Chapter Twenty-one
Rodion
It had been an hour since I kicked Alessia out.
I stood under a cold, punishing shower, letting the water hit my skin as I tried to wash away the chaos swirling in my mind.
The droplets fell against me like needles, but no matter how hard I tried to focus on the sting of the cold, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Her scent still lingered, and the feel of her soft skin against mine stuck with me. The way she had looked at me was both desperate and innocent, as if she couldn’t decide if she wanted to escape or fall deeper into whatever game I was playing.
Alessia had been a pawn in my plans from the start—a piece to use and discard when I no longer needed her.
I convinced myself of that. But I forgot to account for the way she affected me.
She wasn’t supposed to matter. I wasn’t supposed to care.
Yet somehow she invaded my thoughts, making me question every decision I made since she walked into this house.
But today’s behavior was because of that damn pull.
That gnawing urge to feel, test, and see how far it went.
It started the moment I hit the floor, breath failing, and my body giving out.
It had been two weeks since I did the kidney dialysis, and I was making it worse with every fucking drink I took.
I saw death tonight, brutal and familiar.
And in that blur, I focused on her face.
She should have left. She wasn’t supposed to see me like that, weak, broken, and vulnerable.
Knowing she was just a bargaining chip to get my kidney, I explored things that were meant never to happen. And then what? I kicked her out of my territory like trash I was disposing of. Fuck.
I turned off the shower and stepped out with a towel wrapped around my waist. Alessia was gone.
The room was quiet until my phone started ringing.
I reached for it. It was Pavel—a name that rarely showed up on my screen.
He was my ghost in the system, a man buried deep in the ranks of California law enforcement.
He was silent but lethal when needed. If I left a mess, he ensured my name stayed buried where no badge could ever find it.
“Pavel,” I answered, my eyes drifting to the bed that still reeked of what we did.
The sheets were a mess of limbs and sweat, and her moans still echoed in my skull.
I could still see her lying out like a fucking offering, legs open and her body trembling.
Her innocence was everything a man could lose his mind over.
“I looked into the names on the list. Can we meet?”
Turning away from the bed, I rubbed my forehead. “Meet me at the club. Twenty minutes.”
“Yes, boss.”
He hung up, and I stood there for a second, letting the silence crawl over my skin. I needed to get my head straight. This wasn’t about her. I protected her family and kept her friend alive. But I also sold her to Leonid for a kidney.
That was the deal, and there was no room for thoughts that didn’t belong.
I threw the phone on the sofa and walked into the dressing room, where I changed into a black shirt and pants.
As I adjusted the watch cuffs, my phone rang again.
I stepped out of the dressing and grabbed it. Matvet’s name lit up the screen.
“Yes,” I said once I picked up.
“Doctor Dorothy approved it.”
My body stilled. Leonid found my kidney match.
The old man had been digging through the black market like a demon.
Cutting off every path but his own, making sure no one else got close.
When he said he’d handle it, I didn’t expect it to happen in hours.
But clearly, he had connections thicker than blood.
That match meant he came through. And he expected Alessia in return.
“Good. Take Alessia to Leonid’s territory immediately.” I ended the call before I gave myself a reason not to.
Bratva needed a leader, not a sick man waiting to die. That kidney meant I wouldn’t have to sit through another goddamn dialysis session. It meant I could keep building this empire from the bones up without dragging my carcass behind me. And it meant Luigi had to wait for what was coming for him.
Grabbing my keys, I headed downstairs. The house was quiet, a silence that made your skin itch.
Artur was still in the shelter under a vet’s care, healing from a sickness he never should’ve gotten.
All because of a girl who used to curl up on my sofa like she belonged here.
I stared at the couch in the sitting area longer than necessary before leaving the quarters.
As I went to the exit to leave, I saw Matvet walking down the long driveway with Alessia trailing behind him.
She wrapped her hands around herself, as if she needed to hold herself together.
She looked confused, unsure, but she kept up with Matvet’s pace.
She was leaving with nothing, just as she had come.
Something twisted in my gut at the sight, a sharp pull low and cold like a warning I refused to acknowledge.
There she was, soft in the chaos, hair a mess, and her lips probably still swollen from what we did.
There was a sadness in the way she followed Matvet that made my chest tighten, but I buried it deep where it belonged. I wasn’t the kind of man who felt.
Feelings got you killed in this world. They made you hesitate when you should’ve pulled the trigger, made you look back when the only thing that mattered was forward. So, whatever tried to rise inside me, whatever instinct clawed at my ribs, I crushed it.
I had built an empire on cold decisions and clean exits, not second-guesses and soft hearts. And I wasn’t about to start now.
Alessia climbed into the back of the car, and Matvet shut the door behind her.
I reached for my car and slid into the driver’s seat, feeling that cold detachment taking over once more.
I tried to push away the memory of her—the way she had tasted and reacted to my touch. It lingered like a haunting echo.
As their car pulled away, I watched them disappear into the night, and for a fleeting moment, I wondered if I would ever see her again. But that didn’t matter. What was important was that I had a kidney. She wasn’t useless after all.