Page 32 of Targeted By Love
He grabbed the door handle. “Stop fucking around and spill, Bro.”
“Gotta go.”
He leaped back as I edged the car out of the parking space and drove off, my body spasming with worry.
Rhodes was at my place, which would become ours because his own apartment in the next city over was too small for the two of us and my business, both the legit and the other one.
Thiago was with him and he was a fighter. His knife skills couldn’t be bettered, though he was handy with a bow and arrow and a gun. We were all skilled marksmen, which was a given considering we were mafia, though our beasts would come to our rescue if needed.
Flinging open the door of the apartment, I stood still, sniffing the air. There were traces of Rhodes’s scent, but he wasn’tpresent. Had he convinced my brother to go out for coffee? A foolhardy task that Thiago would never agree to. Lake, maybe, if it involved food.
“Rhodes? Thiago?” I rampaged through the place, checking every room, closet, and cupboard. Thiago was shoved under the kitchen sink, his knees up to his chin. He was drooling and his pulse was thready, but he was groaning. There was an aroma of chloroformaround his body, suggesting he’d been drugged.
I dragged my brother out of the tight space and laid him on one sofa. But after slapping his cheeks, he was no closer to consciousness, and I yelled in frustration.
The bond Rhodes and I shared was so strong, so intense, I thought maybe… possibly… I might be able to communicate with him. That wasn’t happening.
My wolf shook his head, saying love and fear was masking my ability to reason. Perhaps, but after racing out to the corridor and going down in the elevator and scouring the underground parking garage, I lost his scent, or whoever had taken him had masked it. What in the hell happened to the security guys?
My wolf implored me to find him but driving aimlessly around the city was a waste of time. I needed to assemble any remaining clues and use logic to locate my mate, starting with what Thiago could remember.
My brother was stirring and trying to sit up when I returned.
“Ugh, my head.”
We shifters were unused to experiencing the pain humans endured when they got sick. But we were susceptible to various drugs, including chloroform.
“What the fuck happened?” he groaned as I offered him water.
“You tell me.”
He guzzled the liquid, and looking around, he asked where my mate was.
“Gone. Someone took him.”
“You mean… I didn’t… Gods, I suck.” He put his head in his hands. “Are you going to kill me? If you don’t, Boaz will do it or kick my ass.”
I was concentrating on Rhodes and not willing to go easy on Thiago and say it wasn’t his fault. But my intention wasn’t to off him; he was my brother.
“Think. Can you recall a scent or sound, did you see anyone?” I examined his nails in case he’d scratched the guy. That was what they did in detective shows.
“A sweetish aroma. Rhodes was in the kitchen, making us sandwiches.”
The fragrance of honey always clung to bears, whether they were in human or beast form. But again, it wasn’t proof Germaine was involved. I marched into the kitchen and stared in the fridge.
He’s not there.
I know, but I’m thinking.
Rhodes had been making a snack, and there was a loaf of bread on the counter, a bread knife, a slab of butter, and the fixings for a sandwich. I put them away, but as I did, a bracelet slid onto the floor.
Picking it up, I studied the familiar insignia. The assailant would never have removed this willingly, would he? Either my mate put up a heck of a fight or they wanted us to find this. I wasn’t sure which was better.
17
RHODES
“Maynard, where are you!” I was standing in a field, unsure how I got there but needing him so badly. It was dusk, and the breeze carried the stench of decay. Where was this place?