Page 108 of Sapphire
“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 naïve, 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.