One of Us by Iain Rowan Read Free Book Online Page A

you, you come and do what’s necessary. It won’t be often, but when we need you, you will be there. And if you prove yourself, then we’ll see about getting you what you want.”
    “No,” I said, but he carried on as if I had not spoken, and I was not sure that I had.
    “If you run, this will be useless, because we will drop the Borders lot, the police, everyone, an anonymous little line telling them that the person using this is an illegal immigrant who obtained it under false pretences. If they get to you before we do, they’ll deport you. But that’s if they get to you before we do. Do you know what I’m saying there, Anna?”
    I looked up at him, and I saw the faces of the men who had killed my brother like they were kicking a football around. I turned and walked out of the room, down the stairs, through the door, and past the man who still sat reading his newspaper. He did not look up as I went past.
    I stood on the pavement outside the hotel, breathing fast. Bastard, I said to myself. Bastard, bastard, bastard. I started to walk one way, turned, walked back the other, stopped. No, I said. No. I will not be used in this way. Once, I can live with, the necessary price, but to work for these men, no, I cannot. I thought of my father. Bastard, I said. I will not work for men like this. I felt tears push at the corner of my eyes, and I rubbed them hard with my hand. I was not going to cry like some little girl. Bastards, all of them. My life had been so good, so happy, and now here I was, standing in this shitty street with its cheap hotels and cracked road and stink of uncollected rubbish wondering if I could let myself be bought like a whore.
    Then I laughed, but there was a bitter taste in my mouth, as if I had just bitten my tongue. Hardly the first time, Anna. And that made me think of home. If the Immigration or the police caught up with me, I would be sent back there. No papers, no excuses, I would not stand a chance. You are a grown-up girl now, Anna, and there is no more room for fairy tales. And no-one left to tell them to you.
    I turned and walked slowly back into the hotel, past the man who paid me no attention, through the door and back up the stairs. When I walked back in to room fourteen, Corgan was looking at himself in the mirror again. He did not even bother to turn around. He had known I would come back. The papers were lying on the table.
    “Remember what I said. You work well for me, you’ll find that you do well out of it.” He turned and walked towards the door. “We’ll be in touch. Don’t worry,” he said, and he nodded at the documents on the table. “You’re nearly one of us now.”
    He left, and I stood in the room for a while. Then I picked up my new life from the table and put it into my bag and left the room, taking care not to look in the mirror.

CHAPTER FOUR
    The next time was easy. Easy for me, not so easy for the big man with a dislocated arm.
    “Fell off a horse,” he said, and grinned. Then he tried to look down my t-shirt as I bent over.
    “I am going to put your arm back into place,” I told him.
    “You can do what you like with me, love, I’m all yours. Does it hurt much then? Don’t mind a bit of pain, know what I mean. What about you, love?” He laughed like a pig snorts, and sat with his fat legs wide open so I had to lean against them with mine to get close to him.
    “No, it does not hurt,” I said to him, and to his friends who were watching. “I did this once for a little girl. She had fallen off her bicycle. She was very brave, and I did it and she did not make a single sound. After I was finished, I gave her a lollipop for being so good. Do you think you can be as tough as a little girl?”
    I put his shoulder back where it should be.
    “No lollipop for you,” I said.
    The next time they sent me to see a girl who thought she had a venereal disease. She was small and blonde, and she did not stop drumming her fingers for a moment, even when I was