Page 137 of Sweet Obsession

My stomach twisted. “What do you want?”

A video loaded into my message thread. I clicked it.

My scream caught in my throat.

My sister—chained, bruised, sobbing in a dark room. Her eyes searched the lens like she could see me. Her lips moved.

Luna. Help me.

“I see you got it,” Chernov said. “Thought I’d give you something to focus on now that your lover-boy’s disappeared.”

“You’re lying,” I rasped. “You know where he is.”

“No,” he said with unnerving calm. “Honestly, I assumed he died like the rest. But if he isn’t... tell him I said hi. And that the authorities are sniffing around now, Luna. One wrong move, and they’ll trace everything back to him. To you.”

“What do you want?”

“I want you,” he said. “Come out of your fortress. Trade yourself for your sister. Simple.”

I hung up.

I stared at my phone, shaking. Everything was unraveling—Misha, my sister, the world I was trying to survive in.

Do I go? Do I risk it all? Or do I wait... and pray he finds me first? And if he never does? What will be left of me then?

Chapter 20

MISHA

Pain exploded across my skull, gnawing at every muscle, every nerve.

My body screamed in protest, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t fight back. Every breath was a laborious struggle, each one dragging through the pressure crushing my chest. The air tasted like blood, thick and metallic, and my throat felt raw, as if I hadn’t spoken in days.

When I opened my eyes, the world spun in dizzying circles. I tried to steady myself, but the vertigo hit harder than I expected. I wasn’t in Yakutsk anymore. I wasn’t even on solid ground. I was upside down, shackled to a pole, my arms pulled taut above me, my legs dangling helplessly. The weight of the chains was a constant, unbearable reminder of how far I had fallen.

My ribs felt like they were being crushed, each breath shallow and painful, the pressure in my chest building with every second. My mind scrambled to catch up, to make sense of the haze clouding my vision. I couldn’t remember how I got here. The last thing I’d known was the heat of battle, my heart pounding, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I had fought like a man possessed, slashing through Chernov’s men, hearing the deafening roar of gunfire and explosions.

And then... nothing. Darkness had swallowed me whole.

Had I been shot? Hit? Had I died there on the battlefield?

A shadow moved in front of me, cutting through the fog of pain. At first, my vision was too blurred to make out his face, butas the world slowly focused, the clarity hit like a punch to the gut.

Louis Rojas.

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. Luna’s father. The one man I never expected to see standing in front of me, especially not like this. The one man who had the audacity to bring me here, to kidnap me, to drag me into whatever twisted game he was playing.

My blood boiled. My rage surged.

I had been fighting for my survival, for my legacy, for Luna, and now I was dangling here, helpless. But the fact that Rojas was the one responsible? It burned in me, igniting a fury I hadn’t felt before.

He sneered at me. “You look pathetic, Misha. The great Pakhan of the five Bratva families reduced to this.”

The mockery in his voice made my teeth grind. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t form the words I wanted to scream at him. My body was still too weak, my breath too shallow.

“Do you even know where you are?” Rojas continued, kicking me in the face with a force that made my vision swim. The taste of copper exploded in my mouth. “You’re in Colombia. This is my world now. Your world? It’s over.”

The words felt like a slap. Colombia. I had thought I was still in Yakutsk. But of course—Rojas lived here. That was how he’d gotten to me.