After everything that had happened, was this what was going to bring him down, he thought, a drink with a woman he didn’t even do anything with? He’d been so bloody careful to always keep out of the attention of the law. Hiding in plain sight, he called it. But now, one woman with a jealous copper for an ex and he was on the brink of losing everything.

‘I never fucking touched her, go on, ring her and ask her. You’ve got the wrong guy.’

His captor laughed, slammed his face down into the metal of the car. ‘You still haven’t worked it out, have you? Go on, turn round and look at me properly and see if you can work it out then.’ The officer’s eyes were dancing. He couldn’t wait for Donny to put two and two together.

Donny’s heart was racing, He had to do anything he could to try and talk his way out of this. He stopped struggling and tried to stay calm.

He turned slowly and looked at the copper blankly. ‘So what, we met the night some toerag glassed my car. You can stop fucking about playing games and tell me who you are.’

The officer moved his face close to Donny’s so that he could feel his breath, hot against his cold skin.

‘Little Trevor Beats has done OK for himself, hasn’t he, Donny?’

Donny’s heart thudded. Trevor Beats. The bully from his schooldays who’d made his life a misery.

‘You? You always were a fucking nutter, mate. Sack that, get my solicitor on the blower, this is a stitch up. You lot have set me up, fucking pigs.’

Beats read him his rights and pushed Donny back against the car, making sure he could hear him as he pulled his head back by his hair and looked directly into his eyes. ‘I’ve been watching you for a long time. I know about the Blackpool team, about the kids you have dealing for you. I know everything. You are going to jail for a long, long, stretch Donny Knight. So it looks like I have the last laugh after all doesn’t it?’

Donny was struggling now, yelling at the top of his voice. Another officer came over and showed Beats the pile of notes and the package of drugs that he’d found in the car. Beats nodded. As the officer went back to the search, Beats checked that no one could hear him before addressing Donny again.

‘You’re going to lose everything – just like I did, you wanker. You left me with no friends, no honour, nothing. You took it all from me and I promised that one day you would know exactly how that feels. It’s been a long time coming but revenge is sweet, Donny Knight, and it tastes good.’ He licked his lips.