Declan laughed. ‘Can you hear yourself, Michael? Ninety-nine per cent of the population couldn’t kill a fucking earwig unless they had to. It’s why people like us can do what we do. But you have to remember that there is no one on this planet who would dare to touch a hair on your daughter’s head. She knows that herself – why do you think she acts like she does? For all her fucking arrogance, she knows that without your name she wouldn’t last five minutes.’

Declan could see the real fear in Michael’s face, could almost feel the worry the man had for his only child. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t deserve any of this. Michael Flynn, for all his faults, was basically a decent man, a good man where it counted. Even he acknowledged that, and he had been on the receiving end of the man’s temper.

‘You haven’t even had a stand-off with anyone for years, Michael, so this can’t be about payback, can it?’

Michael could see that Declan was speaking sense, but it didn’t take the fear out of his chest. He had traced her calls, and there had been nothing for days to or from her number. Her ‘friends’ – and he used the word loosely – had been as baffled as he was about her whereabouts.

The office door opened, and Michael smiled nastily as Jonny Parsons was pushed into the room roughly. He tripped over his own feet, and just about stopped himself from falling flat on his face. He was absolutely terrified; that was more than evident to both the other men in the small room. The man looked what he was: a cheap imitation, a wannabe gangster, a fucking thug.

Jonny looked at Michael Flynn’s hard face, and his heart stopped in his chest. He hadn’t realised the power that the man radiated, the menace that surrounded him. This was what he had wanted: a meeting with Michael Flynn. It was why he had romanced Jessie, but he had not understood until now exactly what that entailed.

Michael Flynn towered over him and, in the confines of the room, the man looked almost demonic. It was easy to see why people were so wary of crossing him, why he had accumulated so much power over the years, why he was so respected by everyone around him. He was the main man throughout Europe, the boss of everyone around him, and that was not an easy task.

He could see Declan Costello sitting behind the desk like a big, overweight leprechaun, all smiles and expectation. Declan was watching him closely, waiting to see what was going to happen and, by the looks of him, he was going to enjoy it.

Jonny Parsons felt trapped. He just stood there like a fool, unable to talk or move.