Shielded Wrongs (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 4)

Glancing up from her embrace to watch Dad walk into Enzo's house, his eyes were intense on mine. "I'm sorry," I whispered, the sound echoing through the silence of the room.

"Don't you dare. What the fuck were you thinking? Trying to run in for my goddamn belt!" he shouted.

"Oscar," Mama snapped, spinning and glaring at him. "You're not helping."

Turning a glare to Enzo, resentment filled me that he'd betrayed me by telling my father something so personal. A secret I'd trusted him with in the expectation that he would keep it to himself. "I know how important it is to you," I whispered, watching my father’s face twist.

His lip trembled and nostrils flared as he closed his eyes. When he opened them, they filled with moisture as he stepped closer and filled the space Mama vacated for him. "I have truly failed you as a parent if you can't see that you mean far more to me than a gym and a belt ever could, Sadie Girl," he said, tugging me into his chest to hold me.

After he eventually pulled back and looked down at me meaningfully, Enzo seemed to sense that I was overwhelmed and needed a minute to myself. "I'd like to show you some of th

e photos. Share the police report so you have it for insurance," Enzo said.

Dad nodded. "I love you Sadie. We'll figure it out together, okay?" he asked me, wiping some of my tears away with a stroke of his thumb, then moving to follow Enzo, and they went down the hall to his office, leaving Mama and me alone.

"Enzo is pissed, hm?" she asked, making me clench my eyes shut.

"I fucked up," I admitted.

"You did. Men like Enzo aren't the type to sit back and watch you live your life, Sadie. He wants to be your life. When you tried to run toward the danger of the burning gym, he saw it as you choosing the gym over him. That building was more important than your future together."

"If I'd had to choose between saving the gym or saving Enzo, I'd have saved Enzo in a heartbeat," I said. "It wasn't a conscious decision."

"You know that and I know that, but men are giant pains in the ass. What do you think Enzo would have done if you'd made it inside? He'd have followed you, Mahal. You didn't just risk your life and your future with Enzo, but you risked his life, too."

I slumped down on the couch, staring at my feet as Rebel immediately hurried over to cover them with her body. Who needed socks when you had a dog?

"What do I do, Mama?" I asked.

"You fix it. If you love him, tell him. Show him. Just do it before you lose the best thing that ever happened to you," Mama said, taking a seat next to me and wrapping her arm around my shoulders to tug me into her side.

I should have been pissed that Enzo and Dad were talking about the gym without me, but for once I just wanted to snuggle into my mama's side and be taken care of.

31

Enzo

Explosions.

Surrounded by the incessant, rapid gunfire, and bomb exploding down the street. The building we'd taken shelter in shook, the Earth beneath it rumbling in protest. Logan and I shared a glance as I peeked around the corner of the hallway. The others in the building were long gone, separated by a rain of bullets that came through the second story window as we tried to make our way to the ground floor.

A bullet whizzed by my face, missing by only a margin as I ducked back behind the wall. "Cover me," I said.

Logan shook his head. "No chance. He'll shoot you before you even line him in your sight."

With a deep breath, I ignored his advice and threw myself to my stomach on the floor in the middle of the hallway. I didn't bother lining up my shot perfectly, firing into the enemy’s general direction. At the very least it should interfere with his shot.

He cried out as a bullet caught him in the gut, clutching his abdomen and dropping to his knees. Logan's shot followed, hitting him square between the eyes, and he dropped to his face in the debris on the floor.

"Let's move," I said, shoving to my feet and notching my M4 against my shoulder, positioning my body to view through the scope as we moved in slow, measured steps. Clearing each room as we passed the doors, we each took a side of the hall and moved as silently as possible in perfect unison. The building shook around us with another explosion nearby as we came to the back stairwell. We moved down the steps quickly, speeding past the windows as one and negating any chance of someone having time to get a decent shot at us.

The ground floor was largely vacated, only a few of our team members lingering. "Sarge!" I yelled over the sound of gunfire outside.

"Vescovi, get them the fuck out here!" he commanded, pushing me to step up as the highest ranking officer underneath him. The sergeant to his staff sergeant, I knew what my duty would be.

It just didn't fucking matter. Billings knelt at his feet, tying a tourniquet around the thigh where Sarge had been shot. Moving to take over the duty and tug it tight, I ignored Sarge's cry of protest as the fabric tightened around his flesh and cut off the circulation. "Billings, lead the squad out. Take out as many as you can and get your ass to the rendezvous. Logan will cover Sarge and I," I ordered, glancing up when Billings looked at me with uncertainty. "Move!" Hauling Sarge to his feet, I tossed his arm over my shoulder and supported as much of his weight as I could with my left side so that my gun arm stayed free. One handed was better than nothing.

The room emptied of the squad as they started moving quickly through the streets, grenades exploding as they tossed them at the insurgents keeping us pinned in the hellhole of a town covered in dust and sand.