Scarred Regrets (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 5)

“Remember the gun?” he asked, glancing down at my healed arm.

I waited, watching his body for signs of his attack. He favored his left leg, limping from the blow to his shriveled up balls.

When he feinted to the right, I leaned into his left to block the strike he tried to deliver, then the open hands that tried to grab for me. Stomping my foot down on top of his, I threw all my weight behind the concrete in my hand. Pieces of it broke off as it slammed into his cheekbone, mirroring the injury he’d given Aoife.

“You never broke me,” I hissed, standing tall as he staggered back a step and shook off the pain.

I switched hands, dropping the rock into my left and using it to jab him in the stomach. The stone weighted my punches, adding to the force I could exert. He caught my wrist as I pulled away, using it to tug me closer until his putrid breath touched my cheek.

Hot. Disgusting.

“You weren’t fucking man enough for that,” I mocked, spreading my pointer and middle fingers and bending them at the middle knuckle. Darragh sneered down at me, his face smug with triumph when he leaned over me.

I struck.

Shoving my knuckles into his throat, surrounding the bone at the center, I squeezed my fingers together, pinching his windpipe until he sputtered and coughed.

He released me, letting me stumble away awkwardly. “He won’t be waiting for you,” he said, laughter bubbling up his abused throat.

“He’s my fucking husband. He will always be waiting for me.”

“That would be difficult when he’s already fucking dead,” Darragh spat. “All of them are. Even Matteo Bellandi himself, reduced to dust in that monstrosity you called home.”

“No,” Ivory said, shaking her head.

“He opened the door that set off the bomb, sweetheart,” Darragh said, turning to her with a gleeful stare. “Nobody could have survived that blast. There’s nothing left of him now.”

Ivory swallowed, covering Luna’s ears the best she could and smiling down at her baby girl. Her other hand cupped her stomach, cradling the life that had yet to be born, while Darragh laughed.

“Matteo Bellandi is dead.”