Page 70 of Coveted By Cupid

I look over my shoulder at Atlas and his men on the laptop. “Is that enough?”

Atlas nods, giving me the green light.

Looking back at Artem, my fingers twitch on the handle of the tool.

“Wait!” Artem says quickly, sensing he’s about to lose his third leg—micro as it is. “Your girl, she wasn’t our usual target or on a client’s wish list, but she was suggested to Kirill.”

That gets everyone’s attention—even Oaks comes out of hiding from the corner to stand beside me.

I bare my teeth at Artem. “What do you mean she was suggested? Who suggested her?”

“And why was she suggested?” Oaks asks.

“I don’t know who or why. All I know is that one of Kirill’s scouts recommended her. He never shared the details, he rarely does. Mikhail and I do the grunt work—Kirill runs the operation for this region.”

Some sick fuck put a target on my woman’s back.

My vision turns red. “Which scout? How many are there?”

“Hard to say. There’s several of them and the lineup is always changing.”

“What do you mean the lineup changes? They get canned?” Oaks asks.

“нет, worse. Scouts serve one purpose—to find the perfect girl that fits a client’s wish list. They’re given a limited time to fill the order and bring Kirill a profile. If they don’t fill an order, they wind up being marked as inventory or as game for Kirill’s men to have fun with until he or she is dead. Positions are always open. For all I know, the scout may no longer be alive.”

Fuck. How the hell am I going to figure out who’s behind this?

“I don’t get it,” Ruger says, scratching his head. “Why become a scout with such high risks?”

“Money,” Artem says simply. “Kirill pays well. He looks for desperate people eager to make a quick buck. They agree, not realizing there’s no out unless Kirill grants it. Some who aged out of the slave dens and show potential are used as scouts as well, like Kirill’s favorite—Riley.”

Cipher scoffs. “Squeezing everything you can out of a victim, aren’t you?”

“Is not my way, but Kirill’s. He calls the shots—I obey them. The alternative is not good.”

My mind is running wild with this new knowledge, but I ask, “Who’s Riley?”

“She’s Kirill’s girl. He preferred her when he’d visit the slave dens and took her as his own. Riley’s job is to find new scouts and is the point of contact to reach Kirill—they can’t contact him directly.”

Smart. Kirill knows exactly what to do to make him harder to catch.

“How is she recruiting new scouts?” Atlas asks.

“Riley’s an attractive woman. Men are naturally drawn to her, but stupid young college kids are tripping over themselves to please her. She finds those who are broke and tells them she knows a way they can make a lot of cash. If they’re interested, she brings them to Kirill.”

Atlas presses for more. “How is she meeting these college kids? Does she hang out at the college bars? Work on campus?”

“нет. She’s enrolled at CSU.”

Bingo!

“Atlas? Did you hear that?”

“Sure did.”

Cipher cracks his knuckles before his fingers dance across the keyboard of his laptop. “On it.”

Chase snorts through the speaker of the other laptop. “You’re on it? Please. I’m already in the campus database, searching for her.”