‘Tell your people to back right off, Mr President!’ Tucker shouted. ‘If they don’t interfere any further, there’ll be no comeback … life for you and your crowd goes on as normal.’

‘Even if they’re forced to watch you gun me down in cold blood?’ Lucy asked him. ‘Genuinely, Danny … I’m not armed, but neither am I coming with you. So, what are you going to do next?’

He advanced a couple of steps, but many in the chapter were now openly displaying their weapons. Claw-hammers had appeared, lengths of pipe, belts with heavy buckles.

‘I’m telling you, Armstrong!’ Sweat beaded Tucker’s face. ‘Keep your people in line.’

‘You don’t tell me anything in my place,’ Armstrong replied.

‘A gun’s only useful if you’re prepared to use it, Danny,’ Lucy told him.

‘You think I won’t?’

‘Not in front of all these witnesses.’

Cora turned to the rest of the bikers. ‘You think this is normal? He’s come here armed, without any kind of back-up. You think this is the way legit coppers do it?’

‘I told you!’ Tucker shouted. ‘I don’t need anyone!’

‘I think you do, mate,’ Armstrong said, one of his colleagues handing him an old-fashioned blackthorn truncheon.

Tucker jammed the pistol straight-armed in Lucy’s direction. ‘I’ve got you dead, love! I mean it … I will shoot.’

‘I’m not stopping you,’ she said. ‘Just make sure you save enough ammo for everyone else.’

‘You’re a murderer, Lucy.’

‘Who you trying to convince, Danny … me or yourself?’

‘Get over here!’ he barked, but his voice had turned hoarse, losing its authority.

She shook her head. ‘It’s over, Dan. Must’ve seemed like a good idea at one time, robbing the underworld … so you could save the Robbery Squad. Nothing like piling on the violence, eh, so you could make it seem like we really needed an outfit like yours?’

‘Are you idiots buying this?’ he tried to laugh.