Chapter 37 Zoe
ZOE
“Fuck, I love waking up with you in my bed.” Nikolai rolls over and pulls me into his arms.
I hate myself. I hate myself so much for betraying Mateo and Tomas like this, for willingly sleeping with Nikolai. But what choice do I have?
“You need to get ready. We must travel to the next place. We have to keep moving just for the moment, my queen, until I know the heat is off us,” Nikolai says.
I watch his naked form walk into the bathroom. I pray that Gracie is safe and that she was able to convince the boys to back off because if they don’t, I don’t know what Nikolai will do.
“Zoe, come here,” Nikolai calls from the bathroom.
I take a deep breath and walk toward the bathroom.
Nikolai sticks his head out of the shower. “I forgot to tell you. The video worked. They have gone home to Ibiza; I have someone following them. Gracie was with them.”
My stomach sinks. A tiny portion of me wanted them to fight and not go home.
Nikolai smiles as if he can read my mind. “There are photos on my phone if you don’t believe me.”
I shuffle back into the bedroom and pick up his phone.
There’s no password, which is surprising, and I swipe and look in his photos and there, staring back at me, are surveillance photos of Mateo and Tomas boarding a private jet with Gracie and …
is that Sophie? I zoom in and see that it is.
My heart wants to burst. I see Tomas and Mateo holding hands, zoom in closer, and see their faces.
They don’t look happy at all, and my heart aches.
I miss them so much, I can feel my heart being ripped out as I stare at them.
It’s been too long. I flick to the next photo, and it’s them arriving in Ibiza and being whisked away via limousine.
I swipe again and it’s them arriving at a new house, and …
is that my parents? Mackenzie? But how? I don’t understand. Are they all here trying to find me?
Hope starts to spring in my chest that they are not going to give up, my family won’t let them. I have renewed energy. I just need to be smart and play the long game. This will be all over soon either way.
“See? I told you—they left.”
Nikolai’s voice makes me jump, and I school my emotions and lock them back behind the iron gates. I stand up and walk to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He’s only wearing a towel and his skin is warm and glistening from his shower. I’m still dressed in a strappy nightdress.
“And I told you that my sister would convince them.”
He gives me a blinding smile as his hand squeezes my ass.
“Yes, you did. I should probably have more faith in you.”
I nod.
He picks me up, and I wrap my legs around his waist. “Now that you’re all mine, what am I going to do with you?”
“I think we can think of a couple of things.” I give him a flirtatious look.
“Sorry, Sapphire, in you go.”
Nikolai pushes me into the back of yet another windowless van.
I’m sitting with the other girls as we move location again.
I have never been so happy to be away from him.
Last night he made me perform for him and Dmitri while the girls entertained some clients.
I’m making myself sick with this facade; I hate him, he disgusts me.
If I knew I could stab him in his sleep and not be killed in the process, I would.
If I could put a bullet through Dmitri’s head, I would.
“Are you okay? We haven’t seen you in a couple of days,” Jade says, and I can see the worried looks on their faces.
“Where’s Gracie?” Ruby asks. “She isn’t here?”
“I made a deal with Nikolai in exchange for Gracie’s freedom.”
“Fuck, Saffy, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jet whispers harshly at me.
“I needed to save Gracie. I couldn’t let them keep hurting her.”
They nod in understanding. “What did you agree to?” Pearl asks.
“I told him that Gracie would make sure Tomas and Mateo would back off and forget me. I promised I wouldn’t escape.
I promised that I would be his partner.” I hear some of the girls make a noise at that.
“I promised I would do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted as long as he stayed away from Gracie.”
Ruby looks at me skeptically. “And you seriously think someone like Nikolai is going to keep his promises?”
“He let her go. She’s safe in Ibiza with my family, and the boys are there as well. I must have faith that … that there is some tiny portion in him that cares for me.”
Ruby shakes her head. “I think you are being fucking na?ve, Saffy. He is going to fuck you over.”
“Ruby, I know, and you’re probably right, but what else could I have done? I will never ever give up trying to escape. I did it once, I will do it again. Nikolai is blinded by his feelings for me, and if I can keep playing on them, he will eventually slip up and I will have my chance.”
“You’re wrong, Sapphire,” Citrine says in her thick French accent.
She is the quietest of the group. We all turn and look at her.
“I heard one of the guards last night talking about some slave auction in Marrakesh. They were excited about going as they had never been to one before. Then they took bets on how much each of us girls would fetch at auction.”
The van is deathly quiet.
Panic laces my body. “No, no, I don’t believe you. He promised, he told me he loved me.”
Citrine laughs. “Seriously? You seriously think that someone like Nikolai has fallen for your charms? That he doesn’t know what you are doing?”
I frown at her.
“Oh shit, you did. You thought your past with him had some effect on him. That he is truly blinded by his supposed feelings for you.”
No, no, no, she isn’t right, I don’t believe her. My chest feels tight and I’m finding it hard to breathe. No, no.
“Calm down, Saffy, it’s going to be okay.” Pearl puts her slim hand on my shoulder.
I shake my head as the panic attack takes control of my body.
“Here, do this.” Jet forces my head between my legs. “Calm down.”
“You’re such a bitch sometimes, Citrine,” Ruby says.
“No, I’m a fucking realist. We are fucked, our lives are fucked. We are nothing but things to be sold from one owner to another.”
My breathing starts to calm down.
“Sapphire has the balls to try something, anything, to get out of this godforsaken place. What has any of us done? Nothing—we are all too chicken shit to do anything. I don’t agree with what Sapphire has done, but she saved one of us.
She saved her sister and got her out of this fucking hellhole.
But she needs to know that Nikolai is about to screw her over, she needs to be prepared.
She needs a fucking plan, we all do,” Ruby says.
The girls are staring at Ruby in shock, but she’s right. We need a fucking plan if we are all about to be sold off.
“Did you hear anything else?” I ask Citrine.
She shakes her head. “No, that was it. It will be happening soon; maybe that is where we are going now.”
“How are we meant to get out of this situation?” Pearl asks.
No one has an answer to that.
We are in the van for hours until we finally stop, all of us nervous about where we have been taken.
The doors of the van open and the blinding sun filters through, temporarily blinding us.
The guards are there waiting for us to emerge.
We arrive at another opulent home and are shown into a large dressing room.
“Get changed,” Dmitri commands.
We look at the tight white dresses hanging on hooks and stripper heels underneath them. We get dressed in silence, all understanding what is coming next. Nikolai needs a favor or owes someone something and we are his payment.
Dmitri sticks his head back into the dressing room and looks us over. Appearing satisfied, he clicks his fingers, and we follow him. We are ushered into another room where there is a mirror. It looks like one of those two-way mirrors that the police use during a lineup.
“Stand on this.” He points at a long wooden bench, and we do as we are told.
We stare at the mirror, then one of the guards comes and places a numbered sticker on each of us.
My heart starts to thump in my chest. Fuck, Citrine was right, we’re being sold. I’ve fucked up; Nikolai has screwed me over. My blood is boiling, and I can feel another panic attack coming.
“Just breathe, Saffy,” I hear Ruby whisper beside me.
I beam my brightest smile and concentrate on my breathing.
I have not come this far, been through this much shit to lose my nerve at the final hurdle.
If I’m going to be sold, then I’m going to make myself so desirable that I’m picked by an amazing buyer and taken somewhere and given enough freedom that I might be able to escape again.
Who the fuck am I kidding? If you must buy a girl off the black market, you are not taking her on summer vacation.
We all stand there, the nervous tension swirling around the room.
“Number two, can you please move forward.” Nikolai’s voice echoes through the room.
A guard takes Pearl’s hand, and she steps down off the bench and walks toward the mirror.
“Stay like that,” Nikolai commands. She stays perfectly still. “Turn around slowly.” And we all watch Pearl follow the instructions. “Thank you, you may go back.”
This continues for the next hour as each of us is called forward to stand in front of the mirror so that the buyer can get a better look at us. It makes me sick, but I push the rage down.
Eventually, we are dismissed and escorted to the dining room where dinner is set out. The girls are all quiet after today’s exercise.
“Sapphire, Nikolai requests you,” Dmitri says as he enters the room.
I get up and make my way to his room. I’m really trying to stamp down my temper before I see him.
“Thank you, Dmitri.” Nikolai smiles at his cousin as he closes the door. “I have missed you, my sweetness.” He presses his lips to my shoulder, and the tenderness makes me flinch. “What’s the matter?”
I can’t control my anger anymore. He double-crossed me.
I spin around and slap him hard across the face.
“You’re a fucking liar.” I attack him, my nails biting into his skin, ripping down his chest, but it doesn’t take him long to have me pinned.
His fingers wrap around my neck as I squirm under his heavy body.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” His fingers slowly release from my neck.
“I hate you. I fucking wish you were dead,” I spit at him.
“Are you on your period?”
I’m going to fucking kill him as I thrash about underneath him.
“Hey, fucking stop it.” His expression turns cold. “What has gotten into you?”
“Me? Me?!” I scream in his face. “You fucked me over. You goddamn fucked me over.”
Then the reason why I am pissed dawns on him, and he starts laughing, which freezes me in my spot. “You’re upset that I’m selling you?” He keeps laughing.
I just lie there.
“Oh shit, you are.” Nikolai can’t control his laughter anymore, and then he stops, and his face is serious. His eyes bore into mine. “I told you. You are mine to do whatever I want with. And what I want is to get rid of you.”
My body tenses at his words.
“That’s right, Zoe, I knew exactly what you were up to. The, oh baby, I want you bullshit you have been spouting at me. You were clear as fucking glass, but I liked you letting me fuck you. I hate forcing myself on you, and I just wanted you to fuck me like you used to before Russia.”
Tears start to well in my eyes. I’m a fucking fool. How the hell did I think I was outsmarting this man? He is pure evil—you can’t fight that, good never fucking wins.
“Oh, don’t cry, baby. We only have one night left together. I want to make it count. So does Dmitri.” He chuckles as he rubs his hard-on against me.
I spit in his face. “Fuck you.”
Nikolai’s palm comes down across my cheek.
“That is exactly what we are going to do. After tomorrow, you are going to be someone else’s problem, and maybe then you will realize that you had it good with me.
That I was a good owner. You could be sold to some crazy man who likes his women to fuck animals. ”
“I would rather fuck an animal than you.” I spit in his face again, which makes him explode and he slaps me across the face.
“I can be an animal if you want. I can fucking ruin you.”
“Do it, kill me, fucking kill me!” I scream at him.
“Nothing would satisfy me more, but I would rather see you sold and any hope of you ever going home to your lovers gone.”
I don’t want to show him my emotions, but I don’t catch my sob in time.
“How could I ever forgive you for leaving me?”
Slap.
“I thought you loved me, Zoe? But you left me.”
Slap.
“I fucking loved you, first woman I ever fucking loved, and you ran.”
Slap.
My head is feeling fuzzy.
“Loyalty, Zoe, loyalty is the most important thing to me, and you disrespected me by escaping.”
Slap.
“You should be dead.”
Slap.
“Then to find out you’re alive and fucking those assholes, you chose those two over me.”
Slap.
I can feel the darkness clouding my mind. Please let it be over, please let him kill me. I don’t want to be sold. I don’t want to live anymore.