Grieved Loss (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 3)

Tires squealed.

I knew, even without looking, that Ryker had come, that the sound of doors flinging open was him coming to help.

The kids would be safe. Even if I wasn’t.

Behind me there was a grunt, and the sound of a thump as something fell to the ground. With his hand still in my hair, my captor spun me to face where his comrade had climbed to his feet only a moment before.

He lay on the ground, immobile, and blood leaked from the gaping hole in his throat as if it had been torn out. Ryker stood over him, some kind of hatchet in his hand.

It dripped blood onto the pavement in a steady staccato that reverberated through the intersection. It shouldn’t have been loud. Not with my captors' harsh breathing in my ear.

But I fixated on that sound until Ryker spoke. "Let. Go. Of. My. Wife," he warned, but the man holding me doubled down. He pulled a gun from his pocket and lifted it to press it to my temple. I whimpered, closing my eyes so I wouldn't have to see what came next.

So I wouldn't have to look at Ryker when I died. I wouldn't have to see the pain I knew I'd find there.

Wind grazed my cheek as something whizzed past my ear. Something wet splashed against my cheek and drew a startled gasp from my lungs. I was suddenly grateful I'd closed my eyes as the hand released my hair and the weight of the man behind me fell to the ground.

Gasping, I felt my legs collapse beneath me. I stretched up a hand to furiously scrub at what I knew had to be blood on my face. When I opened my eyes, the blank ones of the man who'd held me stared back at me, his body twisted into the position he’d fallen to. Dead. With Ryker's hatchet embedded right between his eyes.

"Can't you be normal for once?" Lino shouted, and I glanced over to the car where the kids had been. "What have you got against guns?" The car was empty, but Georgio and Matteo were in a car parked behind it, and the kids' heads bobbed in the back seat as Georgio and Matteo distracted them. I had to hope they hadn't seen anything, because it would have been traumatic enough to watch Jason be shot and me dragged off.

Watching Ryker kill the men who did it would be a whole new level.

I blinked, staring up at Ryker where he came to stand in front of me. He tore off a piece of his sleeve, using it to wipe the blood from my face. His face was gentle, though his eyes scalded me with how furious they were.

Shit.

Fifty-Three

Ryker

My wife bled from a wound on the side of her forehead. There was another man's blood splashed on her shirt that I couldn't clean as easily as I wiped it from her pale skin.

Flashbacks to the sight of Lauren crumpled and broken in the car by the time I got to her tried to draw me away from the moment. Only my pure fury could distract me from my relief that Calla stared back at me with wide eyes as I cleaned her face. When Enzo pulled up in his SUV, he jumped out and ran into the fray like only a true badass could do. With his pistol held like the military man he had once been, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw me hunched over Calla's very alive form.

"Get the fucking cop to the warehouse," I told him, and Enzo only hesitated long enough to get Matteo's nod of approval. Cop or not, nobody fucked with our women. He'd signed his death warrant the moment he tried to take Calla away from me. That he'd almost gotten her killed in the process was just another reason for me to make him hurt before he died.

"No! Ryker, please just think about this. He’s a cop," Calla whimpered, lunging to her feet in front of me. I'd known she'd fight me on it, but it didn't stop me from growing more and more furious that she would defend another man.

That she'd defend the man who tried to take her and the kids from me.

"He shoved you into a fucking car and drove off with you, Calla. I told you what I'd do if he came near you. You didn’t dissuade him well enough. Now I deal with it," I growled at her, staring down at the frenzied look in her eyes. I knew Lino kept the kids occupied the best he could, but Axel made it an almost futile task by constantly trying to turn his head and see his mother.

My little man may have only been six, but I'd been much younger the first time I'd seen a dead body. He was made of more than I was, and he'd walk away knowing that I did whatever it took to protect my family.

Even if it was against Calla herself.

"He showed me your family," she whispered, and I could see the fear in her eyes. I knew part of it was because of the accident, but the knowledge of what I'd done had put distance and distrust between us I had to hope I could fix.

My eyes closed as I reached out and stroked my thumb over her cheekbone delicately, despite my anger. My poor Sunshine. A little of my rage shifted, leaving her and going to the one person I could blame for the situation.

My family had been my first kills, and the ones I enjoyed the most in all my life. I tightened my jaw, my nostrils flaring as my rage returned and I saw red. I turned my attention to where Enzo dragged Jason to his SUV. The man struggled with every bit of strength he had left, given the bullet wound in his shoulder, because he knew that he had fucked up epically.

I'd have his head.

I reached behind Calla, snatching my hatchet out of the man's face. A fresh spurt of blood made Calla gag and cover her mouth, and she turned her eyes away from the gaping gash where his nose should have been.

Turning, I strode for Jason. "Ryker!" Calla screamed, scrambling after me.