‘No, I fucking didn’t!’ Nick protested, turning to Gaz. ‘You saw everything. Did it look like I was trying to rape her?’

Gaz gazed coolly back at him, and his silence weighed heavily in the air for several moments. But just as Nick was beginning to think the man was going to throw him under the bus, Gaz looked at Karel and shook his head.

‘He’d only been in here a minute, and she was biting him when I walked in.’

‘You bit him?’ Karel raised an eyebrow and peered down at Viktorya.

‘Yes,’ she replied, no trace of remorse in her voice. ‘He put hand over my mouth when I call for you, and I could not breathe, so he deserve.’

Karel chuckled softly, and grinned at Nick and Gaz.

‘I like this one. She’s got balls.’

‘And teeth,’ Nick muttered, still rubbing his hand. ‘I wouldn’t mind, but I was only trying to protect you. She was yelling her head off, and I didn’t think you’d want Reeny to hear her and start asking questions.’

‘Do I look like I give a fuck what Irena thinks?’ Karel scoffed. Then, turning to Viktorya, he said, ‘Go get yourself cleaned up, darlin’. The bathroom’s at the end of the landing. And wash this.’ He stroked her greasy hair. ‘I want it looking as nice as it did when you first got here.’

Gaz frowned when, smiling like a cat that had got the cream, Viktorya sashayed out of the room. He couldn’t blame her for jumping at the chance to escape the hell her room-mates had found themselves in, but she was fooling herself if she thought she was in for a free ride with Karel, because the man respected nobody – not even Irena, who had stood by him through thick and thin and deserved to be treated a damn sight better.

Turning to leave the room, Gaz cast a quick glance at the girls who were now huddled together in the bed, and his stomach churned when he saw how ruined they looked compared to a week ago. When he’d first started working for Karel, he’d only been involved in the drugs and protection side of the business, and he’d been fine with that. But everything had changed since moving out here. Now he and Karel’s rabid sidekick, Nick, were tasked with keeping the street and brothel girls in line, and he hated it. But people who tried to walk away from Karel had a habit of disappearing without trace, and Gaz wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d fare any better, so he had no choice but to stick around until he found a safe way out.

Irena had been sleeping, but she woke when the overhead bedroom light suddenly came on, and she squinted in the glare. The mattress dipped behind her, and she snapped her head round when she heard a little giggle.