Carved From My Body, His Regret

ld hospital room, the rhythmic beep of a heart monitor a cruel reminder of my mother's deat

gly devoid of warmth as he ordered, "Do not increase the dosage. I will not risk da

was having my kidney removed, carved from my body like livestock, to save his mistress, Sofia-the woman who

ut, stripping away my potential, my love, my future. How could the man I bled for reduce me t

aced by a chilling, absolute calm. The darkness that embraced me was not defeat, but the coiling silence of a

pte

Vitiel

its way up through a thi

hest, making every shallow breath a battle. The absolute inability to move sent a spike of primal panic through my veins. It was t

of a heart monitor echoed in

the pit of my stomach. I hated hospitals. I hated the sterile, artificial noise. It

mell of antiseptic

s a woman who controlled every aspect of my environment. Now, I was reduced to a slab of meat

my index finger.

soner inside my own skin. For ten years, I had been Dante's shadow, the

eard the

eramic tiles in a steady rhythm. My heart skipped a beat. It was Dante. For years, the sou

otsteps hurried c

breathing. Matteo. Dante's right-hand man. The fixer who

nte's voice cut t

xact same flat, freezing tone he used whe

take a sharper, faster breath to show him I was awake. I needed him to notice me. My subconscious s

eo's voice trembled.

Matteo was also the only man in the Outfit who had watche

oe scraping irritably against the

Matteo." Dante's arrogance

tient's heart rate is spiking. She might be experie

ryone in the Chicago underworld knew what hap

ot increase the dosage. I will not r

org

e water seemed to replace the blood in my veins. I had audited the books for Dante's b

your legal wife, Dante. The Vitiello

fia law to appe

oser. I could feel his pre

Dante mocked, his voice dripping w

alization sliced through my c

s tone shifting into something urgent and possessive. "S

lly coming to life. The woman who held Dante'

broke free from the corner of my paralyzed eye and slid down my temple, tangling into my hairline. I had

across my temple,

ch, only sheer disgust. He hated it when women c

d back into the shadows. The last shred of consc

way from my lower back. The freezing, conditioned air hit my bare skin. I

violently against the paralytic drugs, choking me. Being stripped o

dn't say a word. He just watched the numbers climb, entirely indiffer

cal steel hitting a meta

handed Dante countless guns and knives over t

of a Cuban cigar drifted over the operating table, completely violating ever

rror suddenly snapped some

eady, unnatural rhythm. It was the survival instinct I had honed through years of gang wars. Whe

drop on the monitor. A chill seemed to radiate from hi

smoke. "Good," he murmured. "

l ego blinded

The cold liquid felt like a venomous snake slithering over my skin. E

clinked against his cufflink. "Hurry up," he sn

ered when it b

l and walked toward the

ake out t