The best I could do was get timestamps from whatever program they might have been using and when they'd saved a document, but not all their work required using a computer.

Even then, there were ways to trick the system if you were smart enough, and Cassius definitely had the skills for something like that.

"Are you going to explain why it looks like our apartment got hit by a train?"

I looked over my shoulder to see her carefully picking her way across the floor toward me, eyes wide as she took it all in.

"What's that?" I pointed at the rose in her hand, already annoyed by the possibility of who could have given her something so rare like it was nothing more than a daisy.

"Pop wanted me to give this to you." Frankie stopped between me and the kitchen as she studied the floor. "I was going to put it in a vase, but it looks like none of them survived."

"It's going to die anyways. Just throw it in the trash." I turned back to my monitors and watched the traffic cameras on our street.

Cassius was parallel parking on the side street near one of the entrances and he didn't seem the least bit worried I might report him for stalking. Recording my screen was a bit much, but I wanted proof for some reason – something I could watch whenever I wanted. It would remind me he was committed to following me around like a lost puppy until I finally gave in, or he got over this obsession.

I really hoped he wouldn't.

For once in my life, I desperately wanted to be wrong.

"If your goal is to get my father to give up on you, you need to stop being so mean to him." Frankie plopped down on one of the couches in the office and eyed all the puzzle pieces on the floor, but didn't say anything about it.

"Your father is deranged. Why would he leave me alone if I was being nice to him? That makes no sense." I'd pretty much ruled out Liam as a suspect and Melinda was unlikely. I needed Frankie's contact to get the stored traffic cam footage I wanted. Once I had that I could follow Gideon's path after he'd gotten that call, but until then, I needed to figure out which of these legacy packs had deals with Valor over the last year.

Going through contracts was not something I wanted to do so I opened my email and started typing out a message to the Genesis lawyer.

"Lucy…" Frankie sounded like she was laughing at me and I studied her out of the corner of my eye to see she was actually smiling, but she was looking at the rose, not me. "You're the only person in this world other than his omega that Francisco Lopez allows to sass him. You understand patterns better than anyone. I'm sure you know what that indicates."

"Like I said, he's deranged." But I couldn't look away when she twirled the rose between her fingers.

Frankie tapped the rose to her lips and I wondered what she'd talked about with her dad to look so relieved. "Just ask me already."

I rolled my eyes and tried to refocus on my email, but the curiosity was killing me and we both knew it. Why I had to drag this out, I'd never know, but I couldn't help it. I hated hearing anything about Francisco Lopez.

He was the first legacy alpha to ever see my worth despite my lack of scent, and he'd never made me feel like I was nothing more than an omega. He'd made me want to join his family after everything I'd been through even though I knew better.

Then he'd told Frankie she would never be the Lopez alpha even though she was his strongest. I hated him for that. Why didn't it matter that I was defective, but it did for Frankie? All his pretty words had been a lie then, because if he truly didn't care, she would have been his heir. Not Arturo.

"Do I need to be worried about your father?" I eyed her, trying not to make it obvious I was dying to know.

"After I told him you gouged out that asshole's eye, he said, and I quote, ‘Good for her.'"

"He really said that?" Why were all legacy alphas so fucking weird?

She snickered and rested one foot against the coffee table as she watched the petals on the purple rose flutter every time she twirled it. "Pop has already removed him from the family registry and told Cassius to let you know you can do whatever you want with him…as long as it's your decision and not Liam's."

"Ugh." When was he going to give up already? "Then who's going to be the heir?"

Her smile faded and Frankie leaned her head back against the top of the couch. "Currently, no one. My father plans to outlive us all."

That I believed, but it would cause a huge mess among the four main legacy packs in the city. No one with generations of power and control liked a surprise. If they didn't know who the heir was, they could try to wipe out the whole pack.

It was unlikely in this day and age, but legacy alphas were the farthest thing from sane, and they had the money and power to do whatever they wanted and get away with it.

"Pop says you should've taken both eyes. And his cock."

I stared at my monitor without really seeing it.

How annoying that I agreed with him.

Was it part of my destiny to agree with every parental figure I had, but hate them for their choices anyway? Why? What was it about me that insisted on things being a certain way – so much so that I couldn't stand it when those things got all messed up?

I'd rather avoid the entire situation if I couldn't get things to work out the way I wanted, but Francisco had constantly side-stepped all my avoidant habits until I'd been forced to choose.

My eyelid started to twitch again and I rubbed at it with a sigh, wishing this could all just go away. But I knew better. The Valor pack was now involved with the Lopez pack and I had to use every tool at my disposal or I might not be able to solve a murder like this.

Not with the kind of money and power legacy packs possessed at play.

"Pop wants to know what you want to do with Arturo. Once he has your answer, he'll make a public announcement about him. Oh, and he wants to meet with Valor. Oddly, Liam asked me to set up a meeting with my father as well, but I have no idea why."

Why the fuck would Liam want to meet with Francisco Lopez?

I glanced up at the camera in the corner of the ceiling and gritted my teeth. He'd conveniently chosen not to tell me about that.

"I think my father likes Cassius." Frankie studied me as she tapped the rose to her lips again. "Probably because he was so insistent he could protect you even though you work as a detective, but maybe it was because he asked my father where he was during Gideon's murder since that's what you would want to know, not whatever it was Liam had asked for."

Francisco was definitely the kind of person who would like someone as powerful as Cas – someone who knew what it really meant to be an alpha. It didn't matter if he had blue eyes or red. Francisco didn't care about things like that. He only cared when it came to Frankie, and it pissed me off that I understood why no matter how much I didn't like his reason.

"Is he going to give us his alibi?" I spun my chair to face Frankie, giving up on pretending not to be interested.

"It should be in my inbox already." Frankie smiled slightly and tossed the rose on the table. "There's going to be a meeting between Valor and Lopez this Friday and my father wants you to be there. We're also obligated to go to the next quarter's legacy function if we want unrestricted access to his business deals and contacts."

That was a small price to pay for something like that, but the idea of showing up at a legacy function seemed…unwise.

"Am I also obligated?" I held my breath and waited for her answer, hoping that I would be granted a small miracle and there was a way for me to get out of this.

"Yes, you are, but you get to choose whose plus one you'll be." Frankie smirked at me, a small twinkle in her pretty blue eyes that reminded me of every time she'd announced someone had a crush on me and I'd completely missed all the signs.

"So, you or…?"

"You can choose between someone from the Lopez pack, or Liam."

I watched as she got up and crossed the office to grab the bag with the bao buns, rummaging around in there to give me time to consider all my options.

Neither of those were a good choice.

Legacy events were public functions similar to the Met Gala in status. There was always a red carpet and the dress code was black tie or something you'd see on a fashion runway. It was publicized and filmed just like the Oscars or Emmys.

The only difference was that once you were inside and the speeches were done it was locked down and there were no paparazzi or journalists allowed inside once that happened.

I couldn't just sneak into those events unless I was working as the help and whoever I chose to go with would define how the world viewed me. I would be officially associated with that pack and all the things that would come with that.

Choosing Frankie would be the safest option since I already knew Francisco didn't care about my job or tattoos, but this was something I've been avoiding for over 15 years. I didn't want her to lose out on potential options simply because everyone assumed we were bonded.

And if I went with Liam…

Would he even want me to go?

"How much time do I have to decide?"

Frankie took a big bite out of the bao bun and grinned at me. Clearly, she knew who I wanted to pick, but she didn't say anything about it for which I was eternally grateful. "Until Friday."

Of course. I should have realized he'd want me to choose by the meeting.

"Did you know my father has been doing research on dominant omegas ever since taking you in?" Frankie asked, as she sat down at her desk.

"I knew." Considering how much I dug around in his computers, it would be impossible not to know. "I just didn't think it had anything to do with me."

"Well, my father apparently suspected you might be one because of your father."

I eyed her as I spun the chair back around to face my monitor. "It wouldn't surprise me if it's genetic. Nathan basically said the same thing."

"You're not mad?"

I went back to sorting through the data the interns had collected and shrugged a shoulder. "No. If anything I'm grateful. He did it for me, but never made it my problem. I appreciate that."

"Pretty sure he'd faint if you ever said that to his face."

Hating Francisco was hard when he was so good at being an alpha. I just wished he would trust Frankie enough to name her his heir without worrying about what might happen. She could handle it. She'd survived this long even when living as a switch was damn near impossible in a legacy pack.

But Francisco was incapable of ignoring the overprotective instincts of a legacy alpha. It was his only flaw really when compared to all the other alphas in the world.

Frankie has been an alpha for fifteen years now, but she didn't get the red eyes. Despite all the money he's thrown into researching the outlier designations, Francisco still hasn't found anything that will tell us if she'll ever switch again.

I was pretty sure that was one of the reasons he'd pushed for Frankie and me to bond. There weren't many cases, but all the bonded deltas they could find records of stayed in that designation.

But Frankie and I weren't like that and never have been. She's always been more like an older sister as well as my best friend.

The keys clicking and clacking as Frankie typed was the only sound for a while and it was just as soothing as the music I'd been blasting earlier.

My life was defined by my work, and for the first time in weeks, I finally felt like things were almost normal again. It was a relief to be able to see her working across from me like nothing had changed and hear her breathing in the same space as me.

The only difference was, we had an industrial air purifier in every room now and I was wearing my scent blockers inside the apartment.

Still, it was nice to pretend for just a little bit longer that everything was exactly the way it was before.

I didn't have to make a decision right away. The mystery of what Liam had taken could wait until tomorrow because I had a feeling my relationship with Frankie was going to change drastically, sooner rather than later.

Every omega had to leave their family eventually, and for once, I wasn't any different.