39. Lennox
Lennox
T he guys follow me as I stomp my feet upstairs to Viv’s apartment.
We should have considered her instincts more carefully.
All of us were aware of her feelings, but we brushed it off.
We walk into her small living room to find her and Cain curled up on the couch.
His fingers run through her damp hair absentmindedly as they look over to us.
My face feels tight as I pinch my lips, not wanting to deliver the results of my search.
“What did you find?” Viv asks, sitting up straighter.
Cain’s hand drops between them and he studies me too.
My expression must give something away. Sighing, I hand the tablet to Viv with the video already queued up.
She looks over to Cain before holding the tablet between them and pressing play.
Sloane and Zane hover over the back of the couch to see what I’ve found, but I already know what they’re seeing as Cain’s face goes blank and rage burns across Viv’s.
“That sneaky bastard,” Zane hisses between his teeth. “I’m going to skin him alive and feed it to him.”
Cain gags. “Please, no talking about eating human flesh.”
Zane grimaces at him. We all know about Cain’s response to things like that.
“Why would he do this?” Sloane asks the important question.
“Because he’s a fucking creep,” Viv says, rewatching the video of Cain’s TA sneaking into his office.
“What would he get out of this though?” I ask, since nobody else is.
Cain looks up at me with his brow furrowed. “I don’t know. He did seem a little offended that some students didn’t join his study group, and even mentioned Viv by name a couple times. He’s not an idiot though, he’s got to realize that this would be noticed.”
Viv looks at Cain and nods. “Besides, the cameras on campus aren’t inconspicuous. Someone taking Criminology classes has to be smarter than that or else you wouldn’t have offered him the TA position in the first place.”
Cain frowns. “His test results and assignments have always been almost perfect. I’ve never interacted with him much, but something about him has rubbed me the wrong way since he started.”
So he’s stupider than he should be, which isn’t much to go on to figure out his motives.
I shake my head. Something isn’t making sense about this entire situation.
“I’m going to look into him some more and see what his background has to say.
” Viv holds out my tablet and I give her a soft smile.
“We’ll figure out what is going on,” I assure her.
Cain nods. “And I need to go report this to the dean… and unfortunately the department chair.” He leans down and presses a soft kiss to Viv’s forehead.
Before he has a chance to leave, Sloane calls him out on something I hadn’t even noticed. “Dude, those are my pants.” I look down to see that Cain is in fact wearing a pair of Sloane’s sweatpants. “Why are you wearing my pants?” Sloane asks when Cain doesn’t say anything.
He looks down at his legs. “Because I wouldn’t have fit into Zane’s.”
Zane grins before elbowing Sloane. “He just wanted in your pants.”
Sloane rolls his eyes at Zane but turns his attention back to Cain. “That doesn’t explain why you’re wearing someone else’s pants.”
Cain shrugs. “I took a shower. Mine were dirty. This is all that was up here that would fit.” He walks out of the room without waiting for anyone to reply to that.
We just stare after him as he leaves. “Maybe he’ll be a little less of an asshole now he’s finally given in,” Sloane says, watching the door with a smirk.
Viv’s cheeks turn red and she looks away as I glare at Sloane. “I’m going to go look into this guy’s background. Do you want to come with me?” I ask, turning to look at Viv.
“Yeah! I want to come!” Zane pipes up, and I frown at him.
He knows damn well he isn’t allowed anywhere near my set-up, but the psycho just continues to grin at me. “I can’t, I promised Sandy I would help her research some fundraiser ideas over the phone today,” Viv tells us.
Zane raises his hand. “I still wanna come.”
I glare at him. “Stay away from my room.”
I leave before he can try and argue with me over it, I can still hear him as I leave Viv’s apartment though. “Accidentally spill a milkshake into his computer one time and he’ll never forgive you.”
I roll my eyes and head all the way down to the first floor.
As I walk through the door a dark shape darts into the room, and I glare at Psycho as he rushes under my bed.
The little fucker has been getting slightly more bearable, though for some reason he enjoys hiding under my bed.
I even caught the asshole sleeping on top of my computer tower one afternoon after I took a break from work.
Dehairing my machine is something I would like to avoid repeating every other day.
Sitting down at my computer, I find my way into the proper search engines.
Looking up the guy’s pompous as fuck name shows…
absolutely fucking nothing. He’s clean. Well as clean as a guy living on Daddy’s money can be.
He’s got a bunch of speeding and parking tickets.
But other than that he’s never been in major trouble. Not involved in anything sketchy.
It’s not until I have his drivers license pulled up that I notice something. He looks enough like the guy in the video, but it’s not quite right. The shape of the eyes, while similar, is slightly off. His hair is a few shades darker and his mouth just slightly narrower.
Side by side, you can really tell the difference. How the fuck had Cain not realized that this stranger had taken the place of one of his students? For a man who had a job that depended on his perception, he’s sure not using it now. My fist clenches as I send him the guys drivers license.
Not even ten seconds later, he barges through my door. “It’s not the same guy!”
The look I give him should wither his balls into raisins, but he continues to stare at me like he’s broken the case wide open. “Yes. Thanks for the info, captain obvious. How the hell did you not notice someone taking over the life of your top student?”
He frowns and looks toward the window. “I… I don’t know.”
“So now he’s taken over someone’s life to get close to you. Or was this a ploy to get close to Viv? Either way we still don’t understand his motives.” I look at the image on the screen in front of me like it’s going to give me answers.
“Obviously he’s a plant. It’s got to have something to do with Viv. He only messed with her grades,” Cain says.
Looking back, I see him leaning against the doorframe with his brow creased. “Or he was after you and did this because he knows about your connection with Viv. Messing with the grades of a student you have an inappropriate relationship with is a fireable offense. You have enemies too, remember.”
He frowns deeply at that. “You’re right. There’s no way for us to know exactly who he was trying to target. Viv and I both need to be careful. Either way, I’ve already reported this to the dean and department chair.”
My lips turn down. “Both men who have had issues with Viv this past semester.”
Cain runs a hand through his hair. “Viv’s got the department chair in her pocket. Maybe you should look into the dean just so we have him on a leash as well.”
I smirk. “Taking a play out of Viv’s book hmm?” I look him up and down. He’s still shirtless and wearing Sloan’s sweats. “Looks like you took one out of Zane’s too.”
When he looks at me confused, I just shake my head and turn back to the computer.
He wasn’t there last year, when Z came home wearing Viv’s clothes after their first encounter of the sexual kind.
Cain was at least lucky enough to get a pair of men’s pants.
He would have looked ridiculous in a pair of Viv’s sweats.
“I’m going to get to work and see if I can figure out who this guy is. I’ll let you know when I know something.” I tell him dismissively.
I may love the guy like a brother, but sometimes I’m tempted to break his fucking neck.
This never would have happened if he had noticed his student was suddenly a different guy.
If Viv wasn’t obsessed with him, I might actually punch him right now.
But instead, I roll my eyes and dive back into the investigation.