Page 63 of Sapphire

Don’t worry about her. Is she crazy? I love her with every fiber of my body. Does she think I’m going to give up on her that easily?

Jumping up, I wrap my arms around her, halting her movements. “Please don’t go, Zoe,” I beg of her.

“I have to.”

“No, you don’t. You think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re not. We are better together. The three of us. Strength in numbers and all that shit.”

Zoe’s arms tighten around me as she buries her face into my chest. I can feel her body shake as she sobs. Picking her up in my arms, I lay her down in our bed. The same bed that’s sheets are rumpled from our previous night of lovemaking.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise you. Whatever we need to do to keep you and your family safe we are going to do it. Tomas is a fucking billionaire. He can afford the world. And me, I don’t do too badly either,” I explain to her.

She burrows herself in closer to me.

“Look, I know Tomas was a bit of a dick tonight, but he loves you. We both do. When the shock of who you really are wears off and Enrique tells him you have nothing to do with the men hurting him, he will relax. I’m not siding with him, but just before you came into our lives, things had been strained with this Mykonos venture. It’s the reason we were spending the summer here in Ibiza away from it all.”

“It’s the truth,” Tomas says from the doorway as he steps into the bedroom.

Zoe and I sit up on our elbows as we watch him walk toward us cautiously.

“I’ve had some time to think about what’s happened, and I’m sorry,” Tomas tells Zoe. “Hearing your story triggered me, and I snapped, and you caught the brunt of my anger over these fuckers.” Tomas takes a seat at the end of the bed. “If they are the same people that kidnaped you, then I will use every single euro I have to bring these assholes down.”

Zoe reaches out and calls him to her.

Tomas curls up behind her in bed. Zoe is the meat in our sandwich. It’s been one hell of a long night. We can talk more about the situation when we wake up in the morning rested. The three of us fall asleep together.

* * *

The sun is shining through the windows, and it’s blinding. I stretch, roll over, and reach out for Zoe, but the bed is empty.

She’s not there.

Sitting up, I see the space where she was is empty. Then I notice her overnight bag is gone.

No.

She wouldn’t, would she?

Fuck!

“Tomas, wake up. Zoe’s gone,” I shout as I jump up out bed, my mind in a panic. Where the hell has she gone? Does she have money?

“She’s gone?” Tomas asks groggily as he rubs his eyes.

“Yes. Get the fuck up,” I scream at him as I run down the hallway.

I screech to a stop at the smell of bacon filtering through the home.

Tomas runs straight into me nearly pushing me over.

We round the corner and there in the kitchen is Zoe. Relief fills every inch of my body seeing her still here. She didn’t run, she stayed.

Tomas’s hand rests on my shoulder as if he can read my thoughts.

It’s going to be okay.

Zoe turns around and sees us standing there, staring at her, she gives us a small smile.

“I couldn’t leave. I tried but I just couldn’t,” Zoe starts as tears run down her cheeks.

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