Marlon went and sat back in his chair. He had been thinking about this for a while. He wanted rid of the cocky blond upstart, but to cause gangland warfare and shoot that club up wasn’t worth it. This was between himself and Lambrianu… only one boss could rule.

Marcus decided to try a different approach. ‘You’re right, boss, he’s a loose cannon. He not so business-like as yourself.’ Marcus’s thick accent dominated the room. ‘You hear what he done the other week?’

Marlon ran a hand over his face. When he saw how sweaty it became, he wiped it on his trousers. ‘What?’ He sounded bored with it all, but he waited.

‘It seems some wise guys think he don’t care about anything any more but clubbing and the women. Say he’s taking his eye off the ball and losing his touch, but that loco white boy totally lost it when he heard what they been saying.’ Marcus related the incident in the pub, then said, ‘That’s the kind of guy he is, boss. Waving machine guns in the air. That’s what I heard, anyways.’

Marlon had listened intently; this, indeed, was interesting. He’d heard that something had gone down in the pub, but no one ever saw or heard anything in the East End, so the details had been sketchy at best.

Marlon nodded. He was beginning to think more clearly, now. ‘There has to be more than one way to skin a cat,’ he said. ‘That white boy leaves a bad taste in my mouth.’ Suddenly Marlon’s eyes lit up and he smiled, displaying a mouth full of gold teeth. He leaned back on his chair and pushed his leather cap forward over his brow.

He looked over to where Errol was sitting. ‘Errol, stop snivelling,’ he shouted. ‘You got your breath back now. Go to my special first aid box and see what’s in it. Maybe we pay him a friendly visit tonight at that posh club of his, see those strippers of his.’ Marlon rubbed his crotch. ‘Some of them sure do look like they could do with some tail, eh, guys?’ Now Marlon sat there laughing to himself. Only he knew the joke he was going to play on Tony and he was going to have some fun in the process.

When Marlon turned up at the club, with three of his bodyguards in tow, he made a huge show of walking up to Tony and putting his arms around him.

‘Good to see you, Tony, mate,’ he said. ‘Just thought I’d pay you a visit and have some fun with your girls.’ He smiled and looked towards the strippers and then back at Tony.

Tony smiled as he greeted Marlon and his men, but inside, he felt uneasy; Marlon generally stayed to his side of the river. They had their meetings, but he never just turned up out of the blue. Tony liked Marlon well enough, and they were business associates, but he wasn’t so foolish as to trust him. He had suspected for a while that something like this might be on the cards. He had expected it and, true to form, Marlon hadn’t let him down. So, tonight was the night, was it?