Shielded Wrongs (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 4)

My heart filled with a little more love for her, knowing that she volunteered her time to help women in need who had nowhere else to turn. She was my redemption. It was all worth it if everything in my life led me to the fire-cracker of a woman who wanted nothing more than to help others feel safe.

The most skittish of the women turned to her, shifting her weight nervously as she tried to make a fist properly. Sadie took her hand gently, untucking the girl's thumb and talking to her softly. I couldn't hear the words, but the shy woman smiled in response.

"Remember!" Sadie said suddenly as she turned to the rest of the women. "You want to break his face, not your thumb. Always keep them outside your fingers." She demonstrated, turning her attention back to the shy woman so she could kneel at her feet. She twisted her legs to plant her ankles shoulder width apart, tapping her toes until the girl watched the angle of her feet and studied them. Memorizing the position. "Knees loose and bent. This position is where your power comes from. When you strike, you use your entire body. A punch from a weak arm doesn't hold as much strength as a punch that has an entire body thrown into it. If you fight, you have to aim to incapacitate him long enough to get away. Otherwise you'll just piss him off."

Sadie touched the girl's shoulder gently as she stood, making her way around the room and correcting people as they helped one another find the right position. "I know this seems so basic, but it's really the root of your power. You have to have a good understanding of it before we move on, and we have some new girls here this week."

Nobody questioned her as she continued on with her lesson, demanding their attention like she so often did. It was impossible not to notice Sadie when you walked into a room, such was the magnetic energy that she brought with her everywhere she went. Even subdued to teach women to protect themselves, she shone like a radiant light.

A light that was all mine.

21

Sadie

After dropping Rebel off at home, Enzo had taken me for a ride on his bike. The purr of it beneath me was like a soothing strum that reminded me of Enzo himself. A beautiful machine with a beast lurking inside.

Part of me wondered what a thrill it would be to finally see that beast unleashed, but the other part of me knew that for that to happen would be horrific. We left Chicago, going outside the city limits where skyscrapers faded to rural land and rolling hills. The roads wound through the trees the further we got from the bright lights in the distance, the night sky beautiful without light pollution.

Being on the back of the bike meant I couldn't truly appreciate the stars in the sky the way I wanted to, but the feel of my arms wrapped around Enzo was enough to placate me. Stopping at the top of a hill, he parked the bike in a pull-off. He tugged the helmet off my head carefully, leaving both of them on the bike as

he took my hand and led me to a dark path between the trees.

"Is this the part where you murder me for being a pain in your ass?" I asked, rolling my eyes at the droll look he sent my way.

"I'm a Bellandi. I don't need to take you to the woods to murder you," he answered with a chuckle. The unusually dry humor regarding the nature of his employer and the business he conducted startled me enough that I choked on a laugh.

"Did you just make a murder joke, Lorenzo Vescovi?" I wheezed, bumping my hips into his side as we walked. The path was dark, only illuminated by the light shining through the canopy of trees as we made our way slowly. Leaves crunched beneath my feet, but the distinct lack of snow was prevalent in the unseasonably warm night. Bundled up in a heavy sweater and jacket with gloves on my hands, I felt toasty warm even if my cheeks caught the slight chill in the air.

"I think I did," he said, smiling brightly at me with flawless teeth that shone in the darkness.

"What are we doing in the middle of nowhere if you aren't planning to murder me?" He paused when a tree branch blocked the path, swiping it back slowly to reveal a panoramic view of the city in the distant valley below.

"We're here for this," he said, pulling my hand as he stepped out of the path and to the hillside covered in grass. "It's prettier in the Spring and Summer when everything is lush and green, but I wasn't about to wait that long to bring you here." A man stood from a stump where he sat. "Thanks, Luis. Tell Rafe I owe him one small favor."

The man nodded with a crooked grin, his dark hair and Spanish features shining in the moonlight. "Smart man, specifying it will be a small favor. Rafe loves to deal in favors."

"I am aware. Matteo warned me about making a deal with the devil," Enzo admitted as the other man stepped around us. The hill dropped into a steep decline in front of us and the space to walk was narrow as we moved through it. Once it opened up, I realized why a man would be waiting for us.

A blanket was laid on the half-dead grass, pillows and another blanket folded on top of it along with a cooler presumably filled with food or drinks. "You did this?" I asked, stopping dead in my tracks.

No one had ever stopped to think to romance me. I'd always been the wild child looking for a good time, like my enjoying thrills and activity meant I couldn't enjoy the calmness of a beautiful view or the thoughtfulness of a man who considered what I might want.

"Did you think it was Luis?" he asked, a humorous grin on his face to deflect the awe I felt as I looked at him. "I'm fairly certain Rafe's men are not in the practice of setting up romantic dates without being paid to do it."

"How do you even know about this place?" I asked, flopping down on top of the blanket without ceremony. Enzo settled in beside me, his warmth immediately touching mine as he tugged the spare blanket across our laps and drew me into his side with an arm around my waist. With my head against his chest, his heart beat in tune with mine, an echo from the depths of me to him.

He sighed, and I tilted my head up to watch a sad sort of smile cross over his face. "I grew up in Chicago. Joined up with my buddy Logan after we both turned eighteen. We got our first bikes before we went off for basic, and this was where he liked to come. He liked to jump from one of those rocks to the other like an idiot desperate to break his damn leg,” he said with a chuckle, pointing to the boulders that lined the hillside. “He said the view reminded him of everything he was fighting for. Protecting those people down there from days like September 11th. Troops had been in Afghanistan for a few years before we joined up. We were already at war with Iraq" he said, dropping his head as emotion twisted his face into a grimace.

Tears flooded my eyes, sensing the coming crash of reality. Of everything Enzo had survived and seen.

Everything he'd lost.

"I wasn't as excited as he was about it. Afghanistan a few years earlier? Of course. But the Iraq War felt different, even then. Luckily when we were deployed, they sent us to Afghanistan, so my opinions about Iraq were irrelevant. I probably wouldn't have joined if Logan hadn't been determined, but I'd have followed him anywhere. He was always reckless, running into danger when everyone else ran away…” Enzo trailed off, staring at the city in the distance.

Leaning forward, I studied his profile intently. "He didn't come home, did he?"

"No,” he said, shaking his head slowly. "Some of the guys in our squad were cornered in a building. We had to shoot our way out. Our Squad Leader was shot in the leg. He couldn't walk on his own, so I was helping him out with Logan taking point. He caught a bullet in the throat. We got him to cover, but he bled out before back up made it."