Shielded Wrongs (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 4)

"Shit," I swore, my lungs heaving as brakes squealed outside. Hoping against hope that reinforcements had arrived for us and not the other way around.

"Sadie?" Ryker asked, his voice drawing a sigh of relief from me as his boots thumped along the floor. Peeking down the stairs, I hurried out from my hiding place, keeping my head low and trying not to look at the bodies. "I've got her," Ryker called, stepping over to me with a glance around the space and down to Rebel who clung to my side.

"Where's Enzo?" he asked when he helped me stand.

"Killing people, I suspect," I whispered, staring up at his vivid blue eyes as the meatball stared down at me.

"I'm jealous," he admitted with another look around. "Looks like he's got quite the massacre going for himself."

I swallowed as my eyes landed on Enzo's form at the other end of the alley between the lofts. His chest heaved as his mouth twisted into an animalistic snarl. He held a man in his arms, controlling his struggling as he raised his knife and dragged the blade across his throat.

"Definitely jealous," Ryker murmured. More brakes squealed, an SUV filled with armed men pouring into the back door of the warehouse. "I've got Sadie. Go clear the rest of the building," Ryker ordered. Seb nodded, motioning two of the men up the stairs and taking the other two with him to check the ground floor. Ryker took the gun from my hand, easing the burden of its weight. A sigh of relief slid free, cradling my hand to my chest.

Matteo and Simon emerged through the front door. The man from Indulgence who wanted to brand Vanessa trailed at their heels, lacking a gun like the other two clutched in their hands. "Don't look at him too long," Ryker warned, leaning his hatchet against his leg as he spun me to inspect the bullet wound in the back of my shoulder. "Rafe's psychotic, and that's coming from me." His eyes went to my wrist where it was already turning purple, his jaw clenching.

"Seems that way," I said, watching as a man stepped out from the shadows. Seeming to mistake Rafe for the weak link because of his lack of a gun, he lunged for him. Rafe dodged, grabbing the man's head between his hands and twisting so quickly that the snap of his neck echoed up the alley as he fell to the floor.

Rafe glanced at the body for a moment, his lip curling in distaste before he stepped over the body carefully and straightened his tie. "Who is he?" I asked Ryker.

"A friend of Matteo's from Spain," he answered as choruses of "clear" rang through the space from in the loft.

"We're clear down here," Seb said, moving to Enzo at the front of the building.

Ryker put a hand to the middle of my back gently, guiding me up the alleyway where Enzo waited. He didn't move to close the distance between us, his face still twisted with his fury until we reached him. "I told you we should wait," I

said stupidly with a smile, sidestepping the bloody puddle around the dude with the Cheshire grin on his neck. Enzo didn’t react, staring down at the body by his feet.

I reached out a hand to touch his chest, his free hand grabbing my bruised wrist in a crushing grip that made me cry out. Ryker twitched, stepping forward, but Matteo held him back with a warning hand to his chest. “Enzo,” I whispered, my voice laced with pain as his fingers tightened. “Lorenzo, it’s me.” I curled my fingers into his chest, digging in as much as I could through the pain. His features relaxed slowly as he stared at me, his body going slack as I pressed myself into him for comfort.

To calm him and draw him back from the brink where he'd gone in his murderous rage. His arms closed around me, his breath coming slowly until his heart pulsed in time with mine instead of a rapid race to the finish line of life. "Don't you ever do something like that again. That's twice in two days that you put yourself in danger stupidly, Carina."

Looking up at him, I winced in pain as the muscles in my shoulder shifted to accommodate the new angle. "I regret trying to run toward the fire, but I will never regret taking a bullet for you," I whispered. "I love you, Lorenzo. Too much to stand back and let you die when I can do something to stop it."

His face softened, his forehead touching mine as a ragged breath released him. "I love you too, my little psycho," he whispered, drawing a smile from me as my shoulder ached with my soft laughter.

34

Enzo

She did a decent job trying to hide the pain from all the others. Sadie would never be willing to let people see her weaknesses, but the pain nagged at the edges of her eyes. The subtle winces at the corners of her mouth any time she moved.

The red bled from my vision with the help of her body against mine and the reassurance that she was alive. A glance around the warehouse confirmed just how many men I'd killed in my desperation to protect Sadie. A massacre, considering I was only one man. My memories of it were a haze, only the faintest trace of navigating the warehouse silently and hiding behind everything left behind in the spaces beneath the lofts before I jumped out and made my kills.

I suspected there would be plenty of rounds left in my magazine, since the sound of a gun would have announced my location better than anything else I could have done.

They were the first kills I felt absolutely no guilt for. Perhaps it was another sign of my humanity slipping away, or maybe it was just a sign of what a man would do for the woman he loved.

Anything to keep her safe and sound. Anything to go home to her at night.

My only regret was that the man who shot her didn't suffer before he died, as Sadie would undoubtedly feel pain from the wound for weeks and then have to spend more time than she'd like easing back into her workout regimen.

A stir-crazy Sadie was not one I looked forward to dealing with under normal circumstances, but in the face of her near death?

I was more than happy to take care of her.

Every day for the rest of our lives.

“Sean’s upstairs,” Sadie said hesitantly. “Very much dead, but I thought that might be important to mention.” She winced as my jaw tightened. Eventually, we’d have to talk about what happened. But first she needed to be treated.