Barbara’s hands are shaking.No, it’s not for them.It’s a family thing.So Roxy knows exactly what kind of thing has happened to Ricky.Roxy’s got girls working for her who were held by blokes in Moldova.She saw what one of them had done to the three men who’d taken turns with her.Like a Sunday roast.Ricky doesn’t seem that bad.He’ll probably be fine.This kind of thing heals.She’s heard that things can be difficult afterward, though.It can be hard to get over.She says, Just tell me what happened.Ricky looks at her, and he’s grateful, and his gratitude is terrible.She wants to hug him, but she knows that’d just make it worse for him somehow.You can’t be the one that hurts and the one that comforts.She can’t give Ricky anything but justice.He tells her what happened.He was pissed, obviously.Out with some mates, dancing.He’s got a couple of girlfriends, Ricky, but he never minds finding someone new for the night, and the girls know not to bother him about it, that’s just how he is.He looks ashamed when he says it, like he thinks he should have done something different.When she was finished, the others were waiting.And he went, Give me a minute, girls.Can’t do you all at once. And they were on him.There’s a thing you can do to a bloke.Roxy’s done it herself.A little bit of a spark in the back passage and up he comes, neat as anything.It’s fun, if you want it.Hurts a bit, but fun.Hurts a lot if you don’t want it.Ricky kept on saying he didn’t want it.They took their turns on him.They were just trying to hurt him, he says, and he was saying, did they want money, what did they want, but one of them got him in the throat and he couldn’t make another sound until they were finished.The whole thing took half an hour.Ricky thought he might die there.In between the black bags and the thick grease coating the paving stones.He could see them finding his body, white legs marked with red scars.Ricky kept very still until it was over, and didn’t say nothing and didn’t do nothing.Just waited for it to be done.Roxy knows why they haven’t called Bernie home.He’d hate Ricky for this, even if he tried not to.This is not what happens to a man.The stupid thing is that he does know them.The more he thinks about it, the more he’s sure.One of them’s called Manda, he’s pretty sure, one of them’s Sam.Shows him some photos, until he starts to shake.It’s not hard to find them.It doesn’t take Roxy more than five phone calls to someone who knows someone who knows someone.They’re drinking in a pub in Vauxhall, they’re tanked up, they’re laughing, they’ll be here till closing.Roxy’s got some good girls here in London now.Girls who run the business for her, and collect the profits, and knock the heads together that need knocking.For a job like this, you take girls.Except when she gets dressed and comes downstairs, there’s Darrell waiting by the front door.I’m coming, says Darrell.She thinks, for a moment, of saying, Sure, and knocking him cold when he turns away.But, after what’s happened to Ricky, it wouldn’t be right.You keep yourself safe, she says.I’ll stick behind you.He’s younger than her.Only by a few months.Bernie knocking up both their mums at the same time.
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