Page 38 of Temporary Omega

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Luca

What was Frankie doing here? The text he’d sent Luca while he’d been at work when he’d cleared out his account, had pretty much said Luca would never be seeing him again. So why on earth was he suddenly outside Lincoln’s building?

When Luca had that thought, he immediately realized Frankie was outside Lincoln’s building, and Frankie shouldn’t know about Lincoln. How on earth had he found Luca? And what could he possibly want from him?

Luca took a step back and crossed his arms, “What are you doing here?”

“Now is that any way to speak to your baby daddy?” Frankie asked, taking a step closer, coming into Luca’s personal space.

Luca suddenly wished he hadn’t rushed out of the penthouse with no phone or means of contacting anyone. He took another step back hoping to come into the line of sight of the doorman. For some reason his body was going into defensive mode. Which was strange. He wasn’t scared of Frankie, was he?

So why was there a terrible feeling of dread enveloping him? Why did he feel like Frankie’s reappearance had misery and bad news written all over it?

Luca finally looked at Frankie, he was dressed nicer than the last time he’d run into him. Probably found someone new to leech off of, Luca’s brain supplied. But Luca didn’t miss the redness in Frankie’s eyes, and the unhealthiness of his skin.

Apparently he’d been drinking or doing drugs or both.

Frankie had never laid a finger on him, but he had been something of a mean drunk, although that had started or become more evident, closer to the end of the relationship.

Now looking at him, there was something so obvious about him. Luca could understand what his dad had meant when he’d said Frankie was too slick, too much of a charmer.

Maybe it was simply being out of love or lust or whatever they had been, but a more mature Luca couldn’t understand what had made him go off with Frankie.

He also knew after being around Lincoln what an alpha was, how an alpha should be. Granted Lincoln wasn’t his alpha–Luca ignored the pang of sadness that hit him at that reminder–but he was a good man, a caring man. And Luca could tell the difference between the mask Frankie had worn and the real deal.

“I believe you forfeited your rights to any kind of daddy label when you left after seeing the double blue lines. Clearing out my account in the process.”

“Borrowed, baby, I simply borrowed from us, you know what’s yours is mine and everything,” Frankie said. He flashed that smile that had turned Luca’s head before and all Luca could think was— fake, lies. He couldn’t feel an ounce of sincerity as Frankie spoke to him.

He must have thought Luca was a dummy, turning up with that mess.

“Borrowing implies repayment, have you come back to pay me back what you stole?” Luca was incredulous that Frankie thought he would believe such nonsense.

“There was an investment that didn’t quite work out. I took it for us, baby. Felt so bad I couldn’t take care of you. I knew I could double what you had, but…” Frankie tried.

Luca wasn’t even surprised that Frankie had a sob story, what surprised him was that he thought Luca would buy what he was selling.

“What are you doing here Frankie?” Luca didn’t bother trying to hide the impatience in his tone.

“I came to see you, both of you,” Frankie flashed a smile that Luca could only call insincere.

“Well, you’ve seen us, we’re fine, thanks for coming.” Luca took another step back, and sighed inwardly to be standing in front of their building.

Frankie’s face twisted into a mask of anger which he smoothed out so quickly Luca was both terrified and impressed at the man’s acting skills or deceptive skills, whatever they were, Luca couldn’t be more grateful in this moment that Frankie had skipped out on him and his child.

This was not a man he wanted around his baby. He didn’t want any part of Frankie’s influence touching his child.

Luca instinctively placed his hand on his bump almost protectively. He knew it was ridiculous, Frankie couldn’t influence his baby in the womb. But Luca didn’t even want the feelings he was having, anger and disgust, tainting his child.

How he wished Lincoln was his child’s father.

“I just bet you’re fine. Landed on your feet I see, back with your kind,” Frankie glanced away from Luca and he stepped back further, happy that he could see Brian, the doorman, which meant the man could see him too.

Luca looked at Frankie and couldn’t miss the envy in his eyes as he looked around where they stood. The whole neighborhood was brownstones and high-rises like theirs. And Luca knew the cheapest home there was in the millions.

He finally saw it, Frankie wanted to be part of the elite, wanted to become part of a club he felt excluded from. Sadness and disappointment travelled through him as he realized, he truly had been nothing more than a means to an end for Frankie.