Chapter Twenty-four
Rodion
I stared at Pavel for a moment, the rapid tapping of his keyboard clawing at my patience. Draining the whiskey in my glass, I slammed it against the table. The sharp crack cut through the room like a gunshot.
“Anything?” I asked Pavel.
“Nothing yet.”
My jaw locked. Luigi was getting close. Matvet took Alessia to Leonid’s territory.
It was supposed to be a clean handoff. But on his way back, some men ambushed him.
They dragged his body through the dirt and dumped him half-dead near the southern edge of my territory.
Now he’s in a hospital bed—unconscious, machines keeping him alive.
That’s what dragged me into Leonid’s territory, just to see Alessia.
She was fine, and I was supposed to focus on Luigi, not her.
But for some damn reason, I thought Luigi had gotten to her.
I snuck in, just to lay eyes on her, and fuck, I kissed her.
Then she whispered my real name, and for one goddamn second, I thought she’d ask me to take her with me, and I would have done that.
I would’ve given her the one favor because she looked so fucking vulnerable.
But she didn’t. And I left.
Her voice echoed in my head as I poured another drink. It was like a sickness I couldn’t silence, hunting me daily.
“I found something,” Pavel called, dragging me back to reality. I needed a face, a reason to kill. He turned the screen toward me, and my eyes narrowed at the video playing. “That’s Renat’s man.”
The bastard leaned against the same car that had trailed Matvet three days ago. He was talking to someone inside the vehicle while looking around suspiciously.
“This was three days ago,” Pavel added. “This means they have been tailing Matvet.”
My grip on the glass tightened. I stepped back, hurled the glass across the room. It shattered against the wall, raining down like broken promises.
Renat, my half-brother. Tonight, I would stain the floor with his blood. I grabbed my keys. “Call me if you find anything else.” I didn’t wait for his reply before storming out.
The drive from the club to my territory took less than twenty minutes. My fingers tightened around the wheel. As soon as I parked outside the building, I stepped out and walked straight in, pulling my gun and revolving the chamber. I only needed one bullet.
Turning down the corridor leading to Renat’s wing, I caught sight of Dmitri pacing outside my office. I shifted course immediately. He hadn’t set foot in this mansion since the old mob boss died. Not once.
Dmitri was our father’s favorite. That started the day my first kidney gave out and landed me on the operating table.
After that, Father stopped looking at me like I was his legacy and started looking at me like I was the family’s disgrace.
A defect. Especially since I was the firstborn, in his eyes, weakness wasn’t something you recovered from; it branded you for life.
While he built walls between us, I broke them down trying to prove him wrong.
I bled for this empire, and carved out Florida and New York’s businesses with bare hands and blood-soaked knuckles, laying every foundation and rooting every connection deep.
I gave him the results: power and territory.
But none of it mattered. To him, I was still the broken son.
And Dmitri was the one he wanted on the throne.
But he died before he made that decision.
Dmitri slipped into my office when I neared him. I entered and found him leaning against my desk, wearing the same smug expression.
“Surprised to see me?” he asked. I stared, giving him nothing. He sighed. “Fine. You were right about Elena. She’s a lying bitch. But don’t get the wrong idea. She was just a fuck toy.”
My jaw ticked. “What do you want?”
He pushed off the desk and stood tall, the air shifting between us. “I want to help you with the investigation. And in return, I run Florida on my terms.”
The silence dragged between us, but I didn’t mind. Dmitri only showed up when it benefited him, and if he was here, that meant something deeper was unraveling.
He watched me, expecting a response, but I gave him silence, which he hated. “There was a man who left prints all over one of my shipments,” he started. “I followed him, and it turns out he’s tied to Renat.”
“So, you came here to kill.”
His lips curled into a deep smirk. “I didn’t think I needed an invitation to come to my father’s territory.”
I studied him silently. Dmitri wasn’t here because of a shipment. If Renat had crossed into his operations, he would’ve burned the man alive and mailed his teeth without setting foot into this house. He wanted something. And I intended to find out what.
“But no, I’m not killing him yet,” Dmitri said, eyes narrowing like he was daring me to object. “He’s not working alone.”
I let out a slow breath. “If that’s news to you,” I muttered. “I have it under control.”
He tilted his head. “How so?”
“I will put a bullet right between his fucking eyes.”
Dmitri stepped closer, lowering his voice. “And then what? Let whoever he’s working with vanish into the dark? You want blood. I want answers.” He adjusted his cuffs. “Wait here. I’ll show you what I mean, and you will decide.”
He left before I could respond. I walked to the liquor cabinet and poured a drink, but I didn’t touch it. My phone buzzed, catching my attention. I expected Pavel to communicate if he found something, but it wasn’t him. It was an unregistered number that sent me a video.
I tapped on the play, and my blood stopped moving. Alessia lay in bed, unconscious, with thick cable ties locked her hands together.
They took her.
A curse tore from my lips and I spun toward the door. It burst open before I could reach it. Dmitri shoved a man forward. He tumbled and landed hard on his knees, wheezing. I didn’t need to ask who he was. I recognized that face.
He was the same bastard who leaned against the SUV window in the footage Pavel showed me earlier. I lunged, grabbing his collar and dragging him up just to slam a fist across his face. His head whipped sideways with a grunt. Blood spilled from his lips.
“Son of a bitch.” I snarled, ready to finish it.
Dmitri clicked his tongue behind me. “Easy. He still has a mouth, and we need it working.”
I shoved the bastard away and stepped back. Dmitri lit a cigarette and took a drag, exhaling the smoke as he walked forward like it was just another day. He crouched in front of the man and shoved the cigarette between his lips.
“You drop that without answering,” Dmitri murmured, smoke curling from his nose, “and you’ll wish I’d let him kill you.” He stood. “Where did Renat go today?”
The man said nothing. Dmitri didn’t wait. He fired one shot straight into the guy’s knee. The scream cracked through the air, and he doubled over, gasping.
Sick of the games, I reached for my gun, but Dmitri raised his hand. “Patience. The pain loosens tongues.”
The man trembled, the cigarette still clenched between his teeth. Blood pooled beneath him.
“Again. Where did Renat go?” Dmitri asked.
The man mumbled something I didn’t catch, and neither did Dmitri, who fired another shot on the other knee. He screamed until the cigarette dropped from his mouth, rolling onto the floor.
He raised his hands, his voice ragged. “I’ll talk, please. I’ll talk.”
Dmitri exhaled. “Good. You’re learning.” He grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back to an upright position. “Then speak before I carve your tongue out.”
“Hospital,” the man choked out. “He went to the hospital but I didn’t go, he told me to stay here, to track the boss and report back.”
My world slowed. Dmitri’s eyes flicked to me, then back to him. “Which hospital?”
“I don’t know, please. He said…he said the Gallos would take Alessia to a hospital, but he didn’t mention the name.”
I fired the gun, shooting him right between the eyes. He slumped forward, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
Without a word, I walked out. Right now , I didn’t need Luigi. I was going to get Alessia. Fuck it. There was something I hadn’t figured out yet. She got under my skin, and I hated that. I hated how she lingered in my head.
But what really lit the fire under me was the fact she was in danger.
I gunned the motorbike through the jammed streets, carving between vehicles. Horns, brakes, and shouts closed in on me, but they faded beneath the single thought of Alessia.
Sirens rose behind me, blue lights flashing in the mirrors as they tore through traffic. I sliced through, engines screaming on both sides, until the sirens fell away and the city belonged to me again.
Renat’s safe house rose behind tall walls. I cut the engine and let the growl die. My hand found the pistol and I fixed the silencer as I moved towards the gate.
The first guard at the gate stepped forward, raising his hand. But I moved faster, pulling the trigger. The bullet punched through his chest, dropping him. Another burst from the shadows with a gun drawn. My second shot caught his head, he jerked back as blood streaked across the wall behind him.
Voices filled the air as I moved towards the entrance. I drove my boot into the door until the wood splintered and swung wide. A woman stood in the hallway, her hands trembling above her head, eyes wide with panic. I moved toward her, my shadow covering hers.
“Where is Renat?” I asked while I pressed a gun on her forehead.
She stammered through her shaking. “I… I don’t know.”
Footsteps cracked behind her. I aimed just as the man on the stairs appeared, he collapsed mid-stride, his blood painting the wall. I faced the woman. “Where is Renat?” I repeated.
She sobbed. “He…he isn’t here, sir.”
I shot her and she toppled sideways, her blood slashing across my face. The silence closed in thick around me until a door closing from upstairs broke it apart.
With my gun raised, I moved towards the stairs. Halfway to the landing, a bullet tore across my upper arm, hot and searing. I turned, saw the shooter sprinting through the hall downstairs, and fired. My shot ripped into his leg. He collapsed and grunted as dragged himself toward an open door.
I leapt the last steps and closed in. As he clawed away, I grabbed his hair and drove his skull against the floor. Blood spread under his face. I pressed the barrel against his forehead. “Where is he?”
“He is not here,” he wheezed, hands clawing for cover. I pulled the trigger and the bullet tore through his ear. His scream pitched high, his body twisting on the floor.
“Where is Renat?”
“Hospital,” he cried.
I shoved the gun under his chin. “Which hospital?” He choked out the name, spitting blood with every word. “And Alessia?”
“The Gallos took her to the hospital. I swear.”
The gun clicked empty in my hand. I slammed him down and stood over, scanning around and noticing we were in the kitchen. I needed something to use and end him. My eyes landed on the stove and I moved to turn the knobs, letting the gas hiss out as I checked the house.
I tore through the rooms, stripping every space clean. By the time I returned to the hall, the air choked with the smell of the gas.
I stepped outside, drew out my lighter, and flicked it open. The flame caught as I tossed it through an open window and left.
The house erupted. Fire ballooned outward, shattering glass and hurling debris. Alarms wailed across the block, but I swung onto the bike and gripped the handles. The engine roared, the night behind me alive with alarms and firelight.
As I drove off, my chest tightened with every breath. I shook my head, but the blur spread wider. Lights bled across my vision, bending out of shape.
Not now.
The road spun sideways. I swerved away from an oncoming truck. Losing my balance, the bike flipped out of the road and the ground chewed into me as I hit. Wet, ragged gasps tore out of my chest as I fought for air.
My hand fumbled in my pocket as I pulled the pill bottle. I caught it and twisted it open, shoved the pills into my mouth and choked them down.
The world shrank to darkness and I saw Alessia in the dark behind my eyes. She pressed a breathing mask on my face, begging me to breathe. She always looked at me like that, begging. Fuck, she was innocent. Too innocent for this world. She was alone, scared and hopeless.
I needed her alive, so I pushed myself up, fists clenched as the road tilted beneath me. A stranger’s voice called, “Are you okay?” and I ignored him.
Blood coated my hand as I gripped the bike. I hauled it upright, every muscle burning, and swung back on. The engine coughed once before roaring awake.
I needed her and I would fucking find her.