Bloodied Hands (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 1)

"You're one of my best friends, Duke. I don't want to lose you, but I won't let you treat me like there's something wrong with me. I love him. I have always loved him, and you know that. What he does for a living"—I paused, shrugging and flopping my ass onto one stool at the island.—"It's not ideal, but I'm not doing it. My part as his wife is just to love him, and I'd be lying to myself if I said that having his love wasn't enough for me."

"Christ, Ivory. I've never been your friend. I've always been waiting for you to come to your senses and see me."

I closed my eyes, drawing in a ragged breath. "One day, you will meet someone who makes you feel the way I feel with Matteo, and suddenly you'll understand. Finding that is what you should have been doing all these years, not waiting on someone who'd already found her person."

"I'm so sorry I wasted my time then. Hopefully this other woman is too smart to fall for some guy's bullshit. Are you so naïve to think he loves you? Christ."

"I do," Matteo's voice announced from the hall that led to his office. I looked to him, watching as Duke spun quickly to face the man he'd always treated like an enemy. In high school, I hadn't really understood.

But hindsight was everything. Duke had been jealous, chasing a relationship he'd never have for over a decade.

"If you did, you'd let her go. She's better off without you," Duke accused.

"Hmm," Matteo mused. "And why do you think I spent so many years without her in my life?" Duke's head jolted, like me, he never could have guessed that Matteo might have been anything other than a cheating dog back then. "As much as you might hate me, I understand it. Losing Ivory is like losing the sun. You had a decade to claim her, Duke. A decade with me out of the picture where you could have made Ivory yours. You could have been married, started a family in that time. But you never told her how you feel, and that's because you knew she didn't feel the same."

Duke winced but surprised me by nodding solemnly.

"I want you in our lives. I want you to be Uncle Duke to my kids. Please," I begged. "Don't make me choose."

Duke turned, crushing me into his chest and hugging me tightly. Lips touched the hair on my head as I broke down in tears. "I won't make you choose, sweetheart," he whispered. Matteo let him hold me as I cried, but I felt his eyes on us every moment.

Thinking. Calculating.

Protecting me always.

Thirty

Ivory

"I'm all for you working here whenever you want, you know that," Matteo grunted, and I smirked into my laptop, not even bothering to glance up at him. "But for the love of God, could you let me work, woman?"

I broke into giggles, crossing my ankles over the arm of the couch where I'd draped them to give Matteo a perfect view as my sundress rode up my thighs. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm minding my own business, working myself."

He gave me that panty-melting grin that literally no woman in the world would be immune to. "Is that so?"

"Mhmm," I hummed in response, crossing and recrossing my legs so that my thighs rubbed together in a desperate bid for friction. I didn't know what the Hell was wrong with me, but I'd wanted sex constantly in the few days since we'd told my parents about our engagement. I almost felt bad for Matteo.

"I can't have sex with you again, Angel. You've drained me dry." I pouted at him, finally turning to face him and the unbelievable happiness written plainly on his face.

I smiled back at him. "I can't help that I want you so much. Maybe you should stop working out. Eat more of my brownies," I teased.

"Oh, so you'll stop jumping my bones every ten minutes if I lose my abs. Is that what you're saying?" I chuckled, setting my laptop on the coffee table and prancing over to plop my butt on his desk in front of him.

"Like you wouldn't be upset if I changed my body," I accused.

"Angel, I love you. Your body is a bonus, yes, but I'll love you however you come."

I tried not to melt, because an admission like that for a man like Matteo, who could have anyone, meant so much to me. "Hmm, it's a good thing, really. Marriage is forever."

"It is," Matteo agreed, capturing my lips with a sweet kiss.

The door opened behind us and Donatello cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to interrupt."

"What do you need, Don?" Matteo asked, leveling the man with a stern look. I knew Donatello had never had to knock before I'd come to the estate, and everyone was having some adjustments to the changes in rules regarding privacy. I forgave him for the awkward moments when he forgot, but Matteo was a little less lenient.

"Ms. Hicks is here for Ms. Torres. Should I have the guards let her in?"

I glanced to Matteo, daring him to say no. I knew at the club in his anger he'd told Sadie she wouldn't see me. I'd honestly mostly forgotten about it in all the drama that ensued after that, given her betrayal and the fact that we weren't speaking, anyway. Him refusing to allow me to see Sadie would violate my trust, another heavy-handed attempt to control me, and with the way he looked at me, he knew that. He knew if we would have a real chance at this marriage, then I needed to make my own decisions so long as they didn't endanger me. "Do you want to see her?" Matteo asked me on a whisper.