Shielded Wrongs: A Dark Mafia Romance (Bellandi Crime Syndicate Book 4) Read online

  Shielded Wrongs

  Bellandi Crime Syndicate #4

  Adelaide Forrest

  Copyright © 2020 by Adelaide Forrest

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by Adelaide Forrest

  Proofreading by Light Hand Proofreading

  Created with Vellum

  About the Author

  Adelaide lives in her tiny house with her husband and two rambunctious kids. When she's not chasing all three of them and her dog around the house, she spends all her free time writing and adding to the hoard of plots stored on her bookshelf and hard-drive.

  She always wanted to write, and did from the time she was ten and wrote her first full-length fantasy novel. The subject matter has changed over the years, but that passion for writing never went away.

  She has a background in Psychology and working with horses. But Adelaide began her publishing journey in September 2019 and never looked back.

  For more information, please visit Adelaide's website or subscribe to her newsletter.

  About Shielded Wrongs

  Sadie

  Of all the Bellandi men, Lorenzo Vescovi should have been my safety. The one who would understand right from wrong.

  But there’s a demon inside him, a cold-blooded killing machine begging to be freed from what remains of his humanity.

  I tempt him. I tease him, just by being me.

  And when war erupts all around us, I have to hope I’m strong enough to withstand the flames of his possession.

  Enzo

  Of all the women in the world, Sadie is the one I should stay the farthest away from. The one my boss forbids me from touching.

  But one look at her honey eyes, and I’m lost to the need to make her mine.

  She’s a mess of contradictions and full of jagged edges that threaten to pull me apart at the seams and unleash the beast lurking within.

  I can’t resist her rebellions. But when she’s threatened by my enemies, I’ll risk everything to keep her safe.

  Even my humanity.

  Shielded Wrongs is a full-length standalone novel with an HEA, but the series presents a better reading experience when following the suggested reading order.

  This series contains dark elements, including an over-the-top antihero who does as he pleases. Please read at your own discretion.

  Disclaimer

  Shielded Wrongs is a full-length standalone novel with an HEA, but the series presents a better reading experience when following the suggested reading order. This series contains dark elements, including an over-the-top antihero who does as he pleases. Please read at your own discretion.

  For questions regarding triggers, please don't hesitate to reach out to Adelaide Forrest on Facebook.

  Soundtrack

  The songs from Adelaide’s Playlist.

  “Love It – Rework Mix” – UNSECRET & Ivory Layne

  “RULES” – AViVA

  “Trouble” – CRMNL

  “Be Legendary” – Pop Evil

  “Born for This” – CRMNL

  “Bullet Proof” – Simple Thieves & Sam Tinnesz

  “Bloodshot” – Sam Tinnesz

  “Watching for Comets” – Skillet

  “Brotherhood” – Miza & Rosendale

  “Are You Listening?” – Wake Me

  “Pretty Little Psycho” – Nine Shrines

  “Give ‘em Hell” – Everybody Loves an Outlaw

  “Giants” – Dermot Kennedy

  “Jekyll & Hyde” – Bishop Briggs & White Panda

  “Origin” – Besomorph

  “The Time of Our Lives” – The Venice Connection

  “The Still, Cold World” – Piotr Musial

  “Six Feet Under” – Oshins & Leslie Powell

  “Nine Lives” – Stella and the Storm

  “Warrior (Stand Up)” – Hidden Citizens & Rayelle

  “Serves You Right” – DIAMANTE

  “All Eyes on You” – Smash Into Pieces

  “Lost Within” – Fivefold”

  “Animal in Me” – Solence

  “Come and Get it from Me” – Sun Heat

  “Kerosene” – Rachel Lorin

  “Liar” – Harina

  “Cherry Pie” – Warrant

  “Sweet Dreams (are Made of This)” – Marilyn Manson

  “Tainted Love” – Marilyn Manson

  “Devil Inside” – CRMNL

  “Stronger” – The Phantoms & Black Violin

  “Paint it Black” - Ciara

  “Mere Anarchy” – Moby

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  Scarred Regrets Sneak Peek

  Also by Adelaide Forrest

  1

  Sadie

  Winter brought with it the stench of death, lingering in the air like something palpable. Like corpses lying just out of sight beyond the horizon, a warning of blood on frost-covered and wilted grass that we couldn’t yet see.

  But war had come, and all I could do was wait in the calm before the tides tore the city to shreds. Not really one of them, not really not. I’d become a halfway girl to a family I’d never asked for but couldn’t turn my back on either.

  Shaking off the chill to the air and the way it clung to my skin with warning, in the dim light of dawn I hurried down the exterior steps on the side of the building. Even though the weather had been unseasonable as of late, the tiny commute down the stairs and around to the front of the gym still filled me with dread. Before my best friend Ivory’s, involvement with the Bellandi family, I’d been secure in my little corner of Chicago. Having met just a sample of the monsters that lurked within the city, I knew there were fates worse than death, and all that stood between them and the greater population was a group of men nobody would call heroes.

  In common terms, the city as I knew it never existed. Lost to a world of crime most of us never dreamed of.

  I’d take the cold over the uncharacteristic warmth if it meant returning to the peace of relative ignorance. Usually this time of year made my nose want to fall off and my dark hair freeze to my head before I could get inside the gym. Instead, I barely shivered in my jacket, but I still hated the fucking cold and everything that came with it.

  When I rounded the bottom of my steps, my spine prickled with unease. With all the training, all the survivors I’d worked with over the years, I learned to trust those instincts, ev
en if my paranoia amplified them. I quickened my pace as I made my way around the front of the building. Pulling keys out of my pocket, I positioned one between my fingers into a makeshift weapon as I got ready to get the door open.

  At the front door, I maneuvered the keys until I unlocked the first deadbolt.

  Then the second.

  When I finally made it to the third, I prepared myself with a large breath in. Stilling as I listened to the rustling movement of someone coming up behind me. Waiting until the slow ease of quiet breath fanned against the back of my neck, I forced myself to pull the key from the lock slowly and slip it between my fingers once more.

  Erupting into sudden motion, I spun in place, widening my stance and preparing to fight whoever would attack me in an empty lot at six o’clock in the morning.

  “You asshole!” I growled, shoving Patrick’s chest when he raised two arms like he’d meant no harm. Sneaking up on your ex-girlfriend in the dark was not an acceptable pastime.

  The man needed to move on and develop a better understanding of what it meant to be a woman. Even in times of peace, the world was full of regular creeps waiting to take advantage.

  “I’m sorry!” he blurted. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Who would want to hurt you?” Never mind that men often took what they wanted, or at least tried, I couldn’t mention my connection to the Bellandis. I could tell no one that there was the slight potential Bellandi enemies might target me for that connection. None of them seemed to consider that I might be at risk, since I was not a Bellandi woman.

  And I never would be.

  I wanted it to stay that way, living on the fringes of their world and only popping my head in for a peek when I went to visit with Ivory and her daughter, Luna. “You don’t sneak up on a woman like that. Just call my name or something so I know you aren’t a serial killer, you ding dong. I could have emasculated you.”

  He swallowed, visibly taking a step back. He damn well knew I could and would.

  I should.

  “I just wanted to talk to you,” he said.

  “We have nothing to talk about,” I reminded him with a bite to my tone as I spun back to the front door.

  “Come on, Sade. Just talk to me. We can work through the problem. I miss you.” I ground my teeth together at the sound of the nickname I hated so much. Inching into my space like I’d invited him, he braved a step forward until his body heat warmed me through my jacket.

  “If you want to keep your balls, you’ll step back right fucking now.” My voice dropped to the tone that I didn’t use often, the one where even Patrick knew I meant business. Turning to look at him, I wasn’t willing to let him into the gym before we opened.

  I’d never get rid of the persistent bastard who was determined to buzz around me like a gnat that I just couldn’t squish.

  He moved away, rubbing a hand over the back of his head as if he hadn’t invaded my space without permission. Nobody came into my bubble without my consent.

  Ever.

  “We cannot work through the problem. I came home from dancing with a friend and found another woman’s mouth on your dick, because you were in the mood to Netflix and chill when I was occupied. In my house! That is not a fixable problem. That is the kind of problem where you’re lucky I didn’t rip off your dick and shove it up your own ass.”

  “Sade.” He dropped his voice to a whine and the urge to throat punch him overwhelmed me. What in the fuck had I seen in him? Aside from the sandy hair, bright smile, and muscles he’d worked to train at my gym, I didn’t have the first clue.

  “I am not taking you back. I am not touching your dirty little dick ever again, so hop on over to the next ride, baby.” I reached up, patting his cheek harshly as I spun and opened the door, fully intending to slam it in his face.

  “Maybe if you’d just settled down like I wanted and been around, I wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere for attention. Men have needs, Sade. If you want to be someone’s wife, then take care of them.”

  “How did I not realize how disgusting you were? Do us both a favor, you vile toad, and find a new gym. Consider your membership revoked.” I flipped him off over my shoulder, stepping through the door. I locked it behind me as soon as I was inside, shutting him out in the cold so I could go about my business and get the gym ready to open.

  Some women got flowers. Some got chocolates. I got a douchebag ex-boyfriend with a complex and a bottle of wine waiting for me at home after dinner with my parents.

  Happy fucking Valentine’s Day.

  Heaving out a deep breath in the office I hardly used, I dropped my purse into the drawer and locked it away safely. Through the open door, the sounds of Beth opening up at the front of the gym drifted in. Shoving down my frustration with Patrick, I forced a smile to my face as I rounded my desk and made my way out to greet her.

  Nobody knew what a dick Patrick had turned out to be, and I wanted to keep it that way. I knew better than to date gym clients, but his sweet determination had won me over, eventually. The way he went about it was so entirely unlike the way I’d watched the Bellandi men claim their wives. I liked that it gave me a taste of being genuinely wanted without the pushy bullshit that I’d never tolerate for myself.

  I couldn’t. Not when I hated being told what to do.

  Even if having someone dare to take charge in bed once in a while appealed to me. “I’ll see you on the mats!” I called out to one of our regulars, Mike, as he made his way for the locker room. He flipped me off, continuing on his way without even glancing back at me.

  “Don’t you have work to do or something?” he yelled, and I fought back my rising smile. I could always count on the moody ass to hate mornings as much as I did.

  “Anything I should know?” Beth asked as I walked up to the front desk. She flipped her pixie cut blond hair away from her face, leaning tattooed forearms on the counter.

  “Nope.” I popped the word with my mouth, ignoring the way she studied me. The damn woman saw way too much for her own good, even if we never talked about our personal lives in depth.

  “Are you and Patrick back together?” she asked. I raised a brow at her, curling my lip into a grimace. “I’ll take that as a no. So what was he doing wallowing in the parking lot when I pulled in?”

  I groaned, dropping my head to bang it against the counter five times. “Remember how relentless he was about getting me to go out with him?” I asked her, my voice muffled by my proximity to the surface.

  I’d disinfected it the night before, so it was clean, at least.

  I hoped.

  Ugh.

  “You mean when I told you he was kind of creepy?” she asked, brushing a stray hair off my face as I turned my head to rest my cheek on the counter.

  “Yep. Hard to imagine, but I think he’s worse now that he’s gotten to stick it in me.” She shook her head with a laugh. An expression I’d gotten very familiar with over the years. Sometimes, I considered developing some tact or thinking before I opened my mouth.

  But fuck that.

  “I don’t understand why you dated him in the first place.” She twisted, logging into the computer system as it booted up.

  “My life was suddenly overwhelmed with testosterone by association when Ivory got married. I wanted someone normal. I didn’t realize normal would be so freaking boring.” I grinned, spinning to face some early gym members as they strolled in through the doors and made their way to the locker rooms to get changed.

  It was one of the great perks of my job that I worked with muscled, shirtless boxers all day long.

  It was also one of the great downsides that none of them were mine to play with.

  Ivory had Matteo. Samara had Lino. Calla had Ryker.

  I had an ex-boyfriend who couldn’t seem to understand that I didn’t want his wayward dick anymore. I shuddered, trying not to wonder how long he’d been getting action on the side while we’d been having sex.

  As far as I was concerned, his dick was contagious and needed
a biohazard bag, even if my tests had come back clean.

  “Girl, you need the opposite of boring.”

  She was right, unfortunately. “I don’t think what I need exists. I’m just going to be content with what’s possible. Not spend my time looking for some fairytale romance. I’m in no hurry to get married, anyway, so it’s all good. I need a fuck buddy to replace my vibrator, but he’s gotta be decent to manage that.”

  “Gross,” Mike inserted, stepping out of the locker room with a grimace. “We’ve talked about this, Killer. You do not have a sex life. It doesn’t exist.”

  Tapping the counter, I grinned at Beth with a roll of the eyes. “Right, just like you don’t, either. I’m so sure.”

  “Of course I do. I’m not like a sister to me.”

  “I hope not. I know you’re close to your family, but I think that would require a whole different kind of closeness.”

  “Shut up, Runt,” he taunted and laughed, shoving my shoulder as he climbed up into one of the rings in the main space. “Did I hear Beth say Patrick was hanging around this morning?”

  “You told me to shut up.” I smirked, turning for the young woman who had stepped in the front doors and looked around, lost.

  “And you wonder why I eavesdrop!” he called after me.

  The woman glanced at him, her eyes darting back to me as I approached. “Can I help you?” I asked, watching the uncertainty as she swayed her weight from side to side with an excess of nervous energy.