‘Hi, Reg. It’s Lenny. Rain check on the beers, I’m afraid. Liam set fire to his bedroom.’

Reggie put the phone down and stared at it for a few minutes, wondering whether to laugh or cry. Those kids were bastards.

Chapter Forty-Six

‘Get out of the way, Sharon. I mean it.’

Sharon was frightened; she had never seen Lenny like this before.

‘Not until you calm down a bit—’

He grabbed her arm and pushed her roughly away from Liam’s bedroom door. His son was terrified. White-faced, he was watching his father who looked huge at this moment in time, and scary too. Lenny picked his son up by his arm, threw him on to the wet, charred bedcover and laid into him, slapping him hard across his behind and legs.

‘You fucking idiot! Do you know you could have died! Burned yourself badly? Are you a fucking moron, son? Don’t you ever take a fucking second out of your day to actually think before you get up to bastardy?’

Liam was screaming now, in pain and in fright. Young Lenny was watching it all calmly, glad it wasn’t him getting the good hiding. Sharon ran into the room and dragged Lenny off the terrified child.

‘Calm down, Lenny, for Christ’s sake!’

Lenny stared at his wife, the anger boiling up inside him again. ‘I fucking blame you for this, Shaz. They are spoiled brats. He could have roasted us alive in our beds and you still want to fucking protect him? This is serious, woman! Are you as fucking thick as him? You can’t see what the fuck he has done? How fucking stupid lighting a fire is?’

Sharon Scott was shocked by the vehemence of her husband’s words. Never had he spoken to her like that before in her life.

‘Look around you, you stupid mare! Look at his room. If this had happened during the night it would be a different fucking story. Well, that’s it now. He has fucked himself, big time. No sweets, no telly and no playing till I say different.’

Lenny stormed from the room and down the stairs, his tread heavy and menacing to the two boys. He poured himself a large Scotch and swallowed it down in one. He was so angry he was shaking. When he had seen the flames he had nearly had a heart attack, and that fucking kid had been standing there watching as if there was nothing untoward going on, like it was normal to set fire to your bed. There was something lacking in that child, he would lay money on it.