Page 29 of Targeted By Love

“Do you need to get that?” This was a sound I didn’t recognize, and paired with the way his body reacted, I suspected it was important.

“Yes. No. Yes.” He let out a long breath. “This is potentially important.”

“Mark me first,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I didn’t want to come across as needy and selfish, but the thought of us waiting any longer for me to wear his mark was too much for me. “I don’t think I can go another minute without being yours.”

But I could. I had to wait. We couldn’t go through with this until I had some answers or one in particular. “Why were you hired to kill me?”

He froze, his mouth opening and closing. “It was a job, nothing more. Just a location and saying the target was the best man. I didn’t go through with it as soon as I saw you.”

It soothed the trauma a little. And it would have to do for now. I couldn’t put my brother’s name on my lips and blame him. Not when we were about to mate. I refused to have him intrude on this moment.

“Mate me.”

A growl rumbled in his chest, and he lunged forward, his teeth sinking into my skin. There was a moment of sharp pain, but then everything shifted. The world felt right—perfect, even. And love. So much love.

I stayed like that, soaking in the overwhelming emotion, unsure of what to say as tears slid down my cheeks.

“Mine,” he whispered.

“Mine.” I held both his cheeks. “I didn’t know I could ever feel this loved. It’s like I can feel you—feel your emotions toward me.”

The phone went off again, pulling us out of the moment. The world didn’t care that we’d just marked each other. It kept on turning. But we did, and no matter who it was or what they wanted, it wasn’t going to detract from the importance of what we just shared.

It was one of his brothers. Maynard had to leave to meet with some people—because of me. Fine, not people, shifters. Still, it was about me and this entire mess, and the guilt twisted up with fear wrapped around me. All his stressors right now were directly tied to me, and I hated it.

And as much as I hated that, if this was the journey it took to get to “always and forever,” then so be it.

Things happened fairly quickly from there. We went back to Maynard’s apartment where he left me with Thiago, one of his brothers, while he handled things at the meeting. I’d offered to come, wanting both to be by his side and support him. He growled and that was the end of that. His brother assured me that it had everything to do with my safety and not to takeit personally. It was impossible not to, given that every single stitch of this was connected to me.

It was weird having a babysitter, but also… it was fine—it gave me someone to talk to, someone to focus on other than the meeting. Did I ever need the distraction, that was for sure.

My nerves were on high alert. These were people who would kill for a business deal gone wrong. No. Not that they would, theydid, and from the sounds of it, fairly often. From what I could gather, I was the biggest “gone wrong” the mafia had encountered in a long time, and that weighed heavy on me.

And then there was the other issue. Someone wanted me dead. The rules were clear: You didn’t let a hit live. And yet here I was, alive and mated to the man who’d been hired to off me.

I hated that Maynard had to leave. I hated pacing the room, waiting for him to get back. I hated that this could easily become my new normal.

“Should it be taking this long?” It wasn’t the first time I’d asked and probably wouldn’t be the last. As nice as his brother was, he was starting to get annoyed by me, and frankly, I didn’t blame him.

“It depends.” Thiago’s reply was different this time, and I wasn’t sure if it was because the answer changed or because he was hoping it would quiet me down. Also—it wasn’t particularly informative.

“Depends on what?”

“On what’s all on the agenda. On who else is there. On a hell of a lot.”

That made sense, even if the answer flustered me.

“Who do you think is behind this?” I asked. “All of it, I mean.”

He looked me straight in the eye, like I was the keeper of all the world’s secrets and he was searching for answers. Finally he settled on, “Your brother, I suspect.”

“Do you think he put the hit on me?” I hated my brother and he hated me back, but he was cheap, and what would he gain from it? It wasn’t like my mom had an inheritance worth bickering over. Besides, she was still going strong. So just out of hate? He wouldn’t do that… probably. And if he did, Maynard would’ve known, right? Or maybe that wasn’t how it worked. Gods, I was willing to follow any possible lead no matter how little it made sense.

“Your brother wouldn’t give a shit if you died, but that’s not the same.” It was the fucking truth. If I died today, my brother wouldn’t waste a single tear unless it was for show. Then he’d find a gallon of them. “Do people know that he is so cold toward you?”

“Anyone who knows him would.” I doubted he announced it on social media or anything like that, but he wasn’t a good actor. “Why?” The more I thought about his question, the more it confused me.

“I think maybe the entire thing was a lesson for him. He pissed off the wrong person and this was to teach him to back off,” Thaigo mused.