Page 95 of Coveted By Cupid

Perfect.

A smile creeps across my face. “And that makes you the right man for the job.”

“Whoa there, Prez,” Oaks says. “You sure about this? I mean, we want to deter people from approaching Vanessa. But we also don’t want anyone calling the cops on him.”

Upon hearing the word cops, Crypt’s dark eyes widen. “Cops? Why would someone call the cops on me?”

“You’re a bit…” Oaks struggles to find the right word, probably not wanting to offend our brother.

“Terrifying,” Cipher suggests unapologetically.

Oaks slaps our hacker upside the head.

Cipher covers his head with his hands, glowering at Oaks. “The hell, Oaks?!”

My VP gives him an incredulous look. “Dude, couldn’t you have filtered your response a little?”

“I’m being honest,” Cipher says with a grimace, rubbing his head. “You’re acting like I insulted him.”

“You kind of did.”

Cipher rolls his eyes, turning toward Crypt. “Did I insult you?”

“No,” Crypt says, deadpan. “I like being spooky. It keeps people away from me.”

Cipher whips around to Oaks. “You see? His look is intentional.”

“And his look could instill fear in some sheltered college kid, getting the authorities involved,” Oaks fires back, nostrils flaring. “We don’t want him being removed from Vanessa’s presence and leaving Cookie to handle all the heavy lifting alone.”

Crypt’s head swivels between his two brothers bickering before looking at me. “What’s the job, Prez?”

“I need you to be my eyes and ears, brother.” I wave my hand at the campus ID images scattered across my desk. “Riley is our only lead to finding the fuckers who hurt Psyche, and we don’t know which of these students is her. Tomorrow, my ole lady is returning to school. I want you working with Cookie to keep her safe while also keeping an eye out for anyone who could be our suspect.”

My enforcer quietly combs through the photos on my desk, his eyes cataloging every detail. “What is Vanessa’s weekly itinerary?”

Pleased to have my enforcer on board, I run through her schedule and what I expect from him. “Cookie will guard Vanessa, and you’ll be the watchdog, backing up Cookie if need be.”

“I can handle it,” Crypt says reassuringly as he continues to scan the many faces in the images.

“I know you can,” I say, pleased. “Oaks has a point, though. You can come across as threatening to those who don’t know you. I need you to rein it in and only use it if necessary. No going with her into the classrooms or the clinic. You stay outside the doors, ready to act on a moment’s notice. You got me?”

“Got it.” Crypt’s hair-covered eyes meet mine. “Can I hold on to these?”

I nod. “Take them. Cipher will make me more copies.”

My enforcer has an intrigued look on his face as he gathers all the photographs into his arms. “I’ve never been to college before.”

Cipher waves a hand dismissively. “Meh. It’s overrated. But the girls are hot.”

“Where are there hot girls?” Cookie asks, appearing in my doorway out of thin air. “I like hot girls.”

“College,” I say, pointing a thick finger at him. “You can pick up college girls on your own time. Your focus is on keeping my woman safe. Speaking of my woman, why are you not standing guard over her?”

“Scalpel sent me to let you know he’s done with her physical exam. She’s cleared.”

I take a shaky breath, letting it ground me and feeling a tad better with a team assigned to Vanessa’s protection.

My woman is heading back to school, hopefully not into the lion’s den.