Targeted By Love (Between the Greys #1)

12. Maynard

12

MAYNARD

“Twice in two days.” Lake sat cross-legged on an armchair munching corn chips. “Needs salsa. Got any?”

I rolled my eyes because my mate’s life was at stake, and his family’s and maybe everyone in this room, while Lake was thinking with his stomach.

“Time for some truth-telling.” I shoved both hands in my pockets.

“Okay, you got me.” Boaz put up his hand, his usual snarky expression wiped off his face and replaced by an impish one. Weird, cause my brother didn’t do impish. “I had some afternoon delight earlier.”

“Ewww!” Thiago tossed a cushion at Boaz and told him to shut it. “We don’t want to picture you having sex with an unsuspecting human omega who thinks you want to date.”

Gods, just once I’d like everyone to pay attention.

“My mate almost got blown up at brunch.”

“Was it the shrimp?” Riggs made a face. “Never touch the stuff.”

“When do you go to brunch?” Boaz shot back at him.

“In an explosion,” I clarified. Thinking of Rhodes in teeny-tiny pieces should get some sympathy, even though they didn’t think we should mate.

“Explosive diarrhea? The worst.” Riggs had gone pale, and my remaining brothers gagged.

“Will you stop that? It was a freaking bomb, and no, not the intestinal kind. The kaboom kind.”

“Someone doesn’t like him.” Riggs studied his nails.

“Who died?” Thiago was on the edge of his seat. “Was it messy?”

I begged the universe for my brothers to take life seriously. Other than Boaz, they viewed life as a longstanding joke. They worked and played hard, and it was difficult to pin them down on any serious topic.

“No one died, and yes, if they’d been blown up, pieces of flesh would have been splattered everywhere.”

Boaz got up and confronted me. “Who was the target?”

“Either of the grooms, but I’d put my money on Rhodes’s… that’s my mate, by the way.” I wasn’t sure they’d bothered to learn or recall his name. “…on Rhodes’s brother, one of the grooms.”

My mind was churning because I was supposed to kill Rhodes, and now there’d been an attempt on his brother or brother-in-law’s life. Either way, someone had it in for Rhodes’s family.

Time to fess up.

Four of my brothers were discussing the types of explosives normally planted in a car, but Thiago was staring at my feet.

“There’s more, isn’t there, big bro?”

“How do you know that?” I wasn’t sweating profusely or twisting the ring on my pinkie. And I prided myself on keeping any nervousness under control. In my job—the one I did out of the office—it was necessary, otherwise I’d have been arrested, ambushed, or have had a bullet lodged in my brain long ago.

“Your feet. Or especially your toes. You’re curling them.”

Damn. I needed to remember that, though I was usually wearing footwear when doing a hit. If I ever tracked down a target on a beach or in a swimming pool, I’d remember; no curling of the toes.

“I met Rhodes on a job,” I announced.

“He has money to invest?” Boaz rubbed his chin. “Didn’t look the type to have wads of cash.”

“My other job.”

Riggs bounded to his feet. “I knew it. Spill, Bro.”

He didn’t know. None of them did, though they may have suspected some of my work wasn’t done sitting at a desk.

“People hire me.”

Ezra smothered a giggle and gyrated his hips. “You’re a stripper. That’s how you get to live in this swanky apartment.”

Taking a deep breath, I left the room and removed the Glock from the safe.

“I’m a hitman.”

Not a sound escaped from my brothers. Their faces were devoid of expression, though their mouths were open.

“You’re paid to kill people?” Riggs got out his phone. “How much for a hit? I wanna buy a sports car. Maybe that’s how I do it.”

“The hit was on Rhodes.”

Thiago looked to Boaz who had his head in his hands. “You killed your mate? Whoa! That’s one way to avoid bonding with a human.”

I stomped my feet like a toddler having a tantrum. “No, I didn’t kill him. I was supposed to.”

“What were you thinking? You know the penalty for not going through with a hit.” Boaz motioned with a hand across his throat. “Now we’ll all be targets in the crossfire.”

I rushed through an explanation of how I’d refunded the money.

“Didn’t realize there was a take-backsies on hits.” Ezra crossed his legs and yawned.

“Sorry to bore you, but someone has it in for my mate and his family, and now I’m involved—” I took a breath. “There’s another small detail I haven’t mentioned.”

“Wow, you’re really lobbing bombs today!” Thiago shared a glance with Boaz.

“Don’t say that when an actual explosion was supposed to have killed someone.” Gods, I had to just say it. “I scented shifter in with the accelerant.”

“Yours!” Boaz’s mouth fell open, giving me the perfect view of his brilliant white teeth.

“No! I didn’t plant the bomb, but whoever did was a shifter!” I hadn’t yet figured out who or why. “I couldn’t recognize whose, it was contaminated, but it had a hint of the familiar, so definitely mafia.

“So we’re all involved,” Riggs finished my sentence. “Might result in a war.”

My brothers were too young to remember the last mafia war, an internal one. I had vague memories. Our dad lost a brother. Unlikely this was a crackdown from law enforcement. They were well paid with hefty bribes and none of them wanted to tussle with the mafia. We dealt with our own problems and the police let us be.

“You don’t need me to tell you what to do.” Boaz, being a pack Beta, always insisted on playing by the rules.

“Kill your mate?” Thiago offered, and he and Riggs chortled. “And his brother?” He clapped. “Problem solved.”

“You’re not funny,” I snapped.

If there was a war, another family were the instigators and the pack Alphas had to be informed. We couldn’t hide it while me and my brothers investigated.

“Me or you?” I nodded at Boaz. I was the one involved due to the hit but also because of my heart. I should be the one to tell Alpha. But packs were big on hierarchy, so I nominated Boaz.

“I’ll do it in person.” He checked his watch. “Great. He’s having his weekly massage. Expect blood to be spilled—mine.”

“Oh no!” Ezra, Lake, Thiago, and Riggs put their hands to their eyes, pretending to cry.

“Boaz is scared about getting a little hurty,” Thiago teased.

Boaz’s wolf snarled and growled, and even though Thiago had a fierce wolf of his own, he cowered before his older brother.

“Go.” I put my hand on his shoulder. We weren’t overly affectionate with each other, but I was grateful he was doing this for me, for us.

Unbeknownst to my brothers and my mate, I’d upgraded from my two cousins looking after my mate to hiring a private security firm to watch over him. I’d told the company an old lover was stalking him and I’d give them a bonus if they kept him safe.

“Where are you going?” Riggs asked as I grabbed my keys.

“To see Rhodes. He’s staying at a friend’s empty apartment.”

“Have you done the deed?” Ezra yelled as Thiago and Lake opened the fridge.

“None of your business.”

“You have!” Ezra followed our brothers into the kitchen as they raided my cupboards.

“He hasn’t,” Thiago whispered. “That’s why he’s so grouchy.”

I took the elevator to the underground parking garage but changed my mind as I recalled the honeymoon car being blown to bits. Instead, I walked a couple of blocks and found a cab outside a bar known as a mafia hangout. My cousin, Arnie, was behind the wheel. I had a lot of cousins since my parents each had five siblings.

Arnie sensed I didn’t want to talk, and after he asked about the family, we rode in silence. I got out a block from Rhodes’s friend’s place, and when I reached his building, I checked the security guys across the street, in the lobby, and on his floor.

He’d given me a key, and when I got inside, I made a mental note to get a locksmith to install a fingerprint lock. Or maybe one that recognized Rhodes by his retina. But this wasn’t his place, damn it.

The apartment was in darkness apart from the glow of a lamp in a room at the end of the hall. The door was ajar, and my mate was sprawled across the bed, his eyes closed.

Standing in the doorway, my heart was overwhelmed with love for this human that I hardly knew anymore. What was his favorite song? Did he still like chili? If not, that might be a relationship breaker.

Really?

Kidding , I explained to my beast.

I slid in beside him, inhaling his aroma. Home. Not that this building was my home or his. But my heart was where Rhodes was.

“Hey.”

He was awake and yet he hadn’t flinched or reached for the gun I’d given him. He was too trusting, but that was one of the things I loved about him.

“Did you know it was me?”

“Of course. I’m not in the habit of allowing strange men into an apartment. Besides, I’ve seen those security guys you hired. I doubt anyone intent on no good would get past them.” Getting used to them was going to be impossible.

“How do you know I’m not up to no good?”

He giggled and pulled the covers up, encouraging me to snuggle closer. “Are you?”

“I’ll never tell.” I flung an arm over him, and we spooned while I shoved my face in his hair.

I must have fallen asleep because I woke with a start. There was something hard pressed against my length, and it belonged to my mate who was grinding himself against me.

“Time to be bad,” he whispered.