Forgivable Sins (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 2)

Georgio pulled the car up next to where Emilio double parked. By some miracle, Lino and Matteo had pulled strings. The entire portion of the street was closed, nobody to see the panicked look on my face. A cop sat in front of me, looking at me with sympathy as we waited for Lino.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Lino tossed his door open and vaulted out. His long legs made quick work of crossing the sidewalk and storming inside the emptied-out building that Lamb & Rowe called home.

I watched his eyes dart around the space before finally landing on me. I stood, wringing my hands in front of me as he thundered toward me. When he crashed into me, his hands wrapped me tight, one around my waist and the other around the back of my head to pull me into his torso. “Fuck,” he growled.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled into his shirt. “I promise. Not a mark.” Matteo’s Aston Martin pulled up outside, followed by the SUV I knew Scar used to drive Ivory around. “What’s going on?” I asked, glancing back at Lino. “Aren’t we going home?”

Lino’s eyes went to where Emilio stood guard over the man who’d attacked me. He sat there silently, not speaking a word and refusing to answer any questions.

“Angel, I told you to stay in the fucking car,” Matteo grunted as he and Scar traipsed after her. Those long legs of hers closed the distance between us quickly, and she tugged me into her for a hug and brushed her hands over my head. From the tears and the fear in her eyes, I knew she remembered how terrifying it had been for her when she’d been taken from her home.

“You stay in the car, Matteo Bellandi,” she spat at him. He merely grinned back at his wife, and Scar stepped forward to put his hand on my shoulder.

“You okay, Mara?” he asked. I nodded back at him, staring up into his ridiculously tall face. “Good. I’m taking both of you back to the Bellandi estate. Your husbands have something they need to deal with.” He glared over at where Emilio stood with the attacker.

“Lino?” I asked him, turning to look up at him, but his face was morphed into the ruthless man I knew he’d need to be to get through the night.

“Go with Scar, vita mia. I need to know you’re safe. There’s nowhere safer than Matteo’s.”

“But—”

“Just do this for me, Little Dove,” he whispered, and I had no choice but to nod in the face of the strain in his voice. His lips touched mine, too briefly.

“Be careful,” I whispered, and he nodded. As Ivory took my arm and guided me away, he and Scar exchanged a heavy look.

I didn’t need to be a man to understand what it meant.

If anything happened to me, Lino would include Scar in the rampage I suspected he was about to undertake.

Twenty-Nine

Lino

“Put him in the fucking trunk,” I growled the moment the women were out of the building.

“Easy,” Matteo tried to soothe me, but I was beyond soothing. “Ryker’s still tracking Connor. We can pull him back, but—”

“No need. I’ve got it.” His eyes widened, and he glanced down at where my hands were tightened into fists. With a nod to Georgio, the man moved to Emilio and the two of them lifted the guy off his feet to cart him outside.

“We’ve got it,” Matteo responded, clapping a hand down on my shoulder. I knew from the fury that blazed in his piercing blue eyes that he remembered what he’d felt when Ivory was taken. Knew he remembered how much he’d struggled with the fact that he hadn’t been allowed to make the fucker bleed and suffer for all eternity. He wouldn’t deny me the same need for vengeance that slithered through my body like a lethal toxin that would invade every part of my life until I could release it. “No one touches our women.”

“No one,” I grunted, and we stormed out to the Aston side by side.

The ride to the warehouse was quick, both in distance and because of the way Matteo drove. Without Ivory in the car as precious cargo, he pushed it to the limit until we reached the worst part of town. The only people that came to this part of the city knew better than to poke their nose where it didn’t belong, so when we pulled up to Georgio and Emilio hauling Samara’s attacker out of the trunk, we didn’t think anything of it.

Nobody would see. Nobody would care.

We were just taking out the trash, since he wouldn’t leave the warehouse alive.

“In the fridge,” I ordered, and the two men carted him inside. The chair in the center of the room was all prepared with ropes for us, courtesy of our meticulous torturer.

“You have me at a disadvantage,” Matteo drawled as they tied him down. He went for Ryker’s tools, fingering

the blades affectionately. “My resident psychopath is occupied tonight, so I guess you’ll have to settle for us.” The man didn’t respond, staring at Emilio with disdain. I went to Matteo, grabbing the sledgehammer off the floor next to the table and hefting it in my arms. As soon as Emilio and Georgio stepped back, I moved in and swung it forward with all my strength.

The crunch of his kneecap crushing beneath the force of it was satisfying in a way I’d never felt before.

I’d killed. I’d tortured. I’d done what I had to do to survive the way I was raised, but I’d never enjoyed it. But the way the man howled in pain, trying to collapse forward, that I enjoyed. The hammer came down on his other knee just as easily, giving me another pulse of satisfaction that both soothed me and made me feel like a monster all at once.