Page 98 of Sapphire

“It’s been nice doing business with you, but I have to go.” Nikolai hangs up the phone. “I warned you, Sapphire, that if you tried to escape, I would destroy your lovers.”

“No!” I cry. Their lives are going to be ruined, all because of me. “No.” I sink further into the cuffs.

“Leave us!” Nikolai yells at Dmitri.

“But I thought …”

“Don’t worry, my friend, you will have your turn.”

I don’t care anymore what they do to me. I have ruined the lives of the two men I love more than anything in this world.

I hear the door close.

This is it.

Just kill me now.

“Zoe.” Nikolai’s voice softens, which surprises me.

My eyes open and he is standing in front of me.

“Why them?”

I frown. What is he talking about?

“Why did you fall in love with them? What do they have that I don’t?”

I’m genuinely in shock. I shake my head—what is he getting at?

“I loved you, Zoe. I would have protected you. We could have been happy.”

“Nikolai, I did love you. I loved you till you sold me into sex. I thought you were going to propose in Moscow. I wanted a future with you, but you threw that all away when you made me give Dmitri a blow job as soon as I landed in Russia.”

Nikolai shakes his head. “I had to, I’m the boss, and it was expected of me to do that. You made me so proud that day.”

I want to throw up. Who the fuck is proud of their girlfriend giving their cousin a blow job?

“You were different from all the other girls. I treated you like a queen compared to all those sluts. And then you disrespected me by trying to leave. You left me, Zoe.”

I can see the anger in his eyes now.

“And you tried to kill me.”

He shakes his head again. “I had to—you disrespected me. That’s what we do to traitors. Don’t worry, I made sure the person who failed to finish you never got another chance to fuck up again.”

My stomach sinks. Nikolai killed the man who didn’t kill me.

“Then we got a tip-off. Have you any idea how happy I was that you were still alive?” Nikolai runs his fingers along the lace of my bra. “When I was told that the hit was done, I cried. I fucking cried over you, Zoe. My heart felt like it had been ripped out, but I had to do it.”

I don’t give a shit if he cried over me. I don’t know why he is even telling me this shit, it doesn’t matter—he has ruined all that is good in my life.

“Then I had to watch as you slept with those two bastards. I had to watch as you watched them fuck each other. I was so fucking disgusted with you, that my Zoe would want this for herself.”

I realize Nikolai is delusional, he’s slowly coming unhinged.

“You broke my heart, Zoe. Those men, they don’t love you like I do.”

Nikolai’s lips touch my skin, and it crawls.

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