Page 105 of Sapphire

But at least Gracie is safe. We jump into a silver Range Rover, and Enrique drives us to Casablanca police station. We are ushered inside and there in a room is Gracie, rocking in the corner. Her blue eyes are red-rimmed as she looks up at us standing in the doorway.

Sophie is the first through, and the two sisters hug and cry.

“Are you okay?” Sophie asks.

Gracie just nods, her eyes unable to meet ours.

“And Zoe, is she okay?”

Gracie shakes her head, unable to speak, her hand reaches into her pocket, and she pulls out a mobile phone and hands it to me. “It’s a message for you from Zoe,” she whispers.

Mateo rushes over to where I’m standing, and I touch the phone’s screen, slowly sliding it open.

“It’s in videos.”

I follow Gracie’s instructions and I press play. There she is sitting on a golden chair. She is dressed in a ballgown, her blonde hair pulled back in a straight ponytail, and her makeup flawless. She looks like a goddess, a queen on her throne.

“If you are seeing this message, then Gracie has arrived safe and sound. Please don’t come looking for me.” Zoe sounds like a robot, there is no emotion in her voice as she says these words. “I have chosen to stay with Nikolai, and I am safe and well.”

I look up at Gracie and see she is shaking and inconsolable.

“I do not love you, Tomas. I do not love you, Mateo.”

Hearing Zoe say those words cuts deep, but I don’t fucking believe her.

“My heart belongs with Nikolai, it always has. We have decided to give it another try.”

Then I watch as that fucking slimeball Nikolai walks toward her, the camera panning in the closer he gets to her. He bends down and kisses her, his dirty fucking lips on our woman.

“That motherfucker!” Mateo yells and kicks the wall. “He’s done something to her, he’s drugged her, that’s not Zoe. Did you see her eyes? They were dead, fucking dead! I don’t believe her.”

“She did it for me,” Gracie interrupts. “She made a deal with the devil to free me.” I can see the devastation on her face.

“Cariño, what have you done?” I whisper to the phone.

“Fuck!” Mateo screams, nearly pulling out his hair.

“Nikolai has demanded that you stop looking for her, that you go home, otherwise …” Gracie chokes up, but we all understand what she means.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here and work out what the hell we are going to do to save our goddamn stupid sister,” Sophie says, putting her arm around Gracie and helping her out of the room and into our waiting car.

Gracie jumps into the shower the moment we arrive back at the villa.

“What the hell are we going to do?” Mateo asks.

“They are going to have eyes on you both to make sure you go back to Ibiza,” Enrique says.

“But we can’t leave her here,” Mateo says, sounding frustrated.

“I know, but we have to come up with a way to make it look like you gave up,” Enrique suggests.

Mateo sits down on the couch. “She would never believe we gave up.”

“I know, but Zoe’s not who we have to convince,” I tell him.

“Doubles! You should find your doppelgangers and use them to make Nikolai think you have gone back to Ibiza,” Sophie says.

We all turn and look at her. It’s a brilliantly stupid idea, but it might work.

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