Grieved Loss (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 3)

Matteo hadn't technically been a grown man then, still nearly a year away from his high school graduation and entirely wrapped up in Ivory. He'd never known about the slaughter his father had allowed in exchange for my services.

"You know, there was a day when you would always beat me here," Matteo chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his brow at me.

He was right. For years, this place and the release it offered had been the only thing that kept me going.

Then, after I'd met my Sunshine, it had been the only thing to distract me from the obsession that coursed through my veins like the sweetest torment. The moment she cast her light on the shadows I called home, the piece of me I'd thought gone forever snapped back into place.

"I think we can give him a break today," Simon laughed, stepping up

to the man in the chair. He grabbed him by the hair, tugging his head back until he looked up at Simon with pleading eyes. "Don't you think so, Seamus?" he asked, and the middle-aged man nodded his head enthusiastically.

"Guess you're in luck. Tiernan's lowlife says to cut you a break. I guess it isn't every day you get ready to lock your woman and her kids in your house for the foreseeable future." Matteo smiled at me. "I do not envy you the kids. They complicate things."

I shrugged, because I didn't see it that way in the slightest. Without the kids, Calla would fight me every step of the way. She wouldn't go as quietly as Ivory had when Matteo claimed her. She'd be much more likely to claw my eyes out while I slept. With them, I had some leverage, because she would do whatever it took to keep them safe.

Even if it meant keeping them oblivious to the circumstances of their move and biting her tongue when she wanted to verbally assault me.

Underneath her peace-loving, granola crunching exterior, my Sunshine had a creative grasp on the English language.

Even if I never intended to hurt them, those kids were my leverage. It just so happened that I adored them as much as I loved their mother. I'd watched them grow, arguably a more present fixture in their lives than their biological father had been, even when he wasn't buried six feet in the ground.

They didn't know it, but I'd seen it all.

"They're mine as much as she is," I added with another shrug when Matteo looked at me expectantly. He looked thoughtful for a moment before his face broke into a dark grin that made the man in the chair tremble even more. "Is Don ready for tomorrow?" I asked, instead of letting Matteo steer the conversation further down the path of my relationship with my woman. If he hadn't had Ivory, I wouldn't have been able to tolerate his interest in her. Even with Ivory, it was difficult to resist the urge to cut him.

I didn't like people who showed an interest in Calla. I'd spent far too much time over the past year chasing off would-be suitors looking to take from her.

Nobody but me would ever touch her again, and the entire year she'd gone without sex would help make her as desperate as I felt every day when I jerked off to thoughts of her.

There was nothing I wouldn't do to claim her.

"He's ready. Not looking forward to it, but he's ready." Matteo grimaced with his words. Don had been hesitant when I first involved him in my plans, not enjoying the prospect of deceiving a grieving widow in the slightest. Personally, I thought he was more likely terrified of what would happen when Calla realized she'd been lied to and tricked into letting her stalker support her and her kids financially.

I couldn't blame him there.

"Good," I grunted. "Are we done gossiping? Can we move on to the corpse?" I asked.

Simon chuckled at me, stepping away from the chair to lean against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "He ain't no corpse."

"He will be soon enough," I answered, stepping over to my table of tools and picking out my favorite knife.

Matteo's levity faded to the ruthless mask he wore to rule the city, but he stayed back. Always letting me take over, because, unlike the others, I enjoyed this part.

I enjoyed every scream, and every time they begged me for mercy. Enjoyed every pulse of blood as it left their bodies.

“Where is Murphy planning to base his operation?” Matteo asked, and the silence of his answer sealed his fate.

I enjoyed every second of his torture.

Six

Calla

I carried Ines as we walked along the path in the cemetery. It had been months since we visited, months since Axel asked to talk to his Dad.

I thought about it too often, about the fact that our lives were moving on. Our time of grieving had come to an inevitable close, even though I wasn't ready. I knew I had to be. The kids deserved better than for me to cling to the memory of what we'd once had.

Of what we would never have again.