She passed the joint back to Joey and lay back. He took a toke on it and, putting his mouth over hers, breathed the smoke down into her lungs. She laughed and kissed him back. From one of the other rooms came the harsh sounds of Guns N’ Roses, the heavy guitar making the walls vibrate.

‘Oh, shit! Stud’s back already. Come on, let’s get dressed and shoot off.’

Lizzy pulled the dirty sheet over her breasts and laughed.

‘Why?’

‘Because Stud’s like an accident waiting to happen, that’s why.’

‘Oh, fuck off, Joey! I’m just nicely stoned. I don’t want to move yet.’

Joey sighed and scratched his greasy head.

‘Look, how about we go and score a bit of Wiz or something?’

‘All right, but only if we can come back here. Deal?’

‘You’ve got a deal. Now get dressed before all the bikers come in here.’ Joey was genuinely worried. The bikers were a good crowd but could get a bit out of hand. He didn’t fancy Lizzy’s chances much if they decided they all wanted a bit of the action. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Lizzy pulled on her underwear and jeans. As she was pulling her T-shirt over her head the door opened.

A large man with a long ginger beard and straggly blond hair stood there. He had a beer belly that hung over the top of his filthy jeans. His sweat shirt had a death’s head printed on it.

‘Hello, Joey, who’s this?’ The voice was deep and had a drawl to it that Lizzy didn’t like.

‘This is Lizzy . . . Lizzy Burrows. Lizzy, JoJo Downey. He runs the squat.’

Lizzy picked up Joey’s fear from his voice.

‘Hello.’ Her voice was small.

JoJo frowned at them both through little squinting eyes, then his face broke out into a toothless smile and he grinned at them. This was more frightening than his frown.

‘Come and have a drink with us, you two.’ The music was once more blaring out and Lizzy slipped on her boots and followed Joey and JoJo from the room. In the lounge she saw about fifteen people, mostly men. Two girls sat with them. Both had dyed black hair and wore the female biker battledress, the uniform black leather miniskirt, black lycra top and short bumfreezer denim jacket. They had on the heavy black mascara and purple lipstick of female bikers. Both smiled at Lizzy and she smiled back. It was easier now that she was dressed.

‘Sit down, love, and have a drink.’ JoJo motioned to the girls on the broken-down couch to move over, and they hastily made way for Lizzy. She sat between them. Joey sat on the floor with the others. His joint was taken from his hand by a man in his forties with a studded leather jacket flung across his lap.