That was all the text message said.
Jenna already knew she would be picked up by someone and that everything happened at a secret location.
Nadia had told her about how it worked before she went home to Romania, and then Micha had told her the same thing before it was Jenna’s turn. Jenna took comfort in that – their accounts agreed. That meant there were rules of some kind.
She examined her face in the mirror.
What would she look like afterwards?
Would there be scars that never went away?
She had always feared losing her teeth; she’d had nightmares about it and had brushed them diligently twice a day her entire adult life, ensuring she flossed and gargled with her mouthwash. And now she might lose a few of them, just like Nadia had.
Although it wasn’t guaranteed. She might do better. You never knew.
And the only thing that mattered was the money. She just had to get through this awful bit.
One day very soon, everything would have healed and she would be at home with her fortune.
A brand-new life.
She didn’t quite dare to believe it, but Nadia had shown her own cash.
One hundred thousand to Jenna’s two hundred and fifty thousand. She converted it to leu. It was an incredible sum of money.
Now she had to make herself beautiful so that they wouldn’t change their minds.
Tonight, she wanted to be tastefully made-up instead of using the vulgar, bright stuff she used for her usual clients, the ones who wanted a real whore – someone to detest.
The people paying the bill tonight were men with plenty of money who struggled to live without satisfying their personal impulses. And who didn’t have the odd impulse?
It felt better when she thought about it like that. Almost as if they were men with afflictions that she was going to help. Like redressing a wound they had.
She pulled Mikki Mouse out of her handbag – the pink cuddly rat that was her mascot. There was no need for it to come with her for this. ‘Wait at home, Mikki,’ she told the soft toy. ‘And don’t be afraid the next time you see me.’
She took out her gold-coloured lighter, lit the small candle in front of the sacred Madonna and made the sign of the cross. She asked for forgiveness in advance and reflected that as long as she had the Virgin Mary with her, nothing really awful could happen.
But the feeling of discomfort would not let up.
Jenna stopped and stared her reflection in the eyes.
What was she playing at?
She felt nauseous – she was on the verge of being sick.
A peepshow was what they had said.
That was as far as it would go, they said.
She had seen how far it could go in the shape of Nadia.
But soon it would be over. Nothing but a distant memory.
If she compared what had awaited her with all the men she had been forced to fuck, maybe this was like being with all of them at once. Dreadful, but in a way that brought it to an end. Once and for all.
It would soon be over.
Only . . . she wondered how she would feel then.