Then, having achieved her leverage, she dropped her weight to the ground until he released her. With that arm still wrapped around the back of his neck, she tucked a foot behind him and pulled back until he tripped and went down on the mat.
She’d moved so fast, if I hadn't had training of my own, I'd have no clue what she'd done. She stood with a foot on either side of his hips, smiling down at him while he twisted his head side to side. "You could at least not totally humiliate me in the first two minutes of meeting your new boyfriend."
She helped him to his feet, and I glared when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tugged her into his side. "Not my boyfriend," she said, hopping down out of the ring like a professional.
I suspected she probably could be if she wanted to.
"Did you tell him that?" Mike asked, nodding in my direction as another guy climbed into the ring with him.
"We'll reach an agreement later on," I said, tucking an arm around her waist when she got closer to the bench where I sat. I knew Sadie was a little bit of a wild child, and that I'd have to allow her some room to be free if I wanted to be with her.
I didn't want her tamed or controlled.
I just wanted her mine.
I expected more fight to be involved with getting Sadie to leave Fists of Fury. Instead, she’d hopped on the back of my bike the moment I mentioned needing to swing by the Estate to have a conversation with Matteo.
Her arms tightened around my waist as we proceeded through the gates and past the armed guards lining the interior of the perimeter wall. Only the most trusted of our men gained access to the Estate. We were fortunate enough that in the aftermath of the betrayal that had shaken our family to its core and threatened everything we valued, the only men who remained could absolutely be trusted. Ryker and I had weeded out the rotten seeds one by one, resorting to tactics I’d never thought I’d need to use on men who were meant to be my brothers.
But brotherhood was earned, not a gift given without expectations, particularly in a world where betrayal meant life or death for us and the women we claimed.
I couldn’t blame Lino for the way he’d handled his own father in the wake of his actions. Trying to sell Lino’s wife into human trafficking meant he deserved every bit of the way his life ended. Especially not now that I understood just a piece of how he felt about Samara. Sadie and I didn’t have decades of history and love between us, but it would come.
Pulling up in front of the house, Sadie released a deep breath to try to relax herself. I didn’t know why she would be so uncomfortable when she’d spent plenty of time at the estate in the past, but she pushed through it and hopped off the bike. Shoving her helmet into my chest, she turned her powerful stride for the front doors and let herself in without knocking.
The ballsy move drew a chuckle from me, just picturing Scar’s annoyance when she flounced through the rooms like security risks didn’t matter to her. Following her, I found her already seated at the kitchen counter with Luna bouncing on her lap, Smaug perched on her shoulder, and staring down at the just over one year old girl who clearly adored her godmother.
Ivory smiled at them from the other side of the counter, ignoring whatever simmered on the stove behind her long enough to enjoy the sight of her two favorite girls together. “Hi, Enzo,” she said, giving me a bright smile and raising her brows at me while she waited for me to update her on whatever Sadie didn’t want to say. “Lunch will be ready in a few. Matteo’s waiting for you in his office.”
“Shouldn’t I get to hear this update? It’s about me!” Sadie argued. I shook my head at her, running a tentative hand over the hair on top of her head and leaning down to kiss the top of Luna’s. She reached her hands up for me, and I playfully nipped her little fingers to dissuade her from wanting to be picked up.
Until I had the conversation with Matteo about where Sadie and I were heading, I couldn’t risk a more intimate touch with Sadie in his house. I stepped away without kissing her even though I wanted nothing more than to feel her lips on mine. Not being able to visually claim my woman didn’t sit right with me, so I knew we’d have to have it out sooner than later.
“I’ll tell you what he says about you,” I said, stepping away and moving to the hallway. A glance back at the two women showed them watching me. Sadie’s face was twisted into a scowl, but Ivory beamed. Seeing the brief touch for what it was, Ivory would do her best to interrogate her friend before Scar poked his head back into the kitchen.
Matteo sat behind his desk in his office, glaring at the computer screen with pale blue eyes. Stepping in the open door and closing it behind me, I saw Ryker sitting on the couch where Ivory did her blog posts when she wanted to be near Matteo while he worked.
He picked at his hands, the fingertips stained by all the blood and motor oil he touched on a near daily basis. Matteo looked up finally, glancing over at me and quirking his lips into a smirk. “You look like you’re in one piece. That’s a start. Did she give you any trouble?”
“She tried to sneak out in the middle of the night, but she’s been well behaved since.” I shrugged, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“I told you she was wild,” Matteo groaned, making Ryker chuckle from his spot. “I swear, every bad idea Ivory ever acted on was her influence.”
Ryker stood, fiddling with the gun he pulled from his pocket. He set it on the desk, staring down at the oddly small weapon in disgust. “That was on our boy who is no longer among the living. He claimed he was supposed to take Sadie alive so they could use her to lure Ivory out without protection. Murphy thinks if he has her, then he has you by the balls.”
The room went silent as Matteo and I both stilled, considering the danger to our respective women. The growl that rattled in his chest echoed in mine, the vibrations pulling my monster from the confines of his cage where I fought so hard to lock him down. “And what would have happened to Sadie after they had Ivory?”
“There’s one bullet in the chamber. He was supposed to put it in Sadie’s brain and have Ivory record it to send to us as a warning for what they’d do to Ivory if Matteo didn’t cooperate,” Ryker answered as I picked up the gun off the table.
My trigger finger twitched, wanting to bury the bullet meant for Sadie in her attacker's skull. “He's already dead?” I asked.
“Drawn and quartered,” Ryker said, a cruel smile claiming his face as the psycho came out to play. “Slowly.”
“Mind if I take this?” I asked. Something about knowing the bullet in that gun had been meant for Sadie made me want to claim the weapon for myself. Like we needed to take it back and make it ours to somehow use against the people who wanted to harm her. I didn’t know how I could do that considering the gun was far too small for my hand.
I just knew I’d find a way.
11
Sadie
“I knew you two would be fire,” Ivory whispered, leaning over the counter with a nervous glance at the hallway where Matteo probably lurked to eavesdrop like the creep he was. Don poked his head into the kitchen, coming over to snatch Luna out of my arms like the baby hog he’d become.
“I didn’t even need to be in the room to know this conversation will not be appropriate for delicate moon-girl ears,” he snapped, scolding Ivory with his gaze as she rolled her eyes.
“You wouldn’t be objecting if Luna was a boy!” she called after him as he fled the room, whispering promises to Luna about playing with her favorite stuffed animals.
I couldn’t keep track of which ones were her favorites anymore. Not when she had so many that I’d lost count.
“We are not fire. There’s nothing to be fire about,” I said, dismissing Ivory with a wave of my hand. She didn’t need to know about the way his kisses brought my body to life and stoked a flame I hadn’t known existed.
“Really?” she asked, stirring the pot of whatever she had cooking before she turned her attention back to me once again. “So him looking like he wants to spread you o
ut on the counter and eat you for lunch is just a coincidence? I know that look, Sadie Anne.”
Groaning, I dropped my head to the counter, confident that Ivory kept her kitchen disinfected and spotless. “It doesn’t matter how he looks at me. It won’t last, and we both know why. Stop trying to set me up with a Bellandi man so you can feel better about having a new family. I’m happy for you, even if I think Matteo needs a kick to the nuts.”
“That’s not what this is,” she said, dropping her wooden spoon onto the little spoon holder next to the stove. I needed to kiss whoever invented those things, not Lorenzo Vescovi. “Enzo is complicated, but he’s a good man. He would be good for you.”
“We thought that about Patrick, too, and we saw how that turned out,” I mumbled. “A passive aggressive booty badger who liked to get his rocks off with strange women in my apartment when I went out without him.”
“How did he get in?” Ivory asked, furrowing her brow at me.
“He knew where I kept my hide-a-key for when I stumbled home, too drunk to remember where I’d left my keys. He wanted me to come home so he could get some drunk sex before I crossed the line to sloppy, but I guess he called a hook up when I said no.”
“Was the hide-a-key still there when Murphy’s man came in?” Scar asked, stepping in from the doorway to the living room.
“Fuck no! I got rid of that thing when I found Patrick in my place and dumped his ass. He doesn’t want to admit it’s over, and I’m not giving him the chance to let himself in ever again.” I rolled my eyes, because sometimes it really seemed like the Bellandi men assumed having a vagina made us stupid.
“Is there any chance he has connections to Murphy’s men?” Scar asked, glancing between us before turning to where Enzo, Matteo, and Ryker lurked at the other side of the kitchen.
“None. He’s a dick and apparently has a serious lack of boundaries, but he’s not a criminal. He’s a pest. That’s all.”
Matteo turned his attention to Ryker. “Call Campbell and set up surveillance,” he said, summoning the Bellandi private investigator. “I want eyes on him just to be safe.”
“Stop it!” I argued. “There’s a difference between claiming you’re protecting me from your shit and getting involved in my conflict with my ex-boyfriend.”
“Not if they might be one and the same,” Enzo growled, crossing his arms over his chest. His hazel eyes were dark as he stared at me. “It sounds like he’s a security threat.”
“You’re being paranoid,” I argued, turning away from him.
“Better I be paranoid than you be dead,” he said, approaching the island and slamming a handgun down onto the surface. “One bullet, Carina,” he growled, reaching up with his right hand and touching his thumb to the center of my forehead. “Meant to go right between your fucking eyes while Ivory watched and they made her record it. If you don’t give a shit about your own life, maybe you care about hers." His words struck me exactly where he wanted to, making me flinch back from the force as they slammed into me.
Matteo’s brow furrowed as he turned his attention to Enzo, staring at the back of his head before his eyes connected with mine briefly. Ivory and Luna and my family were the only tools someone could use against me. The only threat that could work to keep me in line. It didn’t change the fact that Patrick wasn’t a criminal or capable of the things they accused him of, but when it came down to it, I couldn’t risk that I might be wrong.
Not when lives hung in the balance.
“Fine,” I agreed. “Look into him, but beyond that my dating life is none of your business.”
His nostrils flared, his face close to mine as he moved in on me. Those deep hazel eyes held mine, as if he could compel me to take back the words. A sinister smirk tilted his lips up, contrasting with the rage etched into the lines of his face. “Whatever you say, Baby Girl,” he whispered, shoving off the counter and tucking the gun into the back of his jeans.
He snatched Smaug off my shoulder, the poor lizard looking traumatized as the man cradled the small reptile in his giant hands and ran his left index finger over his tiny head gently before returning him to his tank. The cold fury in Enzo’s eyes never faded as he took a seat at the island next to me in silence and Ivory prattled on in an attempt to lighten the mood.
My finger tapped against my thigh as I bit my lip to suppress the urge to scream. Even in a kidnapping attempt, it was never about me. Just a means to an end to get to Ivory.
That shouldn’t have stung.
But it did.
Music blasted over the speakers. The sound pulsed through my strained muscles with the need to move despite that familiar fatigue that came from a hard workout. I'd never been one of those trainers who sat back and watched. I always had to be in on the action and moving. After the scene at the Bellandi Estate, I’d worked my body even harder than normal to get rid of the lingering rage in my body.
I moved through the room, locking up supply closets and back doors after the last of the evening rush filtered out through the front entrance. Enzo's gaze felt heavy on me as I worked, but I refused to care as I danced to the beat and went through the motions of my lock-up routine.
Moving to one of the empty rings, I hopped up and slid between the two ropes. Turning back, I grinned down at him. With his arms crossed over his chest, and leaning against the wall with his feet kicked out in front of him, he raised his brows at me. A slow smile took over that brutally handsome face. There was nothing in this world quite as sinful as Lorenzo Vescovi. I knew it down to my bones, an unbreakable truth imprinted on my soul that I couldn’t even try to deny.
I was no innocent virgin. I'd had my share of fun, but I'd never had him.
If I wanted to maintain my sanity, it should probably stay that way. Even if it felt like a crime against humanity not to take him for a spin and see if he could live up to all the promise in those observant hazel eyes of his.
He’d been quiet, lurking dangerously behind every move I made, but never moving to take out his aggression on any of the equipment. With the rage simmering in his body, I felt the need to tempt it to the surface. To see what he was capable of, and maybe, if I was lucky, I’d annoy him enough that he’d see I wasn’t worth the effort.
Everyone else knew it. It was time he did too.
"Come on, Big Boy. Nobody to see me humiliate you now," I teased. All day he'd watched me, studying every move I made just a little too closely for comfort. All the fixation he kept attuned to me, even while he worked on his tablet, threatened to unravel the carefully laid out disguise I'd cultivated over the years.
It was part of me, but the outrageous behavior also helped protect me from people seeing the little signs of my disorder. Only Ivory knew the truth, and even that was barely a glimpse into the storm surging inside me every time I glanced around any space I inhabited.
He pursed his lips, that smile broadening to reveal perfectly symmetrical teeth, and gave a tantalizing sweep of his tongue over them. "I can't have you knowing what I'm capable of. Not when you're still planning to bolt the second you get a chance." His words were so similar to the thoughts I’d had only a moment before that I had to work not to show him a genuine reaction.
I gasped, clutching a hand to my chest in mock outrage instead. "Come on, Lorenzo," I purred. "Why would I try to run from you?"
He uncrossed those arms, his broad shoulders seeming even larger as he shoved off the wall and approached the ring slowly. There was nothing objective in his gaze as it ran up my body, from my feet to the booty shorts hugging my thighs and bare stomach revealed by my sports bra. My abs twitched, feeling the fire he lit inside me with just that one glance.
Being higher than him, than anyone, never stopped being a strange, heady sensation. It was part of my addiction to the fighting ring. Being above and looking down on other people, I could almost imagine what it might be like to be taller than 4'11".
With outstretched arms, he grabbed the top rope around the ring and tugged it down as he st
ared at me. A predatory grin played at the sharp curve of his lips, an overwhelming tease in and of itself.
Those lips were made for sinning.
Resisting the urge to move, I refused to let him see me squirm. He hadn't so much as touched me, but he seared my skin with his brand and imprinted himself on my soul with nothing but a look. "You want me to put my hands on you, Baby Girl?" he asked. "I can think of far more interesting ways to entertain you."
I swallowed, shaking off the fog of lust threatening to make me jump his bones.
Well, bone.
"This is the only thing I'm interested in," I said.
"Little Liar," he chuckled, shaking his head. The look on his face held zero trace of the annoyance most men would have felt if they’d thought I was playing hard to get. Instead, my resistance only seemed to spur Enzo on and make him more determined to watch me unravel. Something lurked behind his eyes, a demon simmering below the surface even though his face and words seemed otherwise amused.
I had the distinct impression I was treading water in the deep end and too naïve to realize a current threatened to pull me under.
"Don't be a douchebag," I laughed. "We both know sex would be a blast, but it isn’t going to happen. So put on your big boy pants, jump up here, and show me what you've got, Enzo."
He complied, pulling himself into the ring with a masculine grace that should have been impossible for a man his size. Enzo moved like an assassin in the night, fluid and silent until he wanted his victim to feel that single moment of pure terror before it all ended. Bellandi men were psychotic, often enjoying the thrill and fear they instilled in their victims before they struck.
But Enzo was his own brand of crazy. Determined to win, with zero interest in anything but getting the job done, he didn't do it for joy.
He did it because it was his duty, and I had a feeling he was a killing machine beneath the careful facade he created to hide what lurked inside him.
Shielded Wrongs: A Dark Mafia Romance (Bellandi Crime Syndicate Book 4) Page 7