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Most of what she said doesn’t process, my thoughts stuck on her mentioning her heat. “Wait. What? Hold up.” She lifts her head to look at me. “What do you mean your heat was coming on?”
Her cheeks grow rosy and she suddenly can’t meet my eyes. “Umm…” She clears her throat. “My heat started, but Emmett was able to suppress it for now.”
My gaze flashes to the man in question and I find him smiling at her with adoration in his eyes. “Do you always call your doctors by their first names?”
“She does when her doctor is also one of her alphas,” the man in question answers. Verity bites her lip and goes doe-eyed as she glances at him. She’s clearly smitten with him, the same as she is with the other alphas in this room. Strictly speaking, he isn’t allowed to be in her pack, but neither is Ryland and we’re all okay with that.
Fuck it. Rules are meant to be broken, and I’m not one to turn my omega down for something her heart truly desires. Four alphas and a beta. Our girl will be well protected at all times. We need to get her beta back first, though.
I catch her chin between my thumb and pointer finger, turning her head so she’s facing me again, and I press a soft kiss against her lips. She seems to relax and makes the cutest little sound. I’m not sure she even realized she did it.
Andrik seems to realize we’re ready to get back to the topic at hand and redirects the conversation. “That makes sense. It really was a fluke we stumbled upon the body. If he simply disappeared, we’d only be able to suspect he died, but confirmation is a different story. I wonder what the motive was to kill him.”
“He was an absolute dick. I don’t know how he was at the top of the charts,” Verity mutters angrily. Him upsetting her almost makes me want to revive him and kill him all over again. Almost. Too soon?
“I don’t think he made a single friend either,” Andrik adds.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Jedrik quickly refutes. “Mrs. Violet seemed a little more distraught over his death than usual. Then again, she’s always over the top.”
“You know, I forgot about that. Seemed like she was about to burst into tears when we found his body,” Andrik concedes.
“Either way, the man didn’t seem to meet anyone he didn’t cross the wrong way, which means we’re not lacking suspects with a motive. Number one being the fact he was at the top of the leaderboard.” Jedrik stands and moves to the side of the room to pace. “We need to find the murder weapon and where it happened. Right now, we don’t have enough evidence to solve this.”
“I’m also perplexed why the liver temp and rigor setting in doesn’t match for time of death,” Emmett muses.
For some reason, I picture him using the broken kitchen meat thermometer. Just in case it’s relevant, I bring it up. “Did you, by chance, get the thermometer from the kitchen?” If he did, I hope to fuck he didn’t put it back.
“I did,” Emmett replies with suspicion in his voice.
“I’m willing to bet they gave you the old one. Did they tell you it’s off by five degrees?”
His eyebrow hits his hairline. “No, they didn’t. That actually accounts for the time difference. Which means the victim was killed only two hours before I took the temp.” Emmett leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees.
“That’s a while after Ry and him got in a fight,” Verity adds, hope in her voice.
“Sorry, Trouble, it’s not enough to get him released. But I wonder if the slip of mentioning the five degrees was intentional or not.” Jedrik stops his pacing to press a kiss to the top of her head, soothing the sting of dashing her hopes.
“Chef LeBlanc was acting a little too helpful when we found the body,” Andrik points out.
“I hate to cut out in the middle of our brainstorming, but I have some appointments set up with the contestants in the morning so I can snag their DNA, and I need to get things set up ahead of time.” Emmett turns his focus on Verity and gives her a soft smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Little Omega.”
“We should probably start looking for clues too while everyone is winding down for the day,” Andrik says, standing from the couch.
Verity jumps from my lap, eager to find something to free her beta.
Chapter 42
Verity
The mention of finding clues has a sense of urgency pulsing through me. The faster we find proof Ry didn’t do it, the quicker he can be back in my arms. I really miss his cuddles at night, even if I have my alphas splitting their time with me. Ry is different, though. He’s familiar and keeps the homesickness from creeping up on me.
Jedrik and I split off from Andrik and Kyle. We take the first floor, while they take the second.
“Trouble, slow down,” Jedrik calls after me as I rush down the stairs to the first level. He catches up to me quickly and swoops me into his arms, making me giggle. Something about actually being able to do something myself to help clear Ry has me giddy.
Jedrik smiles down at me and raises the eyebrow with the shaved line. “You going to carry me the whole time?” I question him, squirming in his hold.
“If that’s what I have to do to get you to slow down, yes. I might even opt to throw you over my shoulder and smack your ass whenever I find a clue.”
