Free It All Began in Monte Carlo by Elizabeth Adler Page A

Baltic Sea coast, freezing her butt off while the man her mother lived with—marriage was never an option—fished for whatever half-frozen-to-death fish came out of that icy sea. Kitty’s first memory was of being cold. Her second memory was of hating the woman she called Mother. And her favorite memory was of the day she left that Baltic seaport, on her way to find a new life with a young man who claimed to have fallen madly in love with her, and to whom, aged fifteen, she gave her virginity though not her innocence, because Kitty had never been an “innocent.”
    The act of “love”—as the young man whose name she had by now forgotten had called it—meant nothing to Kitty. It was merely a commodity to get her from point A to point B, and when she reached point B, at that young man’s expense, she moved quickly on, without even informing him she was going.
    By then she was sixteen years old. Just.
    A trail of men—young, old, good-looking and eager, or fat and married, it didn’t matter—marked Kitty’s progress through the escort clubs and sex clubs of those Baltic countries, all the way through Poland and the Ukraine, Hungary and Croatia, and finally to Paris, where she had taken up with a professor of medical science at the hospital where she had managed, through lies and false references, to get a job as an assistant in the pharmacy. By then her brown hair was dyed red, though not as bright as the present day. With her pink cheeks and bucktoothed smile, as yet without the two cheapveneers on the front, her sturdy peasant arms and thighs, plus her extreme youth and obvious sexual availability she had a certain appeal.
    She stayed with the professor for six months, finally running off to London on her own in search of better pickings. She took with her several bottles of the pharmaceuticals known as date-rape drugs, that she’d learned, from the professor, who was a good teacher, could render a person semicomatose, and highly susceptible to sexual exploitation. In fact the “victim” would be incapable of constructive thought, and unable to take physical action to defend themselves, unable to move or think. Anything could be done to them while in that sedated state.
    Kitty was never sexually satisfied, but now the use of these drugs gave her a sense of power that was both heady and frightening. She could kill someone in that sedated state. It would be easy. Kitty had no feelings for anyone but herself. She knew what gave her pleasure. And killing just might.
    Now, she smiled eagerly as Sunny walked toward her, instinctively understanding her vulnerability. With a woman as vulnerable as that, anything was possible.
    â€œHiii.” Kitty’s twin veneers gleamed whitely in an ingratiating grin.
    Sunny wondered why the woman had not done something about them. “Hi,” she called back, running down the steps and climbing in next to Kitty, who was wearing a pink jersey wrap dress that rumpled over her white thighs.
    â€œI think you look better today,” Kitty said, throwing Sunny a quick glance as they sped off. “I hope you had a good night’s sleep?”
    â€œAs a matter of fact I did.”
    â€œAnd did he call you? The absentee lover?”
    â€œHe called many times.”
    Kitty slammed on the brakes at a red light, making the tires screech. “But you didn’t answer him?”
    Sunny shook her head. “No.”
    â€œIs he handsome, your lover?”
    â€œ
I
think he is.”
    Kitty’s head swiveled Sunny’s way as she dodged through traffic. “And do other women think he’s attractive?”
    â€œI don’t ask other women how they feel about him.” Sunny did not like the way this conversation was going. She didn’t want to talk about Mac to this woman with her pointed questions. Yet wasn’t that the reason she was here? To try to talk it out, get Mac out of her system, try to