Ed glared at Gary, then wiped his mouth with a serviette. ‘Right, there are three reasons why I decided not to kill Baldwin last night. Number one, I admired the geezer’s balls and honesty. Number two, what he did to Ronny and Paulie was an act of revenge for his grandson and any proud man would have done the same thing – I definitely would. And number three, he’s gonna kill Jed, which’ll save us doin’ it.’

‘You’ve gotta be kidding us! What about our plans for tonight? You can’t trust some nomark you barely fucking know to do a job like that properly,’ Gary shouted.

Ricky stared at his father in total disbelief. ‘Gal’s right, you’ve lost the fucking plot, Dad. How do you know that Baldwin can be trusted? He might be a grass and get us all banged up, for all you know.’

‘I personally don’t think it’s a bad idea, as long as he’s gonna do Jed alone. At least we can make sure we’re seen somewhere, then we’ve all got an alibi,’ Raymond responded sensibly.

The only person who didn’t chip in with a comment was Stuart. Being the newest member of the firm, he tended not to get too involved in any disagreements and instead just went with the flow.

Eddie walked over to the drinks cabinet, poured himself a Scotch, then walked back to the table and slammed the bottle down in front of his two sons. ‘I haven’t even told you the plan yet and if you stopped putting your two penn’orth in and listened for five minutes, you’d realise it makes fucking sense.’

Furious that the night’s ambush of Jed and Jimmy was now off the radar, Gary grabbed the bottle of Scotch and poured himself a large one. Gulping it back, he grimaced at the taste, slammed the glass on the table and stared at his father defiantly. ‘Come on, then. What’s the plan? I’m all ears.’

‘I had a meet with Baldwin while you were still lying in your pit this morning. He’s gonna shoot Jed tonight and I’ve told him, if he fucks up, he’s a dead man walking.’

‘What about Jimmy, though? Why don’t you get him to kill him an’ all?’ Ricky demanded.

Eddie fingered the scar down the left-hand side of his face that Jimmy gave him in 1970. ‘That cunt, I’m absolutely determined to do meself and I will, but first I really want to see him suffer. That little fucker Jed has always been the apple of Jimmy’s eye, so can you imagine how he’s gonna feel when his favourite son gets his brains blown out in front of him? To do it this way is the biggest torture we can put old wonky-nose through, trust me on that one.’

‘But why the change of plan?’ Gary asked suspiciously.