Page 109 of Sapphire

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 youbullshit 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.

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