Swagger took two long steps into the room. Two big guys – one black, one white, both dressed in ragged denim over black leather, biker-style – followed him inside, armed with baseball bats.

‘Anyone else here want to play the hero?’ Swagger enquired.

Jasmine burst out from the other room. Both her hands were clamped hard around a gun. ‘Don’t make me use this,’ she said carefully, no trace of tremor in her voice.

A slow grin spread over Swagger’s face. ‘Gee, is the little girl gonna pop us?’

Ramone reached up from where he lay and wrangled the gun from Jasmine’s stiff grip.

Swagger took a step forward, but Ramone quickly fired over his head. The noise was deafening, and plaster rained down like confetti over Swagger and his sidekicks. The smug expression turned sour on his big ugly face.

Struggling to his feet, Ramone held his gun arm rigid and pointed at Swagger’s head. ‘Take off.’

Swagger remained still, but gestured with his eyes first at Tom, then at Kate, who shifted uncomfortably under his stare. ‘So who you got here? Reinforcements?’

‘They’re nobody,’ said Ramone.

Swagger kept on staring at Kate. ‘Figures, if they hang with you, loser.’

Ramone jerked the gun. ‘What you come here for, Swagger?’

‘I’m giving you one last chance.’

‘One last chance to kiss howler butt?’ Ramone spat on the floor.

‘Uh-huh. And you better pucker up nice and sweet,’ Swagger told him quietly. ‘Takapa wants you all down at the arena, midnight Friday.’

‘Why?’

‘To show your allegiance, numbnuts.’

‘We don’t got no allegiance to shit like you,’ said Ramone. ‘Just to each other.’

‘’S’right,’ added Jasmine. ‘You think we’re stupid? We go down there, we’re dead.’

‘You got Papa Takapa all wrong, man,’ Swagger grinned. ‘He wants you to come and party on Friday. And he’s offering ’wolf protection. He wants to look out for you. Who else is gonna do that?’

Ramone got unsteadily up on his feet. ‘We got all we need right here.’

‘Yeah?’ Swagger smiled nastily. ‘Not for long.’

As if he’d been signalled, the big black guy hurled his baseball bat at Jasmine, who yelped and fell back. Ramone turned instinctively towards her, and Swagger kicked the gun from his hand. The other intruder brought his own bat down on Ramone’s head.

‘No!’ screamed Rico.

Then everything seemed to happen at once. The gorilla who’d brought down Ramone now waded into the middle of the room and swung his bat into the screen of the TV. Rico yelped as the glass shattered and white sparks spewed out.

Kate crouched down to help Tom up. ‘Come on, there must be a back way out of here,’ she hissed.

Tom was still dazed. He saw Cicero try to tackle the man with the bat, leaping on his back. But Swagger grabbed Cicero by the neck and threw him against the wall.