As his cousin Danny walked towards him with a tray of drinks, he smiled widely. He had good teeth; apparently he had inherited those from his granddad as well. If his nana was to be believed, his granddad had been a paragon of every virtue except, of course, loyalty to the woman he had knocked up. He had scarpered as soon as she had told him she was in the club. He had been Jamaican according to her, and Petey believed the man had been a fucking scoundrel. A user devoid of any kind of decency; he had fucked her and left her, end of, no matter how good a spin she might put on it.

Danny sat down opposite his cousin; they both smiled in greeting but there was a coolness between them of which they were both aware.

‘Well, well, well, what’s all this cloak-and-dagger about then?’ Petey’s voice was low, bordering on the sarcastic.

Danny didn’t answer him at first, sipping on his pint of beer instead. He was a real-ale fanatic, and he savoured the mouthful of Spitfire for a few seconds, before saying earnestly, ‘You know why I’m here, Pete, let’s not play games.’

Petey shrugged nonchalantly and, sipping his pint of lager, he said with mock innocence, ‘I’m all ears, cuz.’

Danny watched his cousin; he had loved him like a brother, but he didn’t trust him any more. He couldn’t bring his personal worries to the family without there being a major fucking incident, so he just intended to let Petey know he was aware of what was going on.

‘I wasn’t at the meet with the Allen brothers, as you well know . . .’ He let his words hang in the air for a few seconds, making his point, before adding nonchalantly, ‘Seems I was a bit worse for wear that night. How are the Allens adapting to their new situation?’

Petey felt relief wash over him. He guessed that he had been sussed but clearly his cousin was not going to make a big drama out of it – if that had been his intention, he would have done it well before now. He was impressed; he had not anticipated Danny working it out at all, let alone so quickly; it just proved that he could never underestimate his cousin. He had really thought that Danny was none the wiser, assuming that when his cousin finally surfaced from his drug-induced haze, he would just kick himself for being so foolhardy.

Petey had obviously misread the situation; a mistake he would not make again. He was suddenly contrite, his handsome face a picture of worry and wide-eyed honesty – he was good at that.

‘They were all right, actually – not exactly thrilled with how it had panned out. But they ain’t idiots, they know that they stepped over the line. The thing is, though, Danny, I’ve had my own little earn going with them.’