Ray Donovan had looked at Sharon Scott and felt a tremendous – and unexpected – desire to look after her. She was a beautiful woman, but she was also very vulnerable. If ever a woman needed a man to look out for her then she was the one – alone with two young sons and no man on the horizon. Her husband, he knew, had been brutally murdered and that had left Sharon and her children bereft in all ways. He had never felt such a pull before, never felt such a rush of emotion as he had with this Sharon Scott. He sensed that she reciprocated his feelings – he wasn’t a fool. Women liked him – they always had – but he wasn’t a man to flit from girl to girl. He wanted something more than that. He wanted a woman he could love deeply and who he could respect.

He had known that Reggie Dornan was a queer. He had encountered enough in the clink and he could smell them from a mile off. He also knew that Reggie Dornan had to be very careful that no one in their world ever guessed about that part of his make-up. It wasn’t as enlightened in the criminal world as things were on the BBC. Gay men were looked on with suspicion and it was still seen as a weakness. To the old guard it was looked upon as an aberration, something to be frightened of. Personally, he couldn’t give a flying fuck. But he knew his world and, for men like Reggie Dornan, it was a dangerous path. He admired him actually because he knew how hard it was to live a lie. He knew that better than anyone.

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Sharon Scott opened her door at 7 a.m. to Ray Donovan. She was shocked once more at the sheer size of him. He walked through to the kitchen and she saw the awe on her sons’ faces as he introduced himself. She poured him a coffee and watched delightedly as he conversed with her boys and they chatted back, perfectly at ease with this man who was going to be her minder. He was a natural with kids; he talked to them as equals and listened to what they had to say. It was good for her sons to have a man around, and she was pleased that she had already put on her make-up and dressed herself carefully. She liked this man and she had a feeling that he liked her.

For the first time since her husband’s death, it felt as though things were looking up. She had needed someone to take her mind off things and this man, this Ray Donovan, was exactly the one to do it for her.