Page 79 of Captured Obsession

We watch new contenders, ones who last longer than the first, but half my focus is on the small circles Nikolai draws on my leg. That is until he abruptly stops and then whispers in my ear, “I’ll be back.”

He shifts me off his lap as Luca does the same thing with Ara. I grab Nikolai by the arm, the fear I might not see him again constricting my next breath.

“You’re not going to hurt him, are you?” I say directly to Luca, whose gaze narrows on me.

“You don’t seem to understand that you’re a hostage.”

“I understand my circumstance very well,” I bite back.

Lily reaches for me. “Sienna?”

I realize then that all my friends are gaping at me as if I’ve grown a second head.

“Don’t worry, little doll,” Nikolai says, and I hate that he calls me that in front of them. It signals that thewall has gone back up between us. “If something happens to me, you will meet the same fate. My men know to activate this if I’m not out within the hour.” He taps the necklace at my throat.

It’s a lie. I open my mouth, but then close it again as his sharp gaze freezes me in place. All the gentleness I’ve come to know bleeds away as he’s overtaken by business. It’s an act—it has to be.

He pockets his hand and gives me the cold shoulder as he follows Luca back toward the way we came in.

The moment he’s gone, I’m swarmed by my friends, and Ara grabs my hand. “We’re having one of the hounds assess that necklace right now.” I’m dragged in the opposite direction of where the two men went, and my stomach swirls with unease.

“Ara, I really don’t want anything happening to him,” I plead as she pulls me through the cheering crowd that hardly notices us.

One of the masked men, this one with a yellow gem, waits for us beside a door near the ring. The men in the seats closest to us are screaming in excitement for the next round of fighting.

“You’ve been brainwashed,” Ara bites, and the moment the masked guard opens the door, a chill rushes over me.

“No, I haven’t been,” I argue, pulling my hand out of hers. I look around to my circle of friends, and everything begins to feel as if it’s spinning. They’rewho I trust the most. Who I care about the most. “I care about him.”

“Fuck me,” Romi breathes as the light in the room comes on. The sight that’s revealed is one that makes my stomach turn. The space is empty except for the racks of different torture devices that line against the walls.

I recall being in a room like this once, with Nikolai, except he made sure we remained in the dark so I couldn’t see the full extent of it.

“Scream for me,”he’d said as he fucked me within an inch of my life.

This all feels wrong.

“Sienna, you’ve been through something traumatic,” Lily begins.

“No!” I shout, taking a step back as the masked man tries to inspect my necklace. I cling to it, as if they’ll take away my one attachment to Nikolai.

It doesn’t make sense. I don’t have a plan or know how to control this situation. But what I do know is how my heart—as cruel as it is—feels.

“Why is it okay for you to all accept unhinged men, but if I dare to feel the same about someone similar, I’m just a fool for it?” I’m surprised by the quiver in my voice.

“He is using you,” Ara insists.

“H-he kept me alive.” My voice breaks. In my heart, I know that when he acted indifferent and cold, that was his way of protecting me in the only way he knewhow. “He’s not a good man, but if it were anyone but Nikolai who’d kidnapped me, they would’ve hurt me. I know that much. I-I’ve seen a lot.” My voice cracks again as I try to shove out the memories of the man being mauled by the tiger or the dead bodies at my feet.

The girls grow quiet, and I take in a harsh breath. “It doesn’t make any fucking sense, but I know I don’t want him to die. Even if we have to part ways, I want to protect him as much as he has me. So, please, Ara, listen to me.”

“He has a bomb around your neck,” she snaps.

I realize she’s not furious with me but the situation. But I don’t back down. “It’s a bluff.”

“Can you be so certain?” the man with the yellow gem asks, his fingers hovering near my necklace. “Only I can be the judge of that. Are you willing to bet your life on it?”

And my heart begins to pound in my chest. Because if I’m wrong about Nikolai bluffing—I’m dead.