Shielded Wrongs (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 4)

The position meant his arm was between my legs, with me gripping it tight. I held it tight to my body as I shoved my hips up into the air, feeling nothing but glee when his elbow snapped backward and the bone broke.

“Fucking bitch!” he roared, his arm going limp in my hands as I raised my foot from the bed and smashed it down onto his nose.

“Piece of shit,” I wheezed, rolling backwards and off the edge of the bed. I raced for the living room, leaving him to decide how he wanted to pick up the pieces of his pride.

I’d shatter what remained by the time I finished with him.

I scrambled for the bat tucked behind my couch, never more grateful for my need for order than I was in that moment. Yanking it out from its hiding place, I spun and watched as he stumbled out of the bedroom. He grasped the doorway as he passed, leaving a red smear on the paint, and he grimaced at me with blood-stained teeth. My eye twitched, my fingers tightening on the bat.

“You know, like you haven't pissed me off enough. Now I have to paint to cover up your nasty ass stain.” I sighed.

“I’m going to bring you back to Murphy black and blue,” he snarled.

I hefted my bat, holding my stance and staggering my feet for better traction. “I think it’s more likely that Ryker will paint the warehouse walls with your blood. It’s a much more

welcome decor item there. You’ll fit right in.” I smiled, watching as he staggered forward another step.

I was too small to attack. Too small to sacrifice my balance and the strength that came from planting my weight.

He came closer.

Slowly.

Approaching me like a caged animal, he looked at me with rabid eyes. Men never saw that they were the animals. That they were the monsters. Women were just theirs to take and use.

Abuse.

I’d be fucking damned if I became a victim when I spent my time teaching women how to be survivors.

So I waited. I itched to hit him and to make him bleed the way he would have done to me if I’d been anyone else. But he’d picked the wrong woman to steal out of bed in the night.

Murphy could kiss my Filipina ass.

He raised his hand, blocking his face as he came closer.

One more step.

And I struck, swinging my bat not for his face like he thought I would, but for the broken elbow he kept hanging at his side like a limp dick. He roared, grabbing at it as pain exploded through his arm.

He dropped his block, and I raised a leg to my chest. Kicking down onto his kneecap, I felt it give beneath him as he collapsed to the other knee.

I swung again, catching him in the temple.

He fell to the floor, bashing his face on the coffee table and staining the carpet too while he was at it.

My landlord would not like me when morning came.

It was a good thing he was my Dad.

I brought the bat with me as I went back to the bedroom. I didn’t let myself look at the bloodstained sheets as I snagged my phone off the nightstand.

Even in the middle of the night, she’d answer the phone. Matteo would want to kill me, but she’d answer.

“Sadie?” my best friend asked in a sleepy voice. I hated waking her up, but I had a feeling Matteo wouldn’t appreciate me calling the cops for this.

“Don’t panic, but tell Matteo one of Murphy’s friends needs picking up,” I sighed, stepping back into the living room to check on my attacker. Ivory sucked in a sharp breath as I watched the body on my carpet, counting every time his chest rose and fell. I wouldn’t get close enough for him to catch me off guard on the chance that he only pretended to be unconscious.

Not until I got my handcuffs from the bedroom.