Page 55 of Twisted Obsession
When I turned to face my brother, it wasn’t my brother at all. It was the one man I hated more than I hated Dmitri. “What do you want?”
“You.”
For every step I took away from him, he took one closer. It was only when I had hit the wall that I knew I could step back no further. Despite his masked face, I recognized the evil in his eyes.
Pinning me to the wall, he pulled something from his pocket before he leaned over and pressed his lips to mine. “Time to go to sleep.”
Why hadn’t I run?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dmitri
Lara had been absent for a tense twenty minutes, and the fundraiser was poised to commence. I wasn’t entirely certain how well she knew the intricate layout of the museum, but there existed a possibility that she had lost her way in its maze-like corridors. Politely excusing myself from the animated conversation, I navigated through clusters of elegantly dressed guests, their laughter and chatter a soft hum, and proceeded out of the opulent event room toward the expansive hallway where the restrooms were discreetly tucked away.
As I approached, I noticed a few women emerging gracefully from the ladies’ restroom. Their dresses shimmered under the soft lighting, and their perfumes lingered in the air like invisible veils. I stepped up to them with a hopeful smile.
“Excuse me, but I’m looking for my wife. You didn’t, by chance, see a woman inside with a striking red mask and a sleek black dress?”
The two women exchanged a look, their eyes communicating silently before they turned their attention back to me, scrutinizing me with an appraising gaze as if I were a specimen under examination, with no care for whether I was married or not. It dawned on me, with a sudden clarity, that these women might have been escorts rather than the spouses of gentlemen attending the event.
“There is no one else inside, but if you’re looking for some fun, we can help you with that,” one of the women proposed, her voice silky, while the other gently placed her hand on my chest, a touch that felt both presumptuous and intrusive.
“Thanks for the offer, but I will have to pass,” I politely declined, my voice calm yet hurried as I frantically retrieved my cell phone from my pocket, my fingers dancing over the screen to pull up Stepan’s number.
“Do you have eyes on Lara?” I queried urgently as I retraced my steps back to the event room, my phone pressed tightly against my ear, the pressure grounding me.
“No. She hasn’t approached the front exit doors,” he confirmed, his voice steady but unhelpful.
“Keep me posted if you see her.” I ended the call swiftly and immediately opened the group text for the Knights, my heart pounding like a drum in my chest.
ME:Lara has gone MIA. Do any of you have eyes on her?
ALEXEI:My sights are on Angelo Balestrini. No sign of Lara near him.
NAZAR:Looking at Museum CCTV footage. Last seen going into ladies’ restroom. Are you sure she isn’t still there?
ME:Already checked.
I hammered out my response with increasing urgency, the worry expanding rapidly within me like an inflating balloon, threatening to burst.
MAXIM:The perimeter shows no signs of movement.
ISAAK: Same here.
My phone buzzed sharply, a call cutting through my escalating anxiety.
“Pakhan. We have Andrei. Where do you want us to take him?” Yuri’s voice crackled through the phone, the faint sound of Andrei’s muffled cries echoing in the background like a distant, haunting melody.
“Take him to the mansion. Put him in one of the cells. Don’t touch him unless you have to.” I commanded, my voice cold and decisive, before ending the call. I swiftly typed out a message to the Red Knights, my fingers dancing over the keys with precision.
ME:Only one person could have taken her. If not Angelo, then Giovanni. Be prepared to move.
RED KNIGHTS: We will be ready
I closed the conversation with a feeling of urgency coursing through my veins and opened the app designed to track Lara’s movements through the discreet tracker I had injected into herwhen I first abducted her. The little red dot blinked steadily on the screen, an unyielding beacon in the digital landscape, but its location made no sense.Why would she have returned to the mansion?
The urgency to reach Giovanni was overshadowed by the pressing need to get to Lara. I quickly sent the Red Knights a brief text to inform them of her location before calling Stepan to bring the car around.
