Just Bob (Assassins Inc. #1)(4)

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Don’t see. Do.” I hung up without saying another word. Either Sinclair would do it or he wouldn’t. And while it was a concern of mine, finding my mate trumped just about anything in the universe.

My mate.

That was a concept I had never really entertained. People like me didn’t have mates, and yet I was staring down at him right now.

How in the hell had this happened?

I was perfectly happy with the way my life was going. I didn’t have a lot of friends simply because a man in my business didn’t make friends. I was okay with that.

I was also okay with the fact that I was alone in the world. I had no family to speak of. Oh sure, the woman who had given birth to me was somewhere out in the world, but panthers didn’t do the whole maternal thing. They gave birth, but the second their young were old enough to survive on their own, they were gone. I barely remembered my mother.

I have no idea who my father was.

As was common in my world, panthers came together to procreate when they were in heat. Unless they were lucky enough to find their mate—which almost never happened—they did not make family bonds. There were no happy little families with two-point-five kids and a dog.

I hated dogs.

I wasn’t happy about cats either. The one lying on the bed with my mate was giving me the stink eye as if he thought he was big and bad. When he hissed at me, I let out a little bit of my inner cat and hissed back. The cat’s ears went back as he growled. Interesting. Apparently he wasn’t just a big blob of fur. He was actually warning me off from his human.

Yeah, not gonna happen.

Huge, ferocious cat or not, this particular human was mine.

I just had to figure out a way to convince the man of that. I also had to figure out how to convince him to leave with me. His life was in danger whether he knew it or not, and not from me. At least, not now.

I winced when I realized I was going to have to explain to him that I had accepted a contract to kill him. That wasn’t going to be an easy conversation to have, especially since I knew I would need to grill the man on why someone would take out a million dollar contract on his head.

Someone wanted my mate dead.

When I growled again, the cat hissed at me and darted off the bed. I smirked as the furry creature crawled under the bed. I was kind of shocked he had been able to squeeze his plump little body under there.

Damn thing had to weigh at least thirty-pounds.

Drawn by the mate pull—and an incredible curiosity—I moved to the side of the bed and stared down at the man who was my mate. It didn’t matter to me if he was a man or a woman. Panthers didn’t have the same hang-ups as humans.

I had been with both.

I was more concerned with type of person he was. The packet I had been given when I accepted the contract hadn’t told me much beyond the basics needed to complete the job.

I had been given my mate’s name—Bob Mills—a small description and where he lived and worked. There had been a picture, but I wasn’t sure it did him justice. He looked much cuter with his hand curled under his cheek as he slept, snoring slightly.

The packet never mentioned a cat.

I didn’t know if Bob was even gay, not that it mattered. He was mine now. I’d do whatever I had to do to convince him to my way of things.

Panthers only got one mate. So few of us were lucky enough to meet their mate. Most just jumped from person to person, panther to panther. They never set down roots or formed bonds with others.

Hence, my mother.

I’d be forming bonds with Bob. Really strong, unbreakable bonds.

It was the rest of this mess I had no idea about. I didn’t do relationships. Never had. People in my line of business tended to not form friendships in case they had to kill their friend or compete for contracts.

Panthers were some of the most elite killers in the world. I took pride in that. We had the natural stealth of our animal form even on two legs. We could smell better than humans, run faster, see farther. We were stronger and more agile. I used every bit of that to my advantage, and I was one of the best in the business.

I had never failed to get my mark.

Until now.

Shit.

I shoved a hand through my hair. This was not going to look good on my record. Obviously, I couldn’t kill Bob and keep my perfect record. And I couldn’t let anyone else kill him either. It was the rest of it I wasn’t sure about.

“You’re here.”

I blinked down at Bob in surprise. One, I was shocked that he remembered me. I thought I had blended in pretty well. Most people didn’t remember me even when I was stupid enough to sit across from them and drink coffee.

I hadn’t been able to resist after getting my first smell of my mate.

And two, I was shocked—and a bit intrigued…and maybe confused—that he seemed so happy to see me. If the smile crossing his plump little lips was anything to go by, he was practically ecstatic.

“I didn’t think you’d come,” Bob said.

He was expecting me?

“I’m here,” I said, because Bob seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

My eyebrows rose when Bob reached for me.

Was I ready for this? I knew if I touched him, I would claim him and it would be the end of my life as I knew it. I would no longer have just myself to worry about. There would be someone else more important than me.