Shielded Wrongs (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 4)

"Ryker?" Enzo asked, taking my hand when Yavin nodded. "Show me what happened, Carina. I need to know who to fucking kill for letting someone dangerous back here." Yavin heaved out a sigh of relief, dropping in his chair. "Don't even begin to think you're absolved of this. You should have kept a closer eye on her. You better hope Liam does a better job protecting Aoife or she'll never make it to your wedding day," Enzo warned, taking my hand and guiding me back for the bathroom. Leaving Yavin to his silent rage, I let Enzo drag me toward the spill on aisle six.

I didn't want to go. Didn't want to see what Rebel and I had done, but she led Enzo right to the bathroom. I shoved down the feelings the way I always did, stepping into the bathroom and letting my eyes fall on my attacker. I didn't know why I had such a visceral reaction to his death when I'd seen blood before.

Enzo whistled as he looked at the body, patting Rebel's head. "Good girl," he said, echoing my earlier sentiments.

"He was already down when she ate him," I said. "I had the gun."

"Is that why you're so quiet? Because you feel like he didn't need to die?" I nodded, suspecting the senselessness of it was why. I taught my girls to defend themselves. What Rebel had done went past that line and straight into the line between right and wrong that was so precarious. "Just because he was down doesn't mean he wasn't a threat. Even if he'd lived, do you really think what Rebel did is worse than what Ryker would have done to him? Rebel did the man a favor, Carina."

"You're right," I agreed, some sense coming back as I shivered. "It was a shock, that's all. I'll be fine."

"You did good. I know it's different to teaching others to defend themselves rather than doing it. Walk me through what happened."

I nodded. "He was waiting when I came out of the stall. He wrapped his arm around my throat and put the gun to the back of my head. He didn't hurt me, just asked me to get Rebel to be quiet. I disarmed him before he could ask me to do anything else, but I didn't get the sense he was there to kill me. He'd have just shot me from the get go."

Enzo nodded, nudging the corpse with his boot. "His face?"

"That was me. Elbowed him in the nose. Then kicked him in the chin to lay him out."

"Right. This is the second time you've been attacked this month. I don't know why they're targeting you so hard, but I'm going to have some of our contacts poke around and find out. In the meantime, Ryker will make an example out of this guy’s corpse.” He kicked the body. “Let Tiernan know we mean business when it comes to our women."

"What about my family? Should we be concerned that they'll be targeted?" I asked, staring up at him as horror filled me.

"They're covered. I've had men watching them since your attack."

I sighed with relief as we left the bathroom to wait in Yavin's office until Ryker came with the clean-up crew.

I wanted to go home and stay there for a year.

27

Enzo

It killed me to abandon Sadie when she was so out of sorts, trapped in the reality of what she’d done and seen. A man’s blood stained her body and dead eyes imprinted on her memory. The comfort of her best friend would be enough to see her through the few hours to come until I could come home to her. A best friend who knew exactly what it was like to kill.

To look death in the face and say fuck you.

Pulling up at Tease once more after dropping both my girls at the estate, I barely had the car in park before I threw myself out of the driver’s seat. Rain poured down around me, my dress shoes splashing in the puddles. The parking lot was empty, only the recognizable vehicles of staff and Bellandi men closest to the black building with the tinted windows.

The doors flew open the moment I approached, Sandro and one of Rafael’s men standing guard. “Bryan said to tell you he’s set. He’s with Irina twenty-four seven now,” Sandro said as I passed. I froze just beyond him, turning on my heel so that my shoe squeaked against the floor. The room filled with sudden silence as I leveled him with a glare in warning.

“Do you think I give the first shit about that right now?” I asked.

“No, Sir,” he said, shaking his head quickly. With a growl of frustration, I moved further into the club. Ryker stood on stage, glaring down at the guards who’d been on duty all day.

“Go home, Enzo,” he grunted. “You should be with Sadie.” Matteo nodded his agreement, but I ignored both of them to ascend the steps slowly.

Casting my eyes about the room, I glared at every single one of the men we’d trusted to keep our business, our employees, ourselves safe. “The girls are in the back?” I asked Ryker.

“Yeah. Detained them in case we needed information, but we didn’t want to scare them in case it gets messy out here. Yav and Calix are with them,” he answered, narrowing his eyes at me and studying my face. “You good?”

I nodded absently in response, searching the small crowd of male employees for the one who’d been on guard when we arrived earlier in the day.

I tightened my jaw when I found him, fidgeting from one foot to the other anxiously. My hand darted to my holster, pulling it so quickly that Ryker barely had time to flinch away from the sudden movement at his side.

Pointing my gun at the guard, I fired a single shot into his thigh.

The scream that echoed through th