Page 86 of Sapphire

Nikolai grins, which sends shivers over my body.Be strong, Zoe, I chant over and over in my head.

“Get ready, ladies, we will be arriving shortly.”

The hot air hits our faces as we are escorted off the plane, Dmitri in front and Nikolai behind us, caging us in. There are men on the tarmac dressed all in black with machine guns. A large black van awaits us, its doors open.

“Get in.” Dmitri pushes us into the dark van. The slamming of the doors echoes through the empty van.

“Where do you think we are?” Gracie asks.

“I don’t know. We were on the plane for maybe a couple of hours—Greece, maybe? It’s pretty hot.” I feel so disorientated. We could be on the moon for all I knew.

“My head still hurts, which makes it hard to think. But where would they take us? Where would they feel safe from the police? Because they must know the boys will try to find them,” Grace states.

We’re both silent as we try to work out this puzzle.

“Somewhere they can pay their way through. Because how else are they able to kidnap two girls and have no one care?”

“Africa!” I scream.

Yes, they would totally take us there. It’s like the wild west. They could make us disappear so easily; corruption is rife, and the land is vast.

“Shit, we are fucked.” Gracie lets her head fall back against the van’s wall.

“Yes, it’s going to make things harder, but we are two intelligent women.”

“How the hell are we going to take on an army of Russian mafia plus who the hell knows who else is out there?”

She’s right, but I don’t care. We can’t give up.

“We need to make a pact. If either one of us can escape, we need to go, no matter what, okay? We need to get help.”

“What? No! We need to stay together,” Gracie says, shocked.

“Grace.”

“No, Zoe. No! We are in this together. No matter what, we have each other.”

I sigh. She’s right. “Okay, I promise you and me against the world.”

We sit in silence for the rest of the journey, lost in our own thoughts.

At some point, we must fall asleep because we are greeted by Dmitri’s smirking face when the van doors open.

“Welcome home, ladies.”

Bright light filters in and Gracie and I take each other’s hand as we jump out. It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to the glare, but then they widen as we see where we are.

“This is your home for the foreseeable future, hope you like it.” He chuckles.

My eyes scan the vast gardens and towers with guards. It’s a palace, a fortified palace.

Nikolai comes and takes my hand, breaking my link to Gracie, and panic fills me. “Let me show you to your room, Zoe.” He pulls me forward, and I stumble over my feet, but he holds me so tightly I don’t fall.

We walk through the grand entrance. The palace is made of marble and gold, ridiculously ugly and over the top. Someone has way too much money and no taste. Nikolai leads me up one of the two grand staircases, and I look around, trying to see where Gracie is.

“Don’t worry about your sister. She will be well looked after by Dmitri. He’s missed her very much.”

My blood turns cold. I shake my head and try to get my wrist free of his vice-like grip, but it’s no use.

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