‘Make it quick, we have to get on the road.’

‘You’re leaving?’ Max asked Ali.

‘Only to go shopping, up town.’ She reached up and took her coat down from a hook behind the door.

Tony sniggered.

‘What’s so funny?’ Max strode towards him.

‘She’s leading you on again, matey boy.’

‘What do you know?’ Max followed Tony into the kitchen.

‘Nice little honey trap though, ain’t she?’

‘Don’t talk about her like that.’ Max’s legs were shaking but he squared up to Tony in front of the sink.

‘You know what she did with that cash you gave her?’ He snorted a laugh out of his broken nose and moved to the other side of the kitchen with surprising ease.

Max glanced at Ali who stared at the floor.

‘Bought me this nice new ring, see?’ Tony held out his spade-like hand; a skull tattoo covered his forearm, and wearing a huge gold sovereign on his middle finger.

Stolen more like, from one of the poor sods who had borrowed a bit of cash to get by.

‘And Ali showed me something you gave her too,’ Max said. ‘Show him, Ali.’

‘Adam, I told you it was just a game.’

‘Like roughing up girls, do you?’ Max stood one side of the pine table, Tony on the other.

‘Yeah and you like knocking them up, don’t you?’ Tony smirked. He crushed the can in his fists and let it drop to the floor. ‘Should have finished you off first time round.’

He shoved the table into Max’s groin. Ali shrieked. Before Max could recover, Tony was wrestling with him across the table. Max landed a punch square on the side of Tony’s face and for a suspended moment he thought he’d knocked him out, but Tony hit back and Max banged the back of his head on the table. Ali looked upside down to him as he lay across it, her stricken face as he remembered it all those years ago. She shouted at him to watch out, but he felt dizzy and sick. Tony reached across to the sink and all Max saw was a flash of light followed by a searing pain through his left hand. Ali screamed. Tony grabbed his jacket, before smacking her round the face. Seconds later the front door opened and slammed making the whole house shake. The roar of an engine rumbled away into the distance.

Max screamed in agony and tried to move his left hand, but it looked like it was pinned to the table with a carving knife, blood seeping towards him.

‘Call an ambulance,’ Ali shouted. She was crying and stroking his arm with trembling fingers.

Max sensed someone approaching behind him. His vision was blurring but he could make out a boy standing with his arms around Ali’s waist.

‘It’s okay, Mum, I’ve called the police.’

Chapter Forty-One