Sitting outside the pub in Islington, Eddie sipped his drink and stared at the flats across the road. For the last hour he had been watching every bastard that entered the building and there was still no sign of gay boy Dominic. He had buzzed number fourteen earlier, but there was no reply. He guessed Dominic was working. He was a lot older than Joey and, from what he could remember of seeing him at his house, the boy seemed intelligent and well dressed.

Eddie sighed. If Frankie had brought Dominic home, he would have been reasonably happy about it, but not fucking Joey.

Thinking back to when his son was young, Eddie knew that the signs had always been there. He had wanted to stick his oar in years ago and toughen the kid up but, frightened Jessica would leave him again, he had kept his trap shut. Ed had let Jessica bring the twins up in the way she thought was right and now he could have kicked himself.

A son needed a dad to take him in hand, show him what the world was all about. Eddie had missed out on all that with Joey. He had been out working a lot and Jessica had cracked the whip, not him. Trouble was, she hadn’t cracked it hard enough. Lost in his thoughts, Eddie almost did a double take as he saw the tall, dark-haired geezer letting himself in the security door.

‘Who’s a pretty boy then?’Eddie mumbled as he walked back into the pub for a refill.

Dominic had been indoors just over an hour when the buzzer sounded. He hated travelling on the underground; all those sweaty people made him feel grubby and he had just got out of the bath. Throwing on his white dressing gown, Dominic rushed to answer the door.

‘Hello, who is it?’

‘Royal Mail, mate. I’ve got a delivery for you.’

Dominic was perplexed. He had nothing on order, to his knowledge. Suddenly it came to him. Joey must have sent him an early birthday present. His boyfriend was such a sweetie sometimes, he really was.

As Dominic opened the front door, the force of Eddie’s fist sent him the full length of the hallway. As his dressing gown flew open, he quickly tried to cover his glory. ‘What do you want? Please don’t hurt me.’ he sobbed as he recognised Joey’s father.

Eddie shut the door. ‘You got a stereo, Pretty Boy?’ he asked.

‘It’s in the l-l-living r-r-room,’ Dominic stammered. It wasn’t just his voice that was shaking, his whole body was quivering like an unset jelly.

Eddie made Dominic get up and turn the stereo system on. ‘Find a decent radio station, like that new one, Capital Gold. Turn it up loud, then kneel on the floor,’ he ordered.

‘I don’t k-k-know the frequency,’ Dominic whimpered.